Essay True North Book Review

Those that follow a transformational leadership framework believe that leaders possess many of the aforementioned qualities, but the focus is on one’s ability to inspire and empower others (Ross, Fitzpatrick, Click, Krouse, & Clavelle, 2014). These leaders literally ‘transform’ their followers by inspiring enthusiasm and performance towards a

Transformational Leadership empowers or enables its followers. The leader engages with the follower in a way that both the leader and follower transcend to a higher level of motivation and morality (Nicholls, 1994).

According to Kotter (1990), “Leadership seeks to produce organizational change by: developing a vision of the future and strategies for making necessary changes; communicating and explaining the vision, and motivating and inspiring people to attain the vision.”

There are many models of leadership that exist across a range of fields (e.g. social work, education, psychology, business, etc.). The ability to transform an organization successfully requires a different set of attitudes and skills. Transformational leadership is an approach where a leader utilizes inspiration, charisma, individualized attention, and intellectual stimulation with their employees (Iachini, Cross, & Freedman, 2015, p. 651). Transformational leadership helps to clarify organizational vision, inspires employees to attain objectives, empowers employees, encourages employees to take risks, and advocates the seeking of alternative solutions to challenges in the workplace (Transformational Leadership, 2015). It allows the leader to engage and motivate each follower identify with the organization’s values and goals.

Additionally, " Transformational Leadership inspires wholeness of being, so your thoughts, feelings and actions are consistent. It is about leading with an integrity and authenticity that resonates with others, and inspires them to follow. Not only does it inspire others to follow, but to become leaders themselves" (Cox, 2007, p. 10).

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).

George, B. & Sims, P. (2007). True North, Discover Your Authentic Leadership. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

The purpose of the book is to help the reader discover their “True North.” One of the most profound arguments was that leadership is “not a set of genetic characteristics, but the result of a lifelong process of self-discovery.” I have always believed that a person's leadership style grows overtime, so I like the idea that we are all born as a blank-slate with leadership potential. In addition, the idea that “no one can be authentic by trying to be like someone else [...] you can learn from others’ experiences, but you cannot be successful trying to be like them”(485) really stood out to me because this concept can definitely be applied to SLC. Our class is filled with a wide range of influential leaders with a lot of potential but who

Self-awareness involves the ability to understand and evaluate your own emotions through reflection, self-comparisons and feedback from others (Steiner, 2014). Self-awareness aims at enhancing self-knowledge, behavioral, and emotional improvements, and accommodating weaknesses (Steiner, 2014). It allows individuals to understand how they think, behave, and respond to situations that they encounter. To achieve this, feedback from other people is required. People who are self-aware are self-driven, resourceful, eager to learn, self-motivated, and problem-solvers. They also portray independence of self-concept (Steiner, 2014). Self-awareness helps an individual to practice effective self-management.

Possessing self-awareness is key to knowing and understanding the different attitudes, beliefs, and values one has and understanding when differences could affect them. An example

Transformational leaders’ focus is on the relationship of the leader with subordinates through encouragement, understanding, enthusiasm, and spur, while considering the individual. The leader motivates, possesses

Inscribed on the entry-wall at the ancient Greek Temple of Apollo at Delphi are the words “know thyself”. Can a leader be truly effective without knowing one’s self? Although it has roots in previous times Authentic Leadership is a concept that began to emerge in its modern form in the 1960s. It wasn’t until 2003 when Bill George wrote about authentic leadership and its connection to ancient Greece that it became a popular leadership concept (Clark, 2014). Bill George is senior fellow at Harvard Business School, where he has taught leadership since 2004. He is the author of four best-selling books: 7 Lessons for Leading in Crisis, True North, Finding Your True North, and Authentic Leadership, as well True North Groups. His newest book, Discover Your True North, was published in August of 2015 along with its companion workbook, The Discover Your True North Fieldbook. He describes authentic leadership as a style of leading that is consistent with the core values and personality of the leader and one who leads from an honest, ethical and practical perspective. It is through the leaders authentic self, and not just the concept of self but more importantly the actions of the leader and how that is perceived by others that determines whether they believe the leader is authentic. It is through honest relationships and ethical actions that help to maximize the efforts of others in achieving the goal (George, 2016).

Self-awareness is a terminology that has been widely discussed in not only psychological but also business and managerial perspectives. There are a number of authors trying to propose different definitions of it.

Self-awareness enables you to be "who you really are", take responsibility for your behavior and get up the courage to initiate changes.

In becoming an effective manager for my future career self-awareness wound enhance my ability to identify myself constantly in order to manage myself and order individual in the organisation, it we help me identify area of success and areas of growth in knowing my strength and weakness that seeks for improvement as a manager it will help me to be more effective in performing my job as a manager, self-analysis will aid me as a manage in decision process in knowing where am heading to and why in order to achieve my goals; self-awareness gives me effective possibilities for understanding my own emotional dynamics. This awareness also helps me to oversee group emotions in working in team and directly stirring up their productivity (Baldwin et al 2008).