Stages in Learning Strategic Business Leadership - Essay Example

? Running Head: Strategic Business Leadership Inserts His/Her Inserts Grade Inserts Inserts Date Here (Day, Month, Year) During the course of my academic life, I countered various challenges, some of which contributed to my theoretical learning while others exposed me to practical experiences. This paper presents my own reflection regarding my personal journey which formed a basis of the evolution of understanding and interpreting the essential features of leadership. Today, when I look back at my education life, I realize that most of my present interest and knowledge of complexities and leadership has emerged from the crises and challenges that I have dealt with in order to counter them effectively. This paper chronicles the formulation and development of my views on the subject of the strategic business leadership. Stages in learning Strategic Business Leadership Throughout my academic and professional career, I have experienced numerous touch points and theories which have helped me shape my perspectives and broaden my horizons on the subject of strategic business leadership. On a fundamental level, during the learning of this course, I have visualized myself as a leader who is lucid and depicts a practical view of an inspirational future which motivates others to join in too. Since, I have struggled hard to formulate my thinking and perspectives on the basis of leading capabilities, my vision of becoming a strategic leader has influenced me in shaping up my focus. After studying the subject on leadership, I have begun to see the concept of leadership as a process which is dynamically distributed amongst the actors. Besides this, some fundamental principles have been formed in my minds which have transformed my beliefs about leadership from a mere activity and role to an entire process of goal achievement by inspiring others. More often, I have discovered that additional learning of this subject has facilitated me with the supplementing of the theorizing process which is consistent with the methodology of grounded theory. During the learning, there have been the climax points which have shaped my perspectives on becoming a future leader. I recall studying the charismatic traits of a transformational leader and getting the work done through others, and this has already aroused great determination and enthusiasm in me. The theories of leadership have actually facilitated me with various ways in which one can act and influence the people to make them work. My understanding of the Subject Since, I am largely used to additional readings in order to reference my current learning, I read various authors on the subject of leadership and strategies related to it. Amongst those, my favorite is Sun Tzu in the Art of War. According to him, “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). I interpreted from this statement, that for Sun Tzu, the idea behind leadership was such relationships, strategies, and the dynamism which assists in aligning a vision which is shared by the people and might also demand those aligned to act in such a way which may go beyond their personal self interest. The definition provided in the book also realizes the mutual vibrancy that the followers and leader share in understanding the mutual vision and goal. Both have equal participation and thus, equal share in the risks and benefits in its pursuit. Thus, in my view, strategic business leadership is the management of people with a view which corresponds with providing a direction to the followers which is exactly aligned to the organizational goals and objectives. Simply put, leadership, according to my learning, is largely about exercising authority in such a way which supports other fellows to follow the mutual goals and obtain desired results. I think that leadership is generally about three factors which include problems and solution, trust and relationships, and decisions and consequences. Utilizing the basis, I visualize my commitment of leadership as building meaningful relationships; building trust; moral purpose; data and solution driven decision making; celebrating success; understanding and accepting change as a process; building shared decision making and responsibility; respecting teaching as a profession; finding meaning and joy in the work; and, finding and maintaining balance between work and family demands. Thus, I think that these morals and values are not only useful in professional and academic contexts but they are also able to be utilized in the personal lives of individuals. My Experience Amongst several experiences, there was one which taught me the most and proved to be most applicable in my leadership studies. During my term, I was appointed the event manager of the student body in college. I was given a 20 people committee which I was to manage through proper instructions and leadership skills and this had to lead towards the organization of an event. In the beginning, I countered various problems regarding addressing the committee effectively, making the members understanding my goals, and communicating numerous instructions to the people everyday. With the passage of time, the leadership skills in me started showing out. There was less resources, lesser number of people and a tight deadline to work with. However, through team meetings, listening to each individual’s opinion, considering the suggestions of all the members, allowing the committee a platform for effective participation, I managed to conduct a successful event at the term end. While doing so, I faced a major challenge: team conflict. There was a huge difference of opinion amongst team members which sometimes grew stronger to develop into a conflict. I made myself so convincing in my communication and personality that the members understood all my instructions. The most impressive and motivating factor for them was that, just like other members of the team, I also took a major portion of work and completed it within assigned times and shared my achievements with all the team members. Moreover, the assignments of tasks and resources were done on equal basis and according to the understanding and convenience of all the members. Thus, my experience of leading a team was absolutely successful and the application of learning was also fruitful. Challenges in Learning In case of an interactive session, there is the possibility that numerous challenges can possibly come up. Many confusions, discussions and negotiations aroused during the learning of the strategic business leadership. The differing beliefs, values and opinions gave rise to different views regarding the processes of group communication and conflict standards and negotiation. The long term and short term goal achievement also gave rise to many questions and discussions on the leadership concept. Are the followers are ready to accept the inspirational role of leaders? Is charisma enough to motivate the people to follow a transformational leader? How can the non-contributing followers in a team be inspired and made to work for a shared vision? These are the questions which proved to be challenging during the learning of strategic leadership and relating it to the practical aspect of the subject. My personal experience of leading a team also introduced more questions to me which I took as challenges. Managing a team effectively is one big task which requires special leadership skills, and an inspiring personality. A huge level of trust and confidence is what seems challenging when managing a team. Sometimes, a relationship- oriented approach is required to manage a team while at others, the task-orientation seems to be important; however, it becomes difficult to maintain a balance between the two contexts. Moreover, it is necessary to convince the followers that the goal towards which they are guided is totally attainable and realistic. This is because, most of the people do not visualize the future with such certainty and surety and thus, a leader guarantees this certainty in the long term so that the followers act upon his/her instructions. Development of learning into Professional Career During the learning of Leadership subject during MBA, I paved my way into becoming a leader in future. I developed many beliefs and one of my basic beliefs held that a leader is an individual who views a potential future and establishes activities and plans which is worthy of moving those who are engaged in the vision. I was fortunately, successful in relating the theoretical concepts to the future professional career that I was intending to take. I was able to recognize the gaps which could potentially occur between the required resources and closing the gap with leadership skills. I linked the leadership challenge in being capable of expressing my own vision when other people may not able to think that far regarding what the future circumstances may hold. The Masters studies have enabled me to expand my consideration of the dynamics of strategic leadership through the viewpoint of Requisite Organization model suggested by Jacques’ in 2004. According to him the focus of the post formal adult development usually stays on an individual’s ability to welcome the complexity in a conceptual manner. Jacques observed that the mental capacity for embracing the complexity is correlated with an individual’s ability to complete work for some number of years into future; he indicates that the longer the length of the assigned task, the greater the required mental processing and complexity to complete the work (Herb, 2008, pp. 513). Thus, in association to the professional demands, the process of leadership is required to be responsible for the contextualization that the future generally visualizes the span of time which is relevant to every individual in the organization and every follower in a team. Through my learning of the subjects on leadership, I began seeing the concept of leadership as a continuous process which takes place in the human organizations with the assistance of the collaboration of informal and formal relations. Professionally, leadership can be described as an ongoing process and as an abstract which is brought into a material form by such actors who make their own choices to respond back to particular situations and contexts. In a formal manner, the process of leadership is normally exercised through the management and its hierarchal structure. Through my learning, I ascribe that the principles supported in the Management Accountability Hierarchy modeled by Jacques have been developed to contribute to the adult developmental factors, according to which a manager can possibly be viewed as one level higher than the subordinates with respect to their developmental capacity (Herb, 2008, pp. 513). This suggests that in professional standards, a manager is more accountable for complex thinking to solve the problems which might be faced by the subordinates. Moreover, it is the responsibility of a manager to bring value to the proper understanding of tasks. Put concisely, an effective leadership has direct impacts by the efficient coordination of the employees’ developmental capabilities in managing their flow of communication and work, and the organizational structure of enterprise. This theory and professional connection has been a great knowledge for me through my studies of the leadership concepts in MBA. Conclusion During my learning of the subject, I have touched on numerous aspects, theories, fundamentals and processes of leadership. I have also contrasted them with my personal experience which proved to be a lot helpful for my exposure into the managerial field. In conclusion, I have come to view the strategic leadership in businesses as a dynamic process which continues throughout the life of a business or services organization and occurs as actors which involve the consideration of relationships. These actors are able to perceive the potential possibilities and have all the options to take suitable actions. However, the internal, emotional and mental state of the actors associates their willingness to take actions and engage themselves in the state of following a leader’s commands. Finally, subordinate’s performance effectiveness is subject to impact by the boundary of influence through informal or formal nature of authority to act and the readiness of organization to accept the change brought by him. References Herb Koplowitz, (2008). In Praise of Top-Down Decision Making in Managerial Hierarchies. Taylor & Francis Group, LLC, pp. 513-523 Sun Tzu, (2005). The Art of War. Filiquarian Publishing, pp. 43 Read More