Capstone Project on "Leadership in Organizations Organizational Leadership Thoughts"

/>Leadership in Context

Applying theories and concepts in real life

Conclusion

35 CHAPTER FIVE

Final Thoughts

Development of leadership

Thoughts on ethical leadership

Essence of major cornerstones in leadership

Personal connections and embracing relationships

Evolution of thinking -- the impact of learning

Lessons on leadership

The philosophy of leading

Final Summary

References

CHAPTER 1

Thoughts on Leadership (Opening statement)

In many instances, managers and leaders are of the perception that leadership is only what one does to influence others. They fail to acknowledge that leadership is inspiring, encouraging and empowering to those who look upon a leader. An effective leader is one that is capacitated to reveal the best in others, and not only themselves. A person's character is in most cases gauged when they are in power, and they have the ability to lead others. The most fundamental rule in leadership is that leaders need to encourage a relationship between them and their subjects/subordinates, to reduce the levels and extremes of rebellion and resistance to change. The opening statement would, therefore, be that leadership is only efficient where there is a relationship between the leader and followers, in order to enhance team work, efficient communication and adaptability to change.

Definitions

Different authors have had their view of what leadership is giving diverse definitions of the word. Leadership comes from the word lead, which is both a noun and a verb. Lead as a noun means to guide your subordinates and to head an organization. Lead as a verb means to excel in something and to be ahead of others. According to the Sagepub website (2007), leadership is used to identify a certain interaction that is shared among the team leaders and their subordinates. Usually, it is the teal leader that has all the influence over others. Leadership also describes personality traits and different behaviors that sum up to collectives and roles of individuals.

According to Gallos, leadership is defined as a social process that is complex rooted in knowledge, skills and values. It is the way both followers and leaders think. Leaders see new opportunities and chances for the company/organization, and they face critical challenges based on the circumstances surrounding the organization, the individuals involved and the chances/possibilities at hand. Gallos goes ahead to say that leadership is emotionally oriented as effective leaders motivate and inspire their followers, in order to divulge the best attributes from themselves and their followers.

Leadership is empathy. By this, it means knowing how to listen and get other's perceptions and opinions and hearing them out. Effectively, leaders get to hear out others and empathize on their issues. Essentially, leadership is all about integrity, substance and honesty. Leaders should have the ability to sustain scrutiny, inspections and a close examination. The question remains whether leaders are made or born. Evidently, there has to be an understanding within us that leaders can be made, especially if they learn on how to motivate others and inspire them to perform better in the team or organization (Maddock & Fulton, 1998).

After the preceding paragraphs outlining the definitions, there are common aspects identified in the different definitions concerning leadership. These several aspects include leadership as a process, which involves the development of leadership attributes. Leadership also involves the influence of an individual or a group of persons. In most cases, leadership involves a group context, where the leader inspires and motivates a certain scope of a group or subordinate. Leadership ought to have the aspect of goal setting and goal attainment, especially in an organization setup.

Management vs. Leadership

What is management?

Before a critical analysis on both aspects of management and leadership, a definition of management will be necessary at this stage. In general terms, regardless of diverse opinions from different authors, management is the act of working with people, and accomplishing objectives of the organization together with its members. Many activities are undergone in management; planning, staffing, coordinating, controlling, leading and motivating. Managers are in most cases expected to undertake the technical activities of the organization, be responsible, authoritative and reliable (Montana & Charnov, 2008).

Similarities

In this section, the similarities between management and leadership will be analytically explored. Researchers have had a tendency of mentioning that persons bestowed with authority or powers are leaders. If this is followed, then supervisors and managers are all leaders in an organization. This means there is a great inter-relationship between management and leadership. The two terms are even interchanged at times, regardless of the fact that some authors differ concerning the two terms (McKenna, 2000).

In discussing the similarities between the two terms, their characteristics will be assessed. Firstly, both managers and leaders have to possess efficient training and coaching skills. They are the role models of their followers and subordinates, and are obligated to train them in order for the subordinates to tackle different tasks regardless of their positions or situations. In addition, it is expected that those in management and leadership have to be confident. In order to direct, motivate and inspire their followers, managers and leaders ought to have immense confidence. Both leadership and management also involve the attainment of certain goals. For managers, they need to reach satisfactorily their organizational or departmental objectives. For the leaders, they also motivate their followers into achieving certain laid down tasks. Management and leadership also call for creativity, and most importantly empathic listening skills (Ricketts, 2009).

Similarly, both leadership and management personalities need to possess certain values that are common for both of them. These include the working in realistic conditions that are attainable. Managers and leaders also need a strong self -- esteem and a sense of prioritizing things for better results in the firm/organization. Leadership and management both have the aspect of sincerity, trust and willingness to share certain exceptional virtues of responsibility, credit and recognition (Ricketts, 2009).

Differences

Many writers have also distinguished management to leadership, insisting that the two have different ideologies and components. According to some authors, leadership is a multidirectional influence and relationship while management is unidirectional authority relationship. In other words, leadership involves the development of purposes that are mutual between the leaders and their followers. Management, in contrary, is concerned and linked to the coordination of specific activities, to ensure a certain task is successfully undertaken. As leaders and their followers work as a team and embrace togetherness in order to create change, subordinates and the managers combine their abilities and forces to sell both services and goods (Northouse, 2009).

The definitions of the two terms are also a distinguishing factor. In managing things, then the manager accomplishes certain tasks and objectives through well established master routines. However, leading involves the act of a leader influencing others, especially through motivating and inspiring them, to ensure that they create visions of change. In summary, this could be said; managers do things the right way while leaders to the right things. Also, managers and leaders are different in nature. They are quite different types of persons, with a different mindset altogether. As managers are reactive and prioritize working with others and ensure problems are solved without involving emotions, leaders are very emotional, and they are actively and completely involved with their followers. Leaders will often seek to shape and reshape ideas, so as to provide multiple options when responding to their problems. They, therefore, make their duty way easier, compared to managers, who have limited choice in dealing with the obstacles in their careers (Northouse, 2009).

The overlap ion management and leadership

Despite of the many differences already discussed in the preceding paragraphs, it is clear that the two, leadership and management do overlap. As managers try their level best to involve themselves in influencing their subordinates to achieve certain goals, then they are performing as leaders, hence introducing the leadership traits in management. Leaders will at times take part in planning, organizing, controlling and staffing, which are duties of managers. Evidently, leaders also take part in managerial functions. In both management and leadership, there is the aspect of group influence and goal attainment. Other authors and writers have even got to the level where they treat leadership and management with equal measure and hardly emphasize their differences (Northouse, 2009).

What do leaders… READ MORE