The Awakened Leader : One Simple Leadership Style Essay

In Leadership 101 by John Maxwell, the author uses practical application points to give guidance on what it takes to be good leader. The book is divided in three parts, linking the development, traits and impacts of a leader, with a series of questions that the author answers. He also uses real-life stories and quotes from leaders such as the McDonald brothers and Princess Diana, to demonstrate leadership principles. The author also uses these examples and a detailed framework to help the readers enhance the leadership abilities they already possess. Maxwell suggests that in order to be a successful leader you need to; Follow your vision and bring others with you, produce a lasting legacy, grow the loyalty of your followers, make continual

In today’s society, there are some people who possesses the qualities of outstanding leadership. Also, in today’s society, there are some people who keep qualities of a poor leader. A good leader is someone who reads and understands their own emotions and recognize the impact on themselves and others. Another thing great leaders do is think and act with optimism, by looking at the positives and not so much on the negatives. Another great strength a good leader has is that he or she knows the strengths and limits of the certain people on their team (Hewertson). Furthermore, a great leader leads by example, set achievable goals, assigns tasks within someone’s strengths, gets the right people on board,

Leadership is multidimensional. There is no straightforward way to describe what a leader is or explain who makes a great leader. The description will be shaped by the purpose of the work being done and the followers one achieves. Dye (2010) states that leadership is a “living phenomenon” (p. 14) and supports the need to provide personalization to the leadership style. There is much discussion on the development of a leader. Some believe that you are a natural born leader who fine-tunes those skills through “persistence and perseverance of failures and successes” (Blanken, 2013, para. 5). Others, like Blanken (2013), feel that exposures early in life begin the development of leadership traits, and “education, jobs, and life experiences then shape the leader’s philosophy and psychology” (para. 7). A dominant style might be apparent in a leader; however, the adaptability in leadership approaches allows the leader to be focused on

A leader must be able to move quickly from one agenda to another. A leader must be able to inspire a person or a group of people to want to do their best. A definition of leadership can be, “A relationship through which one person influences the behavior of other people” ( Mullins, p. 904 ). One of the biggest problems that a leader in any organization has to deal with is change. Leaders have to be versatile and willing to make tough decisions in today’s economic climate. We will analyze what it takes to be a successful leader and how to manage the people around you for the best results. Asking questions

DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO GETTING THE RIGHT THINGS DONE (2006); JAMES M. KOUZES & BARRY Z.

Leadership, one of the worlds most observed phenomena (Burns, 1997), has been a widely discussed topic. Tracy (Tracy, 2012) believes you motivate others by continually looking for ways to help them to improve their lives and achieve their goals. Qualities

Looking back to an inspiring leader of mine, George Washington, I see a man that was able to influence other to do great things that ultimately formed the United States after overcoming great odds against Great Britain. He was a transitional leader that was able to accomplish great things for which I idol him for that especially in a time where I do not see any true great leaders of George Washington’s caliber. I aspire to be a great leader in my future and I have been working toward this goal ever since high school. It is important to understand who you are and where you can improve as a leader because it will be important as you leader others and attempt to shape a business, a country, or a large group of people across the world. This assessment will determine my strengths and weaknesses as a leader by providing detailed examples based off of my perspective. It will relate my leadership ability to my personality and go into describing how my leadership relates to the Trait Approach, Skills, Approach, Behavioral Approach, Situational Approach, and Psychodynamic Approach. Further explaining how each of these leadership approaches is integrated to define leadership and how an individual is a leader through personal qualities and how they influence others to impact organizations. I am not a perfect leader and will go into depth about my flaws and my personal action plan for overcoming my shortfalls in order to become a better leader. Through a thorough personal analysis and a

There are hundreds if not thousands of writers on leadership, management and business excellence there people with varying levels of experience and success giving there two cents on what it takes to run a successful organization. While some of their suggestions may be groundbreaking other are ill conceives and outright deceptive. There are contrarian school of thought to the overly optimistic view on leadership that you encounter all too often. I recently came across a couple of these perspectives.

“Leaders must regularly turn off the noise and ask themselves what they stand for and what kind of an example they want to set” (Harry Kraemer). In this final paper, I will be going through chapter by chapter how I assessed myself based on each chapter’s topic. I will also be providing an analysis of my strengths, gaps, patterns, and themes to gather a leadership profile of sorts. And will finish it all out by developing a leadership plan of my own.

In order to be a successful leader, leaders need to be a risk taker as well as an innovator of original content, but those qualities are only a part of a leader’s traits. A leader needs to create his own personality and leadership style, for a leader is not taught but cultivated through experience and personal epiphanies. Managers are often characterized as a leader, but there are distinct differences, as outlined in Bennis’ (1989, 2003) Understanding the Basics; managers follow the set guidelines and control the situation, whereas leaders cultivate and innovate the structure and builds trust within the organization. If the leader is driven and focused, the organization will follow, striving to accomplish the ambition of the leader. The great leaders of each generation have a commonality, they’ve created and shaped their own identity; great leaders have been the innovation of themselves first and foremost, before they’ve led organizations, institutions, and or governments.

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.

Precisely identifying what it takes to be an effective leader can be a difficult task. Which is likely the reason that almost all who have attempted to define leadership have provided somewhat different descriptions (Grossman & Valiga, 2012). Therefore in order to develop a personal leadership philosophy the review of others writing on the subject of leadership was conducted. Maxwell concluded leadership is the ability to influence others, and while we may be unaware of it we are all leaders in one way or another due to the influence we have on others (2012). Further Maxwell went on to state, it is the responsibility of each individual leader to

The topic of leadership, more specifically effective leadership, has been a common research topic for quite some time. There are many definitions and many views on what makes a good leader. In Management, Kreitner defines leadership as “the process of inspiring, influencing, and guiding, others to participate in a common effort” (Kreitner, 394). This is a broad definition describing a leader that can inspire workers to achieve their goals. In regards to what actually makes a good leader,, the concepts and research have recently been geared towards ethics and the differences and common qualities between a leader and a manager. In essence, “today’s leaner and continuously evolving organizations require people who can both lead and manage—in

Leadership is a highly sought-after and highly valued commodity. In the 20 years since the first edition of this book was published, the public has become increasingly captivated by the idea of leadership. People continue to ask themselves and others what makes good leaders. As individuals, they seek more information on how to become effective leaders. Thus, bookstore shelves are filled with popular books about leaders and advice on how to be a leader. Many people believe that leadership is a way to improve their personal, social, and professional lives. Corporations seek those with leadership ability because they believe

Everyday humans experience the driving force of leadership as leaders exist everywhere within our society. Leaders help convey global messages, they help unite followers under a common purpose and motivate the public to get involved. Leadership, whether it be in a social setting or within the workforce is often a sought after role, so much so that “for decades, hundreds of leadership scholars have attempted to define the term, postulate theories, conduct research, and write about the topic…”(Komives, Lucas, McMahon, T. (2006). Exploring Leadership), all in hopes of discovering how to become a better leader. Through taking Leadership Studies I have been able to more closely identify the leadership traits within myself, as well as use my knowledge of my own self-identification to better enact my leadership style amongst those around me.