Hillary Rodham Clinton: Effective Leadership Practices Essay

The definition of leadership according to Hillary Rodham Clinton

Hillary Rodham Clinton defines leadership as getting out, listening and learning from the followers. When she was vying for the senate, she stated that she was eagerly waiting to listen to her followers in New York in order to hear directly the issues that affected their families.

Hillary Clinton believes in transformational leadership. She made use of her listening tour in order understand her constituents. She understands the needs of her followers, persistently using listening in order to refine and reshape her vision and in articulating her visions. In addition, Hillary Rodham Clinton embodies the leadership listening model. When Hillary Rodham Clinton was a member of the Senate, she gained considerable respect as well as recognition because of her public leadership. Her great leadership skills made her to grow politically in a manner that made her to be the Democratic presidential candidate in the year 2008. Clinton leads through listening.

Why I chose Hillary Rodham Clinton

I chose Hillary Rodham Clinton because of several reasons. It should be noted that Hillary Clinton is probably one of the most influential and powerful women globally. First, her workhorse habits made me to choose her. She is always determined in following her agenda besides being a highly aggressive fighter. On the same note, she is a leader who is warm and friendly. Clinton has highly been respected by numerous people for many years. Through her determination, hard work and luck, she has achieved much as a leader, prompting me to chose her.

I greatly admire her leadership styles and traits. Additionally, I chose Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton due to her appeal and strength. She also has political sensibilities. On the same note, her sharp intelligence played a major role in making me to choose her. In addition, she is highly persistent and diligence and always makes sure that goals are achieved. Besides, she is always persistent when in the times of adversity. These together with others are some of the reasons why I chose Hillary Rodham Clinton.

The background of Hillary Rodham Clinton

Hillary Rodham Clinton was the eldest child to a factory worker who was initially a U.S. Marine drill instructor. From available information, her father used to confront them. She is a devoted Methodist, and in her teenage stages, she was very active in the church. This played a major role in shaping her leadership traits. She was one of the supporters of Goldwater, which was famously known as Goldwater Girls when she was in high school. In addition, she was the President of the Young Republicans when she was at Wellesley College. This also played critical roles in shaping her leadership skills.

How Hillary Clinton model the way

Hillary Clinton is capable of leading effectively in environments that are highly unstable. On the same note, Hillary Rodham Clinton’s capacity as well as strength to enhance her style of leadership leaves behind several impressions. She has commanded respect from a number of individuals for several years due to her leadership traits.

How Hillary Clinton inspires a shared vision

The major personality strength of Hillary Clinton as a leader is her clear-eyed vision, her commanding power, her unwavering confidence, as well as her meticulous pursuit of missions. This makes her to inspire her followers easily.

Hillary Rodham Clinton is also an effective communicator and works very well with other individuals in order to identify goals, which she accomplishes effectively. Bennis and Thomas (2003) state that a leader should be an individual who can articulate a vision and gets other individuals to follow the articulated vision. Bennis and Thomas (2003) further invented a model of leadership capabilities: adaptive ability; engaging others through the creation of shared meaning; integrity and voice. According to them, leadership characteristics are capable of supporting and defining all sort of leaders in our time.

How Hillary Clinton challenges the process

Hillary Rodham Clinton challenges the leadership process by insinuating that all leaders ought to be understanding. She believes in leadership that is founded on listening to the followers.

How Hillary Clinton enable others to act

Hillary Rodham Clinton uses a number of ways to make her followers to act. For instance, she uses her networks. Hillary Rodham Clinton can easily cope up with situations regardless of how hard they may be. In addition, she is indeed a perfect model of a great leader that should be emulated by other individuals who wants to be great leaders in our time (Hackman & Johnson, 2000).

How Hillary Clinton encourage the heart

Hillary Clinton encourages the heart through giving ear to her followers. She leads by listening. In addition, she believes in transformational leadership. A leader should understand her followers and should always strive to make sure that the followers are encouraged. Hillary Rodham Clinton has embraced this and that is why she commands respect from numerous individuals (Harpaz, 2001).

Clinton has fantastic supple qualities, which are reinforced by an absurd preserve of energy. She is persistent, strong willed and has sheer determination. In addition, she is viewed as a leader who cannot avoid things that are deemed important to her.

Over the years, Hillary Clinton has developed commendable ability to face difficulty head on. Although she may experience hindrances, she always bounces back. In addition, she has a robust record of accomplishment for being positive as well as optimistic. On the same note, she operates with a sense of intention and purpose when facing highly difficult times. Hillary Clinton is highly resilient (Bennis & Thomas, 2003).

In addition, Hillary Clinton is capable of carry out very huge undertakings and responsibilities without fearing any form of failure. She also wields power easily.

Challenges and opportunities faced by Hilary Clinton

The main weakness of Hillary Clinton is her comparative lack of collegiality or congeniality. In addition, she is uncompromisingly assertive.

Hillary Clinton always finds it very hard to express herself with openness and freely. Besides, Hillary Clinton always like to “have fun”, at the expense of being spontaneous and light-hearted.

Besides the challenges, Hillary Clinton lacks accountability. In addition, externalization of blame is one of the major challenges that faces her. Hillary Clinton’s inclination and combativeness to nail down those who oppose her is also her major undoing. Besides, she is tough and lacks empathy. Clinton is also shy and in a number of cases, she likes being herself. She tends to control the relationship she has with other individuals by only associating with like-minded individuals.

In conclusion, Hillary Rodham Clinton exemplifies true leadership that should be employed by those who wants to be great leaders in our time. She is commands respect because of her style of leadership: leading by understanding.

References

Bennis, W.G. & Thomas, R.J. (2003). The alchemy of leadership. Leadership, 3, 14-17.

Harpaz, B.J. (2001). The Girls in the van. New York: St. Martin’s.

Hackman, M.Z. & Johnson, C.E. (2000). Leadership: A communication perspective. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland.