How a Leader Should Be - Essay Example

I’d expect my leader to lead in a democratic manner, which encourages everyone’s participation, rather than in an authoritative manner, in which only the leader would have a say. (Ivancevich et al. 2011) In the provided article, the focus is placed on inculcating such leadership qualities that encourage group work, rather than individual efforts. I believe that this is in line with my expectations from a good leader. As the article states, a good leader will recognize talent and guide it effectively.

Moreover, they’d be willing to take risks and think out of the box. The article further states that these leaders would encourage creativity, which is also in line with how I believe a good leader should be. They’d also encourage participation from other group members, rather than taking all the authority in their hands completely. They would recognize that involving everyone would result in more balanced and effective decision-making. As the article states, a leader would facilitate the members through tasks rather than give them orders.

2 (Bennis and Biederman 1996) One very popular theory on leadership is that of Transformational Leadership by James MacGregor Burns. This theory states that the leader and the followers work together in the process of ‘raising one another to higher levels of morality and motivation’. . Both theories focus on the relationship between the leader and the followers. In other words, focus is placed on the functioning of the group as a whole. The followers of leader under transformational leadership feel trust, admiration, and respect for the leader and under such leadership, they would feel to be one with the group which would encourage them to work hard towards their goal.

Further similarities between the two theories include: the leader acts as a mentor and gives attention to the needs of the followers; there is open communication among the group; any individual contribution to the group is given due attention and respect. The leader solicits the ideas of the followers in order to encourage creativity and power of thinking. The leader encourages the group to challenge and push themselves towards achieving the impossible; he/she provides a vision and purpose to the group which encourages them to work towards their goals.

4 I personally had a chance to witness a situation of a weak leadership at a youth conference, where the focus was entirely on the demands of the leader and group participation was minimal. A group of ten people had to work together to make a model bridge in very limited time. The chosen leader had an authoritative style of leading where, instead of delegating and assigning tasks, the leader took everything in her hands. There was very little motivation among the members to contribute to the project.

The project was carried out in quite a haphazard manner where no one was quite sure of what they were supposed to do. This experience further strengthened my belief that a leader alone cannot achieve a task which requires more than one hand. He/she has to keep