It is my first time ever to blog any post and yeah I’m truly excited about it, after reading the book northouse I truly find it apt describing each and every aspect of leadership and how to evolve into a leader. There are a lot of components required to become an effective and a good leader but according to me I found the most important component is a process which is the zest in formation of a leader and is the soul of becoming an effective leader.
According to Northouse (2016) Leadership is defined as ” a process whereby an individual influences a group of individuals to achieve a comman goal” (pg. 6 )
The first and the foremost thing that strike in my mind while I was reading about the components of leadership is “process”. It is of utmost importance as many people in older times are of the view that some people have inborn traits of leader but now the scenario has changed entirely. Now, I think people get to know it takes time and experience to be an effective leader as what the word describes called process. Even a coffee needs a process to be prepared than how can a leader be not requiring that. Each and everything requires a process to become the best.
According to me some people are of the view like becoming leaders is having access to a lot of powers and then they are liable to rule over other people. Yes, it is true but to some extent power are given to utilize for the welfare of workers who chose you as their leaders, it is that component of leadership which if used in a bias manner can even affect the people’s emotions and also can even exploit them in a wrong way, there many leaders who rule people by using power and making them do things against their will but ask yourself are those people truly a “leader”. There is an example from the past when Mugal dynasty emperor “Shah Jahan” who made Taj Mahal cut hands of 20000 workers who were building it for his own interest so, that nobody in future can ever build the same.
Sometimes, we used to mix the two components of leadership that is power and influence, power can only influence the people by the fear to do something even if they are not willing to but an influential leader knows how to guide people, how to motivate them and how to teach them through their skills in which even if people don’t want to do some work but for their leader and a bond of respect towards him make them do so is what describes the influential power of the leader.
For a goal to attained, it is a very important aspect to work as a group, a leader should know which duties and how to assign every worker their work, a leader should make an environment for the workers to work with each other, to help each other and to work in unity, in a group. group context is utmost important component for a leader to bind every individual together. The components of leadership is like a puzzle, a single block of puzzle can make you loose if not attached to it.
According to Northouse (2016)”Because both leaders and followers are part of the leadership process, it is important to address issues that confront followers as well as issues that confront leaders.” (pg. 16). This statement in itself describes everything needs to be a good leader. I’m closing my blog with a question-do you really think power sometimes exploit workers or it is helpful ?, and Is it really necessary for a leader to follow a process rather than taking shortcuts to become a better leader ?