Senior Level Leadership

Senior Leadership

Introduction

The purpose of this paper is to talk about a phenomenon that is one of the important concepts in the senior level leadership. This phenomenon is of shared vision. The following part of the paper answers the question that what are the different steps that can be taken by senior leader to get all the employees to be on the same track when it comes to the visions of the organization. In order to do that first of all a discussion is undertaken about the shared vision and various steps are mentioned and discussed with regard to the shared vision and actions of senior leadership. The most important aspect of the paper is discussion about shared vision in relation to an organization. For this purpose the organization that is selected is Lockheed Martin. The last part of the paper elaborates how shared vision can be experienced at Lockheed martin and what are the different steps that can be followed to sustain the shared vision at Lockheed Martin.

Kouzes and Posner's Leadership Model

Kouzes and Posner say that the actions of leaders are much more important than their words. Exemplary leaders first go by example through daily actions that demonstrate they are deeply attached to their beliefs. This is great if a leader is advocating a change in values, such as how employees or customers should be treated (Kouzes & Posner, 2006). There are ten qualities or truths about leadership that are highlighted by Kouzes and Posner. These ten truth include: a leader is able to make a difference, credibility is the nub of the leadership, these are the values that urge to show commitment, a leader can be differentiated from others because he possess the capability to foresee future, a leader believes in teamwork and believes that you cannot do it alone, a leader is capable of show trust on its subordinates, to embrace perfection and greatness facing challenges is crucial, a leader should lead by example or he should not lead at all, best leaders are always the best learners and the last characteristics or truth about leadership is that it is the matter of heart (Kouzes & Posner, 2010).

Relevant Literature

The research has revealed five practices that are common through which leaders are able to make extraordinary things happen. These are called The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership. These five practices are listed and discussed as follows (Kouzes & Posner, 2011):

Model the Way

Inspire a Shared Vision

Challenge the Process

Enable Others to Act

Encourage the Heart

The five practices of leadership identified by the Kouzes and Posner are the outcome of a serious research task to confirm the initiative capabilities that are fundamental to finishing unprecedented things in companies by senior leaders. To lead the exploration, Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner gathered thousands of personal best stories and the encounters individuals recalled when asked to think about a top administration experience. In spite of contrasts in individuals' private stories, their personal best leadership experiences also uncovered examples ...