This Week's Definition: A leader is someone who recognizes potential, motivates others to be or do the best they can through intentional change, and aspires individuals for more. A leader takes pride in their personal accomplishments while creating a vision that will inspire and motivate others to elevate themselves and their work. A strong leader is prepared for, and adaptive to change. An effective leader must make tough decisions, while maintaining a courageous attitude, continues to look forward, build trust and excitement, foster stability, and encourage hope among their peers. Leaders understand their talents, values and interests, which they reflect in their leadership styles, while still considering a range of other perspectives.

Analysis: This week I made additions to both the first and second sentence in my personal definition. In the first sentence I added "through intentional change" which touches on the idea in order for change to be successful, at times it need to be created, or intentional. In his article, Boyatzis discusses the intentional change theory, focusing on the creation of intentional change among an organization or group through thoughts and feelings (Boyatzis, 2006). Before reading this article, I had never considered the importance of the creation of change, and the affect it can have on the dynamics of a group or an organization. In the second sentence, I added, "while creating a vision that will...". I made this change after reading Boyatzis's article which discusses passionate visions, and an understanding of others (Boyatzis, 2006). I have always felt the importance among leaders to be visionary, but had yet to add it to my definition.

Source: Boyatzis, R. E. (2006). "An Overview of Intentional Change from a Leadership Perspective." Journal of Management Development, 25(7), 607-623.

This Week's Definition: A leader is someone who recognizes potential, motivates others to be or do the best they can, and aspires individuals for more. A leader takes pride in their personal accomplishments while inspiring others to elevate themselves and their work. A strong leader is prepared for, and adaptive to change. An effective leader must make tough decisions, while maintaining a courageous attitude, continues to look forward, build trust and excitement, foster stability, and encourage hope among their peers. Leaders understand their talents, values and interests, which they reflect in their leadership styles, while still considering a range of other perspectives.

Analysis: This week, I made a slight tweak to the first sentence in my definition. I changed "A leader is someone who connects with" to "A leader is someone who recognizes potential". I believe this change better captures the true task of a leader. According to one of our readings, to "coordinate the strengths of different individuals", a leader must first recognize each person's individual strengths and understand how to utilize these strengths in a way that will be most effective in reaching goals (Komives, Lucas, McMaon, 1998). Being able to recognize individual potential is often times rare, and important among leadership. To look beyond your personal strengths, as a leader, and invest in your entire team will make you more effective as a leader. As the reading suggests, a team's strength is greater than the sum of its individual strengths(Komives, Lucas, McMaon, 1998).

Source: Komives, S. R., Lucas, N., & McMahon, T. R. (1998). "Interacting in Teams and Groups." Exploring Leadership: For college students who want to make a difference (pp. 165 - 194). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

This Week's Definition: A leader is someone who connects with and motivates others to be or do the best they can, and aspires individuals for more. A leader takes pride in their personal accomplishments while inspiring others to elevate themselves and their work. A strong leader is prepared for, and adaptive to change. An effective leader must make tough decisions, while maintaining a courageous attitude, continues to look forward, build trust and excitement, foster stability, and encourage hope among their peers. Leaders understand their talents, values and interests, which they reflect in their leadership styles, while still considering a range of other perspectives.

Analysis: This week I left my leadership definition un-edited. I made no changes to my definition because I feel as though the last sentence in my definition captures the true essences of lessons learned from this weeks reading. This sentence essentially suggests that leaders understand their abilities, and maximize them, characterizing their leadership style. Each of the three leaders resented in this weeks reading had significantly different styles of leading, however each leader has proven to be effective. As the article by Lomas suggests, Steve Jobs's "communication style is best described as abrasive" (Lomas, 2011), and yet Carlos Ghosn, "the man credited with turning around the major Japanese car maker, Nissan" (Insead, 2008) suggests one of the basics to transcultural leadership (is style of leadership) is empathy. I believe that this comparison highlights the idea, that there isn't one certain path a leader must follow in order to be successful. Leaders must find their niche, and recognize their strengths, and follow both of these with passion to be effective.

Sources:
"The Transcultural Leader: Carlos Ghosn, CEO of Renault, Nissan" (2008).
Retrieved from http://knowledge.insead.edu/ILSTransculturalLeaderGhosn080501.cfm?vid=45

"Ten Leadership Lessons From the Steve Jobs School of Management"
Lomas, N. (2011). "Ten leadership lessons from the Steve Jobs School of management" Retrieved from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/cio-insights/ten-leadership-lessons-from-the-steve-jobs-school-of-management/39748225?pg=5&tag=content;siu-container

This Week's Definition: A leader is someone who connects with and motivates others to be or do the best they can, and aspires individuals for more. A leader takes pride in their personal accomplishments while inspiring others to elevate themselves and their work. A strong leader is prepared for, and adaptive to change. An effective leader must make tough decisions, but maintains a courageous attitude, continues to look forward, build trust and excitement, foster stability, and encourage hope among their peers. Leaders understand their talents, values and interests, which they reflect in their leadership styles, while still considering a range of other perspectives.

Analysis: This week I altered the last line of my definition to include, "while still considering a range of other perspectives". It is amazing how much my perspective about leadership changes each week with the article readings. This week, my idea about leadership was affected by the Heifetz and Linsky article. Before reading "Get on the Balcony" I hadn't considered the importance of considering multiple views amongst leaders. Many people think of leaders as narrow-minded dictators who wouldn't ever listen to change, or consider other perspectives. While I personally don't see leaders in this way, I hadn't before realized the importance of this "Get on the Balcony" idea in effective leadership. I truly believe now, after reading this article, that the leaders who are most effective, most inspirational, and have the largest following, are those who are willing and able to "get off the dance floor", or get out of their own mind, and "get on the balcony" to see what considerations they may be missing. This is why I chose to add the line that I did to my definition of leadership.

Source: Heifetz, R. A., & Linsky, M. (2002). "Get on the balcony." Leadership on the Line: Staying alive through the dangers of leading (pp. 51 - 74). Boston: Harvard Business School Press.

This Week's Definition: A leader is someone who connects with and motivates others to be or do the best they can, and aspires individuals for more. A leader takes pride in their personal accomplishments while inspiring others to elevate themselves and their work. A strong leader is prepared for, and adaptive to change. An effective leader must make tough decisions, but maintains a courageous attitude, continues to look forward, build trust and excitement, foster stability, and encourage hope among their peers. Leaders understand their talents, values and interests, which they reflect in their leadership styles.

Analysis: This week I added the line, "Leaders understand their talents, values, and interests, which they reflect in their leadership styles". This is so important to leadership, I can't believe I had not added it to my definition yet. I took this idea from Astin's guidebook to leadership development. Other qualities important to leadership presented in this guide include: collaboration and the aim for change (20, 1996). I chose not to include these things in my personal leadership definition because I believe that these qualities are more important to group, or communal leadership, requiring a whole different definition. It is important to understand the multiple facets of leadership.

Source: "A social change model of leadership development: Guidebook"
Astin, H. S., & Astin, A. W. (1996). A social change model of leadership development: Guidebook (version III) (pp. 4 - 27). Los Angeles: University of California Los Angeles Higher Education Research Institute.

This Week's Definition:
A leader is someone who connects with and motivates others to be or do the best they can, and aspires individuals for more. A leader takes pride in their personal accomplishments while inspiring others to elevate themselves and their work. A strong leader is prepared for, and adaptive to change. An effective leader must make tough decisions, but maintains a courageous attitude, continues to look forward, build trust and excitement, foster stability, and encourage hope among their peers.

This week, my definition is the same, with the inclusion of the following: A strong leader is prepared for, and adaptive to change. This week, I wasn't as inspired by the readings as in previous weeks, however, I thought an important takeaway was the idea that effective leaders do not hide from serious change, instead, "seize the opportunity of moments" and "use the turbulence of the present to build on and bring closure to the past". As a Public Relations major, these ideas hit very close to my heart. An important part to Public Relations, as well as effective leadership is crisis management. To be an effective leader, you have to be quick thinking. You must hope for the best, but be prepared for the worst. Those willing to accept and adapt to change, are those strong enough to lead effectively.

Source: Heifetz, R., Grashow, A., & Linsky, M. (2009). "Leadership in a (permanent) crisis." Harvard Business Review, 87(7), 62-69. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=keh&AN=41997981&site=ehost-livee

This Weeks Definition: A leader is someone who connects with and motivates others to be or do the best they can, and aspires individuals for more. A leader takes pride in their personal accomplishments while inspiring others to elevate themselves and their work. An effective leader must make tough decisions, but maintains a courageous attitude, continues to look forward, build trust and excitement, foster stability, and encourage hope among their peers.

Analysis: Kidders, How good people make tough choices inspired a slight change to my leadership definition this week. While I did not feel that the materials this week provided insight as to qualities leaders hold, they opened my eyes to the world of tough decisions leaders are forced to make every single day. I enjoyed reading about the four models of right vs. right choices, (Kidder, 2003) and gave me a better understanding of leadership. In order to be a leader, one must be strong enough to overcome the ethical battle presented by these choice, and stand strong behind their decisions. A leader is someone who can make tough choices.

Source: Kidder, R.M (2003). "Overview: The Ethics of Right vs. Right." How good people make tough choices, (pp 13-29) Retrieved from http://eres.lib.umn.edu/eres/coursepage.aspx?cid=2195&page=docs

This Week's Definition: A leader is someone who connects with and motivates others to be or do the best they can, and aspires individuals for more. A leader takes pride in their personal accomplishments while inspiring others to elevate themselves and their work. An effective leader is courageous and forward looking, builds trust and excitement, fosters stability, and encourages hope among their peers.

Analysis: My definition this week includes all of my previous definition, but now includes ideas taken from Robert Terry's book, Seven zones for Leadership: Acting Authentically in Stability and Chaos . The ideas that I took from Terry include the suggestions that leadership should be courageous, and forward looking, as well as the idea that leadership is about building excitement. As Terry suggests, "leaders never choose their followers: followers choose their leaders" (32). I think this idea is important because from my personal experiences I have learned that as much as you wish to lead certain people, you can't always get them to follow. While this is frustrating, it solidifies the idea that generating engagement and excitement are qualities of effective leadership. Further, I believe in the importance of learning from past mistakes, but always looking forward as an important quality of leadership, as Terry's argument points, "leadership is courageous, engaged, and forward looking" (30).

Citation: Terry, R. (2001). "Deciding what you believe." Seven zones for Leadership: Acting Authentically in Stability and Chaos (pp. 20 - 40). Mountain View, CA: Davies-Black Publishing, Inc.

This week's definition: A leader is someone who connects with and motivates others to be or do the best they can, and aspires individuals for more. A leader takes pride in their personal accomplishments and encourages others to elevate themselves and their work. To be an effective leader, one must build trust, foster stability, and encourage hope among their peers.

Analysis: My definition of leadership is provides essentially the same context, but I have included important essentials to the foundation of leadership. Based on article, "Understanding why people follow", I came to respect and realize the importance of trust, stability, and hope within leadership. In this article, the authors argue that you must have these three qualities as well as compassion in order to lead effectively. They argue that trust increases speed and efficiency, stability provides security, compassion leads to better engagement among employees, and employees look for and need hope for the future (Rath & Conchie, 2009, p. 82-89). Before reading this article I had not come to realize these qualities as important, but reflecting on personal experiences with leadership, I can completely agree that these qualities lead to more effective leadership.