Leadership Qualities And Duties Leadership Essay

Leadership is a role that is given to people with leadership qualities, people with authorities, people who can take lead, can direct or work with a group of people to achieve a common goal. First things first, leaders are made not born. In this essay I’m going to discuss, my understanding of leadership and the general concepts of leadership. (Nermeen,2005)

What characteristic do I think that contributes to good leadership and names of two good business leaders and why. “Leadership is an interactive process in which leaders and followers engage in mutual interaction in a complex environment5 to achieve mutual goals. Wren further makes the point that leadership is neither a position or title, nor the actions of an identifiable leader. Fundamentally, leadership is an influence relationship between leaders and followers, within a leadership system”(Levy,2004). In ancient decade many people believe that leaders were born not made, as a person from royal back ground were the ones, who carried the legacy forward, but as time changes, thinking changes too. Now days it’s believed that leaders are made not born. In my understanding the differences are before you were forced, expected or chosen to take the role, whereas now you need to prove, show results, get motivated and have initiatives to be a leader. While leadership is learned, the skills and knowledge processed by the leader can be influenced such as, beliefs, values, ethics, and character.(Susan,n.d) Knowledge and skills contribute directly to the process of leadership, while the other attributes give the leader certain characteristics that make him or her unique. Although your position as a manager, supervisor, lead, etc. gives you the authority to accomplish certain tasks and objectives in the organization (called Assigned Leadership), this power does not make you a leader, it simply makes you the boss (Rowe, 2007). Leadership differs in that it makes the followers want to achieve high goals (called Emergent Leadership), rather than simply bossing people around (Rowe, 2007).

Thus you get Assigned Leadership by your position and you display Emergent Leadership by influencing people to do great things.People want to be guided by those they respect and who have a clear sense of direction. To gain respect, they must be ethical. A sense of direction is achieved by conveying a strong vision of the future. (Mischel, 1968). When a person is deciding if she respects you as a leader, she does not think about your attributes, rather, she observes what you do so that she can know who you really are. She uses this observation to tell if you are an honorable and trusted leader or a self-serving person who misuses authority to look good and get promoted. Self-serving leaders are not as effective because their employees only obey them, not follow them. They succeed in many areas because they present a good image to their seniors at the expense of their workers. Two aspects of this definition are important. First, a significant part of effective leadership is the close connection between the leader and the follower, which often determines the success of the leader’s mission. Unfortunately, this leader-follower relationship cannot be created according to some simple formula. Without inspiration, involvement, and encouragement from both participants, the relationship can not be effective. Leaders, in particular, must give an extra effort to reach out to followers in order to initiate and develop this alliance that is so critical to the achievement of goals. The leaders face special challenges as they try to communicate and interact with their followers and potential followers to understand and know what they think and what they do. Developing their leadership style in response to diversity, and ethics will give them an edge as they build relationships with their subordinators. Secondly, leaders who begin to use force, coercion, and manipulation must later use more force, coercion, and manipulation precisely because their ability to influence – truly lead – is diminished. In my company I have never seen our lead to use any force to associates for achieving goals, because he’d like to be a true leader for a long time. I believe that there are times in the life of a team or organization when the formula leader appropriately exercises the authority of his or her position or deal with organizational issues. Be, know and do the basis of good leadership is honorable character and selfless service to your organization. (Bens,2006)

In your employees’ eyes, your leadership is everything you do that effects the organization’s objectives and their well-being. Respected leaders concentrate on. What they are [be] (such as beliefs and character). What they know (such as job, tasks, and human nature). What they do (such as implementing, motivating, and providing direction). (Bass, 2008) What makes a person want to follow a leader? People want to be guided by those they respect and who have a clear sense of direction. To gain respect, they must be ethical. A sense of direction is achieved by conveying a strong vision of the future. (Lamb, McKee, 2004). The factors that contribute to good leadership is, willingness to go beyond or walk an extra mile, have initiative, or in simple terms put your heart and soul. In what ever you do. The four factors leader, follower, communications and situation are to dealt with effectively. Communications can easily breakdown and misunderstanding. Leaders must have an honest understanding of who their are, what they know, and what they can do. Also, note that it is the followers, not the leader or someone else who determines if the leader is successful. If they do not trust or lack confidence in their leader, then they will be uninspired. To be successful you have to convince your followers, not yourself or your superiors, that you are worthy of being followed. Followers you must know your people! The fundamental starting point is having a good understanding of human nature, such as needs, emotions, and motivation. You must come to know your employees’ be, know, and do attributes. Communication is a two-way process.(Hoyle,1995) Much of it is nonverbal. For example, when you “set the example,” that communicates to your people that you would not ask them to perform anything that you would not be willing to do. What and how you communicate either builds or harms the relationship between you and your employees. All situations are different. What you do in one situation will not always work in another. You must use your judgment to decide the best course of action and the leadership style needed for each situation (Mischel, 1968).

A good leader is some who does what is right, a good leader produces results a good leader is some one like Mahtama Ghandi, Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, Donald Trump or Jaimee Oliver for instances. These people are the ones who set examples; these people are the ones who have followers. Mr. Donald Trump is a person, whom I believe is the greatest businessman ever, according to a documentary in TV (personal communications) Ones Mr. Trump has only a quarter (25c) in his pocket and he made a call to a bank, the bank heard his idea and approve his very small amount of loan and from that loan, he further develop his small idea into a middle size, and from there he kept on developing and growing and as we all know him well. He had a business idea, which no one was interested in, he tried couple of times but failed, but he is a person with resilience’s, he bounce back and finally persuaded some one that his idea is wonderful. The last quarter, a man in need, the brain works faster then ever, a little bit of luck and lots of self believe, willingness and initiative, took him where is was dreaming for and one very important thing. He had right people or followers to support him. He’s not a boss but a leader, he leader the way in many businesses, he became a celebrity as well. Soon he became an executive producer of his own TV show “The Apprentices” and started acting at this age. He is a man of opportunities, he proves that you can do anything at an any age all you need is to believe in yourself and keep on getting ahead. The most important thing to get ahead is to get knowledge. A leader should hungry for knowledge at all times. Studying is another way of getting updated or posted with what’s new. Every single day there is something new to be learnt and to deliver or to pass it on. (Victor, 1978)

In my option Jaimee Oliver is also doing a great job, he is a good inspiration to lots of people, especially to boys, who don’t do good at school, but have some short of hobby or have passion for something. Mr. Oliver is a school drop out (personal communications) His parents forced him to go school but he kept on skipping until one day, his mum knows, that he likes to cook so he started cooking, trying new thing, making his own recipes, mixing the old and the new recipes together to create a new taste or flavor, soon he relished his cook books, and got famous and became the celebrity chef. That was the kick start for his career. He started cooking for famous people, manly celebrities. From there is started cooking shows in Television. This gave him the opportunity to get his own show on the. He started a school in London for students who have passion for cooking, but are not good in school. He helped lots couples to enter the TV show that need a creative cook, the prices was to get the winner their own restaurant with a flat on top for his family. There are many more TV shows he did that have lot of good impact on lots of people. Soon he started a show that has forced a school to change their menu, at the beginning the school was not happy at all for his idea, but he convinces the management and was given time to promote his ides ant if he gets lots believers then only he would continue.(can view at TV 1) At first the canteen people gave him a heard time together with very fussy students. But he manage to get things around from the he moved to Melbourne Australia, where that time has largest number of children living on the streets. He encouraged them to take a career in cooking and prove everyone wrong. According to Jaimee Oliver that was the most difficult case of all but he manage to get some of them a on the right track by showing a way. Now Jaimee Oliver has relished his cook ware, which is really very expensive. (Don’t know how to get one for wife). The whole point of this is basically, that he is a good leader, a good human being and he had a vision, he set his goals and knew what he wants out of life. A good leader should always have a vision. In my view a good leader has integrity, vision, willingness, can communicate effectively, is honest, reliable and responsible.(Blake,1964)

Workplace frustration

Part B

Poor communications by senior management

offices politics

Lack of teamwork

The use of politically correct language

Nosy co-workers

In my prospective I think offices politics is the first, then comes lack team work, poor communications, use of correct language and for me nosy co-workers is not a problem at all. The first three is a major concern, the influence that culture has on leadership. Cultural aspects such as organizational, the way its been run and handled, the heart and souls of business and what it mean the person who owns it for example, he feels its his belonging, his well-being.

The ethnicity of the owner, what are they expecting, how things are done in they culture or does he or she is from a multicultural background and etc.

All these are to be considered before putting the work place frustration.

Offices polities is getting on top of everything nowadays, sometimes how heard you work but can’t get any recognition, is basically because of dirty politics. Lack of teamwork is also a major part as its takes the initiatives to go beyond. Sometimes poor communication is one of the factors that cause most of the problems, some times its not all the above but because of broken communication, some of the problems are just for noting, this is where the culture, ethics and believe are hand on hand. It’s all interlinked to each other. It’s a circle that has a beginning but no ending.