**3. The meaning of leadership**

In order to clearly understand leadership, one needs to first understand the concepts *lead* and *leader*. The word *lead* is a verb which is used to refer to an act of giving some kind of direction to subordinates. In organisational context, to lead is to provide some kind of strategic direction in order for an organisation to realise its overall mission. By organisation in this context I refer to a welfare entity and its staff component. Metaphorically, one can relate leaders to drivers of a vehicle called an organisation and whose primary responsibility is to drive these organisations towards its envisaged mission and objective which in the welfare context may include building self-reliant society by supporting the marginalised sections of the population such as widows, orphans, persons living with HIV, the older adults, victims of gender-based violence and many more. Leaders are also expected to provide a sense of belonging among the organisational staff component in order to enhance the organisations' productivity and attainment of objectives [2]. In other words, subordinates of a leader should feel free to exercise their duties and to constructively and critically interrogate any of the activities involved in the organisation.

#### *DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.105586 Perspective Chapter: Leading Welfare Organisations from an Integrated Leadership Approach…*

An integrative definition of a leader is that a leader is a person who select, equips, trains, and influences one or more subordinates towards the mission and objectives of the organisation by causing them to expend their spiritual, emotional and physical energy willingly and enthusiastically in a concerted coordinated effort so as to achieve the organisational mission and objectives [3]. In exerting such an influence, a leader conveys a prophetic vision of the future in clear terms resonating with subordinates' beliefs and values in such a way that they can easily understand and interpret the future into present-time action steps [3].

Within the welfare organisations, a leader's role is quite a complex responsibility because welfare organisations deal with complex social issues that require them to use complex problem-solving approaches and strategies. They have to provide leadership to social workers and related professionals who are guided by various techniques, theoretical orientations, skills, values and methods that are all geared towards addressing the challenges faced by their various client systems who visit their organisations for assistance. As heads of these organisations, leaders have a responsibility to ensure that their social workers and related professionals do possess the necessary capabilities to deliver quality services in order to ultimately realise their organisations' mission [4].

Leadership involves a collaboration between a leader and subordinates with effective leadership involving a high-quality services, personal development, high level of satisfaction, direction and vision, innovation and creativity and invigoration of organisational culture [2]. In other words, effective leaders are able to influence subordinates towards the entity's envisaged aim of providing good quality services while at the same time developing the qualities of both subordinates and a leader (through continuous training and development initiatives) and promoting satisfaction to both subordinates and the client systems. They are able to creatively and innovatively give guidance towards the envisaged aim of the organisation by instilling an organisational culture [2]. Cleary an effective leader cannot be influenced by one conventional approach, method or leadership style. She/he will rather need to draw from a variety of approaches, skills, techniques, principles, theories and perspectives that will all come together and enable her/his to effectively satisfy all of the preceding qualities. In the context of welfare organisations, it even become more complex because the issues that leaders are expected to respond to through their organisations and subordinates are mostly based on human relationships and therefore dynamic, complex and continuously evolving.
