Thursday, October 9, 2008
Week 7- Importance of Leadership
The concept leadership is very important. It is important for a leader to understand his/her group and lead the group towards success. I had to do a group project in one of the class that i took last semester. The main problem with that group was that no one wanted to take the initiative of doing anything and it not at all well coordinated . Then we decided amongst ourselves that we would choose a group leader as we were lagging behind in our work schedule. After we appointed a leader with the consensus of everyone, the leader himself took many responsibilities and saw that the work was done. And finally we reached our goal and got a good grade in that project. Had we not taken the decision of appointing a leader i am sure that we would not be able to finish our project
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A couple weeks ago, Prof. Cyborg questioned me about the difference between management and leadership. Your classroom experience is a prime example of the management/leadership dichotomy. I often associate leadership with inspiration // management with task division. During the last couple of years, I often appointed myself to the role of "group leader" but I never inspired, challenged, encouraged, or enabled my group (195). Nor did I provide a sufficient vision that captured the interest of my group. Instead, I harassed and undermined my group members when they did not perform up to my standards (with good reason).
Since then, I've had to admit to myself that I am not yet a group leader. I am a group manager, who oversees group performance. I advise you to examine your own group interaction and consider how your group would react to a group leader as opposed to a group manager, because there is an important difference.
I’m glad your team worked out in the end and someone took the responsibility of being the leader. In most of my team experience in the MBA program has been where everyone wants to prove themselves to be leaders and it becomes a big game of domination. In high school, no one wanted to be the bossy one telling everyone what to do or saying “no” to someone’s idea. What I have tried to do to find a fair balance is to rotate roles in a group. One day someone can be the facilitator, another can take notes, and someone else can keep track of time and switch roles at the next meeting. Also, if someone has a particular idea that not everyone is too eager to get on board with or do not want to spend extra time on, I say something like “That’s such a great idea! Could you be in charge of getting that done?” You will see how quickly they will drop the idea if they are not fully committed and things will run more efficiently.
According to Wikipedia," the word leadership can refer to:
Those entities that perform one or more acts of leading.
The ability to affect human behavior so as to accomplish a mission.
Influencing a group of people to move towards its goal setting or goal achievement."
Simply put a leader is someone who has followers. Leadership is closely associated with management. A good leader has to be good at managing the group he/she is leading.Some suggest that leadership and management are synonymous. According to Hersey and Blanchard,
"Leadership occurs any time one attempts to influence the behavior of an individual or group, regardless of the reason.Management is a kind of leadership in which the achievement of organizational goals is paramount."1
In my opinion, somebody who can manage a group of individuals effectively, whether labelled as a leader or not, is a leader.It is true that a leader has more responsibilities than the others, but then again, a good leader sets up a good example for his followers to fulfill the role of a leader.
1. source : wikipedia
Although the topic of leadership is complex, and complicated by the tremendous amount of research in and out of organizational communication, there is one simple thing that can be posited: a leader is a person who exhibits leadership. And I think of the term in contrast to its counterpart: manager/supervisor. I think of a manager as someone who directs and regulates, monitors and delegates. They correct and instruct. A leader is someone who shares some part in the effort, who carries the vision along with the group. These things are true to varying degrees, but I differentiate them on the basis of their relationship to the work and the worker. And of course, it is possible to be both, as in a group at school were structure (management) is necessary alongside motivation (leadership).
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