The Significance of LeadershipAlvin John G.
TapalesUniversity of Guam Executive SummaryThe main purpose of this paper was to explore the true meaning of leadership and its impact to society. This paper also aims to explore the author’s take on his vision to which lens of leadership he sees himself practicing and an eventual shift in mindset through research and life experiences that will lead to assimilation. Keywords: mindset, leadership Table of ContentsTitle Page……………………………………………………………………………………..
..…. 1The Significance of Leadership ………………………………………………………………
…4The Five Different Lenses of Leadership ………………………………………………………. 4The Strategist …………………………………………………………………….….
..…5The Organizational Theorist and Behaviorist ………………………………….……
…6The Human Resource and Null Leadership…………………………………….………7The Strategist …………………………………………………………………….….
..…………8References…………………………………………………………………………………………9 The Significance of LeadershipThe concept of leadership has been around since, the beginning of time. In one form or another it is a natural occurrence to instill a sense of leadership when unravelling the unknown.
Leadership comes in many forms and practices. We will be exploring the types of leadership through five different lenses and the author will choose which in his perspective, closely matches his style of leading, expound upon it and discover its meaning to him. The Five Different Lenses of Leadership The five different lenses of leadership listed down from various levels of scope from macro to micro has been enumerated by Arnott (1995) are the following: the strategist who sees things with fore sight, the organizational theorist whose lenses are correctly shaped to see systems in their immediate surroundings, the organizational behaviorist who sees leadership through aspects of human nature, the human resource person who envisions leadership through a microscope and that each and every detail is substantial to ensure efficient guidance and lastly, people who do not see a need for any leadership, that systems and organizations will eventually figure things out even during an absence of leadership. The following entries aim to elaborate in detail each particular lens of leadership and discuss how each relates to real world experiences of the author. What and who we are now is a product of our background, origin and understandings so it will be interesting to see how Alvin will portray himself through each of the lenses. The Strategist The strategist looking through binoculars or the organizational theorist is commonly referred to as visionaries. They are leaders who are planning now to reap the benefits down the road, long term planners that look at everything that they are doing all the different aspects that can affect them.
In an excerpt from Tracy (2014), strategic leaders are “ big-picture thinkers” (para. 2), meaning that they often are relied on to set directions for organizations. In Hua Chan et al., (2012), conference paper, they often refer to Tzu’s (ca 400 B. C.) Art of War as the common framework for strategist leaders. These guidelines have proven very successful in today’s day and age as its takes a holistic approach to developing strategies into successful business practices. This type of leadership through the eyes of the author comes as a common type or style of leadership.
Being in the engineering field, they are always put into long-term projects that seem to have no end. As technology is ever evolving, the only way to stay relevant in the business is to have forward vision and expect the unexpected while looking at every aspect through all angles. The term “ big-picture” is loosely thrown around the meeting rooms to look at the task in its entirety but, not in a forward thinking way. These are the type of leaders that the author’s company is trying to mold each and every engineer but, he feels there is more to it than just having a vision of what’s ahead. The Organizational Theorists and Behaviorists The next lenses of leadership we will be looking at are those that are correctly shaped and focus on systems and processes of an organization and also, groups of bodies that make up the organization process. The systems approach was a concept that was developed during the industrial revolution when the transition of manual processes was greatly sped up through automation as coined by Katz, Kahn (1978).
The need for an organizational approach to see organizations as systems came forth to ensure efficiency of tasks made by many parts as a whole. The term process engineering is a common term in the day to day tasks at our author’s workplace. Developing workflows follows this concept to allow engineers to find not just one correct way to do things but, in order to look at the work process and determine which method would prove the most efficient in each situation. Organizational behavior in the other hand is a lens of leadership which breaks down the idea of the systems approach even further in scope to human behavior. Taking an evidence-based approach to understanding organizational behavior has been expounded upon to modern day by Luthans et al.
, (2015) book, stating managers should undergo a paradigm shift to understand the blend of demographics in the workplace. Globalization and diversity are what propels this theory of leadership to this age. Allowing yourself to understand intrinsic and extrinsic forces that shape your workforce’s mindset can prove a very powerful tool to guide and lead in this generation. Alvin, being a 90’s kid did not grow up with internet in his hands thus, having to refer to books and printed media to absorb information. This allows him to understand the new generation of engineers in his team who are very techy and highly skilled in researching information with a click of a button.
The Human Resource and Null Leadership The next lenses of leadership will explore two extreme sides of the spectrum, one through a microscope and one with no lenses at all. The human resource approach to leadership is closely related to the transformational style of leadership in a sense that the needs and requests are of high importance in order transform followers into future leaders, Pawar (2014). Understanding your workforce as unique individuals with certain strengths and weakness is a very powerful skill to learn that can lead to becoming a great leader. The author relates to this style of leadership in situations in which he felt he needed to do something to change the status of his coworkers because of unfair treatment.
Listening and relating to people can lead to building strong relationships, this in turn would help in establishing respect which Alvin feels is the cornerstone of leadership. Having perfect vision in which seeing no need for leaders is the last lens of leadership we will discuss. The absence or substitutes for leadership can stem from many circumstances.
In a book by Kerr and Jermier (1978), they explain that when a leader loses the ability to improve or impair subordinate satisfaction, the followers do not see a need for them. At times, this is not the fault of the leader, instead when the team is cohesive and works exemplary well without a leader they become so competent at what they do in which a leader’s input has little to no effect on the overall performance of its team members. This situation is well known to our author, having a laissez-faire type of manager. In the absence of his superiors, Alvin’s team has learned to deal with many situations without having to consult his bosses. This can serve a double edged sword at times where he may gain full control of his actions but, suffer the full blow of his mistakes. Conclusion The author believes that leadership is a valuable trait in everyone’s life.
There are many aspects in the author’s life that has molded him into the character he is now many bad but, some good. He feels that the best lens of leadership for him is a combination of multiple lenses: having foresight while keeping your associates needs to heart and understanding the organizational processes can prove to be a weapon if developed properly. Thus, the molding process has begun in him to realize that in order for him to become a great leader is that courage should come from within and the strength to destroy barriers will bring forth the fire that will fuel his dedication. Kouzes and Posner (2010), say it best when they mention that credibility is the foundation of leadership and if you stand by your moral compass, the people around you will see the credibility in your ability to lead.
Alvin believes that there is no one right way to do things but, situations are able to be tackled through different angles and in this indifference, he shall prove his resilience.
