The Characteristics Of Leaders And How Leadership Makes A Difference. Selfless Service, Gaining Altitude, And Resilience

The reading this week covered chapters 3-4 of Resilient Leaders by Robert F. Dees. Dees (2013) summarized that character is formed by a three strand cord consisting of selflessness, integrity, and courage. Chapter three discussed the importance of integrity and courage in leadership. Dees (2013) provides definitions and comprehensive overviews of leadership integrity and courage. Chapter four discusses the importance of wisdom in leadership. Illustrations of leadership without wisdom were brought to light. Additionally, the chapter differentiates a leader from a wise leader along with the importance of growth in attaining wisdom, knowledge, in character and competence. Dees (2013) says that wisdom is the bridge

Selfless service, according to Wright and Lauer (2014), comes from “a character-based leader…with the necessary self-control to selflessly act on his or her own volition to inspire, sustain, and transform the attitudes and beliefs of both self and followers” (p. 30). At the heart of an effective leader you will find selfless service (Dees, 2013). When people think of selfless

The next question posed to Rene inquired about essential characteristics of a leader. After giving the question some thought she responded by saying that a leader must be able to remain objective and prioritize. “Prioritizing in my job is essential,” Rene stated, “with so many issues to deal with some nights it can be difficult to determine which to tackle first. However, remaining calm and objective in your decision making can help a leader prioritize properly, which can improve patient outcomes.” Additionally, Rene emphasized that the best leaders lead by example. By displaying desired attitudes and behaviors, a nursing leader may inspire their staff to act in a similar manner. Another area Rene stressed when posed this question was a leader’s ability to support learning. She went on to state that “it is necessary to focus on learning, not chastising. Placing the blame on someone rather than stepping back and looking at the details of a problem, deters the team from achieving the overall goal. Incident reports remain vital to the process of learning.” Rene continued to emphasis that by filling out incident reports individuals can analyze a situation or process and determine where the flaws or errors remain present. Without incident reports and learning from mistakes, growth remains difficult. Diana S. Contino (2011), author of “Leadership Competencies: Knowledge, Skills, and Aptitudes Nurses Need to Lead Organizations Effectively,” believes that organizational and

Selfless service is a fundamental concept for any leader to incorporate because of the effects it has on those that lead. By placing selfless service as the priority of the organization, its gives followers the ability to focus on their own agenda first before your own. This can align goals for the subordinates to accomplish by the leader placing them first as well as an example for others to emulate. As Major General Dees highlights, this is also a quality that can be learned over

In chapter three and four of Resilient Leaders, several concepts are discussed that describe other characteristics that are part of an effective leader. This paper discussed three concepts that include integrity, emotional courage, and wisdom.

Selfless Service. Dees (2013) stated, “resilient leadership is selfless service over time from a platform of character and competence.” Selfless service (servant leadership) is an important concept to Organization Management and Leadership. Selfless service is the foundation of servant leadership. Selfless service is one of the most important traits of a good leader. For an organization to thrive, it is important for a leader to serve their followers and place their needs before his needs. Servant leadership has a profound impact on employee empowerment by fostering an environment of empathy, awareness, healing, listening, stewardship and community awareness (Murari & Gupta, 2012). A selfless service leader can have mediating effects on both public service motivation and corporate social responsibility that assist the organization from both a community and goal attainment perspective (Tuan, 2016).

What is a leader? A leader is a person who commands a group, organization, or country. Throughout my life I have encountered the chance to experience position of being a leader. I have experience democratic leaderships through playing on a high school football team, being apart of groups in college for class presentations, being a youth leader in my church, and also being apart of a family. I have gain important qualities of being a good leader through these experiences. Some of valuable leaderships traits that I obtained and strengthened are: how to be a team player, to be a better listener, to have more patience, to be not afraid of constructive criticism, to be outspoken, and to be a problem solver. Even though I have gained a lot, I

Servant leadership is also defined in contrast to the self-serving leader (Blanchard and Hodges, 2003). A self-serving leader is concerned with losing position and protecting status. A servant leader sees the very nature of leadership as a true act of service rather than a chore that is necessary to receive the desired level of recognition. Blanchard postulates that the self-serving leader is in direct contract to the servant leader because an addition to power may be the driving force behind their efforts (Blanchard,

Dees highlights several crucial concepts regarding resilient leadership in Chapters 3 and 4. The quality of leadership largely determines the overall upward or downward direction of a company. A resilient leader has the ability to influence people to willingly put forth effort to achieve a goal, which is at the core of being a leader. The most effective leaders recognize how to influence subordinates while moving forward with an effective plan that will benefit all involved. The three most important concepts from Chapter 3 and 4 are integrity, courage, and wisdom.

Leadership is something that we are all born with because we are all born. Therefore, who is a leader and who is not depends on who really wants to be a leader and who does not. Leadership is a skill and so it can be learned. As anything that is learned it demands practice and practice to be the best. It would not be something that will happen in a matter of a day. There are multiple elements that make a leader. Collaboration is a key element for successful teamwork. Therefore, a leader must always be in the look for ways to foster collaboration. Creating trust within the team, support face-to-face collaboration, transfer responsibilities when making decisions, and ultimately teach other how to be leaders. All of this is not done if it is not done from the bottom of your own heart.

The topic of leadership evokes curiosity about our leaders and their approaches in decision making, leadership styles and the effectiveness of their leadership. At time leaders are critiqued for their actions or views on different business affairs. In today’s working environment leaders set the tone, vision, and goals of any organization. Leadership has a huge impact on the culture of an organization and how people communicate within the organization (Northouse, 2009). The actions of leaders should inspire and positively impact their followers. The approach of leaders in handling adversities highlights many features of their character.

By being a servant leader, I will put the needs of my employees first to ensure that my company is socially responsible through quality customer service rendered by me and employees. Since leadership is considered a critical force in producing positive outcomes in organizations through the performance of employees, it is very important to take servant leadership seriously (Grisaffe, VanMeter, Chonko 2016). My main and foremost priority as a servant leader is to serve others with real selflessness before aiming for profit. For instance, as a non-medical owner of a care

Before reading Learning Leadership: The five fundamentals of becoming an exemplary leader and The First Ninety Days: Critical Success Strategies for New Leaders at All Levels, I had a very vague sense of what my strengths and weaknesses were. I know that public speaking has never been a high point for me unless, I felt very confident in the material I am presenting. In retrospect, these particular weaknesses are symptoms of larger issues that are clearly illustrated in detail in these books. Before going into the assignment, I was aware that acknowledging my strengths would be much more challenging than finding my weaknesses. This issue comes into play every six months when I sit down with my supervisor. When I am provided with a

The basic premise for leadership is the process of influencing other people to follow your lead in order to accomplish a goal. It is about the relationship between the leader and the followers. A good leader tries to motivate people to bring about positive changes revealing a common objective without using coercion or manipulation. Leadership is not about control, but permitting interaction and communication between the leader and the individual followers. With empowering others, leaders build a foundation of collaborative thinking and encourage an atmosphere of personal involvement; a leader can strengthen the respect and loyalty of his or her followers. Leaders can affect this process by applying their own personal characteristics, such

According to Susan Komives, Nance, and Timothy (2013) in Exploring Leadership: For college students who want to make a difference, leadership refers to the relational and ethical processes through which people achieve positive changes as a combined effort. Susan stresses on the idea that leadership is not a one-man authority but rather a team effort. Therefore, a good leader is one that creates good relationships at the workplace to facilitate teamwork. Susan, Nance, and Timothy (2013) define an efficient leader by the ability to pursue team goals as well as career objectives. Using his leadership expertise and skills, the leader can maintain a highly productive team while ensuring a good relationship with them and among