Leadership : Ethics, Values, and Attitudes - Essay Example

Leadership: Ethics, Values, and Attitudes In Topic One, leadership is defined as an individual’s behavior as he directs a group’s activities as they work to achieve a common goal. The same topic further describes leadership as a relationship and interplay between various actors in a certain context. Based on these definitions, this paper will reflect on the nature of leadership, and how leadership differs from management. In the topic, management is described as being a top-down or linear rather than interactive process like leadership, and is more scientific and formal than leadership. This makes leadership a process in which the leader influences his followers, and the followers influence the leader as well towards achieving a common goal. Therefore, if the distinction between leadership and management is based on the communication between those in leadership positions and their followers, then leadership calls for particular characteristics of an individual (Zaccaro & Klimoski 41).
Being intelligent, creative, innovative and open to adjustment are prime characteristics in a leader. This is manifested in one aspect of the roles where they have to respond differently to different followers in similar situations. Further, even the same follower may need different responses in various situations. In the same manner, the leader does not expect similar reactions to his responses from all the followers. To this end, the leader’s creativity and capability to adjust will always target at eliciting teamwork and cooperation from the followers while keeping them motivated. The motivation the followers get from their leader makes him more than just a manager, whose (manager’s) primary task is to supervise over subordinates. At his position, power will come naturally to a leader, but it can be seen from the definition of leadership as a relationship that the leader will not use that power as a tool. Here, one can see how leadership and management are set apart. Management will rely on a universal set of skills like controlling, budgeting and planning while on the other hand, leadership will involve considering the views of the followers on how far they can take the organization (Montana & Bruce 36). From this aspect, we see that management has an authoritarian outlook, maybe even suppressive, where power is used to control situations while leadership is portrayed as not just a skill or quality, but the behavior of an individual.
High self esteem and a positive attitude drive a leader’s energetic walk towards the organization’s common goal without necessarily getting pushy (Zweifel 9). From the topic, a reader sees that the leader’s positivity infuses and maintains cohesive behavior and mutual cooperation among his followers, which actually makes the working towards a common goal a desirable task. The leader’s positive reaction to situations encourages the followers to view the brighter side of the situation. This calls for him to win, not demand, their confidence and trust, and that is where communication becomes a tool that a leader can never work without. A leader’s effective communication will display his knowledge in subject matters and his proficiency in executing ideas, including those contributed by the followers. At the end of studying leadership, we view a leader as a team member who takes the welfare of the team as one of his primary goals, which makes the followers look up to him.
Works Cited
Montana, P., and Bruce H. Management. New York: Barrons Educational Series, 2008. Print.
Zaccaro, S., and Klimoski, R. The Nature of Organizational Leadership: Understanding the Performance Imperatives Confronting Todays Leaders. California: Jossey-Bass, 2001. Print.
Zweifel, T. The Rabbi and the CEO: The Ten Commandments for 21st-Century Leaders. New York: Select Books, 2008. Print. Read More