Qualities of Effective Leaders - Coursework Example

#Question 1 Qualities of Effective Leaders Leaders are persons that hold the top most position, influential, and in control in their area of expertise. Over the years, Leaders have emerged from all kinds of backgrounds, age group, race, and gender. Their ability to lead and inspiring leadership skills has made them successful evident from the enormous number of followers who believe and adore them. For instance, skills and qualities portrayed by leaders such as the head of state George W. Bush, Bill Gates, Senator Hillary Clinton and Oprah Winfrey have inspired many leaders from all parts of the world. The attributes that make these leaders achieve what they have is what is looked at, in detail, in this paper. Hillary Clinton portrayed great leadership skills during her time as the first lady of United States, senator of New York and also as United States Secretary of State. Hillary Clinton is a resilience leader who never gave up no matter the circumstances. As the wife to the president of United States she endured through challenges and still remained one of the most valued leaders. For example, most nations then despised her due to poor public health care, and a cheating husband. However, due to her resilience, self spoken nature and humbleness, she still won the Senator position in New York regardless all the challenges she faced. One of her characters was her positive open minded self that enabled her to remain strong and effective despite the piles of criticism. Secondly, she admitted her own failure and never tried to pin them on others. Thirdly, was a visionary leader with a big heart; Hillary always stayed focused on her job and never regretted about what happened in the past but focused on what will happen next. Lastly, she was a listening leader who was always ready to be told her mistakes and corrected them. Hillary demonstrated a great knowledge of her work accepting her responsibility whenever mistakes occurred in her department. She also implemented the recommendations presented to her by different reports. These make her one of the great woman leaders on earth. The former head of state in America, George W. Bush, is another great leader. He had spectacular communication skills as one of his many attribute. When he gave a speech, he did so, exceedingly and completely clear to all American citizens (Burwash, 2007). He was also polite, self driven and self spoken. Secondly, George Bush was smart; he knew the right person for every job and only hired the right people to do the job. Lastly, he also a trustworthy president, a man of his words; said something meant exactly that. He believed in himself and his instinct, hence, he always made right decisions (Burwash, 2007). George Bush had the tendency of asking his workers tough questions and this made people to do the right thing every time. Bill Gates is the successful man he is today due to his phenomenon leadership skills. Gates had a great vision which inspired him to create a graphical interface that later became Microsoft. Microsoft is today the most used with billons of customers all over the world. However, Gates as a leader had a vision to eradicate Malaria regardless his success. Together with his wife Belinda they started the Bill and Belinda Foundation. His concern about people and the society portrays his as a selfless leader (Burwash, 2007). In addition, together with Warren Buffet and Belinda gates, they came up with a program known as ‘Giving Pledge’. This program creates a platform for the haves to help the have not and the less fortunate in the society. Secondly, Bill is not only smart but also passionate of his work, his customers, employees and the society. It is through that passion he is the leading programmer in the world. Lastly, Bill is always ready to learn new thing and what interests him. Oprah Winfrey is a great leader because of her keenness into details and a good listener. She never takes the views of others for granted and personally sees to it every of peoples demands are put into account. Secondly, her empathy and care towards the people is vivid to everyone (Burwash, 2007). Oprah is always committed to help the less fortune and determined to improve their lives. When she speaks, Oprah speaks with clarity and conviction which makes other people to believe in her. Finally, Oprah is an emotional stable woman who changes her reactions according to situations. In conclusion, difference societies have their leaders who they adore and emulate. However, no matter how good the leader can be, some people will still hate them. It takes good leaders to turn these challenges to opportunities and strive to their success. #Question 2 Differences between Leadership and Management Leadership and management may go hand in hand though they are two different concepts. Leadership is the art of influencing one individual or a number people in doing what is expected of them by motivating them in achieving a common goal (Bertocci, 2009, p 5). Management, on the other hand, involves getting activities of an organization well planned and coordinated so as to achieve a common goal. There are numerous differences existing between management and leadership. These differences are based on the functions of managers and leaders. The main management functions include planning, organizing of activities, choosing the right staff, directing, delegating, and controlling. These functions help the manager achieve the goals of the organization. Leadership mainly deals with inspiring and motivating all the people involved. From these functions, it is clear that manager focuses on systems, structures and people while leaders mainly focus on peoples well being and self esteem (Bertocci, 2009). The manager will plan how workers will use different machines to accomplish their aims. Leader will only want to inspire people to make the best of their skills. Leaders are people who innovate and come up with new ideas. They utilize their skills to come up with solutions to problems in an organization. According to Bertocci, (2009) leaders want new ideas crafted in a different manner than the usual way. Manager, on the other hand, will administer the already innovated ideas. The managers will have to hub on the goals of the organization and so everything they do will be streamlined to these goals. Any problem arising in the organization will want to be solved the normal way with already set procedures. Managers have short term perspective on issues while leaders have a long term perspective on the same issues. Leaders will make decisions that will be used even after their period of service. Their creativity will not only motivate them but also their followers who will want emulate them. These ideas can even be used by generations after them. Managers will only solve short term problems that arise during their time of power; the solutions will only assist in one or two occasions (Bertocci, 2009). Managers accept the status of things the way they are while leaders will challenge why things are the way they are. The manager will follow laid down organizational policies and will try to adapt to them. Leaders will challenge why these policies are the way they are and will adjust where possible in order to accommodate new ideas. Managers are thus said to be imitators of the already created originals while leaders are the originals. Leaders will do their things the original way while managers will copy what other manager have done to achieve (Bertocci, 2009). The leader is followed by his followers while the managers rules over his co-workers. People will follow a leader due to the good things they see in them, while a manager of an organization must be obeyed and respected. Most leaders in a company usually have fresh ideas and will do their leadership through their mind and new skills. Most managers are people who have acquired their management skills from long time working in the organization. In conclusion, from the above qualities, leaders are different from managers because of their ability to see beyond the task. It also clear that a leader can be a manager but managers cannot necessarily be leaders. Leaders use their skills to inspire their followers who follow them at free will while managers must be obeyed. It is, therefore, clear that most leaders will have good terms with their follower than many managers with other workers. References Bertocci, D. (2009). Leadership in organizations: There is a difference between leaders and managers. Lanham, Md: University Press of America. Burwash, P. (2007). The key to great leadership: Rediscovering the principles of outstanding service: lessons from the front lines of the world's best service companies. Badger, CA: Torchlight Pub. Read More