The Foundation of Leadership - Article Example

College

Leadership in Management

Part 1: The Leadership Challenge

The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership

The fives practices of exemplary leadership include:

• Model the way
• Inspire a shared vision
• Challenge the process
• Enable others to act
• Encourage the art

The first practice of modeling the way requires leaders to make their guiding principles clear. Particularly, leaders who are capable of modeling the way must be able to clarify their values and finding their voice (Kouzes & Posner, 2012). Such leaders affirm shared values and set a good example for the team. Setting an example is of critical importance because subordinates can follow the example.

The second practice is inspiring a shared vision by developing clear visions and dreams. Leaders should be able to envision the future and develop a clear picture of exciting possibilities. Moreover, they should be able to share the vision with subordinates in an inspirational way. It is not easy to inspire a shared vision, but leaders should make an effort if they want to be exemplary.

The third practice compels leaders to challenge the existing process. Leaders should be able to play an active role in initiating change and developing innovative ways of improving the current process. For leaders to achieve this, they should be able to take risks and be prepared for failures. However, leaders who believe in change eventually transform an organization.

The fourth practice is enabling others to act by developing a high level of collaboration and establishing trust. According to Kouzes and Posner (2012), leaders should focus on building relationships with subordinates and be willing to serve others. Through respect and trust, it is possible to foster the required level of collaboration.

The fifth practice in encouraging the heart through appreciation of the contributions from subordinates. It is only possible to encourage the hearts of subordinates if a leader makes it clear that their contribution is of critical importance and that the organization values it.

Credibility is the Foundation of Leadership

Subordinates are likely to follow leaders who are honest, forward-looking, competent, and inspiring. Honesty in this case means that the leaders serve as examples of shared values and promote behavioral patterns that they exhibit. Subordinates expect leaders to be trustworthy and that is the only way they can enable others to act. Kouzes and Posner (2012) highlight that, the characteristic of being forward-looking means that a leader can envision the future and develop a realistic vision for the organization. Forward-looking leaders are able to define possibilities that a team can achieve. Competence means that a leader can successfully lead others by demonstrating a higher level of accomplishment and proficiency. Subordinates are likely to follow leaders who demonstrate a remarkable level of accomplishment. Leaders should inspire subordinates to achieve more. A leader who inspires subordinates encourages their hearts and empowers them to explore their full potential.

The author’s first law of leadership is “If you don’t believe in the message, you won’t believe the message”. In the chapter, it is apparent that subordinates who perceive their leaders as credible are more likely to demonstrate a higher level of commitment and motivation. As evidenced by Kouzes and Posner (2012), subordinates who view leaders as credible are likely to believe in the vision developed by such leaders.

When people perceive high levels of credibility in their leaders, they are likely to demonstrate a higher level of commitment to the organization, motivation by shared values and intrinsic factors, as well as a remarkable level of loyalty, and sense of ownership.

Part 2: Model the Way

Clarify Values

For a leader to clarify values, he or she should engage in the following essentials:

• Finding his or her voice
• Affirming shared values

Kouzes and Posner (2012) make it clear that, a leader should be able to find his or her voice and be able to communicate in an authentic manner his beliefs. He should be able to express his views and be explicit about his principles. Leaders should also affirm shared values by setting an example and encouraging the subordinates to adopt similar values.

Values are important guides for leaders because they influence various aspects of life. Particularly, values are the underlying determinants of moral judgments, response to the concerns of others, as well as the level of commitment to personal and organizational goals. In many cases, values determine the action that a leader is likely to take. They determine whether a leader will agree or disagree to the options they have. According to Kouzes and Posner (2012), values enable leaders to define clear priorities and take up responsibilities in a balanced manner. Different leaders demonstrate that their values serve as guides because they are the underlying basis for every decision taken.

Shared values denote foundational pillars that promote a productive as well as the genuine relationship with subordinates in the workplace. Employees also rely on shared values to define the basis of their working relationships. There must be an agreement about the shared values and leaders should ensure that they emphasize the need for such values. As highlighted by Kouzes and Posner (2012), shared values can have a significant and positive difference in work, attitudes, and commitment. For example, shared values promote stronger feelings of personal effectiveness. They also increase individual loyalty to the company. Shared values also form a basis for ethical behavior in the company and facilitate a remarkable consensus between the interests of the organization and those of stakeholders. Through shared values, it is possible to have a clearer understanding of job expectations.

Set the Example

Living the shared values means that leaders serve as the ambassadors of the shared values of the organization. Through their actions and decisions, they serve as representatives of the values and standards of the organization to the rest of the world. According to Kouzes and Posner (2012), personifying shared values means that leaders should always make conscious decisions recognizing that such decisions reflect the shared values of the organization. Some of the significant signal-sending actions include what leaders pay attention to, how they spend their time, their use of language, their willingness to embrace feedback, and how they handle critical situations.

Teaching others to model the values involves ensuring that subordinates learn the importance of the values and make decisions in accordance with such values. A leader should always hold the subordinates accountable for the manner in which they leave the shared values. Kouzes and Posner (2012) opine that a leader should ensure that all individuals in the organization send the right signals concerning the organizational shared values. Three actions that leaders can take to teach others what is expected of them is to confront critical incidents in the right way, use the power of storage to share important lessons with the people, and reinforce the values through different systems and process in the organization.

Part 3: Inspire a Shared Vision

Envision the Future

The aspect of being forward-looking serves to differentiate the leaders. Particularly, it sets apart leaders who are able to envision the future and recognize potential opportunities. Leaders who are forward looking have the capacity to imagine extraordinary ventures that the organization can succeed in. They are able to develop a clear picture of the future of the organization. Forward-looking leaders are different from their counterparts because they can share the vision they create with their subordinates. Leaders who are not forward-looking are unable to look at the future and recognize opportunities for the organization according to Kouzes and Posner (2012). As a result, they lack a vision for the future.

The two essentials that leaders must master for them to inspire a shared vision include imaging the possibilities and finding a common purpose. Imagining possibilities involve dreaming and envisioning ideal conditions for the future. According to Kouzes and Posner (2012), leaders should be able to have an explicit grasp of possibilities that may come into the future and foresee how such possibilities may present an opportunity to the organization. On the other hand, finding a common purpose is important because it helps leaders to share their vision with the subordinates. The vision must be inclusive of the interests of the subordinates so that they may feel like part of the success.

Four ways, in which a leader may enhance his capacity to imagine possibilities include the reflection of the past, attending to the present, prospecting the future, and feeling one’s passion. Particularly, reflecting on the past helps a leader monitor the existing trends and become more aware of the successes of the past and potential future trends. Kouzes and Posner (2012) opine that, attending to the present means that a leader understands the current trends, which are significant determinants of the future. Prospecting the future means that leaders should consider the long-term effects of current trends and be able to envision the advances in technology, changes in economics, emerging political crises and other aspects of life that may affect the organization. Feeling one’s passion compels a leader to develop a deeper sense of meaning and purpose.

A leader can find a common purpose by listening deeply to others, making it a cause for commitment, and looking forward in times of rapid change. These three ways will ensure that a leader understands the needs of subordinates and commits them to the shared vision while remaining cognizant of change.

Enlist Others

Appealing to common ideals involves enlisting others to believe in exciting possibilities and imagine a future revolution. The leader must be able to develop dreams and aspirations of something beyond the ordinary and convince others to believe in the same dreams. Common ideals denote higher-order value preferences that can motivate people to work towards a common purpose. As highlighted by Kouzes and Posner (2012), leaders should be able to communicate the ideals to their constituents or subordinates and share their emerging picture of the future. If done appropriately, appealing to common ideals attracts long-term commitment from subordinates. For this reason, leaders must be able to develop a compelling image of the future and present a detailed description of how an ideal future will be beneficial to the organization and the society.

Animating a vision means that a leader should motivate subordinates to have a real feeling and be able to see the achievement of their different interests through the leader’s vision. Particularly, the leader must ensure that the picture of the future is highly powerful and that it can evoke different emotions in the subordinates. Such emotions of excitement will motivate the subordinates to believe in the vision. Kouzes and Posner (2012) make it evident that a leader should ensure that the vision shared has the capacity to trigger a remarkable level of enthusiasm that will ensure that subordinates can work towards the achievement of the vision.

Reference

Kouzes, J. M., & Posner, B. Z. (2012). The leadership challenge: How to make extraordinary things happen in organizations. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.