Mentoring Others on Leadership - Essay Example

Mentoring Others on Leadership Name of the Student: Name of the Instructor: Name of the course: Code of the course: Submission date: Mentoring Others on Leadership Leadership is a trait which is highly regarded in the world. It is a trait that enables an individual to show the way to follow to others. Ideally, leadership is a key determinant to the achievement of any given objectives and goals (Thompson, 2010). For this reason, good leadership is always needed in a very sphere of life; from the head of the family, the class prefect, a company’s manager, the president and so on. The list is endless. Precisely put, leadership is needed in every point of life. However, getting an appropriate person for a leader is always a problem. There are many theories explaining the occurrence of leaders. However, there are the two main concepts with one stating that leaders are made while the others stating that leaders are born. Whichever the case, it can be acknowledged that even natural born leaders need to be made at one point of their life. On another note, it can be appreciated that the world needs a constant supply of leaders; when Bush’s time was gone, Obama was there to succeed him; this is sustainability. Therefore, there is a need for current leaders to mentor other people to leadership. Historically, this is a well know fact if the preparation of young princes and princesses too succeed their ageing fathers and mothers is anything to go by. The following paper will discuss five ways in which people can be mentored in leadership. Mentoring people into leadership involves showing them how to act, think, and conduct themselves like leaders. It involves cultivating leadership qualities in them which ensures that they are able to execute the tasks of a leader effectively (Dungy, 2010). Therefore, guidance is an important aspect in ensuring that people are nurtured into leaders. Ideally, a person can only be mentored to leader by a person who is already a leader. Taking into account the existing learning theories, it can be acknowledged that it is important that for an individual to be in contact with his/her mentor. Generally, people have various ways of getting things (Schuler, 2011). Some people learn best when they see an illustration from someone. Others learn best while they do something themselves. Whichever the case, it can be appreciated that guidance plays a very vital role in ensuring that the learning is successful. This is the same case with leadership. It is important for the mentor to understand the individual learning abilities of different people and consequently ne able to provide appropriate guidance which ensures that leadership values are cultivated in his or her subjects. Moreover, it can also be acknowledged that mentoring becomes efficient when the mentor and the person being mentored are in physical contact. This is due to the personal touch which the mentor provides to the development of leadership characteristics in the individual being mentored. The personal touch is providing via appropriate guidance. It can therefore be seen from the above discussion that guidance is an important aspect while mentoring others on leadership. Another important aspect in mentoring people on leadership is inspiring them. Inspiration acts as a catalyst; which speeds up the process of developing leadership skills (Hollaway, 2004). People have a high regard for their leaders owing to the things they do. Therefore, one of the ways of providing inspiration to people whom one wants to mentor into leadership is to engage in good and exceptional deeds which makes one earn respect from the people hence proving them with the much need inspiration. On this point, it can be seen that inspiration is somehow related to encouragement. Encouragement and inspiration usually lifts up the spirit of the people and enables them to increase their zeal to succeed. Commending people on their progress and continuously providing them with a reason to go on goes a long way into ensuring that they are able to achieve their maximum potential (Hollaway, 2004). There is a common saying that goes that the reason as to why a leader exists is to enable other ones to come up. For this reason, current leaders should inspire other people hence enabling them to attain leadership skills. Building a new leader in leadership is also an important factor in mentoring new leaders in leadership (Kram & Higgins, 2012). Just as there is a need for strong foundation in a building, there is also an utmost need for the good leadership foundation. A good foundation is what that made Sir Richard Branson take his leadership skills in his news paper business to the multibillion Virgin Atlantic airlines. Therefore, a leader should ensure that he builds another leader by first laying the basics of leadership as a foundation of the young leader’s leadership. A good leader is one who has a long term vision for his or her organization hence seeing the need for good leadership after he is gone. For this reason, it is upon a leader to build another leader. This is as with the leader regenerative concept which states that a leader should create new leaders to take over leadership after his or her time is gone. Building new leaders is a way of elevating them into the status of leaders, hence ensuring that an organization is not over dependent on only one leader (Kram & Higgins, 2012). Just as leadership is a performance, it is also a skill. This means that there is an utmost need for leaders to posses the necessary skills and knowledge so as to execute their tasks appropriately (Schuler, 2011). Generally, there is a great relationship between leadership and management. The efficiency of one aspect is dependent on the efficiency of the other. From the above, it comes out clearly that there is a need to train people into becoming leaders. It should be acknowledged in leadership that there is more than what meets the eye. For this reason, it is important that a current leader impact leadership education in other people hence enabling them to become good leaders (Dungy, 2010). Educating potential leaders is closely related to guiding them since it provides them with the guidelines to follow when executing leadership duties. However, it should be appreciated that education has a long term impact on a leader. It provides a person who is being mentored with the basic principles which he or she should follow and uphold for him/ her to become successful. Ways in which mentor leaders can educate potential leaders is by engaging them in discussions and drills aimed at cultivating certain leadership skills and principles in them. Lastly, mentoring other people in leadership involves equipping them with the required facilities and environment for them to excel (Scandura, Tejeda, Werther & Lankau, 1996). Basically, educating potential leaders goes hand in hand with equipping them with a good environment for them to thrive in. on this point, it is important to acknowledged that educating or training a leader is one thing. Nurturing one necessitates for the provision of a good environment for the young leader to practice his or her acquired skills. An example to illustrates this is when a person lights up a candle and places it’s on a stool in broad daylight. The candle will not appreciate its capabilities since the environment which it has been put in does not enable it to do so. But when the candle is placed on a dark room at night, its effects and capabilities can be seen since it is in an environment which enables it to do so (Scandura, Tejeda, Werther & Lankau, 1996). It therefore becomes important that a mentor leader provides the people he or she is mentoring with an appropriate environment which enables them to exercise their acquired skills and improve on them. In addition to the above, providing people with a good environment have a positive effect on their physical and spiritual self; hence empowering them to go for the skies. From the above discussion, it has been seen that it is important for a leader to mentor another person in leadership. Leaders should not fear developing new leaders in their organization since it is by so doing that they guarantee it with sustainability (Thompson, 2010). The theory that leaders are made should be the driving factor for organizations. This is due to the fact that they are able to make their own leaders when they take up the task of doing so. The key to making a good leader is by mentoring him or her into one. This is the role which should be played by current leaders. In conclusion, this paper has discussed five factors which should be upheld in mentoring other people in leadership. One of the factors is providing inspiration and encouragement to the people. This acts a triggering factor, enabling them to evaluate their progress and work towards being successful leaders. The other factor which has been discussed is providing guidance to the people. This provides them with the guidelines which they should consider while executing their tasks. The third factor is building and elevating the people into leaders. This is a process which should be based on strong foundations. The fourth factor is educating the people. This enables them to understand and acknowledge the rules of the game, hence being able to execute their leadership skills on a long term basis. Lastly, the paper discussed about equipping the people with an appropriate environment which ensures that they become successful leaders. References Dungy, T., (2010). The Mentor Leader: Secrets to Building People and Teams That Win Consistently, Tyndale, London Hollaway, J., (2004). Research Link/ Mentoring New Leaders, Leading in Tough Times, 61(7); 87-88 Kram, K., & Higgins, M., (2012). A New Approach To Mentoring, The Wall Street Journal Retrieved on 14th March 2013 from http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122160063875344843.html Schuler, A., (2011). Becoming a Successful Mentor :How to Recognize the Different Ways Your People Learn, Retrieved on 14th March 2013 from http://www.schulersolutions.com/html/business_mentoring.html Scandura, T., Tejeda, M.,Werther, W., & Lankau, W., (1996). Perspectives on mentoring, Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 17(3); 50 - 56 Thompson, E., (2010). How to be A Better Mentor, Journal of Accountancy, [Online] Retrieved on 14th March 2013 from http://www.journalofaccountancy.com/Issues/2010/Nov/20091446.htm Read More