Print   RSS

Leadership

Ismael D. Tabije

January 12, 2007

Leadership is the ability and skill to put your plans into action and make your team take part in this whole-heartedly and ecstatically. It is the ability to get other people to do that which they would rather not, without hesitation. Like any other skill, it can also be learned and can be improved with practice.

Leadership is a process involving conversations and interactions that would result in getting other people more complacent with the language of personal responsibility and commitment. In the process, the leader distinguishes and acknowledges his own feelings and those of others in fabricating trusting relationships.

For leadership to occur, leaders must communicate the vision to the followers in such a way that the followers adopt the vision as their own. Leaders must not just see the vision themselves; they must have the ability to get others to see it also. Numerous techniques aid in this process, including: narratives, metaphors, symbolic actions, leading by example, incentives, and penalties.

No matter how one defines leadership, it typically involves an element of vision — except in cases of involuntary leadership and often in cases of traditional leadership. A vision provides direction to the influence process. A leader (or group of leaders) can have one or more visions of the future to aid them to move a group successfully towards this goal.

A vision, for effectiveness, should appear as a simple, yet vibrant, image in the mind of the leader; describe a future state, credible and preferable to the present state; act as a bridge between the current state and a future optimum state; appear desirable enough to energize followers and succeed in speaking to followers at an emotional or spiritual level.

Some commentators link leadership closely with the idea of management; some would even regard the two as synonymous. If one accepts this premise, one can view leadership as centralized or decentralized, broad or focused, decision-oriented or morale-centered, and intrinsic or derived from some authority.

However, a clear distinction between management and leadership is useful. This would allow for a reciprocal relationship between leadership and management, implying that an effective manager should possess leadership skills, and an effective leader should demonstrate management skills.

To some, as a broad generalization, managers concern themselves with tasks while leaders concern themselves with people. This goodwill and support originates in the leader seeing people as people, not as another resource for deployment in support of "the task".

The manager often has the role of organizing resources to get something done. People form one of these resources, and many of the worst managers treat people as just another interchangeable item.

A leader has the role of causing others to follow a path he/she has laid out or a vision he/she has articulated in order to achieve a task. Often, people see the task as subordinate to the vision. For instance, an organization might have the overall task of generating profit, but a good leader may see profit as a by-product that flows from whatever aspect of their vision differentiates their company from the competition.

Leadership does not only manifest itself as purely a business phenomenon. But still, a person can excel in both leadership and management.

As individuals, top-notch leaders/managers should have confidence in their abilities. They should be graceful with who they are, but still feed the yearning to learn and improve. They should be something of an extrovert—enjoy being and working with people. They should be honest and straight forward. And they should never exclude others because of the lack of certain attributes; instead, they should focus on others’ strengths.

As team captains, they should be dependable, but can change their judgments. They should not be afraid to try new things and if they fail, admit the mistake, but need not apologize for having tried. In case of emergencies, they should be able to change plans quickly, but should be responsible for their actions and be ready to face whatever consequences. They should make decisions, but should easily accept input from others.

 Feedback   Submit Article