What is your paradigm of leadership and on what assumptions is it based?
Leadership is a common term in todays society which means the process of influencing a certain group of people to operate in a manner that would enable them to accomplish the set goals and objective. It is the process by which a manager or any other person with the top most positions and power in the community or an organization, gives directions on the suitable way to carry day to day activities hence making it a bit coherent and cohesive.leadership is the gift for a person to make decision for other without inconviencing their state of reasoning. In other terms, it is the ability to convince or alter a particular behavior of situation by seeking for adoption of your ideas.
The typical example of leadership is the ability of a religious leader to influence people way of living. That is a religious leader has the power to convert or influence an individual or group to change the bad ways and live according to the scripture. Leadership goes hand in hand with the positive human morals. It simply means that for efficient and effective leadership, a person should be guided or possess good leadership skills. In a personal opinion, leadership is for anybody with the skills to successfully influence other people. It thus implies that people are either born leaders or are made through their life experiences. In leadership there is an assumption that a leader is chosen by God and directs the people or community in the right way to obtain the common goals.
"leadership is everyone's business" (P. 2). Is this an assumption that challenges your paradigm of leadership? Explain.
According to Kouzes and Posner, (2004) “leadership is everyone’s business” meaning that it is a collection of everyone’s efforts to achieve the mutual goals and objectives. This assumption goes hand in hand with the paradigm of leadership state above. It espouses the idea that leadership encompasses the entire community for its success to be realized. Leadership demands for full cooperation from both the leaders and the people he or she is serving. It means that leadership is a free field for everybody with the capacity to deliver the services required by the community. It is an all round concept. The perception that leadership is everyone’s business is evident in events where a leader needs the support of the public for consistency and high quality services. On the other hand, this assumption tends to challenge the argument of leadership being for the people holding the top position in the community.
It goes further to challenge the fact that people are born leaders or are made through their life experiences. This argument is very essential because it rules out the dominance leadership. Leadership should be a contribution of people from all walks of life. It creates a platform for equity in term of leadership. Each individual gets equal chances to exercise their leadership skills regardless of the social status or any other factors. This assumption supports the paradigm of leadership in the sense that it implies that that leadership is a continuous process for everyone. In addition it supports the system of team work in leadership. As long as leaders rely on the public they also need the support of their fellow leader hence serving as evident to the assumption.
what current cultural paradigms about leadership need to be examined and/or challenged, and on what do you base your assumptions?
The current cultural paradigm of leadership is the tendency of preserving leadership for specific people in the community or church. Leadership is an attribute that is only associated with those people who hold top positions in the community and the rest of the people are doomed to the incompetence of leadership. This paradigm needs to be thoroughly examined and at the same time should be challenged with a good alternative. A program that sensitizes leaders and the public should be initiated.this would bring awareness of the type of leadership that need to be exercised. The public would also get an opportunity to obtain the knowledge of leadership and the fact that there are equal chances for the leadership post. Discrimination in leadership is a vice that should be highly criticized and challenge to allow room for changes of leaders in the society. In a religious perspective, the paradigm should be evaluated in accordance with the definition of the scriptures. This assumption is based on the fact “leadership is everyone’s business” therefore challenging this paradigm would ensure everybody get a chance to offer his or her leadership skill to other people. According to the definition, leadership is the process of influencing others to follow a certain way therefore limiting the leadership to specific category of people would be opposing the main purpose of leadership.leadership should a free for all opportunity especially based on gender women should also take top post in leadership. Women need to be given the opportunity to show the people the best way to follow in order to achieve a common goal
Conclusion
In conclusion, people need to discourage the dominance of the individual with the top position and advocates for a leadership team in accordance to the people’s capacity and talents.. For effective and efficient leadership system, it should comprise of five practices that promotes exemplary leadership. Leaders should model the way for others in order to assist them do extraordinary activities or things. The second practice is inspiring for the sharing of vision. It allows room for expansion or diverse in terms of ideologies. Sharing a vision would enable other people that shares in a same idea to attain leadership skills. The other practices include a challenge in the leadership process, enabling other people to act or respond adequately to the challenges facing them and encouraging of the hearts which are broken by the challenging situations. These themes indicate or give a direct reflection on the way Christian faith support and in other cases informs leadership in the society. It clearly outlines the role played by the Christian leaders in the community. The leaders sensitize the people in the society on the importance of understanding the dynamics around the entire concept of leadership relationship.
The paradigm mostly advocates for equal changes in leadership within all walks of life. The principle of leadership is a positive attribute that should be used for the benefit of the human race through an initiation of programs that would help people to do extraordinary things. This implies that leadership plays a fundamental role in ensuring there is smooth or understanding within the community. The scripture sheds more light on the way women leaders used the five practices of exemplary leadership that James and Barry explained in the text.
