Some managers were seemingly born with interpersonal skills to be a leader. Most managers, however, acquire them through study and observation, and develop them through experience and application. A great deal has been written about leadership over the years. Every organization needs a leader and usually has one. More often than not, the organization's success or lack of it is directly due to the effectiveness of the leader. As Crosby indicates (1986), the leader causes the creation of the lifestyle of the organization. This can happen through direct positive action or indirect negative action. In establishing the lifestyles that produce a successful operation, things have to be arranged, established, exampled, handled and done.
According to Bittel (1988), effective leaders are able to anticipate the threats and opportunities that face a group and provide insights that influence the group to follow the leader's sense of the right course of action. This intangible quality of leadership enables managers to exert a benevolent power over others in the organization. In most organizations, this power is only partly a reflection of the manager's status and authority. Leadership stems in much larger part from the manager's personal capability for persuasion and influence.
Therefore, when we think about leadership, we usually think of special qualities that make managers more effective. So, leadership is conventionally regarded as an ingredient of good managing. There is, of course, no "right" view, and according to Walton (1989), it is helpful to turn the relationships around, to think not of leadership as an aspect of managing, but managing as a tool of leadership. Leadership, in this broader view, means enlisting all members of the organization in the purpose of the organization. Therefore it is inextricably bound with purpose. Leadership without purpose has no meaning; purpose exists only because a leader has for...