This paper will discuss types of power such as; utilising and influencing others, rewarding or punishing others, how to confirm leadership by the role of an organisation, and how people identify with a leader, such as a charismatic Chief Executive, an eminent politician or even a rock star! . It will cover five categories of power 1 that interlink with each other and bring together a better focus on the theories of power.

The functions of leadership are many and varied depending upon the basic problem a group must deal with, and the type of leadership style in action, the latter being dependent on the leader’s basis of power. Power, in the

3. Encouraging teamwork, which is balancing results, process, and relationships into one progressive process.

As conditions and situations change, leaders need to change their styles of leadership. The challenge of any leader is not to follow one leadership style consistently, but to use the leadership style needed by his/her followers in any given situation. Leaders often have trouble deciding what leadership style to be used at what given instance. Inflexibility in leadership styles will ultimately lead to the loss of true leadership skill. Therefore, no leader should consider themselves locked into any one style of leadership with any individual, group or situation. Leaders should maintain the power or influence of their offices by being approachable, flexible and knowledgeable. There is no shortage of opportunities to learn about leadership. ‘ Unfortunately we sometimes learn very little from the examples of others because we merely observe them without understanding the reasons behind their successes and failures.’ 4

Each company has their own way of developing programmes that centre on one’s ability to become an effective leader; and any aspirant leader needs to identify these programmes and pursue them. In doing so, incumbent leaders will recognise the drive and desire and will hopefully nurture these qualities, in order to allow future leaders to learn under the auspices of those already doing the job.

In using the referent style of leadership, I can exercise my own knowledge base of this facility, our budgetary constraints, the administrative tasks set for individuals, their personal contract details, my computer literacy and many other small issues too numerous to mention. I am used as a source of information by most of the department, and often by others who have not had the length of service in this facility that I have. This is personally satisfying to me. One could suggest that I enjoy the power base - I think in my case, it is more about the desire to please that is the motivation. We will not dig into the depths of why I find it desirable to please!

Some topics in this essay:
Ronald Reagan, Vision Mission, Reward Coercive, Chief Executive, Collins Concise, CE Leadership, Inc Illinois, Social Psychology, Ed Studies, JRP Raven, leadership style, effective leader, style leadership, referent power, press inc illinois, 3rd ed, inc illinois, ed waveland, waveland press, ce leadership communication, press inc, hackman mz johnson, leadership communication, mz johnson ce, johnson ce leadership,