The Leadership Journey Portfolio This course has been a journey of self-analysis and reflection on the study of leadership. Leadership is a journey throughout life in the realms of personal and professional application. Time, experience, study, observation, and reflection offer the path to continuing improvement.
Part One - Questions
One: How do you define leadership? Our textbook stated that leadership is a science and an art, as well as being both rational and emotional (Hughes, 2015, p. 5-6). Leadership theory provides the science and the application of the theory is the art. There is no one method to guarantee success for a leader. Leadership is multi-faceted and requires flexibility, emotional intelligence, and the will to
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In earlier years, family responsibilities kept from having time for volunteering. Financial responsibilities kept me from pursing employment with non-profits, as the pay is usually not the equivalent of other employers, unless one is high up on the executive ladder in a large non-profit entity. Our study of leadership has given me a better perspective of the history of leadership theories and historical leaders. I have gained insight on the importance of good leadership and the value it has in every organization. Going from good to great is definitely impacted by the quality of leadership. I have done enough volunteer work to see the need for quality leaders in non-profit organizations. In addition, I have seen the great need for volunteers as a vital component for accomplishing the mission of every non-profit organization. Our study of leadership has reinforced my thoughts about servant leadership. For instance, the level 5 leader is humble. Humility is a fundamental characteristic of servant leadership (Greenleaf, 1998).
What are your key values? My choice of leadership style is servant leadership. My thoughts on the values of servant leaders, correlate with my own, and include civility, humility, embracing diversity, integrity, and accountability. Civility seems to have gone astray in some parts of our society. Servant leaders have on opportunity to increase civility by treating everyone with dignity, respect, and
Leadership is “the fusion of heart and mind, selfless action, encourage betterment of others, and to make a difference. It is the process of influencing
Leadership is a process of social influence, which maximizes the efforts of others, towards the achievement of a goal. The article “Leadership That Gets Results” by Daniel Goleman is an article that helps readers understand that there is not only one way of becoming a successful leader. Research indicates that leaders with best results do not rely on only one leadership style. Goleman, describes leaderships styles as array of clubs in a golf pro’s bag. Over the course of the game, the pro picks clubs based on the demands of the shot. Thinking is involved during the selection, but usually it is automatic. The pro is aware of the challenge ahead, quickly utilizes the right tool, and puts it to work. It has also been found that emotional intelligence
Leadership is, and always has been, a vital aspect of social and economic constructs. It is essential to the survival of societies, industries, organizations, and virtually any group of individuals that come together for a common purpose. However, leadership is difficult to define in a single, definitive sense. As such, theories of leadership, what constitutes a great leader, and how leaders are made have evolved constantly throughout history, and still continue to change today in hopes of improving upon our understanding of leadership, its importance, and how it can be most effective in modern organizational cultures.
Over the course of my career, I have tried to model various leadership behaviors based upon successful leaders that I have worked with or for. This has led me to incorporate different styles into my own. Considering my current leadership strengths and how I view successful leaders I will use a servant leadership theory to analyze my own competencies. Servant leaders have 9 different aspects comprised of: emotional healing, creating value for the community, conceptual skills, empowering, helping subordinates grow and succeed, putting subordinates first, behaving ethically, relationships, and servanthood (Boone & Makhani, 2005, pg. 86). The aspects of a servant leader are those that I personally value and identify with. In addition to this, it is my belief that servant leaders, because they are people oriented, are more effective in a variety of environments and situations.
Leadership is a term that cannot be defined or simplified with a standard definition (Bethel, 2011). The term’s complexity is a phenomenon, as it carries a different meaning for each person. During the
Leadership is both an inherent value and is forged overtime. Inherently, some people are born good leaders and intrinsically have good values imbedded. Leadership traits can be honed and developed overtime; you never stop learning to be a good leader. Leadership is the cornerstone of all successfully run organizations and is what drives stewardship to successfully carry on the organizations mission statement. Throughout one’s life experiences, they come across some great leaders and some not-so great leaders. Those life experiences transcend one to become a better leader through experiential circumstances.
Out of all the different leadership theories I learned about this semester I really feel that I best relate to transformational leadership and authentic leadership theories. During the development of my personal theory I found that these theories tended to list many similar traits, and values that aligned with my own. Additionally, both authentic and transformative theories place a significant amount of emphasis on the relationship between the leader and her/his followers. The success and influence of a leader comes not from herself but from her ability to create and invoke strong relationships with their followers. Given my character strengths of being understanding, upholding my sense of fairness, honesty and my strong sense of morals,
Approaches to leadership have evolved over time, and in the complex and global world of the 21st century, the need for effective leaders is more prominent in today’s society than ever before. The new styles of leadership involve the shift from the trait approach model to leadership that focused more on the characteristics or qualities of a strong leader and the relational approach model that highlighted the relational process between leaders and followers to servant leadership that emphasizes on serving the subordinates one leads (Northouse, 2015).
The Servant-leadership characteristics are ‘Listening’, ‘Empathy, ‘Healing’, ‘Awareness’, ‘Persuasion’, ‘Conceptualization’, ‘Foresight’, ‘Stewardship’, ‘Commitment to the growth and development of people’, and ‘Building community’. Over the last one week, as a team leader, I started applying some of the Servant-leadership characteristics across the team. Evaluated the results against our previous accomplishments. The outcome of this approach seems promising with better results and upbringing new team players.
Before this class, I had a very primitive and vague definition of leadership. Not only did I define it as per my views and ideologies, but I also said that each individual has their own definition of leadership. My initial belief was that leadership does not have a clear cut definition, but there were well defined leadership traits which made an individual. I also initially believed that personal traits did not translate into leadership traits with no strong correlation. After going through the various modules this class offered, it is safe to say that I have significantly redefined leadership and underwent a strong personal assessment. This paper talks what I took back from each of the class activities, assignments and how my self-assessment compares to the perception of others.
While working at UCCC, I was reading the principles of becoming a servant leader which influenced my decisions in the office. According to James Hunter leadership is the skills of influencing people to enthusiastically work toward goals identified as being for the common good, with character that inspires influence. With influence we build more effective relationships than managers.
An individual is their own person, each one of us is different, born with different traits and characteristics. These traits are built upon and developed throughout a person’s life through experiences in life. The leadership journey can start very early on from being a child and part of a family into adulthood and part of an organisation. In order to understand what leadership really is, it must first be defined to present a boundary of the issue itself. For this topic, is a complicated, varied and wide one it is more difficult to define there is not just one definition but hundreds of definitions according to different
There are many leadership styles one can try to emulate as a person grows in their leaderships role. Many of us struggle to engage teams, enrich the lives of team members, and build a stronger organization. American corporations are still recovering from the economic downturn of 2009. They are in desperate need of ethical and efficient leadership that helps others, devotes in their concerns and accomplishes a shared vision. “The servant-leader is a servant first. It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead” (Center for Servant Leadership, 2015).
Leadership is a study of individuals who have the ability to inspire and convince people towards a meaningful direction which would lead to both personal and professional growth. This field of study encompasses the understanding and critical appraisal of how leadership theories and perspectives
Research on management and leadership in organizations over the past century shows there are still no clear definitions or answers about what counts as effective and successful leadership; the field remains varied and argued. Actual studies of leadership began in the early twentieth century. The research and studies on leadership have resulted in defining what characters, traits and attitudes are considered to be significant for leaders to possess. The early studies of leadership theories focused on the person and their behaviors, currently known as leadership trait theories and behavioral theories. It is important for organizational leaders and managers to understand what characteristics, traits and actions of an individual mark a great leader when forming a strong diverse workforce.