A Leadership Journey
A LEADERSHIP JOURNEY.
Created by
SHARATH KUMAR
Abstract
The paper records the evolution of the author's thinking on leadership through the course of his work involvement. Leadership is viewed as a dynamic process which consists formal and informal roles. The process is introduced as an individual recognizes opportunities and urged to answer back to evolving patterns and pledge action to enable positive change. The dynamics between formal and informal leadership structures and leadership as a state of mind are conferred.
The following paper shows a reflection on my personal journey and growing understanding of leadership based on my work experience. As I look back in time, I identify that most of my current interest in leadership...show more content...
My favorite definition of leadership relics Sun Tzu in the Art of War: "The way [of leadership] means inducing the people to have the same aim as the leadership, so that they will share death and share life, without fear of danger" (Sun Tzu, 2005, p.43). The definition recognizes the collaborative dynamic that leader and follower share– both share the benefits and risks in its pursuit. Moreover, Senge's work presented me to systems thinking and understanding the unified wholeness of organizations. This view was reinforced by my study of Neurolinguistic Programming and Neuro–Semantics, understanding human communications and the way in which we learn to construct our mental maps of the area. I saw conscious decisions to be freeing and challenging at the same time. This commitment was a challenging as I began to explore the process of leadership outside the hierarchical power structure that could command action by positional authority. Now as an independent contributor I found myself able to lead freely in a variety of ways, highlighting the need of influence in the contexts that I was called for.
I mentally stepped back from the situation and took a look at the business, it's internal and external stakeholders. I would foresee the recede and flow of people as they enthused about their work, the processes of numerous departments that enabled this organism to be effective. I also realized that minor issues evolved into major
What Makes A Good Person Essay
My father once told me what makes you a man is taking care of your responsibilities and leading by example. I know now what he meant by that saying. He was telling me that a good man is responsible for taking care of his family and being a good role model. For most of us, family is the foundation for the type of people we become in the future. They sets the path for our lives; they are mostly responsible for our values and beliefs as we spend most of our time around family.
Most people adapt to their surroundings. We become part of the environment we are in on a daily basis. Therefore, I believe family determines the path of our life; it shapes our mentality of life and our ambitions for the future. Family can lead us towards success...show more content...
Yet in most cases the apple doesn't fall from the tree. Saij states, "Sometimes people do get 'programmed' to do bad things. There is a mountain of evidence that shows children who grow up in abusive households are far more likely to become abusive themselves." (2007) Retrieved February 4, 2010 from: www.dailykos.com/story/2007/4/19/193444/034
We don't get to choose our family, we are born into them. From the time we are conceived until the time we explore the world on our own, we spend most of our life around family. As children we are taught by our parents, and follow many of their actions. Not only are our parents responsible for our health, they are also responsible for our upbringing. These are the years we are taught right from wrong.
After we are taught the basic fundamentals of good behavior then comes the difficult part. From childhood to adolescence is where we pick up the habits of our environments. This is the most vital time when we need our families to lead us in the right direction by being positive role models. We are introduced to many new things at this point in life, especially negative ones. This is when a caring and healthy family can steer you away from going down the wrong path.
The most important reason family determines the path of your life is because they are responsible for our values and beliefs. Family
Motivation and Leadership Essay
Motivation and Leadership are intrinsically linked in the fact that one allows an easement in the process of the other. Without the ability to use the mutual relationship of leadership to influence the motivators of followers, leaders stagnate and are limited by their own inability to accomplish all that must be for real change to occur. In less Rostonian terms (that is, based on Rost (1993)), without a motivated group of followers leaders are stranded and not achieving to a level of excellence. This paper will discuss some areas of importance for motivation in leadership as well as an application to leadership theory and a discussion on personal motivators. Motivation is the reason or purpose behind action, or what causes one to act in...show more content...
Osland, et al. (2007) provide a good introduction to three basic motivational content theories. The first theory is Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs that proposes man is motivated by a lack in the one or more of the five common needs. The needs that Maslow identifies are physiological, safety, social belonging, self–esteem, and self–actualization. Maslow believed that one fills needs from the most basic (like food and water) to the highest level (self–actualization). Maslow's ideas are easy to relate to and attempt to provide an all–inclusive approach to the concept of motivation; however, there is little evidence to support the idea that man cannot have self–actualization without the other more basic needs first satisfied. The second content theory Osland, et al. discuss is McCelland's learned needs. McCelland states that man is motivated by one of three things: achievement, power, or affiliation – or a mixture of the three. Each of these needs can possess a negative or positive connotation or implementation, but it is argued that people motivated by affiliation make better leaders. The third theory presented is McGregor's Theory X and Theory Y. McGregor asserts that Theory X people or employees are inherently lazy and must be controlled and forced to act, whereas Theory Y people are self–controlled, motivated, and ambitious. Steers, et al. (1996) identify an additional theory of motivation, which builds on Maslow's
Entrepreneurial Leadership Essay examples
Discuss the common elements described in the theories/philosophies of Case, Kouzes, and Drucker including how their principles/strategies relate to the new definition of entrepreneurial leadership presented in Understanding Entrepreneurial leader ship in today's Dynamic Markets.
The new definition of entrepreneurial leadership is one of an enterprising, transformational leader who operates in the dynamic market that offers lucrative opportunities. It is also believed that the entrepreneurial leader has the following transformation leader dimensions. They are clarity, communication, consistency, caring, creating opportunities, self confidence, power need and its use, and vision (Tarabishy 2002). Steve Case, James Kouzes, and Peter Drucker...show more content...
). Steve Case identified his ideals in three words: People, Passion and Perseverance. While James Kouzes simplified his philosophy to five practices of exemplarily leadership which are: model the way; inspired a shared vision; challenge the process; enable others to act: and encourage the heart (Kouzes 2008). All of these men provide clarity to their ideals but provide easy to follow guidelines to success.
Communication– Kouzes believed that you first are clear about a set of values and beliefs that will guide you, and then you need to set a personal example (Kouzes 2008). On one of Case first resumes he wrote, "technological advances in will result in our television becoming an information line" (Case 2010) .
Consistency– This characteristic is shown in all men. Case stated, "The real battle is not about the product it's really about all of the attention and being able to sustain it" (Case 2010). Kouzes believed that your actions should be consistent with words (Kouzes 2008). While Drucker believed clear cut objectives encourage consistency (Prakash 2005)
Caring– James Kouzes believed that you should "Encourage the Heart". This is where you tell the people that are following you "thank you", while taking the time
Effective Leadership Essay
In today's competitive world, leadership skills are crucial for both personal and professional development. Leadership is an important function of management which helps an individual or a business to maximize efficiency and to achieve goals. Leadership has different meanings to various authors.Most commonly, leadership is defined as influence, that is, the art of influencing people so that they will strive willingly and enthusiastically toward the achievement of group goals. (Koontz). Leadership is the process of influencing the activities of either formal or informal group in the task of goal setting and goal achievement. A leader is one whose magnetic personality innervates people for some cause. Not by words, but by their actions is...show more content...
People requires good leadership skills at personal, professional and social level. Personal leadership helps us to determine our desires, strengths and abilities. It means Knowing what we want out of life; knowing what success is for us; what are our goals and how to achieve those goals regardless of what other people think, say, or do. Personal leadership helps us to make our present better and shape a good future.
Good leadership is also important to run a business. Usually, in companies, management stresses more on decision– making skills. They believe a timely and smart decision will help their company to succeed. They forget that implementation of those decisions are as important as making those decision. Without a proper implementation , there will be no results. Like there is a saying that, it's easier to said than done. Similarly, making a decision will change nothing, its how to get things done in a timely and an effective way will help an organization to accomplish their goals. Leadership is crucial in implementing decisions correctly and successfully.
Each of us understand importance of leadership when it comes to our country. We all try to vote for the best person in elections because it matters who is in office. President make decisions concerning our lives, country, and the world. As a nation, we place no greater responsibility on any one individual than we do on the president. Therefore, leadership
Leadership Experience Essay examples
Iana Lukina
What did I learn from my leadership class?
There are lots examples of organizations in which everything seems to be done right, but something is still missing. They have no soul. There is nothing that can breathe life into the administrative system. They exist without faith, love, and hope. They are doomed to such a gray existence, unless there is a person or a team of associates who discover the essence and meaning in this frozen system. Such a person is called a leader and a role in which he operates – leadership. How do people become leaders? With experience, with age or from birth?
In order to rise to the top, you need to have everything to climb. A person, who has the courage to go forward or up, needs two things. He...show more content...
The second thing is to organize and motivate yourself. I understand how to give myself the best chance to flourish. We can make leaders from ourselves. But the main thing here is that by changing myself, I must always stay myself. You do not need necessary to wear a mask of who you want to be, even if you really want it. It will not lead to good results; you will only inflate your cheeks instead of an objective assessment of your capabilities. We need to use the full power of all the energy, talents and abilities that are given to us.
There is no need to wait for the results from reading popular psychological literature with the promising titles like "Leader for the Week", "How quickly to become a millionaire" and etc., biographies of "famous and successful." Moreover it will not be useful to visit courses, where self–styled psychologists, of course, for a large fee, are teaching people how to become successful. Objective assessment of yourselves, your capabilities, coupled with self–development and a clear statement of purpose – that is what is needed.
In order to analyze my drawbacks, to accept them (which is itself a step forward) and to uproot it, I find out the following methods: * Talk with my own inside critic. We need to listen to his comments on others and ourselves and objectively contradict him. And even better to have a notebook in which to write down everything he tells you. I should step back and look