The Key to Effective Leadership Insights Gained I have ascertained that utilizing mental models, I can understand why and how different people on the same team process similar occurrences in a different manner. A mental model is "a set of ideas and assumptions that you carry in your head" (Bolman, & Deal, 2013, p. 10). These mental models that we rely on as an interpretation, influence our understanding of world and organizational events, because they reflect our current mind-sets. For example, a mental model that is prevalent in the army, is that your appearance reflects your potential. This may cause others to judge soldiers initially, by their appearance. If they are overweight, or their appearance looks disheveled, they are often initially seen as being undisciplined. Changing our mental models can directly change our understanding of events, because we can perceive things differently, and also then identify other root causes, or resolutions. In my example, if one realizes that a newly assigned soldier may not be completely situated in a home and community as yet, that perhaps they do not have access to the resources that they may need, to present the best appearance, such as a good barber. A leader could recognize this as a need to provide more community familiarization, or access to resources. By exploring mental, models Senge (2006) recognizes that one can create a reflection in the work environment and, by doing so, encourage a more open discussion, and expose the
I find the statement “The effective leader today must be a director and motivator, implementer and innovator, mentor and team builder, expert and moral force, organizer and developer of people” (2015, p.61), to be both accurate and realistic. One reason I believe this to be the case is because of the number of individuals who have been able to facilitate these roles on their way to being considered successful leaders. One example being Vince Lambardi. While the story told of him in textbooks by Willie Davis primarily spoke of his motivating skills, he is a renowned leader (2015, p.30).
A State Representative, Randy Richards, organized a press conference coveting to sway a proposal for a bill to a avert state agencies and other health care providers from offering prenatal care to undocumented immigrants and billing the cost to Medicaid (Sharp, 2011, p. 72). In the press conference, he accuses undocumented immigrants from coming to the United States to take advantage of the Medicaid system by taking services away from the American Citizens who pay into the system with their taxes. When the floor was opened to the press to ask question or to elaborate on the proposal for the bill his answer were very vague or he eluded the question by saying, “…That is not the point…” (Sharp, 2011, p. 72). The Executive Director of the Health Care Authority, Mike Foley, decides to hold a press conference later that day to clear the air with factual information and providing laws stating, health care cannot be denied to anyone in search of preventative or medical attention. He articulates prenatal care for illegal women cost less than a $1000.00 and when the child is born, they become a natural American Citizen and how they deny service to an American. If these preventative services were denied during the pregnancy and the child is born with a serious medical condition it will cost the state over $130,000.00 (Sharp, 2011, p. 73) to treat the child for the rest of their life. Randy Richards, the representative, became infuriated and took great offense that Mike Foley, the
A leader can help the staffing ratio issue by creating a vision. With this vision, they are able to create a plan that incorporates new ideas to find solutions. Leaders are risk takers and like to challenge others to formulate ways of doing things better. Leaders like to build relationships and promote those around them and help them develop so they as well as the company can grow. (Coonan 2007) Since leaders are not always in manager roles, they often are the ones who are working at the bedside and can help staffing ratios because they can base them on the individual needs while taking into account the training and experience of the nurse taking care of those patients. They are trying to look out for the best solution for everyone involved. Leaders act as guides to those around them rather than try and control others. Leaders are the ones who stand up for others. These kinds of leaders are able to inspire and motivate people to achieve solutions to problems.
According to the textbook, Introduction to Leadership: Concepts and Practice, there are over 100 definitions of the word “leadership”, and all of them are unique in their own way (Northouse, 2015, p.1). There are so many different aspects to leadership that is it nearly impossible to have one definition that covers every area. Each and every person that is a considered a leader has his or her own way of leading because every situation, whether it be work, a team, at home, etc., calls for different and distinctive ways of leading people. Northouse states that there are six main aspects of leadership; it’s a trait, ability, skill, behavior, relationship, and an influential process (Northouse, p. 3-6). Giving a clear answer as to what leadership is defined as is very difficult, but this paper will talk about my specific leadership skills and what leadership means to me.
In my reflections as I prepared to write this paper, I came to the realization that leadership is much more complex especially since the paper requires that I focus on a few traits. In an effort to make it simple, I wrote down the traits that came to mind and in process had over 10 important traits but an even bigger challenge was on how to narrow them down to 3 or 4 and this is the place that required a good deal of reflection. Eventually, however, I had to prioritize them since in any case; it is not possible to get a leader that has all the traits. As I thought of the various leaders who have inspired me, I noticed that while they strived to provide the best leadership by focusing on their strong points, they still had their weaknesses. To me this provided a justification for at least identifying key desirable traits and thereafter working to improve them. I did manage to settle on four traits, which for me are indispensible if a leader or a leadership is to become effective.
What is leadership? A leader is one who influences others to attain goals. The greater the number of followers correlates to the greater the influence. Additionally, the more successful the attainment of worthy goals, the more evident is the leadership. However, one must explore beyond this bare definition to capture the excitement and intrigue that devoted followers and students of leadership feel when they see a great leader in action. Therefore, employees should seek to understand what organizational leaders really do and to learn what it really takes to become a truly outstanding leader.
Leadership is something that we are all born with because we are all born. Therefore, who is a leader and who is not depends on who really wants to be a leader and who does not. Leadership is a skill and so it can be learned. As anything that is learned it demands practice and practice to be the best. It would not be something that will happen in a matter of a day. There are multiple elements that make a leader. Collaboration is a key element for successful teamwork. Therefore, a leader must always be in the look for ways to foster collaboration. Creating trust within the team, support face-to-face collaboration, transfer responsibilities when making decisions, and ultimately teach other how to be leaders. All of this is not done if it is not done from the bottom of your own heart.
Northouse 's, Leadership: Theory and Practice, provides several major theories and models of leadership within the text. It presents in-depth theories of leadership and how it applies to real life situations. Northouse believed that the four essential components of leadership that he identified as leadership is a process, involves influence, occurs in groups, and involves common goals. Thus, he defines leadership as a process that occurs in groups which involve influence, and common goals. The book is easy to read and is a good reference to continue to consult throughout one 's leadership vocation.
Leadership is a process of continuous learning and increasing leadership effectiveness requires understanding, reflection, and the application to the appropriate subject matter. To become an effective leader, one should strive to enhance their skills and abilities associated with applying new data, information, and ideas objectively and subjectively. Even though everyone in the world has in their possession some sort of leadership characteristics and attributes, not everybody is set out to make the necessary sacrifices it takes to become a truly effective leader. Utilizing authentic leadership practices entails learning how to be true to yourself and others. An essential element facilitating meaningful leadership is trust. Influential risks, changes, and challenges will inevitably occur throughout the various stages of life. According to Erik Erikson, human life stages comprise of infancy, early childhood, play age, school age, adolescence, young adulthood, adulthood, and old age (Armstrong, 2012). This paper’s objectives include revealing several moments in life where challenges to leadership occurred, predominantly focused on the adolescence, young adulthood, and adult stages in life. The paper highlights specific instances in life where leadership challenges became noticeably obvious, influencing various personal and professional motivational elements. Life is full of challenges, highlighting previously endured leadership examples helps to recognize and learn
Addresses more than a title to have followers by his/her ability to influence people within the organization or team.
The purpose of this paper is to explore my leadership profile. Eight questionnaires and reflection and action worksheets were completed in Introduction to Leadership: Concepts and Practice by Northouse (2012a) to understand my current leadership qualities. A summary of my leadership style, questionnaire results, and a self-reflection on the identified leadership qualities and developments is provided below.
The first building block of successful leadership is self-awareness. Self-awareness in terms of our capacity to lead others; our strengths and weaknesses in all areas. More importantly, becoming aware of our shortcomings can inspire us to work on these areas in order to not only benefit ourselves, but those around us. As a leader, the improvements we make in our lives have a direct effect on our followers and their success as well. Without being aware of and understanding our own limitations, it will be difficult for us to become better leaders and inspire others to fall in our footsteps. Through various leadership surveys I have become aware of some of my own strengths and weaknesses, and a strategic improvement plan will enable me to
Effective followership is an essential component of effective leadership in that, without good followers, the leader’s work is difficult and cumbersome. The role of the follower is many times understated. As illustrated by Kelley (1998), “effective followers are thinkers; energetic and assertive, self-starters, independent problem solvers, and carry out their tasks with these characteristics (p. 143). Effective followers also are characterized by their ability to perform tasks with little supervision, their intelligence, and ability to think for themselves. We are all followers, even those who consider themselves leaders; so to encourage this effectiveness in others; we must be role models for those under us, so that they may also be effective at following. Chaleff (2009) observed that “all important social accomplishments require complex
Most historians rank George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, and Theodore Roosevelt as America’s finest leaders. Agreement on their quality is so strong, in fact, that in the 1920s, their likenesses were immortalized on Mount Rushmore, which has since become an iconic symbol of great leadership.
As community members, we have a concern that involves the upstanding of your FFA chapter as well as the National Organization. As we all know by now, you have a pregnant officer on your officer team. Frankly, as grandparents, parents, and community members, we do not consider the officer in question fit for the position. According to the Ava FFA Chapter Constitution and Bylaws, as well as the 2017-2018 Officer Contract that the officer in question was asked to sign, we can prove that she is not fit for the leadership position as an Ava FFA Chapter Officer. We are requesting that she be removed from her office position immediately. In the Ava FFA Chapter Constitution and Bylaws, it states in Article III, Section C,