Personal Leadership Model
My passion of helping the artists to exhibit their excellent works, ability to evaluate the style and worth of art work, and achieving personal fulfillment through art projects drives my life. I have patience, aspiration and commitment to take my life into the vision that I formed in my mind. I can carve out a personal leadership model for myself. I am ready to lead, and my definition of leadership is about following a purpose, working for it and linking others also to work for it.
Keeping the purpose in mind, I think of the results to be achieved. I prepare a plan and implement it in a time bound manner. The decisions and efforts that I take are in the best interest of the artists, art lovers and the art collectors. I have several positive qualities that are critical to me and my career. I discuss and share about my qualities, weaknesses and goals with my colleagues, friends and family to receive their feedback. I am open to and respect my well-wisher’s feedback and advices. Some of the qualities that make me qualify to be a leader are, patience, visionary, inspiring self and others, persuasion, networking, commitment to purpose, etc.
The role I wish to play as leader is to lead myself and the group to a strategic direction, forge teams together, inspire and motivate the team towards the goal, respect all and perform with humility, and focus on the results / goals. Following up my vision is the key measure of my personal leadership and its action plan. I have a well thought out purpose to help the artists and art lovers with respect enjoying art. I regularly communicate and ask the beneficiaries for their opinions and feedback on the art projects. I keep connections with every artist and the art lovers and engage in conversations with them. I am happy that many of my suggestions were implemented by the artists, and we had won together. I work hard, lead the stakeholders of the projects and enjoy the work I do as a leader.
An important distinction between two types of leadership has been presented. One is the transactional leadership and the other, transformational leadership. Transactional leadership is just a give-and-take relationship between leaders and followers. In this type of leadership, the leader will interfere with the followers only if the followers make a mistake or work contrary to the instructions. The main role of leader is to see whether the team members are following the rules, standards and procedures. But, today the leaders need to create a vision with which others can associate and identify themselves, and work together for the achievement of the goal with inspiration. Four key components define the existence of transformational leadership. One is individualized consideration; the leader tends to attend each member of the team and resolves the issues. The leaders show respect, empathy, gives support and communicate openly with the team members. The team members work with intrinsic motivation under the guidance of a leader.
Second component is intellectual stimulation; the leader provides opportunities for everybody to express their views, and the leader himself contributes ideas with creativity and innovation to reach the goal of the group. Third distinction of transformation leadership is inspirational motivation. The leader articulates his / her vision clearly to the team and solicits their support to reach the goal. The leader also projects to all the future benefits they would receive when they reach the goal. Leader establishes the purpose and meaning of working together and communicates persuasively with the team.
The fourth element of the transformational leadership is idealized influence. When a leader follows a set of values staunchly, it is likely that his / her followers too would practice those values. The leader’s compelling vision will be expressed in every interaction with the members, and the vision and values of the leader will influence the behavior of the team members. In the presence of a transactional leader, the whole team would work in congruence and enthusiasm.
Three great Transformational Leaders
Peter Drucker: He was a renowned thinker and consultant for the business world. What he proposed in 1950s became a reality at the beginning of twenty-first century. He inspired academia and the corporates equally. Many times he has criticized the corporate leaders, yet they sought an audience with him to get inspired through his vision and challenges. He pioneered many concepts; ‘Management by objectives and knowledge management’ were his major contribution to the business world. He advocated teamwork and advised not to lose common sense.
Steve Jobs: For the Apple Inc. Steve contributed a vision ‘offering computer as a tool to change the world’. This compelling vision drew the talented people towards the company, and everybody worked for realizing that dream. He displayed customer focus, passion, innovation, high involvement and personal commitment to the product development projects. He was the role model to many who worked in the company. His behavior and words match the characteristics of a transformational leader.
Larry Bossidy: His talent as a great leader bloomed when he was the CEO of ‘Allied Signals’. He is known as a straight forward, results-oriented and tough-minded business leader. Though very task oriented, he had charisma and coached many of his colleagues. He was indomitable in helping people to learn, and provided his company (Allied Signal) with talented employees. He was of the opinion that the leader’s job is to help everyone see the need for change and show a sense of urgency to execute. According to him, the process of change would begin only when people take the initiatives seriously. He always communicated the brutal realty to the employees and urged them to stretch themselves in their performance.
Conclusion
Transformational leaders are people-oriented with the strong belief that team success comes through deep trust and sustained commitment. Every organization requires such leaders, because people do not seek financial rewards alone from the work place. They need to feel that their work is contributing to something bigger. For people, working with a transformational leader can be a delightful and enriching experience. We must all look for transformational leaders or perhaps even become one through developing those leadership characteristics.
WORKS CITED
Northouse, P. Leadership theory and practice, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2004. Print
