Essay on leadership

characteristics of a good leader essay

First, being a good leader requires a "tremendous sense of dedication . . . you don't even consider the dimension of time. You do everything you can, without limit, to do what's best for the kids and the school." Second, a principal must be "humanistic. . . . There is not a biased bone in his body. He looks at a kid and sees a person, not his ethnicity, his race, or his class. He connects with the person, without prejudice." Third, a good leader must be "knowledgeable." Mastruzzi speaks here of a knowledge gained through experience and reflection on experience.

characteristics of a good leader research paper

Robert Mastruzzi's belief in the unbiased, colorblind stance of a good leader combines with his pride in the rich mixture of students at Kennedy High. Because students are drawn from a wide geographic area, the school population does not closely reflect the surrounding Riverdale neighborhood. In contrast to the Riverdale population, Kennedy is blacker, browner, and poorer. There is a sharp contrast between the complexions and lifestyles of people inside and outside of the school. Kennedy is a zoned high school and attracts students from as far away as West Harlem in Manhattan. When Mastruzzi describes the mélange of students he begins by reciting the racial and…

essay a good leader

The finding that good leaders are also judged as good followers makes sense when viewed within an institutional framework like the military establishment. The principle represented applies as well to other institutions, however. With the increasing complexity of our society, the role of the institutional leader demands something more than leaping on a white charger to gallop off in a solely self-determined direction. Typically, he must effectively lead his group in directions which have been assigned to that group. Given this circumstance, the leader must himself be a good follower or his group may find itself destroyed or performing inefficiently in a total organizational mission.

Essay on a Definition of Leadership

The pioneering work of Lewin, Moreno, and their followers has resulted in marked progress in the development of methods for studying leadership as a phenomenon of groups. However, comparable progress remains to be made in the development of methods for the study of leadership as an aspect of organization. Several factors appear to have operated as barriers to the development of scientific theory and method in this area. One is the lack of an adequate definition of leadership. A second is the fact that in much of the literature on leadership, the terms "group" and "organization" are used interchangeably or are defined in exactly the same terms.

essay on leadership

The Ohio State Leadership Studies are being conducted on the basis of these assumptions: (1) that group organization is a recognizable social phenomenon in our culture; (2) that as such it is a legitimate subject for scientific study; and (3) that the variables of organization can be isolated and defined so as to permit their scientific study. It is the purpose of the present paper to examine various concepts relevant to leadership and organization, and to develop a formulation of the problem which will suggest hypotheses that can be subjected to experimental test.

leadership dissertation

… Leadership in these studies is regarded as synonymous with holding office or some position of responsibility. The majority of the studies use high school or college subjects, and define leadership as holding some office such as president of student body, president of a fraternity or sorority, captain of athletic or debating team, chairman of a club, and the like. However, a number of the studies deal with adults in rural communities and small cities. The study of Carlson and Harrell is concerned with congressmen. Thurstone studied government administrators. The most competent of the studies from the point of view of methodology and treatment of data are those of Bellingrath, Caldwell and Wellman, Flemming, Sward and Thurstone.

leadership essay

Leadership can be taught, as well as learned. Knute Rockne, in an autobiographical statement published posthumously, explains how he made quarterbacks and other football leaders by definitely creating special situations which fooled an aspiring Carideo time and again. By mistakes made in situations created by Rockne, an All-American quarterback was developed. The dominant role of social situations in influencing human behavior has been demonstrated. In their character studies, Hartshorne and May found that even honesty and dishonesty varied as the situations of given boys and girls in certain schools changed.

Leadership Term Paper

If the role of situations is vital in matters of self-control, how much more significant must it be in connection with social control and leadership. If "character varies from situation to situation," then it is fair to assume that leadership likewise varies. Consistency of behavior is doubtless a leadership trait, but behavior may vary according to situations, even on the part of any person. A person may be generally consistent in some situations and inconsistent in others. It is apparently necessary, therefore, to study situations in relation to personality reactions in order to account for ability, or for failure, to lead.

leadership term papers

Situational leadership often explains leadership unevenness. A person may use leadership technique in a situation for which it is not intended with the result that it does not work well, or it fails. Every after dinner speaker has told more than one joke which he thought appropriate but which "fell flat," because there were situational factors that the speaker did not suspect. Whenever a situation contains factors that a leader does not take into consideration, his leadership is endangered. A wise leader "knows his situations," or else his leadership displays much unevenness.

leadership research paper

The situational nature of leadership explains why a leader sometimes seems to contradict himself and to act like a hypocrite even though he loathes hypocrisy. It often happens, as any leader in an administrative position can testify, that a person may act sincerely and honestly in each of two different situations and find that he has contradicted himself, simply because the two situations are contradictory in certain particulars. Loyalty in one situation may contradict loyalty in another. A leader who desires to please is especially subject to this dilemma.