The servant by James C. Hunter tells what Hunter interprets as Leadership. He explains the story through a manager in charge of a large glass manufacturing plant. The author uses this character to explain leadership in a business by using religious overtones to help the reader understand the concepts better. The manager John must go through a journey to develop into a stronger leader since recently he has been having trouble both at work and at home with his wife and two children. On the work side of his life the plant he oversees recently has gone through an attempt for the workers to unionize which failed but has created unhappiness with the workers and caused upper management in the company to express dissatisfaction with John. At home his …show more content…
The lessons of leadership really do come through especially when the leader must get a large number of people to work together. The book makes leadership a key part into making a large group of people to all do their job while also cooperating with the other groups in order to fulfill a larger picture that the leader has. This is a key concept of emergency management due to them having to get multiple organizations from local, state, federal, and non-profits. This makes the leader have to juggle a great number of people to work in unison towards fixing the disaster. The book also explains that a leader is not infallible instead the leader has to always strive for bettering the organization. This is especially true for emergency managers who at sometimes will not have all of the cooperation or information necessary to handle the response and instead must be able to give up some power and authority on occasion. The giving up on power is hard for some but is necessary in order to complete the response. By showing people that you are willing to relinquish power and authority a leader is showing that it is not why he is in charge instead the leader is showing people that they are willing to do what it takes to get the job …show more content…
Hunter believes leaders can be anyone and that everyone if they truly want to grow into a leader can. This belief is throughout the entire book and he illustrates this idea by showing a wide cast of people learning to become a leader. The thing is to become a leader one must be open to changing things about themselves in order to better adapt in a leadership role. This changing from one paradigm to a new one is not easy but in the changing world of family, politics and business is often necessary to learn how to change oneself. By changing paradigm one opens oneself to the opportunity of becoming a better leader. The changing of one’s own paradigm is a common them the book goes over due to its importance ideas and practices that may have worked in the past fifty years is no longer one that can be used. An excellent example of this is one from the world wars when the U.S is invincible it is now more acceptable to view that the U.S is a global competitor in the world. And another paradigm shift is the term if it aint broke don’t fix it in schools and business now that term no longer holds true and instead one should continually try to strive for continues improvement in their
The book demonstrates a couple of different ways in which people define leadership. The first is that leadership is being connected to a
“On leadership” was written by John W. Gardner (The Free Press, New York, 1990). He used seventeen chapters to explain and describe essential components for the leadership should be in a successful organization. This book not only has significant influence now, but also for the future. Below are my understanding about this book, which was divided into two parts. For the first part, I will pick up some perspectives which influence me most from this book. For the second part, which is my comments and critique about this book.
For years, Lord of the Flies by William Golding, has been a staple in college, high school, and even middle school classes. The eloquent story follows a group of young boys stranded on a jungle island. They are left thousands of miles away from civilization and are left to survive by themselves. Throughout the story, many insights in leadership are seen through the power struggle between Ralph and Jack. Both have extremely different styles of leadership with varying levels of success. Lord of the Flies teaches me about leadership in the initial selection of the leader, how they solve problems, and how they motivate others.
A walk through the business section of any major bookstore and you'll count dozens of titles which include the word 'leadership'. A quick internet search of "leadership" turns up over 19 million hits. The classic big name leaders throughout history, Lincoln, Thatcher, King, Welsch, frame a story within which we all play a part, affected each and every one of us. We have each had some kind of deeply personal experience of leadership, positive or negative, either as followers or as leaders ourselves.
Warren Bennis’ novel, On Becoming a Leader, is the book I was able to read. Bennis worked years on this novel constructing it off of one of his former creations. Finally, in Cambridge, Ma Bennis published his story by Perseus publishing. Throughout this book he centers around the search to understand exactly how leaders are made. Bennis uses a unique approach to portraying his opinion. This is not an ordinary “how to” book on becoming a leader. Nor is it an autobiography of one’s personal experience. Bennis was a teacher and student all his life, he has never run a country or even a company. Bennis is not directly reciting his own experiences as a leader. This paper outlines Bennis’ basic thoughts, theories, and his contributions to the field
Leadership is not a position but an action that is undertaken by an individual. Leadership is not just about giving orders, yet it is the action of serving others. According to Robert Townsend, “A leader is not an administrator who loves to run others, but someone who carries water for his people so that they can get on with their jobs” (2013). A good leader will support his or hers employees because a leader is not judged on their own actions, but they are judge on the success of those that they support. In the modern era, we look at business leaders in the same way that historians view military commanders or kings of the past.
Leaders is an effective tool for summarizing and inspiring leadership, not in that it teaches tough strategies and manipulations, but that when looking at an overview of its content, Bennis and Nanus are essentially teaching human relations and human decency. All in all, this book highlights strategies for us all to be better in our lives and our everyday interactions.
Leadership at times can be a complex topic to delve into and may appear to be a simple and graspable concept for a certain few. Leadership skills are not simply acquired through position, seniority, pay scale, or the amount of titles an individual holds but is a characteristic acquired or is an innate trait for the fortunate few who possess it. Leadership can be misconstrued with management; a manager “manages” the daily operations of a company’s work while a leader envisions, influences, and empowers the individuals around them.
This discussion will focus on leadership as described by Robert Dees in The Resilience Trilogy, Resilient Leaders text. The points made in the book can be personally related. The three most important concepts learned from chapter 1 and 2 are tribulation, risk management, and selflessness. It is crucial for anyone is seeking to delve into leadership that everything will not happen as planned all the time. After a leader experience failure, knowing the avenues to take to regain a solid footing is also key to successful leadership. Often leaders who are unaware of available resources fold and give up. In the military profession, when someone gets knock down they get up brush themselves off and get back in the fight.
In order for a leader to be a leader he/she must begin with the assumption that you are the one who matters most. As a leader you have to possess that level of confidence in yourself that you are capable of leading yourself “before you can lead others”. And when you develop this belief then you are better able of affirmative influence “on others”.
The book called Spiritual Leadership, by Henry and Richard Blackaby is about the being a leader. That the leader has a challenges that we have to face every day. It is also about being learn how to help other and lead them to the Lord.
Wilkes, C. G. Jesus on Leadership: Timeless Wisdom on Servant Leadership. Carol Stream, Illnois: Tyndale House, 1998.
Northouse, P. (2010). Leadership: Theory and practice (5th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.
"A leader is an individual (or, rarely, a set of individuals) who significantly affects the thoughts, feelings, and/or behaviors of a significant number of individuals” (Gardner, Howard 2012). An essential part of a leader lies in their ability to motivate and influence people to follow their lead. Leaders are both men and women who have the ability to influence others in a community, control situations, connect with others and persuade others to follow them or the goals they define. To be a good leader one must set a good example and make correct decisions for difficult choices. I myself am implementing leadership skills into my every day life. Leadership skills are all around us. They can be applied to any situation where one may be required to take the lead. This can be
Leadership can be defined as leading a group of people or being able to persuade a group of people. Jesus in the Bible is a great example of a leader. In Christianity, Jesus is the ultimate leader and role model in the religion. According to the bible Jesus was sent by God to help and set an example for people around the world. There are several characteristic portrayed by Jesus that can be related to leadership.