Strategic Leadership and Future Leaders (DB) - Essay Example

Strategic Leadership Strategic Leadership and future Leaders 12 2008 Please enter the of Please enter IntroductionStrategic leadership, in simple terms, is a systematic plan of action to achieve a predetermined goal. The reason why we term it strategic is because leadership in reality an art and science of applying social behaviour to fulfil and accomplish a common task. Alan Keith of Genentech says, "Leadership is ultimately about creating a way for people to contribute to making something extraordinary happen.

" In this paper, we would throw light on three basic models, namely, servant leadership, relational leadership and spiritual leadership. I would also choose a leadership style which relates to my persona and comment on another which doesn't. (Yellid)The Servant Leader RelationshipThe servant leader relationship was coined by Robert Greenfield, wherein the leader's role is reduced to that of a steward, with special regards to human, financial and statistical recourses of an organization. Although the concept is not new and Chanakya, a great thinker from India, has already mentioned its true worth in the 4th century BC, the fact still remains that it was indeed Robert Greenfield who reinforced it with an official stamp.

The reason why I advocate the cause for a servant leader relationship is because the servant leader, during its manifestation phase, is blessed with the power of listening, empathy, awareness, conceptualization, healing, stewardship, persuasion and community building. The leader is also stated to be a humble servant of the organization and strives to help his/her employees in their future growth. Unlike a typical top down relationship, servant leadership is based on trust, empathy and ethical use of power. (Yellid)The Relational Leadership Over here, a leader has to create a positive relationship with the organization.

For this purpose, he/she makes effective use of five models, namely, inclusiveness, which implies sharing of ideas and beliefs rather than selling them; empowering, which implies the empowerment of each and every employee without any strings attached; purposeful, which implies making an individual commit to a particular goal or objective; ethical, which implies the rules of the society while deciding employee behavior and conduct, and finally, the process orientation, which implies the importance of a group behavior.

I do not completely agree with this model, for it does not sound too realistic or practical and involves a level of tyranny on the part of the controller. (Yellid)Spiritual LeadershipThe concept of spiritual leadership is based on how to link spiritual healing with work culture. Numerous top notch companies such as Motorola and Hard Rock have successfully incorporated the learning from spirituality to enhance their company culture and to view the role of profits from an enlightened perspective.

Spiritual learning teaches you to take risks and celebrate failures as they are a mere stepping stone to success. The reason why I advocate this concept, more than the other two models, is for the simple reason that a shift to the spiritual core not only changes your perspective towards work, which was earlier limited to earning money, but it also instils in you the spirit to contribute to the society as a whole. (Miller, 2003)ConclusionThe spirit of leadership, with special regards to the spiritual concept, is far more effective and enlightening.

The spiritual model not only instils in us the spirit of harmony, it also allows us to take both success as well as failure in the same stride. This, unfortunately, is greatly amiss from the other two scientifically based relationship models. Works CitedMiller, W. C. (2003). The Art of Spiritual Leadership in Business. Retrieved November 2, 2008, from Learnoutloud: http://www.learnoutloud.com/Catalog/Self-Development/Spirituality/The-Art-of-Spiritual-Leadership-in-Business/1654Yellid, L. (n.d.).

Relational Leadership. Retrieved December 2, 2008, from focus.ucsc.edu: http://focus.ucsc.edu/relation.htm