jlcox2

Introduction

In this essay, I will discuss and summarize a section of the, The Leader’s Companion; Insights on Leadership Through the Ages, by J. Thomas Wren. The ladder part of the essay will include summarization and highlights of the January 15 leadership seminar and the beginning synthesis of my own personal theory of leadership.

The Beginnings

Leadership is an attribute that does not start or stop on certain days, however I believe that the amount of leadership bestowed upon a person rapidly increases once he or she enters the working world. May graduation is quickly approaching with weeks soaring by with little notice. I decided to focus this portion of the essay on chapter nine, Concepts of Leadership: The Beginnings, because soon I will enter the world as a new graduate looking for leadership opportunities.
This chapter by Bernard M. Bass focuses on the first recorded forms and attributes of leaders. Bass begins by citing prophets, chiefs, and kings as leadership symbols used in the Bible, a book with well-known credibility. From there he moves to mythologies, mentioning the Odyssey and Beowolf. Bass believes power, mortality, and effectiveness are characteristics of leadership in myths. Bass then moves to 5,000 B.C. and cites hieroglyphics, which prove the idea of a leader or leadership has been around for thousands of years. Other characteristics that Bass ties with leaders of the past, even functional leaders include; justice, judgment, wisdom, counsel, even shrewdness and cunning. He then states that shrewdness and cunning are not as highly looked upon as they once were.
I believe Bass’ input on early forms and attributes of leadership was very informative and fairly spot on. I specifically enjoyed the leadership qualities of shrewdness and cunning which he stated as time progressed those characteristics faded. The idea behind those specific traits interests me because those words can describe a tyrant, which we all know to be a malicious leader. Even though those words are not labeled “good” words they still can illustrate an image a leadership.

Seminar Summary

The January 15th seminar was extremely helpful to me in beginning my own theory of leadership. We utilized all of the whiteboards creating list and graphs that could help us explain our personal thoughts and feelings on the topics of leadership. Here are some of the words and phrases that I agree with the most and will most likely use in my final theory:
Leadership – visionary, encourage, welcome change, utilizes conflict
Management – organizes, directs, welcomes stability, avoids conflict
These words, in my mind, are a great start to my personal theory of leadership. The discourse in class was insightful to say the least. We have different people from different backgrounds, American and Indian. We have people in different stages of their lives, young adults, working professionals, and even a seasoned manager with multiple degrees. With this in mind myself and others tried to focus some of our personal questions towards the classmates who perhaps have actually “lived and learned” through specific situations. For example, in the seminar, we reviewed the hierarchy of management from the prior class. The seasoned classmate disagreed with the chart and gave us his personal insight. We then kept the questions rolling towards our classmate because we felt like we could learn from him. I can honestly say it was good to hear a real life example of how an educated person worked his way up to where he is now.

My Theory Begins

Other than creating word list we drew out graphs that we felt could describe our theory of leadership. I know in previous classes we have discussed the box theory, where management fits into leadership or vice versa. However, I feel that another theory best fits my outlook on leadership and management.
The graphical theory that I want to use is the Venn diagram with overlapping circles. One circle will be leadership the other management. The special aspect of my Venn diagram is that the circles will vary in size depending on the position that is being described. For example, a CEO of a Fortune 500 would have a larger leadership circle and a smaller management circle.