Introduction

The purpose of this essay is to evaluate and reflect on concepts of leadership from both an academic and practitioner perspective. Leadership has been researched and defined in academia for many years, and more widely in the last thirty.  Northouse (2019) defines leadership as “a process whereby an individual influences a group of individuals to achieve a common goal”(Northouse (2019) as cited in Howieson, 2019).

In considering leadership as a process, Northhouse (2019) implies that it is something that can be taught or developed, and not necessarily an inherent trait, as was implied in early academic research (Kotter, n.d.).Later research focussed more on the style and behavior of leaders and different approaches to leading, rather than being born with inherent traits(Howieson, 2019).

Section 2 of this essay will reflect on two concepts of leadership, Lewin’s (1939) model of leadership styles of autocratic, participative, and delegate, and George’s (2003) philosophy of authentic leadership (Howieson, 2019). Both summaries will be reflected upon from an academic and practitioner perspective and concluded in Section 3.