In the world we live today, there are many great historical and present leaders who have brought change in their societies. However, they use different principles of leadership and some principles lead to their downfall in the long run while others lead to a great success. The idea of which leadership ideology is more effective is both subjective and personal. When I listened to Patrick Awuah’s 2007 speech “How to educate leaders? The Liberal Arts”, I began understand why people have different views of leadership. He talked about how college students being the elite can be trained to serve humanity and guard societies for the betterment of Ghana and other African countries. In this essay, I would like to explain how leaders balance the paradox within the privilege of leadership, that is of being elite, servant and guardian and also reflect on how I intend to develop my personality to become a servant leader.
A leader is “a person who clears the path and empowers others to respond to a changing environment and meet prospective goals.” (Komives, Lucas & McMahon, 2007). A servant is a person who performs duties for others and searches how to satisfy his/her master in a household or organization. From these two definitions, it sounds perplexing to learn how can one person both lead and serve and could possibly exist among the elite? The elite are people who are considered superior economically, intellectually and socially. (Voukor, 2007). However, Greenleaf puts it this way “the servant leader is servant first. It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve.” (Greenleaf, 1977). I think that a servant leader is someone who invests themselves in the goals and objectives of the group, shares their motivation with others, an...
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Servant leadership is a designation coined by Robert Greenleaf in 1970 in an essay entitled The Servant as Leader. In this essay, he describes the servant leader and a servant first contrary to one who is a leader first. The difference is the servant chooses to put others needs before his own while the leader first may later become a servant from the promptings of a sense of right and wrong or simply because they are coerced in that direction (Greenleaf, 1991).
The Servant Leader discusses the importance of leaders who adopt a service oriented attitude in which they care for the needs of others before their own. A servant leader need not be an actual servant or have ever been a servant to become a servant leader. Rather, a servant leader is born with or adopts an “others first” disposition. Climbing through the ranks may help to create a servant leader, though it is not necessary. When leaders choose to see that the needs of their followers or their organizations are the highest priority they become servants.
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Kouzes, James, and Barry Posner. The Student Leadership Challenge. San Francisco, CA: A Wiley Imprint, 2008. Print.
The Leadership Challenge by Kouzes and Posner (2007) is the result of twenty years of research on the factors that influence and create great leadership. Through studies and stories from leaders with various backgrounds throughout the world, the practices and characteristics that create great leadership are delineated. Leadership is viewed not as a group of inherent characteristics, but as learned behavior that anyone can achieve. The goal of Kouzes and Posner’s book is to inspire and educate leaders through transformational leadership. As such, leadership is about mobilizing others to become and do extraordinary things.
I first encountered the significance of leadership in the tenth grade. Berry College the largest campus in the U.S. was in search of school ambassadors to serve part in a seminar known as HOBY. To get chosen you had to write an essay describing your leadership roles, and at that moment I thought that I did not have any. I literally did not know what it meant to be a leader. I had to brainstorm till I remembered going through one of the most difficult times of my life. The lack of understanding the English language became one of my biggest obstacles, and even caused me to repeat a chapter of my life. However, I did not cease; I continued to fight and strove to help others who were susceptible of following my steps. I used my story as an example, and hoped that it would make a difference in someone else’s life.
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In many formal and informal settings, we have often heard the word “leadership”. Although this term is found in many textbooks, writings, news clippings, college level courses and papers, leadership is a concept that is consistently evolving. Leadership isn’t an attribute that individuals are born with. Although individuals are born with certain characteristics and traits of a leader, those traits are honed throughout the course of a lifetime.
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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.
Kouzes, J. M., & Posner, B. Z. (2012). The leadership challenge: How to make extraordinary
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I’ve always known to be the best follower but not necessarily a leader. Prior taking this course, my philosophy of leadership was anyone who is in charge of a group in order to give out instructions or order. This type of leadership has been adopted by various cultures around the world for centuries. Thank to new emerging leadership styles such as contemporary, followers actually have the opportunity to voice their opinion. I’m hoping to learn new skills that will eventually help me in the professional realm and as well as my community. I found servant leadership to be the most important type of leadership. Komives, Lucas, and McMahon (1998) mentioned that people who dedicate themselves to building communities so they become better places for others (p.170). This is the type of leader I’m striving to
The case study and readings in this class have painted a clear picture of the various ways one can be a leader, the catalyst that has inspired the least likely to lead to action and the many different capacities in which one is a leader. From the parent whose child is the victim of abuse to the CEO of a major corporation, leadership can spring forth and blaze trails never imagined by others. I learned that on my journey to executive leadership, I can begin leading in my current capacity as an analyst. I do not need to wait to be given the “thumbs up” to lead, as I can be a leader in many ways everyday. Leadership is not about magnificent speaking or major endeavors, “it is about coping with change” (Kotter, p.31, 2003). We all are subject to situation dealing with change daily, it is all about how we cope with it and how others interpret and accept our coping skills.