Contrast leadership and power Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Contrast leadership and power - Essay Example owerful person rewards or pays the cooperative followers, he/she encourages goal-directed behavior and when such rewards are withdrawn or threats and intimidations are issued, the unwanted behaviors are discouraged while the desirable ones are encouraged. (Nye, 2-3) The powerful are influential over their powerless dependants and the greater the follower’s dependency, the greater the power of the powerful. Dependency rises with the rise of the scarcity, importance and the non-substitutability of the resources that the powerful controls. In contrast, leadership is mutual and aims at everyone’s autonomy as opposed to dependency. (Prentice Hall inc, 2-5) Leadership can be defined as the ability to influence and motivate followers towards achievement of a common goal or purpose. Leaders are people of integrity, visions and charisma – they inspire and not coerce. Unlike power that operates from being in control over valued resources, leadership motivates without necessarily being in control of resources. Leadership is set on a common goal and requires the compatibility of the goal with the followers for common good. Power on the other hand is a means of achieving personal goals and requires the followers to be dependent thus to work in compliance with their leaders. Power is therefore egocentric while leadership is exercised to the benefit of all. A leader puts others first before self while the vice versa is true with the powerful (Prentice Hall inc, 5 and Ciulla, et al, 285) Leadership influences intrinsically as opposed to power that is used to attain lateral and extrinsic influence. Power uses rewards and punishment which makes followers feel that their behavior is externally demanded i.e. extrinsic motivation. When such rewards are absent, the powerful looses control and direction of behavior. This is contrary to leadership that transforms the feelings and thoughts persuasively and intrinsically devoid of rewards, promises or threats and intimidations.