How Could Leadership Be Effective - Assignment Example

How could leadership be effective Identify 5 concepts that had the greatest influence on your development as a leader. The five elements were communication, ethical consideration, path (task) clarity, team work and transformation through incremental improvements and induction of knowledge and expertise. • Discuss the impact that the concept had on your development as a leader. Communication is of immense importance in any task, be it small or large. In a large perspective communication is the main source of accomplishment of any objective and endeavor. The importance of communication cannot be avoided in cases when there is team work and multiple units involved in the progress and project. Lack of communication can cause havoc and failure of the entire project. The goals achievement was made possible through reliable, and in time communication. Delay in communication or slight miss communication can cause serious disturbances in the entire process and project. Communication is the back bone of any project and process. They can either halt the progress or initiate absolute progress and wonders in the project. The secret to success of any project is its level of communication. In this case the success can also be attributed to the good level of communication. Path and task clarity allowed providing clear direction. Implementing it enables practical demonstration of work that will work as an example and hence help the followers and team mostly achieving the objectives. Only knowing where to go ahead can lead us to destination, going at random with no specific direction in might and sight leads the unit, the project and individuals nowhere. It is the utmost priority of the leader to ensure that the path is determined, and so are the members aware of the path. IN case of leader member exchange, productivity and creativity is highly probable since this theory and concept of work is loosely based on exchange of ideas between the top head, which is the leader himself and the members who work underneath the leader but for same purpose. Hence leader member exchange method was also of great use in the entire process. For the principle of leadership ethics, it is the element of morality introduction inside the working unit. This helps enabling the workers to work on pure professional lines, with utmost honesty and sincerity. Leaders lead by example in every discipline of the team and task, most important of them all is the ethical aspect. Ethical aspect fulfillment helps keeping the entire accounts and details in check as well as ensuring good practices in the unit. Team leadership is a collective approach. Using this helps in many ways, firstly each of the member holds equal responsibility, if not equal at least some proportion of responsibility and answering at the end of the project and task. Transformational leadership involves incremental progress. Adopting it in an organization requires time because the leaders try to bring the best out of individuals in an ascending manner. • Describe how your view of leadership evolved as a result: Leadership is a developmental process. No one can become a leader in a fortnight; instead these qualities creep into an individual with time. There is a concept of born leaders, however in modern times this trend and concept is slightly modified. With so many developmental processes, mechanical approaches and industrial frame works, there is always a need for nurturing, training and guiding. Leadership is a interesting journey and a challenge in its own. Being in the shoes of leader brings about many responsibilities with itself as well as perks and privileges. The sense of leading, followed by delivering the goals is one of those special feelings that an individual can experience. The entire process gave an insight into the concept of leadership and the personality of leader. Though not singly but leader is highly responsible for the success and failure of the project. A good leader can bring the project out of nowhere and make it a success, while an average leader or one who fails to deliver can end up losing the opportunity. The element of risk and its evaluation in terms of its benefits and loss is a critical decision that an individual as a leader must make. Challenges and risks do pay back plenty but at the same time, they do back fire and in such cases, can hamper the entire process. It would be theoretically untrue if it is being said that a leader does not come across any sort of challenge during his tenure as a leader. • Apply the concept to your daily practice; what will you do differently in the future? : For future endeavors, one can focus on the areas where less productivity was achieved, or less desirous results were obtained. Every second time brings about more improvement and productivity in the task that was accomplished and performed the first time. The areas of progress can be possibly those where the through put was relatively less. This entire progress can be evaluated best if the entire project is divided into clusters. The cluster formation makes the tasks very much easy. They allow simplicity; they allow ease of operating and handling them and finally looking into the areas of improvement once the project is done. Hence this is the method and measure of bringing about improvement in the entire process for the future projects. Question 2: • During the course, how did you develop as a leader? This course helped understanding the concept of leadership and leader through explanation of various kinds of leaders, various situations that the leaders are faced with, all the challenges and tasks that depend on the leaders. Studying a subject helps an individual understanding the details of respective field, same goes for studying the process of leadership and all the factors that evolve around the concept of leadership. Practical examples of various scenarios where leaders performed exceptionally well also help getting to know about the entire concept of leadership. The leadership development is not just based on single item or functioning. Instead it is the mixture of many elements. • What is your leadership philosophy or vision? Leadership is a prestigious role. It is a package of many things that includes obstacles, perks and incentives. It is thankful at the same time most demanding. Leader must have the personality and traits that makes him the right person for the job. Leader must be extremely flexible, must have element of innovation, craftiness and creativity, at the same time should have ability to rule and look after the team members. Communication development and subsequent maintenance goes without saying. Since communication is of vital essence in leadership. Communication is the tool that keeps the team members and the leader in tact. • How are you making it manifest? (How is your vision evident to others?): Leading by example is a common phrase that is being used in the managerial field often. The team members would look up to the leader always. They take up the habits from the top head, and in longer run exhibit these habits. Hence it’s an imparting process where unintentional actions can have massive impact on the team members. In other words, the present, as well as future of project, or organization is in hands of leader. While they contribute in present by their own, and by transforming the capabilities, motivation, leading style, they set up the pattern for future. Certain rules must be adopted as rule of thumb while being the leader. The first and foremost is the ethical aspect. Total dedication and moral honesty is of very high importance. This is followed by good communication skills. Communication skills enable imparting the knowledge in a perfect manner. Lack of communication would make it difficult otherwise. Finally keeping a very friendly atmosphere is always good. Though some proponents of the field of management, quality and leadership recommend stick and carrot approach, and it is largely in practice all over the world by the leaders, yet others advocate the process of total co operation. In many multinational firms, incentive based relation and policy is adopted. In that case, the performance output is tied to the incentives and future of the employees. Conclude with a short summary of your thoughts about leadership. Write a concise statement (250 words) that summarizes your beliefs about leadership using the following quote form Warren Bennis as your starting point: “The point is not to become a leader. The point is to become yourself, and to use yourself completely – all your gifts, skills and energies – to make your vision manifest. You must withhold nothing. You must, in sum, become the person you started out to be, and enjoy the process of becoming. (Bennis, 1989 p. 106) Conclusion: Leader and leadership is an essential component of any organization. Both these words are often used in an interchanging manner. The author presents an interesting analogy and fact of life and that is to be your own self. By being your own self one can get to understand the objective of task at hand. By being you one can make use of the resources, the equipment, mind and all other components that would complement the task at hand. It is a known fact that no organization or team established can run and work without a leader. Just like every house has a head, in the same way organizations have their own leaders. Like every organization should have the staff, it should have the resources, in the same way, leaders are the essential component and they are not above any other entity. These all are the complementing bricks towards each other. The only difference is the difference between roles. Some guide, others are being guided and others assist only. Leaders through their literal meaning are those who guide and initiate. All the processes and actions that are taken up by the leader make up the leadership principles. The purpose of leadership is to bring out the best from the components of the function and team. These components can be either the individual personnel or the processes. Various strategies can be applied to the principle of leadership, and leadership itself is an entirely separate discipline. Under its umbrella components like leadership qualities, leadership ethics, leadership motivation, leadership abilities are few of the items that define this field. References Bennis, W. (1989). On becoming a leader. Reading, MA: Perseus Books. DuBrin, A. J. (2012). Leadership: Research Findings, Practice, and Skills. Cengage Learning. Northouse, P. G. (2012). Leadership: Theory and practice (6 ed.). Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publishing. Read More