16 Sep 2022

272

The Fundamental Principles of Leadership

Format: APA

Academic level: University

Paper type: Coursework

Words: 1907

Pages: 7

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Great leaders create a legacy that is remembered even after they are gone. Nelson Mandela is among the best leaders to have ever lived. The late Mandela demonstrated remarkable leadership qualities such as forgiveness, selflessness, and advocacy for peace. Mandela is among the few African leaders who willingly retired from the presidency to give other people a chance to lead the country. Based on the assessment of Mandela, it is evident that leaders should have principles, moral intelligence, goals, vision, ethics, and core values for them to lead their organizations or countries to success and growth. 

Fundamental Principles   

Organizational behavior and culture depend on a leader's fundamental principles. I believe in creating a conducive environment where workers can have healthy working relationships to promote the growth of an organization. Additionally, effective communication – both vertical and horizontal communication – is essential in promoting growth and creating a healthy working environment for all. My fundamental principles focus on people-centered development. Consequently, my basic principles are selflessness, empowering other people in society, and championing equal treatment. The fundamental principles focus on helping others and putting my needs last. 

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Core Values    

Core values are essential since they foster connection and trust among humans. Furthermore, core values promote teamwork within an institution and impact collective behavior among people. The founder's core values determine an organizational behavior and culture within a firm. My core values are integrity, accountability, and discipline. The three core values help create a conducive environment for all, encourage teamwork, and make one responsible for their actions. 

Beliefs    

Their beliefs define people. Our beliefs help in setting our priorities and how we behave and interact with other people. Some leaders are people-centered, while others are result-centered based on their beliefs. My beliefs focus on creating a conducive working environment that promotes partnership, cooperation, and effective communication. I believe leaders have a responsibility to inspire and motivate their workers to be better. As a result, I focus on empowering people within the organization to achieve the desired results. Workers need both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation to attain their goals and the expected profits. Creating a conducive environment for employees helps achieve intrinsic motivation since workers are at peace with their environment. A healthy working environment reduces cases of absenteeism from work because an organization has created a conducive environment that enhances effective communication and cooperation among workers. Furthermore, a healthy working environment eliminates high employee turnover as workers are contented with their workplace and are determined to achieve the set goals. I believe that profit emanates from how workers are treated. Consequently, organizations should not focus on profit but establish a people-centered environment to offer intrinsic and extrinsic motivation to their employees to enable them to perform better and attain the required profits. 

Power can corrupt, and every leader must use their powers to motivate and inspire others and not abuse others. I believe that human beings deserve equal treatment whether they are part of an institution or not. As a result, I treat everybody equally and with respect whether they are part of my organization or not. The power that I have as a leader is to help others to attain their goals and self-development. I use the ability to provide direction after consultations with others. I do not believe in imposing rules and orders on others but providing an enabling environment where people can communicate and discuss ideas before deciding. Additionally, the policies created under my leadership should be people-centered to enhance the wellness of workers. These beliefs help create a conducive working environment since it enhances effective communication and cooperation among employees. 

Behaviors Aligning with Values, Principles, and Beliefs   

Behaviors are a result of an individual's principles, core values, and beliefs. My behavior is impacted by the three components (beliefs, principles, and values). My values, ideas, and principles focus on inspiring, motivating, and empowering others. I have noticed that my behaviors align with my core values, beliefs, and principles since I focus on creating a conducive environment for everybody and listening to people by providing an effective communication channel that promotes vertical and horizontal communication and formulating people-centered policies that enhance the wellbeing of others. The assessment of my behavior illustrates that my principles, core values, and beliefs have impacted my behavior and how I treat people around me. 

Leadership Theories   

Leaders subscribe to different leadership theories based on their goals, purpose, beliefs, values, and principles. The two leadership theories that I subscribe to are transformational leadership and behavioral. Transformational leadership theory is people-centered and contributes to creating a conducive working environment ( Siangchokyoo et al., 2020) . Furthermore, the success of transformational leadership depends on effective communication among workers and their seniors. This leadership style allows leaders to work with teams to identify the need to change within an organization. Moreover, transformational leadership theory help leaders to create a vision that can guide a company towards change ( Korejan and Shahbazi, 2016) . Transformational leaders are required to inspire and motivate their workers to attain their potential. The four elements of transformational leadership that promote its success are idealized influence, individual consideration, intellectual stimulation, and inspirational motivation. The four components assist transformational leaders in achieving their goals and understanding the needs of their employees ( Korejan and Shahbazi, 2016) . Transformational leaders focus on empowering and transforming their workers through self-development. Consequently, followers of transformational leaders respond to the people-centered attitude of their leaders by feeling trust, respect, loyalty, and admiration ( Korejan and Shahbazi, 2016) . Intrinsic motivation helps workers to work harder to achieve an organization's desired goals. Transformational leaders do not focus on profits since they are people-centered, but their approach acts as a motivation to enhance earnings because there is low employee turnover and absenteeism ( Siangchokyoo et al., 2020) . As a result, institutions can retain their best professionals in a given market. Contrary to the belief that transformational leaders do not focus on profits compared to transactional leadership – transformative leaders indirectly contribute to making profits through their people-centered approaches. Effective communication and creating a conducive working environment assist workers in focusing on building an organization and attaining the required financial results. 

Organizational behavior plays a critical role in the growth of an organization since it determines how people within an institution interact and operate. Leaders' behavior is essential as it assists in deciding organizational behavior and how people within a company interact and create a corporate culture. The behavioral leadership theory relies on how leaders behave. The theory assumes that the traits exhibited by leaders can be copied by workers within a company and impact their behavior ( Rajbhandari, 2017) . According to the behavioral leadership theory, leaders are not born successful but can be created through learnable behavior. The approach focus on a leader's actions since the success of leadership is based on how a leader acts. Consequently, behavioral leadership theory relies heavily on efforts compared to the qualities of a leader. Leaders who subscribe to the behavioral leadership theory are task-oriented and people-centered ( Rajbhandari, 2017) . Based on the theory, the success of a leader depends on their actions. Additionally, the behavioral approach allows leaders to focus on learning and deciding the necessary steps they should implement to attain their desired leadership goals ( Rajbhandari, 2017) . The theory enables leaders to be flexible and adapt to various circumstances. 

Behavioral leadership theory is optimistic since it claims that anyone can be a leader provided they can learn and emulate other leaders' required practices and behaviors. This leadership technique allows influence as it impacts different leadership styles. Depending on the situation, behavioral leadership theory provides leaders with the opportunity to employ a given strategy in solving a specific issue ( Rajbhandari, 2017) . As a result, behavioral leadership theory assists leaders in focusing on their actions and utilize their decisions to be the best leaders. 

Transformational and behavioral leadership theories have similarities and differences that make them unique. Some of the similarities associated with the two approaches are they can be people-centered. Transformational leadership techniques rely on people to achieve its goal ( Hansbrough and Schyns, 2018) . Behavioral leadership theory is flexible, and when a leader is transformational or desires to be transformative, a leader can focus on bettering the needs of the people through their behavior. Furthermore, both theories focus on attaining given goals based on hard work and creating a conducive working environment. However, transformational leaders are people-centered, but behavioral leadership theory can either be people-oriented or results-centered. The traits of transformational leaders are inborn, while behavioral leadership theory believes that leaders can unlearn and learn given behaviors to achieve their desired leadership goals ( Hansbrough and Schyns, 2018) . The differences and similarities associated with the two leadership theories make them uniques. Additionally, the two leadership approaches are independent but interdependent on one another. For example, transformational leaders are defined based on their actions. Transformational leaders are people-centered – an act attributed to behavioral leadership theory since it depends on actions ( Hansbrough and Schyns, 2018) . Before subscribing to a given leadership theory, leaders should understand themselves and their desired leadership goals. 

Analysis of Leadership Theories concerning my Principles, Values, and Beliefs   

Both transformational and behavioral leadership theories impact my leadership technique. My behavior towards people and workers forms my values, principles, and beliefs. Consequently, I have learned to embrace unlearn, learn, and relearn given behaviors to promote my transformational leadership style. The world is dynamic, and leadership approaches change based on contemporary issues. Consequently, leaders should alter their leadership styles to conform to the changes without limiting their leadership goals. Behavioral leadership techniques impact my behavior towards people and how I should treat others as a leader. I use the lessons learned from behavioral leadership and its flexibility in promoting my transformational form of leadership. My principles, values, and beliefs are focused on creating a conducive working environment, embracing effective communication, inspiring, motivating, and empowering workers to attain their goals. Both behavioral and transformational leadership theories help me in achieving my leadership purposes and goals. 

Similarities and Differences between My Leadership Style and Nelson Mandela   

Nelson Mandela's leadership qualities are admired and praised all over the world. Former United States president Barrack Obama is among the leaders who admire Mandela's leadership qualities. Mandela managed to win Nobel Peace Prize for his role in uniting South Africa. Additionally, Mandela was imprisoned for 27 years but forgave his oppressors when he left prison and decided to work with them to connect South Africa ( Garba and Akuva, 2020) . Mandela advocated for peace and was focused on fighting for the nation's independence. After retirement, Mandela showed humility by living in Soweto and helping to transform the slum. Some of the leadership qualities that I share with Mandela include working with people to achieve a common purpose ( Garba and Akuva, 2020) . After being released from prison, Mandela agreed to work with his oppressors for the sake of a united South Africa. Politicians in the country were against the idea, but Mandela knew that it was the right thing to do, leading to him winning a Nobel Peace Prize ( Garba and Akuva, 2020) . Furthermore, the significant difference in our leadership style can sacrifice my life for others. I believe in my happiness. Unlike Mandela, I cannot offer 27 years of my life to be detained for the sake of others. I believe in communication and negotiating for a better deal that does not separate me from my close relatives. Consequently, I do not have the selfless nature attributed to Mandela in the fight for South Africa's independence. 

Overall, the research about Mandela's leadership style has empowered me since I have learned the importance of ethics in leadership. Mandela resigned as president when his term ended. Additionally, Mandela has never been accused of corruption or violation of human rights. From Mandela's leadership, I have learned the importance of embracing ethics and accountability in administration. Integrity, accountability, and honesty are some of my fundamental principles in leadership and the impact on how I lead. Consequently, my leadership focus on being honest to both workers and customers. I promote the culture of integrity and accountability when offering my services to clients and when leading since it helps to build trust and loyalty. Leaders should emulate Mandela's leadership style and transformational leadership because it helps in empowering, motivating, and inspiring people to succeed. Both Mandela and I embrace transformational leadership that focus on inspiring, motivating, and encouraging others to achieve their goals in life. The qualities of transformational leaders make them people-oriented and through their practices and behavior they contribute to organizational success because they intrinsically motivate others to achieve their best. Transformational leadership leaders to achieve the goals of leadership since it focus on building others. The conducive working environment achieved through transformational leadership contribute to organizational growth and success, 

References   

Garba, D., & Akuva, I. I. (2020). The Leadership Styles of Nelson Mandela as a Pattern for African Leaders.  Covenant University Journal of Politics and International Affairs 8 (1).  

Hansbrough, T. K., & Schyns, B. (2018). The appeal of transformational leadership.  Journal of Leadership Studies 12 (3), 19-32.  

Korejan, M. M., & Shahbazi, H. (2016). An analysis of the transformational leadership theory.  Journal of fundamental and applied sciences 8 (3), 452-461.  

Rajbhandari, M. M. S. (2017). Leadership Actions-Oriented Behavioral Style to Accommodate Change and Development in Schools.  SAGE Open 7 (4), 2158244017736798.  

Siangchokyoo, N., Klinger, R. L., & Campion, E. D. (2020). Follower transformation as the linchpin of transformational leadership theory: A systematic review and future research agenda.  The Leadership Quarterly 31 (1), 101341.  

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