Leadership
Excellent leaders are not born they are made. If you have the willpower and desire, you can become an effective leader. Excellent leaders are developed through a never ending process of education, self-study, training, and experience. Excellent leaders work continually and study harder to improve their skills of leadership they are NOT resting on their success.
Before we get started, let us define what leadership is. Leadership is a process by which someone influences other people to achieve an objective and directs them in a way that makes it more coherent and cohesive. Leaders do this process by practicing their leadership attributes, such as values, beliefs, ethics, knowledge, character, and skills. Even though your position as a leader of other students gives you the authority to achieve certain objectives and tasks in the school, this power does not make you a leader but simply makes you superior to others. Leadership is different in that it makes the followers desire to achieve high goals, rather than just bossing other students around.
Bass (1990) theory of leadership says that there are three vital ways to explain how people rise to become leaders. The first two gives details of the leadership development for a small number of people. These theories are
Trait Theory These are some personality traits that can lead people naturally into leadership roles.
Great Events Theory An important event or crisis can cause a person to rise to the occasion this brings out extraordinary qualities of leadership in an ordinary person.
Transformational Leadership Theory People can learn leadership skills and decide to become leaders. It is the most commonly accepted theory nowadays and the principle on which this guide is based.
When someone is deciding if she respects you as a leader, she does not consider your attributes, rather, she studies what you do in order for her to know who you really are. She uses this observation to justify if you are a trusted and honorable leader or a self serving person who abuses authority to get promoted and look good. Self serving students leaders are not as effective because other students only obey them, not they follow them. They do well in many areas because they show a good image to their teachers at the expense of other students.
The basis of excellent leadership is honorable character and selfless service to your school. In your teachers eyes, your leadership is all you do that effects the schools objectives and the well-being of other students. Respected leaders focus on what they are, such as character and beliefs, what they know, such as tasks, and human nature, and what they do such as instructing and providing direction to other student.
What makes someone desire to follow a leader People desire to be directed by those they do respect and who have a clear sense of direction. For one to be respected, they have to be ethical. A clear sense of direction is attained by applying a strong vision of the future.
The two most essential keys to effective leadership are trust and confidence and effective communication. These help students to understand the schools overall rules and regulations and how they contribute to achieving key objectives of the school.
The Process of Great Leadership
The road map to great leadership (Kouzes and Posner, 2007) that is widely spread to successful leaders includes
Challenge the process First, find a process that you believe requires to be enhanced the most.
Enable others to act Provide guideline to other students that are necessary to achieve the set objective of the school.
Inspire a shared vision Share your vision in a language that can be understood by your fellow students.
Encourage the heart Share the success with your followers hearts (other students), while withholding the pains within your own.
Model the way When the process gets rough, get your hands dirty. A student leader tells others what to do a leader has to show that it can be done.
Principles of Leadership
1. Know yourself and seek self improvement You have to understand your attributes. In quest of self improvement you have to continually strengthen tour attributes this can be achieved through formal classes, reflection, self-study, and interacting with other students.
2. Be technically proficient As a leader, you must know your responsibility and have a solid acquaintance with your schools objectives.
3. Seek responsibility and take responsibility for your actions Search for ways to direct your school to new heights and when things go the wrong way, like they always do sooner or later, do not blame other students. Analyze the condition, take corrective measures and continue with the next challenge.
4. Make sound and timely decisions Use good decision making, problem solving, and directing procedures.
5. Set the example Be an excellent role model for your fellow students. They should not only hear what they are anticipated to do, but see as well. We should become the change that we would like to see.
6. Know your fellow students and look out for their well being Know human nature and the significance of sincerely caring for your fellow students.
7. Keep your fellow students informed Know how to communicate with not only your fellow students, but also your seniors, teachers and other important people.
8. Develop a sense of responsibility in your fellow students Assist to develop a good character traits that will help them carry out their required responsibilities.
9. Ensure that tasks are supervised, understood, and accomplished Communication is the major key to this responsibility.
10. Work as a team You should avoid or stop bossing other students and work together to achieve the set goals of the school and adhere to its rules and regulations.
11. Use the full capabilities of your position By creating a team spirit within the students body, you will be able to employ your authority to its fullest capabilities.
Conclusion
Leadership is the act of presumptuous responsibility over a circumstance. This circumstance may or may not engage other people. Leadership has as well been written as the process of social influence in which one person can enlist the aid and support of others in the accomplishment of a common task, though definitions that are more inclusive of followers have emerged. Leadership is in the end about creating a way for people to contribute to make something extraordinary. Excellent leadership is the capability to successfully integrate and make best use of available resources within the internal and external environment for the attainment of societal goals. It remains to be one of the relevant aspects of the schools context. However, leadership has been challenging and its practices can vary depending on the situation. Leadership is all about capacity the capacity of leaders to observe and listen, to use their knowledge as a starting point to promote dialogue between all levels of authority in order to establish transparency and processes in leadership, to clear their own values and visions but not impose them. And to that I conclude my speech by saying leadership is all about setting and not merely reacting to agendas, initiating change that makes for considerable improvement rather than managing change.
Categories:
0 comments:
Post a Comment