How to Raise Leaders at Every Level to Achieve Extraordinary Results?

How to Raise attractership at Every Level to Achieve Extraordinary Results? Alaa Ahmed MBA Candidate existence Leadership is an important concept in every sector, in family, school, organization, company, and in every community. The secret ground report the success of any organization is its leadership. Academic analysis has given us more(prenominal) than 850 definitions of leadership (bennis, 1997). only of them take on the similar factors but in different formulations. After I read many of these definitions, I axiom leadership as guiding a group of people toward achieving a specific goal.Scholars investigateed and examine leadership styles, and leadership patterns, whereas Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner studied leadership from a different perspective. They dealt with leadership as a gainsay and the leader who succeeds in facing the ch entirelyenge and gets extraordinary result is considered exemplary. As a result, Kouzes and Posner started their journey since 1983 flavou r for how the leader becomes exemplary and achieves extraordinary results. Their study covered leadership in all sectors and on all the continents of the world. They collected data from different people and mangers during 25 years and analyzed them.They found that in rate for a leader to be exemplary and strung- out(p) to get extraordinary results, he/she has to be able to transform set into actions, visual sensations into realities, obstacles into innovations, separateness into solidarity, and risks into rewards (Kouzes & Posner, 2002). To get all this d matchless, they outlined a mechanism that they called The 5 Practices of monitory Leadership there argon two allegiances that go along with each practice which argon the subject of our research. baby-sit the way Model the way is aligned with two commitments .The first one is find your sound by clarifying your value. A leader essential clarify the values that he sees in, look for the public values, and have the ability to transfer these values into actions. A clear guiding principle is necessary to total and to gain the consensus about these principles from to be easily applied. These values must be reflected in the leaders behavior to emphasize credibility which as Kouzes and Posner said is the foundation of leadership. Leaders clear values attention them to practice the second commitment which is set the example by aligning actions with sh ared values.Telling stories helps others rally about how to bring values alive. Giving rousing speeches is not enough a leader has to go first and participate by doing what he demands others to do. Also a leader has to be (dwysywd) which is the acronym of (do what you say you volition do). Followers leave alone believe not what they hear from the leader but what they see the leader consistently do. For example, the positionor general of the company that I work for issued a decision that all employees must exhaust their ID on their chests as long as the y were inside the company during the formal working time.The next day, we saw him standing at the entrance wearing his ID as an example or a seat for us. Undoubtedly, model the way is not enough to complete the characterization of the exemplary leadership, thus leaders need to company another practice in order to share the vision. Inspire a shared vision Leaders to inspire a shared vision with their employees, have to practice two commitments. The first one is to visualise the future by imagining exciting and ennobling possibilities. Think for yourself and imagine the future that you wish for your organization.Ask, listen, and adapt mentally and emotionally the employees vision, their future imagination, and what they aspire for the organization. The second commitment is to enlist others in a common vision by appealing to a shared aspiration. A leader needs to analyze and discuss twain aspirations to create a common aspiration which contributes in strengthening the work kind and enlisting others to work on achieving the common aspiration. Welcome any opinion or thoughts and give attention because innovation is created in this way. Francisco Magalhaes gives us an example through a story of his experience.When he had just started his virgin job at a railway workshop, he thought about something related to his job and concluded that there was a way to reduce the cost by more than half. He told his colleagues about that, but he did not get their attention. His colleagues reaction did not stop him he went to his leader and told him about his idea. The leader immediately began analyzing Franciscos proposal, discussed it with him and found that what Francisco proposed was correct. This direct leader continued supporting Francisco in order to implement this thought on the ground and he told the director general about Francisco (Magalhes, n. . ). This leader shared Franciscos thought and gave him more attention. Without his leadership Franciscos original idea wo uld have failed. Inspiring and supporting the innovative ideas of employees is what leaders have to do if they want to be exemplary however, this exemplarity go out not be sinless without challenging the process. contender the process There are two commitments that can be used as strategies by the leader to challenge the process (Kouzes & Posner, 2002). One of these commitments is searching out challenging opportunities to change, grow, innovate, and alter.Leaders, who stay leading in the same way for a long time, will lose their employees enthusiasm. The great leader has to look for and create new ways to challenge the routine and get along the squad toward achieving its goals. Chip Perry, a president and chief executive officer of AutoTrader. com, says that one of his powerful leadership techniques is to tell their employees that one of their main responsibilities is to challenge the status quo and work constantly to improve anything that may be used to get the work done (Y averbaum, 2004)The second commitment is experimenting, taking risks, and acquire from the accompanying mistakes.The employees alike to work with a leader who ventures into unfamiliar and uncertain situations and transfers risks into rewards because the best solutions are oft found in these cases. Likewise, wisdom is gained through pain and reflection (Bennis, 2003, p. 134). Andy Stanly highlighted that if leaders stop challenging the process, they land up to be leaders and they become coach-and-fours (Andy, 2006). This pushes us to split betwixt leader and manger by expression that the leader is someone who guides and the manger is someone who drives.Besides, Bennis observed that the manager is a copy the leader is an original, the manager administers, the leader innovates, and the manager relies on control the leader inspires trust (Bennis, 2003, p. 45). However leaders who search out opportunities, step into the unknown, are willing to take risks, and are prepared to meet w hatever challenges may demo them, are not always considered exemplary. The leader needs to empower others and support them, too. change others to act For leaders to enable others to act,they need to start with fostering collaboration by promoting cooperative goals and building trust.Create spiritual cooperation among all the organizations members by emphasizing that you trust them and believe that they can do the best. Donald Evans, secretarial assistant of U. S. Department of Commerce says Nothing is important to cosmos and effective leader that having an unshakable trusting relationship with those whom you work with and those you lead (Yaverbaum, 2004, p. 232). Great work does not occur without active involvement and support. Achieving the purpose of the organizations must be everyones responsibility, and good leaders promote teamwork rather than competition as the road to success.Competition, which is essay to beat others, is vastly different in purpose from collaboration w hich is trying to do well. The cooperative relationships between members are assets of the organization. Leaders must know how to nurture them. In building a strong team out of people with diverse and sometimes conflicting interests, leaders must develop cooperative goals, hear integrative solutions and build trusting relationships. There is a truth that you cannot do it alone. A leader will ever get anything extraordinary done without the talent and support of others.You need others and they need you. Then, the second commitment to fulfill this practice is to strengthen others by sharing power and discretion. When you intend to make a decision, ask employees about their ideas and listen. Involve them in the decision-making process. Zenger and Folkman mention that leaders can find best recourses by asking people in work about their ideas and seeking details. Fell others that you are concerned about their ideas and opinions (Zenger & folkman, 2007). Enable others to act is consider ed a major forward step to the five practice which is encouraging the heart. get on the heart encouraging the heart is the fifth practice set by Kouzes and Posner. Leaders who want to get extraordinary results should discover contributions by showing appreciation for individual excellence. Thank employees who did a great job, surprise them by good-looking moral and financial support. Let them feel that what they did is considered something magnificent in order to push them to give more, at the same time, to encourage others who do not have contributions to compete with employees who have contributions. Continue by elebrating the values and victories by creating a spirit of community. Celebrate team success and pride in the accomplishments. There is a strategy to be a good leader is to explore and expect leaders around you (Zenger & folkman, 2007). By looking for leaders around you and giving them the feeling that they might be future leaders you encourage them to do better. Credi bility is the foundation of leadership The five practices that we have reviewed paint a partial picture of leadership. These practices are like a body without soul, so there is no benefit from this body.They are like pillars built on the sands which quickly will fall down. According to research done by Kouzes and Posner for more than two decades, they were looking for what people admire in their leaders. Findings were that credibility is the characteristic that employees admire in their leaders, as the research showcase that the top four characteristics that employees look for in their leaders are honesty, forward-looking, inspiring, and competent, consequently these four characteristic are the core of the credibility. The research ranged across the world and years .It shows that honesty is the emergence one trait then forward looking, competent, and inspiring (Kouzes & Posner, 2002). Employees follow you as a leader when they believe and trust you. But without credibility which is the foundation of the leadership, there is an uphill battle will face you because you will try to pull the employees to your site and as you are the only pulling, soon both sites are being weary and give up (Brown, 2011). Without credibility, you as a leader will fail to transfer your values into actions then you will lose your employees trust.Table 1 Characteristics of admired leaders Percentage of Respondents selecting that characteristic Characteristic 2002 variation 1995 edition 1987 edition Honest 88 88 83 Forward looking 71 75 62 Competent 66 63 67 Inspiring 65 68 58 keen 47 40 43 Fair-minded 42 49 40 Broad-minded 40 40 37 Supportive 35 41 32 Straightforward 34 33 34 reliable 33 32 33 Cooperative 28 28 25 Determined 24 17 17 Imaginative 23 28 34 Ambitious 21 13 21 fearless 20 29 27 Caring 20 23 26Mature 17 13 23 Loyal 14 11 11 Self-controlled 8 5 13 Independent 6 5 10 Source The Leadership Challenge by Jim M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner , 2002. The Fi ve practices of exemplary leadership are distinctive When we review all studies and research about leadership, we will find that Kouzes and Posner studies and findings are different. What distinguish their findings are the followings 1- The length of the study period which more than two decades. 2- Collecting data from different people (employees, managers, CEOs, leaders). They made their research more than one time in different periods in order to settle down the constants. 4- Their surveys covered the world. (Africa, North America, South America, Asia, Europe, and Australia ) 5- They transferred their findings into clear concepts. The five practices of exemplary leadership Exemplary Leadership Encourage the Heart Enable Others to Act Challenger the Process Inspire a Shared Vision Model the Way Credibility Conclusion The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership Make Extraordinary ResultsTwo recent research reports confirm the importance of the five practices of exemplary leadership (Kouzes & Posner, 2002). One of those reach was done by Richard Roi (2006). He asked the executives of 94 companies to rate their companys senior leaders on the five practices of exemplary leadership. He analyzed those leaders with strong consistent application of the five practices their companies had significant growth in electronic network income and stock price by comparison with companies that has leaders with weak implementation for the five practices.There is a direct proportion between the five practices and the financial carrying into action for the company. The second research consisted over 66,000 survey responses completed over the past two years. The finding is that the organizations that their leaders engaged in the five practices of exemplary leadership have significantly high levels of important employee attitudes (International leadership associates , 2007). The evidence is clear that the main reason croupe the success of any organization is the strength of its leadership.Also, the evidence is strong that what make the leadership strong are the five practices of exemplary leadership. By these practices, leaders get extraordinary results and make significant differences in performance of their organizations. References Andy, S. (2006). challenge the process. ministry today magazine . bennis, w. (1997). leaders. new york harper Business. Bennis, W. (2003). On becoming a leader. Cambridge, MA Perseus Pub. Brown, M. (2011, 9 23). Credibility A Critical Foundation of Leadership. Retrieved 2 23, 2012, from http//www. brownassociates. com/Blog/about International leadership associates . (2007). The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership. International leadership associates. Kouzes, J. M. , & Posner, B. Z. (2002). the leadership challenge. San Francisco Jossey Bass. Magalhes, F. B. (n. d. ). Leaders and Followers. Emerging Leader . Yaverbaum, E. (2004). leadership secrets of the worlds most lucky CEOs. chicago dearborn trade publishing a kaplan p roffessional company . Zenger, j. , folkman, j. (2007). the handbook for leaders.