What is Leadership Pt. 1
“Where there is no vision the people perish.” Bringing a
vision to fruition requires an organized and skilled leader, one who can
successfully communicate and engage a group of people to willingly put their
talents into building, and sustaining a successful organization. The attributes
that make a good leader are multifarious and are composed of both the tangible
and intangible. A good leader can take a diverse group of people and forge a
cohesive work environment that allows an organization to meet its objectives
and goals. Simply put a good leader has followers, they have to buy what
the leader is selling.
Tangible Qualities
A good and successful leader
makes those following want to give their best and in order to elicit that, a
leader must display certain characteristics that make people want to work
towards creating a successful organization. One can look at a variety of
institutions, educational, religious, corporate, military, political, and even
sports to find examples of those considered to be good leaders. No matter the
type of organization or cause, good leaders are often described as passionate,
loyal, smart, supportive, encouraging, resourceful, innovative, fair, tough,
resilient, dedicated, and hardworking. Additionally good leaders may have the
following characteristics or abilities.
Organizational skills
Organization may be one of the
most pertinent characteristics of being a good leader; having structured
guidance can prevent a sense of chaos and lack of direction. It is
difficult to commit to a leader who appears aimless or lacking control. Working
hard with no reward or results due to lack of direction does not bode well for
an organization’s success.
Intelligence
Those being lead must believe
that the leader is sharp enough to guide them, and is educated and knows and
understands what it is that is going on within the organization on various
levels. Those being lead expect the leader to have the credentials and
experience to guide them. And more importantly the “smarts” and know-how to
apply what they know effectively.
Awareness
It may seem obvious, but a good
leader shows that they understand and know the purpose and culture of an
organization. That involves taking time to assess how decisions, strategies,
planning and their implementation can affect all of the stakeholders associated
with an organization. In an educational setting, that could include
instructors, administrators, students, parents, alumnae etc.
Leaders that come in to an
existing organization must be doubly aware of an organization’s audience and
history. A leader may be very talented in one field but not taking into
consideration the history or stakeholders can end in failure. Recently, a
venerable retail chain brought in a successful CEO and regarded leader from
another company from another field. This particular CEO implemented drastic
changes without understanding the retailer’s culture, practices, and customer
base, and sales subsequently decreased. Needless to say, employee morale
hit an all time low. Within the year, the new CEO was fired and the previously
demoted CEO, assumed leadership once again. Of course, one may surmise
that the leadership beyond CEO level may have made a profound error in judgment
but in the end admitted their mistake and reinstated someone familiar with the
company culture and consumers.
Communication skills
A good leader must be able to
communicate the goals and objectives of the organization to others. Perhaps it
is especially important when innovation or change is part of the plan. A good
leader must rally the workers to share the vision and convince them that
changes can be done and in some instances must be done. The inability to
express one’s self does not build trust or confidence and may be interpreted as
not wanting to involve others or in some cases ineptitude.
Humility
A good leader is humble enough
to give credit to others when warranted. Good leaders can accept that their
accomplishments are largely due in part to the work and talent of others. Workers
can trust, admire and are willing to follow a leader who rewards their efforts
and talents by acknowledging their contributions. Good leaders understand the
power of collaborative work and are open to feedback and ideas from others.
Allowing others to be a part of the process can be encouraging. Good leaders
are advocates of the old adage “there is no I in team.” Workers that feel
respected and valued are assets to any organization or cause.
Motivational skills
When all is said and done, good
leaders are good motivators. In the office, classroom or battlefield leaders
bring people together. Good leaders deftly assess other’s skills, talents,
weaknesses, strengths, motivations, needs, and then craft ways to make people
work together for a common goal.
Intangibles
Some leaders are endowed with
intangible qualities that can when combined with the necessary practical
characteristics make them good and successful leaders. It is a plus and
can be referred to as charisma, the “x-factor,” je ne c’est quois or even
gravitas. Whatever one calls it, this inherent, innate gift can make
people take notice and follow.
Conclusion
A good leader is a combination
of attractive attributes, someone who is smart, resilient, thoughtful, tough,
fair, flexible, confident, and humble. It is someone who is willing to
acknowledge the contributions of others without feeling that it diminishes
their own accomplishments. A good leader makes people feel secure about
following their lead. Perhaps not all good leaders are liked but they are more
than likely respected for their knowledge and ability to use skilled people
around them to get the job done by motivation.
Leadership
Part II
Introduction
“Where there is no vision the people
perish.” is how I began my first essay and it is an appropriate opening
again. I think my first essay was fairly
cursory, evoking the key traits and characteristics that most of us think of
when considering leadership; good communication, smart, flexible, motivating,
all of these words can come from watching any late night infomercial. What this
class has done is flesh out the attributes of leadership. It has given clarity
to what these traits entail and how they are all perceptibly and imperceptibly
interconnected. The difference between
essay one and two is that now I have a better understanding of how good leaders
build, promote and communicate to create a collective vision to their followers
both internal and external . Three themes contributed to my understanding of
leadership in this class, adaptability, communication, and followership.
Adaptability
There is no wrong or right leadership
style, an effective leader must be able to adapt to a given situation from
inside or outside of the organization (Sims, Faraj, & Yun, 2009), and thus
the skill to adapt is one crucial takeaway I got from this class. An effective leader must be able to use his
style and apply it to situations that may arise at any given time (Yukl, 2013).
A leader who is stubborn enough to believe that their way is the only way will
have a difficult time being running an organization. Adaptability is all
accepting and reacting to change, our group interviewed Alex Autry, the
president of the Federal Government Distance Learning Association (FGDLA), and
he asserted that change is a difficult thing for everyone to accept but it is a
necessary component of leading and advancing an organization. Adapting is
change and an effective leader must know when and how to change. In Group 2’s interview with Dr. Tony Bates he
offered, “Use change to your advantage.”
Communication
It is important for a leader to
communicate effectively to convey and realize the missions, goals, and vision
of an organization, if a leader cannot express his vision the organization can
never hope to achieve success. Communication skills have to incorporate myriad
of challenging situations. In addition
to using communication to forge interpersonal relationships to gather
information and apply that information to making decisions(Mintzberg,
1975);communication in the 21st century means email, teleconferencing, face to
face; it also involves being a diplomat and being able to be persuasive to
handle conflict management (Ayoko & Hartel, 2006). Kotter (1996) asserts
that communication can be demonstrated in a leader’s actions, the way a leader
behaves is a potent means of communication.
Followership
I will never consider followers the same
way, after all without followers there can be no leaders. Followers are the
ones who determine how successful a leader can be, it is up to an effective
leader to use communication and people skills to influence and get subordinates
to buy into a collective vision. In the past followers were thought to be like
“sheep” (Kellerman, 2009) but in reality followership can make or break a
leader, depending on how they feel about them. Followers can actively support
or seek to destroy, either openly or behind the scenes, a powerful concept.
Conclusion
The most impressive part of the course was
the interview with distance leaders, the interviews allowed me to see the
theories our class was reading about come to life. I will also take away the
Janis theory of groupthink, regarding the Abilene Paradox, we have all
taken part in or witnessed a groupthink incident, the go along to get
along instead of speaking freely has been a part of most people’s life experience
. In an organization, the fear of speaking up can cost time, money and the
inability to reach goals.
Sometimes you wind up with more questions
than answers, but that is part of an evolving organism like leadership in
DE. What I have gained is respect for
leaders who have to have the skills to influence people to follow them. It
takes a warrior to step out front and have the self-assurance to lead an
organization especially in the 21st, with technology and the challenges that a
diversifying.
References
Ayoko, &
Hartel. (2006). Cultural diversity and leadership: a conceptual model
of leader intervention in conflict events in culturally heterogeneous groups. Cross
Cultural Management, 13(4), 345-360.
Harvey,
Jerry. (1974). The Abilene Paradox: The management of agreement. Organizational
Dynamics, Summer74, Vol. 3 Issue 1, p63-80.
Kotter, J.
P. (2012). Leading change. Boston: Harvard Business Review Press.
Kellerman,
B. (2009, June 11). Barbara Kellerman on Followership. Retrieved from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgLcAF5Lgq4
Mintzberg, H. (1975). The
manager's job: folklore and fact. Harvard Business Review,
Jul/Aug75, Vol. 53 Issue 4, p49-61, 13p.
Sims, H. P.
Jr, Faraj, S., & Yun, S. (2009). When should a leader be directive or
empowering? How to develop your own situational theory of leadership. Business
Horizon, 52, 149-158.
Yukl, G.
(2013). Contingency theories and adaptive leadership. In Leadership in
organizations, (8th ed., pp. 162-184). New York, NY: Pearson.
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