A633.1.2.RB - Leadership Gap


     Over the course of my life I would say my attitude towards leaders has changed multiple times during the various stages in life.  As a young child and adolescent, I idolized the leaders in my life as they were my role models and I sought after their approval and everything they did was right.  However, as I matured I realized that leaders are human; not all leaders make good decisions nor have the best interest of the group in mind while operating in this capacity.  As a follower, I seek to support the leaders which I am working with by giving total support, accepting responsibility and completing the assigned tasks.  Nevertheless, I no longer go about this blindly.  I feel it is important to observe the actions of leaders in an effort to determine the strengths and weakness of their leadership ability.  This allows me the opportunity to internalize the good and bad behaviors of other leaders which provides me with attributes which I can then either imitate or steer clear of while operating in a leadership capacity.

     Just as my personal attitude toward leadership has changed overtime, I will say that the starting point of the attitude to those in authority has changed throughout generations.   I feel that the trend is that each generation takes a lighter approach to leadership, causing each generation to have a less authoritative outlook and respect towards leadership.  In my opinion, this distrust may have occurred due to the increase of and access to information. 

     Thanks to technology each generation has been exposed to more and more information which has caused society to seek answers for the concepts and theories which they question.  The increase to the availability and access to this information has leveled the playing field so to speak, when comparing the knowledge of the leaders today versus the rest of the team.  Followers are more inclined to question the decisions made by leaders in an effort to examine their true motives and intentions because many leaders have been found to be unethical and ineffective during the past few generations.

     We live in a world with more information about leadership and leadership practices; however we have an apparent gap in the quality of our leaders because new leaders often follow the lead of their predecessor rather than seeking to lead using more effective leadership methods.   I think we would be successful at closing this gap as current and future leaders utilize alternate methods of leadership.  The change will allow the leaders to begin leading by example therefore; the leaders will exhibit positive, effective and ethical behaviors which provide a positive perspective for future leaders to follow.  We can also work toward closing this gap by introducing leadership education in high school and within the undergraduate curriculum at large.  This will set a foundation for future leaders to build upon whereby, they may be more willing to lead in a more strategic and adaptive manner.         

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