Leaders and Leadership

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Leadership is defined as ‘the process in which an individual influences the group of individuals to attain a common goal’. The goal is achieved by cooperation, communication and cohesive behaviour. A leader is someone who stands for his cause and takes responsibility, but can also motivate others to do the same. There is a clear difference between being a boss and a leader. A leader can motivate others and inspires them to aim high and achieve anything they set their minds to. However a boss plays more of a supervising role. Power should naturally come to a leader but that power should be treated with respect and never be abused. A good leader should; Inspire. Effective leaders inspire those around them. They achieve this by setting goals and aiming to achieve them as efficiently as possible. A leader's passion should be contagious, and their energy should affect others around them and should change their approach. A leader's dedication, commitment, and ability should motivate others not just to do as their leaders do but also to believe that what they’ve set out to achieve is within their reach. Effective leaders use themes, mottoes, and symbols to inspire the people around them to maintain their focus and complete all necessary tasks. Diagnose. Effective leaders should have the ability to identify problems and should able to determine what needs to be fixed to improve the ability of achieving one's goals. They can pinpoint problems through questioning and troubleshooting, and can coordinate plans of action. After diagnosing a problem, effective leaders also discover ways to minimize, sidestep, or eliminate it. Communicate. Communication is the foundation of effective leadership. Effective leaders eliminate confusion by ensu... ... middle of paper ... ...He pushed them to do things that were beautiful and perfect.” It’s sad to think that Jobs passed at the young age of 56. Yet his legacy lives on in the lessons he's instilled in others, like me. My hope is to use these lessons and begin to incorporate them into my life. With Steve Jobs’ passing in 2011, I became fascinated with his ethics and skills. I can only dream about being as successful as he once was with my career but will strive to achieve the best as he once did. I will conclude with one of my favourite anecdotes from Jobs’ long and successful career. It was known that the original Macintosh team had just 100 members. Whenever it reached 101 members they would have to reshuffle and remove someone from the team. Jobs belief was that he could only remember 100 names. [Source: Leaner Kahney, The 10 Commandments of Steve,”Newsweek, page 35, September, 2011]

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