Leader at home
Introduction
Impact: A man who wants to lead the orchestra must show his back to the audience. This popular adage is true in the family setting in the context that the leader of the family has to sacrifice a lot for the benefit of the family. This ought to be shown through provisions for the family as well as offering key leadership skills. Leadership can be seen as a way through which one person can influence others or call upon their assistance so as to achieve a certain target or task.
Thesis: Simply put, leadership is a means of creating an avenue for people to contribute towards attaining a desired goal.
Connection: The leader in a family setting may be a controversial topic regarding one’s definition of a family. The person who is seen as the leader in the family will be greatly influenced by the type of the family and the religious beliefs, which the family prescribes to (Benokraitis, 2007). This leadership may also be attained through knowledge gained from education or experience in a certain field.
Preview: With this said, it may be difficult to ascertain for sure who is the leader in the family. However, one thing is for sure, there is need for all involved in the family setting to seek opinion of the others.
- Main point: For those whose religious inclination is Christianity, the man is seen as the head of the home. This is true in many family setups throughout the world regardless of their religious backgrounds. However, this setup may be greatly contradicted in a single parent family and to a greater extent in an extended family. Many considerations will come into play as to who is the head of the family in say a single parent family led by a woman. Alternatively in an extended family setting the elderly will be automatically be seen as the head of the family on account of the experience that they have gained over the years (Benokraitis, 2007).
- Main point: Regardless of who is seen to be the leader of the home, he or she ought to have certain crucial individual traits, which include openness to experience, highly intelligent, extraversion, capacity to adjust to situations on timely basis, self efficacy and conscientiousness (Tittemore, 2003).
- Main point: The father as the head of the home has to possess certain characteristics, which would enable the family to move forward as a unit while taking special consideration to the needs of each family member. First, the leader in the family ought to set a clear purpose and strategy for development of each individual. It is only through collectively doing well as a team in the family that harmony and unity may be realized as well as achieving common goals. The ideal leadership in a family requires an intricate balancing of the various needs of all the members (Tittemore, James A, 2003).
- Main Point: The father as the leader of the family should always endeavor to make all the family members feel part of all the undertakings of the family (Montana & Bruce, 2008). In the case of the extended families, while not rubbishing the children’s’ point of view, the adults should gain support from other adults. With this said, everyone in the family deserves to be heard and people can always learn something even from the least in the family.
Conclusion
Summary: The father is bound to ensure that no family members’ interests and priorities dominate those of other family members. A compromise should always be arrived at which aims to bring everyone on board. Regardless of whomever takes the mantle as the head of the home, it is agreeable that it should be for the good of the whole home and not for individual gains.
Impact: The leader of the home should aim at unifying all the members so as to achieve set goals. Having a wide scope of purpose or mission can help the family healthy tremendously.
References
Benokraitis, N. (2007). Marriages & families. 6th edition
Edwards, H.N. (1987). Changing family structure and youthful well-being. Journal of Family Issues 8, 355–372
Montana, Patrick J.; Bruce H. (2008). Management. Hauppauge, New York: Barron's Educational Series, Inc. ISBN 0944740049.
Tittemore, James A. (2003). Leadership at all Levels. Canada: Boskwa Publishing. ISBN 0973291400.
Van Wormer, Katherine S.; Besthorn, Fred H.; Keefe, Thomas (2007). Human Behavior and the Social Environment: Macro Level: Groups, Communities, and Organizations. US: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195187547.
Vroom, Victor H.; Jago, Arthur G. (1988). The New Leadership: Managing Participation in Organizations. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. ISBN 0136150306.
Vroom, Victor H.; Yetton, Phillip W. (1973). Leadership and Decision-Making. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press. ISBN 0822932660.
