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Passion is usually a pretty desirable thing in employees and especially also in leaders (with the usual qualification of passion for the right thing).

I came across a neat paper recently from the Blanchard stable.

http://www.kenblanchard.com/img/pub/employee_passion.pdf

The nature of leadership can perhaps be best understood by turning the coin over and studying followership. Why do people follow leaders? If we can understand this, then we will be a long way down the road to creating those followers and hence becoming an effective leader.

People don't just follow anyone. You can't just say 'follow me' and expect people to follow out of the goodness of their hearts. You have to give them good reason for them to follow.

Key aspect of creating followers:

Hub member Mike Ormesher asked for our thoughts on Situational Leadership recently. To help us comment on this, here's a quick primer from changingminds.org :

The best action of the leader depends on a range of situational factors.

Charisma is just one leadership style. But, the assumption is too often that leaders have to have 'charisma'.

So, what is 'charismatic' leadership? And do you have to have 'charisma' to be a leader?

Assumptions

Charm and grace are all that is needed to create followers.

Self-belief is a fundamental need of leaders.

People follow others that they personally admire.

Style

Assumptions behind the 'Great Man' Theory of Leadership

Leaders are born and not made.

Great leaders will arise when there is a great need.

Description of the theory

Early research on leadership was based on the the study of people who were already great leaders. These people were often from the aristocracy, as few from lower classes had the opportunity to lead. This contributed to the notion that leadership had something to do with breeding.