Please Follow directions or I will dispute

Please answer original forum with a minimum of 250 words and respond to both students separately with a minimum of 100 words each

Page 1 Original Forum with References

page 2 Rebekah response with references

page 3 Justin response with references

Original Forum

Write a one-two sentence personal definition of leadership. Base you definition on what you have encountered this week, as well as on what you have already learned about leadership.
•    Discuss the statements: “Leadership is everybody’s business” and “Leadership is not an affair of the head, but rather an affair of the heart.”
•    Finally, write about the differences between leadership and management.

Student Responses

Rebekah

Army leadership is defined as “the activity of influencing people by providing purpose, direction, and motivation to accomplish the mission and improve the organization” (Army Doctrine Publication No. 6-22, 2019). ADP 6-22 presents the belief that leaders should contain core attributes (character, presence, and intellect) and competencies (leads, develops, and achieves). I agree with this idea that a leader job is to influence. My definition of leadership changes course in that it is more focused on the individuals that are being led than the one leading. A leader is an individual that influences others by exploiting their individual strengths and weaknesses. The leader guides others to use those strengths and strengthen said weaknesses for the gain of both the individual and the organization. In saying that, I would then define leadership as the act of influencing others to become better versions of themselves and thus positively impacting the organization.

“Leadership is everybody’s business”

Leadership is not an act left only for someone identified as a leader through rank or title. In fact, those ranks or titles do not make a leader. “…Leadership [is] the process of influencing groups to achieve goals, while a leader is someone who can influence others” (Cole, 2006; Robbin and Coulter, 2007; Weihrich et al, 2008). This means that both the leader and the group play a role in the success of leadership. In order for the leader to influence, there has to be influence and for the group to be influenced, some desire to be must be aroused.

“Leadership is not an affair of the head, but rather an affair of the heart”

The components of a transformational leader are; charisma, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and personal and individual attention (Odumeru and Ifeanyi, 2013). These components are part of the core of an individual and require that person to spend time with those that they are leading. It requires insight into the thought-process and motivations of those that are led. To inspire means to connect. Connection is done through interpersonal communication and relationships and cannot be forged through thought. Genuine connection comes from an emotional response which is something we relate to the heart, not the head.

Leadership vs. management

Leadership focuses on guiding and influencing individuals while management is a tool used to maintain the status quo and meet a desired outcome. Toor’s (2011) findings following extensive research revealed that “…leadership is rather more flexible and open to new ideas, whereas management is more rigid and looks for tested approaches”.  Odumeru & Ifeanyi (2013) discuss transactional leadership and its connection to the role of a manager in that this style is more focused on the larger picture and maintaining the status quo.

References

Army Doctrine Publication No. 6-22. (2019).

Cole, G.A. (2006) Management Theory and Practice.(6th Ed.) London: Book Power Eisenbeiß, S. A. and Boerner, S. (2013) A Double-edged Sword: Transformational Leadership and Individual Creativity. British Journal of Management. 24(1): 54–68.

Odumeru, J. and Ifeanyi, O. (2013). Transformational vs. Transactional Leadership Theories: Evidence in Literature. International Review of Management and Business Research, Volume 2(Issue 2). pgs. 355-361

Robbins, S. P. and Coulter, M. (2007) Management (9th ed.). London: Prentice- Hall

Toor, S. (2011). Differentiating Leadership from Management: An Empirical Investigation of Leaders and Managers. Leadership and Management in Engineering, October 2011.

Weihrich, H., Cannice, M.V. and Koontz, H. (2008) Management (12th ed.). New Delhi: Mc Graw Hill.

Justin

First thing that comes to my mind when trying to define leadership is someone that builds a mindset and skillset in everyone through influencing others that takes a team or group to another level of productivity related to their mission. This is just scratching the surface though because depending on the situation at hand it seems leadership can morph into many different types and theories depending on the variables present (Winston & Patterson, 2006). Leaders are always pushing and trying to better themselves and trying to make the people around them better. Leadership can take many different shapes depending on one person’s perspective to another and the theories can broaden the meaning even further.

The phrases, “leadership is everybody’s business” and “ leadership is not an affair of the head but rather of that of the heart” is very eye opening. Leadership is the responsibly of everyone and not just from a career aspect. It can directly impact yourself and the people around you. The second statement shows leadership is more about standing up and encouraging others to do what the group thinks is right over what may be systematically right in an organization or even in societal settings. Leaders often lead people to make changes in systems that are broken or not working.

Management and leadership are different and I always thought management is more of a specific job where leadership really falls on everyone and can be found at any level of an organization. The only thing I did find interesting is that what many people think of management could be just a different type of leadership and can be categorized as transactional leadership (Odumeru & Ogbonna, 2013). Leadership is more about making someone do something by making the individual willingly do it without being forced, while management has to create incentives or consequences to get someone to do something (Toor, 2011). I have been on many job sites in construction where the leaders are the ones in the crews while management is just there to tell us what to do. Organizations that have success are able to find their best leaders and put them in management roles (Willink & Barbin, 2017). Both play a role throughout an organization because management does bring structure to an organization at times and leadership can bring change to the existing structure to make it better.

Resources

Toor, S. (2011, October). Differentiating Leadership from Management: An Empirical Investigation of Leaders and Managers.

Odumeru, J. A., & Ogbonna, I. G. (2013). Transformational vs. transactional leadership theories: Evidence in literature. International Review of Management and Business Research, 2(2), 355-361. http://www.irmbrjournal.com/papers/1371451049.pdf

Willink, J., & Babin, L. (2017). Extreme ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs lead and win.

Winston, B., & Patterson, K. (2006). An integrative definition of leadership. International Journal of Leadership Studies, 1(2), 6-66 .