Leadership Argumentative Essays Examples

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Leadership is a vast term with several meanings, and it has a diverse approach. Yet the basic definition of the word is the ability of a person or a group of people to lead another group of people, an organization or any team and to take responsibility for leading them as well. A leader is a person who takes a stand in times of crisis, chaos, and trouble, and he takes an initiative that others follow along with him. Leadership is an idealistic characteristic that unlike other fields such as business, management or the like, cannot be learned. It is inherent in an individual, and it usually emerges at times of difficulty and need. Some people are born leaders, as the saying goes along, and they have the ability to stand out amongst many people and do something out of the box, that requires courage, wisdom and sometimes, intuition.
Many people take on the task of leadership, however, there are some qualities that are specific to a good leader. Good leaders have an ideal and outstanding character that will not be found commonly among the masses. To form an excellent and robust leadership, a leader will make his profession his passion. This is true of many leaders of the past as well as the present who have shown outstanding leadership skills in whatever field they performed in. a current example of a great and strong leadership is that of Bill Gates, who has single-handedly formed the biggest company of the world in the shape of Microsoft that is running as the most successful company in the world. Every leader of the world has faced problems in the initiation of the work they undertook, yet steadfastness of aim and character always took them far and proved them successful.
Niccolo Machiavelli’s The Qualities of a Prince is an excellent sixteenth-century book that highlights the qualities of good leadership and how a leader should rule his nation. As mentioned above in the qualities of leadership that a leader must make his profession his passion, similarly, the writer conveys the message that a prince must make the war his profession. (Machiavelli, 5). He says that if a prince will give importance to luxuries and a life of pleasure, he would lose his position, both in the eyes of the people and will fail to lead a successful state and that will make people of lower positions to rise to power against him. In this case, the born leader falls off his station and those who take initiative in the interest of the state prosper. Also, the writer focuses on the implementation of good discipline on the part of the leader by maintaining good discipline amongst the soldiers and keeping them in shape. A good prince/leader also knows the terrain he is dealing with. This gives him two benefits. Firstly, he is equipped with knowledge that gives him an edge in defense, and he knows how to guide his men in times of an attack.
A leader who lacks this knowledge is one who is vulnerable to attack from any side, since neither he nor his men would know what side is susceptible to attack and which isn’t. (Machiavelli, 5).
This is also metaphorical for the fact that a leader who has taken the responsibility to lead others needs to be aware of his surrounding, his friends and foes and this needs to be done by his skill and tact by which he will determine who is sincere and who isn’t. Leaders who do not realize this have to suffer from defeat at the hands of their enemies and they are left as failures because they are not keen enough to safe-keep their job as a leader and have not only ruined themselves but also the others who are dependent on them.
The writer further describes the attributes of a good prince by suggesting that if a prince is ‘too good’ all the time that will bring ruin upon him. Being a leader does not necessarily mean being nice to everyone. A prince who wants to be a good leader needs to learn how to be not so good. (Machiavelli, 7).
A prince, if he wishes to be a good leader must avoid all those vices and evils that may make him vulnerable to losing the state and favor of his people. However, all vices need not be avoided, and the leader must keep others aware of his superior nature. Some virtues may end in destruction for the prince, hence for Machiavelli being in power is more important for a leader than being virtuous. If a leader would only of doing good for the others, then he also gets prone to be misused by others and taken advantage of.
In governance, on the other hand, Lao-Tzu offers a different view on the issue in Thought from the Tao-te Ching. His viewpoint hinges on the belief that the individual is more powerful than the state; ultimate power lies with the individual in governing and if the individual is not fit for governance, if he is unjust or incompetent then the state will consequently be the same; a failed state. Unlike Machiavelli, he differs with the concept of virtue where for him being powerful is not as important as being virtuous as a leader. For his power is a collective phenomenon that comes through team work and not by the hard work of one single person. He says a leader should be compassionate, considerate for other beings i.e. the people and have an upright sense of modesty and equality.
Being judicious is an important trait of a leader, and that is what he professes. (Lao-Tzu, 203).
Lao-Tzu carries the opinion that a leader must give opportunities to his people rather than force them under any obligations. This drives everything to run in a normal fashion. A good leader is just in whatever decisions he makes and administers everyone equally irrespective of their status, monetary and social background and the amount of influence a certain person has. Being judicious also means being just in decision making free of favoritism and nepotism and doing the right thing which seems fair in the eyes of everyone. It is rare to find a leader who solely makes decisions on his own and decides fairly. However this quality is a must have in leadership.
The leader needs to be selfless rather than become selfish and only think of his own good. According to Lao-Tzu, real success always comes through selflessness, and that is a quality that every good leader needs to harbor in him. (Lao-Tzu, 205).
When a leader is true to his mission in leadership, then he works only for the people, for the cause and the accomplishment of the mission he has set forth to. If a leader becomes selfish and greedy to fulfill his own aims, then he is pursuing a faulty leadership and he is not a good example for the people. Success can only come through clean intentions, and if a person is not truthful to himself or others that depend on him, then that person cannot be successful, neither can he bring good to the others.
In the present world, leadership has taken many forms such as that in a country, that for a business organization or leading a school as a principal as well. Since the era we live in today is the era of economics and business, it is worthy to note that many leaders of organizations and firms have outdone themselves and emerged as business giants. How did they do so? That is revealed by some research into how they have developed as great leaders and run successful organizations. According to Goleman in the Harvard Business Review, every leader has certain attributes that are uniformly present in him such as toughness, intelligence, determination and focused vision which is not always enough for becoming successful as a leader. True leaders also possess a high degree of emotional intelligence, harbor empathy in them, have great motivation, possess good social skills and are self-regulated. (Goleman, n.pag). A true leader has a high degree of emotional intelligence that outshines the best training for leadership in the whole world.
According to a study conducted by Goleman, the leaders and managers of the highest ranks possessed the greatest emotional intelligence, and that surpassed the technical ability and IQs of others who were below them. If a leader knows how to deal with others the right way, understands their needs and responds accordingly, he will be far more successful in running the organization than a person who only focuses on outcomes and great performance.
If one would give psychological insight into the character and personality traits of a good leader and leadership styles, then it can further be clarified how one can bring about effective leadership. Good leaders are strong, self-assured and always in control of the situation. They need to be dominant over their subordinates, however they cannot become rude or harsh because this way they will earn the displeasure of their employees, and that will negatively affect the performance of the company as a whole. When it comes to virtues of good leadership, leaders need to be humble as humility is a virtue, but then again cowering away from taking a strong and definite step that will help to save them from a possible loss. Sometimes, it isn’t bad to take a step that might cause humiliation, but if it serves the company, the nation, and the people well, then the leader must take quick steps and do the right thing. A leader also needs to be realistic and cannot only live in self-praise if the company or organization goes a long way in a certain period of time. If something goes wrong, then the leader needs to take concrete steps rather than dream on in the hope of something magical to happen. (Humphrey, n.pag).
According to The Forbes, a good leader needs to be honest, ethical and truthful to the company that he is running, which will make him a good leader not only practically, but also in the eyes of the people that are working under him. A good leadership makes good communication with the subordinates and makes sure that their employees are listening to them, responding to them and the leadership also needs to be open to complaints and suggestions by their colleagues. Also, a good leadership fulfills its commitments to its workers and to the people, free from deception and fraudulence. (Prive, n.pag).
The example of Rudolph Diesel, a man who invented the engine and bears his name on it, is an example of persistence and hard work. The success he made as a leader was by the efficiency that he practiced as a forerunner of his business making much out of his childhood dream. Good leaders have made their name pursuing their dreams and helping others along the way. (Mencke, n.pag).
It is also worthy of discussion whether effective leadership is inherent or not. It is true that it can also be learned through proper grooming, and not everyone is born a leader. However, if someone begins learning it, they need to know moral from immoral and know the goodness of leadership. Morality is quintessential for good leadership because if it isn’t present, then it can wreak havoc among the masses in the form of anarchy and loss. (Scott and Brian, n.pag).
Even though Machiavelli and Lao-tzu gave their opinions on leadership at a time different than ours, one would have to agree with them because they are quite pertinent with respect to modern times. Leadership must require one to harbor in their qualities described by both thinkers; being virtuous and then at the same time being in control. If Machiavelli intends the leader to give up on his leisurely life and focus on leadership, then the same doctorate of discipline and humility is preached by Lao-Tzu. And moreover they are practical and worthy of application to leadership of modern times which needs to concentrate more on how to lead the people rather than worry about their expenses and luxuries. They also need to bring the people closer to them rather than create a divide between distinctive leadership and the general public.
Conclusively, good leadership generates by working as a true leader, guiding others and leading them along without employing unfair means. Leaders are born, yet some can be made to lead others.

References

Humphrey, Ronald, H. The many faces of emotional leadership. Elsevier. Web 2012. N.pag. 10
Mar, 2015.
Goleman, Daniel. What makes a Leader. Harvard Business Review. January 2004 Issue.
Lao-Tzu. A world of ideas-Essential readings for college Writers. The Thoughts of Tao-
Te Ching. 9th Edition. University of Connecticut. 203-6
Machiavelli, Niccolo. A world of ideas-Essential readings for college Writers. The Qualities of a
Prince. 9th Edition. University of Connecticut. 5-7
Mencke, Claire. Leaders and Success. News Investors. Web 2015. N.pag. 10 Mar, 2015.
Prive, Tanya. Top 10 Qualities that make a great leader. The Forbes. Web, 2015. N.pag. 10 Mar,
2015.
Scott E. Drouillard, Brian H. Kleiner, (1996) "“Good” leadership". Management Development
Review, Vol. 9 Iss: 5, pp.30 – 33