Leadership Theories

In Max Weber's theory, he wrote about three types of leaders: bureaucratic, charismatic, and traditional. Weber was one of the first of the theorists to recognize that leadership itself was situational in nature, and that effective individuals needed to move dynamically from one type of leadership style to another to remain successful.

Weber also believed there were two basic paradigms within which leaders worked: transactions and transformations. Weber believed that transactional leaders were those that worked within the existing systems or environment to achieve results. For example, he theorized the bureaucrat is a transactional leader effective in using their knowledge, or legal authority, to achieve results.

Charismatic leaders were transformational in Weber's model. These individuals were almost divine in nature, and were often compared to heroes. A transformational leader was not afraid to approach things from an entirely different perspective, and in Weber's theory used personal charm or charisma to help them achieve their goals.

The model Burns described aligns with some of the thoughts of Weber. To these he added his own insights into leaders and how they operated. While both theories of Weber and Burns recognized transactional and transformational leadership types, Burns created an overarching dimension of moral versus amoral leaders. The latter of which he felt were not true leaders.

Transactional Leaders

Among the transactional leadership styles, Burns went on to describe five different types of leaders:

• Opinion Leaders: individuals with the ability to sway public opinion

• Bureaucratic Leaders: individuals that hold position power over their followers

• Party Leaders: hold political positions or titles in a particular country

• Legislative Leaders: political leaders that are at work behind the scenes

• Executive Leaders: often described as the president of a country, not necessarily bound to a political party or legislators

Transformational Leaders

In addition to the five transactional forms mentioned above, Burns' theory went on to describe four transformational types too, including:

• Intellectual Leaders: transforms society through clarity of vision

• Reform Leaders: changes society by addressing a single moral issue

• Revolutionary Leaders: brings about change in society through sweeping and widespread transformation

• Charismatic Leaders: uses personal charm to bring about change

In the theory of emotional intelligence, Daniel Goleman attempted to answer the question: What are the elements that characterize a leader? This was more of a behavioral approach to describing leadership than some of the previous work just described. Goleman wanted to determine the behaviors that made people effective leaders.

Goleman's emotional intelligence is sometimes characterized as an emotional quotient, or EQ. This idea was to supplement the thought behind an intelligence quotient or IQ. He felt that intelligence was not enough to define a leader. He believed there was something that separated them from mere intellectuals: their emotional intelligence.

Goleman's leadership theory went on to describe five characteristics, or components, of emotional intelligence:

• Self Awareness: the ability to understand one's strengths and weaknesses

• Social Skills: how people relate to others and build rapport

• Self Regulation: the ability to think through consequences before reacting to a situation

• Motivation: a strong will, or a drive, to succeed

• Empathy: the ability to understand another person's point of view