Leadership Manifesto

Hello, my readers. All good things must come to an end, and that includes this blog. It has been my pleasure to write about leadership in this blog for nine weeks. I would like to say thank you to people who inspire and support me to write this blog. First, this blog would never exist without Dr. Tammy Esteves, a professor of leadership in Public Administration from Troy University, who encouraged me to create this blog and update it every week based on what I have learned about leadership.  Second, I would like to say thank you to my husband, Michael L Clevenger II, who supported me by taking care of everything for me, and letting me have time to study and write this blog. My sister and brother in law, Kathryn and Ed Herty, proofread all my articles before they were published, to ensure the best for my readers.  Finally, I thank all the readers who subscribe to my blog.  As I stated the first week, the purpose of this blog is to make readers aware how leadership in Public Administration applies to everyone, both academic and non-academic audiences.  All the articles that I wrote resulted from my studies on each topic from many resources, such as textbooks, news, and research articles.  So, I hope that this blog is beneficial to you all. Before I end this blog, I would like to leave you with my leadership manifesto for everyone to lead effectively as a good leader.

Let’s Lead Effectively With My Leadership Manifesto

1.     We will be humble to learn and always improve ourselves. 

According to the skills approach, there is a belief that a leader’s skills and abilities can be learned and developed (Northouse, 2016).  Leaders cannot think that they are the best, and know everything over the follower, specifically many leaders think that their leadership might be challenged by information and technology (IBM, 2011). Some followers might specialize in certain aspects. Hence, leaders should be humble to learn, even from their followers, in order to develop their skills. Moreover, leaders need to be able to respect the feedback from their superiors, colleagues, or followers to improve themselves.

2.    We will practice good communication with our followers.

A good leader will care for all their followers because behavior approach theorizes that leaders need to keep the balance between a task behavior and a relationship behavior in order to influence their followers to achieve a goal (Northouse, 2016). The effective leader cannot force people to get the job done without interacting with their followers during the process of leadership. In addition, good leaders need to be a good listener by listening to those who do not agree with them, and considering the opinion from the minority. 

3.    We will not afraid of any challenges.

Leaders should always be ready to adapt their leadership style based on situations that we use to adjust to the competence and commitment of our followers. As a leader, we need to have a sharp and prolonged vision for change and challenges. We first need to determine the situation and estimate the level of our followers’ competence and commitment. Then, we choose the leadership style to lead our followers to achieve goals. 

4.    We will always lead with a good motivation. 

Based on the expectancy theory which states that followers will be motivated to accomplish their assigned tasks if they perceive a chance to become successful, are motivated by a reward that they might receive, and acknowledge the reward’s value.  Leaders need to choose an appropriate style to motivate their followers and increase the followers’ performance and satisfaction. Being positive is a good way to create good morale, which helps to motivate followers to be happy and enjoy working.

5.    We will be sincere and authentic. 

Everybody wants to have a leader who is genuine and trustworthy. Thus, we as a leader should exhibit genuineness and lead from conviction, which creates a good interaction between the leaders and the follower. Furthermore, being genuine by applying leadership that develops over a lifetime can help us understand our own role, and by understanding others, we can be more effective for our followers.

6.    We will not mind serving others.

As a good leader, we should put the followers first by empowering and helping them grow to achieve full personal capacities.  Moreover, we do not only support and help our followers to achieve personal and organizational goals, but we should also have a tendency to serve the community.

7.    We will lead with ethics. 

Nobody wants to work with bad guys, and nobody wants to have bad guys as followers. As a leader, we are a role model for our follower, so we should lead people with morally, and aim for good outcomes.

8.     We will be fair. 

We will treat our followers with fairness no matter if they are good or bad workers. Instead, we will use our ability and skill to encourage those who are bad to be effective workers. Moreover, we will do not discriminate against people. 

References:

IBM. (20, October 7). Think: A Forum on the Future of Leadership. [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjMTx4b6bLw

Northouse, P.G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and Practice(7th^th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE