All entries for Sunday 30 November 2008

The Definition of Leadership

If you have read my second entry, you will see what kind of personal skills I believe a leader should possess.

After listening to Paul and different groups definition of leadership here come my conclusion.

All of us believe that influencing people to achieve a shared goal is one of the most important elements of a leadership definition. However, what is the meaning of a shared goal? A shared goal is an objective which is well-known by the people. In order to avoid different interpretation of the objective, communication process is the key process. Therefore, our group believes communication should be included in the definition. I also agree to Paul that different situations may have a different leader. In the lifeboat exercise best explained the idea of it. A CEO could be a good leader in running an organisation, but he may not be the best person to navigate people in the lifeboat. As a result, our group definition of leadership as follows:

Leadership is a communication process of influencing and directing people to commit to and achieve a shared goal voluntarily, in a given situation (Aykut,Apinya,Billy,Crystal,Gilbert,Ritina 2008).

I used to think we have included the key elements of leadership, but Mei's and Francisco's group remind me a very important issue which I forgot. That is Maxmise the potential of people. Yea that's right! After watching the video in OPP class, a good conductor is not only guide the orchestra in the performance but also develop and maxmise the potential of the team and build up the players self confidence or even train them as the future leader. It¡¦s really an excellent point. Francisco told me that there is a way to distinguish a good leader. A good leader will give support and maxmise people potential implicitly. 

My own definition of leadership will be:

Leadership is a communication process of maxmising people potential and influencing people to achieve a shared goal, in a given situation (Lo, 2008).

: 30 Nov 2008 18:06 |  Comments (2) |  Close comments |  Report a problem