Metaphors of Leadership - Essay Example

Running Head: UNDERSTANDING LEADERSHIP Name Course Tutor Date Introduction There are many perspectives on leadership and this includes how it influences followers in different ways. This depends on the kind of leadership and source of skills to be applied. In this view, there exist different theories and beliefs regarding how leaders gain leadership skills. Some theorists argue that leaders are born with their skills where they only develop them during the growth and development process. Other theorists argue that leaders are made through interaction with the environment and society. In leadership, there are distinctive features that enable leaders to be acknowledged (Smircich & Morgan, 1982, p. 257). Traditionally, leaders are said to be born with abilities such as charisma, influence and ability to motivate others into action. However, in the contemporary explanation of leadership, it concentrates more on sense making and sense sharing (Parry & Jackson, 2007). Looking at leadership from a practical approach by relating it to real life issues can help one to understand it better. This can be done through critical reflective practice that uses reality to develop critical thinking approach towards different issues (Cunliffe, 2008, p. 407). Applying critical reflexivity allows critical thinking regarding assumptions and actions that we take in life issues and apply them as moral practitioners. Metaphors of leadership Kotter views leadership to be concerned with people in terms of vision, inspiration, motivation, and dynamism. Leadership should not be concentrated on just issues of influencing people who follow them. There are leadership metaphors that can help us understand the role that leaders play in society and what distinguishes them. These metaphors can be closely related to organisations since they have similar basics in which they are applied (Parry & Jackson, 2007). Looking at the metaphors and assumptions of their application, we can relate them with issues such as leadership, management and leadership. For instance, leadership in parenting is one of the most common forms of leadership in a societal and social perspective. Parents start with their children from infancy stages where they grow up emulating and following parents’ behaviour. During the growth process, they gain independence and self-reliance. Some individual make better parents than others and this can be gauged on how children depict behaviour and independency aspects. Similar to how parents do with their children, leaders have to provide necessary information and resources to those following them in order to attain appropriate directions. The status of children during their growing up stages and thereafter reflects directly to the style of parenting or leadership of parenting. The same way, leaders affect those under them from statuses of being dependent to being autonomous. How individuals perceive activities is as a result of the effect of varying forms of leadership they have experienced (Parry & Jackson, 2007). Parents make role models for their children just like organisational leaders make of their staffs. Leaders in organisation provide the knowledge and guidance to employees for them to perform specific tasks. They are also expected to provide a favourable working environment that is supposed to influence the performances by individual employees. In terms of parenting, they provide a safe and healthy environment under which children can grow up and take up responsible behaviour according to they have been taught. Therefore, relating leadership to parenting provides an insight of how leadership should influence followers in their respective portfolios. Parenting may be the most vital determiner that moulds children as they approach adulthood. When people look at me they see the efforts of upbringing of my parents. The assumption is that children are outcomes of parenting skills from their guardians. While it is true that this may be the case, parenting only accounts to a certain extent the moulding of children. Parents do not teach their children to be thieves, paedophiles, drug addicts or even violent. Interaction with society has shaped my status as well as choices I have made throughout my life. The question that arises here is; would I have turned out differently if I were raised in another family? To what extent my guardians have determined my status? In an organisational perspective, other aspects apart from the leadership affect how employees perform individually. Their individual portfolios and personalities determine the effect of leadership on them. The environment of interaction, both internally and externally, in a professional and social perspective also determines perceptions, outcomes and performance. Another metaphor that could be used to explain the concept of leadership is schooling. It is worth noting that parenting and schooling are closely related. They work in the similar manner of developing children to adulthood and independence. Just like parenting, schooling picks children at young stage of dependence and transforms them through knowledge to autonomous individuals. In this view, there are prestigious schools that are acknowledged internationally by society as having best curriculums and styles that develop students better compared to others. The same case applies to organisations. Some organisations are internationally recognised due to their success in leadership styles, which is translated in performance and dominance in their respective markets and industries. Schooling involves teaching, moulding, and mentoring of students. It also involves rewarding performance and punishing failure (Parry & Jackson, 2007). The same case applies to organisation where profitability can be termed as rewards and underperformance consequences can be termed as punishment. All these depend on leadership of those involved in different portfolios. If a school does not perform, the blame is usually on strategies applied by teachers and school management. The same can relate to organisations where the blame goes to leaders. Management influence actions of people and the way to gauge leadership is through those individuals they lead. Sense making in action evaluates effectiveness of leadership. Action in organisations may show the need for change and raising performance through initiatives that enable effecient running of business (Pye, 2005, p. 41). My experience with schooling is that students pick up traits and knowledge from tutors they interact with on a daily basis. My status of autonomy is largely owed to strategies that were used and are still being used by my lecturers. However, there is an assumption that student performance is based on tutor strategies. The input of students also matters in their performance. The environment of interaction away from school also matters in determination of the overall performance. The question that emerges is whether students would have different outcomes from schooling if they had different tutors. Furthermore, to what extent do teachers decide the outcomes of students in future? Looking at this critically, schooling only accounts for a portion of influence that shapes outcomes of students. They also play a significant role in what they become through self-discipline and individual efforts. In an organisational perspective, employees performance can also be determined by leadership around them. Personal aspirations and desires also determine how they react and perceive leadership. Leadership as captaincy can also provide an insight towards understanding the theoretical and practical framework of the concept. For instance, captaincy in a sporting event or military operation shows leadership in different fronts. Captaincy puts the need of followers before individual needs. The captain is also part and parcel of the team and is involved in strategic performance of duties just like the rest. It involves leading from the front and ensuring the welfare of the whole team is adequately facilitated (Parry & Jackson, 2007). Captains are in charge of enacting or implementing the plan as agreed in the initial stages. The success is dependent on following of orders and coherence as a team. As such, the pain in organisations in terms of inconsistency, traditions and culture can be solved trough leadership in a captaincy perspective (Conklin & Weil, 1998, p. 11). From a personal perspective, the issue of captaincy may not always reflect how a leadership in organisations should take shape. Captaincy assumes that followers or team members should always follow orders given when conducting their activities. The reality of uncertainty in the future has the ability to cause conflicts especially when outcomes are unfavourable. The critical question on captaincy is; what if followed strategies are doomed to fail? What if one of the members of the team predicted failure and had an alternative and better solution? Should they still follow the orders of the captain having this knowledge? A critical reflexive approach would have it otherwise and would advocate for team members raising such issues and having leaders take them into consideration. This forms a basis for effective leadership that involves those being led during the implementation process. Conclusion The metaphors of leadership enable us to view leadership from a perspective of day to day lives through individuals that shape our actions. It helps us see ourselves as products of leadership that entails an integration of various aspects that shape the way we behave and act in our present life. Through evaluation of assumptions and development of questions that relate to the metaphors, critical reflexivity enables us to view leadership in a different and more conclusive perspective. References Conklin, J, Weil, W, 1998, 'Wicked Problems: Naming the Pain in Organizations', Group Decision Support Systems, Inc. Cunliffe, A, 2008, 'On Becoming a Critically Reflexive Practitioner', Journal of Management Education, vol. 28, no. 4, pp. 407-426. Parry, Jackson, B, 200, A Very Short, Fairly Interesting and Reasonably Cheap Book about Studying Leadership, Sage Publications, London. Pye, A, 2005, 'Leadership and Organizing: Sensemaking in Action', Leadership, vol. 1, no. 31, pp. 31-49. Smircich, L, Morgan, G, 1982, 'Leadership: The Management of Meaning', The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, vol. 18, no. 3, pp. 257-273. Read More