Leadership
For a business or an organisation to be successful, there is a need for well trained and effective executives / leaders. An organization without proper leadership will find it very difficult to achieve sustainable success. Leaders help in drafting and disseminating information about new visions or directions and providing staff with the right motivation to boost productivity in this age of intense competition. Therefore, it is necessary for companies to continuously train their leaders so as to ensure that their skills are up-to-date and that their organisations are being led in the right direction (Gitlow, 2004). Based on these observations, this paper seeks to explore the finer issues of leadership through insights of an interview with an acknowledged leader, who trained to be a leader through experience and diligence he gained in different occupations throughout his career.
Key Events
Throughout his life he has experienced various things that have changed his view on leadership. Basically, his view of a leader is that of someone who drafts and communicates a vision that will motivate staff and other stakeholders to align towards common good. He said that the biggest influence to his perspectives on how to lead was the degree of assent by others and his struggles to overcome challenges. He now views leadership as a shared process and responsibility among various stakeholders.
Leadership Approach
Several basic theories and principles have influenced him as a leader. For instance, he asserts that he has taken on an informal approach that is somewhat similar to grounded theory, as he gathers data about a certain issue, drafts a plan on how to deal with that issue and then test that plan and modify it through action on the ground. He added that he has found supplementary learning through books on specific challenges that havehelped him to formulate plans. Working for more than five years at a university has challenged and influenced his perspectives on leadership.
He recalls his excitement he had when he joined university. He taught at the university for quite some time. According to him, he was doing what he has always wanted to do in his life -- help students learn and grow by teaching them from what he thought was a fresh new perspective. When he noted any operational challenge at that point, he immediately went to work to formulate theories on how to tackle the challenge. However, he soon found out that teaching at this particular university was not the job for him since the management of the institution was not particularly happy about embracing his bold new ideas. He noted that although the university had grown exponentially in the few years he had worked there; it continues to suffer from the same problems he had identified earlier on.
When I asked him whether he was born a leader or made a leader, He said that he was made a leader. He claimed that before he started teaching at the university, he had never thought that he would be given the gift of leadership. He told a story of how he had come from a small traditional family where no one else had progressed to hold a leadership position in the community or society. He therefore thinks that he was given the gift of leadership by God but he worked to develop the skill set that has made him the leader he is today.Indeed, according to Sanders (1967), even though leadership is a gift from God, leadership skills can and should be developed.
According to Kadalie (2006), for one to be a successful leader, there is a need for an inner motivation that drives them. Teachers normally base their job satisfaction levels on their ability to help students and to bring about a real change in their lives. In the same way, leadership for teachers is based on their desire to provide better learning environments for their students.
Various studies have revealed that the majority of teachers do not agree with the view of a leader as a person who holds a superior position in an organizational structure. Instead, many teachers think of leadership as a collaborative effort between various stakeholders for the purpose of providing better learning environments for students (Dmock & McGree, 1995). Nowadays, leadership roles for teachers have expanded. Lecturers can now work as master teachers, advisors, mentors or research colleagues. Lecturers can also be members of institutional-based leadership programs or support teams. Teachers are also working individually to implement programs in various other capacities (Troen & Boles, 1992).
Leadership Development Plan It is imperative for an effective leader to have a plan in order to succeed. This takes into account a personal plan intended for growth and a professional one intended for improvement. The purpose of this paper is to highlight my personal strengths and weaknesses as a leader, ascertain the areas necessitated for enhancement, and pinpoint the leadership skills and practices that I will employ to become an
Leadership Development Plan I am an informed and inquisitive leader, and have sufficient command over functional knowledge and subject matter. Besides this, I can easily grasp ideas and concepts. Paying attention to what others have to say, and supporting them, is a rather easy task for me. I like to take on novel challenges regularly so as to be able to learn new things. I look to multiple sources for inspiration,
My ISTJ nature shows that I am internally focused. In order to improve my interpersonal skills by developing the aforementioned traits, I will need to shift my focus to the external world. I will need to actively consider the view points of my co-workers rather than imposing my own ideas on them (Thompson, 2006). There are a few different options to me for developing these skills in the next 180
Introduction My personal leadership development plan is based my intention to use transformational leadership theory to promote healthcare-eldercare advocacy in my organizational behavior. As Shanks and Buchbinder (2012) show, “leadership development includes both formal and informal efforts” (p. 279). Completing courses online or at a university are formal ways to develop one’s leadership skills, while informal efforts can include anything from mentoring others to coaching and guiding staff members in new
The need in the short-term to create greater confidence in managing the uncertainty of the role is critical. As is the need for creating more opportunities for shared risk with subordinates. The development of this skill however will need to be medium-term as taking extension courses at a local university to make my ability to analyze and solve complex problems and build a more consistent action strategy is critical.
This is significant, because the author cites studies that indicate how organizations that have a high degree of transformational leadership skills throughout each layer of their companies are much more adept at transforming all forms of knowledge into an ongoing competitive advantage and competitive strength. By making the commitment to an ongoing leadership development program, the author contends that a knowledge-based organization emerges that is capable of interpreting and
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