Courage: The Backbone of Leadership - Research Paper Example

Leadership Leadership role involves ability to give directions and make the right choices when faced with any situation. The process of leadership development involves personal understanding and understanding those around. Becoming a good leader involves continuous learning from the environment, situations and those around. Working as a public servant in a leadership role involves dealing with other employees and public in general. Understanding the way to relate to both employees and public is very important part of leadership role as a public servant. In organizations, organizational values, visions and mission statements control the actions of both leaders and other employees. Personal principles and skills acquired in development by a leader will determine the ability to show others the way. In most public sector administrations, the leaders take control of what the junior workers do in their jobs or even what the customers want. Some of them are full of corruption in making vial decisions (To Kill a Mocking Bird 01:41:03). Most of the leaders in this sector also consider their directive to be the best and employee should not in any way do the job in another way. Such practices have made junior employees to lose touch with the management hindering collaborative work design. There is always a barrier between management and junior employees in the workplaces. In addition, most of those finding themselves in the public areas are not motivated in doing their work. Most do the work because of the salary and economic security. This kind of practice cannot allow most of the employees in the public sector to become productive. It also affects the relationship between employees of different units and ranks. As Howard places it, a relationship in the work place is better than the profit. The public servants should also consider serving their customers betternot only by valuing the returns they get. In solution for these cultures in the public administration system, several leadership changes have to take place in the work place. Most of the changes might involve deviation from the current practices like the way Howard Behar changed the management of Starbucks. To change these practices top leaders in the public administration system should take initiative in leading as an example. Developing these leadership skills might seem easy but practicing them proves to be hard for most of the leaders. Working at the middle level management in a public service comes with many challenges. In reality,one person may give orders to some junior staffs but there is still another person with a higher rank to give stronger orders. I found myself in the situation with my work at the public service. The administration rules in the system are very stricton matters pertaining to work and any deviation can cause loss of job. The higher management had decided over ten years ago on the type of stationary to use in daily duties. Maintaining the material type for the last 10 years meant we were losing on using new modern types that even other employees preferred. Changing the materials to use by letting junior employees choose has proved very difficult for the top management. At the same time, deciding on mode of management system becomes harder without the organizational values and mission statements. As a leader, courage (Elliott-Lee and Gus 1) and confidence is very important in showing others directions. According to William in reference to Drucker lectures, building confidence takes time (Cohen and Drucker 30). It comes from previous achievements whether small or big. Through the development of confidence, a leader also improves on courage to try other things to be more successful. Confidence is also important in public speaking and relating to other people in work through developing oral communication. Developing good leadership involves working with others in collaboration. This involves understanding junior employees and customers’ points of view in why they had to take a particular decision (To Kill a Mocking Bird 40:06). In the work of William, theleaving president considers the person working in association with as the one who will carry on the legacy. Understanding the junior employees or customer create a good relationship both within employees and to the community. The relationship is important in the prosperity of an organization whether it is personal business or public service. In reforming the public service, there is need for people to work together without discrimination of any kind. To become a better leaderin the public sector and change the administration culture, one has to have personal standing what Howard calls one hat principle. In this context, the leader has to have personal attributes, which people use to identify the character of the leader. In good leader, the characters involved are honesty and clarity in standing for the personal principle (Behar, Jane and Schultz 12).Through these characters, make the leaders to prioritize themselves and their workand make best decision even in hard situations. This goes a long with doing the right thing because the leader knows it is right and not for personal gain. Through this process, a leader in public system also becomes creative and innovative in their work. Howard in his work explains that if one does work just for the sake then they should look for a better job.A leader in any organization should be trustworthy in everything. It is vital in relations of not only employers but also the partners and customers the leader serve. Being a perfect leader involves giving those obligated junior a chance to do their work in the way that most reliable for them. Through this practice, junior employees in the public sector develop trust in their leaders and in turn improve on their performance. According to Howard, he says that we should let the sweeper choose the broom because they are the ones to use it (Behar, Jane and Schultz 50). This theory also applies to the individuals who come to the public offices to get services. Giving customers chance to describe what they want before the serving person makes a decision is vital. A good leader involves good communication skills. The leader should be ready to listen to the junior employees. The art of listening further involves compassion and emptiness. In compassion, the leader should listen and show deep care to those concerned. Emptiness helps in listening and absorbing what another person says as leader. In public administration this is not usually the case since some leader do not even have the patience of listening. Developing this skill to junior employees or those served in public system will go a step further in improving the relationships. In Williams work, Drucker teaches quality of a good leader making decision depending on the prevailing circumstances by finding the ultimate source (Cohen and Drucker, 27). Drucker explains that a good leader should not base their decision on others assumption of what is right. In his work, he explains two vice presidents soon to become the president of the c0ompany. While everybody in the class thinks otherwise, the vice president who associates more with the president takes the seat. As a good leader there is need to carry out personal observation in public service to give the best decision for the situation. Becoming a better leader involve processes in which some are hard to let go due to work culture. The developments include characteristics and communication both verbally and non-verbally. Effective communication comes with confidence that also shows personality of the leader. In transforming the public service, every leader should take an initiative to find out what is best for junior employees and customers. A good leader should have a personal stand while being honest. These qualities and skills ensure ability to work in collaboration with others hence ensuring better performance. Works Cited Behar, Howard, Janet Goldstein, and Howard Schultz. Its Not About the Coffee: Lessons on Putting People First from a Life at Starbucks. New York: Portfolio, 2014. Print. Cohen, William A, and Peter F. Drucker. A Class with Drucker: The Lost Lessons of the Worlds Greatest Management Teacher. New York: Amacom, 2008. Print. Elliott-Lee, Diane, and Gus Lee. Courage: The Backbone of Leadership. San Francisco, Calif: Jossey-Bass, 2013. Print. Universal Pictures. To kill a mocking bird. Dir Robert Mulligan, December 25, 1962. United States Read More