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Leadership arouses passion and engages values. Leadership requires motivating followers to realize a vision.
My concept of Leadership is grounded in the theory espoused by Ronald Heifetz, namely: the difference between technical or adaptive challenge, and between authority and leadership. Leadership arouses passion and engages values. Leadership requires motivating followers to realize a vision. As Heifetz states: mobilization of people to tackle tough programs is the heart of the image of leadership.
Defining leadership encompasses four criteria, namely: Resemble current cultural assumptions so that understanding what it means to lead will apply The definition should be practical so that practitioners can make use of it Point toward socially useful activities The concept should offer a broad definition of social usefulness The central concept at my definition of leadership, if one is possible at all, lies in the focus of leadership as an activity; the activity of mobilizing a citizen from any walk of life to do something.
Leadership therefore, is more than simply influence. The next paragraphs should explore in detail the following topics, namely:
1) How fast can humans learn and organizations change
2) The concept of adaptive work
3) Values
However, due to limitations, these topics will be featured in future Leadership newsletters.
So what is leadership… if problems can be defined as the space between values and circumstances, then adaptive challenge is a particular kind of problem that the gap cannot be closed with routine behavior and know how, rather, to make progress, invention and action must change circumstance to align with values… VALUES… that may have to change also. LEADERSHIP will consist not only of answers and vision, but in taking ACTION TO CLARIFY VALUES.
In short, the principles of leadership engage the following:
1) Identifying the adaptive challenge
2) Keeping distress within a productive range
3) Directing attention to ripen the issue
4) Give the work back to the people
5) Protect the voices of leadership within the community
In addition to the core structure of performing the activity of leadership, I have not yet added power, formal and informal authority, to the many levels of leadership discussed. I will end this introductory discussion on LEADERSHIP with a question: Can you separate power, authority and leadership?
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