Leadership Manifesto

Leadership can be defined as the action of leading a group of people or an organisation, or the ability to do this. Northouse’s definition of leadership can be related to the pre hospital paramedic setting and is “A process whereby an individual influences a group of individuals to achieve a common goal.”(2) While a leader is defined as a person who guides or directs a group.

There are many ways to define leadership, but perhaps the most laconic as well as accurate definition is presented in Peter G. Northouse's Leadership: Theory and Practice book (Northouse, 2013, p.5): "Leadership is a process whereby an individual influences a group of individuals to achieve a common goal". Individuals, engaged in leadership, use influence to solve challenges, which the groups under their leadership face, in order to succeed in their common goals.

One definition of leadership states that it is a process by which a group is influenced and directed by a particular member of the group to reach a common goal (Northouse 2010). Many other definitions exist, suggesting that it is a concept as fluid and individual as leaders themselves (Curtis et al. 2011).

According to Business Dictionary.com, leadership is defined as the individuals who are the leaders in an organization, regarded collectively. It also can be define as the activity of leading a group of people or an organization or the ability to do this. Leadership involves the establishing of a clear vision, sharing the vision with other so that they will follow willingly, providing the needed information, knowledge, and methods to realize the vision and coordinating and balancing the conflicts interests of all members and stakeholders.

I would like to start off with one of my favorite quote, "The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy." --Martin Luther King Jr. Is there not one standard definition of leadership? No. If you look up “Leadership Definition” in a Google and in .28 secs you get 458,000,000 results. Despite this number, I don’t think that finding the actually definition is the hardest part but finding the actions of a leader and implementing is. I tried searching the definition of leadership by looking and observing others at first but then I came to realize that there is no single definition for leadership. I had to find it within me. Then I sat down to figure out what leadership is meant for me and not for anyone else. Everyone has their own perspective, views and values. But according to me, my definition for leadership tilts towards the capacity to direct myself and impact people around me, setting a good example expected practices, and influencing qualities so everybody feels satisfied.

In simple words, Leadership can be defined as a quality developed by an individual over time to lead a group of people or to guide a group of people or team to achieve a common goal.

It is about the ability of leaders to transform values into actions, visions into realities, obstacles into innovations, separateness into solidarity, and risks into rewards. Leadership itself can be defined as a process of persuasion or example by which an individual (or team) influences a group to pursue objectives held by the leader or shared by the leader and his or her followers (Gardner, 1990). Authors Kouzes and Posner (2007) describe leadership as “ultimately about creating a way for people to contribute to making something extraordinary happen”. In addition, author Chemers (2002) expanded the definition of leadership as the “process of social influence in which one person can enlist the aid and support of others in the accomplishment of a common task”. Meanwhile, Daft (2008) summarized “leadership involves the influence of people to bring about change toward a desirable future”. Leaders have a desire to make something happen, to change the way things are, to create something that no one else has ever created before. They have to enlist others in a common vision, and in order for leaders to enlist support, they must have the necessary “knowledge of people’s dreams, hopes, aspirations, visions and values because leadership work best through dialogue” (Kouzes & Posner, 2007, p. 17). Most of the time, leadership is practiced on four levels: 1. Personal – the relationship with own self. 2. Interpersonal – the relationship of own self and

Gary Yukl (2006) defines leadership as “the process of influencing others to understand and agree about what needs to be done and how to do it, and the process of facilitating individual and collective efforts to accomplish shared objectives.” (Educational leadership: A reference handbook 2002) A leader needs to take control of its employees in a workplace. They should be a trusted person, and also be a people person. Without communication, effective leadership will become a failure, due to the fact that nobody will understand what is going on in the work place. Goal setting for leaders is one of the most important factors, as they want to become a successful leader, by achieving goals for the organisation, for that to become successful as

Taking a deep further look at the definition, we can consider Leadership as ‘the process of influencing an organized group’, engaging them to maximize group effectiveness, ‘towards the accomplishment of a goal’. (Hughes, Ginnet & Curphy 2015, p. 5)

For a quick review, the definition of leadership is a process whereby an individual influences a group or individuals, to achieve a common goal.

Effective leaders are self-actualized individual’s, aware of their own personal strengths and weaknesses, with the skills necessary to encourage the best performance out in their others members. Their ability to identify the strengths within their team, while encouraging a cohesive, creative and encouraging work environment.

Reviewing the original concepts propounded by the likes of Frederick Taylor, Henri Fayol, Max Weber, Mary Parker Follett and so on, and following the prevailing current practices, it would appear that there is agreement on the importance of aspects related to coordination, control, physical and human resources, and on general control over the processes to ensure the completion of set targets (Steers et al., 2010). Generally speaking, management and leadership both entail commonalities and dissimilarities with regard to each other. Thus, Kotter (1990) observed that leadership and management are complementary but distinctive aspects. Hence, as Mckenna (2003: 354) states, management is more concerned with the planning, coordination, supervision, and control of routine activities, while leadership inspires a group of people to perform their best and motivates them to excel in whatever they are doing. Such actions could be reflected in improved outcomes from the efforts made.

An organizations goals and objectives can be accomplished through leadership. Leadership refers to inspire people to contribute and perform well in the management. It is a role of management and leading others towards the achievement of the common goals (Channappa, 2012). Daft (2012) reported that “ In today’s world, industries, technologies, economies, governments, and societies are in constant flux, and managers are responsible for helping their organizations navigate through the unpredictable with flexibility and innovation” (p. 4). A good manager is needed in every management because he or she is the one who determine the successes and future of the management (Daft, 2012). He or she is also the one to persevere unremittingly in facing the failure. As elaborated by Griffin & Ebert (1996), there are four vital steps in the management process which are planning, organizing, leading and controlling (refer to Figure 1 in Appendix 1).

A definition by Bass 1997 that covers the majority of diverse definitions surrounding the construct of leadership states that: “Leadership is taken as the center of group process, subject of personality, as a matter of inducing compliance, as the exercise of control, as particular behaviors, as a form of influence, as a power relation, as an instrument to achieve goals, as an outcome of dealings, as a differentiated role, as a start of an arrangement, and as many blend of stated definition” as cited in (Begum, Jan, & Khan, 2013).

Influencing an organised group to achieve desired outcomes has been defined as leadership, (Hughes, Ginnett & Curphy 2015) whereas Northouse (2015) describes it as being complex with many dimensions, with some seeing it as a trait or an ability, whilst others consider it a skill or behaviour, with it also considered a relationship or process. In reality leadership most likely includes aspects of all dimensions, with each dimension explaining a different characteristic of leadership (Volckmann 2012). Leadership can be many things and has been summed up as: