Leadership on the Line

Book review

Based on chapters and the two files, it is evident that taking over the leadership role can be a daunting task. That is even challenging when you are a leader of an existing team. My view is that in a leadership position, a leader should be able to learn. Taking the opportunity to learn about the team members is important. Rather than just focusing on achieving goals, it is essential that a leader should focus on team building. Creating and understanding your team is essential because these are the people that will help you to accomplish your goals. A leader should always make sure that they devote their time in knowing how you want your team to work and also what you expect them to achieve (Linsky & Heifetz 2002).

Leadership is very challenging and very dangerous especially when people must lose something in order to gain something. For example, in Nigeria the economy is in recession and due to fall in oil prices, and the one of the solutions the leaders are giving is for people to focus on the agricultural sector and import less goods from overseas to make the currency strong. But the people starts protesting, all they want is for the leaders to tell them what they want to hear that things will be going smoothly upwards. Now they want the president of the country to step down. A leader should be ready to lead people through difficult change, challenge their habits, beliefs and values (Linsky & Heifetz 2002).

When people do not want change that is people are resisting the adaptive work, they try to sideline you or they divert your attention either by promoting you suddenly or giving you more job responsibilities that you will be overwhelmed and will not even have time to achieve your goals. So, most times it’s better to step back and look from the balcony that is have clearer view of things by distancing oneself and seeing the situation objectively, evaluating the issue like you are a third party then come back to the dance floor, intervening and giving your views about the issues and step back again (Linsky & Heifetz 2002).

Getting frustrated or angry as a leader only create resistance and it also reduces the motivation of the team. Whether a leader is taking an existing team or even having a new team, the first thing is to try to know one another. Discussing the good and the bad dynamics does help people to be on the same page regarding the behavior that they want to avoid and encourage the while they go forward (Walker, 2002).

My views regarding leadership are not changing, but I am gaining more knowledge on how to be an effective leader. As the world is changing, I get to learn that there are certain aspects of leadership that are changing. The increase in diversity in today’s organization means that our leaders should learn how to lead a team of diverse employees. Leaders should be ready to learn how to be inclusive and even consider the inclusive leadership aspect.