Reflections on Worlds Leadership - Research Paper Example

Leadership reflection Leadership is a process through which a person influences other people socially towards a common goal or objective. Leaders’ have a number characteristics that differentiate them from all other people. According to Hesselbein and Goldsmith (2010), great leaders possess astounding social aptitude, a zeal for change, and vision that makes them good examples to other people. It is a good skill for all people to inherit. These characteristics also differentiate good leaders from the bad. Leadership is influential when a good leader is in control, but does not have any effect if a bad leader is in control showing the big difference in leadership and success of organizations, businesses and countries. Leadership has to be the most influential process ever. However, the influence can be ensured by good leaders who have respect, intelligence, inspiration, vision, good listeners and above all have integrity and high self esteem and confidence. There are some bad leaders throughout the world who do not have any of these characteristics. They mostly gain their influence by instilling fear as they do not respect other people. They may be successful but along the way they fail. Leadership, which is very influential, can only be done to perfection by leaders who possess the characteristics Contrary to what some may think, leaders are not born but they are made. They develop all these characteristics as they grow to be leaders. In some cases, there are people who are thought to be leaders and they are in fact given the mandate to rule people. Such leaders do not possess such characteristics and if they do, they only posses a few. This does not make them complete leaders and they are likely to be unable to influence the people in their society or jurisdictions positively. In fact, most people do not like to be associated with such leaders. There are some known leaders who are not really leaders in the world today and have always been there in the past. They are known as bad leaders to most. The above characteristics distinguish the good leaders of the bad leaders. Good leaders: President Barrack Obama Good leaders are known to inspire many people in their respective countries and other countries. They have achieved a lot and became role models to many people across the world. There are many people who can be termed as good leaders. One example of such a leader is the current president of the United States, Barrack Obama considered as a good leader for the following reasons. Integrity Integrity is the state of being whole and having strong moral principles. Barrack Obama has been known to have strong moral principles. The President for example stated that he wanted to decrease the number of abortions across the United States. Though He has not gone to the point of stating that it should be completely banned, President Barrack Obama would like to see abortion cases decreased. According to the Obamacare, the president proposed that no abortions would be allowed after twenty weeks of pregnancy. Though there are many abortions that are done before twenty weeks, this would reduce the number of abortions (Andrews, 2012). The President had appointed a committee that was to find out the best time to abort. The committee was composed of many people including scientists, politicians and other experts. One of the scientists who proposed that the abortion be only allowed for pregnancies before eight weeks stated that unborn children can respond to pain when they are eight to ten weeks old after conception. This was shocking to most people in the committee. The chairman was astonished and stated that it was unfortunate America was faced with controversy regarding abortion. He wondered that they are unable to provide protection for the unborn children, yet it is possible to offer protection to some animals. Frank lamented that late abortions were like transferred infanticide to Human beings and was very worrisome. He was hopeful that the American Judiciary as well as other stakeholders in the American government would take responsibility for changing this practice as President Obama had envisioned (Ertelt, 2013). This shows that the integrity of President Obama is very intact. In fact, there are many people who believe that President Barrack Obama has shown a lot of integrity for the time he has been known. They are also amazed by the fact that he does not change his mind. He sticks to what he perceives as good no matter what. For him, it would be better for something to delay but not change what he believes in (Ramos, 2008). Democratic President Obama has always believed in democracy even before He became the President of the United States of America. He believes that people should be treated well and should not be denied their rights. He believes that people have the right of life, speech, media, equality, and access to health care, access to everything that makes life worthwhile. President Barrack Obama claims that every social movement that has been successful in the last century, democracy was the driving force. He provided examples of Apartheid in South Africa, Gandhi campaign against colonialism from Britain and the solidarity movement in Poland (Cox, Lynch and Bouchet, 2013). As such, President Obama is never shy to comment when the rights of the people are violated anywhere in the world. President Obama was hopeful that democracy would be achieved in the North Africa and Middle East countries during the Arab Springs. Democracy was achieved in some of the countries and where it was not achieved, His administration chipped in to help the people of that country. Libya for example, the people wanted to oust the late leader Muammar Gaddafi but they were unable to. United States and the allies helped the country to get rid of a dictator in the quest to achieve democracy. Looking at the current time, there has been a crisis in Syria for the last two years. President Barrack Obama has been sympathizing with the people of Syria and has pledged support to ensure that there is democracy in the country (Rashid, 2009). Confidence President Barrack Obama is confident such that critics state that he is overconfident. He has always shown this characteristic since the time he came to the limelight. When he was being inaugurated as the President of the United States of America, Obama knew that there were two issues that he had to deal with. He had inherited from the previous administration huge national debts and economic disaster. These issues can cow even the most confident people but Obama did not seem cowed by these two. Instead, he informed Americans that he had a plan to end the economic disasters and reduce the huge debt. He stated that America would pick itself up and begin to work to regain its glory as a great nation. The president has been working hard to achieve this promise for Americans. Those close to President Barrack Obama claim that he talks of recession everyday and he is always looking for workable plans to reduce the national debt (Andrews, 2012). Mindful decision making This is one of the most important characteristics of any good leader. This involves articulating issues from different perspectives, looking at the possible solutions and the challenges that may be encountered. According to a Newsweek contributor, Obama is a critical thinker who analyses a subject from all perspectives and viewpoints, organizes his mind on how to approach the issue coming up with a logical solution. Basing on this comment, it is certain that the president of the United States makes sober and logical decisions on any issue. Looking at the case of Syria civil war, President Barrack Obama approached the sensitive matter very intelligently. At the same time, he consulted widely with other nations to come up with a comprehensive yet sustainable solution for the people of Syria (Hasson, 2013). Bad Leader: Muammar Gaddafi As stated above, bad leaders are very different from the best leaders and have very different opinions on running a country, business or organization. There are many bad leaders in the world today and in history. Some have gotten the attention of the world for example the late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. Lack of respect for democracy Democracy is a philosophical term which is based on the will of the people. The people choose their leaders and they have the right to remove them from power if they have a reason to believe that the leader is not working towards their benefit. In this case, when the people of a country claim that they are not satisfied with the way their leader is running their country, The leader should step down and allow the people to choose another leader, who they believe can administer their interests well (Inbar, 2013). Muammar Gaddafi did not have respect for democracy. First, he ruled the country for four decades without any opposition. As such, what he said was done regardless of whether it was good or bad. There was no strong opposition and his government did not have any checks for balances. Muammar Gaddafi did what he thought was right but was not necessarily the right thing for the people of Libya. The people of Libya did not have any choices of leaders and they had to endure authoritarian regime until they reached their breaking point. When the people of Libya started to demonstrate stating that they were fed with Muammar Gaddafi’s leadership, the president did what was not imaginable. He sent troops to attack the people who were calling for a revolution in the country. Many people lost their lives and were it not for the intervention of the international community, more people would have died. The property was also destroyed and what had taken Libyans years to build was destroyed in just a few months. The country will take long to recover as a result of their late leader. At the same time, many people were arrested in Libya in the four decades Gaddafi ruled for opposing his rule (Inbar, 2013). Disrespect Muammar Gaddafi was known for disrespect of other people. He believed that he was the kings of kings in the world and what he did was the right thing and no person could tell him what is right or wrong. When Gaddafi went to the United Nations Security Council meeting for the first time in 2009, he clearly showed disrespect for not only the people at the council meeting but for the whole world. Gaddafi was required to talk for fifteen minutes and then allow other people from other countries to speak. Instead, he took more than one and half hours to complete his speech. At the same time, Gaddafi insulted other leaders in the council meeting. He claimed that the then President of the United States George Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair were responsible for terrorism and ought to be jailed. The other leaders and dignitaries from the world over could not believe what just happened at that time. He renamed the United Nations Member Councils Terror council as he continued to insult the leaders and the world (Pilginton, 2009). Disregarding Human rights Muammar Gaddafi did not care about the lives of other people. During his regime, He killed many people in Libya for opposing him. He believed that he was the ultimate leader and anyone who opposed him should be killed. Many people were arrested and executed because of this. At the same time, he supported terrorism which is the worst nightmare of human rights. Though there just rumors years back, his support for terrorism was confirmed when His administration accepted responsibility for shooting down a commercial aircraft where more than two hundred people were killed. There were comments which he made that connected him to international terrorism. The Gaddafi administration also disregarded the privacy of the people of Libya. It is claimed that more than twenty percent of Libyans during his regime were paid to spy on other Libyans. They could not do things openly as they feared that they could be arrested. When Gaddafi took over power, he confirmed that he liked the ideology of Idi Amin, the late Ugandan dictator. Gaddafi even sent troops and military support to Idi Amin when the rebels started fighting his regime. His support for this leader clearly showed that he would not respect the rights of people (Duncan Et Al, 2013). Impact of leaders Leaders have a lot of impact on most of use. While most people are inspired by the good leaders, they detest the bad leaders. Both good and bad leaders have an influence on people. While people use the good leaders as an example of what they can do, the use the bad leaders as examples of what to avoid to be good leaders and role models in the society and the world. Good communication: Communication is important and having good communication skills is critical. The first thing in good communication is listening to others. Good leaders are known to listen to other people carefully. They do not interrupt until the other party completes talking. They then synthesize what they have heard before they can respond to the other person. Good leaders like Barrack Obama have inspired many to always latent to others well and respond at the appropriate time. This has led to improvement in communication skills, leading to greater understanding among people and less conflicts. Focus: Good leaders are known to have visions and they would do whatever it takes to achieve these goals. Getting to know good leaders like Barrack Obama inspires many to always be focused, get visions and put the necessary resources to achieve the visions and goals. This makes people to achieve individual goals which are of great importance to the society and jurisdiction at large. Teamwork: good leaders are constantly working with other leaders and people to come up with common solutions. They set the pace for other people who would like to succeed in the future to always work with others, listen to others and contribute to the common good of the society and the country. Respect: Leaders who have influenced other people have respect for other people and human rights. Acknowledging their respect definitely makes a person respect human life and others. Some people may even be inspired to fight for the rights of the people who may not have the energy and power to fight for themselves. Confidence: good leaders like President Barrack Obama are confident that even some people question where they get all that confidence from. Learning from his experience, people who consider him a role model get confidence and boost their self esteem. They can face any issues and be able to articulate them perfectly well coming up with long lasting and sustainable solutions. Confidence has been determined to have influence self esteem people and improving their productivity in whatever they do. From the perspective of the bad leaders, most people detest them for what they do to others. For example, most people would not want to be like Muammar Gaddafi. He violated human rights by arresting many people, ensuring that there is no freedom of speech, media and basic amenities. Some people would be inspired by such leaders to change the lives of people in such societies. Future leaders in such countries work hard to change such cases to ensure that people have access to rights. Conclusion Leadership is a very important concept in the world. This process is made possible by good leaders. They possess characteristics which inspire other people to be like them. There are also bad leaders who use authoritarian methods to rule people. They cannot be opposed and when they are, they are known to make arrests. Whether good or bad, the leaders have been of invaluable lessons to other people in the world. When the good set examples, the bad indicate what is to be avoided to be good. While good leaders are likely to leave a good legacy, the bad leaders leave a bad legacy even if they had even one good characteristic. Leadership is influencing people to work together to achieve common goals and aspirations. It has become an integral part in the countries, businesses and organizations. Those that make leadership better succeed compared to those that do not understand what it is or how it can be beneficial. Embracing leadership and especially good leadership promises to change a lot in a society and the world at large. References Andrews, J. (2012). Barrack Obama and Leadership: 10 Reasons the 44th President Squandered Unprecedented Goodwill. Orlando: Jim kochenburger. Cox, M., Lynch, T., and Bouchet, N. (2013). US Presidents and Democracy Promotion. London: Routledge. Duncan, G. Et Al, (2013). State Terrorism and Human Rights: International Responses since the End of the Cold War. London: Routledge. Ertelt, S. (2013). Obama Threatens to Veto Bill Banning Abortions After 20 Weeks. Retrieved from http://www.lifenews.com/2013/06/17/obama-threatens-to-veto-bill-banning-abortions-after-20-weeks/ Hasson, G. (2013). Mindfulness: Be mindful. Live in the moment. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons. Hesselbein, F and Goldsmith, M. (2010). The Leader of the Future 2: Visions, Strategies, and Practices for the New Era. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons. Inbar, E. 2013. The Arab Spring, Democracy and Security: Domestic and International Ramifications. London: Routledge. Pilginton, E. (2009). UN general assembly: 100 minutes in the life of Muammar Gaddafi: Eccentric Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi lives up to his reputation during his first visit to America. The Guardian. Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/sep/23/gaddafi-un-speech Rashid, A. (2009). Obama's Peace in the Middle East: The Mideast Peace Process. Bloomington: Authorhouse. Ramos, C. (2008). Our Friend Barry: Classmates' Recollections of Barack Obama and Punahou School. Raleigh: Lulu Press Inc. Read More