Category: Leader

Leadership is a social process in which an individual uses the support of others in attaining particular goals. A leader is an individual who is moving towards a certain direction, whereas managing to influence others to be his or her followers. Nelson Mandela is one of the leaders who demonstrated clear leadership styles during his tenure of office as the first Black President of South Africa. Mandela’s journey through his self-transformation occurred in prison, where he had been imprisoned for 27 years. Most individuals, other than Mandela, would be crushed by the experience and consumed by anger. To Mandela, the prison was not a loss of freedom and thought, but a platform for profound thinking and the development of his leadership styles. The three decades in which Mandela was a political prisoner were transformative. He transformed himself and was able to transform South Africa. Mandela was able to learn discipline, leadership, and patience, whereas in prison, taking that and carrying a nation through freedom and peace with that knowledge.

Impact of Prison on Mandela

Mandela entered prison as a revolutionist. In 1963, Mandela was imprisoned in Pretoria Local Prison. Oliver Tambo, Mandela’s close friend, remembered him with virtues as emotional, passionate, sensitive, rapidly stung to bitterness by insult and patronage (Lieberfeld, 237). Mandela was defined by a natural air of authority and could not assist magnetizing a crowd: he commanded a tall bearing; the youth trusted him, for their impatience reflects his own, luring to the women. He was committed and courageous and was a natural-born mass leader. Mandela was sensitive to how the colonialists strived to obliterate the history and identity of the oppressed by impacting their minds in order for them to forget.

Mandela learned about patience and discipline because there was little that a prisoner could control. The one thing that Mandela could control was he. There was no space for indiscipline or outbursts. Mandela lacked privacy because he shared the cells with other individuals (Smith, 395). He argued that he could not stretch himself without being in contact with others. It was clear that prison emotion and figuratively reshaped him. There was a lack of extraneous emotion because everything had to be commanded. Each morning and evening, Mandela painstakingly arranged the few possessions he permitted in the small cell.

Prison modeled the leadership skills of Mandela. In every moment, Mandela was required to stand up to the authorities (Smith, 395). He was the leader of the inmates and did not want to fail them. He became more acutely knowledgeable of how his colleagues viewed him. However, he was isolated from the larger world, the prison was its own sphere, and he had to lead the convicts there. For 27 years, he figured out policy, behaving, and leadership. Mandela became frustrated and irritated in other instances when people assessed his feelings.

Mandela became a true statesman after being released from prison. While in prison, he concealed his anger because he perceived that it did not serve him towards the progression of a democratic South Africa. Mandela was distinguishable from other prisoners because he had the capability to observe the root causes of the injustices done to him and the South Africans from the black race. The colleagues of Mandela viewed the warders as monolithic, the epitome of the brutal apartheid system. On the other hand, Mandela attempted to discover something decent and honorable in these warders and jailers. Finally, he viewed them as the victims of the apartheid system and perpetrators of it. These jailers and warders, who came from poor backgrounds, were illiterate and had been inculcated in an unfair and racist system since their childhood. His empathy for his warders and jailers demonstrates some form of maturity. Mandela implied that he entered prison as an angry, impulsive young man who was emotional, passionate, sensitive, quickly stung by bitterness and retaliation by abuse and patronage, as his best friend, Oliver Tambo asserted adjectives that Mandela ultimately discovered disagreeable (Lieberfeld, 237).

Mandela developed lessons and valued when he was imprisoned. Nelson Mandela, who had come out from prison, was a different man than the one who had arrived due to his age, values, and lessons Mandela carried in which he used to lead a nation. Mandela would always praise individuals by using the phrases ‘measured’, ‘balanced’ and ‘controlled’, which he would assert was a reflection of himself. Mandela responded to Richard Stengel’s question on how prison changed him, and he articulated that prison changed him. He came out of jail as measured, self-disciplined, and control, capable of strategizing and liaising with a colleague and aiming for a better South Africa. He became the figure who was able as a person and as part of the community to bring a country out of its history of racism and oppression.

Prison’s Lessons to Run a Country

Mandela was a transformative leader who led South Africa as the first Black president. The lessons that Mandela drew from prison enabled him to run the nation. The first lesson that Mandela derived from prison is forgiving to be free from emotions of revenge and victimhood. While in prison, Mandela chose to forgive the jailers and warders whom he viewed as the victims of the harsh apartheid rule. After his release, Mandela announced that he was working with the same individuals who threw him in prison, persecuted his wife, and harassed his children from one academic institution to the other. He persuaded other persons to forget the past and think of the present. This form of forgiveness carries on inspiring others and transforming society’s perceptions (Soudien, 354).

The second lesson that Mandela derived from prison was peacefully reconciling with persons who opposed his struggle at the hallmark of his agenda (Le Cordeur, 45). There was absolutely no person who anticipated that Mandela would liaise with Fredrick de Klerk, an individual who belonged to the South African regime that harshly treated Mandela and his comrades in the African National Congress. Mandela confessed that his hatred towards the white rulers in the nation reduced while in prison. When he came out of prison, his was that the ultimate way of building a new South Africa was encouraging the whites and blacks to liaise as the nation belongs to them.

The third lesson that Mandela derived from prison is freedom. As a transformative leader, Mandela had a lasting commitment vision of justice and freedom for the black South Africans. Whereas in prison, Mandela learned that it is important to persevere when attempting to attain a certain goal. He faced many hardships when he was imprisoned.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the prison was the greatest teacher of Mandela. Before entering prison, Mandela was passionate, sensitive, and emotional. Prison allowed Mandela to undergo a journey of self-transformation. It enabled him to learn patience, discipline, and leadership. The Mandela that was released was different in terms of age, values, and lessons. He had virtues as ‘balanced’, ‘measured’ and ‘controlled’. The lessons that Mandela derived from the prison enabled him to successfully run the nation.

It seems to be human nature to contemplate on our weaknesses rather than our strengths. It appears natural to ponder upon our weaknesses and search for methods to bridge this deficit area. Although, it is imperative to understand and substitute one’s weaknesses we must also actively examine or strengths. Leaders must effectively utilize their strengths to create new and innovative ideas. According to Buckingham and Clifton (2005) each person’s greatest area for growth is in the areas of his or her ultimate strength. Weaknesses can be intolerable to develop. Intelligent individuals learn to manage around their weaknesses.

According to the StrengthsFinder 2.0 assessment, my top three strengths are deliberative, futuristic, and relator. According the StrengthsFinder 2.0 assessment, people who are especially talented in the deliberative theme are best described by the serious care they take in making decisions or choices. They anticipate the obstacles before they occur. They realize that the world is an unpredictable place. Everything may seem in order, but beneath the surface they sense the many risks. Rather than denying these threats, they are quickly exposed. People who are especially talented in the futuristic theme are enthused by the future and what could be. They inspire others with their visions of the future. Finally, based on the assessment my third strength is a realtor. People who are especially talented in the relator theme enjoy close relationships with others. They find deep satisfaction in working hard with friends to achieve a goal. Overall the assessment does demonstrate my strengths. When it relates to my career and my family I prefer to think things through instead of making an impulsive decision. I desire to be proactive instead of reactive. I try not to live just for the moment, but I prefer to contemplate the future. Although, I do find enjoyment in being with friends and achieving goals with friends; I am a little surprised that this is among the top three.

A reflective leader must identify their strengths so that they can actively maintain the development of their organization. Once a leader is aware if their strengths they can actively devise a plan that can move their organization to the next level. Once you are aware of your strengths you can work with other members to appropriately designate duties that coincides with their abilities. For example, if my strength is analyzing and presenting data but my deficit area is organizing data into more manageable pieces; you can then assign this role to another individual that exhibits this strength. According to Byham (2019) effective leaders know when to use their strengths and when not to use them. The idea of growing strengths, without encouraging insight into the possible downside of overuse, can lead to personal disappointments and management havoc. Once you have identified your strengths you can now actively reflect on maximizing your abilities. Strong leaders realize the importance ofcollaboration and daily reflection. They are proactive instead of reactive. Effective leaders are constantly monitoring the progress of their organization and strategically searching for methods of enhancements. Göker and Bozkus (2017) argue that reflection is a vital component of leaders’ daily life, not a detached or disconnected action but primal, promoted by the culture and structures of an organization, which affects choices, policies, and decisions.

In conclusion, effective leadership begins with self-awareness. Leaders must be aware of their strengths, weakness, personality, and preference in order to effectively impact an organization. They strive to empower others while being cautious of micromanaging. They realize the importance of building teams that bring detrimental skills to the establishment. Their self-awareness inspires trust and admiration among those they supervise.

Rapid and unprecedented changes are taking place in the business world as humans develop in their cognitive abilities, and these are further fueled by the advancement in technology, leading to increased dynamism in humans thought process. Global provocations in the print of climate change and the prevailing Covid-19 pandemic are also crucial factors that are impacting business landscapes and how people react. These altering phenomena, in no doubt, have piled up immense pressure on leaders to be more proactive, calculative and strategic in their approach to meeting up with the ‘ever-growing’ demand and challenges posed by the modern-day world.

In other words, flourishing as a leader in these challenging times requires a blend of the right skill set and mindset. While often positioned as contrasting, it is important to highlight that both are very significant to the success of any establishment, albeit at varying levels of prioritization. Having the right skill set required to execute a particular task yields and boosts confidence, more so that you are then able to develop them, and even learn new ones. However, there is a ceiling to one’s development if the right mindset is missing. Depending on skill sets only will obscure opportunities to improve oneself and limit the mind’s flexibility to be creative and adaptive.

According to Owen (2017), the difference between the good and the great is the difference between your mindset and your skill set. The value of mindset cannot be overemphasized. Having the right mindset helps to achieve beyond the technical know-how and capabilities of an individual or a group. It is what galvanizes one’s ability to function with purpose and direction. One key exemplary characteristics of an effective leader is to be visionary anticipating the future. Without the right attitude, habit and behavior, it will be an uphill climb to inspire vision.

In order words, for a leader to inspire people and growth, he or she needs to cultivate a growth mindset that will be flexible to adapt to ever changing scenarios. Being strategic is about spotlighting and analyzing the wholistic dimension of a system, both on the core and soft side. Therefore, it is not just only desirable but essential for a leader to tap into and unlock the soft side of humans in order to optimize the expected performance or outcome. Many people will always be proficient in your skill set, but only a few will share the same mindset with you.

On the other hand, modern-day employers are increasingly redefining their workforce by spending more time on asking potential candidates more attitudinal and behavioral questions to better understand ‘mindset’. There is a transformational shift within organizations from zeroing into skill sets to giving more precedence to mindset as they belief having the latter can determine to a large extent how one can easily acquire the former. When organizations focus on mindsets, they are more than twice as likely to rate their leadership development efforts as effective. This is as evidently presented by Gottfredson (2020) in his survey of 153 organizations to understand what topics translate into more effective leadership development. Meanwhile, organizations will undoubtedly continue to invest in training their workforce to acquire the right skill sets, but what is most likely to garner faster traction in the long term is the sourcing of resources with the right mindset.

Microsoft is a clear example where growth mindset has helped revived its decadence into stagnation and transformed the brand into a powerhouse. Satya Nadella, the current Microsoft CEO, was quick to identify the weakening position of the business upon assuming office in 2014 and one of the key steps to remedying the situation was to build an ambience of trust amongst workers, minimize intra-company competition, and improve talent retention by instilling disciplines and programs that will help create a sense of purpose.

Nevertheless, it is important to acknowledge that it is not uncomplicated to cultivate a growth mindset. Dweck (2016) argued that it is easy to be susceptible to rolling back into a state of fixed mindset, which poses as an effective recipe to getting stuck and comfortable with one’s skill set without nurturing growth opportunities.

As it is commonly said, everyone has values but not everyone exhibits good leadership values. Values are essentially the make-up block of our actions and behaviors. These are intrinsic, abstract traits that define the standards by which we make decisions and choices. Our ability to lead effectively and drive success is determined by the range of values we embody as individuals. Leadership types and styles are strongly influenced by personal values. Therefore, it is essential for any leader to have a clear understanding of his or her personal values.

In a behavioral analysis, Badr, Gray, and Kedia (1982) established a strong interrelationship between personal values and strategic decisions by studying two sample groups of graduate business students across fourteen business decision scenarios from two countries. Nonetheless, it is noteworthy that there will always be different conclusion or judgment to a single situation by different people, even in the same circumstance, which then suggests or infers that we all have distinct and differing personal values.

Meanwhile, as with many things that change as we grow and learn, personal values can also be developed. While some may appear cast in stone, others can go through different formative stages as we pass through different life’s situations. We can be deliberate and intentional in our steps to making a change to who we are. Values are open to change. The priorities of values can change over time, in order to meet new and emerging needs (Schwartz and Bilsky, 1987). These changes can be achieved through conscious learning and coaching.

Meanwhile, demonstrating the right values as a leader is very important because they will impact the performance of your workforce and dictate the success of your organization. Firm commitment to one’s personal values can attract more respect and can be seen as basis to be trusted more. It will be highly beneficial to choose one’s leadership values to develop. However, there is the tendency for a leader to lean more towards some values than the others.

One of the key values of a leader is to empower others and this can be achieved by simply delegating to them and trusting them with more responsibilities which undoubtedly helps to foster growth. As the country lead at my former place of work, I figured junior colleagues were less confident in their relationship with both internal and external stakeholders. This was simply because they were often delegated simple and basic tasks which does not even help them maximize their job descriptions. This in turn shielded them from opportunities that can make them more vocal and noticed in the business. My approach was to deconvolve certain achievable tasks from the mid-managerial level to the junior team members, allowing them the opportunity to directly interface, manage and take ownership of small client accounts. This served as confidence boosters for them, and I believe the outcome of this empowerment act is as good as your guess. They experienced rapid development.

Being visionary is another valuable strength of a strategic leader. Seeing the bigger picture helps a leader to create a sense of purpose and direction among colleagues. According to James Kouzes and Barry Posner, “there’s nothing more demoralizing than a leader who can’t clearly articulate why we’re doing what we’re doing”.

Likewise, a strategic leader must exude empathy and be humble. Both values play even more vital role in the current socio-economic context we find ourselves. The prevailing clime has posed significant mental and physical challenges to employees whereby many have had to deal with medical conditions or witness the death of loved ones and/or colleagues due to Covid-19. It has never been more important for leaders to demonstrate these core values in order to optimize performance across their workforce. Evidently, leaders of many establishments globally are activating their flexibilities by adapting to a hybrid framework to allow onsite engagement at critical times and virtual approaches to ensure continuation of tasks while also encouraging more family times to cope with stress. From a personal point of view, this model has evidently helped my team to even inject more dedication to their responsibilities and have also helped manage their work-life balance.

According to the famous quote by Sri Mulyani, development is an endurance exercise with incremental improvements. This implies that development is not necessarily linear, but it can be consciously planned and systematically achieved with appreciable gains. The journey of development practically involves mastering skills, incorporating them into behaviors, and then making them habitual. It is however important to identify and outline the right set of skills that need to be developed. In order to accomplish this, your main objective(s) to develop must be purpose-driven, clearly articulated and led by soundly evidence-based principles. Be satisfied with answering the ‘why’ question on why you need the skill. By so doing, you are most likely to have all the expected outcomes in proper view focus even before the learning process starts.

In many cases, there is a strong correlation between the success of any organization and the personal and professional development of its leader. For example, Warren Buffet asserted that good communication skills can lead one to earning fifty percent more money over one’s lifetime. Interestingly, he admitted he was absolutely terrified of public speaking at the early stage of his illustrious career, but he knew he had to do it if he must succeed. He laid out a clear plan and worked on it, and the rest is history. One could infer that his journey to developing in this case involved acknowledging his own weakness, identifying what skill he needs to improve and piecing together a plan to overcome the barrier, but most importantly, he was driven by a purpose: the desire to make more money. In other words, a strategic leader needs to ensure to put in place personal and professional development plan which is in consistent and in alignment with the strategic objectives and vision of his or her organization.

There are clear benefits to personal and professional development on strategic leadership especially when developmental aim and objectives are thoroughly planned. The popular SMART framework for goal setting is a way to ensure plans to develop have a real impact on strategic leadership.

In totality, acquiring new skills will help build confidence and boost efficiency. Learning from trainings and mentorship programs are ways to notch up motivation. These are ways to demonstrate to employees that you care about their growth and progression in the business. The credibility of an organization is at an advantage when the workforce is energized by being able to see a roadmap for growth, and this in no doubt will ensure employee retention rate is at an appreciable high level.

Engaging in regular self-reflection and self-assessment over my ten years of professional career has been instrumental to my personal and professional growth. Being able to identify areas of strength and improvement has helped me achieve my objectives in line with my set expectations and timelines. I work with a well-structured organization with global footprint, where thriving successfully means possessing the right set of skills, attitudes and competencies. Indirectly, this constantly puts me under intense pressure to want to develop and improve on all fronts but over the years, I have come to realize that focusing on and activating my strengths that are consistent with my personal values and the vision of my organization will be more beneficial and help accelerate my growth.

From a personal perspective, I would say that my strengths as a leader are the ability to show empathy at different levels of situations, and that I am creative and always looking to solve problems. Both competencies have always stuck out as common denominators in essentially many of the 360° feedback sessions I have engaged in during my career with colleagues and managers. I have in some cases also sought feedbacks from clients I work to ensure I have a bird’s eye view of myself. Below screenshot from my LinkedIn profile recommendation section by a former client further amplifies how I am being perceived, in this case from an external assessment in the area of empathy and problem-solving.

I believe my emotional intelligence helps me to plug in well into different situations and empathize as a leader in the right way. This means in most cases, I am always looking out for the well-being of my colleagues’ team, putting myself in their shoes both on a personal and professional standpoint, and making sure I put their needs right before mine. Similarly, my creativity helps me to encourage others to explore new and creative perspectives when solving problems as I essentially enjoy coming up with new ideas and perspectives. With increasing business challenges in many organizations, I find both competencies very valuable in helping me to achieve results.

In order to lend more credibility to the internal and external views, and help identify other strengths and improvement areas, I have adopted a competency framework known as Strengthscope competency wheel because it is designed to help authenticate how to bring the best to work, and to life, every single day through the discovery and development of strengths. Based on my inputs for evaluation, Strenghtscope benchmarked me with many established competencies of a leader and has helped streamlined my seven main ones which are in no order: compassion, courage, creativity, detail orientation, initiative, leading and results focus. I find the results from this framework to be very consistent and acquiesce with my personality and professional life. Kindly refer to the next page to view the visual for the results.

My ability to withstand personal risk, pressure and difficult circumstances makes me courageous. My colleagues always would say that I am a man of my conviction and I believe this is because I take tough stands and challenge the status quo even if they are not popular positions to take. This strength has made me more confident and resilient as a leader in my organization. On being detail-oriented, this is not unconnected to taking pride in the accuracy of my work and ensuring consistent high standards of delivery. I am wired to always strive for perfection in the quality of my work, no matter how small the task may be. It is habitual for me to check and willingly redo my task to ensure accuracy to meet others’ expectations and requests.

Likewise, I like to be proactive in taking initiatives to make things happen and achieve goals. This includes regularly solve problems or acting before being required to do so and independently anticipating and dealing with any problems or roadblocks to task completion. On another note, I often personally feel obliged to take the lead in influencing and motivating others to contribute to the goals and success of the team and organization. Many a times have my colleagues frequently turn to me for direction and also asked to speak on behalf of the group.

Lastly, my function in the organization has morphed into a more result-oriented role and this is because of my strong sense of focus on results, driving tasks and projects to completion. I am very keen on conveying a strong sense of urgency and drive issues to closure. More compelling is my strength to maintain a strong focus on the goals of the organization and the resources available to achieve those goals.

In totality, our strengths are the qualities that energize us and enable us to perform at our best. By getting the balance right between developing my strengths and reducing performance risks, I believe I will achieve higher levels of resilience as a leader, so also confidence, positive engagement and desired success. It is the feeling of being needed that produces high expectations and high performance, especially when your peers have those high expectations of you. People like to compare themselves to others, and they also like to perform against standards, especially if they had a role in setting the standard, and if it is achievable.

What is a leader? A leader is a person who influences a group of people towards the achievement of a common goal. This goal can be either positive or negative, and depending on the goal to achieve is whether the leader is positive or negative.

An influential leader in my life is my mother because she exemplifies a godly woman in many ways. For example, she has a servant heart, she uses her talents for the benefits of my family, knows the power of example, possesses an exemplary character, is enthusiastic, confident, organized, she remains calmed, and is committed to excellence.

She is an excellent listener and provides me with lots of great advice. Throughout my life, my mother has demonstrated and taught compassion. She is the source of my family’s care, protection, nourishments, and sacrifice. I don’t know anyone who is more dedicated, hardworking than my mom.

My mom is not just a great leader, she is a great role model. She is very intelligent, devoted, patient, and industrious, and these are some things you can learn from her, and those attributes are very important for becoming a great leader in the future.

She genuinely cares for the people she loves and always puts our needs before those of her own. My mother is humble and selfless and works to connect and understand each of her children, in order to help us grow emotionally. Each challenge that has arisen with each of us is met with a new process fit to that child’s personality and needs. She adapts so well in order for the different child to obtain the most insight from her advice.

She looks to the goal of making us independent, successful, and competent in the world and while she challenges me to push my limits and work through struggles, she also hardly ever criticizes me. She is there supporting me whether I win or lose, pass or fail. My mother always tells me that I must focus on my strengths, not my weaknesses.

In my personal experience, all great leaders seem to share these qualities. Because of that, my mom is able to get along well not only with other people, but other leaders too because they have things in common.

In conclusion, my mom has all the attributes that a great leader possesses, and that turns her into a positive leader. All the sacrifices she has done in order to lead her family to happiness.

What is a leader and who is the leader? A leader is a person who is willing to lead a group in a different situation. Being a leader is not only for a person who is good at talking or communicating and have many skills, but this position can be for all of us.

A leader is a person who always willing to help his group to achieve their goals. He is the one who has the compassion to help his members to grow individually. A leader is not selfish. He always loves to share his knowledge with everyone. His ears are always open to listen and his mouth always speaks good advice and encouragement. As a leader, you will look at your group as a burden, but you will look at them as a friend and as a helpmate because without them you will not be an effective leader.

Some people define a leader as tough, bossy, inconsiderate, and like a commander, but these are not the correct definition of a real leader. a real leader can be tough sometimes but not to the extent that he will not give his members a chance to breathe. Leaders have the authority to give commands but not to be bossy and inconsiderate, he should give their members the to raise or open their concerns and have the freedom to suggest. Yes, there is a chosen leader but it doesn’t mean that all his decisions and sights are correct all the time, sometimes members can also help him to have a good decision that all members can benefit from. If a leader is inconsiderate, achieving goals could be impossible. A leader who is bossy, super tough in the wrong time and place, commander, and inconsiderate will not ever be good and effective.

In terms of talking and communicating, a leader is not using flowery words just to please his members and others, he should be trustworthy and saying what is true because it will affect his integrity. Good image and clear integrity are some of the most important things a leader should have. How the members will follow their leader if they know that he is not trustworthy and always not telling the truth. So, in this matter, gaining respect from his group will be the reward if he is having these two.

A leader is also a person who can be respected because of how he leads his group in a good way. It is so easy for a leader to be respected if he transparent to his group and no pretensions. Being a leader is not easy if you are hiding your other side of your group. Being open to the group as a leader is one reason for the members to love him and respect him. So, trust and respect can be given to him easily.

We are all believing that all leaders are full of wisdom. Leaders can think and can say something that all their members can learn and can get something good and encouraging. He is wise in leading people, wise on how to understand differences of his members, wise in making decisions, wise in solving conflicts, wise in handling different kinds of issues and he is wise in giving advice and encouragement to his members.

A leader is also courageous. Being a leader is not an easy task but this is one of the biggest and tough ones. Leading different kinds of people is like a challenge because he will study how he will handle the differences of each one of them. Guaranteeing his group that he is always there if conflicts are happening is also hard because he will spend his time to solve issues without thinking that his mind also needs rest.

His work as a leader is not only to lead people, but in most cases he also changes the lives of his members because of his perseverance and dedication to help the group to achieve their goals. A leader can be real and effective if he is a person who is not selfish and not focuses only on his success but also looking for some ways to help his group to be successful also. Leadership should always be accompanied by compassion, courage, love, and wisdom.

Good leaders never know all the answers. The best leaders strive constantly to learn and grow, connect with people, challenge themselves, improve their teams, and develop better ideas. But first and foremost, people should understand intuitively that if you can’t lead yourself effectively, everything else in your life will be a struggle.

Self-leadership comes first. It makes every other kind of leadership possible. This is where personal credibility is established. Leading oneself may be difficult, especially if you have blind spots which are preventing you from seeing where you have problems and fall short. Everybody has some but only a few people are able to recognize their own. These can be especially harmful in leaders. As leaders influence others and their actions affect a team’s outcomes, their blind spots may be exaggerated as it will have a multiplying effect on the people in their sphere of influence. Effective leaders must make an effort to see things from different points of view. Leaders, in my opinion, should also be able to overcome their own insecurities. As insecurities can make a person constantly worry about what others think of them, they may end up taking more from people than they give as they seek for more validation. Leaders must also have a strong sense of character as it is the sum total of all their everyday choices. Putting the right consistency of values, ideals, thoughts, and words into action every day is a critical part of what makes a leader. Hence, when values, thoughts, feelings, and actions are in alignment, people become focused and their characters are strengthened which allows them to lead themselves as well as others successfully.

Leaders must keep the fire burning within themselves, because other people are depending on them. They must know where they’re going, know why they’re going, and help others get there. A successful leader is also someone who stays true to his beliefs, gifts, and personality. They should lead in a style that reflects who they are, and to do so they must know themselves better and stay true to themselves. Leaders must also implement right and regular practices that help them do the right thing day after day. All of these virtues would prevent their fire from ever burning out.

Another attribute that promotes excellent leadership is the will to embrace servant hood. Serving others not only makes one a better leader; it helps their team, the people they serve and makes the world a better place. Focusing more on your responsibilities than your rights is also important. Leaders must do more than they expect of others. They must become highly relational by learning to initiate and communicate vision. This involves treating people with kindness and respect, and going to where they are to connect with them. Additionally, good leaders are learners. If they are persistently looking for ways to grow, and ask the right people the right questions, I believe they will become a better leader and mentor to other leaders.

Last but not least, one of the most important habits a leader must practice every day of their life is giving more than they receive. Having a giving mind-set and offering generously to others without the hope of return, changes the person receiving the courtesy and encourages him to pass it on. It becomes a positive cycle because as it spreads, not only do individuals change, but so do communities.

During this course I have taken various types of self-assessment tests and the results to those were very thought-provoking. Never have I thought that these types of tests would be so accurate and interesting. The most significant key learnings that have stuck with me are the personality assessment tests called Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and the measurement of locus control. I believe that acknowledging these assessments can help me to understand myself more deeply and to become a great leader. This paper will focus on the key leadership insights I have gained from this course and the impact it will have on my professional development as an aspiring hospitality leader.

As a student who wishes to become a leader in the hospitality industry, I find this course very beneficial and practical. The reason why I chose to enroll into International Hotel Management to get my undergraduate degree is to become knowledgeable in every course we’ve taken so far. In the future, I hope to develop into a skillful general manager. I understand that we can all be exceptional leaders if we are willing to acquire the right leadership skills and that not all leaders were born to be a leader, but they work hard to be a great one. I consider myself as an honest individual in every aspect and I try to stay that way. During the class session, I was happy to hear that honesty is the number one, out of 20 qualities, and it gave me a little spark and reminder that I could be a leader someday. Another thing that gave me motivation was the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator assessment. My scores were titled as ISTJ, which are introversion, sensing, thinking, and judging. I knew I was an introvert from the start but I was not sure about the other characteristics. For some reason, I always thought that extroverted people were better than introverted people. They just seem very energetic and are always able to communicate and socialize much better and that made a little jealous to be honest. However, because of this course, I was able to re-think that idea and realize that being an introvert also has many strengths and qualities that extroverts do not have. While reading the leadership textbook, I found a section about introverts having misconceptions about themselves and that both Bill Gates and Warren Buffett are introverts, which changed my thoughts on less introverts being leaders than extroverts. Overall, the results of my characteristics were defined as an organizer, trustworthy, responsible, good trustee and inspector, which I agree. I believe these personalities are directly linked to my strength, which is being honest and if I keep developing these skills and characteristics, as well as any new ones I can pick up, I know they will all come in handy in the future.

Locus of Control

I scored a 40 on locus of control, which is below average. Locus of control is a specific personality attribute that have a significant impact on our behavior. Many people believe that their actions have an impact on what happens to them in the future. They believe that they carve their own futures, disregarding any external factors. On the other hand, people like me feel like whatever happens in my life is a result of chance, luck, people or any other external factors that have control over fate. Basically, I am more of an external locus of control person, which makes sense because making excuses and procrastinating work and goals is relevant to me, plus I feel like I give up easily on a lot of things due to this mentality. I believe that being external locus of control gives me more anxiety because I sometimes believe that I have no control over my life. If I could change this mentality, I believe I am able to think more positively and achieve much more during my career development. As I read in the textbook, internals focused people are more self-motivated and have better control of their own behavior, and participate more in social activities. This example here is why I strongly believe that I should shift my locus of control into internal because now I know that high internal focused people achieve more than external focused people. By saying that, I’m not stating externals are bad and internals are good. It is just a preference on how we would like to see the world from different lenses. So, to start shifting my mentality from external to internal, I should stop making excuses and avoiding responsibilities. By doing that, I believe it can have positive impacts on my life. Also, by being mindful towards others and respecting other people’s values is going to be very important part of my journey. Mindfulness is vital part of being a great leadership and we are learning to be mindful in many of the courses such as multicultural management, ethical issues in hospitality industry and also in leadership course, which tells me practicing mindfulness is essential.

How Will My New Learnings Will Impact My Future Development?

Managing people is going to be one of the hardest things I could possibly do. Those that were or are in a leader position say that it is hardest thing but they also love what they are doing. From that I understood, whatever you are doing, it is important that we should love what we do otherwise it will just turn into punishment. A difference between a manager and a leader is that a manager has people who work for them and report to them while leaders have people who follow them because they trust the leader’s vision. Leaders are able to inspire their followers with a purpose and help them to grow their minds and abilities as individuals. However, during this course one of the things I learned those that are in a leadership position must have some of the key leadership attribute and behaviors and be able to develop what they lack. In my opinion, great leadership personalities include optimistic, honest, driven, mindful, responsible and someone who is able to look far beyond the horizon. Out of this list, optimism and honesty really stands out to me because a lot of people would describe this as a dreamer and that this is not good because they need to be realistic. But how I see it is that not every day is going to be filled with dance parties and when the unexpected happens, the followers usually look at the leader before showing any reaction so if the leader is sending out a negative vibe, it will have an impact on the whole team. So, a leader should always remember the power of positive thinking.

Another leadership goal I set for myself in order to improve my leadership skills is to become a situational leader and again, this leadership style simply means that I must be able to adjust my leadership styles to fit the development level of my followers as everybody’s skills vary depending on their experience and everybody gets influenced differently. Practicing situational leadership will come in handy in any condition I find myself in, especially when working with people who come from different culture, language and skills. If I use those learnings from this course to integrate into my future job position, I would be able to get promoted much faster and efficient. I plan on moving to Mongolia in the future and for someone who has lived in Canada for almost 5 years, I believe this leadership style learnings will be useful for me when dealing with followers that have a completely different viewpoint than me.

Conclusion

Knowing my strength and weakness and how my personality affects my everyday life is the first step to become a great leader. One should be able to identify their own attributes before moving on to anyone else. The self-assessment test results will be valuable pieces to keep and also to re-take in 5-10 years because although I am happy with my results now, I know that in 5 years, as I am in a completely different stage in my life, I know that my values will have changed so it will be interesting to compare the results. Therefore, I hope to develop a high internal locus of control to balance out my already set personality because I want to see how else I can develop and better myself.

Oprah is a great leader because she has been through so much and she never gave up. There are plenty of things I will mention that shows this, but one thing is what I believe made her strong from being a child is the fact she was sexually abused by her family when she was younger. Even though she went through this she didn’t let this make her she didn’t give up. Instead, she moved on and did amazing in school. Instead, she got her grades together and expelled and went to Tennessee state university proving herself worthy. She is an intelligent leader with a caring heart. She is smart but she can also conserve her leadership qualities even while not losing the fact she cares. She shows that you can turn everything negative into positivity no matter what by doing just that.

Oprah set goals and achieved them. One of her goals was to lose weight and she lost 90 pounds and achieved her goal, and not only did she achieve it and not stop, she made it to wear anybody could by starting weight watchers. She has earned and got respect from of her followers by everything she has done.

Oprah once said: “I am a woman in process. I’m just trying like everybody else. I try to take every conflict, every experience, and learn from it. Life is never dull”. She might not a doctor or psychologist, but people trust her with their secrets and invite her to share in their highest endeavors. People follow leaders who are translucent and relatable. It has been uncommon for a woman to be a leader in the business world as a whole. However, through the years, the growth of female leaders has drastically grown. Women are establishing themselves by to donating more and more to the field. A female leader like Oprah who has considerably changed the history of the business and has also contributed strongly to growth in new areas.

Oprah is indication of how delicate misfortune can become personal achievement. Oprah’s parents never were married, so she spent most of her years living between her mother, father, and grandparents. The constant moving left her unprotected to neglect and sexual abuse, which resulted in a defiant mind-set. Oprah’s father, Vernon Winfrey, was able to relieve some the commotion by familiarizing her to church and having her to participate in the church. At that time, she was known as ‘the little speaker’. She would speak to the church congregations as though she was fully-grown. When she was 12, she delivered another speech in church and was gave five hundred dollars. That was when she was said to have known what she wanted to do for a living: she said that she wanted to be ‘paid to talk’. This was the beginning of her future in public speaking.

Being a compassionate and caring individual, Oprah doesn’t take justice issues lightly. She refuses to hold her tongues one would say. Oprah’s history for philanthropy and fighting for good is nearly unmatched. From imp limiting the National Child Protection Act in 1991 to transforming lives through education with creativities such as the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls, Oprah has shown her power of one the strongest leaders to positively impact many lives. “In 1985, Oprah Winfrey became the first African American woman to host a nationally syndicated program” (Everett, 98). Oprah became so up-and-coming that she formed a production company, Harpo Productions, and bought her own show. Harpo was motivated by Oprah spelled backwards. Forming this company made Oprah the first woman to own and produce her own talk show.

Oprah is the essence of leading by example. Her focus on being the best person she can be for everyone that looks up to her and for herself which translates to the way other people choose to live their lives in response to seeing that if she can you can to. Oprah gives advice and suggestions to others in hard times, but it is her nature to always inspire people to take her advice. She is one leader that can be looked to as someone who will be there no matter what happens in like for an example you feel down read a quote by her and feel uplifted.

Regarding forgiveness, research find that an individual with forgiveness ability can contribute to beneficial relational connections, achieve better cooperation, work fulfillment, individual resolve, innovative problem-solving, a feeling of adaptability when confronting changes, and productivity. For instance, there are frustrating things occur such as someone affronts me at work or the undesirable result comes out in the project as someone doing wrong. The strengths of forgiveness can let me learn to forgive those who I have held a grudge against for too long and try to think about how the things happened rather than seeing them as ‘all bad’, to grow and transform myself positively by learning from those experiences. By doing so, the ability of forgiveness can help me to builds loyalty and good citizenship with the followers. In organizations that have been instilled with a forgiveness culture, people will tend to be more positive and put more effort in their work, which has important consequences for the bottom line. A creative leader who is forgiveful will be able to promote the organization and looks into the future by walking the talk and also developed the forgiveful atmosphere. Since the ability to forgive provides people a chance to take risks, to be innovative and to develop their own leadership capabilities and style.

Judgment can be described as the essence of leadership. Judging by others regarding the performance of his organization is a situation that a leader has to faced. As you gather information about a person, weighing it regarding its merits and analyzing the result rationally so that you will be able to keep any tendency of jumping to conclusions in check. Good judgment can allow a leader to contribute to a more accurate conclusion. Recruiting people which the skills of viewing things from different perspectives is a particularly skill in dealing with changes and transitions. Therefore, creative leaders find insights and ideas from unrelated fields, chance encounters and the unexpected. Also, willing communicate with others in order to understand the perspectives and ideas of followers, that can build broad external networks with the expectation that this builds significant future value. Creative leader with judgment has ability to overcome any challenge, he or she are comfortable with contradicting insights, paradoxes, conflicting needs and ambiguity, and try to search for better concepts that bring major improvement by thinking in contrary directions and deliberately reject conventional. By doing so, creative leader with the ability of judgment can create more new opportunities for workplace.

In order to build trust and maintain a good relationship with followers, leaders are required to show fairness through the allocation of resources and the application of policies to all team members. Many researches prove that a fair individual trends to engage in a positive, prosocial behaviors, at the same time less likely to engage in illegal and immoral manner. For instance, leaders love to show their support to others, exploring their beliefs and guiding them towards the ultimate goal. Respecting workers from different backgrounds and serving on the board of an organization that offers under-privileged people a level playing field. To bring out the full potential in terms of initiative, creativity, and productivity, dealing with ones in a consistent, impartial, objective manner is required by the leader. Leaders with the sense of fairness in their relationship with employees always contribute to a high-level playing field for everyone is indeed powerful and reinforcing.

To conclude, a creative leader trends to think strategically, based on the result and with a global sense. Social awareness and holistic connectedness are the opponents which is required to be a true creative leader. They show their high level of self-awareness, which allow them to related to issues that is happening in the past and now, demonstrate compassion with the sense of being open-minded at the same time. They have the ability to translate potential market opportunities into actual enterprise concept which is extremely innovative against incumbent business models. They are good at predict the market trend with a global sense and integrate the big environment impact with attractive economic returns.

Many great leaders across the world have inspired everybody with their visionary personalities. Among those great leaders, Nelson Mandela is the one who inspires me the most. Nelson Mandela was the first ever democratically elected black president of South Africa and a Nobel Prize winner. He struggled to end the intolerant culture of racial discrimination in the country. Humility and honesty were one of the most important traits of Nelson Mandela. Some people believe being humble is a sign of weakness but according to Mandela, a humble person is more satisfied with his life whatever the situation is. The proud one in a society always wants the best for himself but a humble person has strong faith in the will of God. That is the reason Mandela never diverted from his path. He had to face much trouble during his struggle. Even he went to jail for a long time. He nearly escaped the death penalty. He made a great speech from the prison which sought attention worldwide. Mandela demanded respect even when he was in prison as he believed dignity was the way to success. He always proved his opponents wrong based on facts. Time is very essential. Once a moment is passed it never comes back. So Mandela always insisted his followers utilize their time wisely. He believed in utilizing time in the struggle to make their country what they desired. Always ignore the labels. You have to behave according to the situation. He believed in taking a stand where no other individual was willing to. That makes you a leader and this is the best quality that a leader should have. He always believed and showed the world that their attitude towards a specific country will depend on the country’s attitude towards their struggle. There is no compromise on that. He always controlled his emotions while making any decision. It is the quality of all the leaders of the world to make decisions rationally. As a freedom fighter, he was ready to die for his cause. He believed to disappear under a cloud of glory rather than that of shame. He believed in facing death with bravery and determination. The traits described above make Nelson Mandela the most effective leader of the 20th century. He fought all his life for this cause. He made a speech from the prison which inspired people across the globe and caught attention worldwide. He made people follow him through his actions and speeches. Nelson Mandela was defiant. He fought against resistance all his life. He had great support from the black population of South Africa. He made speeches at international forums against racial discrimination. He was a symbol of peace and hope. When he spoke people listened to him. When he asked them to do something, people were always ready to answer his call. He always spoke less but inspirational words. The lives of lots of people have been changed due to his speeches. He received the Nobel Prize due to his extraordinary efforts towards peace.

Becoming a leader is not only having social interaction and making speeches in public or having appearances but it is far more than that. Nelson Mandela was a revolutionary leader. Revolutionary leaders are the ones who are always remembered even when they are gone. Their speeches have an impact on the personality of individuals in every era. Nelson Mandela was a great leader. When he spoke people listened, and when he asked them something to do they were always ready to answer his call. Nelson Mandela was always ready to make sacrifices. Even he was aware that he could be hanged. But still, he continued his struggle. That is the very reason he is the cause of the revolution and the great country that today we know as South Africa. He always believed that one’s creation is a blessing of God to the rest of mankind so he has to do his best to help others. He made people believe in them. He wrote books in prison that inspired all the people across the globe. He was the greatest revolutionary leader of the 20th century who has changed the lives of thousands of people with his struggle, vision, and personality.

Nelson Mandela was a transformational leader. He should the people of South Africa a picture of their future without racial discrimination. Through his leadership qualities, he transformed the lives of many people. He provided the people a direction. He ruled over the hearts and minds of people. People trusted him and followed him. He made people believe that their struggle against racial discrimination would eventually have a positive outcome. His followers were always motivated, engaged, and satisfied with him. Nelson Mandela was a role model for the people of South Africa. He had an ideal influence over the life of people. He always worked very hard. He was a positive example for everyone to follow. When his followers saw him working conscientiously and diligently they began to respect and admire Mandela more. He never compromised on the country. He made it very clear on many occasions that their attitudes towards a certain country would depend on how they behaved in their struggle for freedom. He had high moral and ethical standards which he always showed the world through his actions and speeches. Hard situations never made him even divert a little from his path. He always made people realize the importance of their struggle. He kept his followers united. He made sacrifices and made his followers realize the importance of freedom. Even though he was jailed and escaped the near death penalty he never gave up his struggle. He developed a vision of a promising future and conveyed it to his followers through his speeches and books. He urged his followers to always work hard for their cause and go above and beyond their rules and responsibilities in pursuit of their shared vision. This made his followers commit. He always showed his followers their problems from a variety of perspectives and showed them how life would be by solving those problems.