Business Policy and Strategy
1. Why is leadership important?
Leadership is the foundation for an organization’s success. While an individual cannot run an organization, the leaders are there to foster the relationship with all employees. Without leadership, organizations start to stagnate and become lethargic. They fail to achieve their goals, Leaders not only play a role in strategy formulation, but more importantly, play a crucial role in implementation of organizations strategies (Mills, 2005). In order for this to be successful, leaders steer the organizations through planned changes or behaviors. They are responsible for the long-lasting change within an organization by motivating employees to achieve their and the organizations goals while overcoming resistance. Simply, without an effective leader organizations would slow slip into confusion and chaos.
2. What are the five key elements in our leadership definition? How do the elements interrelate to form this definition?
You have followers who are important as for without them there could be no leader. They in turn influence the leader. There is influence. Effective leaders influence their followers. They use their interpersonal skills to communicate, gain support and motivate others. There is an organizational objective. This means a shared vision by the leader and followers. Next is change. The leader helps to spark change by taking risks and inspiring their followers. Finally, there are people. Leaders focus their influence through means to assist people to succeed and view it as a support to their doing.
3. Are leaders born or made, and can leadership skills be developed?
Leadership can be viewed as a bell curve with a bottom 10% not having the ability to be a leader, but there is a far higher majority that have the potential to be leaders and then 10% of those who are just born to do it. As the largest grouping shows, there is a larger population that has the ability to have this skill develop over time. These people learn
Leadership is the foundation for an organization’s success. While an individual cannot run an organization, the leaders are there to foster the relationship with all employees. Without leadership, organizations start to stagnate and become lethargic. They fail to achieve their goals, Leaders not only play a role in strategy formulation, but more importantly, play a crucial role in implementation of organizations strategies (Mills, 2005). In order for this to be successful, leaders steer the organizations through planned changes or behaviors. They are responsible for the long-lasting change within an organization by motivating employees to achieve their and the organizations goals while overcoming resistance. Simply, without an effective leader organizations would slow slip into confusion and chaos.
2. What are the five key elements in our leadership definition? How do the elements interrelate to form this definition?
You have followers who are important as for without them there could be no leader. They in turn influence the leader. There is influence. Effective leaders influence their followers. They use their interpersonal skills to communicate, gain support and motivate others. There is an organizational objective. This means a shared vision by the leader and followers. Next is change. The leader helps to spark change by taking risks and inspiring their followers. Finally, there are people. Leaders focus their influence through means to assist people to succeed and view it as a support to their doing.
3. Are leaders born or made, and can leadership skills be developed?
Leadership can be viewed as a bell curve with a bottom 10% not having the ability to be a leader, but there is a far higher majority that have the potential to be leaders and then 10% of those who are just born to do it. As the largest grouping shows, there is a larger population that has the ability to have this skill develop over time. These people learn
References: Mills,D.,Q.,(2005). Leadership How to Lead, How to Live. Retrieved from http://www.cafanet.com/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=qwswE8roe74%3D&tabid=96 Lussier, Robert N. and Achua, Christopher F. (2013). Leadership: Theory, Application, & Skill Development (5th Ed.) South-Western: Cengage Learning.