Adriana Marisol Gonzalez
Dr. Godfrey
Leadership and Organizations
04 April 2016
The Characteristics of a Principle-Centered Leader Effective people organize their lives and their relationships based on natural laws and regulations that have been universally accepted. Leadership is the ability to apply these natural laws and regulation to problems, which results in quality, productivity and prolific relationships for everyone. Stephen Covey, the author of the bestselling book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, invites readers to focus on their lives and leadership principles which endure over time. To do so, he demonstrates that no person or organization can be satisfied by only reaching a point and then remaining stagnant. In other words, the goals of excellence and quality express an innate human need to keep making progress on a personal, interpersonal and corporate. It is important to review and take into account The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People if you want to become a principle-centered leader. The first three habits are related to private victory: be proactive, begin with the end in mind, and put first things first. The next two are related to public victory: think win / win and seek first to understand, then to be understood. The last two are related to renewal: practicing synergy and sharpening the saw. With these habits, Covey incorporates the values and qualities that make for an effective leader who is principle-centered. Stephen Covey’s
The next question posed to Rene inquired about essential characteristics of a leader. After giving the question some thought she responded by saying that a leader must be able to remain objective and prioritize. “Prioritizing in my job is essential,” Rene stated, “with so many issues to deal with some nights it can be difficult to determine which to tackle first. However, remaining calm and objective in your decision making can help a leader prioritize properly, which can improve patient outcomes.” Additionally, Rene emphasized that the best leaders lead by example. By displaying desired attitudes and behaviors, a nursing leader may inspire their staff to act in a similar manner. Another area Rene stressed when posed this question was a leader’s ability to support learning. She went on to state that “it is necessary to focus on learning, not chastising. Placing the blame on someone rather than stepping back and looking at the details of a problem, deters the team from achieving the overall goal. Incident reports remain vital to the process of learning.” Rene continued to emphasis that by filling out incident reports individuals can analyze a situation or process and determine where the flaws or errors remain present. Without incident reports and learning from mistakes, growth remains difficult. Diana S. Contino (2011), author of “Leadership Competencies: Knowledge, Skills, and Aptitudes Nurses Need to Lead Organizations Effectively,” believes that organizational and
Leadership goes beyond management, for some, leadership is instinctual and pours over into your personal life. This paper will discuss a leader I admire in my personal life, and analyze their leadership style. I will discuss how that leader has influenced my leadership style, as well as how things like environment and the economy affect my leadership approach.
Dr. Covey’s Seven Habits of Highly Effective People are (1)be pro-active, (2) begin with the end in mind, (3) put first
The first principle is being in the moment. Being in the moment means an individual must focus all his/her attention on the other individual in order to be fully present, physically engaged, curious without judging and self-aware. This concept disengages us from being on “autopilot” and enables us to communicate effectively by being mentally and physically present, being unbiased, making positive choices and maintaining relationships with others. Furthermore, it develops great communication skills by minimizing miscommunication and generating appropriate responses and behaviors. This element is crucial in my leadership goal because as an individual, who enjoys multitasking,
Participating in the course Foundations of Organizational Leadership presented many opportunities to enhance and enrich my perspective on leadership as well as develop my own unique leadership philosophy. By observing the theories, models and cases presented in Northouse, Kouzes and Posner textbooks, I was able to learn through the experience of others what a true leader should represent. While considering the strengths and weaknesses of each theory, I am able to implement a leadership style with an effective approach tailored to many different types of learners. In addition, witnessing both the triumphs and failures of various businesses and leadership styles, helped me confirm my personal stance and aspirations towards becoming a leader. By implementing what I have learned from the course and textbooks, I will address in this paper what specific leadership theories, styles and models have contributed to forming my own leadership philosophy. In addition, I will also define the values, qualities, strengths and weaknesses and ethical considerations that pertain to my stance on leadership. By integrating a faith based approach as the foundation of my leadership style, I hope to implement my new philosophy into my current and future career path.
The Seven Habits Profile is a tool created by Dr. Stephen Covey, bestselling author of “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People”. In his book, Dr. Covey describes important characteristics of people who are not only great citizens of this world, but “highly effective” leaders and role models. It is imperative to understand that these characteristics or traits can be developed or acquired by everyone who wishes to obtain them. Covey (2004) Leaders should strive to attain each of the following character traits; by using this tool, I gained useful information that will evaluate my leadership skills. The areas measured by the Seven Habits Profile are the following:
Covey, S. R. (1989). The 7 habits of highly effective people. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.
2. Leaders and followers of a group tend to have the same goal, but different roles in reaching their goals. The first principle that has really stuck with me is the concept of “authentic leadership” from the article provided to us. The authors discuss how it is becoming more common for followers to distrust their leaders, due to a lack and practice of core values, passion, and relationships by the leaders themselves (Smith et al 130). This stuck out, because in the past, I have been very goal-minded which has decreased my effectiveness. In order for leaders to be effective with their group they must become a more authentic person and leader meaning that they must: “know themselves, practice their values, balance motivations, support the team, stay grounded, and empower others” (Smith et al 133-138). I plan to apply all of these things to my leadership practices in order
My first reaction to the Seven Habits Profile results was speechless. When I start to think what it takes to become an effective leader versus manager I start by evaluating the traits, skills, emotion intelligence and among other attributes of the personality. The next process of my thinking is self-evaluating myself to see if I possess those elements. The video was an eye opening revelation considering what I consider an effective leader aligns with The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. The seven habits of the video are with the first step respectively: 1) be proactive, 2) begin with the end in mind, 3) put first things first, 4) think win-win, 5) seek first to understand, then to be understood, 6) synergize, and 7) sharpen the saw (Covey, 1990). By evaluating my chosen leadership theory: trait, along with the seven habits I gained a better scope of an effective leader. The overall results demonstrated that I was aligned with the Seven Habits principles ranging from very good to outstanding.
A pattern of personal success begins with a plan. Planning is, in fact, one of the core principles of leadership in any field. In Principle-Centered Leadership, Stephen Covey (1992) states, "careful planning helps us maintain a sense of perspective, purpose, and ordered priorities," (p. 77). Without perspective, purpose, and ordered priorities, one can become distracted, discouraged, and dismayed when their goals have yet to be met. Covey's flagship book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People includes several references to the importance of planning. In fact, several of the Seven Habits are related to the importance of planning and strategizing for success. The first set of habits is related to self-mastery and independence. Cultivating self-mastery and independence requires three core habits, according to Covey: being proactive, beginning with the end in mind, and putting first things first. A personal and professional development plan hinges on these three habits of highly successful people.
The purpose of this paper is to reflect and make an analysis of the general strengths and weaknesses of a leader, provide recommendations, thoughts of overall performance to improve on this person’s leadership style in which practices and theories were utilized most effectively. Upon such, draw conclusions and provide an integration of this leadership practice into my own leadership practice. The accomplishment of this will be achieved by identifying several key practices from published documents surrounding and encompassing the leader, and comparing them to known relative concepts for a holistic view of the approach.
The basic premise for leadership is the process of influencing other people to follow your lead in order to accomplish a goal. It is about the relationship between the leader and the followers. A good leader tries to motivate people to bring about positive changes revealing a common objective without using coercion or manipulation. Leadership is not about control, but permitting interaction and communication between the leader and the individual followers. With empowering others, leaders build a foundation of collaborative thinking and encourage an atmosphere of personal involvement; a leader can strengthen the respect and loyalty of his or her followers. Leaders can affect this process by applying their own personal characteristics, such
During the past ten weeks, I have strengthened my concept of what constitutes effective leadership. Importantly, it is a leadership style that maximises the contributions of followers to achieve the desired outcomes for the organisation they represent. As Nanjundeswaraswamy & Swamy (2014, p.57) explains, effective leaders need to balance the drive to achieve a task with managing relationships. Therefore, it is essential for good leadership to not only focus on the task but develop, motivate and empower team members to strive for the achievement of task goals.
In terms of leading a team, I regard myself as an enthusiastic and considerate leader. My colleagues on my team can always feel my passion about achieving goals as well as my consideration about others. I intend to make conversations productive by understand other’s perspectives first. I also have a high standard of integrity and apply the same criteria on both myself and my coworkers. When I was working for Deloitte, I was always the first choice for all supervisors in my group if they need to find a project leader for a very diverse team. I have been nominated as the “Team Star” for two consecutive years.
Through learning about principal leadership theories in this course, I am working towards developing my own leadership philosophy.