In the opening of this paper the below description of the need for strategic leadership and the difficulty in defining it can both be seen. In Becoming a Strategic Leader: Your Role in Your Organization 's Enduring Success by Richard L. Hughes and Katherine Colarelli Beatty define this difficulty beautifully in their opening. The book opens with a description of the difficulty of learning to surf. As you stand looking at the beautiful ocean, you move to begin paddling out through the waves only to fail each time at getting up and successfully riding a wave all the way to shore. It speaks of trying and practicing at home, only to be thrown when the "moment ' counts. The imagery of attempting to learn to surf and failing due to a lack of …show more content…
The topic of this paper will not be to define strategic leadership, and but perhaps more importantly identify the top five characteristics of strategic leaders in leadership roles in general, not just military or business settings. This paper will address the difficulty in defining strategic leadership by narrowing down a specific set of qualities or characteristics required to lead in that position. Since there is no definitive definition for strategic leadership and the focus will turn to what qualities belong to a strategic leader and thereby find the very elusive definition so many who are called upon to lead "strategically" desire. The primary research question for this paper will be, "If one were to develop the essential list of characteristics for a strategic leader and cull that list down to the top five characteristics needed for success in the position of any civilian primary leader, what would the list of qualifications contain?" This question will be answered by looking at strategic leadership in civilian leadership setting, while utilizing principles and insight from the military world of leadership, this will surely be a varied and complex list. The list, however, will be narrowed down utilizing the same arena of sources and opinions with "success" stories associated with each characteristic. It will take a good amount of research and a variety of both civilian and military sources in order to
First published in 1987, The Leadership Challenge is a guide for becoming leader. The book received many awards and its above two million copies are internationally sold. The book teaches principles of leadership that apply whether the leader is running a sports team or a fortune 500 organization. The book includes stories and examples of many leaders from micro to macro level (Founders and Authors, 2013). The basic leadership principles can be adopted by anyone to challenge status quo and increase leader productivity multifold. The book tells about the flow and hierarchy of values too (Machedo, 2013). One can use the guide without an instructor to develop leadership traits.
Over the past couple of months, we discussed several traits, skills, and behaviors that have contributed to the success of both past and present leaders. Intelligence, integrity, charisma, and confidence are some of the traits that characterize many of these leaders. Interpersonal skills, oratory skills, and conceptual skills are some of the more important skills that helped to shape their leadership style. Some of these skills go hand in hand with the traits that are essential for strong leadership. Meanwhile, the behaviors that drive these leaders include inspiring and motivating others, collaboration, having a strategic perspective and trust. Combined, these traits, skills and behaviors make for effective leadership.
This paper on Leadership will compare the primary differences and characteristics between the tactical leader and the organizational leader. I will provide you with the basics for development, characteristics, and the fundamentals that help guide and influence each leader’s style and how they influence Soldiers to follow them. Leaders at all levels demonstrate their values, knowledge, skills, and abilities in many different means and methods in
Leadership can be viewed in many different ways and possess many different qualities. There are courageous leaders, respectful leaders, terrible leaders, and seemingly insignificant leaders but leaders nonetheless. But what is it that differentiates between a strong leader and a weak leader, or a powerful leader and an insignificant one? Is it the qualities in the leader or the decisions they make in key situations that define good leadership qualities? Some would define a good leader by their ability to do the right thing even if it is not the easiest choice. Others might define a good leader as one that possesses great integrity and leads by example. The military possesses many great leaders through a process of development and molding individuals to meet expected leadership qualities like honor, courage, commitment and integrity to accomplish any mission or goal. However, this process doesn’t always create the desired effect. So, let’s examine some good and bad examples of leadership qualities and break down what and how we can emulate them.
Andersen, JA & Hansson, PH 2011,"At the end of the road? On differences between women and men in leadership behaviour", Leadership & Organization Development Journal, vol. 32 no. 5 pp. 428 – 441
When I was a lieutenant, one of my mentors told me that the officers ‘job is first and foremost about leadership. For senior officers, then, one must say everything is about leading strategically. In order to be an effective strategic leader, my self-assessment has led me to focus on the following goals during this academic year at the Air War College (AWC): to improve my understanding of the strategic environment; to learn to be strategically relevant, to shape my ability to communicate effectively at the strategical level.
The Right to Lead Assessment Model (RLAM) is a useful construct for analyzing one’s own ability to lead at the strategic level in a Joint, Interagency, Intergovernmental and Multinational (JIIM) environment. I will briefly describe key RLAM components, assess my personal strengths and weaknesses (in each component), and then prescribe a strategy to improve weakness while attending the Air War College (AWC). My overall objective is to have people follow me because I earned their commitment and confidence (also RLAM components) as opposed to automated, unearned respect associated with my rank or job title. The RLAM, which I use as a reflective self-assessment, consists of roughly 12 components. However, I focus on five of these components, which are most critical for strategic leadership: character, competence, personality, drive, and relevance. Character is the most important RLAM component.
Leadership represents an essential element for the success of an organization, it has a profound impact on the achievement of the goals. The leadership unites an organization efforts and directs toward the behavior of individuals in line with the achievement of objectives and deliverables. Organizations composed of members from different cultures, mentalities, and personalities representing groups of people work together in a specific regulatory framework and in accordance with certain operating procedures. These groups or work teams need to coordinate among them in order to reach the specific objectives. In this context, it always highlights the role of leadership in influencing an organization. The Strategic Leadership Instructor is doing his best to develop our leadership, and exploiting his innate cleverness and natural sensation to support his fellows to succeed. He helps us in enabling of taking advantage of the actual innate sixth sense that God gave it, and exploiting the energy and the ability to distinguish. I learned a lot from readings and during the sessions, I learned from my colleagues some of the basic functions of leadership through their experiences. I learned how to develop my skills that will support my style of leadership. During the discussions I have changed some of principles and ideas that already I have, and the others make me to work on developing them. It became clear to me, when I read the
It is useful to examine leaders from the past and use their example as building blocks to further develop strategic leadership qualities. The Right to Lead Assessment Model (RLAM) defines “above the Red Line” leadership as using all of one’s abilities to be relevant. General George C. Marshall is an excellent example of successful strategic leadership that spanned two world wars and bridged multiple organizations. His impressive career demonstrates what a significant impact he had organizationally, environmentally, and publicly on the world and an entire generation.
The purpose of this paper is to reflect and make an analysis of the general strengths and weaknesses of a leader, provide recommendations, thoughts of overall performance to improve on this person’s leadership style in which practices and theories were utilized most effectively. Upon such, draw conclusions and provide an integration of this leadership practice into my own leadership practice. The accomplishment of this will be achieved by identifying several key practices from published documents surrounding and encompassing the leader, and comparing them to known relative concepts for a holistic view of the approach.
James MacGregor Burns said it best, “Leadership is leaders inducing followers to act for certain goals that represent the values and the motivations-the wants and needs, the aspirations and expectations-of both leaders and followers. And the genius of leadership lies in the manner in which leaders see and act on their own and their fellow 's values and motivations”. As one reads this statement, one naturally reflects on personal leader experiences or ones learned through academic or professional studies. Abraham Lincoln, especially during his presidency, exemplified Burns definition of a leader.
Leadership is a very broad topic; I never knew just how many different traits and skills that it takes to become an effective leader. Some of which I was familiar with, and others that I was not aware of, but now from taking this course, they all seem to be necessary for the role of leadership. The attached paper, will explain of some of the important theories and concepts that I thought were most important to be able to become and effective leader.
I was asked to write and submit a 4-6 page book summary of the text “Overcoming the Dark Side of Leadership” by Gary L. McIntosh and Samuel D. Rima. This book report should summarize the basic purpose of the book, the most important leadership principles contained, and the student’s evaluation of the book’s strengths and weaknesses. The goals of this book are to guide the reader in understanding what the dark side is, assist the reader in identifying your own dark side, and give the reader some specific steps for overcoming the dark side lurking on your success before you unexpectedly get blindsided by it.
Strategic Leadership The only thing harder than being a strategic leader is trying to define the entire scope of strategic leadership a broad, difficult concept. We cannot always define it or describe it in every detail, but we recognize it in action. This type of leadership involves microscopic perceptions and macroscopic expectations.
I believe you learn about leadership by acting as an example. You should be prepared to do the things you are asking others to do by getting on your hands and knees, if need be, and get your hands dirty. This engraves a picture into the mind of an employee or subordinate to what type of a manager you are. In this paper, I will cover the role a manager plays in an organization describing four functions of management: planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. I will then describe three traits: conceptual, human, and technical, which an individual must possess to become a successful manager within an organization and how they fit in with the four functions.