Leadership
trf4567
Leadership-Fall-20.pptxINTRODUCTION TO LEADERSHIP
Understanding Leadership
Concepts of Leadership
Good leaders are made, not born. If you have the desire and willpower, you can become an effective leader. Good leaders develop through a never ending process of self-study, education, training, and experience (Jago, 1982). This guide will help you through the journey.
To inspire your workers into higher levels of teamwork, there are certain things you must be, know, and, do. These do not often come naturally, but are acquired through continual work and study. Good leaders are continually working and studying to improve their leadership skills; they are NOT resting on their past laurels.
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A person influences others through social influence, not power, to get something accomplished (bosses use power to get things done).
Leadership requires others, who are not necessarily direct-reports, to get something accomplished.
There is a need to accomplish something.
Leaders carry out this process by applying their leadership knowledge and skills. This is called Process Leadership (Jago, 1982). However, we know that we have traits that can influence our actions. This is called Trait Leadership (Jago, 1982), in that it was once common to believe that leaders were born rather than made. These two leadership types are shown in the chart below (Northouse, 2007, p5):
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I see leadership as much more than “The power or ability to lead other people.” It is a way of being, a preparedness, and a process that drives actions and directs behaviors. At its essence:
Leadership is a tool to achieve success.
If one understands leadership as a tool, then, as with all tools, mastery comes from practice, care, and responsible use.
Effective leadership requires a commitment to key values demonstrated through behaviors. The key values of leadership are accountability, character, effective communication, and understanding of self, understanding of others, understanding of the objective, practice, and patience.
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With practice, care, and responsible use, the tool of leadership leads to success.
The fact of getting or achieving wealth, respect, or fame.
In today’s toxic business and political environments, for some, success means winning at all costs while exploiting relationships and destroying reputations along the way.
The traditional, pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps-rugged-individualism-win-at-all-cost-take-no-prisoners view of success is flawed and does not reward or acknowledge the broader more attainable idea of success – an idea based on inclusion, shared values, and common goals. Success should not be defined solely by superstars, but by ordinary people working together to make a positive impact on those around them.
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These traditional definitions of leadership and success are technically correct, but they do not address the importance of how one achieves success or demonstrates leadership.
I propose an update to these definitions:
Leadership – Is the ability to effectively and responsibly engage with people, processes, and programs, to achieve organizational, team, or individual goals.
Success – Is attaining your dreams while maintaining your dignity.
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Attaining success, or fulfilling your dreams, demands that you fight and struggle and practice and work and fail before you succeed, but you achieve your idea of success with your dignity intact and without destroying relationships.
Leadership is not about force or control, it is about understanding that all individuals have a choice in how they act, including who they follow.
The most effective leaders recognize that leadership always requires sacrifice and service to the cause, mission, vision, and the people being served. If the sacrifice is perceived as genuine, leaders are rewarded with trust and respect, creating dedicated, committed, and motivated supporters
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Effective leadership does not require perfection – leaders are as imperfect as the next person, but how the leader works, communicates, and recovers from mistakes determines if they gain, maintain or lose respect and trust.
Leaders are always under scrutiny and will be constantly tested – this fact should not deter or overwhelm leaders. It should serve as a catalyst for positive, meaningful, and intentional behaviors. Successful leaders consistently live by their values but are also open to discovery and growth.
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Leaders are like batteries – those around you draw from you as if you were a power source. They draw on your encouragement, strength, compassion, understanding, honesty, courage, and demonstrated humanity. One of the greatest challenges in leadership is learning how to effectively recharge your batteries so that you can continue to offer support to others without becoming so drained that you lose your ability to lead.
Success and leadership go hand in hand – how one achieves success and how one demonstrates leadership is determined by the hands they hold and the moral compass that guides them along the way.
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Leadership – The ability to effectively and responsibly engage with people, processes, and programs, to achieve organizational, team, or individual goals, highlights five (5) essential qualities of leadership:
Ability – Skill
Effectiveness – Competency
Responsibly – Trustworthiness
Engagement – Connection
Goal Achievement – Execution
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This definition also relies on individuals to choose the values of compassion, strength, conviction, and purpose in their role as a leader and describes the foundation of leadership as developing effective relationships.
Characteristics of a Leader
Looking back, what are some of the core principles we wish someone had shared with us when we were younger?
How can we bring that out more in our life today?
What do I know today that I wish I had known then?
So what are some of the core concepts of leadership that we need to be working on ourselves as well as sharing with that next generation of leaders that are coming up behind us.
Core Concepts of Leadership
Competence
As leaders, we have to channel our energies to those arenas of leadership where we are most likely to excel. Working in the areas of our strengths is crucial to being effective.
Courage
When we're in a leadership role, we have to acknowledge that we are not always the smartest person in the room. We might not always be the first one to see an opportunity.
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It takes courage to pull together the talents on your team. It takes vision to say we are here at point A, we want to get to point B. What is the plan to pull all this great talent together to create motion and momentum toward that?
It takes courage to do this well and consistently
Clarity
The hallmark in my opinion of a great leader is somebody who can lead with clarity in times of uncertainty. Those times of uncertainty, those are the times that can paralyze us.
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They force us to question ourselves. People are looking to us for guidance. And if we are not able to lead with vision and get a group moving forward during those times, we're just going to stand still or hit a plateau and start going backwards.
Coaching
You may think you are really good at what you do. If you look around you, you look at your peers. You may even feel like you're better than everyone else around you in certain skill sets.
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Without a coach, you'll never be as good as you could be. If your goal is to move further, faster then working with a coach will accelerate your leadership growth meaningfully.
Character
You can lead without character and we all know some of those leaders, but you won't be a leader worth following. Character provides us with the moral authority that we need to bring together people and resources to move an enterprise, a mission, a vision, a project forward
You are a Leader
If God has gifted you to lead, then you will find yourself in a leadership role. There's no way to stop you. So more than likely in your life, people have recognized your gift. They're following you.
Your passions are equipping you and equipping other people in your life. So, I want you to be able to look back and have a no regrets experience on everything in your life for yourself and those who choose to follow you.
“We cannot become what we need by remaining what we are.
Questions
Thank you !!!!!!
