All entries for Thursday 24 November 2005

Random Blurting

Writing about an entry you don't have permission to view

I must spend more time thinking about my Blog before I write it. That's why they are so long and rambling.

Long and rambling blogs are ok. It's ok to develop an idea on screen, which is maybe what you're doing. You're reflecting on what you've learned and coming to your own conclusions. Who said that the blog post should be the end result and not part of the process? Maybe you shouldn't spend more time thinking about your blog before you write it. Maybe you would lose something by doing that? I find writing is a good way of exploring something. I have lots of draft posts which I come back to after a day and realise that I've answered my own question, so I don't post them, but I wouldn't have been able to get to that point without sitting and trying to type them out.

I suppose it comes down to this: What do you want to use your blog for? I felt that I had to have something worthwhile to say and the pressure about writing a blog post meant that I wasn't doing it very regularly at all. So, I have decided to sit down and just write. If it's work related or about something else that's on my mind then thats fine. The blogging, for me, is about practicing expressing thoughts in a coherent manner (and lord knows I need the practice). Also, it's a good way of emptying my brain so your mind doesn't get clogged up with random thoughts….maybe thats just me? And ranting, oh how I love the ranting!

: 24 Nov 2005 13:21 |  Tags: Me |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

What is leadership?

Over the past few days we have been thinking about leadership and coming up with our own definitions. Initially, I came up with: "the process of influence" because it makes sense to me that every time someone tries to influence, they try to lead. But it doesn't quite cover it. Through our group analysis of other definitions we identified three common themes: Influence, relationships and goals. Relationships must exist as to lead, there has to be someone to follow, and a realtionship must exist. Also, to lead implies a direction i.e. the achievement of some purpose of goal. Our analysis was corroborated by other authors on the subject (which was pleasing). The definition that our group came up with was: Leadership is the process of influence between the leader and followers to achieve goals.

Paul's definition was similar to ours but he specifies 'shared goals' in his definition: Leadership is the process of influencing the thoughts and activities of followers toward achievement of shared goals. This definition doesn't work for me. It implies that these shared goals have to exist for leadership to take place. I suggest that leadership encompasses the creation of these shared goals. I think that the creation of shared values is something more than selling an idea.

To create shared values, there has to be some influence. This could be an event or equally a person using their influence over others to bring them round to a single point of view. So, I would refine this definition to the following: Leadership is the process of influencing the thoughts and activities of followers to create and achieve shared goals. For the moment i'm happy with this but I know that I will refine this again and again.

I've also found myself interested in entrepreneurship and leadership. Entrepreneurs display a large amount of personal leadership, but are entrepreneurs always effective leaders? Do entrepreneurs have to have leadership qualities to be successful?

: 24 Nov 2005 13:08 |  Tags: Eee Le Thinking |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem