Leadership Skills
Microsoft Word - BU450 Lesson 4 ASSIGNMENT 04 BU450 Leadership Skills Directions: Answer in complete sentences and be sure to use correct English spelling and grammar. Sources must be cited in APA format. Your response should be a minimum of one (1) single-spaced page to a maximum of two (2) pages in length. Margins 1” all sides, Headings Bold, Type Style and Size Times New Roman, 12-point, Software - MS Word Part A Describe charismatic leadership in your own words. Part B Explain what is meant by the statement that charismatic leaders use active impression management with their followers to support their image. Provide and elaborate on one (1) original example. Part C Access the following article using ProQuest, the Ashworth College online library: ATTACHED Elrod, D.J. (Aug 2012). The Importance of Being Authentic. Strategic Finance, (94. 2), pp. 14- 16. Respond to the following: 1. In your own words, describe what it means to be an authentic leader. 2. Why is authenticity important for leaders? Provide two (2) reasons. Part D Why is charismatic leadership considered a double-edged sword that requires careful monitoring to avert abuse? Provide two (2) reasons and one (1) original example illustrating this phenomenon. Dept Comp Leaders are those individualswho have a vision that can inspire others to work with them to achieve it. Leaders may be described as confident, charis- matic, and passionate, but the real- ity is that they come in all shapes and sizes, and, like so many things in life, there isn’t just one right way to be a leader. And there’s certainly no shortage of advice on how to be a leader. Countless essays and books have been written on the subject. To the average person, it can be a little overwhelming and confusing. Yet one trait stands out above all others: Leaders should strive to be authentic. What does “authentic” mean? According to Merriam-Webster.com, one definition of authentic is “not false or imitation; real or actual,” and that’s what it means in terms of leadership. Authentic leaders lead as who they truly are without imitating others or pretending to be some- thing they aren’t. This doesn’t mean that they don’t learn and develop over time or change their leadership style based on their experiences. It means that they stay true to their real self and lead from that perspective. Why is authenticity important for leaders? It removes any pre- tense about who they are and how they should act—freeing them to leverage their own strengths. It also builds trust across the organi- zation because the team is getting the real person rather than a leader pretending to be someone else. No organization can succeed in the long term without trust. Also, authenticity burnishes a leader’s reputation. A highly respected leader attracts high- caliber talent that helps the orga- nization find further success. This self-reinforcing cycle can help teams reach new heights. Leverage Your Strengths Everyone has strengths and weak- nesses or areas for improvement. As a leader, it’s important to remember that no one on your team expects you to be perfect, but they aren’t as forgiving if you aren’t honest with yourself about your limitations. In most cases, if you’ve been selected as a leader, you probably have significant strengths that outweigh any weak- nesses you may have, so it’s impor- tant to leverage these strengths and build on them while you work on your areas for improvement. If you’re upfront about the areas you’re working on, your team will support you and even cheer you on as you develop new strengths. When I became a manager, it wasn’t the first time I had led a group, but it was the first time that I was the official leader of a sizable team. Everyone on my team knew this, and I readily admitted that I was finding my way. At first, I was apprehensive because my predeces- sor was a well-liked and successful manager with many years of expe- rience. Our team was considered a high-performing team, and I didn’t want to mess things up. Though I had attended some management and leadership courses, I was still unsure about how I wanted to lead. I was fearful that the team wouldn’t accept me as their leader and that I would fail as a result, but I was confident in my abilities and resolved to focus on the things that I knew I could do well. By focusing on my strengths and leveraging them as much as possible, I was able to excel in these areas while I learned in other areas. For example, planning and organizing have always been one of my strongest skill sets. As a The Importance of Being AuthenticHow many times have youworked with or for a person you thought was being straightfor- ward and honest, only to find out later that he or she was fooling you and others to achieve some goal? Good leaders don’t do this. 14 S T R AT E G IC F I N A N C E I Au g u s t 2 0 1 2 frontline manager, my job was more focused on accomplishing the goals set by the senior leader- ship team, so I leveraged these skills to help my team accomplish the goals successfully. In the meantime, I developed and honed my influencing skills by working with my mentor and my current manager to improve in this area. Had I approached the role as a know-it-all new manager, I would have been dogged by the image I had to uphold rather than leverag- ing my strengths to buy time to work on my areas for improvement. My team supported me because they got the real me, not some impostor, and in the end my first manager role was a success that led me to increased responsibilities and bigger roles in the future. Build Trust At this year’s IMA Annual Confer- ence & Exposition, Stephen M.R. Covey closed out the event with a session called “The Speed of Trust” that was based on his book by the same name. In his speech, Covey talked about how high-trust organizations tend to be collabo- rative, innovative, creative, and effective, while low-trust organiza- tions tend to be the opposite. In high-trust organizations, things get done faster and at a lower cost. Covey builds a strong case for trust in organizations, but his advice won’t change a thing if you’re practicing his principles only for the sake of following the latest things you’ve learned about leadership. To be truly effective, you can’t simply imitate his ideas—you have to sincerely believe in them and live them in an authentic way. Otherwise, those you lead will surely see right through your efforts. One of the best examples I have of an authentic leader occurred several years ago when a new leader took over a group I was in. The previous group leader was successful and had built the group around her leadership style, which was very different from the new manager’s style. There was notice- able apprehension among team members as the new leader took over. But the new manager essen- tially laid everything on the line in an all-hands meeting focused on helping the team get to know him. He talked about his values and ideas and answered questions about himself as a leader. He put himself up for close scrutiny by the team and won a lot of respect and trust in the process. Not only did he explicitly state his values and leadership approach in a single meeting, but he pro- ceeded to live by them in his suc- cessive interactions with the team. Actions do speak louder than words, and as our relationship with the new leader developed, we realized that his actions were con- sistent with his words from that first all-hands meeting. His level of candor and transparency built even more trust with the group. He started with the right idea and didn’t try to hide who he was or how he wanted to lead. He was authentic, and the trust he earned as a result helped our group evolve into that high-trust organization that Covey described in his talk. Burnish a Reputation Every leader has a reputation. It may be ill-formed from little information, or it may be support- ed by a long history of leadership. Regardless of how this reputation is derived, it sticks with you wher- ever you go in an organization, and, in some cases, it may follow you to different companies. It may change over time as you gain more experience or take on different assignments, but it’s always there. Again, one of the surest ways to build a solid reputation is to be authentic in your approach to By David J. Elrod, CMA, CPA LEADERSHIP Au g u s t 2 0 1 2 I S T R AT E G IC F I N A N C E 15 16 S T R AT E G IC F I N A N C E I Au g u s t 2 0 1 2 leadership. Stick to your core prin- ciples. Doing so earns you a lot of respect and makes people want to work for you. The more people who want to work for you, the more likely you’ll attract high- caliber team members who can help you reach even greater heights. It’s a self-reinforcing cycle where success breeds success. In one of my previous compa- nies, my team in Finance supported a large internal organization that generated most of the revenue for our company. The leader of that organization was a young, charis- matic guy who had spent his entire career with the company, rising steadily through the ranks to be- come a senior vice president. De- spite his relative youth, he was a very popular leader who attracted a lot of the top talent in the company, and those who worked for him were extremely loyal to him, includ- ing those on the Finance team who supported his organization. My first impression of him was that he seemed like an average guy at the company. He had a huge role there, yet he was down-to-earth and straightforward. There was no blus- ter or sheen that came with his title. Instead, what you saw was what you got, and this permeated his leader- ship style. His authentic approach to his role won him many fans and made him successful, and that approach helped him attract the top people to perpetuate his success. Stay Authentic Authentic leaders focus on their strengths and work on their weak- nesses with their team’s support