The positive and negative side of leadership

The Positive Side of Leadership

Leaders are always perceived positively since most of them do everything in their power to bring out the best in others. Most leaders strive to find the potential of the people they lead, and as a result, this person will always see the good side of themselves as they work to help them. Leaders are only seen as persons who work persistently to improve the lives of all people. People constantly want their leaders to go above and beyond to encourage them to grow, contribute, and live happy and meaningful lives. Leaders are seen as the only people who can find solutions in case of any conflicts arising from the people they lead. (“The Two Sides Of Leadership – Professorford.Com”)

Trust and Optimism

People usually rely upon and have a lot of confidence with their leaders in case of any problem. They are usually convinced that they are able to solve any problem for them. People will always see the positive perspective of leaders because despite any kind of setback they are experiencing leaders will always show an optimistic look giving an implication to the people that there is a hopeful way forward. Leaders are also seen as people who have a vision in what they do, they are always determined in encouraging the people they lead to do the right things so as to achieve their goals as planned. They are viewed as individuals who can help others move away from their negativities and focus on their strengths. Leaders are also viewed as individuals who like to honor people they lead for any excellent contributions at their work and also they recognize each little effort put by their juniors so as to motivate them to work harder. People view leaders as individuals who are always right in all their activities and work towards inspiring them. (”The Two Sides Of Leadership – Professorford.Com”)

The Dark Side of Leadership

Despite the fact that people commonly view leadership from a positive perspective there is also a negative side of leadership. According to conger (1990) between 50 to 70% of leaders do not perform well in their duties and also experience failure in their leadership. Leaders can be involved in behaviors which are destructive to the organization and also the people they work with. Leaders can also lose the meaning of their leadership and end up conducting all the activities of the organization for their own benefits. There are also leaders who will always manipulate the formal procedures and exploit other people so as to get things done in their way. Another side of leadership is whereby leaders are always less concerned about the feelings of the others and they will have to use threats and hard tactics at the workplace for them to gain status and get ahead. There are also leaders who feel to be more special than others and will always force the other employees to pay attention to what they say and also they will force them to praise their actions however bad they are. These type leaders usually love themselves than their job and the people they lead and they will constantly seek attention from others. (Elejalde-Ruiz, Alexia)

Causes of the Dark Side of Leadership

There are several forces which give rise to the dark side of leadership. There are the situational forces which can make a leader change to the worse. For instance, a leader who is diligent and dutiful may change to a more demanding and perfectionist leader due to stress in the workplace. Personality traits are also other causes of the dark side of leadership. A leader may lack vision in his duties and also some leaders lack the leadership traits which one needs to have before becoming a leader and therefore practice unethical leadership. Another cause is when the leaders fail to understand their inside feelings and they fail to take the responsibility of what is happening to them. Mirroring is also another cause of the dark side of leadership. This where leaders view themselves as they are perceived by their followers and therefore they end up doing anything so as to satisfy the projections of their followers. (Elejalde-Ruiz, Alexia)

Works cited

Elejalde-Ruiz, Alexia. ”Dark Side Of Leadership: Narcissism. Meanness. Depression.”. Chicagotribune.Com, 2017, http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-dark-side-behaviors-0105-biz-20160104-story.html.

”The Two Sides Of Leadership – Professorford.Com”. Professorford.Com, 2017, http://professorford.com/2011/08/01/the-two-sides-of-leadership/.