Relational Leadership Analysis

Words: 1972
Pages: 8

Leadership is currently one the most frequent discussion topics in cafeterias and street corners around the world. It is easy to agree with McGregor Burns, who says that “leadership is one of the most observed and least understood phenomena on earth” (Burns in Van Vugt, 2006, p.354). Both anthropological and social psychological researchers concur with Burn’s statement because they have suggested that for the former there are no human societies where leadership would not exist in some form, and for the latter, the leader-follower structure emerges in natural group situations without formal leaders. “It seems that whenever a group of people come together, a leader-follower relationship naturally develops” (Van Vugt, 2006, p.354).

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Relational leadership is one of them, but before going further with an in-depth analysis I would like to give a definition on what leadership means. Leadership is a process of social influence, which maximizes the efforts of others, towards the achievement of a common goal (Kevin Cruse, Forbes Magazine 2013). Mutual cooperation and cohesive behavior are fundamental in order to attain this goal, and the leader creates a sense of positivity and directs others to reach the specified …show more content…
Each party is learning from the other, workers and managers, employees and employers, leaders and followers. As a concept, ‘follower’ is in a symbiotic relation to ‘leader.’ They are counterparts like teacher and student – the one does not exist without the other. Together they formulate a leadership function – the two parts of a whole (Collinson, 2006; Chaleff, 2009). Together they create a more integrated holistic understanding of the situation. This process of reciprocal interrelating involves relationships of shared goals, mutual knowledge and reciprocal respect, with mutual respect as an emotional connection that heightens each party’s attentiveness to the needs and insights of the other which triggers cognitive connections in the form of shared goals and shared