Leadership brings into view different perspectives. Political leaders who have an interest in a personal cause. Executive leaders cutting through a strategy to beat the competition. Leaders play an important role to play as they help themselves and others to do the right things. Leaders help in any place set direction and achieve the mission and vision of that place. Leaders anywhere in the world must use management skills to guide a group of people in an efficient way. An effective leader is a person who creates an inspiring vision of the future and motivates people to achieve the vision. In any business anywhere in the world, a vision must be realistic. Convincing and depict where the business wants to be in the near future. Leadership is then the art of motivating people in an organization to act towards achieving a vision. The act of directing people in an organization to meet a company’s needs through a certain strategy.
While in China, the fundamental values are to be followed in order to make an effective leader. Traditional Chinese values like family, relationships, achievements endurance and sacrifice of yourself to a certain group is key while leading. These values must be integrated into leadership roles in order for one to be successful as a leader. The general belief among the Chinese people is that they must be loyal to their leader and they will receive a reward at the end of it all. Loyalty is paramount among Chinese people and thus loyalty is expected back from their leader. Leaders hence must be loyal to their people and maintain utmost respect towards the people their lead. Harmony is also a crucial concept in a Chinese culture. The definition of harmony in any Chinese culture is the combination of order, relationships, and execution. This is an important concept that a leader must embrace in his tenure as a leader ( Wang, 2011).
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Leadership styles have differed between Western cultures and Chinese cultures. The concept of leadership in Chinese is then a more mental and spiritual thing that one must understand to be able to lead appropriately. Leadership is a process and it can be a trait. Leadership is a process that involves the traits of an individual. The process is all about how an individual can be able to influence others towards a particular goal or objective. Leadership is a process in a way that an individual must follow beginning at their early ages. In Chinese culture, leaders are believed to be born and must pass through a process to become effective leaders. Some people qualify through the process and manage to become great leaders, others fail to qualify for the process and even though they have the traits of being a leader, they fail to make effective leaders ( Lau, 2012).
Some people are leaders in their organization because of their assigned role in their formal position. Such an employee have roles in upper management or executive leadership. Others can be called leaders due to the way that group members respond to them. Emergent leaders, on the other hand, refer to an influential member of a certain group. Through their behaviors, emergent leaders exhibit their leadership. No matter what position they have emergent leaders always express their behavior. Emergent leadership is that kind of leadership in which an individual it becomes a leader naturally without being appointed or elected to that role. They develop leadership skills over time due to the position they hold. The most successful business organization focus on this kind of leadership style, they believe emergent leadership adds value to the business. In Chinese culture emergent leadership in the form of leadership that is used (Lucas, 2012).
Leadership is not the same as management, Leadership is way broad than management in so many ways. While managers are a success on completing their task and ensuring that the current job is done, leaders look at the bigger picture other than that of completing a certain task. A leader will consider multiple objectives in completing a given task. Leaders will put into considerations a lot of things like how the role will fit into the company’s overall plan. Managers are only responsible to tell and direct people on what to do, while leaders will engage and help to guide people towards achieving a certain vision or goal. Managing is different from leading the two roles to have different duties to achieve. Leaders can do both managing and leading while managers can only manage. Without lack of leadership skills managers are only able to fulfill their duties as assigned by the company. Leaders, on the other hand, can manage and lead. Organizations that have leaders as their managers usually have an edge upper compared to others. They can influence their colleagues in doing quality work besides managing them. They can also fulfill the company’s goals and objective faster than those that have managers who do not exhibit leadership skills (Serrie, 2016).
Leaders also care about their people and the environment they work in, managers will only care for numbers and achieving high figures and statistics. By caring about people, leaders are better problem solvers and come in handy whenever a conflict arises in the organizations. Leaders are able to cultivate change in an organization while managers are able to cultivate stability and maintaining stability in an organization. Managing is therefore not leading but can be done effectively by an individual who possesses leadership skills and qualities.
Leaders have certain commonalities around the world. Leaders are self-motivated. Leaders can witness this commonality across different places in the world. They have motivated a desire to achieve and go beyond their expectations without expecting motivation from external forces, their own drive and determination are what differentiates leaders and the rest of other people. Their passion to achieve and desire to become better is exceptional as this is what keeps them focused. Great leaders exhibit this commonality. Leaders always have confidence. Confidence is one of those qualities that a person can have or does not have. All great leaders have confidence and this is the main commonality that leaders share. The inner perception of your ability to achieve and fulfill a certain mission is what holds leaders. Being optimistic is another commonality that great leaders must possess. Positivity and optimism are essential for leaders to keep attaining their goals and objectives (Walker, 2015).
Accountability and courage is crucial to any leader. By being, accountable leaders are willing to accept their responsibility whatever the outcome. Leaders do not blame others when things get out of control. They are accountable in whatever they do. Leaders are also courageous, they are brave and never back out and quit. Aristotle the Greek philosopher identified courage as the first virtue of leaders. Leaders ought to be courageous in order to be effective in their role. Leadership sometimes can involve making unpopular decisions and not everyone can like the decisions, by being courageous, a leader is able to pass out their decisions without fear. Integrity and passion are also some of the commonalities that leaders must possess. Passionate leaders have a strong desire to ensure that goals are achieved. Passionate leaders make great leaders and this is one of the main commonalities among leaders.
Leadership techniques are common but in other countries, the leadership techniques may differ. They differ by a little variation but mostly the techniques are similar across different countries. Leadership technique like prioritizing on goals is one of a technique that is similar across. Stating a project's main goal and objective provides a leader with a better vision that will enable the leader in prioritizing the important goals and leaving out a non-issue. This way a leader is able to organize, plan and implement on he has prioritized on. Leaders in different countries can use this technique. Although the techniques may be similar countries in Asia, use a different technique in leading. This technique, especially in China, uses a different approach in achieving a certain goal. China uses traditional values together with techniques in fulfilling their leadership responsibilities. Communicating effectively is also another crucial technique that leaders across different places I the world utilizes. Leaders in any place often exhibit speaking and communicating in a candid manner. This is a requirement that leaders need to have in order to succeed. Leaders also provide clear expectations of what they want to achieve at the end of a certain goal. Good leaders also recognize and applaud good work. Techniques are similar in different countries, what might vary is how the techniques are implemented and how these techniques are prioritized (Walker, 2015).
In conclusion, leadership is a concept that entails personal traits; good personal traits will enhance the leadership skills that an individual may possess. Through this, an individual has the ability to lead anywhere in the world. An individual is able to accomplish his goals and objective so long as he exhibits leadership skills and ready to use leadership techniques in achieving goals and objectives set out by the organization.
References
Wang, B. (2011, December 11). Cultural understanding is essential for effective leadership in China. HRmagazine. Retrieved from http://www.hrmagazine.co.uk/article-details/cultural-understanding-is-essential-for-effective-leadership-in-china
Lau, W.K.E. (2012). A study of effective leadership in the Chinese context. Paper presented at the Academy of Management 2012 Annual Meeting. Boston, MA.
Lucas, S. L. (2012). What is the difference between a manager and leader? Retrieved from https://www.cornerstoneondemand.com/rework/whats-difference-between-manager-and-leader
Serrie, H. (2016). Training Chinese managers for leadership: Six Cross-Cultural Principles. Practicing Anthropology , 21 (4), 35-41. doi:10.17730/praa.21.4.c3175321268u3778
Walker, A. (2015). Leadership in China. Deciphering Chinese School Leadership , 1-11. doi:10.4324/9781315665375-1
