John F. Kennedy 's Moral Lapse

There are a variety of ways to define both leader and leadership. There is not, however, a clear definition of how to become one. There is no set list of mandatory traits, either innate or learned, that a person must embody to be considered successful or proved a failure. What I feel it takes is the right mix of strengths and weaknesses in a given situation to demonstrate effectiveness. No one person has abilities without accompanying deficiencies. It’s all in the way they are balanced. The balance in the way one uses his or hers’ abilities will ultimately determine the type of leadership one has throughout time. To support these claims I will examine a well-known leader throughout the military, General James “Mad Dog” Mattis. This essay

In Band of Brothers Episode 5, Crossroads, the audience is introduced in the first scene to Captain Winters running across an open field and coming to an embankment at the end of the field. On the other side of the embankment sits a German soldier scrounging for something on the ground. Winters squeezes the trigger and then the screen goes black. This scene as short as it is I believe is a very powerful way to start the entire episode. If one were to break this scene down there is several traces of leadership that can be found.

In John F. Kennedy’s response to the increase in steel prices during a period of economic distress, Kennedy uses powerful word choice to convey a disapproving and disappointed tone. Kennedy appeals to both unity and American patriotism, as well as the American responsibility to ensue guilt on the major steel companies that are increasing their prices.

In the Leadership Challenge, 4th edition, it is Kouzes & Posner (2007) intention to present a road map for individuals to follow on their leadership journey. The authors stress that “leadership is not a gene and it’s not an inheritance.” Leadership they assert is “an identifiable set of skills and abilities that are available to all of us” (p. 23). They make clear that the “great person” theory of leadership is “plain wrong.” Leaders are our everyday heroes who do extraordinary things on a regular basis (p. 23).

When we hear the word leadership or leader, the first thing some people imagine is a great military commander or king standing in front of his people and issuing orders. If we think about it more closely, we will realize that leadership is not only a creation of ancient history but we deal with it on a regular basis. To find a leader we don’t need to look far, presidents, politicians, business managers, sport stars and even every day people possess leadership qualities. Although the meaning of leadership may seem at first easy to define, but

According to Sullivan and Decker (2009), leadership is influencing others into working toward accomplishing a common goal. Some people are born with an innate leadership quality within them. Others require learning leadership and management skills. It takes a certain personality trait that makes them a natural leader. Intelligence, personality, and abilities are three categories of the trait theory that is a part of the profile of successful leaders (Sullivan & Decker, 2009). I will discuss my personal views of leadership. It will

Leadership is an important aspect of life as it pushes us to create leaders out of followers or become leaders for a change. Leadership serves distinct purposes for everyone, but the quote “leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality” by American scholar Warren Bennis directly relates to my views regarding leadership. Bennis shows how a leader guides others to victory by successfully helping them fulfil their plans. As a leader in multiple situations, I believe that a leader always has to prevent others from falling and motivate them to create their aspirations into reality. If a leader fails to do so, he or she decreases the confidence and morale of its followers and averts the followers from becoming leaders in the future.

In my reflections as I prepared to write this paper, I came to the realization that leadership is much more complex especially since the paper requires that I focus on a few traits. In an effort to make it simple, I wrote down the traits that came to mind and in process had over 10 important traits but an even bigger challenge was on how to narrow them down to 3 or 4 and this is the place that required a good deal of reflection. Eventually, however, I had to prioritize them since in any case; it is not possible to get a leader that has all the traits. As I thought of the various leaders who have inspired me, I noticed that while they strived to provide the best leadership by focusing on their strong points, they still had their weaknesses. To me this provided a justification for at least identifying key desirable traits and thereafter working to improve them. I did manage to settle on four traits, which for me are indispensible if a leader or a leadership is to become effective.

Leadership has been defined as “the process through which an individual attempts to intentionally influence another/group in order to achieve a goal” (Wong & Cummings, 2007, p. 2). Good leadership is not a skill or task that a person must perform; it is an

Successful leaders have common traits; they never give up. Success and failure often times comes hand in hand in life, but the ability to keep going and staying focus distinguish the successful leaders.

“Leadership is a process whereby an individual influences a group of individuals to achieve a common goal.” (Northouse) I use to believe that leadership shows the confidence that many people do not portray, because my thoughts were that leadership was a group of people who stand up for the things that they believe. After an extensive study on the meaning of leadership, I have come to find that there is no way to specifically define the meaning of leadership, but there are ways to grasp a better understanding of what the aggregate meanings entail. The big questions that we are faced with are these; how is leadership approached in life, when is it practiced and needed, and who are some leaders in history that portray great leadership skills.

I see the preception of great leadership as a combination of inate skills coupled with the timing when these skills were most needed and a successful outcome . Many great political leaders are unknowed percisely because of their inherent skills and abilities. Through focused planning and forsight, these leaders avoide challenging issues and consequently, they receive little credit. However, the opposite extreem is also true. There are many leaders who, when faced with great challenges, are unprepared or lack the inherent skills and abilities to navigate successfully through these situations. Consequently, these leaders are often percieved as weak and seldom viewed as great leaders.

When we hear the word leadership or leader, the first thing some people imagine is a great military commander or king standing in front of his people and issuing orders. If we think about it more closely, we will realize that leadership is not only a creation of ancient history but we deal with it on a regular basis. To find a leader we don’t need to look far, presidents, politicians, business managers, sport stars and even every day people possess leadership qualities. Although the meaning of leadership may seem at first easy to define,

For decade’s individuals, companies, and organizations have spent an unprecedented amount of money on researching, molding, modeling and working to define what a leader is and what characteristics make successful leaders. Despite all the research, there is not a quick answer or even full agreement as to what makes an individual an effective leader. The definition of a leader is “someone who can influence others and who has managerial authority.” (Robbins, Decenzo, Coulter, 2015. P.370)

Leadership continues to be one of the most debated and studied topics in management and indeed society as a whole. This can be evidenced by the fact that if you search for leadership on Goggle 175,000,000 worldwide hits are recorded. Success in many arenas, whether it be business, the military, politics or the wider community is often primarily attributed to good leadership. Equally, organisational failure or under-performance is just as readily attributed to poor leadership.