CTF005 Principles of Leadership Assignment
CTF005 Principles of Leadership Assignment - Essay Everything Rises and Falls on Leadership
Student I.D.:
Module No.:
Submission Date: 31st March 2022
Introduction
Leadership is necessary for any context, as it is an essential management function, which can help the organisation make effective use of its capabilities and enhance work productivity. Furthermore, leadership can also be termed as the behavioural attitude of an individual that influences all the other individuals in coordinating their actions towards a shared goal. On the other hand, leadership can also be defined as the requirement of a firm for dealing with challenges that organisations within the consistently emerging world (Van Wart et al., 2019; Northouse, 2019; Malinga et al., 2019)
The study aims at providing a constructive essay in agreement with the context of ‘Everything rises and falls under leadership’, claimed by John Maxwell. Through this study, PEEL will be used to select five such points by this context and make a critical analysis of them.
Main points
Point 1
P: First of all, leaders have strong responsibility as they are always willing to take charge of their actions and not shrink on their decisions. It is because leaders tend to make decisions, which are solely aimed at improving the sustainability of the people, organisation, or society.
E: For example, Unilever’s CEO, Alan Jope, had been doing a responsible business throughout these years by focusing on the needs of both internal and external stakeholders of their business. The leader, Alan Jope, is highly focused on establishing sustainability within the business by maintaining core ethics (Unilever, 2022). According to Anderson (2017), transformational leadership is the one where the leader focuses on providing inspiration to its followers and take responsibility for bringing a needed change in the social system. In a similar aspect, Kotamena et al. (2020) mentioned that such leaders rely more on communication and the formation of the strong relationship that, in turn, will help in noticing all the needed changes within the social setting.
E: This shows that leaders are always forward in taking full responsibility for the overall work presented by the followers for enhancing the efficiency of work. Hence, it can be stated that responsible behaviour relates to the behavioural attribute, where an individual considers themselves genuinely accountable for both positive and negative outcomes. Being a leader, I have also been very keen on taking responsibility for others and wanted to do good for everyone else, including myself.
L: From this, we can conclude that responsible leaders impose a strong sense of integrity, which enables the social system to drive towards progress.
Point 2
P: Another crucial point to consider is that they have a sense of strategic thinking and follows the paradox of gathering more followers for its implementation. Effective execution of the creative or strategic mindset could also relate to a good cause, which is for everybody’s betterment.
E: This is illustrated by Richard Branson, who had become the business tycoon and philanthropist by owning Virgin Group. As per Amyx (2018), there was always an entrepreneurial streak in the man and always thought of making money for his own as well as everybody's welfare. Being a struggling teenager had caused him to become a serial philanthropist and imply strategic thinking to solve major issues within the world (Schawbel, 2017). Such an approach is generally implied through servant leadership. In this theory, leaders are always concerned with the well-being of their followers and empathise and empower them (Northouse, 2019).
E: This means that strategic thinking is directly linked with the empathetic and empowering nature of leaders. With the help of such a thought process, leaders can gain abilities in how to learn and reason with the social setting for making decisions. Based on my own experience, I can say that having a strategic mindset along to do good for others, had helped me in earning my follower's trust.
L: In conclusion, it can be stated that leaders having a strategic mind ensures the benefit of the overall population and also encourages coordinated bonding between individuals.
Point 3
P: It is quite obvious that one of the key roles of a leader is to motivate others to fight for the same cause. This encourages individuals to show their full potential and thrive for achieving common goals.
E: This can be seen within the theoretical context of path-goal leadership, followed by Steve Rowe, CEO of Marks & Spencer (M&S). With the vision of Steve Rowe, the organisation aimed at establishing sustainability within their fashion by doing responsible sourcing and finishing. With the notions of path-goal theory, leaders are the one that helps their followers to choose the best path for achieving goals (M&S, 2022; Vieira et al., 2018). A situational approach is implied by such leaders to inspire others in adapting to the necessary changes, which are imposed by the environmental setting. In the case of M&S, the leader wanted to create a fashion sense, which does not threaten the environmental climate. Hence, he motivated its followers to achieve this shared goal by changing ways of raw material sourcing through initiatives like Better Cotton and Oxfam shopping schemes (M&S, 2022).
E: Because of this, leaders involve themselves in motivating individuals through their own experiences. Through my experience, I can say that fighting for a common goal helps individuals to experience the benefit of teamwork and effective communication.
L: From this, we can conclude that inspiring others can help people to develop and further encourage their activities to foster a positive relationship.
Point 4
P: Another point to consider is that leadership comes with an ethical mindset, through which they focus on making decisions for all the different people within a social setting.
E: Data shows that leaders, demonstrating the nature of prioritising personal actions and interpersonal relations, are essential for the creation of inclusivity in society (Tenuto and Gardiner, 2018). With regards to leadership, ethics seemed to be more concerned about who the leaders are and what they do. The theoretical concept of ethical leadership is more concerned with a consistent and justified decision-making process by following the code of profession (Northouse, 2019; Tenuto and Gardiner, 2018). In the case of Boris Johnson, he wanted to implement ethics within his leadership by encouraging people to maintain certain workplace culture. However, he failed to maintain his ethics as he was unable to justify his actions to the public, leading to frenzied criticism (Jessica Taylor, 2022).
E: Therefore, it can be stated that potential leaders are always bounded by ethics and are required to respond to given circumstances by using moral development. According to my personal experience, ethics help leaders to do think about moral good rather than tangible gains from leadership.
L: Henceforth, it can be concluded that the choices of leaders are always influenced by ethical constructs like virtuousness, leading them to become morally decent individuals within the society.
Point 5
P: Another point to be noted is that leadership has the quality of thinking about bringing something new, which is still not present in the formative phase of development.
E: This is depicted by Andy Jassy, CEO of Amazon, through his style of authentic leadership in grabbing the recent digital market within global nations. He always aimed in becoming the first customer-centric company around the world by enhancing customer experience using modern technologies. This is a great example for an authentic leader, who wants to explore new research areas within leadership, which are real and genuine (Amazon, 2018; Northouse, 2019).
E: Because of this, leaders tend to consider more of their intrapersonal perceptions and think closely through self-knowledge and concept. Through my experience, I can claim that authenticity within leadership creates a relational outline between leaders and their followers.
L: We can therefore see that positive psychological constructs along with balanced processing are essential for gaining relational transparency within leadership.
Counter Argument
Point 6
P: However, others might argue that leaders can also become egocentric or ignorant towards their followers.
E: This can be seen in the case of certain negative leadership styles like egoistic or destructive leaders. Burns (2017) demonstrated that destructive leaders tend to show acts of physical force through passive acts like a failure of protecting followers' welfare or sabotaging the firm's goals. Elizabeth Holmes can be considered as an example, who failed to maintain the organisational image of Theranos due to the imposed criminal fraud charges imposed on her (Forbes, 2018).
E: This shows that instead of fighting for the people, leaders can also take a legitimate interest in the firm's brand image and vandalise it through illegal means.
L: From this, it can be concluded that leaders can also become egoistic because of their position, which, in turn, could lead to their failure to protect the organisation or the social setting.
Conclusion
Based on the overall analysis, it can be concluded that leadership is a strong character that sets the limit for an organisation or social setting to grow. Hence, it is true that everything rises and falls with leadership. The first point considers the responsible nature of a leader by considering their role in focusing on sustainability. The example of Alan Jope was analysed in his way of doing responsible business along with the theory of transformational leadership. Strategic thinking is another point that leaders tend to follow to increase their follower level for fighting for a common cause. In this case, Richard Branson was studied through using servant leadership theory. Another major function of leaders is to motivate, which was shown by using the evidence of Steve Rowe using path-goal theory. For discussing the ethical mindset of leaders, Boris Johnson had been examined, whereas, the leadership quality of bringing something new was analysed through Andy Jassy. However, a counterargument was also imposed demonstrating the egoistic nature of leaders through the example of Elizabeth Holmes.
References
Amazon, 2018. Our mission [online] Available at: https://www.aboutamazon.co.uk/news/job-creation-and-investment/our-mission [Accessed: 10 March 2022].
Amyx, S., 2018. Story of Strive: The Inspiring Journey of Richard Branson [online] Available at: https://medium.com/@ScottAmyx/story-of-strive-the-inspiring-journey-of-richard-branson-27ceb651f4d1 [Accessed: 10 March 2022].
Anderson, M., 2017. Transformational leadership in education: A review of existing literature. International Social Science Review, 93(1), pp.1-13.
Burns Jr, W.A., 2017. A Descriptive Literature Review of Harmful Leadership Styles: Definitions, Commonalities, Measurements, Negative Impacts, and Ways to Improve These Harmful Leadership Styles. Creighton Journal of Interdisciplinary Leadership, 3(1), pp.33-52.
Forbes, 2018. What Leadership Lessons Can We Learn From Theranos's Downfall? [online] Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2018/11/15/what-leadership-lessons-can-we-learn-from-theranoss-downfall/?sh=3cef1b93d3b1 [Accessed: 10 March 2022].
Jessica, T., 2022. Boris Johnson pledges to ‘fix’ Downing Street after partygate – but this is a failure of his leadership [online] Available at: https://theconversation.com/boris-johnson-pledges-to-fix-downing-street-after-partygate-but-this-is-a-failure-of-his-leadership-176169 [Accessed: 10 March 2022].
Kotamena, F., Senjaya, P. and Prasetya, A.B., 2020. A Literature Review: Is Transformational Leadership Elitist and Antidemocratic?. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SOCIAL, POLICY AND LAW, 1(1), pp.36-43.
M&S, 20222. OUR APPROACH TO SUSTAINABLE FASHION [online] Available at: https://corporate.marksandspencer.com/sustainability/quick-reads/our-approach-to-sustainable-fashion [Accessed: 10 March 2022].
Malinga, K.S., Stander, M. and Nell, W., 2019. Positive leadership: Moving towards an integrated definition and interventions. Theoretical approaches to multi-cultural positive psychological interventions, pp.201-228.
Northouse, P.G., 2019. Introduction to leadership: Concepts and practice. California: Sage.
Schawbel, D., 2017. Richard Branson: His Views On Entrepreneurship, Well-Being And Work Friendships [online] Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/danschawbel/2017/10/23/richard-branson-his-views-on-entrepreneurship-well-being-and-work-friendships/?sh=3889dae955d2 [Accessed: 10 March 2022].
Tenuto, P.L. and Gardiner, M.E., 2018. Interactive dimensions for leadership: An integrative literature review and model to promote ethical leadership praxis in a global society. International Journal of Leadership in Education, 21(5), pp.593-607.
Unilever, 2022. Responsible business [online] Available at: https://www.unilever.com/planet-and-society/responsible-business/ [Accessed: 10 March 2022].
Van Wart, M., Roman, A., Wang, X. and Liu, C., 2019. Operationalizing the definition of e-leadership: identifying the elements of e-leadership. International Review of Administrative Sciences, 85(1), pp.80-97.
Vieira, V.A., Perin, M.G. and Sampaio, C.H., 2018. The moderating effect of managers' leadership behavior on salespeople's self-efficacy. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 40, pp.150-162.
