In my Organizational Communication class we have been talking about different aspects of organizations and how they function in relation to different roles and positions. One question we have been challenged to think about as a class is this: “What is the purpose of leadership?” Is it the ability to control others? To interpret issues well? To set goals for a group? 

These are hard questions to wrestle with. This is partially because people have very different leadership styles from one another. But this is also because being a leader means more than having one specific characteristic or fitting some sort of leadership criteria. In most cases, especially within an organization, a leader needs to have a balance of both task- and human-oriented thought processes and characteristics. This could include a number of specific traits, but overall a leader needs to be able to get tasks done while still having concern…