Leadership in my own words is to provide purpose, direction, and motivation while working towards accomplishing the mission and improving the team or organization. The primary function of leadership is leading others, which by default includes subordinates. Bringing the individuals together to form a cohesive team is one of the tenants of leadership.
Leadership is important at all levels and is the responsibility of everybody involved. At the higher levels, identifying and recognizing leadership at the lower levels is imperative to ensure leaders are accomplishing their goals and assignments. At the direct leadership level the leader is responsible for the team, the mission, and development of future leaders. At the lowest level, when subordinates recognize leader failure or surpassed their leaders, they are responsible to step-up and make the mission happen.
Leadership is both an art and a science. In the terms of leading from the heart versus from the head, the science of leadership is the knowledge, whereas the art of leadership comes from the application which comes from the heart. Different levels of leadership require how these factors are applied; at the ground level where leaders are in direct contact with subordinates, leadership is mostly an art form. Dealing with the individuals of the team often dictate communication techniques that vary from each team member for example. At higher levels of an organization, where leaders may oversee several teams leadership is more of science and needs to be applied proportionately while at the same time empowering subordinate leaders to apply the art of leadership.
Leadership and management difference have long been discussed and both have many overlapping similarities (Toor, 2011). Both are responsible for receiving and disseminating information, and reporting results. Leadership however takes further steps to be more involved, show how tasks are performed, and empower subordinates to apply critical thinking while making and learning from their mistakes. From my own experience, leaders are more likely to take responsibility for failures instead of placing blame.
References:
Toor, S. (2011) Differentiating leadership from management: An empirical investigation of leaders and managers. Leadership and Management in Engineering, Vol. 11 No. 4, pp. 310-320.
Vecchio, R., Justin, J. and Pearce, C. ( 2010 ), Empowering leadership: an examination of mediating mechanisms within a hierarchical structure. Leadership Quarterly, Vol. 21 No. 3, pp. 530 - 542
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