- Henry Miller
Leadership is a process in which a person influences others to accomplish a mission, task, or objective and directs the organization to make it more cohesive and coherent. There are three basic ways to explain how people become leaders 1) Personality traits may lead to take on leadership roles 2) An important event or crisis may cause leadership qualities to raise in a person, and 3) People can learn leadership skills and choose to become a leader.
Leadership is more than just a position or your status in society. While someone is deciding if they respect you as a leader they do not think about your attributes, they observe your actions so they can know who you really are. This observation is so they will know if you are honorable and can be trusted as a leader or someone who is self serving and who misuses authority. People want to be guided by those they respect and who have a clear sense of direction by conveying a strong vision of the future.
To better convey that vision of the future there are three basic leadership styles that can be used: Authoritarian, Participative, and Delegative.
An authoritarian, or autocratic, leader dominates team-members, using unilateralism to achieve a singular objective. This style is most used when all the information to solve a problem is present, time is short, or your people are well motivated. This style doesn’t include yelling, demeaning language or using threats. This is not the authoritarian style; rather an abusive and unprofessional leadership style which most people think is how you use this style. Use this style as a last resort as this is not a way to gain commitment and motivation from your group.
The participative, or democratic, style involves a leader including one or more of the group in the decision making process. The leader has the authority to make the final decision however. Using this style is a sign of strength that your group will respect and is normally used when both the leader and the group has information needed for the project. By allowing them to become part of the team allows the leader to make a better decision.
The last style is the Delegative, or free reign, style. The leader allows the group to make the decisions in this style. It is used when the group is able to analyze the situation and determine what needs to be done and how to do it. This style is also known as lais sez faire, or the noninterference in the affairs of others.
Depending on what forces are involved between the followers, the leader and the situation, a good leader will use all three styles of leadership.
Influencing others is another trait of a good leader. You influence others all the time and a good leader will try to make a positive example for others to go by. There are three tactics used in the influence of others: Logical, Emotional, and Cooperative.
The logical appeal taps into people's rational and intellectual positions by presenting an argument for the best choice of action based on organizational and/or personal benefits. This is achieved by four steps. 1) Explain your reasons in a clear and compelling way both objectively and logically. 2) Without overstating or being unrealistic, offer detailed and factual evidence of your proposal. 3) Demonstrate a clear and logical reason why your idea is the best possible option by showing that you have considered all other possibilities. And 4) By explaining individual benefits such as gaining more visibility, learning new skills or improving those skills makes the job easier and more interesting.
The Emotional appeals connect your message or goal to an important emotional motivator that promotes feelings of well-being or belonging. This way has a good chance of gaining support and is accomplished in four ways. 1) By connecting to individual goals and values. 2) By describing a task with enthusiasm and expressing confidence in the person’s abilities. 3) By linking your request to a clear and appealing vision that can be fully supported by the person. And 4) By Appealing to the persons self-image.
The last is the cooperative appeal which builds a connection between you and the group.
This method is an extremely effective way of influencing done by working together to accomplish a mutually important goal. Building that connection includes four things: 1) Involving others in the process of deciding how to carry out your goals. 2) Engaging in credible people to help you influence others. 3) Remove barriers to success to reduce difficulty. And 4) respond to concerns and suggestions thoughtfully.
One great leader in history was Genghis Khan. Before Genghis came to power the Mongol people where disunited but clearly recognized their own tribal connections and blood ties but there was no united nation of Mongols. Genghis Khan is credited with creating a Mongolian Empire. The Mongol people were shamanistic in religious beliefs and their nomadic existence meant they relied on barter rather than money, but they were economically poor because of long standing fighting between the tribes.
When Genghis Khan came to power his value system was visible to all. He totally shared his people's belief in the nomadic way of life. He recognized that in war, as in the hunt, booty is the main aim. However, attaining wealth did not matter to him much as he shared everything with his loyal supporters. As an individual, he wanted power. He encouraged his supporters to be frank and speak without ceremony, and moderated his passion and anger with thoughtful responses. He also demonstrated a rather liberal and tolerant attitude to the beliefs of others.
Genghis understood the power of spreading ideas through the written word and used it to administer his people, though he was illiterate himself, and was responsible for the spread of Uighurs script as the Mongolian alphabet. He was clearly perceptive about politics and he understood what drove people, though based on these perceptions his strategies involved finding psychological ways to undermine his enemies.
It was because of Genghis Khan's leadership that trade flourished and contact with distant lands increased. He set in motion the events that created the world's largest land based empire and his firm stand on his society's ethical rules and his intolerance of misdeeds led to a marked change in the social climate. The fighting between tribes also ceased and peace was evident to outside visitors.
I myself have never really been in any high leadership roles, but in JROTC in High School I was a squad leader and attained the rank of Sergeant First Class. I was responsible for training my squad in basic drill and formation movements. In order for myself to be effective in teaching them I had to first feel comfortable in my abilities of drill and had to get to know my squad and let them trust me. Without mutual trust among myself and my squad it would take a long time to get things accomplished, if ever.
I believe leadership is a very fundamental part of any group, in our case the vampyre/therian community. There are people needed to lookout for and teach the community and to set a good example for other leaders when their time comes. The people need someone to look up to and someone to guide them in the right direction. There should be respect for current leaders but in order for people to actually follow them they must be out there getting to know their community so people will not only respect them, but they can trust in their abilities and ideas. So far from what I have seen in the community everyone in leadership roles try to know their people and try to set an example for everyone else. Because of this, the people in the community follow the leaders and their ideas and the community has started to grow.
