Leadership Philosophy, Essay Example

Introduction

I have been fortunate to have studied under greater teachers since kindergarten who were always supportive and encouraged me to become the best I am capable of. I have enjoyed a great academic career and was always one of the top-ranked students in my classes. But instead of aiming for more glamorous professions I have always wanted to go in academia because I have personally witnessed the impact truly effective teachers have on their students and the overall society. The teachers that were the most successful in inspiring students were not the ones who used their formal powers more liberally but instead those who understood students and made them feel important. These experiences have taught me the importance of effective leaders and the results they are capable of getting from their subordinates.

My mid-term goal is to be involved in the management of Alfaisal University and eventually reach the rank of University President. I read articles and journals on the education sector regularly and I am fascinated by the changes occurring in the global education sector. The changes have been occurring at a pace rarely seen before due to two primary factors which are technological progress (due to internet) and globalization. It used to be in the past that institutions of higher education such as colleges and universities would be run just like any other social welfare organization. But now even state-run universities are increasingly becoming business-like in their operations because they realize government support is not sufficient in order to compete with other leading global academic institutions as well as attract world-class faculty and student body. Many universities are now not hesitant to hire even those with none or minimum background in academia for as long as they have the required leadership qualities and have proven themselves to be effective leaders in their respective professions. This is why I am particularly focused on learning about management and leadership theories as much as possible. I already have professional academic experience and my experience coupled with my knowledge about effective leadership qualities will enable me to play an important role at Alfaisal University.

In the long-term, I hope to pursue leadership opportunities in the government with an emphasis on the education sector. I am a huge believer in the power of knowledge as well as the difference effective education leaders can make in the Saudi society. There is no dearth of talent or resources in the country and the only thing lacking in the education sector are leaders who can inspire the students to do their best and take advantage of the opportunities available to them. I believe that leadership is not about formal powers or being at the top of the organizational hierarchy or even being powerful. Instead leadership is the ability to inspire people to be the best they are and use the human and financial capital available to the organization in an efficient manner. A leader is not the smartest or technically the most competent person in the world but someone who has people skills and can motivate people to work together towards common goals.

This is why I will ensure that I have two way communication with all the stakeholders in the organization and I will let them know that they can reach me directly anytime whether they have ideas or they want to discuss a matter of concern. I will also institute a merit-based system in which the employees will have the opportunity to advance within the organization on the basis of their skills and contribution towards the organization rather than seniority. This will motivate everyone to do his best and encourage them to continuously update their skills. I will seek feedback from everyone in the organization no matter how senior or junior they may be and will let them know that I do go over their ideas. I believe that people close to the action have sometimes a better idea of the problems that may be emerging in daily operations and sometimes they are also ahead of the leadership and the management in sensing new opportunities.

I will also make sure that I do not let my personal ego or pride influence my decisions and I am not afraid to admit my limitations. Admitting lack of knowledge is not a source of embarrassment but instead a sign of humbleness that even leaders have weaknesses which they can tackle with the help of right people around him. I may make the final decisions myself but I will take into account the fact that I cannot be jack of all trades, thus, I need to take advices of those seriously who already have a proven track record. I believe that I will be a good leader if I am able to better use the intellectual capital of the organization instead of letting my personal ego get in the way and pretending to know things I may not know well.

The Five Most Leadership Skills

The five most important leadership skills, competencies, and attributes that will help me succeed as an educational leader in my opinion are communication skills, the ability to see the big picture, emotional intelligence, objective critical analysis, and the ability to inspire others. The elements of communication are listening (Forster, P. 99, 2011), engaging with followers and customers (Forster, P. 112, 2011), storytelling (Forster, P. 118, 2011), audience (Forster, P. 128, 2011), and communication structure (Forster, P. 129, 2011). The elements of the ability to see the big picture are knowledge, information, critical thinking, analytical abilities, and observation. The elements of emotional intelligence are culture, life experiences, education, being aware of stereotypes and biases, and an open mind. The elements of objective critical analysis are strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats, resources, timing, and environment. The elements of inspiring others are personal integrity, reputation, credibility, trust, mutual respect, and mutual understanding.

As far as communication is concerned, one of the skills possessed by effective leaders is the ability to listen. The ability to listen is as important if not more than the ability to convey messages. Making to effort to listen is acknowledging the fact that even the best leaders cannot be all-knowing and cannot be right all the time. Listening is not just paying attention to the speaker but also thinking over it and having an open mind to consider the opposing views as well. Effective leaders do not let their emotions or perceptions regarding the speaker get in the way of listening. Effective leaders have the humility to admit that seeking others’ ideas doesn’t mean one is weak or indecisive and it doesn’t hurt anyone’s reputation. In addition, effective leaders realize that not all communication is verbal which is why they also pay attention to non-verbal cues such as facial expressions and body language. They also ensure to let the speakers know that they are paying attention to him so that the speaker feels important and more confident to expresses his views. The leaders should listen carefully to everything the speaker is trying to say but they do not have to agree with everything. But disagreements in a friendly and non-threatening manner do not invite attack or resentment from the speaker (Forster, 2011) and may even lead to more productive discussions.

When the subordinates know that the leaders listen to their ideas and seriously evaluate their merit, they are more willing to contribute ideas. Such leaders are more likely to build organizations that have open and honest communication culture. The subordinates may also be more loyal to their leaders who take interest in the followers’ ideas and opinions. In addition, the followers will be more committed to the final decisions made by their leader. Leaders who are active listeners are also more likely to stay up-to-date on the problems or opportunities that may be identified by those involved in daily operations.

The second element of effective communication is audience. Leaders who are effective communicators take the effort to understand their audience. The ultimate goal of the sender is for the communication to be received and understood by the receiver as intended. To ensure that the message is understood in a desirable manner, the sender has to understand the characteristics of the audience (Forster, P. 128, 2011). These characteristics include the background of the receiver, the communication style preferred by the receiver, and the communication needs of the receiver. Only by understanding the intended receiver, the communicator increases the probability of a successful communication. Thus, leaders have to understand their followers and their communication needs. The leaders should also take into account the communication medium/s preferred by the receivers. No matter how effectively the message has been composed, it has no value until it reaches the receiver. It may be that the leaders and the subordinates may prefer different communication channels, thus, leaders should utilize the communication channels preferred by the receivers or try to persuade the receivers to switch to different, more efficient communication channels.

Effective leaders realize that miscommunications could result in high costs and they also realize that not everyone speaks in the same language. This is why they take the audience into account because this increases the probability that the instructions will be followed as intended. Effective leaders often let the receivers know that they can get in touch should they be confused or have questions. Effective leaders take flexible approach to communication which is why they are equally good at communicating with audiences of different types.

The third element of effective communication is storytelling. Effective leaders use stories to achieve numerous purposes such as communication the purpose of the organization, motivating the employees, reminding the employees of the great past and how it can be surpassed, and ensuring that the message will be retained by employees for a long time. Stories are interesting and they inspire. Leaders often become aware of the changing world ahead of others (Forster, P. 120, 2011) and know that organizations have to remain flexible and agile to stay competitive. Thus, they use stories to describe what they see and others may be missing and inspire their followers to take up the challenge. Future trends are not always easy to define but stories help leaders paint a picture of what they may be like and make it easier for followers to understand the leader’s vision.

Stories also help leaders remind followers of the past and important milestones in the organization’s history. When employees join the organization, stories are often the easiest and quickest way of introducing them to the organizational culture and history. Effective leaders make sure to use stories as part of their everyday communication to ensure that employees do not forget the distinctive qualities of the organization and remain inspired to do great things. Stories often use real events that happened to the leaders, founders, or someone in the organization, thus, they have credibility and the power to increase employees’ confidence in their abilities (Forster, 2011).

The second quality of effective leaders is their ability to see the big picture. Effective leaders often have the access to the same information that their rivals have but what differentiates them from rivals is their ability to separate important information from less relevant information. They are able to connect the dots in order to see the big picture. This is because they always remain attuned to the changes taking place and are continuously monitoring the environment. They like to keep themselves informed and also borrow from their knowledge and experience.

Today, all of us are faced with a problem that could be called information-overload. Information-overload has the potential to overwhelm us but effective leaders have experience and great intuition which helps them get rid of the noise. Steve Jobs claimed that intuition is even more powerful than intellect (MacManus, 2011). Over time, effective leaders are able to recognize the patterns of both useful and useless information that emerges in the marketplace. But at the same time, these leaders are also mindful of the limitations of the history. While they do use historical lessons and past personal experience to sharpen their intuition, they also realize that future cannot always be predicted through the past events. Thus, they overcome this shortcoming by actively monitoring signs of changes so that they are able to take advantage of emerging trends before anyone else.

Effective leaders are also able to identify the big picture before anyone else because they spend a great deal of time in thinking about the future as well as studying the evolutionary forces at work. This helps them develop reliable visions of the future and as soon as they sense that the timing is right, they mobilize their organizational resources to gain first-mover advantage. Effective leaders also know that knowledge is important for them to be great visionaries. This is why they are always eager to learn more, both from their subordinates as well as experts outside the organization. They try to gain knowledge on different subject matters because they understand that the organization’s future is shaped by a number of forces such as politics, consumer perceptions, regulations, and socio-economic factors. They know that the more knowledge they will have, the better they will be able to accurately analyze the external environment and lead their respective organizations accordingly. All of this knowledge also sharpens their predictive capabilities regarding future trends and give them an edge since they can start preparing for future earlier than the competition. It has been speculated that Apple is always working on products that may not be introduced for years and as soon as the competition tries to catch up, Apple comes up with new products to maintain the competitive edge over the competition (Bonnington, 2011).

Steve Jobs claimed that consumers do not know what they want and it is his job to tell consumers what they want (Westminster Seminary California, n.d.). This is why Jobs was a visionary because he closely watched consumers’ habits and could predict how the consumers’ habits and tastes would change over time. This may be why he decided to delay iPad and introduce iPod in its place even though the work on iPad started earlier. iPad was not the first tablet device but Jobs only introduced it when he thought the market was ready instead of trying to imitate the competitors who had introduced tablet devices years earlier.

Another important element of the ability to see the big picture is observation. Effective leaders understand that the organizations do not exist independently of the external factors that may mean the difference between success and failure. Thus, they continuously monitor the external environment to look for opportunities as well as identify threats. A great example is iPhone’s introduction by Apple even though it was already doing well with iPod. Apple’s legendary leader Steve Jobs realized that mobile phones were becoming an important source of digital entertainment and many mobile phones were now incapable of music. Even though Apple’s engineers were working on a tablet device, Jobs observed that the market was not yet ready for a tablet device, thus, he decided to incorporate the tablet breakthroughs made by Apple’s engineers into a mobile phone (MacManus, 2011). The result was an iPhone that single handedly changed the smartphone industry and became the first smartphone product to seriously challenge Blackberry. Even though iPad could have been introduced before iPhone but Jobs was monitoring the environment and accurately recognized that the market wanted a revolutionary mobile phone and not a tablet device.

The third quality of effective leaders is emotional intelligence. Effective leaders also make a serious attempt to be aware of not only their own biases but also of others both inside and outside the organization. All of us are nothing but the outcome of our life experiences and our beliefs, opinions, and ideas are influenced by numerous factors including but not limited to culture, education, family, and personal thinking styles. Effective leaders have the wisdom to realize that most of us have a tendency to equate personal truths with absolute truths and the way we perceive certain things may be quite different from how the same things are perceived by others. Thus, they actively try to locate their personal biases so that they could differentiate between personal opinions and facts. Similarly, if a leader is aware of the biases that influence others, he will not only become a better communicator but also be more effective at evaluating things from others’ point of views.

When a leader understands why his subordinates act or respond the way they behave, he  can take steps to address his followers’ concerns and win their support. Misunderstandings are often the result of not being able to see things from others’ point of views and applying personal criteria to others. But by taking into account the biases that affect others, a leader understands that people have different values and thinking patterns.

The ability to recognize one’s own biases as well as the biases of other has become even more valuable in the age of globalization. Effective leaders know that today workers often come from different national backgrounds, races, ethnicities, religious backgrounds, and cultures and work with each other on the same teams. Different cultures have different value system and beliefs. While diversification can be an asset because it means a wider range of ideas and perspectives (Forster, P199, 2011) at the same time it may also become a liability due to communication challenges and different value systems. Similarly, people have different thinking styles and way of interpreting events. Most of us have either liberal values or conservative values though some take middle-of-the-road approach. In addition, education also influences our thinking patterns, though mostly in a positive manner. Thus, leaders have to take into account the education levels of his followers because more and less educated people have different levels of bias; more educated people are usually more liberal in thinking and values as well as more open to new ideas as compared to less educated people.

The fourth important quality for the effective leaders is the ability to do objective critical analysis. Effective leaders perform objective critical analysis of self, the organization they lead, and the human and financial resources of the organization. Effective leaders are aware of their own strengths and weaknesses as well as those of the organization. They take a realistic approach towards the capabilities and the resources of the organization and do not make the mistake of over-confidence or self-deception. Just a careful study of the last decade would reveal that when organizations ventured out of their strong areas, they usually failed. It includes AOL-Time Warner merger and Microsoft’s foray into search engine. Even strong brands can only be leveraged in areas where an organization has capabilities, thus, leaders should be aware of what an organization is capable of doing and what not. Similarly, effective leaders do also not overestimate their own capabilities and take a realistic view on their personal strengths and weaknesses. They are not afraid to admit their weaknesses and limitations and this is exactly what separates famed investor Warren Buffet from the rest of the crowd.

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, internet created wealth at a pace that has probably never happened in history before. IPOs would reach record levels in no time and investors in internet stocks started enjoying triple digit capital appreciation rates. Internet was hailed as the next industrial revolution that was expected to revolutionize the way businesses are managed. But Warren Buffet refused to invest in internet stocks (Arends, 2010) even though he was ridiculed for his decision. Buffet argued that he doesn’t understand internet and technology companies that is why he would not invest in them. This shows that despite being hailed as the greatest investor in modern history, Buffet was not embarrassed to admit his shortcomings and refused to follow the trend even if it meant greatly lagging behind the average market returns. Time proved Buffet correct as the internet bubble busted. Buffet embodies one of the main qualities of great leaders who do not try to venture out of their area of expertise and understand their strengths and weaknesses. Great leaders have the humility to learn from others including subordinates because they do not let personal ego come in the way of rational behavior.

Steve Jobs was another leader who understood that organizations have strengths and weaknesses and the key to success is to focus on strengths and not overly stretch the organization’s resources in the pursuit of growth and power. This is why Jobs advised Google’s co-founder Larry Page to focus on five products and get rid of the rest of them because they were dragging the company down (Knowledge@Wharton, 2011).

Just as effective leaders are careful not to overestimate themselves and mindful of their personal strengths and weaknesses, they take the same approach to carefully assessing the organization’s financial and human capital. They put in great effort to understand their organizations and what may be its strengths and weaknesses. They understand the importance of not stretching out organization’s resources too thin. IBM is one of the world’s leading technology companies with a great brand that has a reputation for quality and reliability. IBM used to run a Personal Computer (PC) division but the management realized that the focus on PC division was diverting the company from its core strengths that was in services and consulting. Thus, the management divested the PC division and sold it to China-based Lenovo even though it meant loss of revenues, at least, in the short term. But the company’s efficient leadership realized that the strength of the company was not manufacturing but instead services and it would have been better to focus more of the limited resources towards services. Being aware of the biases is also important for the leaders so that they can evaluate information and data more objectively and do not let themselves be guided by emotions. One of the reasons Warren Buffet has been so successful is because he doesn’t let himself by emotions of freed and fear that often grapple the market. Mr. Buffet does an objective analysis of the organizations and do not let personal opinions guide his investment decisions.

The fifth important quality for the leaders is the ability to inspire others. A leader may have greater skills and knowledge, is capable of devising great plans and strategies, and have lot of ideas but the success will ultimately depend upon the leader’s ability to win the support of his followers. A leader can still force his subordinates to act according to his plans by utilizing formal powers and authority even if the subordinates do not agree with the leader’s visions. But such a scenario would probably result in the followers putting only the minimum required efforts. But if a leader can inspire his followers and convincingly win their support, his followers will be willing to go beyond their formal duties to ensure the success of their leader’s vision.

There are various elements that enable leaders to inspire their followers. Two of the elements are personal integrity and trust. Personal integrity and trust are not the same things but they often coexist together. The followers are more likely to trust a leader who also is known for his personal integrity (Forster, P. 56, 2011). A leader can build a reputation for personal integrity in various ways. One way is the leader’s career history. If a leader has been known to uphold professional standards throughout his career and has stayed away from ethical business conducts, he would be considered a man of personal honesty and integrity by his followers. The leader can also build reputation for personal integrity through his conduct in the organization he may be leading. If a leader is known to have zero tolerance for violations of expected professional conduct and forces the policy equally on everyone in the organization irrespective of his rank, followers are more likely to hold such a leader in high regard. They will also trust such a leader more because they deem the leader as fair and honest.

The leaders also have a greater ability to inspire their followers when mutual respect exists between the leaders and the followers. Effective leaders realize that people are often the most valuable asset of an organization and this is even truer today due to globalization. Factors of production have become more mobile than ever and organizations are often faced with lack of skilled labor. Effective leaders realize that by giving respect to the followers and making them feel important, they will increase the followers’ dedication and loyalty to the organization as well as commitment to a particular leader’s goals and vision (Ryan, Krotz and Pierce, n.d.)

The Chosen Three Leadership Skills

Three qualities that I am committed to improving in the next 4-5 years are communication skills, becoming better at emotional intelligence, and becoming better at seeing the big picture. I have different ideas that may help me improve in all of these three areas. To improve communication skills, I plan to read self-help books by authors who have established themselves as experts in communication as well as attend knowledge seminars in communication. These authors and seminar presenters have often extensive professional experience and, thus, know what communication skills are often lacking in most of us and what organizations usually value the most. They definitely have more experience than I do, thus, they may be able to offer valuable tips and suggestions I may not be able to come by myself.

I am also going to video-tape myself while practicing speeches at home and later watch the videos. I remember one of my teachers in high school suggested this and I was shocked by what I see in the video I made of myself practicing a speech. The video helped me found many mistakes I would often make in class presentations but which I never realized nor did anyone pointed out them to me, probably to save my face. The video allowed me to analyze my communication style from a third party’s point of view. I am also going to seek my friends’ help with speech practice sessions and ask them to provide me with objective feedback as to how they would evaluate me as total strangers.

I am aware that all of us are usually more confident when talking to people we know because there are minimum or no formalities involved and we already know each other. Similarly, we often like to spend time with people who are of similar age, in the same profession, or have similar interests and opinions. Thus, I have decided to get out of my comfort zone and meet more and more new people who are in different age brackets, come from different professional backgrounds, and may have a different view of the world than the one I have.

This approach will have various benefits for me. First of all, it will help me become better at formal communication. Second, it will give me more confidence in dealing with people I do not know. It will also help me improve my communication style because in professional settings, you have a very little time period in which to convey your ideas and attract the other party’s attention. Thus, I want to improve at conveying my ideas in short sentences without sacrificing the quality of the content. There are people I personally know who I find to be very effective communicators. I am going to seek their knowledge and ideas on effective communication and what steps I could take to achieve some of their communication skills and proficiency.

I realize that communication is not a one-way process but two-way. The ability to listen is as important in communication as is the ability to talk. Thus, I am going to learn to become more attentive to others and interrupt them less often than I do now. I believe I need to become more patient in listening to others because effective leaders are not only good at conveying messages but also listening. By paying our full attention to others, we make them feel important and increase their goodwill towards us. We also increase the probability that they will give more attention to what we have to say as well as take the efforts to understand our ideas or concerns. I will listen to ideas even if I don’t agree with them and ask my subordinates why they think their ideas are better (Forster, P102, 2011). This may help me discover justifications I may have missed somehow. If I will be confused about something, I will ask the speaker to verify if I understand it correctly or correct me otherwise.

I also plan to read more literature because I believe that popular authors are those that have mastered the art of using the right words to convey meaning. From my own personal observation, I have noticed that people who read more have more vocabulary and are also better at verbal and written communication. In addition, I am also going to watch videos of individuals who are famous for their oratory skills such as U.S. President Obama, Steve Jobs, Prince Al-Waleed, and Nelson Mandela. Some people are known to inspire others through their speeches and by watching their videos, I will try to figure out what makes them so believable and inspiring and how their behavior during speeches is different from an average speaker. This will be more of a personal-research in which I will be specifically looking for both verbal and non-verbal cues that have helped these speakers arouse passion in their listeners.

As far as improving my emotional intelligence, I plan to meet more people from different national, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds. By talking to them, I will have a better idea of how they think, look at the world, and interpret things. Different cultures have different values and thinking styles and the interaction among cultures will only continue to increase due to globalization. It is a mistake to evaluate other cultures through the values we believe in because our definition of right or wrong or acceptable and unacceptable behavior may be different from those in other cultures.

I remember reading an article about anthropology that anthropologists do not believe any culture, race, language, or tradition is superior to the other even if one tradition may have a higher number of adherents than the other. Instead, the anthropologists celebrate the diversity and believe that different cultures, languages, and traditions make the world an interesting place. I like this non-judgmental approach of anthropologists because they seek to understand others instead of evaluating others through their own stereotypes. Stereotypes are born because people let their biases form their opinions of others and do not make the effort to educate themselves about others. This is why I want to meet people from as many different cultural backgrounds as possible so that I am able to understand how they think and I also become better at recognizing my personal biases about others.

One cannot deny the power of the media in shaping our opinions and ideas. In addition, we are often attracted to media channels that support our existing point of views because we naturally look for confirmation of our opinions. I once had a friend who visited the United States and her observations left a huge impact on me. She said that the news coverage and programs she saw on western TV channels were entirely different from what we see here in the Arab world on local channels including Al-Arabia.

This information made me wonder that it is no surprise there is so much misunderstanding between the east and the west and even among the Arab countries. They both do not understand why others think the way they think. This is because people in different countries are exposed to different news and opinions which help share their view of world affairs and their perceptions of reality. Thus, one solution to this is to be aware of both sides of every story. This is why I plan to follow both western and eastern media. I do not have to agree with what they may be saying but it will help me understand why people have different opinions and how their biases are formed. Being aware of personal biases as well as those of others also help us become better communicators because we are able to look at the same issue from different angles and find the similarities as well as the differences between two sides.

In addition to improving my ability to see the big picture, I am going to read and educate myself on as many subject matters as possible including business, politics, history, cultures, psychology, humanities, and science. Knowledge opens up our mind and expands our thinking horizon. It helps us better understand the world as well as human behavior. Organizations of all types cannot ignore the external factors that impact them, many of whom are outside their control. But a better understanding of the external factors as well as their likely implications help organizations better prepare for the future. This is why I am going to expand my knowledge on different subject matters so I have a better understanding of how the world works.

Another thing I am going to do is read about different historical events with significant implications whether they are political or business or cultural in nature. I would like to learn from such events how these events might have been predicted by the only few while the rest ignored them and why these few individuals were able to see what others could not. I hope these historical accounts will help me understand how people who can see the big picture think differently from others.

One another thing I have noticed is that people who are able to see the big picture are skilled at connecting the dots. For example, we all watch political news, business news, and so on but we often see important events in isolation. But people who are able to see the big picture do not see major events in isolation but instead try to think how the events in one area, for example politics, could influence events in other areas, for exmple global trade. These people do not hesitate to break from the consensus if they are convinced their conclusions have been reached methodically and are supported by historical lessons as well as objective analysis. Thus, I am going to attempt to develop more independent thinking in which I will definitely listen to others and read others’ views but at the same time also analyze the same events myself.

Another thing I am going to do is become a more active observer in everyday life. Whether I will be at work or going about my daily life, I will give more attention to what people may say as well as both major and minor events occurring at the moment. Steve Jobs could see the bigger picture because he paid attention to consumers’ habits and, thus, could predict how the technology landscape may change.

One only has so much time and so much ability to process information. Thus, I will also follow the opinions of those experts who have made successful and unpopular predictions in the past. Following them will expand my own thinking horizon as well and expose me to possibilities I could not have thought myself. These analysts often describe the reasons behind their conclusions which makes it easy to critically analyze their opinions.

I will also regularly follow both local and international news so that I am aware of what is happening in the world. At times, I may be able to see the similarities between current and past events which could help me improve my predictive capabilities. I am mindful of the fact that the past is not always a reliable indicator of the future but sometimes history does repeat itself. For example, financial bubble busts always follow excessive stock valuations yet only few display the courage to stay away from stock investments because they know from history that values cannot continue to increase definitely and are unsustainable once they exceed the actual values of the underlying companies.

Staying in touch with the news and gaining knowledge in different academic fields will improve my scenario mapping and future casting skills. I will be more willing to consider even the most improbable events (Forster, P362, 2011) because looking back at history, people usually discount events with rare frequencies. My future casting skills will improve because by using my knowledge of different subjects as well as following news of all kinds, I may develop an intuition over time as to which ideas may become widely accepted and what trends may emerge.

What I learned About Leadership

This paper has helped me improve my understanding of leadership. First of all, leaders do not have to be the most competent and technically skilled persons in organizations. Instead, leaders should be well rounded in both technical skills related to their profession or the industry in which their organization operates and non-technical skills such as communication and social skills. Effective leaders realize that like everyone else, they cannot be everything and they have both strengths and weaknesses. They try to stay within their competencies and avoid being over-confident that may make them take unnecessary risks as well as jeopardize the very future of the organizations they lead.

I have also learnt that effective leaders understand the power of informal influence over the followers and do not only rely on their formal authority to implement strategies. They know that people are the most important asset of any organization and no strategy, no matter how well-designed it may be, could succeed without the support of the followers. This is because followers are needed to implement the strategy and they will be more likely to be committed to the success of the strategy if they believe in their leaders. Effective leaders involve their followers in decision making process and make sure that the followers feel valued and appreciated for their efforts.

Effective leaders also keep an active eye on the external environment and are not afraid to break away from the crowd. They do not like to follow the crowd but instead to lead it. They are confident because they continue to seek new knowledge and are kept informed which helps them have a high level of confidence in their conclusions.

I believe that leadership is as much about management as it is about guidance. Effective leaders perform better because they manage the organization’s financial and human capital better than their rivals. They try to understand the unique strengths of their followers and push their followers to realize their true potential. They also take steps to increase employees’ loyalty because they understand the importance of protecting valuable talent.

Effective leaders may or may not have very high IQs but they often have high emotional intelligence. They understand that leadership is as much art as it is science and human capital cannot be managed like any other capital because people have needs beyond income as well. They are good communicators because they understand their followers and at the same time they take efforts to build reputation with their followers.

Another important thing I have learnt is that good leaders are not born but instead anyone with the right attitude as well as the willingness to learn can acquire traits necessary to become a good leader. A good leader realizes that one can never acquire too much knowledge and being at the forefront means to stay in touch with the news and the information. Effective leaders are also humble and do not let their egos guide them.

And last but not least, effective leaders understand the power of focusing on core strengths of the organization and not overestimating the organizational capabilities. They have the humility to realize that an organization cannot be good at everything, thus, it should stay within its competencies.

References

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