Gracious Leadership

The Art of Gracious Leadership by David Brooks

The two leaders President Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, who were formerly rivals in the recently finished US election, are analyzed in “The Art of Gracious Leadership” by David Brooks, a New York Times article. Hillary Clinton was merely a seasoned leader, according to this report. President Donald Trump, on the other hand, appeared to lack the necessary experience. Although Hillary Clinton had sufficient leadership experience, according to this report, it appeared that she had not changed as a result of the email controversies. In addition, the newspaper stated that her posture was still deceitful, stone-faced, and even brittle. On the other hand, President Donald Trump has not had a leadership experience in the public life and hence his leadership skills had not been well assessed (Brooks, 2017).

Positive News in Leaders

According to this article if the world is treated as hopeful and friendly place and also as a net of relationship you will look for the positive news in leader rather than the based news. This article furthermore highlights that leaders are more than willing to surrender control so as to gain more strength in the people they lead. Those leaders who are gracious create an environment by greeting all people in the globe openly and also end up maximizing their effectiveness and influence. The article acknowledges that mistakes have to be made what matter is how a leader will get over the mistakes they make the daily basis (Brooks, 2017).

Critique

Leadership has been defined as the ability to shape the behavior of others through influence“ So it involves a process through which the leader influences his followers to follow his ideas to achieve mutual goals (Smythe, & Norton, 2007). To do this, the leader must inspire followers to willingly and enthusiastically perform their duties. A leader shapes the behavior of others through example and talent. He usually does not depend on legitimate formal authority. His power rests on his being accepted by his followers. Leadership differs from management since management is the art of getting people by deciding for them what ought to be done, controlling activities. Organizing activities and even directing them. Managers can force compliance from employees by use of formal authority. A manager need not be liked or accepted by his employees because he has formal power given by his position of authority. Leadership is much narrower than management, but usually, a good manager is usually a good leader.

The Role of Leadership Style

According to this article, the style of leadership that one chooses ultimately affects the results as well as the effectiveness of a leader. An effective style of leadership is in many cases coupled with some forms of external motivation that can in a great way facilitate the achievement of both the individual and organization goal. Leadership is what makes achieve the targeted goals and even objectives. That is why it has been stated that without a visionary and focused leader an institution remains to be a muddle of machines and men; this is because an efficient leader can persuade and inspire other people to increase effort in any institution. Women and men leadership is not quite different, the leadership style that each one uses determines the level of success within the organization and not particularly the gender of the leader. For leaders to be able to sharpen their skills, then training and development should be emphasized.

References

Brooks, D. (2017). Opinion | The Art of Gracious Leadership. Nytimes.com. Retrieved 9 May 2017, from https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/26/opinion/the-art-of-gracious-leadership.html

Smythe, E., & Norton, A. (2007). Thinking as Leadership/Leadership as Thinking. Leadership, 3(1), 65-90. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1742715007073067