By Abosede Ajala

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There are many definitions of leadership, but these are some of the definitions of leadership:”Leadership” according to Peter Drucker, said that Leadership “is not all about making friends and influencing people, that is salesmanship is the lifting of man’s vision to higher sights, the raising of man’s performance to higher standards, the building of man’s personality beyond its normal limitations”. Alford and Beatty concluded by saying that “leadership is the ability to secure desirable actions from a group of followers voluntarily, without the use of coercion.
Also, according to Koontz and O’Donnell, managerial leadership is “the ability to exert inter-personal influence by means of communication, towards the achievement of a goal. Since managers get things done through people, their success depends, to a considerable extent upon their ability to provide leadership”.
Therefore, from the above definitions leadership is a psychological process of influencing followers (subordinates) and providing guidance, directing and leading the people in an organised manner towards the attainment of the set objectives/goals of an enterprise.
Entrepreneur Leadership implies the existence of which followers adopt their pattern and follow suit to achieve the set goals of their businesses. One can appraise the qualities of a leader by studying his followers, in an organisation, leaders are also followers, for example, a supervisor works under a branch head or the manager.
Secondly, Leadership involves a community of interest between the leader and his followers, in other words, the objectives of both the leader and his men are one and the same.
Types of Leadership Styles: As an entrepreneur one has to take into consideration the type of Leadership that will make his or her business and not mar the business.
The different types of leadership styles are:
1. Autocratic Leadership
2. Participative or Democratic Leadership
3. Laissez-faire or Free-rein Leadership and
4. Paternalistic Leadership.
Let’s examine one of the listed types of leadership
Autocratic or Task Management Leadership:
The autocratic leader gives orders which he believes must be obeyed. He determines policies for the group without consulting them, and does not give detailed information about future plans, but simply tells the group what immediate steps they must take. In fact, an autocratic leader is one who centralizes the authority in him/herself and does not delegate authority to his/her subordinates.
Autocratic Leadershipare too strict they relies on negative influence and gives orders which the subordinates must accept. Others are; Benevolent Autocrat: The benevolently autocratic leader is effective in getting high productivity in many situations and he/she can develop effective human relationships. His motivational style is usually positive. A democratic leader is one who consults and invites his subordinates to participate in the decision making process. He gives orders only after consulting the group, sees to it that policies are worked out in group decisions and with the acceptance of group.
A leader is expected to play many roles and therefore, must be qualified to guide others to organisational achievement. They must have certain attributes to help them in performing their leadership role. Generally, the skills that are necessary for an industrial leader are summarized under four categories, namely:
1. Human skill
2. Conceptual skill
3. Technical skill, and
4. Personal skill…………to be continued