While the corporate world oftentimes uses the terms boss and (team)leader interchangeably, there are very distinct characteristics that delineate the two. W.G Rowe (Clark, 1997) identified the difference between the two by pointing out that being a boss merely means you have Assigned Leadership, with the authority to accomplish tasks. True leaders exhibit Emergent Leadership by influencing others to accomplish goals. Upon defining the difference, one can easily recognize when they have had true leadership versus simply a boss to answer to. A leader can be a boss, but a boss is not necessarily a leader.
In considering my own experiences with leadership, and negative leadership specifically, I quickly concluded that in instances in which I felt I had positive leadership, my leaders were viewed as leaders. But in situations where I recollect negative leadership experiences, it was at the hand of a person I viewed as a boss but not necessarily a leader.
Early in my working life and career, I had little understanding of what leadership was and what to expect from my superiors. Unfortunately, I had a boss who also lacked that understanding. Very business minded and always conscientious of the bottom line, my boss had very little time or appreciation for the individuals responsible for the success of the company. She spent her time split with half of the time being locked away in her office and the other half of the time checking up on people, barking orders and micromanaging everyone’s daily tasks. She never knew any of us on any personal level and preferred not to be bothered with the happenings of people’s lives outside of business. When problem’s arose, she found the solution and a memo would follow explaining the new policy or pr...
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“It's like driving a car at night. You never see further than your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.” (E.L. Doctorow)
Leadership requires a wide array of personality traits and learned behaviors. While some individuals are what we might call “born leaders”, this in no way suggests that one cannot learn to be a successful, effective leader. Regardless, there are fundamental traits and behaviors required of one in order to be a successful, effective leader. In my personal example, the strongest areas of improvement potential were interpersonal skills, personal vision and communication. My boss was tenacious and had tremendous potential to lead our organization into incredible success, had she learned how to harness the potential of her people, as it is the followers that determine the success of the leader. (Clark, 1997)
To be a great leader there are many qualities you must have. The hard part is actually knowing what qualities you need, because their are different types of leaders. For example you might be a business leader. These leaders do everything they can to motivate their co-workers, make sure the business stays firm, and also are well prepared for any crises that may occur. Anne Mulcahy the CEO of Xerox surely didn’t know her business was going to undertake many financial barriers, but instead of letting it get her and filing for bankruptcy, she took full responsibility and lead the business towards success by reducing the company’s workforce and eliminating the entire desktop portion of Xeron. According to U.S. News &
Leadership is not a position but an action that is undertaken by an individual. Leadership is not just about giving orders, yet it is the action of serving others. According to Robert Townsend, “A leader is not an administrator who loves to run others, but someone who carries water for his people so that they can get on with their jobs” (2013). A good leader will support his or hers employees because a leader is not judged on their own actions, but they are judge on the success of those that they support. In the modern era, we look at business leaders in the same way that historians view military commanders or kings of the past.
Leadership is almost entirely gained through experience. Although many personalities are more suitable for leadership or less, like being good at time management (as good) or very quiet (as bad), there is almost nothing in a persons behavior as a leader that comes from external forces
Leaders posses a variety of personality traits, but there are only a few traits that define a great leader.
Leadership is defined as the ability to accomplish a set goal(s) due to the act of inspiring and motivating a group of your peers. Former United States president Dwight D. Eisenhower made famous a quote that stated, “Leadership consists of nothing but taking responsibility for everything that goes wrong and giving your subordinates credit for everything that goes well.” (Notable-quotes.com). One of the most important aspects of the work area is leadership. Without leadership, there will be no guidance to for teamwork and the percentage of successful goal will be slim to none. Becoming a great leader is no easy feat however. An exceptional leader must lock in on specific attributes such as intellect, moral character, and human understanding. It doesn’t seem like much, but for a majority of people it can be almost impossible. These qualities alone listed above are some of many important qualities that will allow a leader to inspire and guide a group of people towards goals successfully.
There are almost as many definitions of leadership as there are persons who have attempted to define leadership (Stogdill, 1974). Therefore, it is very difficult to understand what leadership actually is. According to John Sculley leadership revolves around vision and ideas and has to do more with inspiring people towards direction and goal. A leader is a person capable of inspiring other people to do things without sitting on top of them with a checklist. Precisely, leadership is a process whereby an individual influences a group of individuals to achieve a desired goal (Northouse, 2012). Distinguishing between leaders and non-leaders is hard as there exists no clear understanding of what differentiates leaders from non-leaders. Leadership and authority are constructed socially by superiors and subordinates, followers and peers.
According to Dictionary.com, a leader is a person who guides or directs a group, but I believe there is so much more meaning to that. It takes key qualities to be a true leader. A leader should be self-motivated, encouraging, ambitious and determined; they should carry as sense of critical thinking and optimism in all that they do. Most imprtantly, Leaders are strategic thinkers; they are constantly thinking about how their ideas, thoughts and actions can affect the world. People who are leaders are visionary people because they look for the "big picture". Before this class, I would have said that there are plenty of synonyms for a leader thinking that words like manager, director, or ruler would suffice. I have learned now that those words don't even come close to the definition of a leader. A leader does things with purpose and has a passion for what they do and who they serve. A manager or director would just want to get the job done without looking at the beauty of it.
The vision of leadership that leaders are born made, and not learn to be leaders is still considered but not popular among researchers (Avolio et al, 2013).
The world of today is filled with successful men who have become great leaders in their field of expertise and achieved many extraordinary and remarkable things. People usually wonder what these great men have that they lack and what should they do in order to even achieve similar feats. The answer to such an intriguing and complicated looking question is surprisingly simple! It is to have a heart and the attitude of a great leader. Young men are taught that if they study hard enough and long enough, they might be able to achieve some things in life which, unfortunately, is a wrong notion proved wrong by a remarkably successful man named Bill Gates. He was a college dropout but still managed to be the founder of one of the biggest IT Mammoth – Microsoft. He is just a famous example, but there are thousands other in every corner of the world, making a mark for themselves despite their poor qualifications. Their amazing ability to manage and lead is what really sets them apart. There are sayings that leaders are born, not made, but, if you follow the life of any great leader and ask them, most will give you an answer that they learnt everything they knew through the lessons of life, an open mind & positive self motivation. These points are important if you aspire to become successful and be the guy everyone else looks up to for inspiration. There are various kinds of leadership techniques that can be learnt and imbibed by anyone who is willing to go the distance. Among the many ways of being a leader, the one that seems to be the most promising is a lately evolved concept of authentic leadership.
Leadership at times can be a complex topic to delve into and may appear to be a simple and graspable concept for a certain few. Leadership skills are not simply acquired through position, seniority, pay scale, or the amount of titles an individual holds but is a characteristic acquired or is an innate trait for the fortunate few who possess it. Leadership can be misconstrued with management; a manager “manages” the daily operations of a company’s work while a leader envisions, influences, and empowers the individuals around them.
Presently many of us have learned that managers are primarily administrators who have learned to write business plans, utilize their resources and keep track of progress. We must learn that we are not limited by job title, and that means we can utilize our management skills in any position that we are in. We must also know that we can use our leadership skills in the same situations. On the other hand we have also learned that leaders are people who have an impact on those that surround them. The main difference that separates these two roles is that management is a function that must be utilized in any type of business, and leadership is the relationship that the leader has with his followers, which in turn can motivate and energize the organization.
The fault that my previous leader possessed was an inability or refusal to delegate. Delegation is the act of giving some sort of power or responsibility to another person. This supervisor was a self-proclaimed workaholic, who consistently refused to allocate responsibilities to her employees. Furthermore, an employee coming to her with an issue or for assistance would be informed that this supervisor would just “take care of it”. In many instances, this would be the last the employee would hear of the situation. Many of the employees had worked for her years and knew there was no use arguing or attempting to stay involved in the situation until its resolution. This supervisor was also very high-stress at all times and always seemed tired and overworked. She still refused to designate responsibilities to others, ...
Not all leaders exhibit negative leadership behavior. However, a bad leader is one who does not have the necessary skills to lead a group or a team. They can have a bad attitude, poor communication skills, and/or bad judgment. Their actions make their group or team feel disorganized, demoralized, and make them feel that their efforts are unrecognized. Eventually, their subordinates will perform poorly and become under achievers in their work or personal lives.
Throughout my life I have encountered the chance to experience position of being a leader. Being part of groups in university for class presentations, being the organizing secretary of my campus fellowship, being a youth leader in my church and the church admin, also being part of a family. Leaders are charismatic, inspirational and trust worthy. I have gained some important qualities of being a good leader through these experiences. Most of the valuable leadership’s characteristics that I obtained and strengthened are: learn to become a better leader every day, how to be a team player, to be a better listener, to be an effective communicator, to have more patience, not afraid of constructive criticism, to be outspoken, and to be a problem solver. Even though I have gained a lot, I still have more things to learn to become a better leader such as being more assertive, being more disciplined, becoming a better public speaker, and learn how to be realistic and not too optimistic. You are a leader if someone else choses to follow you.
Leadership and management have several meanings and mean something different to everyone. Leadership has been defined similarly to management from time to time and can be defined by every individual