What is your definition of leadership now? What have you learned about leadership through this subject that is of benefit to you and/or your organisation? What implications do your studies of leadership have for you in the future? What more do you need to learn or do? How will you develop your own leadership knowledge and skills?
My earlier view about leadership was that it is a quality of a person who exercises his authority on the particular organisation. But now my definition of leadership has changed and it has acquired a new dimension after the lessons learned on leadership throughout my semester lectures. Now I would define leadership as the process of influencing the function of an organized group for the attainment of goals and objectives of the organization. I learned this new definition during my lectures and I got to know that leadership is the ability to instil confidence among people and inspire them to achieve a set of vision and goals. It is the interaction between leaders and followers during different situations. A reciprocal relationship exists between particular institutions, leaders, cultural values and interpretive skills of leaders. The leader is the person actively involved in the well-being of the business. They should not have an authoritarian attitude just trying to force and command employees into certain activities; rather they should positively influence them so that not they do not feel themselves to be worthless (Goetsch & Davis, 2014).
After my course on leadership, i got many perspectives of leadership. I feel that this lessons will extremely beneficial for the organization where I will work and for me too. It is a process but not the individual or position that creates a leadership relation. It is a kind of social interaction between groups in response to diverse situations. From the week one lessons, I learnt that leadership behaviour is dependent on several factors. I got the idea that potential of a leader was understood by legitimacy. It is a power dynamic in which interpretation is based on a perception of employees and organisation. Secondly, the outcome of any project is dependent on the intention of the leader. I realised that it was critical to have the connection between events and leadership activities. The outcome is driven by the response of the head (Schoemaker et al., 2013). A leader is the most responsible member of a business entity who is required to take the initiative first in any actions. There is a lot of expectation from leaders and people expect them to deliver good performance based on their independent judgement and discretion. I also learned that leaders should have moral values too. Many decisions are taken by them considering moral values of society which is outside the norms and rules of the business firm. So I learnt that moral dimension in leadership was crucial too. A lot of things are dependent on leader’s behaviour also. They should have a character and personality to motivate and influence others through a change in perceptions (Bartenschlag, 2013).
In one of my lecture I learned about different skills possessed by great leaders. Seeing the example of great leaders in the past like Alexander the Great, Napoleon, etc., my lecturer gave us idea about actual traits of a leader. The general characteristics associated with a leader are honesty, self-confidence, cognitive skills, achievement, ambitions, tenacity, energy and motivation. All these combined factors propel the organisation forward to achieve top position (Northouse, 2014). I also got to know that leadership is of three types-relational, non-hierarchical and situational. In non-hierarchical leadership, the organization has leaders at all levels not just at the top position of Company. I came to know that relation leadership lays more stress on a social relationship which needs a lot of efforts. Situational leaders work on handling situations and they take hard choices and adapt to those changes. A leader needs to get involved and so they should have participative nature. They set high standard challenging goals for the improvement of organisation and self-improvement. I also came to know about leader –member Exchange theory. According to this theory, views and thoughts are exchanged between leader and employee related to low quality data like fulfilling contractual relationship and high quality involvement like mentoring, empowerment through performance and sponsorship (Hackman & Johnson, 2013).
The course on leadership also gave me valuable information on the historical perspective of leadership. I realised that leadership is not a new concept it came into being from time immemorial. There is saying that ‘some people are born to be leaders’. One suitable example of this saying was Napoleon, who transformed the history with his leadership skills. It is known as hero king theory and according to it, the ablest leader is one who is justifiable, noblest man and has supreme qualities to lead. I came to know about the philosopher king, Plato’s view on leadership. He felt that leader is the most important part of good government who has skills to rule with order and reason. They used their intellect and wisdom in the right direction (Ciulla, 2013). According to Bass, with the evolution of civilisation, leadership is influenced by mythology, religion, culture, various literature, media, education, keen observation and role models in the society. So Bass summarised leadership as the effect of personality, behaviour and exercise of influence. According to him, it is a differentiated position with the combination of useful elements and the art of inducing compliance (Van Wart, 2014).
The study on leadership enhanced my knowledge about the subject and it will help me a lot in my future endeavours and progress in career. Now if I get the opportunity to become a leader of any Company, then I am confident that I will perform my responsibility efficiently. I feel so because the course on leadership helped me learn all the nuance of the subject and what people expects from leaders (Piccolo & Buengeler, 2013). All the lectures will have moral implications for my future. Leadership is more or less related to management. In one of my lessons, I learnt about Fayol’s view of management. It had four element-planning, organising, directing and controlling (Shafritz et al., 2015). When I reach this position, I will try to fit my activities according to all these four elements. I think I will also benefit a lot from geese lessons. It was a very fascinating to see how my lecture compared the different flying style of geese to explain us leadership skills. For example, when the flock of geese fly in “V” formation; it gives the whole flock power of 71% greater flying range than a bird flying alone. The lesson from this was that when group members have common direction and sense of unity, such organization will move ahead quickly everyone is moving on the thrust of another member. Such leadership character is necessary for leading a team. So, on the whole, the lessons made me aware of leadership values, code of ethics and challenges faced in the job. It will help me to shape the value of the organization (Léautier, 2014).
I can develop my knowledge and skill by bringing into practical applications all my lessons. I will check that I don’t miss use my power and force task on people. If there is a cordial relationship between my colleagues, then only we can propel our organization to a new set destination (McCauley & McCall, 2014). During working in different situations, i will first try to analyze the whole problem and find out the challenges we can face for particular steps. If we are aware of the future challenges we can get prepared to make a defensive plan which can protect us. But in the pressure of responsibility, I will see to it that I don’t ignore the cultural values of the society. Though following the rules and protocol of company is important but still understanding cultural and morals values are essential too. I got to what kind of behaviour is right or wrong for the Company and so I will try my best to comply with an ethical code of conduct (Shapiro & Stefkovich, 2016). I will try to take every decision within the boundaries of codified laws and consent of the whole team. Before taking any step, i will question myself whether the action is legal and fair to all members involved. It will help me feel better if everyone else agrees with my decision comfortably (Smith et al., 2012).
On the whole, it can be concluded from the study that it is an excellent guide for persons wanting to hone their leadership skills or for those who want to know about skills of leadership. Based on my lessons on leadership, I learnt a lot about the skills required to carry out leadership responsibility successfully. I came to know about types of leadership and their style of working. I got well acquainted with different theories on the subject and the management element of Foyal. The lesson on a historical perspective of leadership was also very fascinating. I learnt from examples of exemplary characters in history who were born to leaders and had exceptional innate leadership qualities. The lessons on geese flying style to explain leadership values were also a fascinating thing to learn. I am very satisfied with the useful information and hope to use this knowledge while exercising my responsibility in this position in the future. One interesting quote by Bass will summarise responsibility of leader which says “Leadership is lifting of a man’s vision to higher sights, raising performance to higher standards and building man’s personality beyond its normal limitations.
Reference
Bartenschlag, A., & Funk, B. (2013). Enhancing leadership quality. Ohio: Battelle for kids.
Ciulla, J. B. (2013). Leadership ethics. Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
Goetsch, D. L., & Davis, S. B. (2014). Quality management for organizational excellence. pearson.
Hackman, M. Z., & Johnson, C. E. (2013). Leadership: A communication perspective. Waveland Press.
Léautier, F. (2014). Leadership and Context. In Leadership in a Globalized World (pp. 208-266). Palgrave Macmillan UK.
McCauley, C. D., & McCall Jr, M. W. (2014). Using experience to develop leadership talent: How organizations leverage on-the-job development. John Wiley & Sons.
Northouse, P. G. (2014). Introduction to Leadership: Concepts and Practice: Concepts and Practice. Sage Publications.
Piccolo, R. F., & Buengeler, C. (2013). Behavioral approach to leadership. Oxford University Press.
Schoemaker, P. J., Krupp, S., & Howland, S. (2013). Strategic leadership: The essential skills. Harvard business review, 91(1), 131-134.
Shafritz, J., Ott, J., & Jang, Y. (2015). Classics of organization theory. Cengage Learning.
Shapiro, J. P., & Stefkovich, J. A. (2016). Ethical leadership and decision making in education: Applying theoretical perspectives to complex dilemmas. Routledge.
Smith, W. K., Besharov, M. L., Wessels, A. K., & Chertok, M. (2012). A paradoxical leadership model for social entrepreneurs: Challenges, leadership skills, and pedagogical tools for managing social and commercial demands. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 11(3), 463-478.
Van Wart, M. (2014). Dynamics of leadership in public service: Theory and practice. Routledge.
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