What is leadership? Models and psychology of leadership. Leader complex

Psychology of Leadership

Since ancient times, the ability to lead has been considered an indisputable quality of a successful person. If we look at history, we can see that all rulers of states, hetmans and leaders had this quality. Moreover, when choosing rulers, the people gave preference to leaders who were not afraid to lead people, declare war on another state, and take responsibility for making important decisions for the country. People had a clearly formed image of a leader; they needed a person who would take care of them and protect them from danger. A person without leadership qualities had no chance of becoming a ruler.

Before considering the main qualities of a leader, you should understand who a leader is. A leader is a person with clearly defined goals and principles, who takes the initiative in decision making, and is able to control the mood (and even thinking) of people. A leader is not afraid of danger and is always ready to take responsibility for his actions. Responsibility is a very important quality of a leader. If people who have entrusted a person to be a leader discover that he is not ready to take responsibility for his actions, they will immediately re-elect another leader.

Nowadays, the concept of leadership is applicable everywhere - in families, in companies, at the top of government. In the latter case, the leader has a clear position called “president”. If we draw a parallel with history, the role of the president is very similar to the role of the leader. Relations between countries, their political and economic cooperation often depend on the actions of the president, therefore the president must be the leader of the country, the guarantor of the Constitution of the state.

Psychology of a leader is a way of a person’s worldview, his thoughts, perception of reality and his capabilities. A leader is able to maintain faith in his own strength even in the most difficult situations, to remain calm and balanced always and everywhere.

The main qualities that distinguish a true leader from other people are:

1. The ability to move towards your goal no matter what. If a person, at the first danger, refuses to implement his plans and gives up, this is not a real leader. When a leader sets out to achieve a goal, it is simply impossible to stop him - either he achieves his goal, or loses everything he has.

This ability consists of two important components - irrepressible desire and perseverance. Without desire, a leader simply cannot remain such, since all human activity begins with desire. If a person does not have the desire, then he will not be motivated to achieve the goal and, accordingly, will be inactive. Without the second component, perseverance, a person, even if he has a passionate desire, will not complete the work he has begun, because as soon as difficulties are encountered along his way, a person may simply decide that achieving the goal is not worth the effort expended on it.

2. High level of intelligence. A high level of intelligence means the desire to accumulate information in various fields of knowledge, erudition, the desire to continue the process of self-development throughout one’s life, and the ability to learn leadership techniques from people who are true leaders. The last point is the most important, since no one else will help you achieve your goal better and faster than a person who has already achieved success.

If you, in your opinion, do not have an enviable level of intelligence, then this situation can be easily corrected, all you need is the desire. You need to be more open to new acquaintances, communicate with interesting people, visit libraries, scientific conferences and seminars. To improve your cultural level, it is recommended to visit museums, art galleries, drama theaters and operas. Don't limit yourself to knowledge in one specific area. Life throws surprises at us every time, and that area of ​​​​knowledge that you did not need yesterday may turn out to be decisive and priority for you tomorrow. Therefore, the more knowledge a person has, the greater the chances he has of becoming a true leader.

This quality of a leader is not the main one, but its presence is desirable, since when solving problems, a leader often relies on his knowledge. If the leader’s level of intelligence is not high enough, this quality can be successfully compensated for by other more important leadership qualities.

3. Self-confidence. If a person is not confident in his own abilities, then he will never become a leader. After all, how can a person lead people, make them believe him, if he doesn’t even believe in himself? Unconfident people often do not dare to make vital decisions until they check the correctness of their actions a thousand times and ask other people for their opinions regarding these actions. Overcoming their doubts, people waste an unacceptable amount of time, which they could have used for constructive actions. Confident people are able to make a decision with lightning speed, because they know that they are doing everything right, and therefore they should not waste time thinking about the situation. Accordingly, this leadership quality gives a person (even one who does not have phenomenal intelligence) a significant head start over other “candidates” for leadership.

If you want to be a leader, but do not have this quality, it does not matter, because self-confidence can always be developed.

Communicate with confident people, this way you yourself will become a more confident person;

Make a list of your successes, remember your feelings at the moment of triumph, how you felt at that moment. The more often you experience success, the higher your confidence in achieving success will be;

Don’t take others’ assessments of yourself as the only truth. Understand that the opinion of others about you is purely their opinion, do not allow others to negatively influence your self-esteem and self-confidence;

Do not take on a task whose positive outcome you are not even half sure of. Remember that every failure is a serious blow to your self-confidence, and the more often failures occur, the more difficult it will be for a person to make each subsequent decision. Therefore, if you know at the very beginning that the business is doomed to failure, do not start it at all.

Stop criticizing yourself. If you fail, the best thing you can take away from it is to admit that failure happens to everyone and you are not a robot so that you can carry out all stages of the work flawlessly. Just learn from defeat and don't beat yourself up. Every statement you make to yourself: “It’s all because of me. It is I who am to blame for the failure” will move you further and further away from the quality of self-confidence.

4. Ability to make decisions. Imagine a president whose state has been declared war. And so, while missiles from another country are flying towards him, he stands near the missile launch button and thinks: “Maybe it’s not worth it?” It is unlikely that such a person will bear the proud title of “leader”. Leaders can make decisions alone, or they can resort to the help of friends or colleagues, but they will always make a decision. However, it should be remembered that in order to make the right decisions, you first need to analyze the current situation, carefully weigh all the factors, and only then make a decision. Regular decision-making based on chance does not characterize a person as a leader, but, on the contrary, shows his negligence towards the problem being solved.

5. A leader must be able to create a team of like-minded people around himself. Only rarely do leaders act alone to achieve great goals. Moreover, in a team consisting of one person, it is this person who will be the leader, regardless of what qualities he has. Most often, a close-knit, organized team gathers around the leader, driven by common goals, principles and rules. The ability to assemble and organize a team depends, first of all, on the leader’s ability to convince and use facts and arguments, and the leader’s charisma. He must build the team in such a way that each of its members clearly knows his responsibilities and understands his responsibility for making decisions.

6. A leader must have character. A true leader is always able to insist on his point of view, even if the facts are against him. A true leader moves forward even when no one believes in his success. When any team member dares to betray the interests of the organization, the leader will definitely punish him. In other words, a leader is capable of being tough, but not cruel, strict, but fair. The result of the team’s activities largely depends on the leader’s character, and the absence of this quality is very difficult to replace with any other quality; without character, the remaining qualities of the leader may not help achieve the result. A leader may have a character from birth or it may be “tempered” with work experience, but he must be present.

7. Willingness to change. If, in the process of achieving a goal, the factors on which achieving the result depends suddenly change, the leader will be ready to change the business strategy, communicate these changes to his team and attract the resources necessary to achieve the goal.

So, if the production of a certain product brought significant profit to the company, but due to changes in customer preferences and the influence of the fashion factor, this product is not in demand, the director of the company will be ready to change the production plan (by communicating the corresponding order to the head of the production department), excluding production from it of this product. Thus, he will prove himself to be a true leader, since this decision will protect the company from large expenses associated with the production of unprofitable goods.

Thus, we have examined the main qualities necessary for a person to be called a “leader”. If today a person works under a boss (leader), but really wants to occupy a higher position in the company in the future, then he cannot do without the above-mentioned qualities. Look at the heads of organizations, the owners of large corporations - they all have most of these qualities, they have the psychology of leadership. Were they born with these qualities? No, they developed them with experience, gradually instilling leadership qualities in themselves. If they could do it, then you can definitely do it, everything will work out for you.

Each person by nature has certain leadership inclinations, but not everyone can develop them sufficiently and use them to achieve their goals. Why is it that some people already in their youth behave like natural leaders and are able to lead a crowd, while others cannot even insist on their position and act as followers following the leader? What are the features of leadership psychology and what are the characteristics of a leader?

Psychology of leadership and its external manifestations

The psychology of leadership lies not only in a person’s character and thinking, but also manifests itself externally: it is enough to simply identify a leader in a crowd by his behavior and habits. A leader is always confident in himself and his abilities, he is ready to lead others, take responsibility for himself and his decisions, as well as for the people who trust him, and he also has the skills of verbal and non-verbal influence on others. The leader's gestures are dominated by gestures of openness and dominance; his posture and gait also indicate confidence, willpower and openness. A direct, decisive look, a straight back, widely spread shoulders, a sweeping gait, slightly sharp, completed hand gestures, expressive facial expressions, a head held high - by these signs, as a rule, one can distinguish a person with leadership skills from the crowd.

However, features are only external manifestations of leadership qualities, determined by the internal state of a person, his psychology, and way of thinking. Internally, a leader is always confident in himself, his capabilities and endeavors; he is open to everything new and is always ready to challenge circumstances. As a rule, leaders have great willpower, excellent communication skills, and the ability to motivate themselves and other people; Leaders also have skills in psychologically influencing others, with the help of which they encourage others to imbue them with their ideas and work under their leadership to achieve their goals.

Laws of leadership psychology

The psychology of leadership cannot be learned from a textbook; To acquire leadership skills, you need to develop self-confidence and communication skills, learn through practice how to influence others, and not be afraid of new opportunities. Leadership skills develop in the process of self-realization, communication, creative and work activity; however, in order to become a leader rather than always being a follower, sometimes a person needs to change their thinking and attitudes. Having studied the psychology and attitudes of many people who occupy leading positions in society and have achieved significant heights in business or social activities, psychologists have found that in their lives and activities these people adhere to three basic laws:

1. Law of Attraction- its essence lies in the fact that leadership, like everything else in nature and society, develops through creativity and creation. Leaders engage in creative activities; they have the ability to think outside the box and find new ways to solve problems. Leaders do not have the habit of criticizing anything or complaining about life; their energy, confidence and desire to create something new and useful for society is the main reason why other people are drawn to the leader.

2. Law of self-preservation- its essence lies in the fact that the leader is always first; he leads people, but never completely immerses himself in the circumstances. In any current situation, the leader steps back a little and controls what is happening from the outside, maintaining the ability to impartially analyze what is happening, give a sober assessment of the situation and find solutions to problems, looking at them from the point of view of an outsider. Thanks to this, the leader can fully control the ongoing processes without wasting energy on unproductive actions and without plunging into the routine of what is happening. The essence of this approach is to separate the wheat from the chaff and not waste strength and energy on trifles, but confidently move towards the goal.

3. Law of return- its operating principle is based on the fact that all processes in the world and society are in continuous motion, and all objects interact with each other. All processes occurring in society are interconnected, therefore a leader, working for his own benefit, benefits others and, through his activities, influences the people around him. This is one of the main features of leadership psychology: a leader works not only for himself, but also for the benefit of society. By influencing subordinates, followers, and associates, sharing his ideas with them and stimulating them with various methods of influencing them to take action, making strong-willed decisions and offering the results of their activities to society, the leader interacts with the people around him and receives a return from the interaction.

Obviously, not everyone can lead thousands of people, but developing the leadership abilities given by nature to a certain level is accessible to everyone. By believing in yourself, changing your psychology, worldview and thinking to a positive one, opening up to new opportunities, developing communication abilities and skills of verbally influencing people, you can develop leadership abilities and significantly change your life for the better. Briefly, the psychology of leadership can be characterized by the well-known phrase-attitude: “check yourself, and others will also believe in you.”

In a person. In what proportions should they be mixed to create a person who is devoid of doubt in himself and his own abilities, active in any manifestation, thinking outside the box, acting decisively and capable of uniting any disparate group for a common goal?

Anyone can become a leader, since the qualities discussed below are present to one degree or another in every person. But, as it turned out, this role is not suitable for everyone and not everyone is satisfied.

Terminology

Leader(from the English leader - “leading, first, going ahead”) - a person in any group who enjoys great authority and has influence, which manifests itself as controlling actions.

The role of leader, inspirer and mentor is terribly tiring for most ordinary people. For the majority, but not for the leader - a person whose mighty energy overflows and seeks application.

So who is he?

Key qualities of a leader

Psychologists have studied this topic in some detail and have come to the unanimous opinion that all ideological masterminds have fundamental character traits.

A leader is a person who combines:

  1. Self-confidence. Whether justified or not, the leader has absolutely no reason not to believe in himself. His confidence is contagious - being confident in himself, he instills this feeling in the people around him.
  2. Energy and perseverance. This is not such a rare quality, but coupled with self-confidence it gives amazing results. A person who gives up at the first obstacle is a whiner. A person who blames others for his failures is a psychopath. A person who knows how to analyze his failures and moves on is a market leader. He is such only due to his perseverance and perseverance.
  3. Charm, charisma. Very important, you will agree. Before starting to lead, a leader must first engage those around him and make them like him. Unfortunately, a person who does not have attractive emotional characteristics is unlikely to become a real leader.
  4. Ability to persuade. To be able to competently and intelligibly express one’s thoughts is already a science, and the ability to put one’s thoughts into other people’s heads so that people accept them as their own is a whole art. Of course, a person with such a gift can be called a manipulator, but the leader is essentially a puppeteer, leading the masses in the desired direction.
  5. Initiative. A leader is an active, energetic person who has a lot of ideas and wants to bring them all to life. A real find for any team!
  6. Responsibility. This is a fundamental quality of a person that is at the basis of the entire pyramid of a leadership figure. After all, if with all the above qualities there is no responsibility for the actions committed, this will turn out to be a portrait not of a leader, but of a poser, windbag and fanfare. A true team leader will readily answer for the consequences of any of his undertakings.

Where is the intelligence?

Have you noticed that among the above qualities there is absolutely nothing like intelligence or mental capacity? According to many scientists, this is not a necessary quality in the portrait of a leader. The most important condition for successful leadership is to be a little smarter than those around you. When there is a fairly large gap in the intellectual level of the leader and his entourage, the opposite reaction occurs - the crowd rejects the arrogant person, and the leader himself becomes bored with working with such “raw material”.

Are leaders and leaders the same thing?

While reading the article, many of you have probably already tried on the portrait of a leader for your manager. There are coincidences, but very rarely. Does this mean that we are led by people who are not capable of leading, random people? Cause-and-effect relationship: if random people are in charge, then the leadership turns out to be ineffective.

Let's figure it out. Of course, there is a manager-leader in nature. He is a rare “beast”, found more in the central part of Russia (ambitions haunt him, and leadership qualities call to conquer the capital). The further from Belokamennaya, the calmer and more measured our leaders become. are present in their characters, but not to the maximum extent. How do they manage to lead?

The problem can be solved in one action, and the answer is simple: such managers benefit from competent personnel decisions. Indeed, what could be simpler - if I lack some quality, I need to find a person who has it and hire him. This is exactly what a thinking manager, a team leader, does. At the same time, the idea of ​​the organization does not suffer, all components are mutually balanced, and the goals are achieved.

A leader in an organization who does not think about the future of his brainchild takes his brother, matchmaker, or mistress to work for him, thereby discrediting not only himself, but also the company.

Female leader: a gift from heaven or a punishment?

As experts jokingly assert, in order for a woman to succeed, she must not only be smart and cunning, she must be two heads taller than any man. And this statement is not without meaning, because the gender approach rules here too.

An independent group of scientists experimentally proved that it is very difficult for representatives of the weaker sex to lead. A “leader,” first female, then male, was assigned to the group of subjects. In both cases, the decoy leader had to take the reins of power and, by convincing the subjects, lead them to a solution to the problem. During the test, it turned out that others agreed to perceive quite favorably the desire to lead coming from a man. They allow him to get the better of them and are more willing to agree with his point of view. Whereas the activity of a woman striving for leadership causes rejection and irritation among the majority of those around her.

It is not surprising that women leaders, in competition with the stronger sex, are forced to mask their weaknesses. They acquire masculine character traits, a masculine management style, and masculine habits. This is a kind of defensive reaction.

Can a leader be subordinate?

A very interesting question, you will agree. After all, if a person has more ambition and self-confidence than hairs on his head, how can he submit to the demands of another person, his boss?

Indeed, this is a big problem for the current leader. He, due to his character, simply cannot stand aside and will undermine the authority of the current boss every day and every minute. An informal leader is a person who is himself a hostage to his own charisma.

Of course, you can get rid of such an obstacle by dismissal, but if the rebel is also a good specialist, then it is wiser to find another use for his energy. Invite him to take the place of manager and make him responsible for fire safety and labor protection. Believe me, you won't regret it. Empowerment and certain power will ensure the satisfaction of the ambitions of the informal leader. Of course, he won’t stop criticizing you, but only to the point. And besides, you shouldn’t dismiss everything that the informal leader says to you - his brain is designed in such a way that he clearly sees the disadvantages in management. Therefore, it is better to “wind up” and take it into account.

Is it possible to develop a leader within yourself?

Of course, you can, but first you need to decide whether you really need it.

Numerous development courses and trainings that currently exist offer everyone who wants to develop a leader in one or two weeks. This, as psychologists say, promises social significance, fame and attention. Many people really need these trainings and help them. But there is a possibility that a person, having completed such courses, will experience real shock and stress if during the course it turns out that he was not born to be in charge.

Summarize

Summarizing the above, we can say with confidence that the problem of leadership is very multifaceted. From a psychological point of view, a leader is a hostage to his irrepressible energy. It is most often unsafe to be him, his life is full of unforeseen situations, he is always at the epicenter of events, but from this a true leader receives only satisfaction and a sense of accomplishment.

Praise be to the fearless, who move the world!

Psychology of Leadership has its own characteristics.

A leader's thoughts, feelings, and actions are different from those of an ordinary person. A leader feels and perceives reality differently, and accordingly acts differently than most people. This is what allows him to achieve results that an ordinary person is incapable of.

This allows us to talk about a special psychology of leadership.

The external manifestations of a leader - a confident look, a firm gait, a strong handshake, a friendly face - are the result of his internal state. Anyone can smile, shake hands firmly, or walk with a confident gait.

But if an ordinary person needs to strain for this, then for a leader this is a natural state and he does it easily and naturally. This is precisely the psychology of leadership.

The results of a leader's activities directly depend on his internal attitudes, based on the following principles - passion, responsibility, creativity, desire for action and self-confidence.

These five principles are the basis for the formation of leadership psychology.

Passion allows you to do one thing for a long time. It is not typical for a leader to rush from one to another. Therefore, it is passion that allows a leader to maintain for a long time the desire and motivation to move and develop in the chosen direction. The passion and psychology of leadership is evident in everything, and it is especially visible in the morning when a person wakes up. If there is no passion, there is no joy on the face. There is no joy and pleasure from the new day, which means the effectiveness of the results will be much lower. Poor results lead to failure in life.

Therefore, passion is the first building block in the foundation of leadership psychology. No one has ever achieved outstanding success without feeling passion for their work.

Responsibility allows a person to become a leader, first of all, for himself - the psychology of leadership is such that until a person takes responsibility for his life and decisions made, until he begins to determine his own actions and stimulate him to achieve any accomplishments, he will not become a leader for himself , and accordingly will not be able to be a leader for others. This is the core of leadership psychology.

Creativity is the ability to think and act outside the box. Search and find new methods and solutions that will be more effective. You cannot achieve success if you act in a stereotyped way. This may have an effect in one particular matter, but success in general is only possible with the use of creative potential. Here, the psychology of leadership lies in constant development and search for new ways to solve problems.

The desire for action - any success is the result of action. And often actions are not thanks to, but despite circumstances, people, mistakes and failures. When everything is going well, action is easy. But when faced with setbacks or problems, most people become discouraged, while the leader redoubles his efforts. This is the biggest difference between the psychology of leadership and the psychology of the majority.

If you count the number of people who started their path to success and achieved it, it will be depressingly small. The reason is that most people do not know what leadership psychology is and stop trying at the first failure. But the path to success is precisely the path of solving problems and facing failures.

Self-confidence allows a leader to make informed and effective decisions, which in turn leads to greater results. Uncertainty breeds fear, which fetters the mind and closes off most opportunities - and this is a direct path to failure.

Leaders also experience fear, but they have learned to control it. They clearly see situations and possible risks. And they do not allow fear to develop to gigantic proportions, drawing incredible images that will never come true.

Naturally, leadership psychology much more multifaceted. But like everything in this world, it has its own foundation, without which further development is impossible.

So develop these five principles - passion, responsibility, creativity, drive and self-confidence - to build the foundation of your leadership psychology and strive for success.

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Leadership and Guidance. Important characteristics of the group structure are the phenomena of management and leadership. Supervisor"represents" the formal structure of the group and is officially appointed. Leader“life itself” puts forward. This is a person who wants and can influence other people, lead them, and whom people want to follow.

The phenomena of management and leadership are associated with the concepts of “power” and “influence”. Influence usually seen as a broader concept than power. It is a relationship in which a person forces others to act in a certain way. Power implies sanctions: negative (deprivation of reward or access to something) or positive (reward). Influence is more closely related to leadership. In their activities, a manager and a leader, consciously or unconsciously, can use various types of power. Charasmatic power is built on the exceptional qualities of an individual. Traditional I power is based on the common belief that people should obey those in higher positions. Power fear(including the fear of being insolvent in the eyes of members of one’s organization), while creativity and enthusiasm are stifled. Power rewards built on the availability of resources to the manager that he can use to satisfy certain needs of his subordinates. Expert power is based on the belief of subordinates that the leader has more experience, is more educated, and is smarter. Information power presupposes the position of a leader who has access to information valuable to the group, as a center of communications. Power beliefs built on the ability to logically prove the correctness of one’s actions and demands.

Why does this person become a leader? On the one hand, a leader, as a rule, is characterized by psychological qualities: self-confidence, a sharp and flexible mind, strong will, socio-psychological competence, and organizational skills. Biological and psychoanalytic approaches to solving the problem of power and subordination point to the genetic and psychological predisposition of some people to power. On the other hand, different groups have different requirements for a leader who has traits that are important specifically for this group. It is not without reason that they say, “as is the group, so is the leader.” Thirdly, in different situations the group nominates different people as leaders. It is important that this person can lead the group to resolve certain group situations, problems and tasks.

Is it advisable to combine a manager and an informal leader in one person? More often, the manager and the leader have different goal orientations: the leader is entirely focused on the tasks for which the group was created, the leader is more focused on the internal interests of the group members. However, in a number of cases such a merger can be effective (for example, in a scientific team, in a youth public organization). If there are several informal groups in a team, each of them can form its own rules and norms, and each can have its own leader. The team leader must be able to interact with the leader of the informal group, who expresses and shapes its opinion.



An excellent specialist appointed to a leadership position does not always cope with the new range of responsibilities. If a person is good at doing some work himself, this does not mean that he also knows how to organize the work of other people and take responsibility for them. This is precisely what the famous Peter Principle reflects: “In a hierarchy, each individual tends to rise to the level of his own incompetence.” It is important for a manager to master the basics management– theories and practices of management.

Research in management of three main management styles: authoritarian ( through non-negotiable orders). democratic (through collective discussion and decision-making) and conniving (full trust and delegation of functions subordinates) - eventually led to the development situational leadership theories , which allow the use of one or another method of influence on subordinates depending on the current situation.

Basic skills and abilities of a leader:

1. The art of being equal.

2. The art of being a leader.

3. The art of conflict resolution.

4. The art of processing information.

5. The art of making non-standard management decisions.

6. The art of allocating resources in an organization.

7. The gift of an entrepreneur (the ability to take justified risks and introduce innovations).

8. The Art of Self-Analysis.

Leader(from English leader- leader, first, going ahead) - a person in any group (organization) who enjoys great, recognized authority, and has influence, which manifests itself as controlling actions. A member of the group, for whom she recognizes the right to make responsible decisions in situations that are significant to her, that is, the most authoritative person who plays a central role in organizing joint activities and regulating relationships in the group.

In psychology, various classifications of leaders are accepted:

· by the nature of the activity (universal leader and situational leader);

· according to the direction of activity (emotional leader and business leader), etc. The leader can simultaneously be the official leader of the group.

There are:

· formal leadership - the process of influencing people from the position of their position;

· informal leadership is the process of influencing people using one’s abilities, skills or other resources.

· Democratic - the leader consults with colleagues, listens to their arguments, encourages their initiative, focuses on the opinion of the group, and delegates some powers to other group members.

· Liberal - the leader does not make any demands on group members, does not insist on anything, accepts all proposals from group members, does not conflict. The group is practically unorganized, disunited, and functional responsibilities in the group are distributed chaotically.

Unlike a leader, who is sometimes purposefully elected, and more often appointed, and who, being responsible for the state of affairs in the team he leads, has the official right to reward and punish participants in joint activities, an informal leader is nominated spontaneously. He does not have any authority recognized outside the group and is not assigned any official duties.

If the leader of the group and its leader are not the same person, then the relationship between them can contribute to the effectiveness of joint activities and harmonization of group life or, on the contrary, acquire a conflicting nature, which is ultimately determined by the level of group development. For example, in prosocial and asocial associations, as a rule, the functions of leader and manager are performed by different members of the group. Moreover, most often the leader in communities of this level of socio-psychological development turns out to be a member of the group, responsible primarily for preserving and maintaining a positive emotional atmosphere in the group, while the leader, being focused primarily on increasing the effectiveness of group activities, often does not take into account how this will affect the socio-psychological climate of the community.

In corporate groups, as well as in groups of a high socio-psychological level of development, as a rule, the functions of leader and manager are assigned to the same person. At the same time, the foundations of leadership and management in these two types of highly developed groups in psychological terms are fundamentally different in nature. Thus, if in corporate groups the coincidence of the status positions of the leader and the manager is associated with a clear priority of power relations to the detriment of the emotional plane of relations, then in a prosocial group of a high level of development such as a collective, it is the emotional “feeding” of power that often acts as a necessary foundation for the implementation of formal power.

Many modern researchers emphasize the increased role of the leader's followers in the modern world.

J. Moreno identifies three main roles of a leader in a group:

1) a leader in leadership ability, characterized as calm, intelligent, rational, hardworking, trustworthy, selfless, active, reliable;

2) leader in popularity, people are sociable, cheerful, exciting, peaceful, warm-hearted;

3) “black sheep” - a person who is unattractive, indifferent, unsympathetic and negative to the rest of the group.

Three theories of leadership.In modern social psychology there are three approaches to the study of leadership. " Leader Trait Theory ” proceeds from the fact that people are born leaders. A number of innate properties and characteristics of an individual (strength and mobility of nervous processes, extroversion, the ability for empathy and compassion, pronounced heuristic and intellectual abilities), according to supporters of this theory, allow him to take a dominant position in any situation and take on the role of a leader, i.e. leader. There are any number of cases in life when persons noted for strong will, intelligence and other virtues never became leaders. According to E. Jennings, Almost every group has members who are superior to the leaders in intelligence and abilities, but they do not have the status of a leader. In the 50s " leader trait theory " changed the concept " leadership as a group function» (R. Crutchfield, D. Krech, G. Homans), and " theory of leadership as a function of situation» (R. Bales, T. Newcome, A. Hare). Theory " leadership as a group function" proceeded from the fact that the phenomenon leadership is the result of intragroup development, all members of the group in one or another to a different extent are participants in this process, and the leader is the member of the group with the greatest status that most consistently adheres to norms and values groups. The third point of view is “ theory of leadership as a function of situation" - is currently the most common. Observations of how the same persons in different groups can occupy different positions, playing different social and interpersonal roles in them (a child can be a leader among the children in his yard and “rejected” in the class; a teacher can be a leader in his team and “follower” in the family, etc.), led researchers to the conclusion that leadership is not so much a function of the individual or group, but rather the result of the complex and multifaceted influence of various factors and situations. An approach to the individual from the point of view of the roles that he takes on oneself, gave reason to consider various factors (situations) as moments from which the nomination of a leader begins. Hence the thesis that the specificity of leadership as a function of the situation and role lies in the fact that this role is not “given” to the leader, but he “takes” it himself (N.S. Zherebova). A leader is someone who, in a certain situation, takes on greater responsibility for completing group tasks than everyone else. Within one school class, it is always possible to identify schoolchildren who are better than others at organizing and conducting sports, cultural, socially useful, tourist events and other events. There are cases when a universal leader appears in a group (he is both the most suitable captain of a volleyball team, and the best captain of a KVN team, only he can better organize an evening or the publication of a wall newspaper than others, only with him can you be sure that you will quickly break tents, etc.). However, as a rule, different leaders emerge in different situations. Back in the 50s R. Bales experimentally revealed that each small group produces at least two types of leaders: emotional And instrumental. The function of an emotional leader is the psychological climate in the group, concern for the optimal settlement of interpersonal relationships. Usually he acts as an arbiter, advisor. An instrumental leader is that member of the group who takes the initiative in specific types of activities (due to his special competence in certain matters) and coordinates the overall efforts to achieve the goal. Other American researchers came to similar conclusions. In Soviet literature, it was noted that, while correctly understanding the role of the situation for the manifestation of leadership, American researchers, however, define the situation itself only as the sum of certain psychological expectations of the group. “A leader is a member of a group who spontaneously takes on the role of an unofficial leader in a certain, specific, usually significant enough situation to ensure the organization of joint collective activities of people for the fastest and most successful achievement of a common goal.” This is a person with whom you want to communicate, who finds the only correct solution to a problem, without infringing on anyone’s interests. This is a serious, always in the center of events, respected, authoritative, popular person, or a person who is feared. Personality traits: 1 self-control 2 justice 3 perseverance 4 prudence 5 courage 6 confidence in decisions 7 honesty, straightforwardness 8 masculinity 9 cunning 10 erudition, intelligence 11 diplomacy 12 oratorical abilities 13 sociability 14 organizational abilities 15 strength (spiritual )16 energy 17 determination A leader is an interesting, passionate and captivating person who knows how to organize and lead them. Personality traits: 1. Sense of humor2. Justice3. Wisdom, mind4. Accuracy5. Hard work6. AuthorityOf course, based on these data, a leader cannot be considered as a person who possesses all these factors. This is a subjective idea of ​​a leader, based mainly only on personal experience. This is not enough for us. Let's see what the so-called leadership "experts" think about this. Below I present some theories regarding the personality traits that a leader should possess.