IndexThe leadership oxymoronConclusionWorks citedLeadership is the power or ability to lead other people, the act or instance of leading. I believe that leadership is an art, the art of convincing others to follow and achieve a common goal or task in a harmonious way. A leader can be shown in all kinds of shapes and forms. To be a great leader, many people believe it means modeling the way, inspiring a shared vision, empowering others to take action, and encouraging the heart. Throughout my studies on how to become a better leader and take on leadership roles, I have learned that all of these are extremely necessary to be a great leader. A significant part of effective leadership is the close connection between leader and follower, which often determines the success of the leader's mission. Unfortunately, this leader-follower relationship cannot be created according to a simple formula. Without inspiration, involvement and encouragement from both participants, the relationship suffers. Leaders, in particular, must make an extra effort to reach out to their followers in order to initiate and develop this alliance that is so fundamental to achieving goals. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay In my personal experience, I have found profound utility and effectiveness in authentic leadership. This is a leadership style that encompasses the personality and core values ​​of leaders, including honesty, ethics and practicality. An authentic leader is more interested in empowering employees and making the most of their potential, rather than money or personal power. Authentic leaders draw inspiration from their own lives. A great example of this is my leadership interview with Patricia Chan, my previous high school teacher. She has inspired me and others to succeed in her classroom by drawing on life experiences and sharing with us what she has learned along the way. The feeling of genuineness and the inner desire to guide others on the right path is what impressed me the most. In the following article, I will identify and reflect on several themes that have been raised in our leadership studies. Additionally, I will develop my own leadership philosophy. I will try to delve deeper into topics such as my personal vision for the future, how I am achieving it and what the process will be like. Hopefully, by the end of the paper, I will shed light on the areas of leadership that I am not comfortable with and need to practice and the areas of leadership that I excel at and can replicate in the real world work environment . The LeadershipAs oxymoron Warren Bennis said it best: “no leader sets out to be a leader.” Individuals are not born into leadership. The presidents, CEOs, and executives of the world were not brought into this world with the knowledge that they would be leaders of enormous numbers of people. This burden was placed on them because they exhibited leadership traits by being themselves. The individual traits they possess have been nurtured and fine-tuned to become a person capable of managing thousands of employees' working lives. For some this may come naturally, but for most it is a skill that has been worked on over the years. The full quote from Warren Bennis is as follows: “No leader sets out to be a leader. People begin to live their lives, expressing themselves fully. When that expression has value, they become leaders. So the point is not to become a leader. The point is to become yourself, to use yourselfcompletely – all your abilities, gifts and energies – to make your vision manifest. You don't have to hold anything back. You must, in summary, become the person you have begun to be and enjoy the process of becoming." This quote really resonated with me and shed light on a perspective of leadership that I had not considered in the past. Before I had the mentality that leaders are born and raised. That the world's top leaders were given these skills intrinsically by chance and over the years they understood these characteristics and used them effectively. However, this has a different side Bennis does a fantastic job of painting a picture that leadership comes from within. Not so much by luck, but by being an individual person. By culminating the total of your skills, gifts and energies, you can create a leadership style individual Of course, it will borrow ideas from different leadership theories. Whether it is transformational leadership or adaptive leadership, the style someone can bring to the table always has a personal touch. The idea that leaders are not born to be leaders took me some time to digest. Of course, in any case, it is natural that when you are taught a different light or a different point of view, you hesitate to reject your original thoughts. I was reluctant to dismiss the idea that the world's top leaders didn't have some luck because of how they were born and the values ​​that were instilled in them. However, I soon realized that this way of thinking is incorrect. Warren Bennis' quote inspired me to think in a different light. The Elon Musks and Steve Jobs of the world are inherently very intelligent and have a natural intrinsic motivation in them that instills a desire to succeed at a high level. However, that's not to say that these people aren't incredibly worthy of their praise and recognition. The constant retooling, the dedication to learning to lead, and the hours and hours spent perfecting their craft and overcoming failures make me believe that these people have worked on their leadership skills to an immense level to get to where they currently are. A fantastic example of this is a quote from Elon Musk himself. An anonymous Tesla employee was recalling an email Elon sent him after he skipped a work event to attend the birth of his son. The email said: “This is not an excuse. I am extremely disappointed. You need to understand what your priorities are. We are changing the world and changing history, and you either commit or you don't." When your leader places such high priorities on the organization and even goes so far as to say that the birth of your child is no excuse to miss important work events, then you will know the leadership style it is producing. This demonstrates Elon's intense and passionate vision for the organization and he expects all of his employees to have the same level and desire to succeed as he does. The fact that he makes this known is a positive aspect as it allows any candidate interested in a position at Tesla to understand the mental capacity required. This is an example of a leader who took on the role not from birth, but from experience and continuous failures. This failure and drive to succeed made him the person he is today. This all ties into the Warren Bennis quote because it gives insight into what Warren was trying to convey. Elon Musk is one of a kind. He lives his life as he sees fit and doesn't try to be anyone but himself. The skills, gifts and energies he possesses that make him the individual he is also make him the exceptional leader he is. This is the point ofWarren quote. As such, this is why I titled this piece “The Oxymoron of Leadership.” When people think about leadership, they always refer to the process of “becoming” a leader. You can look at online databases and read hundreds of articles that try to explain how to become a leader, as if they were a different entity than you. Leadership and being yourself are not exclusive, they both work together very synergistically. Ever since I got my first job as a cashier and clerk at Tim Hortons, I have always been intrigued by management's good showings. However, over the years since then, I have always been disappointed by the lack of effective leadership displayed in the work environments I have been involved with. In almost every industry and company I have worked with, I immediately noticed gaps in leadership skills in managers and lack of attention from top management. With these entry-level jobs, I was primarily involved in customer service and customer-facing positions. Even though these positions are entry-level and have a low skill barrier to entry, they are still extremely important to organizations. I couldn't believe how some organizations don't realize that these lower level jobs are actually the face of your organization. When you walk through the doors, these people working at the front desk are the first faces you see and the ones that stick with you as the face of the company. There needs to be an extreme level of care given to these customer-facing employees as they are essentially the only ones who come into contact with your customers. By implementing a level of management that takes into account different leadership methods and ensuring that employees are given a path to follow, you will not only demonstrate that assistance is provided to lower level employees, but you will also identify that these positions are important to the company's reputation. 'agency. My vision in terms of leadership philosophies is that all entry-level employees have experience with authentic leadership and leadership that understands their abilities and does so in a way that makes them feel valued. I'm lucky in the sense that I have the language skills and experience to move through these positions, but others aren't so lucky. Immigrants and people new to the country who struggle with their native language and have no work experience in Canada are stuck in these low-paying, low-morale jobs. Even if they have qualifications abroad, sometimes they are not transferred to give them any advantage here. In a perfect world, all companies would recognize the value that comes from effective leadership. In a more personal sense, my vision would be to understand the values ​​and characteristics that I have learned from both authentic leadership and transformational leadership in future professional roles. I am excited for future leadership positions because I feel that the knowledge I can gain from this course will be extremely helpful in showing my followers what an effective leader is capable of. As Northouse said, “There are as many different definitions of leadership as there are people who have tried to define it. It is very similar to the words democracy, love and peace. Although each of us intuitively knows what we mean by such words, the words can have different meanings for different people.” This ties in strongly to the Warren Bennis quote and the individualization people have towards leadership. I'm excited to bring my vision of authentic leadership to teams who look to me as a leader. The tools and ideas that the course taught me along the waythey will coincide with my intrinsic motivation to inspire others with my leadership. My vision is to bring my passion for authentic leadership and inspire others with its methodology. My path to making this vision manifest actually goes through my work environment and secondarily, my personal environment as well. I believe that the skills learned throughout the entire course are not only applicable at work, but also at home or in personal life. Being a leader isn't just about hitting the bottom line and keeping employees productive. This can be leading a family, being a leader for children, or even managing expectations for your children. As a leader, my personal philosophy on leadership includes a few other points as well. First, I believe your title makes you a manager, but your people will decide whether you are a leader. Leadership is not only the task of inspiring people's potential, but also the recognition that their potential exists. Therefore, the attributes I aspire to model every day include integrity, transparency, and humility. As a leader, I will always say what I mean and mean what I say. Ultimately, my words and actions should be synonymous with each other. With humility, I will seek to learn from others, treat every success and failure as a learning opportunity, and strive to be a better leader and person every day. On the other hand, there would also be expectations from my team members. To be an effective leader, you need people by your side who are willing to work for you and give you 100%. As I said before, as a leader, I will try to be a better person day by day as each day brings new lessons. Therefore, I expect my team members or followers to be similar and aspire to be the best version of themselves. People who are true to themselves and play to their strengths are invaluable. Likewise, it's important to be aware of opportunities to improve a skill or learn something new. Being adaptable, committed and responsible are all follower characteristics that would allow me to bring my vision to life. The following “SMART” list is my action plan to achieve this vision: S: The specific area I am aiming to improve is my interpersonal skills. I believe I possess a wide variety of skills appropriate for the job, but improving empathy and transparency with others would benefit me with authentic leadership.M: Measure my success with employees in the workplace by tracking their progress since I started riding them when I stopped. If they are not at the level I want them to be in terms of replicating authentic behavioral values ​​(transparency, honesty, ethics, self-awareness), then I have failed in my calculations. A: Obtainable through an upcoming promotion at my current job level. With this promotion I will have increased responsibilities towards other employees and will have duties that involve leading a small group of customer service representatives. A: Realistic because I see behavior with current customer service representatives that doesn't lead by example. These are employees who do not have an authoritative figure to look up to as a leader. They need guidance and I believe I can step in and guide them through a vision that best suits the organization. T: Time limited as I am giving myself a maximum of one year to be put in a position where I can realize this vision. If by then I wasn't given enough responsibility in the workplace to bring this vision to fruition, then I would attempt to focus on authentic leadership through my personal life.Over the course of the summer, I learned through Northouse's textbook and Rowe's cases the importance of different leadership styles. For example, we started the semester learning about the trait approach. Northouse states that “an individual does not become a leader just because he possesses certain characteristics. Rather, the characteristics that leaders possess must be relevant to the situations in which the leader finds himself operating." This goes back to my idea that leaders are “born and raised,” which was a thinking error. On the other hand this approach is a different thinking style which is called competency approach. The competency approach adopts a leader-centered leadership perspective. This is a leadership style that I have difficulty relating to, as I believe that leaders should not be the focus of the organization. However, this approach suggests that three basic personal skills are needed for effective administration: technical skills, human skills and conceptual skills. In my personal experience, I have noticed that lower managers and supervisors possess technical skills for the job. However, they are extremely lacking in human resources and conceptual skills. I would rank the latter two more important than technical skills as they are more intrinsically linked to your personal values ​​and emotional capabilities. Technical skills are teachable, human and conceptual skills are a little more difficult. “Since the industrial revolution, managers have tended to view people as tools, while organizations have viewed workers as cogs in a machine. In recent decades we have seen a shift in this long-held view. In countless for-profit and nonprofit organizations today we see traditional, autocratic, hierarchical modes of leadership yielding to a different way of working: one based on teamwork and community, one that seeks to involve others in decision-making , one that is strongly based on ethical and caring behavior and that seeks to enhance people's personal growth while improving the care and quality of our many institutions. “The following quote from the Journal of Business Strategy shows that views on leadership styles are changing. In the past, managers did not tend to inspire employees and viewed them as “cogs in a machine.” The new era has arrived and employees must feel empowered. It seems that a handful of organizations are stuck in the ways of previous generations and have not adapted to leadership styles that include teamwork and community. This may be due to the fact that these companies are still owned and operated by the same people as several years ago. It is difficult to change the mindset of older generations who see their company today and notice their success. The thinking is this: If I've done things the way I do over the years and my company has been this successful, why should I change it now? This lack of adaptation is what keeps leadership in companies at a standstill. I am focusing heavily on authentic leadership for both this course document and my vision of leadership philosophy. Throughout my high school and post-secondary career, I have found myself gravitating toward professors who lead with purpose. Professors who are not only experts in the field to which the course relates, but are also passionate about transmitting this knowledge. “Authentic leaders are critical in creating a climate that encourages diversity and inclusion. Authentic leaders are strong role models whose behaviors and actions indicate appropriate and expected conduct..