The Work of Leadership

The Work of Leadership

After reading the many different sections of this article, we were able to break it down into more comprehensive terms so our audience and ourselves could better understand it, and take new found information from it. The different sections were: Description of Leadership, Characteristics of the Work of Leadership, Identifying Six Principles of Leading Adaptive Work, Doing Adaptive Work at KPMG Netherlands, and Leadership as Learning. All of these are very important to not only know but be able to demonstrate in the work environment.

Let's start with Description of Leadership. Leadership has been described 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". In other words, leadership is not a one-step process, nor is it something you try once and expect things to go right the first time. It is a process. In every situation encountered that involves a process take time. A process not only takes time, but you must be persistent in working at whatever task it is you are trying to fulfill. Social influence is the influence the leader has on the people. As stated before in the previous power points made by all the groups before us, leadership is not about charisma, or personality. It's not easy. Leaders face many adaptive challenges. Some of these challenges include: societies, markets, customers, competition, technology, and values. Leadership is about dealing with change and being able to provide energy and inspiration for those managers to carry out this duty. In order to have a successful process, you must be able to pick out people who have the potential to be a great leader, and then put them in a career positioned to help them develop that potential to a full and professional extent. Previously learned, a strong leader only works with a strong management as well. Doing that won't be easy, but that's the challenge of it all. You've got to be able to join the two; a strong leadership, and a strong management, so they can balance out each other.

Moving to our second section, we will discuss the Characteristics of the Works of Leadership. An important, yet difficult task of leaders is to be able to mobilize people throughout the organization to do adaptive work. You cannot have a "stiff" working environment. You do not want workers that are content with the way things already are. You want to look for workers who are open and eager to learning new things, therefore when the time comes to make changes or be "mobile," everything will flow properly. In other words, mobilizing an organization to adapt its behaviors in order to thrive in new business environments is critical. Adaptive work is in fact the mark of leadership in a competitive world. Everything here is much easier said than done, but as stated before, leadership is not easy. Executives have to break a long-standing behavior pattern. It is their duty to get those people stuck in on set way to be able to maneuver around those ways and become flexible at work. Leadership must also be provided in the form of solutions. This can be stressing, but that's okay. Adaptive change is distressing for the people going through it, but in the end, you'll be proud of yourself for making those success seeking changes.

Next we have, Identifying the Six Principles of Leading Adaptive Work. First, you must, "get on the balcony. This means, leaders must view situations as a whole. They must act in the moment and recognize the long term responses of their actions. Don't get too caught up with situations, and always be open-minded. The leader needs to be on top of things. The leader must be organized, and prepared to lead the people. They must be able to overlook everything that's going on. Next, Leaders must identify the adaptive challenge. They must be able to pick out whatever problem is holding the business back from profitable growth. Following that, leaders must be able to regulate distress. Like stated before, the leader is the inspiration of the people. As seen in the article, "The Seven Transformations of Leadership," the author states, "Leaders who undertake a voyage of personal understanding and development can transform not only their own capabilities, but also those of their companies." If you as a leader take the time to understand yourself, it'll be easier for you to further your capabilities and the capabilities of your company. Leaders must be able to maintain disciplined attention. Disciplined attention is the currency of leadership. A leader must get employees to confront tough trade-offs in values, procedures,