Research has shown that leadership is an observable, learnable set of practices. It is a process ordinary people use when they're bringing forth the best from themselves and others. Liberate the leader in everyone, and extraordinary things happen. Good leadership is an understandable and universal process," (Clemmer, Kouzes and Posner, 2006).
In many cases, we confuse a leader's natural charisma or ability to influence others with inborn traits. This confusion allows people to elect a leader based on popularity instead of skill or charismatic attributes which can be problematic. Leadership in my opinion is a skill that can be learned and acquired from anyone; the true essence of leadership lies within the confines of how a leader uses his/her new found power of influence. As a result of leadership being a learned skill, the capacity to learn and apply life's lessons is key to becoming and remaining a successful leader. There are many examples of leaders who have either failed to learn or failed to apply what they have learned and who have thus failed as a leader (Connelly and Rudnick, 2007).
In today's dynamic world, where things are changing rapidly, those who can internalize the lessons around them, who can envision the importance of those insights on their enterprise, and who can motivate and influence others to act upon those insights will have a better chance of success (Connelly et al, 2007).
Situational Leadership
According to (Bass & Avolio, 2001), situational leadership is leadership style among executives in multinational companies. As society becomes increasingly global, leaders must have situational leadership skills to remain competitive and achieve the mission. Global organizations can greatly benefit when leaders use the situational style. The situational style is just one of many styles, but it has advantages that other styles do not have. In a global market, situational leadership is necessary for success. 21st century leaders may choose from many leadership styles, including transformational (Bass & Avolio, 2001), situational and servant leadership. Although, all leadership styles can be effective, situational leadership is the most favored style in multinational organizations. According to Bass, situational leaders are those who can adapt their behaviors to changing circumstances. For example, a situational leader might provide intensive coaching and supervision to unify two groups of employees after a merger. However, as the team becomes unified, the leader offers less supervision and requires the employees to be more self-sufficient. The results did not support Situational Leadership Theory (SLT) predictions that an appropriate match between leadership style and subordinate readiness results in higher levels of subordinate job satisfaction and performance and lower levels of job stress and intention to leave. (Jui-Chen, 2005.) However, the results did partially support (SLT) in that, the higher the leader's leadership score, the more effective is the leader's influence. This adaptive leadership style can be especially beneficial in global companies as leaders modify their behaviors to accommodate culturally and geographically diverse workforces (Ming-Lee, 2008).