Leadership is a quality that I believe everyone in business is striving for. All throughout our classes we have analyzed what it takes to be a good leader and how important it is to have these traits. In this class, we have discussed whether we are born with the qualities it takes to be a leader or if it is something that we can learn. Chapter 12 in our book is all about how to lead people in organizations. Here, there is a discussion about formal and informal leaders, personality traits leaders seem to have, etc.
In one of my sociology classes, we were discussing two different kinds of leadership: what we all perceive to be leaders and leadership as convening. We all picture typical leaders as having the ability to get things done through others, they provide direction for their followers, they possess certain qualities to make them effective leaders, and they are at the top of organizations. But what if we were to change our view of leadership: leadership as convening? Here the leader doesn't focus on people having special characteristics or abilities, leaders are just ordinary people that are willing to make change happen. They work to make people become engaged in the cause and focus on making everyone accountable to the work that needs to be done. It is a concept of shared ownership, encouraging others to take charge, be creative and listening to all of the ideas presented. All in all, the leader is a facilitator, not a director.
What would happen if we would change how we view leadership, turn it upside down literally. What if we put the leader at the bottom? We always view leaders as looking down on others because they are the face of the change, but what if we would put them at the bottom? Could a leader become the encourager that pushes everyone ahead instead of pulling everyone up to their level? It's just a thought, but I honestly that we could change how the world views business leaders if we make the idea more accessible, see our leader as a support instead of something that we have to measure up to. This would also create more accountability for everyone in the organization. Would this solve some of the corruption in corporate America or would new problems come into light because of this methodology? Should we strive for this kind of change or is our view the right way to see things?
Casey Zimmerman
I think it would be interesting to put a leader at the bottom and push the employees to get things done from that level. I think it would be more beneficial because employees would not feel as if they are being looked down upon and instead they would feel that someone on their level would be pushing them to do what everyone else is doing. It would also not stress out the other other employees as much and I think that there would be times where this type of situation would be more beneficial then the typical manager at the top strategy.
ReplyDelete-Brian Cullum team 7