Concept of Leadership

All three articles discuss mission and vision of leaders. Ladkin & Weber claimed leaders need training and communication, they need long-term view for objective and ‘company vision’ (P.278). By contrast, Useem

According to Harold Koontz, “leadership is defined as an art or process of influencing people so that they strive willingly and enthusiastically towards attainment of group goals”.

Typical conceptions of leadership associate this word with authority and power. On the contrary, the role of effective leadership means quit the opposite. The virtue of leadership is not to hold power, but rather to empower others. A real leader selflessly devotes his or her efforts and time for the prosperity of the organization as a whole as well as the thriving of individuals. The epitome of this oxymoron can be found in how I strive to emulate the leadership of Christ, who had all the power and authority to rule, but instead humbled himself to eat with prostitutes and wash feet. Leadership shouldn’t be about being higher than others. It should be about encouraging and inspiring others to step up, staring first with the example of my own

Leadership is the ability to work constructively and effectively with individuals, groups, organizations, and communities to promote social change and justice, as well as addressing individual and social problems. In many modern day roleplays leadership is used to overcome social issues such as racism, politics or to change the opinions of others. Leadership doesn’t mean being successful and telling others what to do and how to do it. Leadership means leading people in a direction in which you feel is correct even if there are risks involved. Sometimes leaders have to go against what is “correct” in others people 's eyes in order for what is right in the world to be achieved. The four texts that I have chosen to explore the connection of leadership are Remember the Titans directed by Boaz Yakin, Coach Carter directed by Thomas Carter, The Hunger Games directed by Gary Ross and Avatar directed by James Cameron. These four films express leadership in different ways such as a transformational leadership, which is identifying the need for change and creating a vision to execute the change within committed members of a group.

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, leadership is, “the office or position of a leader,” or, “the act or instance of leading.” To me, leadership is the ability to take control of a situation or group in order to move in a positive direction. For example, say your 4-H club is dwindling in numbers. You have an idea on how to keep the people who are in it interested and how to build the club up again, you should share your ideas and become proactive. Due to you taking control of what needs to happen, you’re already a leader; your club will look up to you. Basically, to me leadership is all about assessing the situation, then doing the best thing you can do to improve the situation you and others are in. I consider myself a

“In leadership literature, more than 100 different definitions of leadership have been identified” (Rost, 1991). Through these hundred ways, we all interpret leadership differently. Before this course, when someone asked, “What does leadership mean to you?” The answer was simple. Prior to taking this course all leadership meant was being in charge. Under the teachings of this course I have gained a new interpretation of leadership, and an overall sense of what being a leader means. In this course we took the StrengthFinder assessment. When taking the assessment, I really thought about the way I am and began understanding the asked questions. I realized that I now understand how to improve situations, and I have become more well rounded in understanding the differences in individuals and their ideas. After realizing this, I continued taking my test; the results, amazingly, coincided with what I had just noticed.

I define leadership as setting a determined example through personal actions and ethics that influences others to greater levels of performance. I set a high standard for myself. I expect the same of others. I strongly believe in setting the example for those around me as a result of poor leaders I have had the misfortune to serve under in the past. I have worked for Chiefs who had no idea what I, or those that worked with and for me, did on a daily basis. I have worked for Chief’s whose relationships with the chain of command were so toxic they forced me to work around them in order to accomplish any tasks. I have worked for Master Chiefs who stepped into a job where they had no clue what our division’s purpose was; rather than learn it,

Once they have formulated a vision, then they must be able to communicate it. The best leaders not only communicate the facts, but do it in an inspiring way. They are able to persuade their followers that they will be able to lead them to a better place. If a leader can't communicate effectively, then he or she will be ineffective as a leader.

What is leadership? How does society define as good and bad leaders? What are the traits most embodied by the successful leaders? These questions, along with many other, have been the topic of debate for centuries. Defining leadership in hard terms can be a challenging thing. In one hand, soldiers in the Army, for instance, can recite the definition of a leadership that came out of a publication. On the contrary, most soldiers will struggle to define what leadership means to them, in their words. However, troops in any organization can quickly identify who is a bad or a good leader. They know what right looks and feels like, though, putting it into terms can prove to be more challenging, and goes to demonstrate why it is

From the beginning of human history, the need for an individual that could carry more than his share of the weight, while possessing a quality that made others try to imitate them, has been essential for progress and endurance. The definition of leadership is a person who could lead and inspire others. At these times, the tendencies of human naturedemonstrates compassion, community oriented and egotistical individuals. Understanding the concept of cooperation, individuals also discovered the need for an exceptional type of person to lead and guide them, using their expertise to the advantage and benefit of the group.. Strengths, skills and abilities are the deciding factor for an exceptional leader. The introduction of industrialization and technological advancement ushered in a new workplace environment and the need for leaders in the workplace, and our local communities. With changing times, so did the meaning of leader change. From being a strong general with the goal and ambition of decapitating the enemy, to being responsible for organizing and managing employees to function and execute tasks in the best interest of the organization. Because of the uniqueness of individual personalities and character traits, leadership can be very difficult to generalize. Instead, a leader is one who is endowed with a charismatic personality, talented and can influence others to follow them.

1.) The concept that I have acquired and would like to discuss is the next generation of leaders. Times are changing for many organizations including a diverse population and a true global mindset. With these changes taking place there is a need for a new generation of leaders. A new order is in store and that brings about different approaches to leadership for many organizations. Women now hold a large percentage of leadership positions within organizations. This change provides diversity and a different approach to leadership than in the past. According to Senge, women tend to focus on longer term issues such as sustainability which is a total different systems thinking approach than men. The next generation of leadership will not have

Beginning in boot camp and continuing throughout my career, I’ve seen the Coast Guard promote the leadership model to be: “You” influencing “Others” to achieve a “Goal”. With all the different ways leadership can be defined, this simplistic model which has been permanently engrained in my thinking definition still rings true for me. As such, when defining my own personal definition of leadership, I align it to this same model. More specifically, while I support the fact that leadership involves influencing others to achieve a common end I propose that is not the whole story. Leaders must not be stagnant in their vision and must lend themselves to the possibility they may have to adjust their leadership styles depending on the goal. The best leaders are the ones that understand their own personality traits as well as those traits of the people they are trying to lead.

Leadership can be defined in many different facets. To me the definition of leadership is, “Displaying the ability to inspire and empower others through the example of one’s own self actions”. Too many times we hear, “Do what I say”, instead of, “Do what I do”, because to me, a successful leader’s actions speak louder than words ever will. My first day in the Coast Guard following boot camp graduation, I experienced firsthand on how a leader should not act nor conduct themselves. Though alcohol was the one of the main contributing factors on what occurred that evening, looking back, it was more of the lack of maintaining our core values that ultimately resulted in that Chief losing the title as Chief of the boat and being forced to retire..

To summarize my essay on leadership and vision I think vision is an essential characteristic of leadership because you need to know how to visualize or plan ahead. Vision can be confused with mission but, mission means the goal that they need to accomplish and vision means the direction that the organization is traveling. And that is why I think vision is connected to

Leadership is a difficult word to define and according to the Miriam-Webster Dictionary leadership is the “office or position of a leader” (Miriam-Webster, 2010). This definition is definitely not one that I would ascribe to when discussing leadership. My definition of leadership is “the ability someone has to motivate and empower others to achieve a goal.” Some may add to this definition, others may discard it altogether and have a completely different definition. In the end, leadership takes on many different forms depending on who is doing the defining and we end up asking ourselves, what is leadership and why do we care?