The Best Way to Influence Is to Set Example - Essay Example

Since I was young, I have always yearned to be a manager of a multinational business. Therefore, I have been aligningmyself with people who will impact positively on my life. In addition, I have been attending forums that are being addressed by successful leaders. This has been instrumental in increasing my passion to hold a leadership position in the organization. Currently, one of the major challenges that I am facing is communication. Although I have passion to lead other people, I find my communication skills more wanting. During my high school days, other team members that I led kept on complaining that I did not posses good communication skills. They stated that I was not audible and I was not convincing. Since then, I have put a lot of attention on my communication. Despite achieving some improvements, I am yet to learn how to use non-verbal communication skills. However, in order to lead other subordinates in the organization, I need to learn how to use these skills. Currently, the market keeps on changing. Therefore, the organization are employing employees who emanates diverse culture, religion, race, and gender. This is meant to enable the organizations to deal with varying challenges. However, diverse groups are facing various challenges because such people have different ways of dealing with issues. Therefore, conflicts are rampant in such groups. As a leader, I will be faced with a challenge of ensuring that these groups work as a single unit. Therefore, I need to learn on how to work with diverse groups. One of my worst leadership experience occurred during my high school years. As a leader, I was delegating responsibilities to the other team members. Therefore, I was not participating in the task. However, during the presentation of the assignment, the panel announced that the leaders of the groups were the ones to present the assignments. I was not prepared and I had no idea on what the team member had drafted. Therefore, we failed as a group and we were forced to repeat the whole unit. My best leadership experience came during my internship. I was assigned a number of international students who came from different counties and placed in the organization. I was informed that I had to train them how to work as a single unit. In order to achieve this role, I made it mandatory for them to communicate each day. In addition, I emphasized that they were supposed to appreciate the diverse views of each other. Furthermore, they were to use their diverse skills towards achieving the overall objective of the group. Within the timeframe given, all members of the group were interdependent and working together as a unit. Personally, I believe that leadership is about influencing others and guiding them towards a certain objective. It means that leadership is more concerned with serving the interests of other group members. Others believe that leadership is more on providing direction. However, it is of greater importance to the organization because it ensures that the rest of the members are united and conflicts are resolved before they get out of hand. A leader has a role of ensuring that all members of the group work together towards a common objective. He has a responsibility of guiding the rest of the group and solving any issue that might divert the attention of the members from the main course. My role models have influenced my concept by enlightening me that I need to be in the forefront instead of just delegating authority and responsibilities when undertaking a task. My aspiration to lead is driven by the long-term urge to make a change in the society. I have dream that once I take up the position of leadership in a global business, I will drive the organization and influence the subordinates to participate in corporate social responsibility. This will play a significant role in improving the lives of less fortunate in the society. This is because I believe that organizations have a mandate of giving back part of the revenues that have been accrued from the society back to the community in order to support noble projects. Some of the projects include sponsoring the education of the less fortunate children, conservation of natural resources, and supporting the old and abandoned family members in the society. The current society wants a person who will lead and the rest will follow. In the meantime, majority of the organizations participate in CSR to improve their reputation in the market. However, this concept will have to be changed and instead they need to participate because they have a moral obligation to do so. I will achieve this aspect through convincing the organization’s employees and my fellow leaders. I believe that through this intervention, I am going to make the world a better place especially for the less fortunate in the society. I believe that leaders should not focus on their personal interests but the interests of the rest of the members. As a result, they should focus on ensuring that the differences that might affect the unity of the members are solved before they get out of hand. Personally, I value accountability, responsiveness, integrate, and change. These are important values that ensure that the interests of the majority take the centre stage in every aspect of leadership. These values ensure that I follow the set ethical guidelines even when driving change in the group. Since I was young, my father guided me in ensuring that I learn how to be responsive and accountable. He sometimes gave me the opportunity to manage his business. Through this aspect, I learnt how to deal with people who have varying ideologies. In addition, I learnt how to listen to other people and include their views in the change process. This has been significant in guiding me in the learning process. My guiding principle is that “the best way to influence is to set example”. Therefore, I believe that as a leader I need to behave, act, and respond to issues as a role model to other. This plays a significant role in influencing others positively. Read More