A633.1.2.RB – Leadership Gap
According to Boyatzis (2012), leadership
is a relationship between a leader and the follower. Excellent leaders
work very hard in developing their emotional intelligence and have the ability
to make decisions in enhancing a long-term organizational success while preserving
the organization’s financial stability. Good
leaders inspire and create a workplace environment that is supportive of
innovation or creativity and change.
Yukl (2012) described leadership as the process of influencing others to
understand and agree about what and how things are accomplished.
When I met Dr. Trudie Kibbe Reed, the
fifth President of Bethune-Cookman University, I view leaders purely on an
office management capacity. I have not
met a leader like Dr. Reed. As a charismatic and compassionate leader, Dr. Reed
stimulated the enthusiasm and commitment of the faculty, staff, and students of
B-CU. She did this by enunciating the
significance of her vision for the university, its stakeholders, and the
community. Dr. Reed reactivated Dr.
Bethune’s vision of eradicating hopelessness and desolation in pursuit of
education through community outreach programs and civic engagement. Through her firm convictions,
self-confidence, and excellent public-speaking skills, she rallied the faculty,
staff, students and the community to a commitment to excellence, enhancement of
academic excellence, service to humanity and placing others need first before
their own.
Dr. Reed reminded me of my grandmother and
grandfather who owned an abaca and sugar
cane plantation in the Philippines. At
that time, plantation owners, treat their planters and harvesters as members of
a big family. Every member of the family
of their employees works at the Plantation. Then, my mother inherited the business when both
my grandparents died. My mother was not cut-off
to manage the Plantation so, she had her step-brother took over the management of
the abaca and sugar cane plantation. The
plantation flourished, while my mother started her export and import business
where she thrived too. She hired friends that she trusted and of
course reliable, skillful, and capable employees.
When my mother decided to retire, not one of
her children chose to follow her footsteps. All of her five children decided to pursue other careers. My oldest brother became a jeweler, my oldest
sister became an architect then turned realtor.
I turned out to be successful human resources professional in the US. My fourth sister is thrilled to be a healthcare
professional, then our youngest sister, who is residing at Basking Ridge, NJ is
a very successful realtor and Feng shui practitioner. We all grew and had our plans and goals. Life-changing modifications or alterations occur
in our lives that do not only hinder us due to the seriousness of the life-event
but rather provokes astronomical learning and growth. Our memorable life events, however bad or
good, can be a stimulus to enhancing our behaviors.
That was then, and this is
now. In today’s global organizational workplace
environment, we find an apparent gap in the quality of our corporate leaders
and of course in ourselves as leaders. Our
leaders of today and us in particular, identify ourselves with a single leadership
style but within each of us possesses both competing sides that one can be characterized
by polarity that may lead to of significance. For example, as leaders, we quietly embark on pursuing
quests in achieving brilliant things. But
at times, there is an imposter that exist within us who is self-doubting, a silent
character that is a major stimulator of an apparent gap with the quality of our
leadership.
To close the quality of our
leadership gap, we should not compare ourselves to others. We need to accept the fact that we will always
be unique and different from other leaders. We have to celebrate our wins and remind ourselves
constantly how we achieved it. And lastly,
we have to remember that in this world, no one is perfect. Perfectionism will only cause us continual frustration
since perfectionism is not attainable. We
have to learn who we want to be in our professional career. Knowing who we are will measure the level of
our success.
In summary, a great leader is someone
who conditions, selects
and influences a follower or followers with different abilities and skills and
who aligns the follower or followers’ mission and goals to the organization's
goals and mission. A great leader, validates
his/her commitments to the values of a) showing humility, b) displaying mercy
and belief to the actions of his/her follower(s), and c) controlled
discipline. A great leader creates and
sustains peace in the organization – not lack of conflict but a place where peace
grows in the entire duration of a leader-follower relationship (Winston &
Patterson, 2006).
References
Boyatzis, R. (2012). Dr. Richard Boyatzis - Resonant
Leadership - UNC Kenan-Flagler [Video
File). Luana Nascimento Andre.
Retrieved from:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=98&v=qxjNu6kSpKc
Boyatzis, R. & McKee, A. (2005). Resonant
leadership. Boston, MS: Harvard Business School
Publishing.
Yukl, G. (2012), Leadership in the
organization (8th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice
Hall
Winston, B. &
Patterson, K. (2006). An Integrative Definitions
of Leadership.
International
Journal of Leadership Studies. Retrieved from:
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