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Introduction to effective leadership
Military leadership philosophies
Effective leadership within organizations
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Recommended: Introduction to effective leadership
In today’s ever changing business field, it is more important than ever that great managers are also exceptional leaders. While being a leader may not be easy, it is something that all managers need to strive to achieve. Through constant education and practice every manager can sharpen their leadership skills. Through the reading and the Leadership Assessment there are five leadership principles that are most important to todays leaders including; creating a sense of responsibility, education, ability to lead by example, giving praise where it is do, and empathy. If today’s managers apply these five principles, they will be well on their way to being outstanding leaders. Through these five principles and what was learned in the Leadership Assessment I was able to hone in on what makes a great leader.
The first leadership principle that every manager needs to constantly strive to achieve is to create a sense of responsibility in their coworkers. This was illustrated in the US Army’s Principles of Leadership which outlined that the ability to create a sense of responsibility in your coworkers is the most important leadership skill for any manager (US Army, 1983). Once a sense of responsibility is instilled in the organization, the team has no goal that cannot be achieved. It could be said that they have nowhere to go but up since every team member now feels responsible to achieving greatness. Personally when I am held to a higher standard my main goal is to surpass that standard. I used this principle when I was managing Chateaux Verde. This is a small sixty-six unit apartment community here in Denver. I managed the office and had a maintenance supervisor under me. There were days where it seemed as though the work...
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...row in. This assignment has taught me a great deal and education leads to better leadership. Through the application of what I learned in the leadership assessment and researching leadership principles I feel I am on my way to being an exceptional leader.
References
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Web site: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/h/horacemann157460.html
Nelson Mandela. (n.d.). BrainyQuote.com. Retrieved March 8, 2011, from BrainyQuote.com
Web site: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/n/nelsonmand393048.html
Rush Limbaugh. (n.d.). BrainyQuote.com. Retrieved March 8, 2011, from BrainyQuote.com
Web site: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/r/rushlimbau153254.html
U.S. Army.(October 1983). Military Leadership (FM 22-100). Washington, DC: U.S.
Government Printing Office
Denisco & Barker, (2016) discusses the foundation of leadership and the four conceptual pillars that comprise it. Understanding the leadership is a responsibility of an APN, the following final question was posed to Ms. Gordner. “Of the four pillars of leadership; professionalism, inspirational motivation, interpersonal relationships, and business skills, do you feel that one is more important than another, and why?” She responded,
The role of a leader is often inaccurately defined as an individual who is in a position to give orders. However, there are enormous differences in the attributes of an outstanding leader, and one of mediocrity. An outstanding leader, above all else, is a role model for their peers. In doing so, a leader of the highest caliber is trustworthy in both their peer’s trust for the leader as well as the leader’s trust of their peers. A leader must also display exceptional skill in communication which transcends speaking and, more importantly, includes listening and consideration to the ideas presented to them. Furthermore, a leader must be supportive of and willing to help their peers build their own strengths. The attributes listed above represent only a small subset of what makes an outstanding leader. Yet,
Contemporary organizations expect advantageous styles of leadership to lead and facilitate operations as we move forward into the 21st century. This need requires leaders and organizations to instill a style of leadership advantageous to supporting and leading a culture towards organizational effectiveness and connecting to support and uphold organizational strategies. Thus, the success of an organization usually contains successful leaders who understand and support the needs of the employees. The characteristics of successful leaders include selflessness, mentoring, empowerment, influence, support and empathy among other positive traits (Hoffman, Bynum, Piccolo & Sutton, 2011; Karakitapoglu-Aygun & Gumusluoglu, 2013; Sabir, Sohail & Khan, 2011; Shankers & Sayeed, 2012).
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.
Kouzes, J., & Posner, B., (2007). The leadership challenge, (4th ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-
In my opinion, the trait approach is the defining leadership from the objective perspective rather than a physical or technical glance. It is the study of consistent patterns in thought, emotion, and behavior of an individual that are linked to effective leadership across various situations. Northouse’s five leadership traits are intelligence, integrity, sociability, determination and self-confidence. The trait approach provides a foundation to what a leader should look like due to it being backed back a century of research; however, there is no definite list of traits or take into account situational traits.
Throughout the novel, The Student Leadership Challenge: Five Practices for Exemplary Leaders, authors James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner share with young student leaders the skills they have found for effective leadership. The authors wrote The Student Leadership Challenge hoping to strengthen the abilities and uplift the spirits of leaders by introducing the five principles: modeling the way, inspiring a shared vision, challenging the process, enabling others to act, and encouraging the heart (Kouzes and Posner 3).
Everyone has a different definition of what makes someone a leader. My definition is not a statement of requirements, but more so a list of characteristics. I believe it takes a strong, independent, dependable, open-minded, thoughtful, selfless, smart and creative, someone who can work well with others, able to work under pressure, respectful, and experienced individual to be a leader. I believe it is someone who knows who they are and know their morals, someone who has already found who they are in life and accepts who they are, making what I believe the most important characteristic is, is someone who knows and sticks with their personal values. If someone cannot respect values and stick to their word, then how can they be a leader of others? A leader takes a lot of work, but if you are good at it, it may seem like nothing. Some people are leaders and do not even know it, like role models. When little kids look up to certain people that have impacted their lives in a way, they will see those people as role models. Truth is, leaders are everywhere and not everyone knows or can see that. It's not always the person who stands out for taking control or being bossy, but the one with the characteristics and high values that do the right things, even when no one is watching.
The leadership is a privilege and it is such a privilege and an honor which will carry the tremendous responsibility which will inspire others to direct them to accomplish goals and vision of the organization. Leadership is about influencing the people, by producing direction, purpose and motivating in order to accomplish the mission, vision and improving the organization. The leadership philosophy is evolved based on the experiences, both positive and negative, in most of the initiatives and activities that we undertake. It is also one among the collaboration and teamwork within which the team members can utilize each other’s strengths to counter the weaknesses of the individuals. By observing, introspecting and experimenting we can developed a leadership paradigm which is inclusive, collaborative and proactive. We can develop the ability to recognize which will approach in order to reach the productive conclusion. The great leaders know their limitations and are capable at utilize their strengths and also the strengths of others to compensate.
There are several ways to define leadership, but what sets effective leaders apart from commonplace managers are their extraordinary actions and the successes that result. In The Leadership Challenge, James Kouzes and Barry Posner claim leaders that employ The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership are much more effective than those who do not (2012, p. 25). This paper will be reviewing my assessment findings, exploring my strengths and weaknesses, examining my personal-best leadership story, and detailing a specific area of development.
Many Scholars characterize the core qualities and skills necessary for an effective leader. Useem defines leadership as “Creating a vision and translating that vision into actions”. Historically, an effective leader was assumed to be exceptionally knowledgeable, authoritative, and dominate. Those leaders applied the command and control method to lead an organization. With the passage of time, this definition has been changed. The modern definition of an effective leader is honest, courageous, trustworthy, inspirational, and result-oriented. Today’s leaders create shared values and vision, and empower others to achieve their targets.
Great leadership is not achieved over night, and it is not something that one achieves and stops. Great leaders spend entire lives building and growing their leadership skills. It is not likely that a leader will one day wake up with all of the vision, influence, knowledge, respect, and momentum necessary to be great; these take time to develop. “It is the capacity to develop and improve their skills that distinguishes leaders from their followers.”
When considering the term management, there has always been a common miss conception that this automatically makes an individual a leader. Leadership is only a single element of the management role. Many times managers are more comfortable utilizing a particular leadership style. While this may work well the majority of the time, certain employees or situations may require a different approach. Good leadership requires that the individual recognize the need for change to motivate their employees to accomplish the task at hand or to reach common goals. Understanding the importance of leadership is essential. However, the key element to focus on is what steps can be taken to improve one’s leadership capabilities. For many individuals this may be a difficult question to answer and may only be possible through self-assessment and reflection.
Leadership is defined as a process by which an individual influences others to obtain goals. There are three aspects that should be addressed when explaining leadership. One aspect is that leadership is a social influence process; leadership could not exist without a leader and one or more followers. Another leadership aspect is compliance; all of the leader’s directions must be complied with voluntarily. Compliance is what separates leadership from other influence-based formal authority. Finally, leadership results in the followers’ behavior, that is purposeful and goal-directed which must be in some organized setting (Leadership Theories and Studies, 2009).
Leaders of the future will be faced with many challenges. As the world changes, we must adapt the ways in which we face these challenges, and in turn grow as leaders. A leader is not merely someone which commands a group or organization. A good leader exhibits the ability to take an average team of individuals and achieve greatness. Leadership is not supervision or leading. It is the ability to inspire or influence others towards the end goal. As Barendsen and Gardner stated (2006), “the best leaders are individuals who, in their work, exhibit three distinct meanings of good: (1) an excellent technical and professional quality and competence, (2) an ethical orientation, and (3) a completely engaged sense of fulfillment and meaningfulness” (p. 266). Good leaders must utilize all of these traits in order to meet the challenges of the future. A few emerging challenges that future