Leadership – when it Comes to Various Life Matters

A society without leadership often experiences chaos and confusion in various aspects of life. Leadership is paramount as it is the reason that direction is achieved. The administration must produce results; a good leader propels the masses to a better tomorrow. Leadership entails several entities that have to work collaboratively for results to be seen. It is unfortunate that people often think that leadership is the aspect of being in power regardless of whether one performs or not; this should not be the case, leadership must produce positive results for it to be termed as so.

The paper will focus on the philosophy of leadership; the primary purpose of leadership, how to determine whether a leader is successful in their leadership, and how leaders can maintain balance in their leadership and their lives. The primary purpose of leadership is to offer excellent service to the people. There has been a misconception that leadership is all about authority and autocracy; it is unfortunate that this is not the case but it is a mindset that many have believed in for a while (Russell & Stone, 2002).

A good leader should make it a priority to serve the people they lead; other factors can come later. Leadership is of different capacities hence a leader should act according to the level they are mandated. For instance, leaders in learning institutions have different roles compared to leaders that are in the political arena or the working environment. It is from this angle that being alert is paramount to assess the need of the people one leads. Personally, engaging in leadership would assist me in reaching out to people I would not have reached to had I been an ordinary citizen. Sometimes leadership comes with authority that can be used positively by channeling help to the helpless in the society or even the voiceless (Weymes, 2002).

My personal goals have always been to help the suffering in society even in the smallest way possible. I intend to enter leadership to make my goals possible in my generation. My criterion for defining success is based on the service a leader renders to his or her people. If there is no trace of any service provided to the people, even the most popular leader may not be successful according to my ratings. Successful leadership must be accompanied by actions of care and concern for others (Palmer, Walls, Burgess, & Stough, 2001).

The passion for leading people that are hungry for change should motivate a leader to work tirelessly to meet their needs. I would want my success as a leader to be rated by how much help I have offered to people, rather than how famous my name is. My internal sense focuses on helping humanity if that aspect is sorted, then I receive a sense of satisfaction even if the external measures may not view things from my perspective. I wish to elevate my effectiveness as a leader by always analyzing my progress from time to time; this will assist in ensuring that errors are corrected and strengths encouraged.

Being trustworthy is a virtue that many leaders struggle to acquire even though it is an essential value as a leader. In order to gain trust from people, living true to my word is what I will strive to do. Often, leaders promise numerous things to convince people to choose them as leaders. However, once they become leaders, they quickly forget their promises (Russell & Stone, 2002). I prefer to be different; I would rather promise a few things that I know I have the capacity to fulfill. In this way, I could remain a trustworthy figure. Effective communication is crucial in ensuring that essential information reaches people. Proper channels must be put in place to ensure that the masses receive adequate information that concerns them (Mumford, Zaccaro, Harding, Jacobs, & Fleishman, 2000).

It is unfortunate that some leaders are unapproachable to the extent that the masses get stranded not knowing which channel to follow. During my leadership tenure, proper channels of communication would be structured, and people notified on the procedure to follow when they require help. A leader cannot work alone hence requires trusted people with a common goal to work with. It is difficult to know people that are sincere in their undertakings unless one works with them for some time; after several episodes of working with people, it becomes easy to identify individuals that may be of help to my leadership. I desire to work with people driven by the passion to help others; those with selfish motives often do not go far with me because their interests do not match mine.

Any person who shows traits of greediness and selfishness would be automatically disqualified from my panel of associate leaders. When people get into power, they often enter with the mindset that leadership means power and authority; their understanding of power is the dictatorial one that has no business listening to the opinion of others. This kind of mindset is dangerous and should not be tolerated; it is this mindset that encourages people to abuse power (Palmer et al., 2001). My intention is to refrain from the habit of abusing power by bearing in mind that the core purpose of my leadership is service to the people and not making their life much harder. Finally, maintaining a balance between leadership and personal life issues can be a challenge. Conflicting interests between personal lives and leadership roles can be taxing but manageable (Palmer et al., 2001).

Creating time for both aspects of life is paramount; it is prudent to create time for personal matters and at the same time create time for the community at large. One of the strategies of maintaining a balance is having a proper program to attend to all the competing loyalties; this helps a great deal in handling several issues at a time and can help to avoid cases of negligence in some areas. It can also allow an effective leader to devote proper attention to other areas. Overall, leadership is more about actions than words. Too much talking without acting upon issues that require attention is misplaced leadership. Leadership means service to the people.

A leader that does not offer service is not qualified to hold the title. A number of leaders enter into administration without having the proper knowledge of what leadership is; most of them believe the role is all about power and authority, which is not the case. Leaders must have an impact on the people they are leading. Several elements must be put in place also to ensure effective leadership is attained. Many people are leaders, but it is sad that their leadership is fruitless hence meaningless.

Cite this page