Essay on "Why Supporting Others Is a Good Leadership Style"

Essay 8 pages (2665 words) Sources: 6

[EXCERPT] . . . .

He was a very positive influence on Carl's life and helped instill in him the values of perseverance, determination, and a thirst for success. From him Carl learned most of all how to make an executive decision.

Carl's wife has also been a good example of a leader for him as well: she shares his faith and appreciates his strengths and accepts his shortcomings. She has helped Carl to balance work and raising children. From her he has learned humility, how to truly be supportive, and how to see the good potential in others.

At the start of Carl's professional career way back in 1995, his boss taught him to take an interest in other people and to always strive to learn something no matter what the situation. He demonstrated superior strength of character, guidance and an impeccable private life.

In 2004, Carl took a job abroad and had a bad boss who he did not like. The boss was egocentric and had a bullying style of leadership. It was not a productive or creative time and Carl felt stressed by it. The job was not satisfying, there was no passion, and it was difficult for Carl to grow and develop as he wanted to and thought he could when he took the job. However, he drew a lesson from this time as well, and that was to renew his commitment to himself.

He earned another business degree in 2010 and had a great professor who helped him put his learning into practice. That same year he had another good boss experience in a global leadership role. He exposed Carl to strategic agendas and allowed him to develop his own ideas. It was a great confidence booster for Carl.

Throughout this time, Carl read Bill Clinton's "My Life" and learned the value of advocacy, communication and teamwork. He also read Nelson Mandela's "Long Walk to Freedom" and from him he gained a greater appreciation for endurance. From Barack Obama's book "Audacity of Hope," he learned the value of charisma, resilience, and consultation. He demonstrated a will to never give up and to embrace humility.

Today Carl uses all of his experiences to help him move forward as a leader by "learning from my life story" as George, Sims, McLean and Mayer (2007, p. 2) say to do. This means Carl looks at his own life and learns from each instance just as I would if were reading it as a 3rd party. More to the point, as Boaz and Fox (2014) state, the most important lesson that one can learn in becoming a good leader is to focus on changing oneself for the better rather than on attempting to change everyone else. The more effectively one can learn patience, perseverance, and other virtues, the more likely one is to be able to cope in every situation (and, yes, that means Carl has work to do in learning to cope with egocentric people). Changing oneself is in fact the first and best step in changing others.

For examples of best practices of leadership, Carl looks to his father, his wife, and all the other people he admires. He notes that his father has given him a lot in terms of how to be an effective and strong person, and that his wife has showed him how to be secure, caring, and compassionate person. Thus, the strengths that Carl has may be identified as Emotional Intelligence (EI), Social Intelligence (SI), communication skills, decisiveness, and curiosity (he always wants to know how things can be better or be improved and is never satisfied with accepting a status quo). The leaders Carl admires (such as Clinton and Obama) have taught him the value of being well-spoken, thoughtful, direct, and of having a sense of community. This value-sense correlates with what Kempster, Jackson, and Conroy (2011, p. 31) have emphasized, which is the relationship between purpose and leadership and how this relationship is something that must be made front and center in one's journey to becoming a leader in an organization. As Carl points out, had his teachers and employers not understood the effect of purpose in leadership, he would not have received any valuable guidance but would rather have been like a piece of flotsam.

Furthermore, Kempster (2009) illustrates that there is no better teacher than lived experience -- at least not for one who is willing to reflect on experience and judge himself according to just standards and principles relating to the type of person and leader he wants to become. This is the way forward for anyone wishing to become a better and more effective leader: the ability to look, listen, see oneself critically, and learn lessons at all times -- this is what is necessary in leadership.

Judging from these points, Carl's strengths align with communication skills and decision making. He is really passionate about communicating what he thinks and being able to influence others. So his strength is definitely in communication. He also likes to be decisive and make decisions quickly and effectively, so he is strong in the decision making area as well.

For this reason, I think that a leadership approach that would best suit Carl would a servant leadership style. He is passionate about being at the forefront and helping others and since he aims to do that through technological advancement, adopting a servant leadership method could facilitate his aims. By helping others, especially his followers around him, to harness their own skill set and become better developers, he could bring these people on board and start to create his own team. With his vision of what he wants and expects, he could inspire several people to join him. Thus, by helping and serving others ahead of himself, he actually serves himself in the end. When you get people to see how they themselves can grow and tap their potential, it increases their affection and desire to please you. This could help Carl to be the kind of leader that he wants to be and it could place in a position where on account of his servant leadership approach, he is viewed as a humble and considerate leader for whom people would gladly come and work.

References

Boaz, N., Fox, E. A. (2014). Change leader, change thyself. McKinsey Quarterly: 1-11.

George, B., Sims, P., McLean, A., Mayer, D. (2007). Discovering Your Authentic

Leadership. Harvard Business Review: 1-9.

Kempster, S. (2009). How Mangers have Learned to Lead: Exploring the Development

of Leadership Practice. NY: Palgrave Macmillan.

Kempster, S., Jackson, B., Conroy, M. (2011). Leadership as purpose: Exploring the role of purpose in leadership practice. Birmingham Business School.

Kotter, J.P., (2009). The Meaning of Leadership. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.

Bennis, W.G. & Thomas, R. J. (2002). Crucibles of Leadership. Harvard Business

Review.

Robbins, S.P., & Judge, T.A, (2013), Organizational Behavior. Pearson Education, Inc.

publishing as Prentice Hall. Fifteenth Edition.

Clawson, J.D.,… READ MORE

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