Ways to start a leadership essay

You need to understand who a leader is before you can write about them. A leader is defined as any individual who has the power to influence, motivate, and even exhort his peers and people in general to achieve their set goals.

Magazine Authentic Leadership Guide: Not all leaders are good and acknowledgement of this can often be the first step towards better leadership. In order to lead better, leaders and academics have turned to the idea of authentic leadership. A leadership model, which believes that genuine leadership that basis its decisions on values can guide people towards the greater good.

How to Write a Leadership Essay: Good Conclusion = A+

The historical context Authentic leadership is another concept with roots in Ancient Greek philosophy. Ancient Greek philosophers concurred authenticity to be an important state of being, as it emphasized being in control of your own destiny and who you truly are as a person.

The word authentic comes from the Greek word, authentikos, which means principal or genuine. Authentic persons were true themselves and their surroundings.

Furthermore, authenticity was closely linked to the Ancient Greek model of cardinal virtues. To the Greeks, there were four key virtues to follow: The virtues called the person to: Consider all the possible courses of action and acting in a fair-minded manner prudence Stay emotionally balanced and in control at all times temperance Deal with other people in a fair manner justice Have enough courage to do the right thing fortitude By developing these virtues, people were thought to improve their inner self and the relationships they had with other people.

An authentic leader, therefore, needed the four virtues in order to lead in a just and good manner. To the Ancient Greeks, authentic leadership was moral and selfless to a degree.

Throughout the human history, philosophers, musicians and artists have explored this concept. In the Western world, some of the most famous minds have talked about authenticity and authentic behavior.

Descartes suggested authenticity is the following of your inner voice, which calls for responsible behavior. Authentic behavior was therefore often a natural existence, which was available for us all. In the s, authentic leadership entered the discussion and its inclusion was mostly driven by the need to reflect on certain negative elements the rising corporate culture had brought about.

In the early stages of the theorizing, authenticity became attached as a reflection of organizations as well as individuals.

Short Essay on Leadership

An organization could start highlighting its authenticity by acting in a responsible manner, reacting to uncertainty and being creative. The modern context Although the conversation around authenticity within the corporate culture began in the s, it took a while before the concept was fully explored as a leadership model.

He saw the problems of organizations often stemming from doing the opposite of that — hiding the truth, in order to avoid having to deal with problems. To Bennis, leaders were made and not born, suggesting that authentic leadership is at the grasp of everyone.

George published a book called Authentic Leadership in and later refined his ideas further in True North. Theory and Practice wrote about the scandals and their influence on leadership theories. In Authentic Leadership, George described authentic leaders as: The book restated the idea that leadership is not something you are born with, but that authentic leadership, especially, requires constant development and growth.

George developed an idea of leadership as a journey, with three distinct phases: In the first part of your journey, you prepare yourself for the leadership.

In the final part of the leadership journey, you start seeking opportunities to spread your leadership wisdom to others and give back to the community, even though the learning process continues.

You can see what the journey looks like in the below chart: As we will explore in the section about the advantages and disadvantages of the theory, the lack of proper theory or model is sometimes criticized as the biggest flaw of the idea.

But the core ideas of authentic leadership have evolved and academics are continuously researching the theory and its validity further. The theory values opinions and the theory has a strong ethical foundation, just as the concept of authenticity has had throughout history.

Authentic leadership can be viewed through three different ideas: Developmental definition — The model, which is the most prevalent, notes that the leader might not have set inner traits, but that these characteristics are developed and trained. Interestingly, authentic leadership is not always seen inconclusive of other leadership theories.

Avolio and Fred Luthans explored the idea of authentic leadership as the root construct of other leadership theories in The High Impact Leader.

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According to Avolio and Luthans, authentic leadership can manifest as directive, participative or even transformational leadership.

To understand authentic leadership, you must naturally define authenticity. The word authentic can be rather difficult, as it has become a fad. Self-proclamations of authenticity tend to take place in the world of politics, entertainment and business.

In her New York Times articleStephanie Rosenbloom gave examples of celebrities claiming their authenticity. In order for you to become an authentic leader, you need to first achieve clarity about your inner self and then start showcasing the actual self through your actions.A good paper needs to start with an introduction which needs to address what is to be covered in the essay; in this case, it is leadership.

Topic actuality Essay on leadership at times may require the writer to reflect on how he/she has demonstrated some of the leadership traits in the past. Leadership essaysThroughout my life I have encountered the chance to experience position of being a leader.

I have experience democratic leaderships through playing on a high school football team, being apart of groups in college for class presentations, being a youth leader in my church, and also.

Sep 03,  · How to Write a Scholarship Essay on Leadership In this Article: Defining Your Approach Understanding Leadership Writing the Essay Finishing Touches Community Q&A A well-written scholarship essay is sometimes the most important element of an academic application%(47).

Dec 26,  · Leadership Research Essay Introduction Leadership is a process of influencing activities of a particular group of people with the aim of attaining certain stipulated initiativeblog.com: Resolved.

In short, a leadership essay seeks to do two things: Define leadership; Show how you are a leader; The best way to do this is to list characteristics that successful leaders have and show your reader how you exemplify these traits.

Leadership essays, in general, are going to be pretty different than the essays you’re used to writing for class.

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