About concept of leadership in business life: Catalysing and authoritative leaders

By lexical meaning leadership can be summarised as the totality of actions by an individual to guide multitudes towards a common goal.

In general meaning, any community from small to large needs a leader, notwithstanding the level of education.

Any community lacking a leader or feeling the need for a leader will inevitably meet destruction.

Whether in the family, at the school, in personal circles, in non-governmental organisations, in business life or in national administration, the leaders holds a large role.

A correct leader can enhance the level of their community, while some highly placed communities will become condemned to loss and disintegration due to wrong directions provided by a wrong leader.

The leader should be not just good but also fair, as well as a good guide.

In light of all these ideas, importance of the concept of a leader in communities can be understood more clearly.

In that case, what is a "catalysing leader" or an "authoritative leader"? What could be the absolute differences between these two concepts?

A catalyser is the name given to a substance which increase the speed of a chemical reaction but does not alter the general structure of the reaction at the end of the day.

A catalysing leader, somewhat unlike the chemical definition, adds dynamism to an environment they enter, while also causing a positive change in the structure of this environment, empowering and enhancing people, increasing added value of each individual in the community with the innovations they bring, thus cultivating more qualifications in people.

On the opposite extreme lies individuals falling under the definition of an authoritative leader. This type of leader pulls down the energy in the environment they enter, generally bringing an oppressive and negative effect, demanding sole dependence on their person, lacking qualification, casting each individual of the community into the role of a supplicant to themselves, leading to empty headed people.

In summary, an authoritative leader is not in fact a leader, but simply a bad imitation of one.

What are the fundamental differences between a catalysing leader and an authoritative leader?

In general, the most distinctive differences between these two concepts can be listed as follows;

Catalysing Leader	Authoritative Leader
Listens	Speaks
Develops	Pulls down
Asks for opinions, analyses	Is unresponsive to ideas
Likes star employees, is an expert in management of star employees, is open to criticism	Likes employees suitable to low profile supplicant culture, believes they can manage star employees by oppressing them
Teaches	Orders
Rectifies by providing alternatives	Reprimands
Derives power from respect	Derives power by oppression
Focuses on "Us", is participative	Focuses on "Me", is egotistic
Instils trust	Instils fear
Is good and fair	Can be good, but is not qualified
Openly shares reasons and results. Is extroverted.	Prefers using circuitous manners instead of openness.
Has strong communication capabilities	Has weak communication capabilities
Keeps equal distance to everyone	Shows closeness to those they favour
Is extroverted	Is introverted
Is open to development, can change what they think is true according to developing conditions	Rejects development, prefers to act according to the truth in their mind

Many things can be said and many articles can be written on the concept of leadership.

However, even achieving a superficial level of capability regarding the left column above could prove a good start for anyone wishing to become a real "leader".

Adil Can Kavcar, 15.05.2024