A leadership questionnaire does seem like an intriguing task and it has proved to be an enlightening one too. As I’ve read about the various approaches in Northouse, it was rather interesting to apply this to interpret my own self.

So, starting with leadership trait questionnaire, I scored mostly 5’s and the surveys completed by my colleagues and family members agreed to it as well. In skills inventory, I scored a good 28 in both human skills and conceptual skills but I could see my technical skills lagging behind. This made me realize that technical skills are where I need to work harder. Further, in style questionnaire, I scored a range of 45-50 in both task and relationship scores but my task score was a number less than relationship one. I have always been aware of this shortcoming and I’m going to keep working on fixing it.

All in all, this survey was as fun as it was revealing. Also, it almost aligns with my self-conceptions. It gave me a better perspective on my strengths and weaknesses. Indeed, its a good tool for self-assessment as well as the assessment of others.

Greanleaf (1997) provided the most frequently referenced definition:

Servant leadership begins with the natural feeling that one wants to
serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to
lead. The difference manifests itself in the care taken by the
servant—first to make sure that other people’s highest priority needs
are being served. The best test  is: do those served grow as persons;
do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous,
more likely themselves to become servants? And, what is the
effect on the least privileged in society; will they benefit, or, at least,
will they not be further deprived? (Northouse ,2017,p.226)

There are various principles of servant leadership but the ones that stood out ot me the most are: listening, empathy and healing. All these qualities remind me a great leader from Indian history named Mahatma Gandhi. He was an example of servant leader, listened to all the problems of the followers not just in order to respond but to understand. He was an active listener and a very empathetic person. One time to truly feel and understand how a homeless man feels, he started sleeping on the floor himself so that he can put himself in their shoes and to me that a brilliant example of empathy. Healing means to make whole (Northouse 2017,p.228). To heal the servant leader has to do everything possible to alleviate and support one’s followers. Dandi march by Mahatma Gandhi is again a great example of it. Indeed, there are so many more qualities that make an ideal servant leader but i believe these are the foundational ones.

What are your views about it? Does any servant leader come to your mind while reading this? Share your views.

ASSIGNED AND EMERGENT LEADERSHIP

As stated in Northhouse (2017), some people are leaders because of their formal position in an organisation, whereas others are leaders because of the way group members respect them. So the ones based on occupying a position for example team leaders or plant managers are considered undered assigned leadership whereas when others perceive an individual as the most influential member of a group or an organisation, regardless of individual’s title, the person exhibits emergent leadership (Northouse, 2017,p.8).

Emergent leadership is acquired over time through good communication and active participation. Emergent leaders are the most influential people in an organisation irrespective of their job title and people like, respect and follow them for their personality. Personality plays an important role in emergent leadership and the main traits that do so are being more dominant, more intelligent and more confident (Northouse,2017,p.8). All these traits are important for a leader to have an influence or to be recognised. People tend to follow or believe in the vision of a person only if they are confident and trust in their own abilities. Another important factor accounting in being an emergent leader is good communication and it includes being verbally involved and informed, seeking other’s opinion, initiating new idea and being firm but not rigid (Northouse,2017,p.8).

While i was completing my Bachelors in Dental Surgery and i was working as an intern i came across some issues that were not exactly related to my field of study but i felt strongly about them. Being a senior i always tried to hear out the problems of my juniors and help then professionally and then i came across the fact that so many of the students were suffering from anxiety or depression but could not share it with anyone because there is a stigma attached to it especially in a country that i came from i.e. India. This was also affecting the professional part of their life and as i tried to reach out more i realised that this problem was rather extensive and i decided to do something about it. I knew the first step is to break the stigma attached to mental health illnesses so, i started talking about it openly and i started a community, more like a support group, on social media site, instagram. I shared my own story as the first few posts so as to ease the idea of talking about it and slowing it started growing and now it is has 184 people in it that are working towards the same mission of breaking this stigma. This community has made me understand a lot about leadership and how a leader is the giver. We all talk about mental health openly and the goals is to reach out to anyone and everyone who might need help and to direct them the right way and encourage them to seek the required professional help. I’ve always wanted to make a change for good and this seemed like a little step towards it and as leadership is a process i’m excited to see how it shapes me over the coming period of time. Leaving the link in here-

https://www.instagram.com/letterstomy12yearoldself/

This also reminds of the Social identity theory (Hogg,2001) which states that leadership emergence is the degree to which a person fits with the identity of the group as a whole (Northouse,2017,p.9).

Essential activities or leaders and managers:

Leadership is a process that is similar to management in many ways. Leadership involves influence and so does management, leadership entails working with people and so does management, leadership is concerned with affective goal accomplishment and so is management (Northouse,2017,p.13)

Nonetheless, leaders and managers perform a lot of activities completely different from one another as well. The primary activity of managers is to provide order and consistency and to seek stability whereas primary function of leaders is to produce chage and movement and seek adaptive and constructive change (Northouse,2017,p.13). According to Bennis and Nanus (1985), to manage means to accomplish activities and master routine and to lead means to influence others and create a vision for change. They also stated, managers are the people who do things right whereas leaders are the people who do the right thing (Northouse,2017,p.14).

According to Rost (1991), leadership is a multi directional influence relationship whereas management is a unidirectional authority relationship. (Northouse,2017,p.14). It is very important to distinguish between a leader and a manager as they both play out their roles very differently. Leaders make the change and are emotionally involved in the process whereas managers make sure the process is consistent and the resources are well managed. Leaders are the ones initiating new ideas and acting on them whereas managers set strategies and set goals. Leadership is about aligning people and communicating goals and inspiring and motivation the group whereas management is about organising and establishing rules and controlling and solving problems. (Northouse, 2017,p.14).

Approach essential for an organisation to prosper:

No matter how different the approaches are, leadership and management need to work hand in hand in order for an organisation to prosper. Both leaders and managers are required for an organisation to function properly as when managers are involved in influencing a group to meet its goals, they are involved in leadership and when leaders are involved in planning, organizing, staffing, and controlling, they are involved in management. Both processes involve influencing a group of individuals toward goal attainment. (Northouse,2017,p.15). What’s your viewpoint on this? Do you think leaders can work without managers or vice versa? If so, then can the organisation reach its full potential without both leaders and managers working together?

Leadership is defined as a process whereby an individual influences a group of individuals to achieve a common goal. (Northouse, 2017, p.5)

Nonetheless,  i don’t believe leadership can be defined in a set of few words as its span is wide and vast. I, myself have always been intrigued by the actual meaning of leadership (one of the reasons for taking this course in the first place). While reading through the chapter i found myself applying a lot of the concepts to myself and to many leaders whom i actively follow. It was indeed very enlightening to know that there are so many different components to leadership. Also, it is very well stated that leadership is a process and its is not a linear one way event, but rather an interactive event (Northouse,2017,p.6)

I cannot agree more with this statement as i don’t believe there is anything such as born leadership. Indeed, there can be a few traits that can enhance it but true leadership develops over time and is available to all. Further moving on the one of the most important component of leadership, influence. Indeed, influence is the sine qua non of leadership and without influence leadership cannot exist ( Northouse, 2017, p.6).  As it is very clear from the definition itself influence is the key component of leadership. Look at all the great leaders, Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Dalai Lama, Obama and the list goes on, one this common among all of them is they are all very influential people.

Groups are the contexts in which leaderships occurs (Northouse, 2017,p.6). A leader is nothing without a group as without follower there can be no leader. Regardless of the size and magnitude of the group and movement, it is necessary for leadership to happen. Group and the leader work hand in hand to attain a mutual goal. Leaders act as mentors to the individuals and help and direct them to reach the mutual goal and utilize their full potential while doing so. Attention to  a common goal gives leadership an ethical overtone (Northouse,2017,p.6). Having a common goals ensures that everyone is working to attain it for the greater good of the group or community and leader is not exploiting then followers for his/her selfish motives.

Power plays an important role in leadership. Being a dentist and working in an healthcare facility has taught me a lot about it. As stated in Northouse, there are different types of powers but the one that stands out to me is personal power. It is not about the position you are assigned but its about your own influence. It reminds me of one of my favorite book by an amazing mentor, Robin Sharma, ‘The leader who had no title’. This book has influenced me in a great way and it is just a testimony to the fact that personal power is indeed greater than positional power and it makes leadership available to to all. Great things happen when both these powers are combined. What do you think, can a leader exist and impact with just personal power or is positional power more of a necessity?