Define Leadership According to Various Experts

Leadership has become a very interesting topic to be discussed by historians and philosophers since ancient times. Since then experts have offered 350 definitions of leadership. An expert, Richard L. Daft in 1999 concluded that leadership is one of the easiest phenomena to observe but one of the most difficult things to understand.

Defining leadership is a complex and difficult problem, because the nature of leadership itself is indeed very complex. However, the development of science now has brought a lot of progress so that the understanding of leadership becomes more systematic and objective

Leadership involves a deep relationship of influence, which occurs between people who want significant change and these changes reflect the goals shared by leaders and followers (subordinates). Influence in this case means the relationship between leaders and followers so that it is not something passive, but is a reciprocal relationship and without coercion. Thus leadership itself is a process that affects each other.

We can define leadership by understanding the thoughts of some experts, such as the following:

1. According to Tead; Terry; Hoyt, Definition of Leadership, which is an activity or art that influences other people to cooperate, which is based on the person's ability to guide others in achieving the desired goals of the group.
2. According to Young, Understanding of Leadership is a form of domination that is based on personal abilities that are able to encourage or invite others to do something based on acceptance by the group, and have special expertise appropriate for special situations.
3. Definition of Leadership According to George R. Terry (1972: 458): Leadership is the activity of influencing people to be directed towards achieving organizational goals.
4. According to Ralph M. Stogdill in Sutarto (1998b: 13): Leadership is a process affecting the activities of a group of people who are organized in their efforts to set and achieve goals.
5. According to Stoner: Leadership is a process regarding direction and effort to influence activities related to group members.

Read also: World Civil Right Leaders Who Changed History

6. According to Hemhiel and Coons (1957: 7): Leadership is the behavior of an individual who leads the activities of a group to a goal that will be achieved together (shared goal).
7. According to Rauch and Behling (1984: 46): Leadership is the process of influencing the activities of a group organized towards achieving goals.
8. According to Jacobs and Jacques (1990: 281): Leadership is a process of giving meaning to collective effort, and resulting in willingness to make the desired effort to achieve the goal.
9. Koontz and O'donnel, define leadership as a process of influencing a group of people so they want to work seriously to achieve the goals of their group.
10. Wexley and Yuki (1977), leadership implies influencing other people to try to direct their energy, in their duties or change their behavior.
11. Ott (1996), leadership can be defined as a process of interpersonal relationships in which a person influences attitudes, beliefs, and especially the behavior of others. 5) Locke et.al. (1991), defining leadership is a process of persuading others to take steps towards a common goal.

Define leadership in essence is an inherent in a leader in the form of certain traits such as: personality, ability and capability. Leadership is also a series of activity leaders that cannot be separated from the position and the style or behavior of the leader itself. Leadership is the process between relationships or interactions between leaders, followers, and situations.