Leadership Assignment
Write 2-3 pages to support a job application in which you provide your definition of leadership, how it can positively impact an organization, and how it's different from management.
In the 21st century, the study of leadership is multidisciplinary, with contributions from the fields of history, philosophy, psychology, political science, business, and education (Northouse, 2007). There are almost as many definitions of leadership as there are people who have tried to define it. Although we intuitively know what the word means, it has different meaning for different people. Manning and Curtis (2012) explained, "Leadership is social influence. It means leaving a mark. It is initiating and guiding, and the result is change" (p. 2).
By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies and assessment criteria:
• Competency 1: Evaluate the purpose and relevance of leadership.
o Develop a definition of leadership.
o Explain how leadership can positively impact an organization.
• Competency 2: Evaluate how leadership strengths apply in the workplace and within the community.
o Explain a strategy to develop leadership skills.
o Develop a definition of management.
o Explain the differences between leadership and management.
For this assessment, consider that you are a successful middle manager in an organization that has an executive level position open. The human resources department is leading an internal search for that opening and considers leadership strengths as key to the position. As part of the application process for candidates interested in the opening, they asked each candidate to submit a short paper explaining the candidate's views of leadership.
To complete your paper, research the definition of leadership and consider how the definitions you find match your own ideas of what leadership means. The organization's HR department indicated the paper should be around 2-3 pages. They also provided the following outline to use in preparing the paper:
• Create a definition of leadership and support it with examples.
• Analyze how leadership can positively impact an organization and provide supporting examples.
• Develop and analyze a personal strategy to develop leadership skills, including why you think it is effective.
• Explain your personal strategy to develop leadership skills.
• Create a definition of management and support it with examples.
• Compare and contrast the differences between leadership and management.
Most leadership courses discuss ways to improve the leader. Topics include developing more effective interpersonal skills, liaison abilities, motivational skills, and the like. While such skills are very important elements in expanding leader effectiveness, they are not enough.
You see, leadership is more than just a leader's traits, attributes, skills, or abilities. Leadership is a relationship between leaders and followers. As the saying goes, if you think you are leading and look over your shoulder to find no one there, you are just out for a Sunday walk. Effective leaders lead different people differently. As Ken Blanchard wrote in Leadership and the One Minute Manager, "There is nothing so unequal as the equal treatment of unequals" (p. 33). Effective leaders take the appropriate time to understand the individual needs, skills, and maturity of their constituents.
There is an another aspect regarding the relationship between leaders and followers. While the word followermay imply a passive role, being a follower is hardly passive. Followers play an active role in the leadership process. They must be willing to learn and improve themselves and be open to new ideas and change. Most important, they must be willing to actively engage in the leadership process themselves. As leadership is about influence at any level, followers sometimes lead and leaders sometimes follow.
The process toward effective leadership does not stop here. Have you ever observed a leader use the same leadership style with similar constituents and enjoy success with one group but failure with the other? Effective leaders understand that leadership is a relationship among leaders, followers, and context. Context may be a situation, circumstance, event, person, or even era. Context may refer to societal, organizational, or other cultural perspectives. Context also may be viewed in terms of how leaders influence-organizationally, in a group, or one-on-one.
No leadership skill or set of skills will work with every audience in every context. Effective leaders understand that leadership is action. It is making positive influence with a thoughtful understanding of behavior and skills of the leader, needs and expectations of the follower, and the context of the potential intervention.
Format your assignment according to the following formatting requirements:
1. The answer should be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides.
2. The response also includes a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student's name, the course title, and the date. The cover page is not included in the required page length.
3. Also include a reference page. The Citations and references should follow APA format. The reference page is not included in the required page length.