Leadership has numerous definitions and dimensions, but I largely view it as the ability of someone to influence other people to willfully and passionately to follow a certain course and achieve some specific objectives. There are several lessons in leadership that can influence me to become a better leader in my professional life. I learned that leaders are not born, but we do make them. To become a good leader, people need to improve themselves and become the best by increasing their ability to be the “best self” (George and Sims, 2010). In this regard, I looked at myself considering that I need to develop self-awareness and skills necessary to influence other people. Moreover, I need to move toward the acceptance of the strengths and weaknesses that I have (Arbinger Institute). I learned from the Book by Steven Covey titled "Seven Habits of Highly effective people."
One of the most prominent lessons is for people to seek to change themselves first. Covey urges people to seek dependence and take care of the self first. They also need to be independent by believing that they can do things, they can be responsible and that they can be self-reliant (Schein). However, this should not lock out interdependence where people do things together than when they are alone. I also learned about the differences between leadership and management and this case I would like to become a better leader rather than a manager. Leadership is about aligning people, setting direction as well as motivating and inspiring people (Jones and Pound). On the other hand, management entails, organizing, staffing, planning, budgeting, controlling and solving problems. I liked the qualities and aspects associated with leadership because they involve lifting people's visions and raising their performance. Leadership, unlike management, is much more transformational and about changing lives and humanity. Leadership enables people to perform at higher levels than they would without such enablement or on their own (Morrison and Ericsson). I consider leadership as having surpassed the roles of management, and that leader can manage, but it is not certain that managers can lead.
As such, I believe in my professional and private life I aspire to become a better leader rather than a manager. I learned that to get respect from other people is an easy thing. There are four cardinal things that I need to do. These are- Treat others as equals, Be a good listener, Learn from people and lastly Sharing life stories. In this regard, I quote Warren Buffet – “genuinely respects others, and they respect him as much for those qualities as for his investment prowess.” (George and Sims 2010). I connected this lesson with that of being authentic leaders because I believe that authentic leaders have also managed to gain respect for themselves and that they have leadership wherever they go. Whenever a leader can get respect from other people, they can use directive or expert styles when needed to get things done, but their primary leadership styles are engaged, coaching, consensus and affiliative. There is a huge lesson on sources of power that I learned. These sources are personal power, the power of knowledge, relational power, and positional power. Personal power refers to who one is regarding their character and integrity. The power of knowledge refers to what one knows while relational power refers to the network of relationships or friends that one knows. Positional power refers to formal authority. However, the most critical power that one needs to master is power over the self. Bill George stated that “the hardest person you will ever have to lead is yourself. Once you have an understanding of your authentic self, you will find that leading others are much easier.” (George and Sims 2010). He added that “Once armed with a high level of self-awareness and self-acceptance, it is much easier to regulate yourself and your feelings.” (George and Sims 2010). I liked the lessons from Bill George, which assert that one needs to follow some cardinal issues such as understanding one's purpose, leading with the heart or commitment to tasks and having a passion for what one does, demonstrating self-discipline and the ability to refrain from some things. People have influences on what one does and how one behaves, and it is also important to establish connected relationships with people who add one value. Bill George also urges people to practice solid values if they are to develop personal power. One of the greatest ways that one can master the self and gain personal power is by understanding their weaknesses and strengths.
There are numerous professional skills that one needs to master. These are developing the communication skills, having attention to details, respecting all people, seeking opportunities to know the self more, taking on challenges, trying to be useful whenever possible and becoming a life-long learner. When I develop the skills necessary for developing personal power, it is like acquiring an asset where I can assert my power in an influential manner to develop the self and also to grow other people and organizations. “Once armed with a high level of self-awareness and self-acceptance, it is much easier to regulate yourself and your feelings.” – Warren Bennis (George and Sims 2010). I take the words by Warren Bennis as the bottom line of what one needs to do to develop personal power and all the other powers which seem to stem from personal power. The fifth and one of the most important things that I learned is the procedure that I will need to go through as I seek to become an executive. The first level is that I need to work and become a highly capable individual, whereby I make productive contributions to knowledge, talent, skills and good work habits. The second level is that of becoming a contributing team member whereby I contribute to the objectives of the group, and I manage to work effectively with other people while in a group setting. The third level ought to be that of a competent manager whereby I develop the capabilities of organizing resources and people towards the efficient and effective pursuit of some predetermined objectives (Morrison and Ericsson).
Once I have developed these competencies, I can comfortably take on the roles of an effective leader. An effective leader catalyzes commitment to the vigorous pursuit of a compelling and clear vision in addition to stimulating the group to achieve high-performance standards. The last level on the journey in leadership, especially in a corporate setting, is that of becoming an executive. In this case, I become one capable of building enduring greatness through some paradoxical combination of personal humility and professional will. The fifth level of leadership is one which gets guided by two things; they are professional will and commitment to excellence.
They also have personal humility and are attentive to small details about something. However, it is the combination of professional will and commitment to excellence that produces the best results and sets true level five leaders in their place. The two aspects help the leaders to show differences in traits, approaches, methods and styles. They emphasize the leader’s commitment to improving systems because they add to the credibility and the authenticity of a given leader. Since I would like to become a great leader in my personal and professional life, I took some time to learn about what each of the two- personal humility and professional will contribute to a person. Personal humility emphasizes one’s authenticity and brings about some compelling modesty and calm determination. Also, personal humility helps leaders to accept responsibility for failure, and they are grateful to other people. I liked these qualities brought about by personal humility.
I believe that personal humility also helps one to learn from other people and become wiser and better since one is not proud and prejudiced on whom s/he associates with and keeps company. It means that one can silently and discreetly observe people of good character or who possess a certain skill and relate to them without having to fall into a bad company that does not value them.
I found out that professional will is also critical if I have to become an effective level 5 leader (Stewart, 2006). Professional will-will help me to maintain focus on my work and get results when I set on a given course. I will also be unwavering in my commitment to the realization of corporate and personal visions. Moreover, I will also manage to set standards of excellence that can be emulated by other people that I lead. It will be critical because many people perform better and excel in those things that they have seen others do rather than those that they get merely instructed. I shall expect my team to follow and live up to the standards of excellence that I shall establish. Also, professional will helps level 5 leaders to create sustainable organizations that are independent of the self. It means that when leaders develop progressively and get to level 5, they will have groomed and sufficiently prepared other leaders below them who can do what the former leaders can do or even more.
In other words, there is sustainability in the leadership of the organization and any leader who leaves the organization for some reason can be
replaced and there is no leadership vacuum. The incoming leaders have the will to do all it takes for them to perform in their roles and steer the organization in the best direction.
The following are five things that I learned about leadership. The first is that leaders are not born, but they get made. The second is that there are clear differences between leadership and management and in this case I would like to become a better leader rather than a manager. The third I learned that to get respect from other people while the fourth was the lesson on the sources of power. The fifth and one of the most important things that I learned is the procedure that I will need to go through as I seek to become an executive. I also learned on some critical issues for effectiveness as a level 5 leader. These were about professional will, personal humility and commitment to excellence. These are the most important issues that set out level 5 leaders as such and help them to achieve great visions for themselves and their organizations.
Leadership in the Early Childhood Setting
There are also several other areas that we need to touch on while taking a cognitive overview on the whole concept of leadership. Leadership is the act of presiding over a group of people who govern themselves with some specific set laws. The laws are to get obeyed and nobody is supposed to go above the law. In the ancient communities, the few individuals vested with the authority to take the leadership of a group of people used to bring together the community in almost all aspects of the society. The leaders do not act to their wisdom alone. They must choose a team of very competent individuals so as to help them rule over the local community. Leadership also narrows down to the Early Childhood Settings. At these preliminary stages, the most important matter of concern is how the leaders can bring up well-nurtured kids. Similarly, the parents are hopeful of magnificent results even if they mostly stay away from the kids. The thesis of this paper will primarily revolve around the leadership issues within the early childhood setting.
Recently, there has been a significant shift of attention towards investing in leadership in the early levels of childhood (Shonkoff et al. 2012). The diverse early childhood setting has an enormous amount of leadership issues. In the real sense, there are several factors to consider when analyzing early childhood leadership skills. Some of the factors that will be subject to discussion include the age of the students, family background, and the teacher’s influence in the student’s lives.
Early Childhood Leadership
Most importantly, we should find the definition of early childhood leadership. For a very long time, leadership in the early years has only been associated with the individual qualities of the leader. There was no much thought that leaders can shape their way up the ladder through the hands of other mentors. Many scholars affirm that the act of leadership cannot fit in the palms of a sole individual. Leadership at the early stages is a collective responsibility among all the stakeholders involved. The nature of the joint efforts towards the realization of the set goals makes the leadership distributed.
If this concept about leadership is true, then our attention has to shift from the whole understanding viewed from the traditional point of view. Surely, leadership has to go beyond the individual training and management skills (Selznick, 2011). It should be teamwork. An exquisite example to use in the case study is the National College for School Leadership in England. The institution is actively involved in promoting and developing a wide variety of opportunities. It has one of its departments dealing with Community Leadership Strategy.
Through this strategy, the organization introduced a national program that dealt with the issues raised by the leaders of a multi-agency early childhood setting. The institution attained a new role in the society. It got branded a new name. The new title was National Professional Qualification in Integrated Center Leadership. It recognizes the idea that early childhood leadership is objective and focuses on a particular item. As the integrated services develop, mixed staffing models continue to dominate as the most magnificent feature of early childhood leadership.
The perception that leadership is for a sole individual permits for the advent of competition for power (North & Weingast, 2009). Power struggles are a breeding ground for corrupt practices and a biased style of leadership. The early childhood style of leadership bases its prediction on collaborative approaches that the traditional approaches do not accept. Most of the early childhood structures of leadership do not have well defined hierarchical systems of governance. Most of the employees in these institutions are women whom the society naturally portrays as caring and loving. They are the fit individuals who can look after the small kids in the kindergartens.
How leadership looks like in the diverse childhood setting
The context of early childhood education is increasingly becoming complex. The changing and expanding roles of early childhood staffs render the traditional ways of managing things rather useless. All the concerned stakeholders must facilitate people and empower them with the capability of initiating and facilitating change. People should not just relax and wait to react to the challenges that present themselves.
The whole world recognizes that good leadership skills are effective tools for cultivating the right type of education to the small kids (Rothwell, 2010). If people do not employ competent teachers in the avenues of early childhood leadership and learning, they will create a loophole that will act as a drawback in the process of learning. The opportunities to create a quality learning environment will, therefore, be minimal. Studies have proved that leadership walks hand in hand with and teaching in influencing the process of learning. They are the only demonstrable ways that one can use to ensure that a student has sharp brilliance.
The Early Childhood Education and Care has a great spirit of seeing that the small kids obtain the best that will be helpful to them in a lifetime. It did an extensive survey of what early childhood leadership resembles. As a result, it developed some paradigms with which the stakeholders can base their arguments when designing good teaching methods. The new developments will help the leaders reflect both personally and with the other colleagues on many important issues. They also comprise of the factors that the paper will use in the analysis of the whole aspect of Early Child Hood Leadership, Some of them are EAC’s resolutions which constitute the discussion below.
One is how they objectively focus on the children’s well-being and the development of the learning process. The other issue of concern is how to address the children's rights effectively. All the students must get honored in all their positive and constructive ways. Thirdly, the leaders must be respectful in trusting, nurturing and ensuring equitable relationship among the students. Also, the students are aware, under the instruction from their tutors, of how they can build good working relationships with their family members and the entire community. Lastly, the leaders must help the kids to create a culture of belonging and most importantly create a community of learners.
In a competitive and profitable business environment, we need top-notch leaders. It is important to take note of the difference between leaders and managers. The normal manager will take a keen interest in checking whether all efforts are directed to meet the company’s objectives. In the case of deviations, the manager strives to correct them. An exquisite leader is not only worried about the profit or loss incurred by the company. A leader deals with encouraging and motivating the employees (Shalley & Gilson, 2004). A good leader is a symbol and embodiment of success. His or her presence in a business premise should give the entire workforce a spirit of the production. Power in the business environment comes as a result of the rewards earned by magnificent leadership styles. As a leader, one might strive to gain personal or institutional power. It would be beneficial if they are transformed to leadership abilities of the good of the company. In a summary, the concept of leadership is a process that starts from the childhood setting.
References
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Rothwell, W. J. (2010). Effective succession planning: Ensuring leadership continuity and building talent from within. AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn.
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Shalley, C. E., & Gilson, L. L. (2004). What leaders need to know: A review of social and contextual factors that can foster or hinder creativity. The Leadership Quarterly, 15(1), 33-53.
Shonkoff, J. P., Garner, A. S., Siegel, B. S., Dobbins, M. I., Earls, M. F., McGuinn, L., & Wood, D. L. (2012). The lifelong effects of early childhood adversity and toxic stress. Pediatrics, 129(1), e232-e246.
Stewart, J. (2006). Transformational leadership: An evolving concept examined through the works of Burns, Bass, Avolio, and Leithwood. Canadian Journal of Educational Administration and Policy, 54, 1-29.
