Introduction
Leadership has been defined in many different ways with many different functions. I define it as a person or organization guiding or directing a group towards a common goal or idea. This may sound simple, but I believe it can be difficult with the fact paced and competitive modern times of today. Leadership can be broken down into traits and principles that not only define a person, business, place, but even an organization. These traits consist of self-confidence, ambition, determination, and adaptation to change. I’ve chosen these traits because I believe these traits help in not only defining a leader they give support in building a strong vision. Building that strong vision is one of the many ways on how to become a great leader as a manager in Corporate America today.
In this paper I will discuss what leadership is. I will give the reader insight on the skills; knowledge, and relationships needed for good leadership. I will also discuss leadership versus management; the differences between leadership and management; the pros and cons of good leadership; types of leadership; and lastly my own life experiences in relation to leadership and becoming a leader. I will be putting the reader in a position to gain the knowledge of what it takes to become a great leader as a manager in Corporate America today.
Leadership
Leadership is about having a vision. Having a vision provides empowerment, and most of all I believe it provides a useful change within a business or organization. Peter Drucker famously stated that "management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things." Great leaders possess dazzling social intelligence, a zest for change, and above all, vision that allows them to set their sights on...
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...strong knowledge base and also believe in what their leading. Competence (or competency) is the ability of an individual to do a job properly. Leadership competencies such as managing change, risk taking, innovating, and even enhancing business skills all give support in great leadership. Using the competency approach also helps to identify and develop great leaders and drive them.
Managing the change for a great leader allows the leader to bring the change in house and deal with it head on. This enables the leader to take the change and contribute to the new strategy. With that the leader can implement employee programs to boost morale and show employees how much they are appreciated while creating new positions and enabling cooperation for different departments to integrate.
Personal Experience
On more than one occasion I’ve had the opportunity to be a lead.
The topic of leadership has been explored and written about by thousands of authors who are considerably more qualified than I am to write about the subject. However, I’ve always maintained that developing, evolving and articulating one’s own leadership philosophy is an essential part of a professional’s growth. Through academics and experience, I’ve concluded that leadership is a “soft” skill, more art than science, and that leadership principles can be universally applied. As a topic of discussion, leadership can be ambiguous and seldom does everyone agree on a single definition. Organizations and the people they consist of crave leadership, even if not overtly. Undeniably, strong leadership is essential to achieving
Many definitions exist on what leadership is. Despite the many differences in definitions, they all describe the leader as someone who influences others. Leaders transform individuals around them allowing them to work to their full potential. In order for a leader to be successful they must be knowledgeable, self- confident, and effective communicators. These characteristics will create a positive workplace environment that results in an increase in productivity. Leadership is not defined by titles or salary. Leaders must acquire their skills and continue to improve on them through learning. Good leaders provide a vision and help motivate others to make that vision happen. The leader must be effective and successful in creating a strong institution.
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.
Leadership is all about having the right amount of heart and determination to help make a difference in someone’s life. It takes certain qualities to be considered a good leader. A leader should want to help inspire others to make a change and to be the best that they can be. A true leader does not need to feel powerful, instead they empower those around them. Throughout my life I have come across various leaders who have made an impact on my life. It takes a very special person to inspire and touch people’s lives. Leadership is so much deeper than having power and bossing people around.
The leadership qualities are very important for corporate change because it is most important to handle the resistance, confusion, exploration and commitment of management. There are some predictable behaviours associated with the change stages and the effective leader always perceive these changes in efficient manner and respond appropriately to get the teams commitment. Change leader is always associated with the planned change and constructively deals with the human emotions (Senior & Fleming,
Leaders are the individuals who help to create options and opportunities. They help in identifying the choices and solve the problems. They build commitment and coalitions. Leaders do this by inspiring others and working along with them to construct the shared vision of the possibilities and commitments of a better group, organization or community. They engage the followers in such a way that most of the followers become leaders in their own right. The variety of demands of an increasingly complex world very often require that leadership be shared by most of the members of an organization, in appropriate ways for different situations. A leader is the on...
Leadership is the action of leading a group of people or an organization. Leadership is leading a group of people or company to reach a result or further and the organization. A leader is supposed to be an example of how all employees are expected to act and what they should be striving for. Good leaders also don’t use their position within a company to take advantage of the company and its employees. A good leader is supposed to be able to perform their job with high standards, efficiency, and honor. However, for every good leader, there are bad leaders and the worse the leader the more detrimental he or she becomes to employees and the company they run. Poor leadership skills can ultimately ruin a company 's chance of success. The attitude
Leadership is a process by which a person influences others to accomplish an objective and directs the organization in a way that makes it more cohesive and coherent. For me leadership is all based on some basic principles that should be followed by the leader himself and should be inculcated in the people who follow him. The first principle is to be a professional and know your job. Also to make the right, timely and sound decisions are another quality of a leader. Setting the examples as I added before is another positive approach to good leadership. This can be practiced by teaching our people how to set their goals. The Leader should work hard to develop the sense of responsibility among his/her people. Another base for a strong leadership is to bring out all the capabilities of your people by making them enjoy the team spirit. A good leader should seek responsibility and take responsibility for his actions. Also the leader should ensure that the tasks given are u...
Stroup, J. (2004). Managing leadership: toward a new and usable understanding of what leadership is and how to manage it. Lincoln, NE. iUniverse, Inc. Retrieved July 20, 2011 from http://managingleadership.com/blog/2008/09/04/great-man-theory/
Leadership is trait that is extremely important in any society. Leadership is known as the way people attempting to make a difference in a situation. However, I believe that it is better said to be a way of influencing others actions. Leadership is usually connected to a great leader that affected his or her followers in a dynamic way. Throughout the semester for my leadership class, I have expanded the knowledge in numerous ways. I now have fully understanding of the purpose and process of leadership to a society. Being a leader one must maintain an image of being the role model. I believe that this is leader should be who is someone who has the ability to influence, encourage, listen, and nurture. They are able to inspire, stimulate, persuade, shape, and have an effect on others.
According to Shockley and Zalabak (2009) "Leadership is a process of guiding individuals, groups, and entire organization in establishing goals and sustaining action to support goals.Leadership is like mapping out where you need to go to win". A Leader is a person who has a strong personality and who has an ability to manage people and work. He is also the person who is able to direct people .Usually a leaders has a lot of attributes that
Leadership is one of the most important facets in organizations. In most cases, leaders act with respect to organizational culture as well as the codes of conduct that determine the manner in which leaders relate with subordinates. Leadership entails the use of effective communication skills to get activities done in the workplace and to ensure that employees shelve their individual interests for the sake of their organizations’ shared targets. It is the role of leaders to ensure that consumers attain high quality products and services by making certain that members of their firms’ workforce are fully motivated to work effectively and utilize resources in an efficient manner (Bass, 22). With the increasingly sophisticated nature of the corporate world, leadership should not be based solely on the desire to control and coordinate affairs within the workplace, but leaders should also exhibit positive examples and continually monitor the changing trends in corporate governance to initiate the most relevant guidelines. Competitiveness can only be attained when leaders are in a position to set the right standards in their firms and coordinate affairs appropriately by understanding consumer and employee needs.
A society with the absence of leadership will lead to chaos. Recently, the Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat died and this has caused his followers to be in disarray. Currently in Palestine the followers are trying to ameliorate life and figure who will replace Arafat. For when there is an absence of leadership it causes followers to panic. The panic of the people leads to the confusion of their everyday life. Leadership implies that a person must posses certain qualities. There are many traits that must be shown to be a good leader. If a leader is noncommittal and callow then a society will fail. However when trying to restore order in a society one person may try to accomplish it by themselves but this rarely works. When working alone or in a small group, three things can happen and lead to more disarray. These things are isolation, too much authority, and control.
Leadership is the controlling force of the whole world, it allows everything to operate best without any chaos. Leadership is important in business because leaders must manage and communicate with employees if they wish to be successful. Leaders range from the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) to managers of different levels.
Many people associate leadership with a specific job title or form of power within an organization. However, through personal experience, I have concluded that leadership can come in many forms and position as well as from multiple sources of roles and job titles both with and without power. Based on the definition of leadership, anyone can be considered a leader as long as they have the ability to influence people to achieve a particular result or goal which benefits the organization or group as a whole. Individuals with a secure sense of self and understanding, acceptance of diversity within an organization tend to be the strongest leaders that not only make others want to follow, but they also encourage other leaders to gravitate to their