2 1 Leadership Name OBLD 511 Organizational Leadership School Professor Date Leadership

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Leadership

Name

OBLD 511 Organizational Leadership

School

Professor

Date

Leadership

In my previous definition of leadership, I defined leaders as people who facilitate others to achieve particular outcomes. Leaders provide guidance and directions to help people resolve particular problems or achieve goals. Still, I thought about leaders as role models because they install and inspire hope and chart a course of action on behalf of followers. These are the attributes of an effective leader scholars and organizations give attention to since they want to bring up a generation of leaders who can focus on global or community problems.

An extra input to my definition of leadership is that we need authentic or genuine leaders. I have seen leaders who contest for positions, but they do not have strong convictions, genuine concern, and original intentions that they want to serve their followers. More closely, I believe some people are eager or want to be in power, but they do not have a genuine concern for people’s needs or problems. They want to go in history books that they served in a certain position, but they did not change or solve people’s problems. Another concern I have is that leaders fail to involve followers. Northhouse (2018) talks about the interpersonal process of authentic leadership, where a leader and followers interact. The leader affects followers, and followers or people affect the leader. I have seen leaders imposing their rule on people because they are wealthy. For example, some leaders use their financial power to ascend into positions of power or leadership. They corrupt people’s minds that they are the best. In fact, some leaders employ monopolistic practices where they use dirty methods, including false information or propaganda, to silence other leaders contesting positions. The end (goal) is that the leaders do not use power responsibly or transform things (Lloyd-Walker & Walker, 2011).

I love people who are pushed by events to be leaders or start great initiatives that change people’s lives. Northhouse (2018) narrates the developmental perspective of authentic leaders, where people become leaders because of life events. For example, a person can start a cancer foundation because they are survivors. I am a witness this happens, and survivors show genuine concern they want to help people. Every life event teaches a person good things they may want to share. Northhouse (2018) exposes that events bring self-awareness, a certain moral perspective, relational transparency, and balanced processing. I was touched or uplifted by one community leader who started a cancer foundation to share knowledge and offer patients group support. I know many people benefit from this foundation because people with common problems can share information about treatment or something beneficial that can be replicated. Leaders who want to establish relationships or bring together people with similar problems inspire me. I feel they are in leadership genuinely or passionately (George et al., 2007).

In another sphere, people who are genuine or authentic leaders are pursuing a higher calling. They have processed their thoughts and found something positive they want to be related to or solve. Most of the time, I find a mismatch or weak positive relationship between the leader and followers or a particular position. To sum up, I love authentic leaders because they normally assess their relevance, beliefs, awareness, and thoughts before assuming leadership (Duncan et al., 2017).

I have assessed several leadership theories, including servant leadership, team leadership, transformational leadership, and authentic leadership. After closely examining all leadership theories, I have learned that leadership is a mandatory discipline. For example, I am forced to believe that homelessness, pollution, corruption, and other ills exist because we do not have genuine leaders.

Finally, I aspire to be an authentic leader. I want to lead a cause I understand and that fits my competencies. I want to contest for a position I am convinced I can deliver. I do not want to contest because of good pay or the influence a certain leadership position earns a person. In any case, I want to develop, make a difference, or instigate visible change in any leadership position, I assume (Butterworth, 2020).

References

Butterworth, M. (2020). Authentic Leadership Measures. Dissertation. https://shareok.org/bitstream/handle/11244/324595/2020_Butterworth_Mitch_Dissertation.pdf?sequence=1

Duncan, P., Green, M., Gergen, E., & Ecung, W. (2017). Authentic leadership—is it more than emotional intelligence?. Administrative Issues Journal, 7(2), 3. http://dx.doi.org/10.5929/2017.7.2.2

George, B., Sims, P., McLean, A. N., & Mayer, D. (2007). Discovering your authentic leadership. Harvard business review, 85(2), 129. https://wappp.hks.harvard.edu/files/wappp/files/discovering_your_authentic_leadership21.pdf

Lloyd-Walker, B., & Walker, D. (2011). Authentic leadership for 21st-century project delivery. International Journal of Project Management, 29(4), 383-395. https://www.dlsweb.rmit.edu.au/learninglab/sites/default/files/Authentic-leadership-project-management.pdf

Northouse, P. G. (2018). Leadership: Theory and Practice. Sage Publishing.