Peculiarities of Leadership - Essay Example

Essay Answer 2 I do believe that it is possible to develop great leaders. According to the trait theory of leadership, leaders are born with inherenttraits that help them become good leaders in the future. The leaders have a combination of the different traits required for being a successful leader. These traits include being adaptable to changing situations, tolerance towards stress, assuming responsibility, high level of activity, assertive, dependable, and co-operative, achievement oriented, ambitious, dominant towards influencing, persistent etc. These traits automatically develop skills like cleverness, creativity, organized approach, social skills, persuasive nature, fluency and diplomacy. The behavioral theory of leadership is contradictory to the trait theory, indicating that leaders can be developed by a learnable and defined behavior of a person. Therefore, in my opinion, leaders can be developed by a suitable approach to develop the skills and knowledge that are required to be a successful leader. Great leaders can be developed within an organization through different ways. The encouragement of the person to develop skills of leadership goes a long way in developing the skills for leadership (Bass, 2000). I would focus on recognizing the talents in the people which are indicators of leadership behavior within my organization. I would give special attention to develop the noticeable skills like strategic thinking, leading behavior, creativity, diplomacy etc. Also, I will try to employ different learning and development opportunities within the organization to nurture and develop different skillsets within the employees. I would also implement practices to improve the mindsets of the employees to look at problems at opportunities to facilitate real world learning. I would also focus on the development of the knowledge and skills of the potential leaders. I would facilitate value and knowledge sharing within the employees of the organization to identify the traits of a good leader and nurture the capabilities of the potential leaders in specific domains. I would focus on identifying some existing traits within the individuals and streamline them with the required skills to embark on an effective process of nurturing and developing good leaders. I would focus extensively on developing the behaviors like innovation, creativity, task orientation, people orientation, assertiveness and dependability in the process of developing good leaders. I would create road maps for the development of the different behaviors of the employees through the modes of traditional learning as well as non-traditional learning (Forbes Magazine, 2012). I would focus on building on the honesty and integrity factors as they are the basic qualities required to be demonstrated by a leader. Also, other behaviors like proactivity, consistency, excellent communication skills and a high level of commitment towards people and objectives would play a critical role in the creation of effective leaders. Enthusiasm and motivation act as contagious behaviors among human beings. Therefore, I would concentrate extensively on developing the motivation, enthusiasm and communication levels within the organization. The key components of an effective leadership development program should focus on leadership strategies, proper development strategies to develop the existing and the potential leaders, proper methods of identifying the potential good leaders and using proper retention program to retain the developed leaders within the organization (Bryman, 1992). I would ensure that the leadership strategies should include identifying the leadership gaps within the organization and identifying the potential leaders to fill the gaps (Avolio, 1990). The strategies should be employed to develop a strategic roadmap with specific, measurable and deliverable objectives for the development program. I would implement succession planning and various high potential learning programs to meet the future demands in the leadership pipeline. I would design the development program to have transparent selection techniques and to provide different opportunities for the people selected for the program. The leadership development program would also include developing the communication skills, training, mentoring and developing the personal characteristics and behavior of the potential leaders (Nahavandi, 2012). I would implement different training processes like developmental assignments, activity based learning, and project based learning. The leadership development program should include the human resources department, the employees and the management of the organization. I would aim to make the leadership development process a process following a 360o feedback process which employs effective feedback mechanisms from all the levels of the organization (Yongwang, 2010). The development program would include the human resource personnel who plan the program, mentor and train the potential leaders to develop good leaders within the organization. I would ensure that the different employees should be chosen through unbiased and innovative selection techniques. Also, I would choose efficient training personnel to mentor the participants in the development program. I would suggest a feedback system at every phase of the development program for the trainers as well as the trainees (Posner, 2010). Answer 5 The different skills and perspectives of leadership can be applied in real life scenarios by an individual. I can implement the different behavioral skills and knowledge imparted by the learning process in my work life. I would ensure building different work relationships and establishing a positive work environment in my workplace. I would use the skills developed in the process of decision making and maintaining proper vision and objectives for individual and team work within my organization. I would employ the behavioral skills like confidence, communication, perseverance, leading behavior and influential behavior to improve my own work as well as the work of my team in the organization (Northouse, 2009). The implementation of my learning from the leadership program would ensure the establishment of a positive work environment in the organization. I would apply the task oriented behavior in completing the work within the set time frames. Also, I would apply the people oriented behavioral skills to build and maintain useful relationships with my colleagues in the organization. I would focus extensively on analyzing, creating, interpreting, conceptualizing the different processes in the organization. Also, I would use my leading and decision making skills, my interacting and communicating skills to build up better relationships in the workplace. I would use my adaptability skills to demonstrate suitable flexibility required when innovations are done in the workplace. Also, I would incorporate my influencing skills to support the business processes by influencing my co-workers. I would use the organizing and performing skills to ensure that the tasks are performed effectively in my organization. I will demonstrate a higher level of willingness to talk up more responsibility as well as try to influence and motivate my co-workers. After completing management course, a person would gain much theoretical knowledge about the leadership styles, skills and behaviors. But additional knowledge and the application of the skills in the practical work experiences would have to be imparted to the person. I would therefore ensure that the individual can successfully use the leadership learning in the real life implementation processes (Winkler, 2010). I would encourage the individual to create a proper vision and develop a road map to reach the vision (Harvard Business Review, 2012). I will follow an effective communication process in the work place as well as focus on people as well as processes. I would also try to impart the skills of informed and active decision making to the individual. The most important part would be to make the person see the problems as opportunities and work towards solving them effectively for achieving their goals. There are a number of differences between a leader and a manager. A leader is known to lead, inspire and motivate people to work towards attaining a common objective. On the other hand a manager is a person who controls, co-ordinates and performs various planning, organizing and other managerial functions. The leaders are oriented towards building new structure and better relationships whereas managers are likely to work within the framework of an existing structure (Oracle, 2012). The leaders generally align people with their visions and goals whereas the main role of a manager is to staff and organize the employees and their activities. The main role of a manager includes planning, staffing, directing, organizing and controlling whereas that of a leader is to influence and motivate their followers to achieve a common goal. Managers generally direct the people to do a job whereas leaders inspire and guide the people to perform the function. Leaders focus on achieving different shared objectives whereas the managers focus on getting different jobs done by the employees (Pasmore, 2013). A leader is known to be innovative in his practices whereas a manager is known to follow and implement the rules within an organization. The functions of a leader include creating visions, encouraging and inspiring people to work towards the vision. The functions of a manager include focusing on the structure, ensuring control over people and tasks, administering and maintaining the procedures within the organization. References Avolio, B. (1990). The implications of transactional and transformational leadership for individual, team, and organizational development. Research in Organizational Change and Development. Vol. 4(5). Bass, B. (2000). Leadership and performance beyond expectations. New York: Free Press. Bryman, A. (1992). Charisma and leadership in organizations. London: Sage Publication. Forbes Magazine. (2012). Top 10 Qualities That Make A Great Leader. Retrieved from: http://www.forbes.com/sites/tanyaprive/2012/12/19/top-10-qualities-that-make-a-great-leader/. Harvard Business Review. (2012). One skill all leaders should have. Retrieved from: http://hbr.org/2012/03/the-one-skill-all-leaders-shou/. Nahavandi, A. (2012). The art and science of leadership, Sixth edition. New Jersey: Prentice Hall. Northouse, P.G. (2009). Leadership: Theory and Practice. New York: Sage. Oracle. (2012). Seven Steps for Effective Leadership Development. Retrieved from: http://www.oracle.com/us/media1/steps-effective-leadership-dev-1657106.pdf. Pasmore, W. (2013). Developing a Leadership Strategy: A Critical Ingredient for Organizational Success. Retrieved from: http://www.ccl.org/leadership/pdf/research/LeadershipStrategy.pdf. Posner, B. (2010). The Leadership Challenge. New Jersey: John Wiley. Winkler, I. (2010). Contemporary Leadership Theories: Enhancing the Understanding of the Complexity, Subjectivity and Dynamic of Leadership. New York: Springer. Yongwang, P. (2010). Leadership Styles Management systems and growth: Empirical Evidence. 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