Followership is how individuals choose to engage with leaders in the leadership process. It represents an individual's capacity or willingness to follow a leader.
The trait approach to leadership assumes that if we can identify particular and socially desirable traits, we can select individuals for leadership positions based on their natural tendencies.
Behavioral approaches to the study of leadership focus on identifying patterns and categories of relevant leadership behavior and examining the effectiveness of these behaviors.
Common sense would tell us that not all traits or behaviors of leaders are positively related to effectiveness all the time. Instead, whether a leader behavior is effective or not will depend on the situation.
Early findings using the trait approach were very successful because researchers looked for significant correlations between traits and leadership outcomes instead of focusing on mediating variables.
Leadership identity construction means that leadership is constructed and produced in social and relational interactions among people acting in context.
Co-leadership represents views of leadership not as a property of individuals and their behaviors but as a social phenomenon constructed in interaction.