Leadership Development and Becoming a Servant Leader - Article Example

? Leadership Development al Affiliation) Table of Contents LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT 3 BECOMING A SERVANT LEADER 3 I HAVE A DREAM 4 THINKING ETHICALLY 5 THEORIES OF VISIONING AND GOAL SETTING 6 JOURNEY TO THE EAST, HERMAN HESSE 6 GANDHI 8 References 10 Vaughan, A. J. (n.d). Vision and Meaning: Two sides of the same coin. Attached 10 Velasquez, M. Andre, C. Shanks, T. S.J. and Meyer, M.J. (n.d). Thinking Ethically: A Framework for Moral Decision Making. Attached 10 LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT BECOMING A SERVANT LEADER Committed leaders often refer to those who lust for leadership and willingness to serve. They are identified by their wisdom, sincerity, authority and courage. They usually have human quality and strong commitment to their own ideologies and to those of their servants (Lopez, n.d). The first leadership I ever experienced in my life is the one that came from both my parents. All through my growth and development stages, my parents have been the core pillar of my understanding of what servant-leadership is. Looking up to them for being the first leaders I experienced in my life, they taught me how one could make a servant and a leader at the same time. In my teenage period when I ignored all that happened around me, never did they go wrong in ensuring that I remained respectful. They ensured that I was liable to my actions without compromising the love I had for them. That was wisdom, authority and courage they showed me. Being the first born in a family of six, I try frequently to emulating their leadership skill of sincerity, authority and courage down to my younger siblings. In my school life, I also met other leaders: Teachers and student leaders who showed love, provided good direction, made personal sacrifices and encouraged healthy competition among the people they led. My teachers ensured that order, justice and equality for all people could be best achieved through dialogue. Servant leaders develop logical and analytical skills taught in learning institutions. In schools we are taught on how to express unlimited liability for others. These include knowing one self, developing communities and use of power accordingly which make us become servant leaders (Lopez, n.d). I HAVE A DREAM Leaders make great personal sacrifice for the good of their servants. Wise leadership never depends on luck. Rather, it trusts its future to positive attitude, hard work, determination and endurance. There is no easy way to develop leaders. They must learn continually throughout their lives. It is in this context that Martin Luther’s dream of a country which is free of injustices and oppression came to be fulfilled. Martin Luther had a dream of his children living in a nation not judged by their skin color but by their character. True to his words, America is now a great nation and this is clearly depicted by their status as superpower country under a black president (King, n.d). As elaborated in the previous paragraph, self-knowledge enhances genuineness since being honest and open with others is difficult. Such individual qualities reinforce group quality and that is what leadership is all about. In a broader sense, we see the purpose of leadership embraces different values. These include creating a supportive environment where people can grow, live in peace and harmony with one another, promoting harmony with the Mother Nature thus sustainability for future generations, creating communities of shared responsibilities where all people, irrespective of color, age, race and social status matter. Ultimately, each person’s welfare and dignity is supported and valued. I was once a drama club leader in my school. When I sit back and reflect on how I led the drama group I come to realize that it is with such characters as self-knowledge, described by Martin Luther above, that I successfully managed reinforcing group quality that made the drama club a success. By the time I quit drama for other things, we already had like three trophies for our school. All these are characteristics evident in Martin Luther’s speech, and for this we can also see that the world in general has evolved from those days of colonization where racism was very rampant and discrimination was at its peak. All these changes have been brought about by good leadership styles practiced by our leaders (King, n.d). THINKING ETHICALLY In leadership development, thinking ethically plays a major role in moral decision making. It will take a strong leadership personality to understand the fact that not all popular decisions are right; similarly, not all right decisions are popular. A course of action should be enhanced in such a way that both the benefits and harms are weighed and the final result being one with the best overall consequences. Good leadership ought to take action respecting the moral rights of each and every person. Wrong actions violate the rights and freedom of individuals and that does not demonstrate good leadership (Velasquez, Andre, Shanks & Meyer, n.d). A good leader should possess great vision and goal setting. Leaders need to be able to passionately and easily express their ideas easily and well. Good leadership like in the case of governance ensures there are social amenities like healthcare, water and well infrastructure that are accessible to all. From what have experienced as an American citizen, the United States of America has not attained the perfect status of extremely well leadership, but more positives can be taken from the current leadership. The government is working hard to ensure access to all social amenities without fear or favor to any particular group. This shows that there is an element of thinking ethically in our leadership though not a perfect one. Therefore, the most important aspect of leadership is to know how to get his facts right. Though getting facts only is not enough, it clearly gives a blueprint of what a leader has to deal with thus making it a little bit easier for him to deal with problems effectively, starting with those that are of much important including ethical considerations (Velasquez, Andre, Shanks & Meyer, n.d). THEORIES OF VISIONING AND GOAL SETTING Leadership entails setting of goals. Good leaders should set goals that they truly want to achieve. They should ensure the goal is exciting and that they are ready to take up the challenge, make positive changes to their lives and have a realistic set of period of time to achieve the goals. The goals should be real, achievable and logically planned. A goal plan of action is also a must. All successful events are down to good planning first. Good leaders often ensure the goals are broken down to smaller tasks; scheduled tasks to be done within specific times for this will be a motivation towards stating put on the road to success. Many prominent leaders talk of having visions, hence picturing the scene and imagining how it feels like in realization of the goal will act as a morale booster. Then go for it, for good leaders do not just set plans but also execute them. A good example is my president Mr. Barrack Obama. When he was carrying out his campaign, I could see he had good plans for my country. He had a vision and goals to achieve in his manifesto, more so when it comes to healthcare. This is what I term good element of leadership. For one to portray good leadership, he/she must have a set of goals and vision. JOURNEY TO THE EAST, HERMAN HESSE A good leader is a good servant as well. He does his work diligently, and is always there whenever he is needed by the people he serves. Many adore him, his presence and absence is felt in equal measures. This is one trait have experienced from my class master. He’s always there for the students whenever he’s needed. He serves us perfectly well that sometimes we even forget that he’s our class master. To me, I see him more as a servant, consequently making him a good leader. Each successive higher level of leadership gives an increased demand on the emotions of leaders. Hence, leaders at every level must possess the strength to recover immediately from disappointments. That is, an emotional strength to persist in face of situations deemed impossible. Morale and discipline is mostly what successful leaders make of. A leader’s value is demonstrated in his desire to support, under all circumstances, the goals they desire to seek as a group or team. Good leaders should be admirable as good servants (Rosner, n.d). HENRY V, SHAKESPEARE A leader should be God fearing for it is God who gives mankind the wisdom to lead. He should also reward his who work under him when accordingly. A leader shouldn’t be a dictator but be a person who gives his servant options to choose from though he can go ahead to describe his desires from the options he’s given. This is witnessed in King Henry’s statement “That he which hath no stomach to this fight, Let him depart; his passport shall be made” A leader should not dwell on the outside things but strive for honors. He should always work to his best with the little resources he have and be hopeful that whatever action he’s to undertake will prosper. At my drama club, before we embarked on anything, our supervisor insisted on saying a prayer first. He was such a God fearing person that he believed nothing could be a success without asking God for a favor. True to his words, everything we did had something good in it after saying a prayer. I so admired him for that as my leader. He really made us strive for honors more than anything else. A true character of a leader he was. GANDHI A leader’s role has intrinsic periods of loneliness, humiliation, ridicule, rejection and intimidation. From Gandhi’s movie, he went through all these sufferings to the point of spending some of his lifetime in prison. Despite all the painful ordeals he underwent in prison, he still came out strong and continued his search for freedom and equality. In his quest for freedom, he never approached the issue in a violent manner but rather used a defined doctrine of non-cooperation against the colony. His endurance eventually bore fruit when finally India attained its independence. Throughout his quest for justice, he remained faithful to his principles. Was it not for his inherent qualities of a good leader, his outrage at being treated unfairly could have made him bitter and fearful. Although majority of the things Gandhi fought for came to happen, up to date India has not reached that status he has a leader visualized it to be. But many positives can be taken on his work on trying to build a better India. Gandhi almost single handedly stood up to the oppressive might of the British Empire with courage and dignity just ensure there was equity and fairness in allocation and use of resources in his country. (“Gandhi Film Review” n.d). Therefore a leader should show commitment to persevere even in the face of many obstacles. Gandhi demonstrated open and direct communication. He stayed together with his people through the ups and downs. His open communication enabled him go into a negotiation table with the British colony. The unity among his people helped in bringing to an end the injustices brought about by the British. He understood that his strength was in his people and not his individual abilities. A good leader builds consensus by letting people know ‘why’ just like Gandhi did when he fought for justice. This is one character of leadership I experienced as a kid. Before I get punished for any wrongdoing, my mum would tell me my mistake first then punish me. That way I knew why I was getting punished and this helped build a consensus between us after the punishment. (“Gandhi Film Review” n.d). References Gandhi Film Review. (n.d). Retrieved From King, L. M. (n.d). “I Have a Dream” Speech. Attached Lopez, I. O. (n.d). Becoming A Servant Leader. The Personal Development Path. Attached Rosner, H. (n.d). The Journey to the East. Hermann Hesse. Attached Vaughan, A. J. (n.d). Vision and Meaning: Two sides of the same coin. Attached Velasquez, M. Andre, C. Shanks, T. S.J. and Meyer, M.J. (n.d). Thinking Ethically: A Framework for Moral Decision Making. Attached Read More