The Problem Of Ineffective Leadership

According to the textbook, Introduction to Leadership: Concepts and Practice, there are over 100 definitions of the word “leadership”, and all of them are unique in their own way (Northouse, 2015, p.1). There are so many different aspects to leadership that is it nearly impossible to have one definition that covers every area. Each and every person that is a considered a leader has his or her own way of leading because every situation, whether it be work, a team, at home, etc., calls for different and distinctive ways of leading people. Northouse states that there are six main aspects of leadership; it’s a trait, ability, skill, behavior, relationship, and an influential process (Northouse, p. 3-6). Giving a clear answer as to what leadership is defined as is very difficult, but this paper will talk about my specific leadership skills and what leadership means to me.

During a retailing course while I was studying bachelors, we were supposed to do a project on selling; the basic idea of the project was to sell products to a target group which was limited to college students who usually were from the age group of 18-25, the skills and strategies that were being taught on selling were to be implemented to gain customers from the target group within a limited budget and a competitive profit was to be generated.

The importance of effective leadership and its impact on improving student achievement are evident in today’s schools (Leithwood, Louis, Anderson, and Wahlstrom, 2004). While the school principal is traditionally thought to be the school leader, Glickman (1989) proposes that “the principal of successful schools is not the instructional leader but the educational leader who mobilizes the expertise, talent, and care of others” (p. 8). Lumpkin, Claxton, and Wilson (2014) contend that helping “each school fulfill its mission and energize and expand the professionalism and professional contributions of teachers, the expertise of all teachers, especially teacher leaders, is needed” (p. 59). Teachers directly impact student learning, and

One of the profound challenges that the United States of America faces today is poor leadership. I’m not just speaking about the President of the United States, but all those that are leading our great country. Our leaders today have poor communication skills, self-serving nature, poor character nevertheless they are not looking forward to helping the United States of America.

An effective leader is someone who knows how to influence and stimulate their followers (Jones, 2015). It is also important for effective leaders to have empathy and communicate their ideals (Jones, 2015). Several Presidents in the US’s history have been ineffective. Often when they are running for the position they make promises they have no way of keeping or they flip flop from one opinion to the opposite so the public does not know how they truly feel and therefore cannot trust them. Our current President is a perfect example of an ineffective leader.

environment had changed and that there is a critical leadership problem in leader competencies. As the

There are many things that can make someone a poor leader. He can be lazy, rude, unfair, etc. In my case, the worst leader I ever had was the boss I had when I worked for an insurance company. My boss played favorites, gave away her work, micromanaged, lacked human skills, and recorded everything that someone did wrong. All of these factors are what make her the worst leader I ever had.

Growing up in the church I watched every movie, show and read every story about Samson. His story was very popular amongst young children because he was so strong and had cool hair, at least that is how the story was presented to us. It was not until I read the text and scripture again to learn the truth behind Samson’s infamous story. I now recognize that the story is not as simple as I thought, and he was not the man I thought he was. However, I love that he is a flawed leader because he is able to teach others what not to do.

Therefore, taking firm and decisive actions against abusive behaviors even if the person who committed this act is a top-performer can have a significant impact on improving morale and increasing performance for the members of the organization (Sutton, 2007). Subordinates can play a pivotal role to survive toxic leaders at work when they develop indifference and emotional detachment, look for small wins and small victories, limit their exposure to toxic individuals (Tavanti, 2011). Also, followers can expose them through whistleblower and other

In chapter five we learned about the deadly sins for leadership. There are seven sins and they are gluttony, sloth, greed, anger, lust, envy, and pride. A sin is when a person does not do what is right. The first person we know we talked, discussed these sins is the monk Evagrius Pnticus. The next leader we know is John cassian. The ones he talked about did not contribute to the list we know of. These sins were introduced long ago and as one can see they are still as important as they were before. Many people follow the deadly sins and also a new list of the deadly sins. Pride is one of the main sins. Pride is where one wants to become and think they are more significant than the next person. It is known that leaders with pride are bound to fail. The next sin is envy. Envy is when a person has an excessive desire. The root of envy comes from not having a high self-esteem. When a person is envious they are doomed to be unhappy because they are too focused on other people and not on their happiness. Anger is another sin and it is where a person cannot control their feelings. Thus, resulting in wanting to bring hurt to others and become more revengeful. The leaders that lose control and become angry because they are envious of their workers and competitors, which they should not be. Being envious and jealous can trigger being angry, so everything is connected between these sins. Greed is one more sin and it is when a person wants more than they need or deserve. When a person is

There are numerous reasons why leaders succumb to pitfalls in the workplace. The best laid plans are often derailed throughout the day by continuous interruptions; such as, telephone calls, emails, business meetings, various deadlines, on-going projects, and political reasons. The leader must assess priorities that are constantly changing in order to withstand common pitfalls of leadership. These six pitfalls are the most common reasons why leaders fail: Failing to respond to employee emails, failing to provide feedback-positive or negative, acknowledging people only when they make mistakes, failing to celebrate victories, showing favoritism, and burning out employees.

The ‘power elite,’ are people who share power in concrete institutional relationships. They share common origins, careers and lifestyles. Also, they have shared psychological and social affinities. The elite hold great power and make the decisions regarding the nonelites. For example, in a company, the people who are in charge of the workers would be the, elite, and the workers would be the, ‘nonelite.’ The power elite set rules and regulations for the workers. “Elites own both great riches and the ability to make decisions that affect the conduct of nonelites, but studies reveal that they also exert a great deal of control over such resources as education, prestige, status, skills of leadership, information, knowledge of political processes, ability to communicate, and organization” (Ermann, 2002, p.11). The elite are the ones who initiate deviance, directly or indirectly. They are the control within the organization, but if something were to go wrong, they are not the ones who pay the price; everyone’s position within a company is interchangeable. When discussing organizational deviance, it is clear that all actions and behaviors relate to the power elite. Also, organizations have interrelationships that are associated with the elite maintaining their power and status. These people preserve connections among corporations, large law firms, which represent large corporations, elite colleges and universities, mass media, private philanthropic foundations major research

Hogan and Kaiser (2005) define leadership as “the ability to build and maintain a group that performs well relative to its competition”. Inyang (2004) considers leadership to be a process which “involves the use of non-coercive influence to shape a group’s or organization’s goals, motivate behavior towards the achievement of those goals and help define group or organization culture”. What makes a leader effective has been the subject of many scholarly investigations; the focus is apparently skewed to issues such as leadership effectiveness, identifying the characteristics of successful leaders, leadership theories and developing leaders. Hogan and Kaiser (2005) note that generally, leadership research tended to take a rather one-sided view on leadership, emphasizing its positive and constructive aspects while avoiding its dark side. Very little is written about leadership derailment or leadership failure. Furnham (2010) notes that many decades of leadership study has produced over 50,000 books with ‘leadership’ in their titles but almost none on leadership derailment or failure, which he considers “the elephant in the boardroom”. Thus the dark side of leadership is often ignored in the literature as “a place inhabited by incompetence, flawed character, and unethical behavior” (Slattery, 2009).

People have always asked if there is any style of leadership that is most effective. Nevertheless, numerous theories and models have been created to show that there is no style of leadership that is the best. Rather, styles of leadership need to adjust depending on the variables such as the leader, the situation, the subordinate, the task, the environment and other factors. Paul Hersey, Kenneth H. Blanchard, and Dewey E. Johnson noted that if the leader’s style of behavior is appropriate or matches the situation it is considered effective. If it is not appropriate to a given situation, it is deemed ineffective. The difference between the effective and ineffective styles is often not the actual behavior of the leader, but the appropriateness of that behavior to the environment in which it is used. In reality, the third dimension is the environment.

When an employee of an organization feels their performance and achievements do not matter, that organization may ultimately suffer. Genuinely recognizing the value of your employees will help stop a leader from falling into the pitfalls of leadership, and having their employees enter into a dimension known as the ‘critter state”. An employee that falls into this state is known to have their ideas and skills fall short while they focus on a single question: “What will keep me safe?” (Comaford C., 2013). Below, I will explore the leadership pitfalls and how to possibly avoid them.