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Differences in leadership and followership
How to improve the leadership skills
How to improve the leadership skills
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Recommended: Differences in leadership and followership
Every organization requires effective followership and leadership to reach peak performance. Effective followers use creativity, intrinsic motivations, and commitment to the organization to ensure its success. In addition, great followers need great leaders to guide them and build them into future leaders. Great leaders understand the importance of various followership styles and traits and use them to benefit the organization while helping followers achieve greatness as well. Futhermore, great followers and leaders strive to continually build on their strengths and weaknesses. With that in mind, strengths and areas of improvement will be discussed in the following paragraphs.
Followership Assessment Doing what is asked without the need to be
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Actively delegate roles in current job.
Five-year Continuous Improvement Plan (2017 - 2022) The detailed five-year plan will aid in the continuous improvement of identified strength areas and with the identified areas of improvement. Actively working on improving personal knowledge and skills to be an effective follower and leader will greatly benefit the organization. Followership Strengths Identified followership strengths are critical thinking, focus, and commitment. Methods for continuous improvement
A. Develop and teach critical thinking course to Airmen (complete by July 2017).
B. Volunteer to assist with F.E. Warren Six Sigma project to improve commitment to lengthy projects (complete by December 2018).
C. Request to be a part of large projects annually.
1. Develop comprehensive list of objectives to enhance focus (end of projects).
2. Reflect on success of role in the project and adjust the list as necessary.
D. Complete Master’s Degree in Quality Management (2022).
1. Advanced courses will continue building on present knowledge. Followership Improvements
Areas of improvement are creativity, contributing to the team when not in a leadership position, and lack of enthusiasm that energizes the
There have been countless books, lectures, and and trainings, and retreats constructed around the idea of cultivating leadership in an individual. However, cultivating individuals’ ability to follow great leadership has received far less attention. Who are these people leading if each person within an organization is being trained to be a leader? The word follower has negative connotations, evoking the images of a weak, uncreative, milquetoast personality. However, Jimmy Collins, in his book, “Creative Followership: In the Shadow of Greatness”, suggests that the ability to be led brings as much creativity, consciousness, and indeed leadership to an organization or team as the leader himself. Great followership is a reflection of great leadership. In this, the follower is just as important as the leader in the relationship. Many great leaders have asserted that a leader with even a modicum of understanding of what drives their subordinates can take their organization to previously undreamt-of heights in creativity and productivity. Collins does not disabuse us of this notion, he does however add that the follower is indispensable agent in this interplay between leader and follower.
There are those that suggest leaders are born, while others contend that leadership itself is a learned art. When researching or simply asking several leaders or followers to define leadership, although some responses may be similar it is highly unlikely that that they will be the same. There are a countless definitions used when attempting to delineate what leadership is. A universal definition of the word does not exist, as the concept of leadership can be very elusive and complex. However, for the purpose of this research effort leadership is defined as “the influencing process between leaders and followers to achieve organizational objectives through change” (Lussier & Achua, 2015, p.5). It is important to note that the leader-follower relationship is a reciprocal process as followers also influence leaders. This is not to be confused with managing, as there is a clear distinction between the two.
Kelley, R.E. (1992). Followership. In Goethals, G.R., Sorenson, G.J. & Burns, J.M. (Eds.). (2008). Encyclopedia of leadership (pp. 504-513). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage
Barbara Kellerman is a unique theorist – she was one of the first theorists to focus the bulk of her research on something overlooked by other researchers: followers. Kellerman (2005) sees leadership in a way few others do: as a relationship that exists between leaders and followers and the context in which that relationship operates. By that logic followership must be an extension of leadership, rather than a result of it.
It has been stated how the transformational effect of charismatic leaders lead to increased follower motivation (Humphreys, 2009). Due to the various attributes that transformational leaders have, such as charisma and understanding, they are likely to motivate others to follow after the examples that they may display. There is also Effective followership. Effective followership prepares a person to be an Effective leader since being a follower is considered as a prerequisite to leading. According to Humphreys (2009), organizations are comprised of groups of followers and leaders, who are listening and taking direction from one
In taking a further look into the article Ten Traits of effective leaders, leaders are often taught skills to help create a successful leadership style. An effective leadership style is supportive in addition to directive. As a leader it’s not enough to have leadership sense. You must understand your employees. Once you have established a connection as a leader you gain a strong logic of what employees are looking for in a company. For exa...
1. Purpose. Leaders come in different measures for they have varying qualities or traits that may consist of being responsible if it sometimes means pissing people off; not being afraid to challenge the pros, even in their own backyard; or not knowing what they can get away with until they try. Leaders are the driving force of any organization or society in the world. Leaders, while admired due to their works and can propel the people towards a common goal based on facts. Leaders act as the motivators for they give the followers energy to move towards a particular objective. Leaders are at the forefront of the activities. Admired leaders receive positive and negative critiques on their character. Sideshows give leaders the chance to
An effective leader adapts changes and communicates his vision to his followers until the followers believe in that vision as their own
To become a truly effective leader, one must encapsulate the various behaviors related to the aforementioned course learnings in his/her persona and demonstrate such behaviors daily. This course has allowed me to identify four behaviors that all leaders must portray to be effective. The first of which is that a leader must be inspirational. To do so, a leader must set the appropriate vision and direction for the organization and provide a path to achieving defined goals. Additionally, a leader must induce the proper levels of motivation so that each employee has sufficient incentive to work towards the organization’s goals. As discussed in the class, motivation can be accomplished by factors such as rewarding hard work and providing the correct opportunities to employees. While these are motivating in that employees desire to be fairly compensated and to be doing work they deem valuable, inspiration comes more from organizational culture. A leader will be inspirational by setting a tone that appreciates each employee’s contribution, no matter how small in scale it is. Further, employees are inspired when they work collaboratively in a group setting and can capitalize on individual strengths to drive organizational goals.
Although there are many outstanding, albeit necessary qualities of a good leader, it is the leader’s beliefs in which greatness is given its first breath, fostered by action, and spread throughout the institution. A great leader believes in encouraging, not destroying; in setting the precedence instead of yielding to prominence ; in collaboration, not division; in giving, not taking; and in having high standards and volunteering to be the first of many to be held to them. A great leader does not take advantage of the people being lead, but instead, creates an advantage for the people by giving them the opportunities to lead. Only when people take ownership of an institution will passion be cultivated, action be taken, and greatness be achieved.
This will keep me on track as I work on the targeted identified areas of leadership development. First off, the first area of improvement is to further develop my transformational leadership ability—specifically in the area of intellectual stimulation (Module 3). I will do this by consistently soliciting the knowledge and feedback of subordinates, fellow officers and higher-ranking Commanders in order to take in the knowledge each echelon has to offer so that I can increase my own understanding of my fellow Airmen as well as ensure each contributor understands I value their expertise in how I accomplish my job. Improving my intellectual stimulation ties directly into becoming more cognitively flexible, or transitioning my way of thinking to a more knowledge or strategic base, rather than just on people (Module 5). I can improve this daily by simply allowing myself to look at the needs of the Air Force and missions—while still focusing on the needs of the maintainers and their work schedules, but simultaneously creating courses-of-actions (COAs) that provide accommodations for subordinates, fellow junior officers and senior Commanders.
One of the most important components of leadership is the leader. A leader is responsible for his or her followers and the overall goal of the group or organization. Leaders are the people held accountable or everything that happens, good or bad. On the other hand, the second major component of leadership is the followers. Without followers, a leader would be worthless. Followers make up the backbone of a leader because they are the masses that get goals accomplished. A leader is just one person, but the number of followers is countless. In order to be an effective follower, there are a countless number of characteristics that allow a follower to be the best they can be. Five of these characteristics include a positive attitude, communication skills, being part of the process, being open to new ideas, and patience.
Followership is an important concept for leaders to understand because without a solid base of followers, a leader is nothing. Followers are people who support and obey the wishes of a leader. Even if an organization has the greatest leader in the history of leaders, the organization can still fail without the development of its members. Followers are the individuals who make the organization function. Identifying and improving their skills will help bolster the organization. The continuing push for efficiency in all aspects of business is another valuable aspect of the importance of followership (Kelley). When people work together more efficiently, it saves time and m...
On the basis of the identified needs, we can set goals on when to develop those skills, what are our intended results and the strategies to achieve them. My personal and professional development plan on the basis of the identified development needs is as follows:
Leaders that have followers that follows by choice because the boss earned the respect of the employee; however, sometimes employees follow their leaders due to the leader’s tittle and not due respect. Perhaps this is the reason why leadership titles do not mean much to the employee and workers tend to give the minimum with this type of leadership. It is not the most effective type of leadership. There is also the relationship oriented leader. This type of leader works on relationships and knows his employees. He/she values relationships; therefore, employees follow this type of leader. Again is not the most effective type, but is a step closer to the most productive l...