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My definition of leadership
Importance of leadership in the society
Importance of leadership in the society
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Leadership is a difficult word to define and according to the Miriam-Webster Dictionary leadership is the “office or position of a leader” (Miriam-Webster, 2010). This definition is definitely not one that I would ascribe to when discussing leadership. My definition of leadership is “the ability someone has to motivate and empower others to achieve a goal.” Some may add to this definition, others may discard it altogether and have a completely different definition. In the end, leadership takes on many different forms depending on who is doing the defining and we end up asking ourselves, what is leadership and why do we care?
J. Thomas Wren (1995) put together a book to help leaders define leadership for themselves. The Leader’s Companion is a compellation of essays that give those leaders among us guidance towards being successful at leadership. Yet, Wren (1995) also gives us the hard truth about being a successful leader. As Gardner (1990) notes in his article The Cry for Leadership, “leaders have a hard time leading” (p. 5) because leadership is dispersed in many different ways around society. Gardner also (1990) points out that “Citizens must understand the possibilities and limitations of leadership” (p. 6) and goes on to argue that leaders are made; most of what leaders know about leading is actually learned and not innate. I am on the fence about this concept; I do not think that someone will actually wake up one day and all of a sudden become a great leader. I believe there is a lot to learn about being a leader; however, I also believe some people are more natural at being leaders than others.
This becomes more evident in children when you see them on the playground. There will be a small number of childre...
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...fall into place once a good leader is found.
Works Cited
Burns, J. M. (1978). The crisis of leadership. In J.T. Wren (Ed.), The leaders companion:
Insights on leadership through the ages (pp. 8-10). New York, NY: The Free Press.
Couto, R.A. (1992). Defining a citizen leader. In J.T. Wren (Ed.), The leaders companion:
Insights on leadership through the ages (pp. 11-17). New York, NY: The Free Press
Gardner, J. W. (1990). The cry for leadership. In J.T. Wren (Ed.), The leaders companion:
Insights on leadership through the ages (pp. 8-10). New York, NY: The Free Press.
Leadership. (2010). In Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. Retrieved from
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/leadership
Tucker, A. (2010). Leadership part two [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from
http://mymoodle.tru.ca/course/view.php?id=964
Leadership is portrayed at its pinnacle in William Bratton’s Turnaround, Rudolph Giuliani’s book Leadership, Oren Harari’s book The Leadership Secrets of Colin Powell, and David Lipsky’s book Absolutely American: Four Years at West Point. In each of these works, the author does an exceptional job of depicting the various traits and characteristics necessary for being a powerful and effective leader.
Pierce, Jon L. and John W. Newstrom (2011) 6th edition. Leaders and the Leadership Process.
According to Business Dictionary.com, leadership is defined as the individuals who are the leaders in an organization, regarded collectively. It also can be define as the activity of leading a group of people or an organization or the ability to do this. Leadership involves the establishing of a clear vision, sharing the vision with other so that they will follow willingly, providing the needed information, knowledge, and methods to realize the vision and coordinating and balancing the conflicts interests of all members and stakeholders.
Mlls, D. Q. (2005). Leadership How to Lead, How to Live. Boston: Harvad Business School Press.
Yukl, G. (2002). Leadership in organizations. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. p. 1-19. Retrieved from http://www.blackdiamond.dk/HDO/Organisation_Gary_Yukl_Leadership_in_Organizations.pdf
Vroom, V. H., & Jago, A. G. (2007). The role of the situation in leadership. American
What exactly is a leader? Is a leader the line by line definition presented to you in a dictionary? Is it just the person that leads and commands a group or organization? Or is it something more? Something beyond the obvious managing and directing. Personally I believe Ronald Reagan embodies the exact definition of what a leader should be. Reagan once stated “The greatest leader is not necessarily the one who does the greatest things, he is the one that gets the people to do the greatest things.” Being a leader has nothing to do with being the best. In the end, it doesn’t matter whether or not you are the star quarterback or the leading soloist. It doesn’t matter if you are the fastest runner or how high you can throw your the rifle. What I truly think makes a person a leader is having the ability to do something more that far exceeds throwing a football or hitting a perfect tune. What makes a person a leader is having the ability for looking out for your team. It’s about putting the team above yourself. A leader has the ability to look out for each and every team member when they are struggling. They are always on call and ready to help despite the situation at hand. Leadership is just something that can’t be switched on and off. Leadership is something that remains with a person. It consumes the body in which it inhabits presenting it’s owner with the desire to look after the team not only on the field, but off. It allows the holder to truly care about their team because they want the best for it. It gives them the impulse to keep peace in the unity but still push them to amount to their greatest potential. As Ronald Reagan stated, leaders get the people to do the greatest things.
Willis, Gary. Certain Trumpets: The Nature Of Leadership. New York , New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994.
There are lots of definitions and interpretations for the term LEADERSHIP. One is “A relationship through which one person influences the behaviour or actions of other people” (Mullins, L.J. 2002, Management and Organisational Behaviour, 6th Edition, FT Publishing, p904). Another popular definition would be, “the process of influencing an organization or groups within an organization in its efforts towards achieving a goal” (Johnson, Scholes & Whittington, 2005, Exploring Corporate Strategy, 7th Edition, FT Prentice Hall, p.519)
The Webster Dictionary defines leadership as an office or position, the capacity to lead, the act or an instance of leading (Merriam-Webster, 2011). Leader is defined as; a person who directs a military force or unit, a person who has commanding authority or influence (Merriam-Webster, 2011). The Army defines leadership as the process of influencing people by providing purpose, direction, and motivation while operating to accomplish the mission and improving the organization. (Department of the Army, 2006 pg 1-2)
Walesh, S. G. (2012). The leader within you: Let it come out!. Leadership & Management in
John A., 2009. Not Bosses but leaders, How to lead the way to success.3rd ed. London: kogan page.
Northouse, P. (2010). Leadership: Theory and practice (5th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.
What is leadership? Leadership is defined as a process by which a individual will influence others to obtain goals. Leaders will guide, direct motivate, or inspire others. Leadership is defined by not only traits but actions as well. Leaders are inspirational, trustworthy and charismatic. Many people may think a manger is leader. Although leadership and management go hand in hand, they are not the same. Everyone has their own beliefs about what characteristics an effective leader should have. To me, communication skills, critical thinking skills, and having a vision are few characteristics of becoming an effective leader. A leader is not only born, but made. Some are born as leaders or some are made to be leaders.
Many people believe that leadership is simply being the first, biggest or most powerful. Leadership in organizations has a different and more meaningful definition. A leader is someone who sets direction in an effort or task and influences or motivates people to follow that direction. The power point presentation explains leadership is the influence that particular individuals exert on the goal achievement of others in an organizational context.