Leadership As We Know It (original) (raw)
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Leadership for Change : How Did We Get There and Where Do We Go From Here?
2019
Leadership field was once characterised as “still water” by a prominent scholar in the field, the late Professor Jerry Hunt, my academic mentor (personal communication; see also Hunt, 1991)1. We discussed how leadership thinking has evolved from scientific management theory with a managerialist perspective to various leader-centric models, such as leader traits, behavioural styles and leadership contingencies, all of which have been described over and over again across decades. The field seemed to be in a stalemate. As Boal and Hooijberg (2001) conclude: “little new theory was developed” (p. 515). A fundamental change in leadership views took place in the 1980s. Major societal and organisational changes and transformations were taking place, starting in the US: deregulation and internationalisation of major industries such as airline and banking, as well as mergers and acquisitions cut across major economic and societal sectors. Along with large organisational changes, the concept o...
Leadership Reimagined: A STUDY OF GIRLS’ LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT AT AN INDEPENDENT SCHOOL, 2020
Despite a growing industry of literature and programs on leadership, few scholars have studied the leadership opinions and experience of girls and women. With interdisciplinary and case study research, this thesis seeks to address the scholarly gap and discover girls’ and women’s ideas about leadership, their experience with a leadership program, and their motivations for leadership. Based on research and findings from a girls’ school dedicated to educating women leaders, I argue that new conceptualizations are needed to motivate more women in leadership. Building on Professor Carol Dweck’s growth mindset theory, I developed the concept of growth leadership mindset, which holds that leadership can be understood as a set of competencies that can be taught and learned. By reimagining leadership as an activity that can be realized through effort and support, girls and young women can overcome stereotypes about leadership as a male role in society and envision themselves taking leadersh...
Transformative Leadership for the 21st Century
ReVision, 2010
This article outlines the philosophical and pedagogical underpinnings of a masters degree in Transformative Leadership with a specific focus on the role of creativity and self-creation. It uses the design of the degree as a way of address some of the considerable complexities of the field of leadership, but also the larger planetary and personal challenges facing individuals who are committed to contributing to positive social change.
An Instructor's Guide to The Leadership Challenge
Can leadership be taught? Our answer is an unequivocal "yes." Isn't it amazing we have never been asked the question "Can management be taught?" We just assumed people can be educated and trained to be managers-and further developed into even better managers. Based upon this belief billions of dollars have been invested in undergraduate and graduate programs. Imagine what might be possible if everyone assumed the same about leadership. Leadership is not just about leaders. Nor is leadership about some position or place in an organization or community. In today's world-of unrelenting changes in technology, marketplaces, organizational alliances, mergers, and partnerships; of increasing global competitiveness; of accelerating diversity of ideas along with a rainbow coalition of individual backgrounds, beliefs, abilities, and experiences; of continuing reengineering of processes and right-sizing of organizations and flattening of organizational formsleadership must be everyone' s business. The caliber of managers has been raised by assuming people can learn attitudes, skills, and knowledge associated with good management practice. The same can be done with leadership. Viewing leadership as a nonlearnable set of character traits dooms societies, and their organizations, to having only a few good leaders. It is far healthier and more productive to start with the assumption that it is possible for everyone to lead. We believe in self-fulfilling prophecy. Once we assume that leadership is learnable, we discover how many good leaders there really are. People do tend to perform to the level of their own and other people' s expectations, and Teachi ng Leadershi p vii PREFACE this phenomenon is well documented across adults in the workplace and children in school. If we, as teachers (or parents, or managers, or friends) begin with the assumption that some people have leadership skills and some people don't, then we are likely to get exactly the kind of leaders we expect. Certainly we should not mislead people into believing they can attain unrealistic goals. Neither should we assume only a few will ever attain excellence in leadership or in any other human endeavor. Those who are most successful at bringing out the best in others are those who set achievable but stretching goals and believe they have the ability to develop the talents of others. You must believe leadership can be taught. We would not have written The Leadership Challenge if we did not believe it is possible for ordinary people to learn how to get extraordinary things done. We would not have bothered unless we believed ordinary people can become extraordinary leaders. Chances are you also believe leadership can be learned, or you would not be teaching (or contemplating teaching) a leadership class. Maybe the qualities of leadership will be exhibited on behalf of the school, or the church, or the community, or the scouts, or the union, or the corporation, or the family. In our studies, everyone has had a leadership story to tell. Somewhere, sometime, the leader within each of us gets the call to step forward. Harry Levinson and Stuart Rosenthal, both psychiatric experts, make this comment about the development of leaders: "Our point of view is that some people want to be leaders and see themselves as leaders. Others rise to the occasion. In either case they see what has to be done and do it. They provide stability and support while defining goals and providing reassurance. Sometimes they become leaders when they become angry about something, catch fire, and start to lead.. .. [People] become leaders when they learn to take a stand, to take risks, to anticipate, initiate, and innovate." The same can be said for the leaders we studied. Many of them did not initiate the personal best leadership projects they wrote and talked about, yet they rose to the occasion. Some got angry and caught fire. Others accepted an assignment and then found something within them they had not known they had. None of us may know our true strength until challenged to bring it forth. As author and social activist Rita Mae Brown has noted: "People are like tea bags. You never know how strong they'll be until put into hot water." And what exactly is leadership? There are over 225 definitions of leadership found in the literature. Pick one! Of course, we offer what works best for us in our work with students viii An Instructor' s Guide to The Leadership Challenge Teaching Leadership ix as well as others by the Center for Creative Leadership and corporations like Honeywell, three major opportunities for learning to lead emerge: (a) trial and error, (b) observation of others, and (c) formal education and training. You will see these three elements prominently incorporated in the course designs that follow. Some instructors have built their course specifically upon The Leadership Challenge, and others have simply included it as one of many other resources in their course design. Are there important skills for developing leadership not included in The Leadership Challenge? There is plenty of room for you to add other ideas and concepts to those we've provided, and we welcome your feedback and suggestions. Information on how to contact us is included at the end of this Guide. It is our intention, both in studying and writing about leadership, to work with others who share a belief that there is a leader within each person-yearning to make a difference. Our responsibility as teachers is to foster that belief, promote the self-confidence necessary to step forward, and build the skills required to become a positive force in the world. We enlist your support, and welcome you to the campaign.
Changing Dynamics of Leadership
Leadership is about developing leaders and building capability in the system.Until recently the Leader was considered as a Hero, who has followers. They used to be admired for their courage, outstanding achievements or noble qualities. But now in the 21 st century a Leader is someone who guides, inspires, motivates others to do more. Now Leaders exercise a high degree of influence over others to do more, others can be your seniors, colleagues, team members, subordinates or sometimes may be your seniors too. The definition and responsibilities of a Leader is drastically changing. This article is an attempt to understand the evolution of the concept of Leadership till 2020. Each Leadership style is also explained with appropriate case studies.Also an attempt is made to understand the leadership skills which we can inculcate in today's world which can help us to excel in all aspects of our life.
Leadership is a trait that is achieved when people are moved or directed towards a desired goal. Leadership has also been defined as a characteristic where one plans, directs, motivates or guides people to achieve results. In essence, leadership is not only about achieving results but it is also about achieving change. According to Lussier & Achua (2004), leadership influences not only people but also the leader to bring about changes that are aligned with organizational goals. However, connecting leadership and change can be difficult because there are so many diverse forms of leadership styles. Leaders are persons who have a respectable personality and who provide unselfish service to the organization (Dubrin, 2010). Sometimes, leaders may not be oriented towards change and rather look to sustain the current organizational structure through transactional leadership (Dubrin, 2010). This essay draws on transformational leadership theories to establish that leadership and change is related. Although leadership styles may vary but in essence, all leaders seek to inspire a shared vision, challenge the process and bring about change (Kouzes & Posner, 2007). Some of the theories about leadership such as trait theory, behavioral leadership, transactional leadership and transformational leadership are discussed in this essay to show how change and leadership are related. This essay concludes that leadership is an inherent part of any organization and change is the path to progress which can be best achieved with transformational leaders.
The Leaderful Fieldbook: Strategies and Activities for Developing Leadership in Everyone
Synopsis: The Global Economy—the flattened networked world—demands a new type of leadership: one that is collective and collaborative, where solutions and vision are co-created by everyone. Although foreshadowed in the author's Creating Leaderful Organizations (Berrett-Koehler, 2003), the practical application of collective leadership remains a mystery to many practicing executives and managers. It is evident that the development of leaderful organizations cannot happen overnight; in fact, we need agents to emerge to help us learn how to change longstanding regressive organizational cultures into more leaderful communities. When we say "leaderful," we refer to leadership practices that are collective and concurrent – people can serve as leaders all together and at the same time. Feel free to watch the leaderful video to learn more about the leaderful concept. This fieldbook is designed for these change agents – coaches, facilitators, OD consultants, and weavers-wishing to embark with their clients on a leaderful journey across a range of levels – from individual to network-and adopting a style of collective engagement that matches the democratic processes that they are seeking to produce. The fieldbook presents the most practical of recommendations in the form of an array of exercises that can be adopted immediately across these multiple levels of experience. It also features a set of cases that demonstrate the use of the exercises in each of these levels – individual, interpersonal, team, organizational, and social network.