Leadership Process And Professional Development - Research Paper Example

Leadership Process And Professional Development Executive Summery Leadership is very hard to define. It is a harder to determine whether it is an art or science. Being a leader is not easy in any way. A leader is always very busy and has to sacrifice many things to fulfill his duty. A leader has great responsibility and has a lot to lose if something goes wrong. The book “The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership” written by John C. Maxwell gives laws and defines leadership in a great manner. It helps clear the concept of leadership and differentiates leadership with administration and entrepreneurship. These law help people and companies determine the potential of themselves and their leaders. These laws if abided by give companies and societies great leaders which can lead then through good and bad times. If a leader is evaluated upon these laws his potential can be very clearly understood. Table of Contents Table of Contents Table of Contents 1 Introduction “The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership” were given in a book titled the same by John C. Maxwell who is an expert on leadership. He has sold over 16 million books on the topic leadership and has trained millions of people on the topic.1The book alone has sold one million copies worldwide. These laws discuss and define the topic of leadership in great detail, carefully outlining all the characteristics a leadership should have. These laws are very individual in nature but in many ways complement each other beautifully. The application of these laws in any leadership can help make this leadership great in every sense of the word. Most people think that leadership is the same as management or entrepreneurship; these laws clearly define the differences and clear the concept. These laws are defined below. The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership The Law of the Lid: This means that every leader has an inborn capacity within him, the capacity to lead. He cannot go beyond that capacity in his leadership. A leader has a limit to his effectiveness and cannot be effective beyond this limit. A person may be an effective leader for a group of 20 middle aged people and may not perform the same in leading a group of 10 youngsters. Organizations and people should understand this, if an organization is not working well it may be beyond the effective capacity of the leader. The Law of Influence: Even people of small size or age can have great influences. Leadership is all about influencing people to participate and do things in the right way. Without having this ability it is almost impossible to lead people. Adolf Hitler was 5ft 9 inches of height but he was a very popular leader of Germany for a very long time.2 The Law of Process: To become a good leader one has to be a learner at all times. One should try to improve on all skills and learn from what he may have done wrong. Leadership develops day by day with the help of learning; it is not a skill that can be suddenly acquired.3 The Law of Navigation: A leader always is able to visualize where he actually wants to be with his team at the end of the project. He is able to identify problems before they actually occur and provides their solutions to his team before they run into those problems and panic. His goals are well outlined and he knows all the pros and cons of the plans.4 The Law of E. F: Hutton: A leader always tries to have the speaking skills of E. F. Hutton, a very influential stock analyst, who caught the attention of everybody when he spoke and made them listen. If you have to tell people you are in charge to make them listen to you it means you are not a good leader.5 The Law of Solid Ground: A leader is trusted by his people, if they do not trust you, you cannot be their leader. A leader has a good character, mane connections and is very competitive as all these help build trust.6 The Law of Respect: A leader is strong enough in his skills to be looked at very respectfully. People have the tendency of following the people who they assume are stronger to them in the capacity. Strength commands respect. If people feel you are better at leadership than them they follow and respect you.7 The Law of Intuition: Leaders have the ability to see beyond the facts. They are able to deduce conclusions and speculate results before time. At times of decision making a leader is able to make the right decision quickly with the help of his intuitive sense. He is able to see things well before they happen and is to be prepared for them.8 The Law of Magnetism: Leaders have the ability to attract the right people to do the right jobs. They attract people who have very similar qualities like them. This helps them make great teams and develop a wonderful understanding among the team. The Law of Connection: A leader makes connections with people on an individual level. He tries to know them and associate with them on an individual level. He makes sure that people know that he cares for them. This makes it easy for him to communicate with them in a group. The Law of the Inner Circle: A leader should have strong close associates around him and they should be strong people who are talented. These should be able to advice and represent him on different occasions. They should be very strong in their area of specialization.9 The Law of Empowerment: A leaders should give ownership and power to people who are doing things. People should have full power to make decisions related to their own work. “Great leaders gain authority by giving it away.”10 The Law of Reproduction: A leader believes in training somebody as his under study. A true leader can be built by only being under another leader who wants you to learn from him. A leader is a mentor for many of his followers. Any organization, if encourages this mentorship never lacks a good leader.11 The Law of Buy-In: People already believe in leaders before they believe in their vision. Leaders develop their credibility and liability with people before selling them their visions and ideas. If people do not like the leader they will never support his cause even if they believe in it. The Law of the Victory: Leaders always try to strive for victory, they maintain a competitive team they give them the full resources and use their vision to go with the right idea. They differentiate between a bad and a good idea and never go with a bad idea no matter what.12 The Law of the Big Mo: A good leader always creates momentum of work by motivating people. He never lets work stop or pause. He takes quick decisions and starts things as early as possible because he knows one he has started the good idea it will be east to carry through. The Law of Priorities: Leaders know how to categories things with respect to the importance of those things. Leaders focus their energy on things that can generate better results than other options which may not do so. They are busy and instead of doing small things of lesser value they tend to spent that time to do one or two big things that generate a much higher value.13 The Law of Sacrifice: A good leader learns to sacrifice a lot of things like his personal gains and personal life in order to accomplish greater goals; he knows that without these sacrifices he may never be able to be a great leader. The Law of Timing: A good leader knows the importance of great timing. He should be at the right place at the right time and should say the right thing at the right time. Timing can make or break many things like organizations and even leaders and their lives. The Law of Explosive Growth: A good leaders leads his followers with his full sincerity and tries to include other leaders in his group so that he can achieve exponential growth in his mission. It is easy to lead followers, this adds growth but it is difficult to lead leaders but if done properly it multiplies growth. The Law of Legacy: A great leader always leaves his organization in a good position where the organization can continue operations smoothly without any hindrance after the depart of the employee. He always takes care of succession planning, and leaves a brilliant leader and a successor to himself.14 Conclusion These 21 laws explain leadership with all its aspects. These help everybody understand the term, identify the leaders and helps them be one. To some people two or three laws may seem important to other all 21 may be of great significance, but nobody can deny that all these if abided by make a great leader. Bibliography About John C. Maxwell http://www.johnmaxwell.com/about/ “The Pathology of Evil” By George Victor, 1999, Page 62 “Building Knowledge through Action Systems, Process Leadership and Organizational Learning” By Roland K. Yeo, Foresight, 2006 “Navigating through the new leadership landscape” By Garonzik, Ron, Nethersell, Geoff, Spreier, Scott, Leader to Leader; Winter2006 “Speaking of Success: The Power of Communication” By Women in Business, May/Jun2005 “The Future of Leadership” By Tom Karp; Thomas Helgo, Foresight, April 2008 “Learning Respect” By Glover, Sarah L.; Hannum, Kelly M.. Leadership in Action, Sep/Oct2008 “Being Boss is Hard” By Ginsberg, Rick, Phi Delta Kappan, Dec2008 “How Much Is That Worker Worth?” By Baker, Stephen, Business Week; 3/23/2009 “Power Struggle” By Jogulu, Uma; Wood, Glenice, Engineering Management, Jun2007EADERSHIP “Getting Serious About Professional Development” By Edutech Report; Sep2004 “The Opposable Mind: How Successful Leaders Win Through Integrative Thinking” By Martin, Roger L “The Leadership Value of Setting Priorities” By Cartwright, Talula, Leadership in Action, Jan/Feb2008 “Leaving a Leadership Legacy” By Reading Today, Oct/Nov2005 Read More