LEADERSHIP

Leadership

Leadership

Introduction

Leadership is a concept used in many different contexts with an array of meanings. Accordingly, there is a lack of common understanding as to what leadership is and what constitutes good leadership. In fact, a Google search of leadership definition leads to more than 22 million results. The purpose of this chapter is to offer some clarity to the concept of leadership and provide a thoughtful discussion on leadership perspectives and models that can be identified as progressive and effective for both personal and organizational success.

Leadership is an important concept for professionals working in nonprofit organizations. The discussions in this chapter highlight how leadership is a process that takes place in all aspects of an organization, and professionals can influence leadership in the organization and larger community from any level of an organization. To engage in leadership or enhance and demonstrate leadership skills, one must not be the CEO or a member of the board of directors. Anyone can engage in leadership through being a committed, engaged, and hard-working member of the organization who is in touch with and acts in line with the organizational purpose and values.

In this paper, different understandings of leadership are presented, including a discussion on leadership and management. Next, the importance of leadership is presented, followed by a brief history on the development of leadership studies. This discussion of leadership progression leads to an overview of progressive leadership perspectives, which are those that challenge the traditional leader-centric approaches to leadership.

Reflection on Leadership

Reflection Leadership is broken down into five main parts that take into account all of the aspects needed to effectively lead in today's complex organizations:

Self Reflection allows the leader to be able to better understand who they are as a person and as a leader.

Follower Reflection allows the leader to better understand those that are following and why they are following.

Vision Reflection allows the leader to clarify what needs to be done and how the organization is going to accomplish what it needs to.

Systems Reflection allows the leader to be sure that systems are in place to support what the leader is trying to accomplish and to understand the interdependencies within these systems.

Environment Reflection allows the leader to understand what is going on outside of the organization and how it relates to the organization.

Most of leadership theory addresses issues that fall into one or more of these five parts so Reflection Leadership becomes the overarching principle to being able to focus on the important things. Reflection Leadership is not a program where we mark off the check boxes as we complete the steps. It is actually an ongoing process that we need to incorporate as part of our everyday lives. When we take the time to stop and reflect we can get a better understanding of what is going on around us and how we can make things better (Bass & Avolio 2004, 90).

Leadership

The term leadership, by its very nature, is laden with meaning often derived from the interpreter's varied life ...