Discuss how and why leaders are able to influence their followers Essay - 1

Discuss how and why leaders are able to influence their followers. Illustrate your answer by using examples from different power - Essay Example Any form of leadership whether born or made must be associated with factors of situation, communication and followers. Since different leadership styles are applied under different situations, for a leader to be able to control and coordinate his followers then he must have a clear understanding about human knowledge, emotions, demands and how to consolidate goals and objectives of the firm. Moreover, good leadership is associated with appropriate communication skills which, involves giving illustrations whether verbally or through any other form and the followers reluctantly admit or accept the instructions without cohesion or use of force. In very concept of leader’s follower relationship, majority prefers leaders with whom they can give a lot of respect while offering guidance to the achievement of some visions and mission of a group (Neeraja 2011). Power In a broader context, power has been known to work effectively together with leadership or where leadership but the two are distinct and independent. By definition, power is described as the ability to influence the behavior of specific people or alter the cause of action with experience of no or very minimal resistance from the followers. There are several forms of power and each and every leader should be in a position to handle any form. Several researches have indicated that most leaders are psychologically ill prepared to handling different forms of power and therefore appropriate training is often advised so as to avoid cohesion and intrigues that may erupt form a group controlled by a specific leader (Lussier 2012). Concerning the guidance of an organizational behavior, power is considered as a vital concept totally different from authority that legitimizes organizational working. Several psychologists have come up with different forms of power but the most common types of powers include: Reward power This type of power involves a leader motivating the employees by offering incentives so as to enable them increase organizational productivity. All the aspects of financial demands would call for reward power. The main purpose of this type of power in an organization is to recognize the employees’ latitudes for the job well done. Besides, most leaders recognize this as the best method of cultivating employer employee relationship in an organization (Lane and Draft 2008). Coercive power This is where a leader instills fear on the followers so as to enhance organizational performances. It involves the use of threat and force by identifying the mistakes of the employees who therefore toil extremely hard son hard to sustain their jobs by meeting the targets. It is however, advised that leaders should avoid this type of power because no credibility and quality performance can be achieved by subjecting a person into coercive influence (Lane and Draft 2008). Legitimate power This type of power is accorded to a person to achieve a higher rank so that he can lead a specific t eam or a group of people. Legitimate power becomes more valid when organizational employees are able to recognize that position as the head they are able to abide with the direction of command of a specific head such as head of