What does leadership mean to me?
Introduction
To me leadership starts with a devotion to an objective, the confidence that we need to go somewhere, or achieve something for a certain purpose. Hence, leadership starts with a commitment. Personal values must also drive this commitment, if it doesn’t resonate with your personal values, you cannot carry your message through to other people, or perhaps you can, with difficulty. When we think of leadership we may think of leaders as powerful and charismatic people, however I believe that anyone can be a leader by committing to an objective and developing a certain set of skills.
People
Leadership is about interacting with people in such a way that generates a common understanding, goal, or vision. A leader typically promotes understanding, inspires and motivates people to act toward a defined objective.
Leadership is demonstrated in uniting people by clarifying values and affirming shared ideas. In many cases these components may already exist, just not being visible enough. By appealing to shared aspirations, it is possible to envision possibilities and create a common vision (Kouzes and Posner 2007).
From a ‘follower’s” perspective, having understanding and being motivated can both be annihilated by a realization that nothing allows them to act. Leadership goes with giving people the tools to do what they are inspired to do; connecting people and creating a network of resources, facilitating relationships, convey the required information or offering training where needed. People are then empowered, motivated to act.
An aspiring leader must also have sufficient competence in the area he operates in. He must also be someone who keeps people interested by always learning, experimenting, looking for ways to improve; challenge the current processes.
Once these actions are in place, a leader should always follow up and communicate with his team in a positive way. Consulting the team, being able to take feedback, criticism, and allowing people to take the lead when appropriate creates an inclusive culture, one of participation.
Attributes
For leadership to emerge, honesty must exist. Honesty must be kept between people as much as to oneself. An aspiring leader should know his strengths, weaknesses, and limits. These can be pushed in various ways; gaining experience and using personal development tools.
It is often said of leaders that they display charisma, making them appear confident and convincing, motivated and enthusiastic. A ‘not-so-charismatic’ person aspiring to lead may regard this as a disadvantage; however I believe commitment yields charisma.
The idea of devotion to an objective also entails that the aspiring leader understands that she/he is serving a purpose, and must not systematically bring focus on her/him self in the role of a ‘leader’.
I believe it is not necessary to worry about results if you are confident that you are doing the right thing towards the objective; that is what will ensure of the quality of the results.
During a conversation with colleagues, the idea of leading for right or wrong reasons was discussed. In the case of dictators, the same rules as those discussed before are applied; they could not get to their goal on their own. Dictators would have needed confidence and a certain ‘charisma’ to convey their ideas to certain people, who would then be willing to follow them. The followers were also empowered to take actions and saw benefits for doing so. Even in such cases, I would argue that these people would have to be honest to each other, however more complexity may arise in some situations; this topic is beyond the scope of this essay.
Conclusion
This brief description of behaviours suggests that leadership is created from an initiative to bring people together to achieve something, while ensuring everyone involved is truly happy to do so. As Dr. Carstedt points out, people are happy to take part in an undertaking that is meaningful to them. Leadership is present when sparking people’s will. Dr. Robert points out another key ingredient which is credibility: if people cannot foresee a meaningful benefit or result of their involvement, they will be much less willing to commit.
Hence, I believe in the idea that “leadership is a relationship between those who aspire to lead and those who choose to follow. It’s the quality of this relationship that matters most when we’re engaged in getting extraordinary things done” (Kouzes and Posner 2007, 24).
Bibliography
Kouzes, James M, and Barry Z. Posner. 2007. The Leadership Challenge. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
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