Reason People are Unwilling to Lead (Essay Sample)

Reason People are Unwilling to Lead
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Reason People are Unwilling to Lead
Summary
The article is a discussion about why people are reluctant to take lead. The article's authors conducted detailed research to understand reasons people are reluctant to take lead through a field study, in which 400 MBA students, 300 managers and employees participated. The authors used different survey methods to better understand how team members interpret and understand leadership. Additionally, the authors were eager to know risks associated with leadership and employees were asked to rate the leadership capabilities. The perceived risks were interpersonal risks, image risk and the fear of being blamed. Most of the people during the survey pointed out that if they stepped into leadership, their relationships with other colleagues would be affected negatively. The recurring theme amongst most people is that leadership will definitely harm interpersonal relationships. Another recurring factor was the fear of being blamed. Similarly, there are ways to lessen the risks and make people take leadership positions if the need arises. The article encourages considering proactive steps while in leadership, such as supporting risk-sensitive colleagues, managing conflicts and encouraging people to take low stake opportunities in leadership. Employees, especially minority gender, ethnic groups or those new to the team, are risk-sensitive. Thus, it would be best to encourage them to overcome their challenges and step up when leadership need arises.
Analysis
Leadership is the aptness of guiding and influencing other members. It has been observed that despite people proving to possess leadership skills during job interviews, they fail to step up when need arises. It is certain there are factors that make people reluctant to take lead. To ascertain the risks associated with leading, a survey is paramount to understand the issue appropriately. Leaders ought to be aggressive towards achieving goals, and thus the employees or followers can find it odd. However, if there is failure, employees will not be blamed but the leader. It was clear that most people would not associate with leadership to avoid collective failure blames (Zhang et al., 2020, p. 3). Upon identifying risks, a solution has to be found, and thus, mitigating factors such as encouraging risk sensitive people, managing conflict and encouraging people to take low stake positions in leadership were found. Additionally, while in lead, risks such as fear of damaging the image and interpersonal risks can be avoided through making the right decisions. It is with no doubt that capable people can be motivated to lead if proactive measures are used.
Evaluation
The facts in the article are accurate, and most people fear st