Leadership

LEADERSHIP

Felice Renfro

Oklahoma Wesleyan University

Leading, managing, and developing: Leadership.  Are we born natural leaders?  Or are we remodeled into the perfect leader?  A well pondered question that has been lingering in the air for decades.  Great leaders are the most important asset that your organization can develop - particularly in the current economic environment. The stakes are high and the potential payoff for ensuring that leaders and pivotal members of your organization know how best to address challenges, take advantage of opportunities and move forward into a profitable future is enormous.  This paper will discuss leadership, my personal leadership and the application of leadership.  So Leadership, what constitutes success?

“What exactly makes a great leader? Do certain personality traits make people better-suited to leadership roles, or do characteristics of the situation make it more likely that certain people will take charge?” (Cherry, About.com, 2013).  When we look at the leaders around us – our employer, our pastor or the President of the United States, – we might find ourselves wondering exactly why these individuals excel in their positions.

LEADERSHIP INTERVIEW

I interviewed a supervisor in my department, Sales at Enterprise Holdings.  His name is Chris and he used to be just an ADR (account development rep) just like me and was promoted to supervisor just recently.  

• Do you think leadership develops with experience? – yes, leadership does develop with experience.  The more experience you have with leading people can help you develop your skills and learn were you as a leader needs to improve.
• Are there one or two experiences you look back on as having been especially valuable in helping develop your own leadership?  Please briefly describe them. – working as a regular employee and then being promoted to a supervisor, I see how I was not lead by my previous supervisor.  She did not ask me my career goals, she did not want to know where did I see myself in 5 or 10 years.  I would observe my supervisor and others in the department and see how they functioned as a leader.  Some I learned from because they were helpful to their employees and others they just did their daily tasks.  A leader has to want to lead and help others.  Currently as a supervisor, I see where I have to wear many different hats to deal with many different personalities.  Many of my employees need “hand-holding”, lots of help while I have several that are so self-sufficient in their jobs that I have to go check on them to see if everything is ok.  Being a good leader is hard and a lot of hard work but it is well worth it.
• What made these experiences so valuable?  they helped me see that current leaders sometimes are not the best people in place to be a leader.  There are current leaders that should not have been put into a leadership role.
• Have your own views of leadership changed over time? Yes my views on leadership have changed.  I see that leadership is about caring and helping and not always about knowledge.  Leadership is being passionate about your vision and trying to get all to go along with you for that vision.
• Do you think leadership in your arena is much different from, or involves different pressures, than leadership in other arenas? leadership in all arena I feel is the same
• Do you ever reflect after the fact about how effective your behavior was in a particular situation? NO   Is this ever a source of new or different insights?  NO
• Is there any advice you would give people early in their careers about leadership? I would tell my employees that they can be leaders in their current position.  To seek extra duties, always strive for excellence, be caring and helpful at all times and to look for knowledge and learn all you can, whenever you get the chance.  

ASSESSMENT OF PERSONAL LEADERSHIP

One of the most notable studies on power was conducted by social psychologists John French and Bertram Raven, in 1959.  They identified five bases of power listed below:

Legitimate – This comes from the belief that a person has the formal right to make demands, and to expect compliance and obedience from others.

Reward – This results from one person's ability to compensate another for compliance.

Expert – This is based on a person's superior skill and knowledge.

Referent – This is the result of a person's perceived attractiveness, worthiness, and right to respect from others.

Coercive – This comes from the belief that a person can punish others for noncompliance.

My orientation towards power reflects that I use legitimate power and reward power.  As for motivation, there are many tools that can be used to motivate employees.  There are intrinsic rewards, internal satisfaction a person receives; they are satisfied with what they are doing, enjoy that satisfaction and continue with the process.  There are extrinsic rewards, such as pay increases, bonuses, promotions.  System-wide rewards, the same reward is given to all people in the company no matter what type of performance they have throughout the year.  This type of reward is easily issued and appreciated by all in the company.  

Leaders are here to not only communicate and convey information but also to persuade and influence others to follow the vision and mission of the company.  With my influence tactics, I would use ways to empower my employees so that they feel they really are a part of the big picture.  I would let my employees know why they are doing the job they are assigned to do.  With creativity and how it affects my leadership, I am always looking for more innovative ways to empower my employees.  You have to be creative and encourage curiosity, playfulness and exploration with your employees.  Stay on track and complete your deadlines and goals but let your employees know that a little "fun time" is OK and well deserved.  Unofficial activities help employees with motivation, self-esteem, and productivity.