Choose three leaders (at least one from an educational context) you have known during your life and reflect on the ways in which their leadership has influenced you. How would you analyse their leadership through the knowledge you have gained on this course? How would you conceptualise your own developing style of leadership in the light of the insights you have gained.
1. Reflect on the influence that ALL THREE leaders have had on your life, and on your ideas about leadership. The influence could be positive and negative, and the leaders are people you know of or knew personally. It is important, however, that you confine yourself to observable traits and try not to judge these people based on assumptions you hold about them. Please ensure that no names or identifying features (like the names of schools) are used.
2. Discuss the extent to which the leaders you have chosen are/are not examples of authentic leadership by relating their actions to key leadership themes and approaches to leadership you have encountered so far in readings and discussions on this course.
3. Conclude your critical reflection by showing how your understanding of leadership, as discussed in this essay can be applied to yourself.
You are required to refer to a minimum of TEN (10) sources, which must include required and/or recommended readings and one or more references to the online forum.
The Leader is a person who holds the command on the team or the commander of a team. The leader got selected as the best for the designations in the various fields of jobs such as country leader, states leader, organisational leader or educational leader. The majority of people vote for the leader who have good qualities and he/she must be honest, inspiring competent and forward- looking.Kouzes and Posner (2007). Honesty plays a major role in how leaders enable others to act it shows his/her own competency. Likewise leaders who encourage the heart show inspiration and positive energy proof their understanding of the commitment to the vision and values. (P.31)
Nowadays, leadership in business is far more knowledge-driven. Anyone with critical knowledge can show leadership. Leader must be able to take responsibility for the team’s performance, which means leader must lead the direction of his team in a way that leader thinks best.
Some people are certainly born with leadership skills, but this is not a mandatory for becoming a leader. More important is dedication to the art of leadership.
The motivational leaders must be able to create an atmosphere that their team actively involved in the work and contributing best in the project. Leadership involves understanding how to inspire, influence and control how people behave. Leadership in general view is a process to influence people or
followers to achieve the goals. Gardner(2000) states, ‘Leadership is a
process of persuasion by which an individual induces a group to pursue
objectives held by the leader or shared by the leader and his/her
followers'(p.3). It is not a simple matter of shouting, or having a deep and booming voice; or being great in physical stature; Gandhi possessed none of these attributes, but managed to lead a nation and inspire millions of people around the world. That’s why he got name under the list of best leaders.
The two best leaders that I personally know are my English teacher and the manager of the after school program (St. Micheal primary school) where, I am working now. I have seen they always fight for the best future and believe in engaging with people friendly. They are admirable and inspirational human beings for everyone.
The transformational leader I have chosen for the example of my personal experience of working. Is the manager of the after school programme. Currently, I am working under her directions. She is very kind hearted and a bold lady her age is nearly seventy. She always makes herself busy working with staff and handles her managerial work as well. She is always helpful and motivating to guide children comes in the class. She doesn’t force anyone to get the work done. But, she motivates and encourages every single child in the class to finish home work easily and quickly with the help of tutor. She believes in making good teacher student relationship. As an employee, I am a tutor of primary class students and there is one more tutor (employee) we are doing our job under her supervision and she distribute the work for both of us equally and according to our interest. From her quality of this, I feel she had distributed leadership quality. Spillane (2005) defines distributed leadership is involving multiple leaders working for common goal with mutual understanding and cooperation with one another.. In distributed leadership all members of team work
together. Spillane (2005) also pointed out that ‘leadership is an organizational quality rather than an individual attribute’ (p.144).
When, I was newly appoint as a tutor, I didn’t know anything about the activities held in the class then she taught me everyday plan of organising activities in the class and how to manage paper work as well and work under the shared responsibility with other tutor. Carson (2007) states that shared leadership refers to the team work where the duties are distributed among team members rather than focused on single designated leader Still, if I find problems in handling things she gives me tricks to control the class. As a leader, she gives me different opinion in different situations which is very helpful for me to understand her way of teaching. For example, if a child do not want to study and wants to play I should not force him to study he is liberal to do whatever he want. But my duty is to keep an eye that he should not disturb the class. If there is one naughty child in a class, how can I make him busy not by giving lots of class work but listening to him what he wants to do today or giving him one task first as he finish then switch him to another activity. These are the thing I learn from the opinion of manager.
There are some leaders focus on their organisation goal and demand creativity all the time from employees or group of people. Leaders must use their knowledge and abilities to accomplish their goals, more than tools and techniques. Leaders who enable their creative thinking and innovation can lead the group easily. George (1998) described that leaders with angry nature lose their trust and relationship with the followers.
The transactional leaders emphasize on the short-term goals, and follow standard rules and procedures. They do not make an effort to encourage followers’ creativity and generation of new ideas. This kind of a leadership style may work well where the organizational problems are simple and clearly defined. When, I was working in a private educational institute in India. The director of the organisation was leading all the employees. She was the leader of our team. Her ideas were very certain about her plans and goals. She always gave us the tasks to do and ask to complete it and report the organisational manager. She believed in strict discipline and punishments but it is also true that a teacher or leader should judge his/her authenticity from students or employee’ point of view (Brookfield’s, 1995).
For one time it was good that everyone was learning new things. But it was quite strange when she did not like listen to employees’ problems. Listening is the single most powerful action a leader can take. Leader lack leadership when he/she does not listen carefully. There are many leaders in our society think in narrow terms of self-interest, short-term profit, and individual rights which are not fair to the employees and organisation.
I was a teacher in that institute and there were four teacher employees with me, who were my colleagues. The way the director guide us was very effective because she always give us the result oriented approaches. The transactional leaders are found to be quite effective in guiding efficiency decisions which are aimed at profit earning. She actively monitor the work of each employee, watch for deviations from standards performance and taking corrective action to prevent mistakes. And when the performance was not good according to the expectation then the salary deduction applied on the employee for not achieving the goal. So, this was simply a hard situation for all of us because we as an employees were doing our work honestly and still got punished. The transactional leaders tend to be highly directive and action oriented. Their relationship with the followers is also transitory and not based on emotional bonds. Maslow.(1996)
Sometime to increase the profit in their business they give simple rewards to the staff and organise parties and do weekend gathering when the employee lost his/her confidence. The only ‘transaction’ between the leader and the followers is the money which the followers receive after completion of task.
Authenticity, this abstract word, represents the connectedness between human beings and the world outside. To be truly authentic is difficult, because there is always human limitation standing in the path to authenticity. Authenticity is grounded in community and in the activity of sustaining community.
They speak their truth they consistently talk truth. ‘Theywould never betray themselves by using words that are not aligned with who they are. "Authenticity points us toward a more self-responsible form of life" (Taylor, 1991, p. 74). To be responsible person, an authentic leader is the one who is influenced by his social and cultural backgrounds, experiences, relationships and so on. Another thing is that i think authenticity is changeable; to be authentic, leader need to behave differently in different situations. This requires us to constantly reflect on ourselves and current situations to adjust our behaviors to be authentic.
As Starratt puts it, these teachers know ‘their students’ names, their hobbies and interests, the neighborhoods they come from, and something about their family background’ in order to not only teach them in an authentic way, but to also get to know them properly on a real level that also shows ‘respect for the dignity of each student (2004, p.78). This stood out to me, as it is what I try to do with all of the children in my care, but have not really thought about what this says about my authenticity
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Ultimately the success of any business venture lies in the hands of its employees and NOT the managers. A manager’s responsibility is to organize and manage business systems, systems that will see to the successful finalization of projects.
No organization can function for very long without the co-operation of its employees.
For this reason, there must be an effort to build healthy relationships
The role of leaders is not to be better role models or drive change. Their role is to create the structures and experiences that bring citizens and employees together to identify and solve their own issues.
Leadership is about mobilizing people to face challenges that require new habits, new values or priorities, or new ways of doing business. It’s about getting things done through other people inspiring them to take responsibility and do the work that only they can do. It’s about defining and compelling vision of the team. To become a good leader the most important thing is to learn and develop the qualities of leadership first.
Business leaders need to gain the power of moving quickly in order to meet the demands of change and complexity in today’s environment. Developmental and functional task enable leaders to successfully perform multi roles.
A leader should not expect from people to focus exactly what he wants and why he wants it. Leader needs to make workplace function positively, with co-operation and respect. In this way everyone will work for the common goal of organisation. Respect is the key ingredient of any good relationship, and this means respect for yourself as well as others. Genuinely listening and understanding are the ways in which you show that you respect the person you are talking to and listening is the first quality of a leader.
Whilst creating a healthy working relationship is a crucial goal, the smart leaders will always bear in mind that conflict is inevitable and must be managed, rather than ignored.