What makes a great leader in the public sector Essay

What makes a great leader in the public sector - Essay Example This paper focuses on the aspects as well as the attributes that distinguishes a great leader from other sorts of leaders. Leadership can be either formal or informal but both involve getting things done. However, the two leaderships apply different strategies to ensure the set goals are met. Formal leadership relies on ones position in an organization and involves using the mandate apportioned to get things done. Informal leadership on the other hand involves an individual volunteering to offer services or under requisition from those who approve of their leading potential (Shafritz and Russell 371). In this leadership, the leaders apply their charisma to win over people after which they are able to influence them to do things. Whether formal or informal, the task of a leader is to form, preserve, and improve a grouping of people such that they are in a position to realize their goals. Excellent leaders are those who can equally employ both formal and informal leadership. Such leaders are capable of mobilising people as well as exercising prescribed authority if in management positions (Shafritz and Ru ssell 372). A good example of a great leader who will forever remain in the minds of many is President Franklin Roosevelt. Even after contracting polio, Roosevelt retained his great capabilities such that he was able to lead America through the Great Depression of 1930 as well triumph in the Second World War. This is because he had the competence of both a leader and was good in management. He was intelligent, focused, and concerned more on the results other than the exact mean of attaining them. It was out of his desire to give the best even in his health condition that he committed himself to establishing policies that enabled the victory of capitalism (Shafritz and Russell 371). There are a number of different sources of power. Expert power is one where the leader is recognized as being competent in a certain speciality. Legitimate power is based on