1 PHILOSPHY OF LEADERSHIP

Philosophy of leadership

Ruben Lemus Jr.

South Texas College

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Abstract

leadership is a vital part of all organizations, and it shows no sign of slowing down. All

organizations will be looking for ethical leaders with the knowledge, experience, vision, and

confidence to lead them into a prosperous future. Along the way, a leader should inspire and

mentor the people around them. One of the most significant benefits an Effective leader can do

is increase the other members of the organization's abilities. With the number of organizations

out there and the demand for leaders, ultimately, the opportunity and future look very bright for

effective leaders.

Philosophy of Leadership

The importance of leadership benefits the survival of an organization. An organization is a

group of people coming together for a united goal or purpose. This is great because when you

have many people working towards the same goals, it should increase your success rate. An

organization can come in all sizes, from just a few people to hundreds and even thousands of

people. The challenge is to have everyone working together as one effective, efficient

organization. The success of an organization will rely significantly on a good leader.

Leaders are in very high demand not just to be at the head of the organization but also

throughout the organization. Having a good leader can help organize efforts and increase the

organization's efficiency as a whole. A good Leader will bring with them positive theories to

assist with the structure of the organization. The motives of a great leader will have the

organization in mind, not the individual. The reasons for a person would also say a lot to the

other people in the organization. Ethics would be one of the most significant factors in judging a

leader. “Ethics and leadership are intertwined; ethical action in groups, organizations, and

society is difficult unless the leadership of some collective or communal shape or form is
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exercised, and it is often precisely the ethics, rather than the efficacy, of action that generates the

greatest problems.” (Ciulla, Knight, Mabey & Tomkins, 2018) A good leader can receive respect

from other people in the organization if he/she is ethical. A leader that is not ethical will lose the

respect of the others in the organization and quickly lose their power unless they expand their

Coercive Power. Coercive power is a power of fear, so once you get to the point that it is your

only power left, there might be a tendency to expand on your Coercive Power by removing some

or most of the ethics in your actions. This would be a mistake because Coercive power's sole use

would be tough to maintain over a long period.

I good leader would want a mixture of all or most of the five power sources. You have Coercive

Power, Legitimate Power, Expert Power, Referent Power, and Reward Power in the five power

sources. All powers have their positives and negatives, as I spoke about earlier with Coercive

Power. I like to think about a parent/child relation when you were young and listened to your

parents, not because you wanted to, but because you were terrified of what was to come if you

didn’t. It is useful, but is it beneficial for a child to be terrified of their parent? The power you

would want to utilize more than any other would-be Expert Power, which comes with lots of

knowledge and experience. Expert power earns respect and trust in large amounts. People

choose to follow a leader with expert power, and when a member of an organization does decide

to do something, it usually works out for the best. Referent Power is also a power that people

choose to follow and can be very destructive if they have low morals or lack ethics. Referent

Power, more than all the rest, can quickly be exploited by a person with low ethics and morals.

A good leader has to have ethics and morals and a high level of knowledge and experience. This

combination of traits would significantly increase the likelihood of this leader possessing Expert

Power.
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As an effective leader, you will be expected to take on a few roles. You would have to

inspire, be a mentor, and be a visionary. Inspiration is a vital role for a leader. As an effective

leader, you should use your ability to inspire those around you. This will only increase the power

and potential of the group. A leader should look at the people around him/her and help highlight

their strengths and assist in areas that need improvement. I have had the experience to work for

both good and bad leaders, and the difference is significant. When I worked for a good leader, I

walked away from most interactions feeling empowered. A good leader never told me that I had

to do better, yet that was how I always felt. I always wanted to improve. I didn't want to let my

leader down. It wasn't that fear of failure that would push me. It was more that I wanted to win

for my leader. I felt a level of support from the leader, and I wanted to do my part to support

them. With this repour started, you should also take the time to mentor the people around

you. It would help if you wanted to make the organization better by lifting the people around

you. It is very cliché, but it is very accurate "you are only as good as your weakest link." You

have a responsibility to the organization to make all the links as strong as possible. The last roll I

will speak about will be the ability and role of a visionary. As an effective leader, you have to

possess the ability to see what the future will hold. This requires a lot of knowledge,

experience, and confidence. You have to see the signs, interpret them, and be confident that

you read them correctly. A great example of a leader staying ahead of the curve would be

Netflix.

I worked in Best Buy from 2001-2003, and at that time, we began offering a subscription

service for DVD's called Netflix. At the time, they were a by-mail DVD rental service that

wanted to take a piece of the pie, which was dominated by Blockbuster. Netflix did something

pretty impressive. They were able to maintain a slow and steady climb in a very competitive
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field. Then Netflix did something huge. In 2007 they decided to offer streaming services.

Streaming movies and TV Shows was a very new idea, and it took great leaders to see the

changes in the world around them. Netflix leadership had to know the increase in internet use

and speed capabilities, the growth in mobile computing devices, and the merging of computing

and entertainment and decided to move the company in a new direction. This decision was a

turning point for Netflix. They went from a small rental company to the industry leader in a few

years. Blockbuster and Hollywood video were the two largest DVD rental services in the early

2000's began to fall behind Netflix. Netflix continued to grow at a staggering rate while its

competitors began struggling to stay afloat. Today Netflix is one of the biggest companies and

the industry leader in streaming services. Instead of Netflix staying on the same track, they again

changed their strategies. Instead of purchasing licenses for the content, they began creating

content. In 2018 Netflix was expecting to spend $12 billion on original content. Netflix has

added a production house to offer their original content and is continuing to be a leader in the

industry.

Netflix leadership is an example of outstanding leadership. Not only were they able to

successfully manage the business, but they were able to see an opportunity and had the ability

and confidence to take advantage of it. Today Netflix has an estimated value of $165 billion and

continues to innovate and lead the way in streaming services. Innovation is one of the most

important and one of the most challenging tasks that a leader is expected to achieve. In today's

environment, where technology is changing rapidly, leaders must be visionaries.

Many people avoid conflict regularly, and although conflict is not looked at as a positive

experience, it can be. The association of conflict being negative, I equate to a mistake being

negative. Yes, people do not like to make mistakes, but many people learn from their mistakes.
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Is learning negative? Mistakes are a part of life. How you handle the error is the difference

between a positive and a negative experience. I learn a lot from my mistakes, and I feel the

lessons I have learned have outweighed the error cost. The idea of conflict is negative, but how

you handle the conflict during and after will decide if it is positive or negative. Many great ideas

have been grown out of conflict. The volatility of conflict can be harnessed by the right people

and transformed into creativity. It would help if you did not run from conflict. It would be best

to ask the right questions to figure out why the person is so passionate about a particular idea and

try to guide that energy and passion into a great new idea.

The future will be a very different landscape relative to what it is today. Many things will

change, but one thing that will remain constant will be leaders' need in all organizations. Leaders

with the knowledge, experience, foresight, and confidence to guide an organization to the future

will be in high demand. A leader with high moral and ethical values ensures it is done the right

way to benefit the organization, not just an individual. A method that would not negatively

affect someone. I am not sure what the job market will be like in 25 years, but I am pretty sure

organizations will still be looking for leaders.

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References

Ciulla, J. B., Knights, D., Mabey, C., Tomkins, L (2018). Philosophical Approaches to

Leadership Ethics II: Perspectives on the Self and Responsibility to Others. Business

Ethics Quarterly 28(3)

McKee, Annie. (2014) Management A Focus on Leaders. Pearson Education.

Rodriguez, Ashley. (January17, 2017). Ten years ago, Netflix launched streaming video and

changed the way we watch everything. Quartz Media. https://qz.com/887010/netflix-

nflx-launched-streaming-video-10-years-ago-and-changed-the-way-we-watch-

everything/.

Taylor, Bill. (July 18,2018) To see the future of competition, look at Netflix. Harvard Business

Review.https://hbr.org/2018/07/to-see-the-future-of-competition-look-at-netflix.