Key Elements of Successful Leadership
John Quincy Adams provided one of my favorite quotes on leadership; “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” In its most basic form leadership refers to influence. Though leaders often help us to accomplish more, poor leadership can also be the source of extreme frustration.
The importance of good leadership is apparent on a college campus. Many organizations run smoothly and efficiently while others are mired in chaos and confusion; the difference is leadership. The college setting provides many opportunities for the development of leadership expertise. I believe three common factors exist in all successful leadership; a focus
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Instead of focusing on title, authority, or other types of position power, Jesus used compassion to drive home his message. According to James Hind,
“The corporate culture of Christ was built around concern for and care for others, not Himself. He immersed His self-regard and promoted humility of the heart.
This gave Him an overwhelming and compelling appeal. This theme, putting your own self- importance aside and serving others, is the vital center of Jesus; teachings.” Though traditionally money, power, prestige, and recognition define success, Christ viewed service to others as the greatest accomplishment. By showing a genuine concern for people, Jesus was able to reach people and commit them to furthering His mission.
The affairs of the heart are the key issues in people’s lives because out of the heart flows the thoughts and actions. Leadership Principle: Followers must know how much you care before they will care how much you know. This past week I was working with a man who was experiencing a bit of depression. It would not have helped for me to explain to him why he should not be depressed, instead he needed somebody to care that he was hurting and I was able to pray with him. Leadership Principle: Leaders recognize the value of people and do not treat them as problems to be solved.
While it is important to demonstrate a caring attitude, leaders must confront problems that
In the reading, Encouraging the Heart by James Kouzes and Barry Posner, they seek to explore one of the most indescribable leadership skills of all caring. Caring is said to be an essential skill to be a successful leader, yet one of the most difficult to master. Kouzes & Posner propose that caring leadership is composed of seven essentials: setting clear standards, expecting the best, paying attention, personalizing recognition, telling the story, celebrating together, and setting the example. The book seeks to describe how and why caring leadership works, and goes beyond outlining practices and principles associated with this type of leadership. This book is an inspirational and uplifting blend of theory and principle, true-life stories of caring leadership, and self-reflecting questions.
As an officer in the United States Army, it has been imperative for me to understand every facet of leadership and why it remains important to be an effective leader. During this course, I have learned some valuable lessons about myself as a leader and how I can improve on my leadership ability in the future. The journal entries along with the understanding of available leadership theories have been an integral part of my learning during this course. For all of the journals and assessments that I completed, I feel it has given me a good understanding of my current leadership status and my future potential as a leader. All of the specific assessments looked at several areas in regards to leadership; these assessments covered several
In the changing business environment, leaders of all organisations may face unprecedented uncertainty, especially the technology advancement and changes among the employees. To survive and succeed, leaders should have some necessary attributes. Meanwhile, some changes for leadership skills have to be made to confront the challenges.
Leadership is the elaboration of group inspiration. One person entrusted as leader can implore the aid, and support of supporters in the accomplishment of a common mission. According to Gurdjian, Halbeisen, and Lane “Becoming a more effective leader often requires changing behavior. But although most companies recognize that this also means adjusting underlying mind-sets, too often these organizations are reluctant to address the root causes of why leaders act the way they do” (Gurdjian, Halbeisen, and Lane, 2014) However, today abundant businesses engross importance on the improvement of leaders. Some of the ultimate leaders were formerly followers, such as in instructive businesses. One aspect as leaders many have to contemplate in striving
Linda S. Tyler (2016), a pharmacist and Webb Lecture award recipient stumbled upon a research, Decoding Leadership: What Really Matters that studied 180,000 participants from 81 diverse organizations worldwide. Participants were asked what leadership trait is common in your organization? Organizations with strong leadership performance commonly showed four behaviors : solve problems effectively, result oriented, welcomes different perspective and supportive of others.
As a growing debate, the question at hand is whether great leaders are born with specific leadership traits, or if one can be taught certain traits over time. According to (Wikipedia.com) the approach of listing leadership qualities, often termed "trait theory of leadership", assumes certain traits or characteristics will tend to lead to effective leadership. I believe that leadership traits such as honest, competent, initiative, inspiring, hardworking, intelligent, and the ability to lead the masses, are some of the leadership traits one should possess. Within this paper, I will examine the overall concept of leadership traits, while observing the traits that were, or can be associated with successful leaders.
The heart of leadership has to do with what a person believes, values, dreams about, and is committed to. - Sergiovanni
In today’s competitive world, leadership skills are crucial for both personal and professional development. Leadership is an important function of management which helps an individual or a business to maximize efficiency and to achieve goals. Leadership has different meanings to various authors.Most commonly, leadership is defined as influence, that is, the art of influencing people so that they will strive willingly and enthusiastically toward the achievement of group goals. (Koontz). Leadership is the process of influencing the activities of either formal or informal group in the task of goal setting and goal achievement. A leader is one whose magnetic personality innervates people for some cause. Not by words, but by their actions is
“Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done, because he wants to do it”. -34th President of the United States Dwight D. Eisenhower.
The Trait Approach was the 1st systematic attempt to study leadership. In the 20th century it was known as the “great man” theory. This approach takes a look at the leaders personal attributes such as but not limited to: motivation, energy, intuition, creativity, persuasiveness and foresight. Some of the traits that are essential to this list include: intelligence, self-confidence, determination, integrity and sociability. Thus it focuses mainly on the leader and not on the followers or situations. The strengths of the Trait Approach includes: 1) it is intuitively appealing, 2) it has research to back it’s theory, 3) it highlights the leader, 4) it identifies what the traits of a leader should have and whether the traits we do
Leadership is a term on which no one can develop a mutual consensus as it carries a different meaning for ach individual. Some people may consider a person as their leader who is capable of taking them away from hardships, some people may consider the one as their leader who is quite charismatic and can show them dreams of a bright future or some people may consider that man as a leader who can make them progress by devising wise strategies for them etc. There is, somehow, something very common in all the perspectives that are the philosophy behind the definition, which is related to choosing a best of the best person as their leader. Nobody wants to have a person as his leader who doesn’t have knowledge of the needs and aspirations of his
My own experience in leadership has been achieved during the last three and a half years working at Lufthansa technic Malta. The company has been operating in Malta for the last 12 years in which there has been a rapid growth in the company operations creating opportunities and developments. For the last two years I’ve had the opportunity to start working as a shop leader, developing my skills and gaining
The importance placed on the follower’s opinions and capabilities acknowledges the value of his or her contribution by leadership. It motivates people to do their best and achieve the necessary goal(s). This empowerment by leadership therefore promotes a beneficial message between leaders and followers allowing for future communication when difficult circumstances might arise.
Not all leaders are famous like Martin Luther King, most leaders are ordinary people; you can walk down the street and run into someone and not know that they are a very powerful leader. I personally know of a good leader that is an ordinary person; my father. Although some people believe that leaders are born and not made, I believe that anyone can become a leader if they have enough courage and are thick skinned. There are many words that people come up with when they are asked to describe what makes a good leader. The most popular characteristics used to describe a good leader would be a good listener, responsible, and decisive. When you think of what makes a good leader you should also ask what kind of education they have and what
Denis Waitley (1995) in his book, Empire of the Mind, encourages the reader to explore his/her beliefs on leadership. He asks the reader to be cognizant of how these beliefs manifest themselves in our lives, by stating, "What the mind harbors, the body manifests in some way" (p. 119). My beliefs about leadership are shaped by my experiences with my father. I have compiled a list of good leadership qualities from watching him interact with others over the years.