Personal Philosophy of Leadership (Research Paper Sample)

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Personal Philosophy of Leadership
Defining Leadership
Leadership refers to the way an individual influences, directs and guides the behavior and work of his colleagues and subordinates to achieve specific goals. Also, it can be defined as a manager's zeal and confidence induction to realize an organization's. Leaders are also required to motivate their subordinates to achieve organizational vision after they develop them. Therefore, leadership comprises essential facets, broken down into a process, influences, group context, and mission accomplishment. When all of the named parts are executed diligently, leadership becomes effective. Under these four elements, leadership involves executives and their subordinates interacting socially and influencing them to attain a particular responsibility.
Without understanding these essential aspects, it becomes challenging to lead and adopt an effective leadership style that suits organizational performance. As a process, leadership involves influencing people's behaviors, motivation, and inspiration to achieve corporate objectives (Kanyandekwe & Boateng p. 378). In this case, the leader can control and lead the followers in fulfilling a particular role. Thus, a leader must understand how to direct their followers towards accomplishing the underlying responsibilities. At the same time, a leader must learn how their behaviors impact their well-being and linked shareholders, especially followers.
Achieving all these courses of action requires a leader to be action-oriented in leading followers towards goal attainment. Thus, leadership entails a leader, followers, system of steps, and a set of objectives. According to Allen (2015), leadership is a social exchange between followers and their leader to discuss the planned activities and effort required to ensure set goals are achieved (p.16). Through this collaboration, leadership entails overcoming unproductive behaviors and actions within the organization and replaces them with productive. Therefore, a leader plays a pivotal role in an organization since the degree of their influential power determines either the success or failure of an organization. To preserve effective leadership, individuals in authority must have a strong comprehension of elements that defines an active managerial role to support a positive organizational performance.
In non-profit organizations like churches, leaders must clearly understand their roles to ensure follower's satisfaction and meet the set mission. A church must learn to withstand the pressure of limited funds and organize followers to seek funds to ensure continuity of church plans (McCann, Graves & Cox p. 28). Churches get money from government support, members' contributions, and donors. At the same time, churches have a string of programs to support. Therefore, in collaboration with followers, a church leader must plan how the available funds will be utilized to meet the needs of the expected programs. Also, it is essential not to forget the reality of the changing world. As the world continues to advance, leaders must be ready to embrace this transformation and adopt a leadership style that suits their operations based on the experienced change.
Therefore, leadership is more of principles, beliefs, and views that a leader uses to lead followers. In other words, one's leadership philosophy is defined by traits and beliefs. It is a leadership philosophy that guides a leader in evaluating various courses of action and addressing different situations within the organization (Gandolfi et al.,). Key components that define an individual's leadership philosophy include theory, leadership style, and attitude. Also, explaining how one approaches the concept of leadership, governing principles, acting as guiding ideologies in leading others, and behavior, describing how one conducts themselves as a leader are other defining components. Overall, the personal philosophy of leadership explains the type of leader one is as an individual.
Distinguishing leadership from management
As explained above, leadership entails getting people or followers to understand and perceive their leaders' views legitimate towards achieving the set goals. In this case, leadership must have with it the aspect of influential power (Wajdi p. 6). However, management is more of administering, where a leader must ensure that the set activities are taking place as planned. In other words, leadership is about influencing and inspiring, while management entails planning. In this case, leaders work to engage and inspire followers in turning a mission or vision into reality (Wajdi p. 8). Therefore, instead of viewing people as skills, leaders develop ways of inspiring followers to exploit their abilities in accomplishing planned goals. Managers, on the other hand, drive success.
It is essential to understand that leaders set the organizational vision, and managers follow it, ensuring it is accomplished. Thus, a leader must have a clear vision of where the organization is heading. However, managers play a crucial role in this process. They ensure employees remain aligned to the set mission. In other words, managers are drivers in ensuring organizational practices are in line with the leader's mission (Bolden p. 146). Specifically, leaders generate ideas while managers ensure those thoughts are executed. In other words, managers act as executors within the organization. They make sure that people in different departments are productive and operate efficiently to fulfill their responsibilities based on their vision.
More so, leaders vision about the future. They are future-focused since a leader must understand where the company is heading and its position in the future. However, managers are present-focused (Adams et al.). They work in the present, ensuring that daily activities align with the laid daily operational process towards achieving the future goal. Overall, a leader thinks about the future and the opportunities that lie ahead. At the same time, a manager focuses on implementing the set procedures and processes around staffing, structuring, and budgeting to attain organizational goals (Bolden p. 152). Thus, managers are responsible for ensuring that current procedures happen as planned to streamline everything towards achieving the set mission.
Lastly, leadership involves shaping the organizational culture while managers act as endorsers. In this case, culture explains beliefs, behaviors, and values that shape organizational operations. Leaders set the culture and align it based on strategic plans and in a way that involves followers and interested stakeholders (Adams et al.). Once leaders develop an organizational culture, managers ensure followers adopt it for the organization's well-being. However, communication is the main factor that overlaps between leadership and management roles. In every activity, communication is crucial to ensure the success of the set mission. In this case, leaders and managers must ensure that employees are informed about everything that determines the organization's success.
Biblical and Theological Rationale
Indeed, biblical and theological teachings present a broad understanding of what entails effective leadership. Leadership should be based on the body of Christ, where church leaders direct followers towards eternity. Therefore, just like in organizational leadership, church leaders are expected to lead followers towards accomplishing a particular goal: accepting Christ and living as per his teachings. The scripture commands men to protect themselves and their flock as instructed by the Holy Spirit (Acts 20:28). Man is also instructed to lead the church, which was acquired through his blood. The passage perceives leaders as oversees, guiding, and ensuring that followers act as expected. Equally, leaders in an organization oversee employees' actions to ensure they embrace the organizational culture and their practices align with the set goals.
 Safety exists in places and situations with an abundance of counselors while people will undoubtedly fall where there is no guidance, as stated in In proverbs 11:14. The passage implies that leadership plays a vital role in an organization. A leader lays guiding principles that ensure followers stick to plans that would lead to success. Indeed, leaders act as counselors, aiding people in making the right decisions. Therefore, church leaders must have the wisdom to guide believers in accomplishing the Christian goals. Equally, leaders in organizational leadership act as counselors, guiding employees to do what is expected. Leaders must always do the right thing to create a healthy relationship with their juniors and other colleagues.
Equally, effective leadership involves a positive workplace environment, where leaders can freely interact and collaborate for the organization's well-being. Thus, apart from leading people, a leader must possess the traits and principles that define effectiveness. On the other end, followers are expected to respect their leaders since they are drivers and guides to what they do. Bird, in Ephesian 5:3, states that "Let us, therefore, be careful not to oppose the bishops, so that we may be obedient to God" (Bird p.990). He also talks about the importance of the plurality of elders within a church to support effectiveness. He presents "the Presbyterian form of governorship that is centered on a plurality of elders constituting a session as the head of a congregation" (Bird p.992). The text implies that a church must have a group of elders to support the effectiveness of leadership.
The approach is similar to the concept of leaders...