To: Prof. Jody Daniels From: Mahnaz Bayat Date: December 2, 2014 Personal Leadership Action Plan Before taking the leadership class I viewed leaders and managers the same and I was thinking that only a few people at the top of an organization can lead. However I was wrong and today I view leadership as the challenge and responsibility of every individual with potential to make a difference. Today, I view leadership as a social influence. It is initiating and guiding and the result is change. Leadership is more art than science and more skill than knowledge (Manning, p.61). I believe that developing leadership skills is not a rapid process, but it is a daily process. The best place people learn how to lead is from their daily experiences. Therefore, my job experience helped me to be more familiar with this topic and I gained additional worthy information from the class materials and lessons. Writing a biography was an amazing experience that helped me to look back in my life, review it in details, know what I did in the past and discover myself better. I did many of the book’s assessments and exercises and I found them totally thought-provoking and useful materials. They assisted me to think more about my leadership potentials and skills. Doing the exercises made me more aware of my strengths and weaknesses in the area of leadership. I read in the book about 10 qualities that mark a leader and help influence the leadership process. Those qualities listed as: vision,
Leadership in an organization often plays a critical role, and is frequently, though not always, one of the major drivers of the success or failure of a company. (Bass, 1990) Effective leadership helps a company through times of peril and brings a future of brightness. It makes a corporation successful. However, what is leadership? According to Kouzes and Posner, it is the art of mobilizing others to want to struggle for shared aspirations. (1995, p.30) Leaders set a clear direction for us; they help us realize what is ahead; they support us to achieve and win; they encourage and inspire us when we feel depressed. Without leadership, an organization will degenerate into chaos and unstructured because people view things in different ways.
Before going through this journey of self-discovery, my view of leadership was accurately described by John C. Maxwell “ Leadership is influence.” (Maxwell, para. 25, 2012). I believed, before taking this class and Northouse’s (2013) assessments, leaders were defined by the extent to which they could influence others to achieve company goals. I thought that, when discussing leadership, the leader was the most important aspect of the leader-member dyad and that it was the leader who had the greatest influence over how successful the organization was. Leaders themselves, in my view, should have been the focus of leadership studies and it should have been up to the leader to develop his/her skills in
Leadership can be defined as the ability of a company 's management to make sound decisions and inspire others to perform well (Investopedia, 2014). From the beginning of time, in the middle of all the major changes and historical events there where effective and motivated leaders having a wide sphere of influence and inspiring other groups of people to be creative and efficient. A leader is defined as a person or thing that holds a dominant or superior position within its field, and is able to exercise a high degree of control or influence over others (businessdictionary,2014).Leaders have always played a major role in the evolution of technology as well as in forming the very lifestyle of today’s society. Effective leaders are able to set and achieve challenging goals, to take swift and decisive action even in difficult situations, to outperform their competition, to take calculated risks and to persevere in the face of
With any course, especially one with a focus as broad as leadership, the material covered may include a range from useful to impractical. It is impossible to learn the skills necessary of an effective leader completely out of a book, it takes the application of them to understand. The development of leadership is vital to successfully moving forward in any career, so it would be beneficial to cultivate these skills academically.
Leadership represents an essential element for the success of an organization, it has a profound impact on the achievement of the goals. The leadership unites an organization efforts and directs toward the behavior of individuals in line with the achievement of objectives and deliverables. Organizations composed of members from different cultures, mentalities, and personalities representing groups of people work together in a specific regulatory framework and in accordance with certain operating procedures. These groups or work teams need to coordinate among them in order to reach the specific objectives. In this context, it always highlights the role of leadership in influencing an organization. The Strategic Leadership Instructor is doing his best to develop our leadership, and exploiting his innate cleverness and natural sensation to support his fellows to succeed. He helps us in enabling of taking advantage of the actual innate sixth sense that God gave it, and exploiting the energy and the ability to distinguish. I learned a lot from readings and during the sessions, I learned from my colleagues some of the basic functions of leadership through their experiences. I learned how to develop my skills that will support my style of leadership. During the discussions I have changed some of principles and ideas that already I have, and the others make me to work on developing them. It became clear to me, when I read the
Leadership to me is someone who leads by example, one who steps up in times of crisis and is able to think and act creatively in difficult situations. In light of recent events I believe the definition of leadership has changed. A leader may have a high profile or a low profile. There are over 100 different definitions of leadership that have been identified. Leadership is considered a trait, skill, ability, behavior, relationship and a process. Trait theories help us identify traits and qualities that are helpful when leading others. Leaders need the required traits that a particular situation demands. For an example, A high school class room with bored students requires a leader who is inspiring and creative. In addition to, leaders being
Throughout the course, my definition of leadership has definitely changed. At the beginning of the course, I only thought of leadership in a very direct way. I also only thought of the people that are always thought of leaders, people like CEOs and captains of sports teams. Because of this class, I learned that there are so many different ways to look at leadership and so many different ways for a leader to be effective. There are also so many people that are leaders that are not usually thought of when thinking about
When I was younger, I thought leadership was authority bestowed to people in positions of power because of their rank. To me, leadership was a word that evoked the image of a staunch and authoritarian CEO or military general inspiring large crowds with rousing speeches. Leaders were a special group of people who wielded the power of leadership with the grace and finesse to make all others stand in awe. However, as I became older and more established in my career, I saw that leadership was not always given to a person because of their rank. I saw that some leaders work hard to reach the higher levels of leadership by learning and adapting themselves rather than trying to change their environment. I learned that although positions provide
The following document will outline my personal leadership plan which will include my personal coaching and leadership philosophy including, mission statement, vision statement, core values, and the style of coaching that I would like to be representative of me as a coach and as a positive role model to my players. I believe that this philosophy will outline the standards that I expect from my players, and it will become the fabric and a motivational tool which all of their future decisions will be based upon. This philosophy will be a foundation that the young men coached within this program can use to apply to all parts of their adult life. My leadership plan is a reflection of me and my core beliefs and will
As a midshipman at the Naval Academy, my Leadership Purpose Statement is to influence those I lead through my integrity and civility to accomplish the mission to develop them mentally, morally and physically as future military leaders.
“I am more afraid of an army of 100 sheep led by a lion than an army of 100 lions led by a sheep” (Talleyrand). The significance of leadership can be summed up so soundly in such a simple quote. Leadership can be defined in countless ways, but one way to identify a leader is as a person who can positively or negatively affect the thoughts and behaviors of others. A leader is someone who forms the direction for others to readily follow. One person may be identified as a leader or several may share it. An individual may be appointed as leader or they may be elected. Leaders can influence others to perform beyond the expectations. It is not just a wide spread concept, but a way of life and an aspect of continuous evolution. Trying to narrow
I have been a part of the SS: Leadership program for over six months. During this time, I have learned more about leadership than I have in all of the classes I have taken in the past. For some time, I have confused manager work with leader work. I have come to realize that these two acts are very different in their ability to work with a group of people. I have also believed that a leader is someone who can simply take charge of a group. I have come to realize that this is not the case because leader work must be attained at a much deeper level.
The terms “leadership” and “management” are often used interchangeably; however, important distinctions exist between these two terms. According to Robbins & Judge (2009), leadership can be defined as “the ability to influence a group toward the achievement of a vision or set of goals” (p. 385). Not all managers are leaders; likewise, not all leaders are managers (Robbins & Judge, 2009). If leadership is defined as the ability to influence a group of people, are individuals born leaders, or can they be transformed into effective leaders (Fischer, n.d)? Although some individuals possess an innate ability to lead, other individuals may flourish into a leadership position through a cognitive approach devoted toward achieving a common goal.
Leadership is a concept that is constantly discussed yet there is seldom agreement about what it is. Even though most agree leadership is crucial to success of any people, project or venture. People define leadership differently and often times misconstrue leadership with management. Leadership provides the vision and focuses on the people while management focuses on objectives and tasks. It is however valid that a budding leader may sometimes need to act as both a leader an as a manager whenever necessary.
According to Webster’s, leadership is a position as a leader of a group, organization, etc.; the time when a person holds the position of leader; the power or ability to lead other people. We are living in a world where our achievements and failures are either accredited or confounded to the leaders of organizations, religion, political leaders just to name a few. We should be observing leadership in an unconventional viewpoint since all of us are leaders in one way or the other; in our personal life, families, careers, or organizational positions. Wherever we are somebody is watching and will be influenced by our lifestyle whether be good or bad.