Today we are creating a sample essay on ” Leadership Essay “. Leadership is the process of influencing others towards achieving common goals. It involves vision, the ability to inspire, and the competence to guide others effectively. A true leader encourages participation, fosters a sense of belonging, and creates an environment conducive to growth. They lead by example, demonstrating integrity, empathy, and resilience. Their success is measured not just by task accomplishment, but also by the development and empowerment of their team. Ultimately, leadership is about service, responsibility, and the transformational impact one can have on others.
Leadership Essay
Introduction:
Leadership is a process by which a person influences others to accomplish an objective and directs the organization in a way that makes it more cohesive and coherent. Leaders carry out this process by applying their leadership attributes, such as belief, values, ethics, character, knowledge, and skills.
Leadership differs in that it makes the followers want to achieve high goals, rather than simply bossing people around.Bass’ (1989 & 1990) theory of leadership states that there are three basic ways to explain how people become leaders. The first two explain the leadership development for a small number of people. These theories are:
– Some personality traits may lead people naturally into leadership roles. This is the Trait Theory.
– A crisis or important event may cause a person to rise to the occasion, which brings out extraordinary leadership qualities in an ordinary person. This is the Great Events Theory.
– People can choose to become leaders. People can learn leadership skills. This is the Transformational Leadership Theory. It is the most widely accepted theory today and the premise on which this guide is based.
Principles of Leadership:
A smart leader must keep in his mind the following principles because all these are tested as successful.
– Being tactically and technically proficient
– Knowing themselves and seek self-improvement
– Knowing their follower and look out for their welfare
– Keeping their team member informed
– Setting the example
– Ensuring that the task is understood, supervised and accomplished
– Training their follower as a team
– Making sound and timely decisions – Developing a sense of responsibility in their subordinates
– Employing their unit in accordance with its capabilities
– Seeking responsibility and taking responsibility for their actions
Know themselves and seek self-improvement:
In order to know themselves, they have to understand their be, know, and do, attributes. Seeking self-improvement means continually strengthening their attributes. This can be accomplished through self-study, formal classes, reflection, and interacting with others.
Be technically proficient – As a leader, they must
– know their job and have a solid familiarity with their employees’ tasks.
– Seek responsibility and take responsibility for their actions– Search for ways to guide their organization to new heights. And when things go wrong, they always do sooner or later — do not blame others. Analyze the situation, take corrective action, and move on to the next challenge.
– Make sound and timely decisions – Use good problem solving, decision making, and planning tools.
– Set the example – Be a good role model for their employees. They must not only hear what they are expected to do, but also see. We must become the change we want to see – Mahatma Gandhi
– Know their people and look out for their well-being – Know human nature and the importance of sincerely caring for their workers.
– Keep their workers informed – Know how to communicate with not only them, but also seniors and other key people.
– Develop a sense of responsibility in their workers – Help to develop good character traits that will help them carry out their professional responsibilities.
– Ensure that tasks are understood, supervised, and accomplished -Communication is the key to this responsibility.
– Train as a team– Although many so called leaders call their organization, department, section, etc. a team; they are not really teams…they are just a group of people doing their jobs.
– Use the full capabilities of their organization – By developing a team spirit, they will be able to employ their organization, department, section, etc. to its fullest capabilities.
Factors of leadership:
There are four major factors in leadership:
Follower: Different people require different styles of leadership. For example, a new hire requires more supervision than an experienced employee. A person who lacks motivation requires a different approach than one with a high degree of motivation.
They must know their people! The fundamental starting point is having a good understanding of human nature, such as needs, emotions, and motivation. You must become to know their employees’ be, know, and do attributes.
Leader: They must have an honest understanding of who they are, what they know, and what they can do. Also, note that it is the followers, not the leader who determines if a leader is successful. If they do not trust or lack confidence in their leader, then they will be uninspired. To be successful they have to convince their followers, not themselves or their superiors, that you are worthy of being followed.
Situation: All are different. What they do in one situation will not always work in another. they must use their judgment to decide the best course of action and the leadership style needed for each situation. For example, they may need to confront an employee for inappropriate behavior, but if the confrontation is too late or too early, too harsh or too weak, then the results may prove ineffective.
Various forces will affect these factors. Examples of forces are their relationship with their seniors, the skill of their people, the informal leaders within their organization, and how their company is organized.
Communication: And the last one is the communication. For a leader communication is must. Whatever brilliance or potentiality is in the leader all these are vain except the power of communication.
Leadership and Political Framework: In an effective leadership situation, the leader is an advocate, whose leadership style is coalition and building. While in an ineffective leadership situation, the leader is a hustler, whose leadership style is manipulation.
Political leaders clarify what they want and what they can get; they assess the distribution of power and interests; they build linkages to other stakeholders, use persuasion first, then use negotiation and coercion only if necessary.
Leadership and Symbolic Framework: In an effective leadership situation, the leader is a prophet, whose leadership style is inspiration. While in an ineffective leadership situation, the leader is a fanatic or fool, whose leadership style is smoke and mirrors.
Symbolic leaders view organizations as a stage or theatre to play certain roles and give impressions; these leaders use symbols to capture attention; they try to frame experience by providing plausible interpretations of experiences; they discover and communicate a vision.
This model suggests that leaders can be put into one of these four categories and there are times when one approach is appropriate and times when it would not be. Any one of these approaches alone would be inadequate, thus we should strive to be conscious of all four approaches, and not just rely on one or two.
Kinds of Leadership
(i) Authoritarian Leader (high task, low relationship): People who get this rating are very much task oriented and are hard on their workers (autocratic). There is little or no allowance for cooperation or collaboration. Heavily task oriented people display these characteristics.
(ii) Team Leader (high task, high relationship): This type of person leads by positive example and endeavors to foster a team environment in which all team members can reach their highest potential, both as team members and as people.
They encourage the team to reach team goals as effectively as possible, while also working tirelessly to strengthen the bonds among the various members. They normally form and lead some of the most productive teams.
(iii) Country Club Leader (low task, high relationship): This person uses predominantly reward power to maintain discipline and to encourage the team to accomplish its goals. Conversely, they are almost incapable of employing the more punitive coercive and legitimate powers. This inability results from fear that using such powers could jeopardize relationships with the other team members.
(iv) Impoverished Leader (low task, low relationship): A leader who uses a “delegate and disappear” management style. Since they are not committed to either task accomplishment or maintenance; they essentially allow their team to do whatever it wishes and prefer to detach themselves from the team process by allowing the team to suffer from a series of power struggles.
The Process of Great Leadership:
The road to great leadership (Kouzes & Posner, 1987) that is common to successful leaders:
– Challenge the process– First, find a process that they believe needs to be improved the most.
– Inspire a shared vision– Next, share the vision in words that can be understood by their followers.
– Enable others to act– Give them the tools and methods to solve the problem.
– Model the way– When the process gets tough, get their hands dirty. A boss tells others what to do…a leader shows that it can be done.
– Encourage the heart – Share the glory with their followers’ heart, while keeping the pains within their own.
Traits of a Good Leader:
Compiled by the Santa Clara University and the Tom Peters Group:
– Honesty– Display sincerity, integrity, and candor in all their actions. Deceptive behavior will not inspire trust.
– Competent– Their actions should be based on reason and moral principles. Do not make decisions based on childlike emotional desires or feelings.
– Forward-looking-Set goals and have a vision of the future. The vision must be owned throughout the organization. Effective leaders envision what they want and how to get it. They habitually pick priorities stemming from their basic values.
– Inspiring-Display confidence in all that they do. By showing endurance in mental, physical, and spiritual stamina, they will inspire others to reach for new heights. Take charge when necessary.
– Intelligent-Read, study, and seek challenging assignments.
– Fair-minded-Show fair treatment to all people. Prejudice is the enemy of justice. Display empathy by being sensitive to the feelings, values, interests, and well-being of others.
– Broad-minded-Seek out diversity.
– Courageous-Have the perseverance to accomplish a goal, regardless of the seemingly insurmountable obstacles. Display a confident calmness when under stress.
– Straightforward-Use sound judgement to make a good decisions at the right time.
– Imaginative-Make timely and appropriate changes in their thinking, plans, and methods. Show creativity by thinking of new and better goals, ideas, and solutions to problems.
Conclusion:
Leaders do not command excellence, they build excellence. Excellence is “being all they can be” within the bounds of doing what is right for their organization. To reach excellence they must first be a leader of good character. They must do everything they are supposed to do. Excellence starts with leaders of good and strong character who engage in the entire process of leadership.
And the first process is being a person of honorable character. An organization needs leaders with both strong and good characteristics, people who will guide them to the future and show that they can be trusted.