The Importance of Personal Philosophies and Unique Values in Leadership
According to my opinion, Leadership is what begins with yourself and reverberates outside. It resounds on the people and the organization who have been lead. As a leader I believe that to become a good leader one needs to have his/her own set of philosophies above all, own unique value and vision. The leader first of all needs to generate enthusiasm within himself/herself before it is generated in other people. The leader needs to be able to inspire, collaborate, contribute, motivate, share ideas and bring a different drive to the event or operation (Obolensky,2017). Actually a good leader is that person who has a sound framework of philosophies developed by own to guide others and reinforce strategies to achieve the target mission. Apart from philosophies the values are most important in determining what kind of culture a leader would foster. Keeping the honesty and truthfulness clear to the followers is another characteristics of a good leader.
My philosophy and views on leadership have been constructed by a real life experience of an ideal leader whom I came across and worked for 17 years together. His name is William Roberts who is my friend, one-time boss and former business partner. There are few reasons why he has left such great impact on me as a leader and formed my views on leadership. His commitment to integrity, commitment to responsiveness and his commitment to gratitude are few of his best qualities which are etched to my leadership psyche.
I believe that leadership is not about delivering the results. It need to go through certain experiences in order to fully adapt the strategically focused, entrepreneurial and forward thinking mindset essential for recognizing growth opportunities, the obstacles on the way and the circumstances (Sherwood, 2015). I have experienced in my leadership career leading a project management. There were high risks regarding the success of the project due to highly competitive market. In order to get away from the extreme anxiety, stress and unsure position, I kept faith on myself, behaved wisely and acted as a vulnerable leader which later constructed my thinking that a true leader should never be afraid to fail, rather he/she should try to learn from the circumstances and work confidently for the betterment of the team.
As far as my leadership is concerned I treat my employees as executives, respect them and their efforts and trust them in order to make strong decisions. I try to keep the flow of information transparent and communicate with them on a regular basis. In this way they feel comfortable to share their problems with me as well as their empowering ideas. My primary goal is to make an employee feel that they have learned something and their career has been uplifted while working with me.
The Role of Experience in Developing Leadership Mindset
I follow the four components of ROAD which is Responsibility, Ownership, Accountability and Dependability. I introduce and describe ROAD to my team because I have understood its benefits and support throughout my career. I never get infuriated when people make mistakes while working on a task, instead I want they to learn from their own mistakes. However, I do not tolerate those people in my team who are driven by their ego and instead of learning, push their unnecessary opinions on the organization.
In order to develop a vision and convey it to my workers I will first determine a vision by watching, wondering, listening, learning, discussing, and gathering information. Since the leadership vision is essential to become a good leader it should be developed with care and without the leader articulating what the employees are doing and why they are doing that demoralizes the employees and the organization (Napitupulu, 2015). After creating a vision, I will reflect on it by incorporating examples and stories, asking and listening questions. I will be able to connect with the employees more by adding inspiring stories of people and their achievements. In the final step I will write it down, post it individually to the employees and along with it I will speak with them regarding my vision. I will encourage them to place their queries and perspectives before me.
I will take risk regarding standing up for some people who are finding difficulty in doing the tasks and are not among the voice raisers. These people are not also among the decision makers and do not have the enough information of what impact their work can pose on the company. I will take the risk to give them a voice and speak for them to the organization.
I am not willing to violate the principles of personal leadership such as being present in the right moment when I am required the most, being authentic and humanistic, volunteering discretionary effort constantly, modeling high performance behaviors within the workforce, being sensitive towards different cultures and views, having confident conversations with the employees and the management and many others.
I make decisions based on proper evidence and insight of the issue because I believe that when a situation is led by emotions, there is a high chance that the instincts get blind but I will also not deny the fact that in some areas cool and calm focus on instincts can give better business results.
Embracing Vulnerability and Learning from Failure as a Leader
While making decisions I take follow autocratic (individual decision making) leadership when my company faces constant crisis or change I react promptly to the situation as compared to other style. When the organization requires quick decision making I use this style otherwise I try to involve others, the management as well as the employees to make any general or crucial decision for the betterment of the business.
Personal beliefs, religion and cultural difference can affect the leadership and disrupt the bond with others as well as disturb the work flow but in my case I do not let my religion, inclusiveness and cultural diversity affect my leadership philosophy. Working for so many years in the business industry and in so many countries I have developed my cultural competencies and try my best to respect, accept and understand other religions and cultures.
It happens sometimes due to the diverse opinion and beliefs of the members of the workforce that the leadership beliefs or practices get challenged (Sultan, Khan & Kanwal, 2017). It depends on the perception of people regarding how they see the practice or what they think about the belief. At this situation, I try to encourage my employees to maintain positivity in the work environment. I inspire them to build positive beliefs about themselves and contribution of their own unique vision to the organization.
I have learnt from my leadership profile that great leaders are constant learners since learning and leadership are inseparable from each other. Good leaders are those ones who have learnt from their mistakes and have the courage to adopt the measures. An ideal leader always keeps a positive attitude otherwise the team will not follow him. They are self-aware, understand their strengths and drawback well and can focus on self-improvement (Bolden,2016). They have the ability to mix with different cultured people. They are the best communicators and can approach different people in a different manner.
Without authority leadership can be exercised by empathetic listening, warm body language and positive emotions. A leader if encourages empathetic listening skill within himself he can gain professional advantages. The caring and warm leader is always preferred by the organizations. The warmer side of the leader which is a nonverbal communication creates the most effective and productive workforce (De Paoli & Ropo,2015). The positivity and the touch of emotion in the way of talking influences the psychology of the employees. As a leader without authority the team can be influenced and inspired by emotional approach because emotions drive performance.
One of the key leadership issue faced by organizations is the difficulty in developing managerial effectiveness (Bolman & Deal,2017). The development of managerial skills including prioritization, decision making, time management, strategic thinking is required to become more efficient and effective at work. The productivity and work strategy of the organization ultimately suffer due to the lack in managerial skills. While the organizations need a positive and effective leadership, they also need efficient managers to move forward inspiring visions and encourage people to achieve the organizational goals.
From the standpoint of a current leader I would decide to check the managerial capacity to think of their organization and feel for their organization. First of all, they need to have the will to take up the responsibility of achieving goals. Managerial trainings and resources only cannot enhance the efficiency of the managers. The inner will, sense of morality and honesty needs to be developed by themselves which will motivate them to achieve organizational goals. Drawing on the Christian worldview, the ethical criteria is more important in business organizations that encourages virtue. The Christian ethics of business ask to ensure that “humanity is served by wealth and not ruled by it” (Shaw & Barry, 2015).
Reference
Bolden, R. (2016). Leadership, management and organisational development. In Gower handbook of leadership and management development (pp. 143-158). Routledge.
Bolman, L. G., & Deal, T. E. (2017). Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and leadership. John Wiley & Sons.
De Paoli, D., & Ropo, A. (2015). Open plan offices–the response to leadership challenges of virtual project work?. Journal of Corporate Real Estate, 17(1), 63-74.
Napitupulu, I. H. (2015). Impact of organizational culture on the qualty of management accounting information system: A theoritical approach. Research Journal of Finance and Accounting, 6(4), 74-83.
Obolensky, N. (2017). Complex adaptive leadership: Embracing paradox and uncertainty. Routledge.
Shaw, W. H., & Barry, V. (2015). Moral issues in business. Cengage Learning.
Sherwood, G. D. (2015). Reflective Leadership: Integrating Quality and Safety Competencies to Fulfill Joy and Meaning in Work.
Sultan, S., Khan, M. A., & Kanwal, F. (2017). Spiritual intelligence linking to leadership effectiveness: interceding role of personality traits. PEOPLE: International Journal of Social Sciences, 3(2).
Order an Essay Now & Get These Features For Free:
Turnitin Report
Formatting
Title Page
Citation
Outline
