The Past Experiences Role in Leadership - Research Proposal Example

Name: University: Course: Tutor: Date: The Past Experiences Role in Leadership Table of Contents 1.0 Introduction 2 2.0 Literature Review 4 2.1 Skills of a Good Leader 4 2.3 Emotional Intelligence 8 2.4 Findings 9 3.0 Methods of Research 11 3.1. Results of the Research 12 References 14 1.0 Introduction Leadership is one of the most important human activities; the importance has been recognized in politics, in business organizations. Good leadership is the key to stable families, successful projects and departments, profitable organizations and even a successful nation. On the contrary poor leadership leads to disorganization, and slow growth in whichever field it is applied (Bass, 2008). Leadership is important tools in the organizations in helping a company or any organization attain its goals. It is an important component in the implementation of a decision. Good leadership is necessary in giving direction to move towards the same goal for any group project, as a nation or as an organization. The importance of good leadership cannot be over emphasized. In these times of constant changes due to technology and social changes it is the good and effective leader who will help an organization to the challenge of conducting business in the new but more profitable way. There is therefore need to have authentic leaders, who are passionate at their work and who can maintain high values and who leaders who will lead with their heads and hearts (George Bill). These kinds of leaders will remain focused. George Bill noted this when commenting on the results of an interview of 125 and added that effective leaders develop themselves and most effective leaders are self taught. It has been said that organizations with good leaders are more productive since the employees are happier people and therefore they are more motivated (Palmer Et al. 1998). In such organizations ownership of success is transferred to the people who were responsible for the work. Leadership is essential in all areas of our lives, and is applied in every day to day event, at home, at school at work. In Churches and Mosques, and in the National Offices. Who is an effective leader? A leader is a person who succeeds in making others to want to follow him/her and influences people to want to willingly get tasks done, by influencing their way of thinking, their attitude and behavior. The Webster dictionary defines a leader as “a person who leads or a person who has commanding authority or influence.” According to Sandra Larson (2007) an effective leader is passionate about a dream or vision which must be of benefit to the community, a holder of values that giving to the society, and is respectful to all, regardless of their diversified origin. The effective leader must have a vision and must believe in change, and thus innovative and of high intelligence, meaning he must be a reader and willing to learn. Sandra says that an effective leader has to be confident and at the same time should be humble and has high self esteem. An effective leader will be a communicator and will need to have strong inter-personal skills. He/she must be good in planning and a good organizer. A good leader has an exceptional character where he earns peoples trust by his leadership style. He ‘walks the talk’. A good leader is enthusiastic about the job and works as part of the team. A leader will join the team in getting down doing the real work. In times of uncertainty and crises a good leader will show direction to the team and is committed to excellent result. These principles are supported by Manuel London in his book Leadership development paths to self- insight and professional growth. London gives an example of Carly Fiona a former CEO at Hewlett& Packard in 1999. In summary a good leader inspires motivates accepts change an initiates change and influences the people he leads. This research is aimed at identifying the characteristics of good leadership, the skills of a good leaders and an analysis if experience plays any role in making one a good leader Research Topic How much do past experiences play a role into a person’s capability to lead? Aim of the Research The research is aimed at analyzing the factors that are attributable to make one a leader and the role the past experiences play in making a person a leader. The research is aimed at addressing the following questions; Is experience a requirement for leadership? Can leadership be developed or is it in born or is it learnt? Who and what are the qualities of a leader? Can leadership training be a substitute for experience in leadership? 2.0 Literature Review 2.1 Skills of a Good Leader It has always been believed that a leader is innate and not acquired and that in a group of people a natural leader will emerge Mohr (2000). There are leaders who are naturally born, Alexander the Great and Gen. George S. Patton are examples of natural leaders. It does not mean that the rest who are not born with this skill cannot be leaders. One can become educated to be an effective leader and like Warren Bennis (1994) says leaders are not born but are made by themselves. Leadership can be acquired through tenacity and from ones experiences. Abraham Lincoln and Sam Walton of the Wal-Mart fame are believed to have learnt their leadership skills from experience that was gained after a long time. There are several reasons that can make one get the leadership skills. Leadership can be learnt through behavior modification brought about by change. Change is taking action by creating a willingness to change; change is not possible without a change in behavior. Therefore for one to learn the leadership skills one has to accept that there is need to change ones behavior. This acceptance that there is need to change require courage to change, change in itself requires courage. For many leaders the need to earn to change can be triggered by fear of pain that might be caused by failed team or failed project. The circumstances will force the leader to learn the necessary and required skill so as to avoid pain that comes with a failed task and the skill that will enable him to succeed in that particular task. This change will need to be nurtured for a long period of time and by the frequent application of these new skills for one to excel as a leader. A good leader needs to be adaptive to change, (Manuel London) and must be flexible and can adapt to new changes. The source of changes will include the change in technology, globalization, increased expectations, the effects of mergers and acquisitions and the need for reinvention plus changes in the management styles (CCL, 2007). With this acceptance one can learn the skills of effective leadership. A leader must be flexible and can adapt to new changes. The leadership skills are learnt for a long period of time. For one to be an effective leader there is need for continuous process growth and development (Warren 1994). According to Warren, Winston Churchill growth and development bore fruits after 66 years. There is no simple formula for learning how to be an effective leader. A potential leader will discover this for themselves by conducting an accurate analysis of their strengths and weaknesses and by analyzing the conditions in each particular situation .An individual has to first understand himself, the motivations and interests and their abilities (Manuel London, 2002. in the same line of self analysis Warren Bennis in his book On Becoming a Leader says that full and free expression is the essence of leadership. Other writers on leadership believe that leadership can be developed (Meadows and Arneson) through incorporating some elements in their daily experiences which include motivation, powerful insight skill building real world practice and accountability for growth. An effective leader is the one who applies inspiring leadership and diplomacy. Good leaders will recognize that they cannot achieve much without the cooperation of others (André, 2007). They incorporate others in their vision. For one to be called an effective leader it means that he has a vision and a goal. The leader is committed to achieve this goal and is able to influence others to change believes and thoughts so that they work together to achieve it. The leader will take responsibility to ensure that the task is accomplished. A good leader does not delegate the responsibility. A leader will take risks and will assume success ones the goal is accomplished. A good leader will be a good communicator. One has to be able to effectively communicate the idea and goals to the subordinates, so that they too can believe in the dream. A good leader should be a role model. In any organization and in any field the image the leader portrays will have an impact on the subordinates through his actions. A good leader needs to be of high integrity and with ethical standards such that he uses his leadership skills for a positive goal. In this London gave an example of Hitler. Hitler had all the characteristics that are attributable to a leader, but his leadership brought in negative results (Sandra, 2007). He is supposed to be honest in character and should lead by example. There are leaders who are charismatic but and they can be effective but their ethical standards have a negative if not an evil impact to the society. Another factor that may trigger ones desire to be an effective leader is the strong believe in a certain goal and the commitment to that goal. According to Warren (1994) an effective leader should not only have a goal but, a goal is more important, Warren calls it a compelling goal. To support this he refers to Darwin’s evolution theory, William James theory on mental processes and John Locke’s view of the creative process that as Warren argues became great leaders because they had that compelling goal. Again Warren believes that for one to be called a leader he need not be holding a position in the office. In this argument he mentions Martin Luther King who was a leader but did not have any elected or appointed position. He adds that leaders express themselves and do not do things to prove anything but they just strongly want to express themselves. They are motivated to do something which they believe in. For one to become an effective leader there are some adjustments one will need to make on oneself. Warren believes that there are a few things one needs to learn and summarizes them as knowing oneself, and knowing the world, operating on instinct, deploying oneself by striking hard, trying everything, moving through chaos and getting people to be on your side. He concludes that leaders learn from skills and methods. Good leaders know themselves and their weaknesses. It is this knowledge that they know what their skills are and they bank on these strengths while working on their weaknesses to achieve their goals. Good leaders will at times use their instinct in decision making. Most leaders have become leaders by following on an instinct and believing in the outcome. They make decisions based on that instinct and not amount of opposition will move them from their goal. Martin Luther King believed in a dream and nothing would stop that dream. It is because of believing in the dream that made him a leader. He didn’t have any past experience but he became a very effective leader. A good leader will learn from skills and the methods. But it is applying these skills that will make him an effective leader. There are current changes that an effective leader should be updated on. The leadership requirements are changing and transformational leadership style is being preferred. Transformational leadership is a form of leadership where the subordinates are emotionally led towards a positive change. Transformational leadership basis its values on liberty, justice, equality and collective well being of all subordinates. It consists of the intellectual leaders, reformers and revolutionary leaders and the heroes. How should leaders reward values to their subordinates? If a leader values honesty and integrity and by rewarding such behavior he will be sending a message of the value of the particular behavior (Larimer, 1997). Likewise a leader will show his leadership skills while hiring and firing staff. 2.3 Emotional Intelligence One of the roles a leader is expected to play is inspiring and motivating others in ones group. For a leader to be able to play this role, he will need to understand the emotions of others as well as his own emotions. This has resulted to new training requirements for the effective leader to acquire emotional intelligence. Emotional Intelligence is defined as the ability to deal with one’s own emotions or others emotions effectively. Recently the shift to transformational form of leadership, which is more emotional based, has made it necessary for the effective leader to learn new skills. The leader can sense when the subordinate can take a more challenging task, or which subordinate is more talented and in which are. This knowledge is important to a leader when distributing the tasks. The leader should be expected to coach and develop his teams and convert them into leaders themselves. Leadership is becoming a collective process where the leader and the team have to work together. The team will continuously be dependent on each other. The leader will therefore have to rely on the team members to succeed. With these changes, experience alone will not make a leader efficient. There is a difference between management and leader. A leader can be a manager but not all managers are leaders. It is therefore essential that the managers are trained how to be effective leaders if they are not naturally so (Kotter P., 1990). Leading is part of a manager’s job and they should manage and lead as well. A research by Center for Creative Leadership (CCL, 2007) revealed that future leadership skills should continue to emphasize on building relationships, working in collaboration with each other and on change management. The skills were rated in the following order starting with the most highly rated, leading employees was the highest followed by building and mending relationships, change management, participation management, resourcefulness doing whatever it takes and straight forwardness and composure as the lowest rated. 2.4 Findings Therefore past experiences play a big part in leadership both for the innate leaders but more so for those who have assumed leadership through learning but even those who are born leaders the skill has to be developed and experience will turn a good leader into even a better leader. Experience is only an additional advantage but not the main ingredient. Continuous training is important. Today an effective leader will not lead alone. His team will have to follow and he can only do this by working together with everyone else who is involved. The future of the traditional leaders is long gone; the leaders of the future must create some space for others where they should come together and generate ideas and a leader who is more prepared to complex changes and challenges. The key words in the future work are collaboration, teamwork and being able to adapt to change (Mills, 2005)This leader need not be experienced. It is the flexibility to accommodate change and learn new ideas that will be of importance. For one to be adaptable to change a good leader will therefore need to be a quick decision maker. Quick decisions making is one of the skills necessary for an effective leader. Since then there experience is not a very important tool, is there any reason for training managers into leaders. In deciding a good leadership training program care has to be taken so as to achieve the required results. A good leadership development should meet these five elements (Meadows and Arneson) motivation, powerful insight, skills enhancement, real world practice, and accountability for growth and change. In motivation the willingness to become a leader should come from within. It should be voluntary. The program should have feedback channels. The skills include practical presentations in learning how to apply the skills and not forgetting that the process is continuous (Mohr, 2000). Real world practice will involve on the job practical. The management should organize the program such that whatever one learns can be applied in real life situations. Accountability for growth allows the trainees to take responsibility for his successes. The organization should encourage new ideas and bold thinking to help the new trainee to grow. There are several advantages of leadership training. Training brings out the best in the person being trained. It taps person’s hidden strengths. Training enhances ones skills and abilities. It acts as a way to motivate employees who become more creative and productive. The training assist in putting into practice the theory learnt during the training into practical (Warren, 1994). Mostly those who are trained in leadership are trained in how to manage time and how to work under pressure. This is to the advantage of the company. A person who is trained in leadership is able to make quick decisions and with confidence and works with enthusiasm. Overall training is advantageous to a company as it prepare itself for future executives and leaders. Another advantage is the retention of staff, since they are motivated they will not be tempted to look for jobs outside the organization. The training is part of building a corporate culture and building more trusting relationships. 3.0 Methods of Research The research used secondary method of data collection. Secondary data is defined as data not directly collected from organization or people in the natural settings (Maylor and Blackmon, 2005). The main source of information was. This was because internet has a variety of information from different organizations the public and the government. This was important because the researcher needed to make several comparisons between results from different research service providers. There are advantages of using the internet as a source of information. It provides the information that is required and which would have been uneconomical if the researcher had to conduct a new survey. It therefore saves on time and finances as well. The internet like other secondary data collection methods contains large and high quality data. There is variety to choose from, both historically and geographically. The data is also available for both public and private organizations as well as for different sizes of organizations. There were also references that were taken from journals and the newspapers. Secondary data collection was best. The research was on the social changes and secondary data is the best because of the frequent updates within the internet so information is frequently updated. The main disadvantage with secondary data is its unreliability as an original source. It relies on already conducted survey, and therefore gives no new information. There is also the possibility of incompatibility of software. There are some websites that limit how mush information one can freely access. This was a problem that the researcher encountered with. This limited the number of sources of valid and reliable data. 3.1. Results of the Research At the end of the study, the researcher expects to have identified the role of experience in one becoming an effective leader and if experience is necessary for an effective leader. This result will assist managers and other people in decision making positions to identify training needs as effective as experience. Thus the results of the further study will be base on the evaluation of the implementation of the training programs within the organizations that had requested for the research. References André, M. 2007. The changing Nature of Leadership, Available At: Accessed from May 01 2010 Bass, B. 2008. Transformational Leadership. Mahwah, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Mills, D. 2005. Leadership, How to lead, How to live. Available at: Accessed May 01 2010 Mohr, B. 2000. Leadership: Genetic or Learned? Available at: Accessed May 01 2010 Palmer, B., Walls, M., Burges, Z & Stough C. 1998. Emotional Intelligence and Effective Leadership. Available from: Accessed May 01 2010 Sandra L. 2007. What Makes for An Effective Leader? Available at: Accessed on May 01, 2010 Warren, B. 1994. On Becoming a Leader. Available at: Accessed May 01 2010 Read More