Shawn Haggith EDPA1301W Leadership blog

Leadership definition 11/27/10

2010-11-26T22:19:53Z

Old Definition:
Leadership is the ability to maximize your skills and the skills of your subordinates, by virtue of the power of your Presence (Kyle, 1998) and continually improving your one-big-thing (Kegan and Lahey, 2009), in order to make a positive influence in an outcome, a decision, or a group towards a common goal.

New Definition:
Leadership is the ability to maximize your skills and the skills of your subordinates, by virtue of the power of your Presence (Kyle, 1998) and continually improving your one-big-thing (Kegan and Lahey, 2009), in order to make a positive influence in an outcome, a decision, or a group towards a common goal.

Again this week I have decided not to change my definition of leadership. I contemplated removing the adjective positive on what kind of influence a leader aims for. I choose against this change though because although some leaders influences are not positive in other peoples' eyes, they are positive in the leader's eyes and match with the goals he has set out. Whether the leader has good ethics and intentions does not have anything to do with the fact of if he accomplishes what he has set out to or not.

References:
Gladwell, M. (2000). "The Art of Failure: Why some people choke and others panic." The New Yorker, 84 - 92. Retrieved from http://www.gladwell.com/pdf/choking.pdf

Kegan, R., & Lahey, L. L. (2009). "We Never Had a Language for It" Immunity to Change: How to overcome it and unlock the potential in yourself and your organization (pp. 61 - 84). Boston: Harvard Business Press.

Leadership definition 11/20/10

2010-11-21T02:30:58Z

I decided not to change my definition this week. The readings for the week dealt with important aspects of groups and teamwork, and the phases of each group. I feel that these are important things to understand when working in any group or organization but I do know feel like they are essential in a definition of leadership. If someone is a good leader they will be aware of these forces affecting their groups already.

References:
Gladwell, M. (2000). "The Art of Failure: Why some people choke and others panic." The New Yorker, 84 - 92. Retrieved from http://www.gladwell.com/pdf/choking.pdf

Leadership definition 11/06/10

2010-11-06T22:29:30Z

Old Definition:
Leadership is the ability to maximize your skills and the skills of your subordinates, by virtue of the power of your Presence (Kyle, 1998), in order to make a positive influence in an outcome, a decision, or a group, towards a goal of some kind.

This week made a few modifications to my definition. I added "and continually improving on your one-big-thing (Kegan and Lahey, 2009)" because a good leader will always be trying to improve and better his talents. This one-big-thing is the thing the leader needs to most improve in order to make the biggest impact on the team. I also changed the wording at the end to "a common goal" because I think it is extremely important that everyone one involved be on the same page and know what is expected of them. They need to be on board with exactly what the goals of the team are.

References:
Gladwell, M. (2000). "The Art of Failure: Why some people choke and others panic." The New Yorker, 84 - 92. Retrieved from http://www.gladwell.com/pdf/choking.pdf

2010-10-24T04:13:27Z

Old Definition:
Leadership is the ability to maximize your skills and the skills of your subordinates, by virtue of the power of your Presence, in order to make an influence in an outcome, a decision, or a group, towards a goal of some kind.

New Definition:
Leadership is the ability to maximize your skills and the skills of your subordinates, by virtue of the power of your Presence (Kyle, 1998), in order to make a positive influence in an outcome, a decision, or a group, towards a goal of some kind.

This week I have decided to add the adjective positive to describe the kind of influence a great leader should make. I added this word positive because of all of the readings lately addressing ethics and the importance of doing good. A good leader will be able to take himself out of any situation to make an impact for the whole team through recognizing the best decision ethically. A good leader must be able to put his own wishes aside to better the team.

Reference:
Gladwell, M. (2000). "The Art of Failure: Why some people choke and others panic." The New Yorker, 84 - 92. Retrieved from http://www.gladwell.com/pdf/choking.pdf

Leadership definition 10/09/10

2010-10-10T00:36:41Z

Old definition:
Leadership is the ability to maximize your skills and the skills of your subordinates, by virtue of the power of your Presence, in order to make an influence in an outcome, a decision, or a group, towards a goal of some kind.

New definition:

New definition:
Leadership is the ability to maximize your skills and the skills of your subordinates, by virtue of the power of your Presence, in order to make an influence in an outcome, a decision, or a group, towards a goal of some kind.

This week I am leaving my leadership definition as is. The reading of Paul and Elder(2006) about the ethical reasoning did not affect my definition at all. Leadership can be both ethical or unethical. One of the big examples Paul and Elder(2006) continually returned to was that of Adolf Hitler. Hitler ruled in a very unethical way but was still one of the most powerful and influential leaders we have ever seen. This is why I choose not to add anything to my definition for the week.

Reference:
Paul, R.,& Elder, L. (2006). Understanding the foundations of ethical reasoning (pp. 4-36). Dillon Beach, CA: Foundation for Critical Thinking

Leadership definition 09/30/10

2010-09-30T21:37:16Z

Old definition:
To me, leadership is the ability to maximize your skills and the skills of others in order to make an influence in an outcome, a decision, or a group, towards a goal of somekind.

This week I added the words "by virtue of the power of your Presence" to my definition along with changing the word "others" to "subordinates." I found that others was a bit vague and by changing the term to subordinates, one gets a clearing image of who else in involved in the situation. I added the line, "by virtue of the power of Presence," because I agree with D.T. Kyle when he wrote "It is not his position that convinces us; rather, it is the Presence he radiates as he says it. This Presence is when you interact with someone and you can feel that they have complete control in what they are doing, what they are planning, and where they will take the organization.

References:
Kyle, D. T. (1998). "The sovereign: The power of presence." The Four Powers of Leadership: Presence, intention, wisdom, compassion (pp. 159 - 191). Deerfield Beach, FL: Health Communications Inc

Leadership definition 09/25/10

2010-09-25T22:23:21Z

To me, leadership is the ability to maximize your skills and the skills of others in order to make an influence in an outcome, a decision, or a group, towards a goal of somekind.

The reading for this week influence my first definition of leadership by making my include "to maximize your skills and the skills of others". The reading showed me how all of these important and great leaders used their skills and the skills of their employees and teams to maximize results. The leaders all had different strengths which played out for them in their own unique way. The reading showed me that there is no direct DNA formula for better leadership, it all comes from maximizing your strengths.

Rath, T. and Conchie, B. (2009). Strengths-based Leadership:
Great teams, leaders, and why people follow. Gallup Press: Washington, D.C.