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Leadership For Any Project, The First Step Essay

Leadership For any project, the first step is to inspire people to want to work on the project. There are few more powerful motivators than inspiration. Inspiration breeds creativity, innovation, hard work, determination and other attributes that comprise the more functional elements of leadership. There are a number of different leadership styles, but the most important for getting a grand new project off the ground and building a committed team is inspirational leadership. Inspiration is the process by which the performance in people can be inspired, rather than coerced or motivated (Seidman, 2009). It is believed that inspirational leadership is the most powerful means of getting people into action.

Beyond leadership style, the plan need to be detailed, including areas of concern that may require back-up plans. Planning is essential -- the role of inspiration is to ensure that the people working on the plan give their best effort, and are trying to find ways to improve upon the plan. The project would entail pushing for improved education on key issues -- for example helping better to better understand political and economic systems. The project has a lot of nuts and bolts -- marketing plans, lesson plans, financial plans -- but ultimately it will be driven by inspiration. If the people involved do not see that they will make a difference, they will not be as committed to achieving the outcomes. So it is important that careful planning is matched by strong inspirational leadership...

With the plans and the power within to make sure that plans come to life, combined with vision and the tools necessary to do the job, the project will succeed.
Q2. Servant leadership is the concept that leaders are servants to the needs of other stakeholders, rather than him- or herself. The servant leader therefore undertakes actions that will allow others to meet their needs. Greenleaf (1970) defined servant leadership as "…the servant-first…makes sure that other people's highest priority needs are being served." Servant leadership has also been proposed as an extension of transformational leadership (Waddell, 2006). Servant leaders help followers to meet their needs, in part by guiding the followers and helping them to define those needs. Thus, they transform followers from one state to a superior one.

The underlying assumption about servant leadership is that by helping others to achieve their objectives, the organization as a whole will grow. In this respect, servant leadership is contrasted with a leader-first approach. The characteristics of a servant leader are an emphasis on transformation, personal growth, enabling, service, creating commitment and building trusting relationships (ChangingMinds.org, 2011).

The strengths of servant leadership are that it builds stronger followers. They are enabled and have the mental strength to succeed. Servant leaders typically…

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ChangingMinds.org. (2011). Servant leadership. ChangingMinds.org. Retrieved May 6, 2011 from http://changingminds.org/disciplines/leadership/styles/servant_leadership.htm

Cherry, K. (2011). Transformational leadership. About.com. Retrieved May 6, 2011 from http://psychology.about.com/od/leadership/a/transformational.htm

Greenleaf, R. (1970). What is servant leadership? Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership. Retrieved May 6, 2011 from http://www.greenleaf.org/whatissl/index.html

Seidman, D. (2009). The importance of inspirational leadership. Fast Company. Retrieved May 6, 2011 from http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/dov-seidman/how-why-how-we-do-anything-means-everything/importance-inspirational-leadership
Waddell, J. (2006). Servant leadership. Regent University. Retrieved May 6, 2011 http://www.regent.edu/acad/global/publications/sl_proceedings/2006/waddell.pdf
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