Leadership 1 Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Leadership 1 - Assignment Example This paper compares and contrasts these two leadership models. In addition, this paper also explicates under what conditions these theories would be utilized, what is important about them, and how they would be significant to the nursing profession. In defining leadership, Couig (2012) elucidates the four elements that make up leadership. Firstly, there must be a procedure or course of action between a leader and his or her adherents. Secondly, the leader must have authority or control over the adherents. Thirdly, leadership must occur in a group set-up with a universal target, and fourthly, projected objectives must be achieved. Leadership theories are based on these elements. Situational leadership theory was coined in by Hersey and Blanchard in the 1970s and was originally referred to as life-cycle theory. At first Ledlow and Coppola (2010. p. 73) notes that "Hersey and Blanchard identified four possible styles of leadership: telling, selling, participating, and delegating". Telling involves giving instructions to the followers on how to behave and conduct their activities; selling denotes giving directions while at the same time encouraging followers; participating involve crating connections or affiliations; and delegating involve allocating specific roles to followers but at the same time offer supervision (Ledlow and Coppola, 2010). According to this theory, the leader is obliged to consider the range of attributes available in a particular state of affairs in order to make an informed decision. According to Couig (2010), the leader is also obligated to alter or transform his leadership approach and align it with the level of preparedness of adheren ts, their level of motivation, and capability. For instance, employees with low levels of motivation require a different approach as compared to those with high motivation levels. The second leadership theory is