Every year I tend to go on vacation with my family and I have never had to plan and book anything by myself. This year, my vacation was going to be a little bit different as I was planning to go on vacation with my brother and three of our closest friends. We did not think much about the difficulties but were rather excited to finally go on vacation together. At first we found that there was nobody taking control over the planning and it went fine with all of us planning and booking together. We decided together that we were going to fly to Bali. I did not really know what I was getting into as I had never gone to a place so far away from home with such a different culture and living standards than what I am used to. It was still all fine when we had landed in Bali and spirits were high. Everything had worked fine without a leader and everyone deciding together. But, it was not until the first challenge hit us that our different opinions ran us into the wall and made things challenging. We had not planned for someone to be a clear leader as we wanted to respect everyone’s opinions on things and activities. It quickly became clear that this was not working out as everyone wanted something else at most times. Not always is a leader chosen but a leader emerges in difficult situations. Below, I will discuss the trait approach in leadership and the positives of emergent leadership.
The first day of our trip we had not planned much besides walking around and getting to know the area which was fine because everyone had to get used to the climate and the different time zones. On the second day of the trip, it was the first time that we got into a discussion. The discussion was about whether we were going to use a car to drive to different places or if we were going to use scooters to drive to different places. Quickly a discussion erupted and we were not able to come to a conclusion. Then, it quickly became clear that we needed a leader which was somehow automatically clear for everyone. It was evident that the statement, “born to be a leader” was effective and that certain traits were positively impacting leadership (Northouse, 2021).
My brother quickly took control over things and made it clear to everyone that we needed someone to make a decision for the rest of the group or otherwise we were not going to be able to choose what we were going to do. This showed how he had the innate traits that are not to be a leader and how the group automatically accepted him as a leader. As described by the book Leadership: Theory and Practice written by Peter G. Northouse, the trait definition of leadership is mainly described by the traits height, intelligence, and extraversion. My brother had quite a clear tone in his voice, is over 6 feet tall and is often described as being intelligent. His traits made him the perfect candidate to be a leader in this situation.
As we did not pick him to be the leader in the beginning, which would have been assigned leadership, it was clear that he emerged as a leader. Through his traits and his extroverted behavior in a critical situation, he emerged as a leader. Emergent leadership is when a person is made to be a leader by his coworkers or friends for example without him being assigned to be a leader. In the case of an organization, “The individual acquires emergent leadership through other people in the organization who support and accept that individual’s behavior” (Northouse, 2021). In our case it was a group of friends but the way he emerged as a leader was similar. It became more clear that my brother was the leader of the group as his traits progressed and he was accepted more and more as a leader in the group. He was finalized as a leader when most of our group had gastrointestinal issues due to the bad hygiene in Bali. He had to make decisions such as if we were going to see a doctor, what medication we were going to take, how we were going to reschedule our planned activities and even make the decision if we were going to leave Bali and return home early as our health was not getting much better.
After our trip to Bali, Indonesia I learned that without leadership it is almost impossible to make decisions in large groups in difficult situations. It also became clear that, just as the trait of approach of leadership describes, a leader needs certain innate traits in order to emerge as a leader. A leader is not always chosen by current leaders, a leader can emerge through emergent leadership in a group of co-workers or friends when certain traits are evident. It became clear that not always is a leader chosen but a leader emerges in difficult situations
References:
Northouse, P. G. (2021). Leadership: Theory and practice. SAGE.