The Influence Of Drew Dudley On Everyday Leadership

“A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.” John C. Maxwell

According to Dudley (2010), a lollipop moment is when one does or says something that fundamentally alters someone else’s life for the better (or vice versa). They are important in leadership when one frames leadership as the ability to change the perspectives of other individuals through small, everyday actions, as opposed to drastically altering the world. Embracing the power of lollipop moments makes the position of being a leader more approachable, and lessens the fear that may accompany the possibility of ‘standing out’, or being perceived as arrogant for labeling oneself as a leader. It is important that people are willing to consider themselves as potential leaders, because as Cuddy (2012) said, “our minds can change our behavior, and our behavior can change our outcomes”. She was advocating for people to consistently tell themselves that they are confident and competent, to the point that they believe and act on it, so with time and effort it will eventually become true. When individuals convince themselves that they are leaders by embracing the “little leadership” of lollipop moments, then they are more likely to seek out opportunities to exert this leadership. Viewing leadership in this small way also makes the task of “selling” beliefs to others less daunting, in that there is no pressure to convince the whole world of one’s perspective in order to feel valid as a leader. As Sinek (2009) said, convincing a small proportion of

Leadership is, and always has been, a vital aspect of social and economic constructs. It is essential to the survival of societies, industries, organizations, and virtually any group of individuals that come together for a common purpose. However, leadership is difficult to define in a single, definitive sense. As such, theories of leadership, what constitutes a great leader, and how leaders are made have evolved constantly throughout history, and still continue to change today in hopes of improving upon our understanding of leadership, its importance, and how it can be most effective in modern organizational cultures.

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).

After viewing the Alfredo Sfeir Younis video on effective leadership, I was most intrigued by his central concept that leadership is a state of being, rather than a title of authority. I concur with Sfeir on this point as the practice of leadership is not limited to a particular field and can be practiced in the most commonplace situations. Sfeir demonstrates this idea by stating that ordinary occurrences such as cleaning one’s bathroom or maintaining a balanced diet serve as simple opportunities to grow for one to foster leadership essentials such as self-discipline and temperance. These instances build upon the fact that our perspective of approaching simple situations is a means of forming us to tackle demanding situations in the long-run.

My father once told me that, “everything we do— be it in academia, at work, social or family life—we are guided by principles, beliefs and values that collectively form our ideology of life.” I believe that every leader, to a certain extent, is shaped through her individual personal experience. Although in some cases, we may not realize to what extent our personal assumptions and beliefs shape our ability to lead or be led.

Too often we are trapped under the illusion that to be a leader you must be a famous figure, someone whom everyone knows. While being a leader may cause you to be well known, not all famous individuals are leaders. Gardner speaks the truth when he says, “Leaders come in many forms, with many styles and diverse qualities,” from quiet to courageous, from empathetic to cool and decisive. Everyone has the

This paper is a briefing document that proposes a logical philosophical, hypothetical cover on leadership, assessing the ways the theory and practice connected into a synergistic shape, by evaluating structures of leadership. I will endeavour to illuminate, by examination, the significance of thoughts and ideas around leadership; I will give an individual reflection towards the end of this paper on the collaborative effort and an individual personal

What leaders really do? This is the question I am sure everyone asked themselves many times. John P. Kotter wrote a book in title “What Leaders Really Do”, and throughout his book he explains how the role of good leader should look like. The book states that most organizations lack good leadership, and Kotter is trying to help its reader to understand what real leaders really do. True leadership, he reminds us, is an intangible quality, and too often we confuse management duties and personal style with leadership, or even mistake unworthy leaders for the real thing. With John Kotter on What Leaders Really Do, readers will learn how to become more effective leaders as they explore pressing issues such as power, influence, dependence, and strategies

In the Four Framework Approach, Bolman and Deal (1991) explain that the characteristics of a leader are understood through recognition of certain behaviors that comprise four leadership frameworks: Structural, Human Resource, Political, or Symbolic. These four frameworks are understood by good leaders. However, according to the authors, each framework of leadership should be employed based upon the circumstances the leader finds himself in. Depending on the leadership situation, the leader will apply the principles of one of the four frameworks to maximize his leadership strategy.

After watching and comprehending that Drew Dudley believes leadership is not a characteristic reserved for the extraordinary: helped me for the first time, to acknowledge and accolade myself for experiencing a lollipop moment. In my case, I gave a “lollipop” to one of my closest friends, Sydney Bates. Similar to Drew Dudley’s lollipop moment, Sydney Bates attends Florida State University and struggles with homesickness and separation anxiety from her mom. One night she undertook the difficulty of being away from her mom and attempted to sleep over my house, which resulted in a bad outcome of nausea and of course an extreme case of homesickness. Sydney always had the complication of being away from her mom, so

Kevin never liked leading. Maybe it was the automatic expectation that leaders had to have a charismatic character, inspire others to commit to the cause without a thought otherwise, and forthright with gaining what they wanted no matter what. He fits neither of those standards—so why was Satan following so close behind him, not bothering to speak one word of polite conversation. They will be working on a mission pretty soon together and they haven’t formulated how they were going to go about that.

Leadership as stated by Northhouse (2010), “is a process where an individual influences a group of people to achieve a common purpose.” A leader is responsible for coordination and integration of resources through planning, organizing, coordinating, directing, and controlling to accomplish specific institutional goals and objectives (Huber, 2006). A leader’s action is influenced towards manipulating the environment, group, and achieving the institutional goals and their role is to ensure the institutional effectiveness and efficiency. Organizational culture however, is the shared values, beliefs, assumptions, and behavioral expectations that lead to decision-making (Christensen, 2006). According to Schneider (1975) as cited by Holloway (2012), Organizational climate is the formal and informal shared perceptions of organizational policies, procedures, and practices. Atkinson and Frechette (2009) further defines organizational climate as “set of measurable properties of the work environment, based on the collective perceptions of the people who work in the environment and demonstrated to influence their motivation and behavior”. Climate in CDSDP organization creates a collective unique identity, perception of the staffs that generates how task (things are done) and how to get the task done within the organization as influenced by the clear communication seen from the leaders to staffs.

“Leadership is influencing others by your character, humility, and example. It is recognizable when others follow in word and deed without obligation or coercion”.( Sonny Newman, president of contract manufacturer EE Technologies)

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)