Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership Essay

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Introduction

In the course of executing my daily duties as the head of human resources in Goldsworthy Corporation limited, I happened to be sitting close to two staff members from my company. Without their knowledge, I could hear their conservation, and they were discussing one of the company’s managers. It was through some extra keenness that I discovered that I was the subject of discussion. Initially, I was dismayed and thought of confronting them. However, upon listening further, I learned that they were saying the good thing about me. In this paper, I incorporate Kouzes and Posner’s five practices of exemplary leadership to discuss my colleagues’ assessment of my leadership knowledge, leadership skills, and general leadership capability.

Colleague assessment of my leadership knowledge

Kouzes and Posner’s five practices of exemplary leadership are themes they discovered, which are frequently used by the world’s great leaders. The five themes or practices include:

Model the way

To assess my colleagues’ remarks on my leadership knowledge, this particular theme explains that a leader should concentrate more on actions than mere talking and get involved in demonstrating their commitment. It is in this concept that I realized that my colleague was right when they claimed that my leadership is founded on setting examples for the rest to learn from or follow towards doing what is expected by the company. In their argument, I heard them talking about the necessity of a knowledgeable leader. I understand from this particular theme that my role as a leader is to set precedent in terms of how the employees in our company should be treated. A good leader should equally know about setting organizational goals and stipulate the steps to be followed to realize such goals. He or she has to focus on short-term goals because in every organization decisions are made in a changing and unstable environment.

Inspire a shared vision

In their discussion about my leadership knowledge, my colleague claimed that the success in my endeavor is geared by the fact that I share my vision with the rest of the stakeholders. From Kouzes and Posner’s five practices of exemplary leadership, I learned that a good leader should have a vision of change and at the same time incorporate the idea of sharing the vision with others. This in particular will give an impression of shared responsibility and a sense of ownership or belonging to the rest of the staff.

Challenge the process

According to Kouzes and Posner’s five practices of exemplary leadership, a successful leader should be flexible and innovative. This will allow such a leader to make changes when called upon to do so. Flexibility will equally enhance the performance of such a leader because he will be ready to be corrected and seek help where need be. In the employees’ discussion, they specifically hinted at my capability to involve the opinion of others in coming up with decisions that will ultimately affect the whole organization. This I gathered from the two is the characteristic that makes me stand out among other managers.

Enable others to act

A successful leader should give a chance to his colleague to participate in the issue at hand. My colleagues commented on my ability to encompass other members into a team. Although not directly mentioned by it was implied in their talk that I share success and disappointment with them. Their comments seemed to fit into Kouzes and Posner’s five practices of exemplary leadership.

Encourage the heart

I particularly had not thought that my tendency to share or encourage few workers on different occasions, whenever they paid me a visit in my office, would be used by some of them as a way of assessing my leadership knowledge. According to Kouzes and Posner’s five practices of exemplary leadership, encouraging the heart is a key or important aspect of leadership. From their context, it is clear that a successful and knowledgeable leader should actually come up with ways of appreciating and similarly celebrating their workforce upon attaining any success on behalf of the company.

Apart from monetary rewards, a good leader should as well incorporate other ways of appreciating success in the workforce. Among the means with which such achievements can be rewarded include; promoting the specific staff, but in case it is a group that has attained the same feat, other means like providing some expensive holiday to them and their families will to a great deal boost the morale within an organization. Such practices encourage the rest of the staff to emulate the successful team.

Colleagues’ assessment of my leadership skills

While most skills are learned in academic institutions, others will have to be earned through experience, which happens to be the period that an individual has spent on a specific task or professional activity (Adair, 1998). Emanating from the discussion of my colleagues on my leadership skills as a human resource manager of Goldsworthy Corporation, there were pertinent issues that were raised about me. Nevertheless, what intrigued me most was their capability to link my skills with the time I have worked for the company. Going by Kouzes and Posner’s five practices of exemplary leadership, one realizes that actually, the claims by my colleagues were deep-rooted truth, though they were merely proposed. The skills of a successful leader are equally analyzed by Kouzes and Posner’s five practices of exemplary leadership.

Model the way

This refers to the practice of a leader setting examples or demonstrating the required skills as per stipulated the organizational set of rules and objectives. In this particular context, a leader is supposed to equip his workforce with the requirement at the right time, to avoid instances of lateness or failure to hit the required deadline caused simple inconveniences. Leadership skills can equally be assessed by the success a leader derives from performing an obligation that had appeared impossible from the conception of other leaders in the same predicament. A leader who possesses good leadership skills will be able to set precedent on the requirements with a lot of easiness, without necessarily relying on assistance. He will be able to perform his duties and give directives to the workers on the necessary course of action.

Inspire a shared vision

From the discussion of my colleagues, they highlighted the essence of possessing and sharing a vision with the rest of the staff. To them my ability to accommodate them in my vision and that of the company, even though they are not in my caliber employment-wise, made them have the feeling that my skills as a manager have enabled me to have such a smooth sail. According to Kouzes and Posner’s five practices of exemplary leadership, I observed that the comment from my colleagues on leadership skills was somehow true, though to some extent it does not necessarily mean that skill and duration of working are directly propositional. A skilled leader will be able to handle his vision toward the company and that of the company and consequently share it with others. Leadership skills will help the leader to come up with viable visions that are attainable with the number of resources, both human and capital that is within the organization’s capability.

Inspiring a shared vision according to Kouzes and Posner’s five practices of exemplary leadership, clearly highlight the impact of leadership skills on the vision of the company. A skilled leader will breathe new life to company visions and make the rest of the workers believe that the visions are attainable and there is hope for a better future, for both the organization and the staff in general. This kind of inspiration is rare where unskilled leaders are involved. In most cases, rather than being a source of encouragement and hope to the rest of the staff, they act to dismantle the little faith left with the staff.

Challenge the process

A skilled leader will normally move out of the comfort zone and take the necessary risks if that is what it will take to break the statures quo (Caroselli, 2000). A skilled leader will not only be flexible in making decisions but also innovative enough to come up with essential groundbreaking ideas that will propel the company to greater heights. From my colleagues’ discussion, I could not automatically believe when they chatted happily about my capability to challenge the process. Upon assessing my colleagues’ comments, I analyzed the whole situation based on Kouzes and Posner’s five practices of exemplary leadership and realized that a skilled leader is supposed to really take risks, putting into consideration that that risk-taking entails doing mistakes and probably incurring losses. A skilled leader should however not be deterred by fear of losing from taking a risk because it is through such an attempt that a good leader is discovered.

Enable others to act

To propel an organization forward, a skilled leader should provide a platform for other stakeholders to encourage unity and harmonize the whole development process. From my colleagues’ discussion, I came to realize the truth and importance of giving workers a podium to express their views and state what impact they can have on a major organization’s operation, once they are equally given a chance to offer their services diligently. This message is echoed by Kouzes and Posner (2000) in their five practices of exemplary leadership. In their themes, and mostly on enabling others to act, they observe that skilled leaders should foster teamwork and assist in building team spirit. This is because teamwork greatly encourages unity in an organization. Through teamwork, Kouzes and Posner (2000) urge that the mutual respect established in the course of teamwork facilitates or leads to a conducive working atmosphere characterized by trust and respect for others, which is critical for successful operations in an organization.

Encourage the heart

For any individual to accomplish an extraordinary feat in an organization, a lot of hard work and sacrifices are put in place. To keep hope and determination alive, a skilled leader should celebrate and appreciate individuals who have achieved such feats. According to Kouzes and Posner’s five practices of exemplary leadership, teamwork in an organization is very critical and thus there is a need to reward group achievements; such rewards should be shared equitably by the involved parties.

Colleague’s assessments of my leadership disposition

The nature of my leadership, based on the good things my colleagues said about me, is servant leadership. What facilitated their remarks on my leadership disposition can only be understood from the kind of relationship I have had with them. Reflecting on Kouzes and Posner’s five practices of exemplary leadership, while trying to analyze the colleagues’ assessment of my leadership quality, it is clear that servant leadership is the way to go.

Model the way

From the above theme, the concept of letting others learn from what I do will qualify the view that my kind of leadership style is servant leadership. By servant leadership, I mean a nature of leadership that entails the practices of offering the services or example to the workers (Kouzes &Posner, 2000). The workers will then emulate the precedent set and from there it will become a norm in the organization.

Inspire a shared vision

Similarly, I realize that to deal with the rest of the staff constructively, a proper organizational structure has to be set up. Literally, from this theme, my role is to inspire other members of the staff to remain confident and hopeful that the organization’s dreams are realizable. By choosing to encourage the rest and at the same time breathe new life into their hopes, the rest of the human resource can look up to my support and directive even when they have stopped believing in themselves. In the process, the nature of my leadership will be heightened as that of servant leadership.

Challenge the process

By challenging the process, an individual will have to be convinced or hopeful that his faith in what he is about to do will work. This specific theme outlines the type of leadership an individual has because unlike the rest of the themes, this particular theme encompasses the actual leadership nature of the involved leader. Apart from the fact that the theme entails a lot of sacrifice and risk-taking, I usually took the risk because I realized that failure to respond or challenge the process would not achieve much in itself. From my colleague’s point of view, my leadership style is servant leadership because even when left with sinister decisions to make I am not afraid of trying the untried. I explore and dare to try out new frontiers because am sure that many achievements are hidden in the untried. From this example, the rest of the human recourses are not also afraid to challenge process or explore and embrace new processes.

Enable others to act

The issue of denying the rest of the stakeholders a chance to participate in operations involving the organization makes them feel like outsiders. It is through trying to enable others to act where they are required, that my colleagues were convinced that my brand of leadership style is servant leadership.

Encourage the heart

Only a person who is determined to excel will be willing to make others prosper. Successful people or leaders know that one cannot achieve all on his/her own; success is to get work done through others. It is through encouraging others to achieve their goals that a manager can equally attain personal goals. Transferring a similar mentality in an organization has done the trick. It is the intent and effort to encourage others towards such a mentality that led my colleagues into rating me fairly.

Areas for improvement

Planning Skills

One of the areas I would wish to improve is planning skills. Though I have not faced any threatening challenge in the area, I believe a leader who is endowed with good planning skills will not only be effective but also efficient in most of his undertakings. As noted by Caroselli (2000), most world-renowned leaders have exemplary planning capability. I feel the urge to work more towards enhancing the development and growth of my planning skills. I highly believe that I can attain this by simply enrolling myself in a management class from where I can derive theoretical knowledge, which can be converted into tangible planning skills through practice.

Courage

The other significant leadership quality I wish to improve or acquire is courage. I believe that a successful leader is endowed with the courage to try the untried. It is courage and related qualities that a manager can find enough anchor within oneself towards making a major decision. Courageous decisions are often groundbreaking decisions that propel an organization to the greatest level possible. Through continuous efforts, I know that it may not take long before I achieve or manage to become courageous enough.

Conclusion

Leadership is an art that has undergone a lot of transformation from time immemorial. From the ancient hierarchical settings, leadership has experienced a big revolution in several ways. Currently, leadership is no longer viewed as dictatorial, aristocratic, or elitist as it used to be. Many scholars have facilitated the transition in the revolution. Many types of research and uncountable studies have been carried out to improve leadership. Kouzes and Posner’s five practices of exemplary leadership are such a contribution i.e. they were based on research and aim at providing a framework, which can be applied in evaluating the conduct leaders. From the self-assessment based on the five practices, I agree with my colleagues’ assessment of my leadership capability. I also acknowledge that there are areas where improvements are necessary.

Reference list

Adair, J. (1998). Leadership skills. London: CIPD Publishing.

Caroselli, M, (2000). Leadership Skills for Managers. New York: McGraw-Hill Publishers.

Kouzes, J. M. & Posner, B. Z. (2000). The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership: when Leaders are at their Best. Pennsylvania: Jossey-Bass Publishers.

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