Leadership : Effective And Effective Leadership

With any course, especially one with a focus as broad as leadership, the material covered may include a range from useful to impractical. It is impossible to learn the skills necessary of an effective leader completely out of a book, it takes the application of them to understand. The development of leadership is vital to successfully moving forward in any career, so it would be beneficial to cultivate these skills academically.

Anita Satterlee makes an obvious, but profound observation stating, “A leader cannot lead without followers (Satterlee, pg. 6, 2013).” Essentially, a leader without subordinates who are engaged can not lead properly. While this concept is easy to comprehend, what is most intriguing is Satterlee’s claim that “by mastering the role of followership, a subordinate prepares for the role of leadership (Satterlee, pg. 7, 2013).” Instead of viewing leaders as being static, it is important to view the process of leadership as more

This leadership course has taught me to the importance of leadership and what it means to be a leader. That leadership is something that is learned and developed over time. To set goals and encourage those who are involved in accomplishing the goal. Being a leader more than just having follower, but to have enthusiasm, courage, humility, and integrity. This course have also helped me understand how to not only apply leadership to my personal life but to the working atmosphere.

Coming to Wartburg I had an idea of what a leader looks like and who I thought I was as a leader. I also had an idea of where I wanted to go with all that. Now, going through this course I have learned and solidified that a leader is a person, any person, who acts in such a way that influences themselves and others around them to reach a common goal. I’ve learned that there is a difference between a good leader and an effective leader. I believe that I have not changed my definition but strengthened it and created a deeper more descriptive and detailed definition. Going through this course has helped me identify the different skills specifically that go along with leading.

It seems self-evident that one cannot be a leader unless he or she has followers; put differently, one cannot hold a leadership role unless others are prepared to hold followership roles. These roles are more or less symbiotic - done effectively, each role can support and benefit the other. Nevertheless, the term “follower” has acquired a negative connotation, and leadership is generally considered to be the pinnacle to which we should all strive in our working lives, if not our personal lives as well. However, thanks to the work of authors such as Robert E. Kinney, who introduced the concept of followership, the characteristics, roles and paths of followers now receive increased attention. Kinney’s groundbreaking article, “In Praise of

This Leadership Theory and Practice class was not at all what I expected it to be, which is great. I had heard of other people who had taken this class previously with different professors and how all they did was write papers and honestly, hardly learned anything about leadership. This class thankfully had an easy work load which helped with my senioritus, but still challenged me to think about different leadership styles, concepts, and what it truly means to be a leader. I was able to hear the views of many other people especially those who were also in the class, but also from the different people we had interviewed for the assignment we had to present on. I learned a lot about leadership and I learned a lot about myself in a leadership

Followership is the ability to take direction well and be part of a team and deliver what is expected. Followers are just as important to an enterprise success as the leader’s lead. Followership, according to Atchison, is the reciprocal process of leadership (Atchison, 2004) The stigma of followership skills is, one does not reach progressively more responsible leadership positions without demonstrating an ability to follow and function effectively in a group. The fact is that in organizations

I have learned many important and relevant concepts in this course. Perhaps the most relevant concept is understanding leadership. Now that I am almost done with the course, I realized that I knew nothing about Leadership. I thought leadership is the act of being in control of people and leading them to do a certain job. I thought of a leader as a boss, manager, or an owner. Although what I knew about leadership was partially true, Leadership is much more complicated and different than what I thought it was. Leadership has been defined in multiple different ways depending on different views. Peter G. Northouse said “there are almost as many different definitions of leadership as there are people who have tried to define it” (2013, p.4-7). Despite the multiple ways leadership has been defined, a

The purpose of this chapter is to analyze available followership literature to identify established and acceptable definitions and attributes of followership. The idea and theory of followership has been around for centuries. Aristotle once said, “Who would learn to lead must, as men say, first of all learn to obey” (Aristotle, 1895). Since the mid-1900s researchers conducted specific studies on followership, beginning with E. P. Hollander and Wilse Webb’s study “Leadership, Followership, and Friendship: An Analysis of Peer Nominations” where they assess the validity of peer nominations (1953). Interest in the study of followership increased in the 1980s and 90s. However, followership became an independent field when Robert Kelly and Ira Chaleff each published books with followership in their titles (Crossman & Crossman, 2011). Kelly’s The Power of Followership: How to Create Leaders People Want to Follow and Followers Who Lead Themselves and Chaleff’s The Courageous Follower: Standing up to and for our Leaders are foundational works inspiring practically every subsequent study. From here followership literature can be categorized into two defining groups descriptive, studies that identify actual behaviors, and prescriptive, studies that identify ideal behaviors (Crossman & Crossman, 2011). This research combines both descriptive and prescriptive descriptions of followership and arrays them along Jon Howell and Dan Costley’s

While in the workplace you will encounter different personalities, followers and leaders. Both of these are vital to working and both are equally as important. A good follower is someone who shows support towards the leader, challenges constructively the leader or group’s behaviors or policies is they threaten the common purpose, and takes a moral stand when warranted to prevent ethical abuses. Followers also play a key role in critical thinking as they are termed the best critical thinkers in a group. Being a follower requires a commitment to the group to contribute within a collaborative environment. A leader, however, is a person that was a great follower for a very long period of time. Through following they have learned how to be friendly, learn social skills, and how to handle tasks and emotions. One vital trait that a leader must possess it trust. If a follower trusts a leader, then the trust within the group will increase. Teamwork chemistry will rise and this will, in the end, create a more efficient product. For a technologist, enforcing ALARA, demonstrating honesty and integrity, ultimately enhance patient care and express leadership qualities.

At the beginning of this course, I was curious as to how it would develop. The following is a reflection on how the course has impacted me in both learning, expectations as a new leader, and my everyday working life. I found that when I took the three leadership evaluation tools, the results were not far off from what I expected. These results made me feel positive about myself and the direction that I have intended on driving my career towards. These tools further identify where my weaknesses are as well as where my strengths lie. Although I find that this journey is frightening it has proven rewarding , as well as a diverse and complex trek.

I find the statement “The effective leader today must be a director and motivator, implementer and innovator, mentor and team builder, expert and moral force, organizer and developer of people” (2015, p.61), to be both accurate and realistic. One reason I believe this to be the case is because of the number of individuals who have been able to facilitate these roles on their way to being considered successful leaders. One example being Vince Lambardi. While the story told of him in textbooks by Willie Davis primarily spoke of his motivating skills, he is a renowned leader (2015, p.30).

There are multiple ways to describe the role of successful leaders and effective leadership, which are dependent upon the experts view and method of leadership. The foundation of this research focuses on leaders with proven success in their fields, who epitomize effective leadership. In interviewing 125 diverse leaders, Bill George (2015) inferred that “leadership emerges through your life story” (p. 20). Catmull (2014) asserts that great leaders help creative people achieve excellence. Northhouse (2016) contends that leadership is the ability to influence others to accomplish a shared goal. He goes on to explain, effective leadership incorporates skills, traits, actions and awareness of strengths and weakness, qualities that improve and develop with time. I will draw on significant characteristics and endeavor to incorporate elements of effective leadership into the area of higher education to cultivate change and innovation.

Leadership isn’t easy. In the moments of push and pull and on the spot decision making, all of the responsibility and possible repercussions of a bad spur of the moment decision rests on a leaders shoulder. It can be overwhelming, stressful, and even intimidating at times. At what point do I know that I am and will continue to be a successful leader? That can be a difficult question for one to answer, because success, as I have learned, is different to everyone. A great place to begin is to point out all of the things I am doing wrong as a leader. After the reading and understanding of “What Got You Here Won’t Get You There”, I’ve come to learn I have a few of the “bad habits” the author pointed out. It’s a little too easy to look over the list of habits the author discusses and silently think to myself that at one time or another I am probably guilty of each one. A few that I am most guilty of are: Passing judgement, Starting with NO, BUT, HOWEVER, Failing to give proper recognition, Not listening, and Passing the buck (Goldsmith, 2007). Though I may not portray all of these bad habits on a daily basis, it’s the fact that I have exhibited them at some point in the past that is toxic to my leadership skills. I must not only point out and take responsibility for these habits, but it is also important to know how they negatively affect others around me and how I can easily change them with small behavior adjustments.

Riggio, R., Chaleff, I., & Lipman-Blumen, J. (Eds) (2008). The Art of Followership How Great Followers Create Great Leaders and Organizations. San Francisco, California: Jossey-Bass.