The Role of Leadership in Organizations

There is a small gap between a manager and a leader. A leader is an individual who can lead a particular group of people while a manager is one who is in the position of managing a business or people and with the responsibility or authority to direct and look over the other employees. Winston & Patterson (2006) assert that a competent manager must also possess some quality leadership skills as they need to be able to manage their teams in a manner that they can achieve or even exceed their organizational goals. This does not imply that leadership directly falls with an organization’s manager, but instead, this means that a manager is also a leader in one way or the other. If an individual needs to be an effective and a successful follower, he/she must learn to share new ideas with the other members of the group. Additionally, a leader needs to listen to the team members and the leader must ensure that he/she understands the needs and requirements of the team members. Effective leadership can only be exemplified by both the leaders and the followers as Baker (2014) argues that effective leadership is teamwork.

In any organizational setting, leadership should be a process that involves sharing knowledge, understanding, skills and even experience. A leader cannot figure out all the happenings within the organization on his own; the team members also need to step in for organization’s or an institution’s success. Baker (2014) conveys that the definition of leadership is a two-way process as it involves the relationship between leaders and followers. Therefore, understanding the significance of such a relationship sufficiently influences the formation of good leadership and also good followers. As a result, it can be argued that the relationship between leaders and managers is mutual as leaders cannot work without the managers and similarly, it is quite challenging for the managers to perform organizational activities without the leaders.

I am interested in the sharing of my leadership styles and qualities. I have a passion for challenges, and as a result, I enjoy the challenge that comes about when one is a leader. Since I was young, I have always found sharing leadership to be quite an exciting experience. In all the organizations and institutions that I have attended, I have always strived to hold a leadership position as it is only through leading that I can get a platform to share my leadership. I also have an understanding that to be a good leader; one must always influence his/her followers since Winston & Patterson (2006) argue that not all followers are “yes people” who follow their leaders blindly but instead, some followers end up questioning the integrity of their leader.

College students can quickly develop their leadership skills through a college course or courses. Just as an entrepreneurship skill which is studied as a course in most colleges to enable students to develop entrepreneurial skills; leadership skills can also be introduced in these schools as a course. Additionally, most college students usually understand their career path, and this will make them comprehend a course on leadership easily.

Due to the diversity of leadership, a good leader in a given field within an organization usually turns out to be an active leader in another different field. For instance, a nurse leader may turn out quite useful in an educational facility as the leadership skills of this given leader does not need to change with the change in the environment.

References

Baker, E. L. (2014). Leadership and management—guiding principles, best practices, and core attributes. Journal of Public Health Management and Practice, 20(3), 356-357.

Winston, B. E., & Patterson, K. (2006). An integrative definition of leadership. International journal of leadership studies, 1(2), 6-66.