Three Events that Affect and Develop the Leader

Introduction

Leadership is a relationship of domination and submission, influence and adherence to a system of interpersonal relations in a group. Uncovering the question of leadership is very important as a really effective leadership is possible only with flexible behavior of a leader. It is based on fluency of all features of personality, as well as an ability to choose the most appropriate objective conditions emerging in an organization or a group of people who share mutual interests.

The given assignment is aimed at discussing leadership that cannot be obtained from classroom experience alone, but rather the lessons learned from life experience. Thus, the description of the events of an ordinary life that have had an impact on successful leaders will be discussed in the paper. Moreover, the lessons they have learned and are able to share anyone who strives to become a good person and a respected leader will be analyzed. It will help to set up a development plan and challenges of how to achieve the goals set on the way to become a leader.

Event #1

John R. Ryan is the President of Center for Creative Leadership, CCL further referred to in the paper. This company is a global provider of educational services of the highest category for managers, which provides the disclosure of a leadership potential by focusing exclusively on research, development, and implementation of development programs and coaching in leadership.

A retired Vice Admiral of the Naval Forces of the USA, Ryan joined the Board of Governors of CCL in 2002. He took over the company as the president in 2007. Ryan’s biography is a series of vivid examples of leadership. In the period from 2005 to 2007, he had served as a Principal of the State University of New York, SUNY, being is the largest comprehensive system of public higher education in the United States. He achieved a broad respect, working as a principle by improving relationships of the University with faculty, students, and lawmakers. Ryan was providing a record level of resources to hire hundreds of new faculty and staff for teaching and research, as well as improving the reputation of the entire University.

Prior to that, Ryan served as the President of Naval College at the State University of New York Maritime College. He had been in the position of acting president of the University at Albany. In 1998 – 2002, he was the Manager (President) of the US Naval Academy and won a wide acclaim for attention to an educational part, strategic planning, and financing.

The first lessons of leadership Ryan got from his parents. They explained him how important it was to treat people with respect, whoever they were. The parents were those people who had helped him to understand that the example of leadership might be given by any person, even in the most ordinary situations. He remembered the case happened in China when he went to a hairdresser. A woman who sheared him was complaining about the difficulties of the business that she could not pay a rent. A new customer came in then. It turned out that the customer’s 40-year-old wife had died recently. The hostess of the hairdresser tonsured him and refused to charge him saying the following thing. He was not very easy at that moment at all. However, the interesting fact was that this woman claimed on her financial difficulties few minutes ago. Ryan gave her a good tip explaining that it had been a payment for her outstanding leadership lesson.

He also considers valuable lessons of leadership provided by renowned and talented people. When Ryan served as a pilot of the Naval Forces under the command of an outstanding US General Colin Powell, the general saw the potential in Ryan. He told him about it personally. That event was very important for him; and Ryan thought it was great when readers could see the potential of others and contribute to their leadership development. He believes that it is the most important and best thing they can do. This idea inspires and motivates Ryan all his life.

Leadership has been attractive for him since a young age. He has always wanted to become a leader as he recalls. Ryan had an opportunity to become a student of one of the world’s leading colleges Princeton as his mother had been dreaming about it. However, he followed his father’s advice and chose a career of a military man. His father believed that this education would help him to receive an excellent education and leadership skills.

The first lesson Ryan has learned from his life experience is that a leader cannot be effective without being a good manager, as well as not possessing managerial skills. The development of leadership and management development are two parallel processes. However, being a leader and a manager at the same time are two different things. Becoming a good manager is a step in the direction of a good leader. For the leader, as opposed to the manager, it is the essential knowledge and understanding of personality. Leadership is impossible to achieve without it.

Another important lesson is that only a sincere and trustworthy person can become a leader. Sometimes it happens that a leading position is occupied by those people who do not possess these qualities. As a result, such leader does not have followers.

Ryan’s life experience has taught him three major objectives. They are to determine the direction and shape a vision, ensure attunement and coherence of all processes, as well as involve and motivate people. These three tasks are solved through the impact on people and the entire team.

Event #2

John Wooden’s biography is a story of an extraordinary person whose faith in God and high ethical standards has allowed him to raise a whole generation of basketball professionals. He believed so strongly in the inner potential of each player of his team that set the focus on the person’s personality disclosure as his first priority and only then as an athlete. John Wooden is a former head coach of the Bruins, the basketball team of the University of California at Los Angeles. He was nicknamed a wizard of Westwood for achieving the results in the world of basketball sport, which has appeared to be a real magic.

He came up with his own definition of success in 1934 when he was teaching at school in South Bend, Indiana. He was a little disappointed or perhaps confused by the fact that students’ parents expected only excellent and good grades for English lessons from their children. They believed that satisfactory grades are normal for the neighborhood kids because they all were average people. Parents were dissatisfied with the results of their own children. Thus, Wooden came to the conclusion that it was a teacher or pupils’ failure. He believed it was not true. God Almighty did not create people as equal in his infinite wisdom. According to him, people were more equal in size and appearance at least in regard to the mind. Not everyone could get an excellent or good grade; and Wooden did not like this grading system.

He knew that many graduates of schools criticized coaches and the sports team in the late 30s of the 20^th century. If the team could win from everyone, it was considered fairly the successful one. However, it was not quite true. As he discovered, there were the years when the University of UCLA did not lose a single game. However, it turned out that they had won every game with not the difference that they came to expect from some of the graduates. He also quite often seemed that people treated the assumptions too materialistic. Such a system considered correct in the 30s of the 20^th century; and he understood that although he did not approve it. Wooden wanted to find a solution that would make him a better teacher and provide students something, which they would have sought to, instead of a simple appreciation in a classroom or more points in the competition. Nevertheless, it happened in a gym or an English classroom.

Wooden had thought about the decision for a long time and realized that he needed his own definition of success, as he believed it would help. He also knew that valuable achievements were possible. However, they were not necessarily to be indicators of success to his opinion. He wanted to accomplish his own criteria in this way.

Based on his life experience, Wooden grew up on a small farm in southern Indiana. His father tried to bring to him; and his brothers were never better than others. Later, he realized that his father had got some point. If the person wants to achieve success in life, he/she must never try to be better than someone else, but always learn from others. Such an individual must never stop to strive to be better than he/she can be. If the person has got involved into things he/she has no control over, it will adversely affect something this individual has any power. These conclusions helped him to formulate his own definition of success. According to Wooden, the state of mind is produced by self-satisfaction of understanding of the following fact. The person has made every effort to be able to do a thing. He believes this definition is true as if the individual tries to do something at the limit of the possible thing, change the situation, in which he/she is. Then it will lead to some success. It is like a reputation and character. The person’s reputation is how people perceive the own character. It is who the individual really is. He believes that the character is much more important than what it seems. Although people strive to believe both of them have been good, it may necessarily to be similar.

One of the lessons Wooden has learned is never to be late. He believes that time is important nowadays. A person has to be always on time. However, he believes that professionals start and end on time at the trainings. Therefore, he has never tried to keep his players late. Another lesson was not a single offensive term. One bad word and the person could be free for the whole day. If it came during a game, such a person had to sit on the bench. The third lesson was never criticizing a teammate. He did not want it as he had been paid for it. It was his job to teach players the mutual respect. These three lessons are the guidance for him for eternity. They have learned them from his father who tried to teach him and his brothers once.

Event #3

A founder of the coffee-shop chain called Starbucks Howard Schultz bases on the stories of his life when giving the definition of leadership. In winter 1961, a seven-year boy Schultz was playing with friends throwing snowballs in the courtyard of an apartment building in the poor neighborhood in Brooklyn. There his family was living, when his mother summoned him. Entering the house, the boy saw his father sitting in an uncomfortable position on the couch in a living room. Slipping on an icy track, his father had broken his ankle. A disabled driver was not needed by the company he was working for after that. It led to his father losing his job and the health insurance along with it. There was no compensation existing at the time. Howard’s mother could not work as she was seven months of her pregnancy. They did not have savings as well. In the evenings, Howard had to hear his parents’ argue of how much and where to borrow money. When the phone rang, he had to pick up it and cheat the collectors that parents were not at home. Young Schultz swore to himself that when he would grow up and become an independent person. Then, he would do anything so it would not happen again to him. He was dreaming of a private company, which would take care of its employees and not stint on health insurance. At the same time, he could hardly imagine that the day would come when he would assume the responsibilities of over 140 thousand people. These ones were working in more than eleven thousand shops around the globe. Schultz’s personal experience gave him a powerful incentive in life. A company he has founded is standing on the first position in the world ranking these days.

The event happened to Schultz in his childhood and helped to learn the following lessons. Bearing in mind the lack of money for his fathers’ treatment, Schultz made Starbucks the first American company providing health insurance to all qualified employees. It included those workers working only twenty hours a week at his company. The memory of what his father felt when changing one terrible job to another as he had no chance without his education has made Schultz take this step. Unpleasant memories of childhood have become directly related to the culture and value of Starbucks. He has dreamt to create a company, which his father would have enjoined working for. He has dreamt of the organization where people are valued and respected, regardless of their origin, skin color, and level of education. Providing health insurance has caused an incredible confidence to such a company. Schultz’s aim has been the creation of the firm that would subordinate shareholders return and the values declared by the team. 

Another lesson he has learned is that it is not worth putting up with less. His career began with the Xerox Company. However, the corporate culture seemed inflexible and bureaucratic to him. Many employees working for it felt themselves perfect in that atmosphere. However, Schultz was striving for more. He wanted to find a place where he could be himself. That is why he knew he might find courage to do unexplored paths. It is impossible to rate or measure personal life experience as a person never knows where his/her path is. It could make it possible to understand the personality at last. Schultz’s life experience has shaped him as a person and a leader.

One more lesson he has managed to learn that it is never too late to face personal fears and accept the mistakes done when thinking the father was a loser. Thus, he revised his attitude, recognizing a respectable quality of his father’s character after he died. His Dad was honest, diligent, and committed to his family. It has become his guidance on the way to become a good person and leader. Schultz has realized that his father was just not able to feel satisfaction and pride from the excellent performance and responsible work. His enthusiasm directed him at building the company, which would like to work his father for. By offering employees a good salary, significant benefits, and stock options, Starbucks gives its workers exactly what Schultz’s father did not have. Schultz has organized all of this and more in order to attract and retain people whose values match the ones of the company. No wonder that the staff turnover at Starbucks is twice lower than in other retail outlets.

Development Plan

Based on the events discussed, it is possible to outline a development plan. It could be a reasonable idea of the elected field work, as well as ways of mastering a future profession and career prospects. Everyone should have a professional dream or a future professional goal, which cannot be achieved immediately. However, it can be strived for all the time. By allocating the professional dream or goal, it is necessary to outline the main stages and its implementation, including future and close professional targets.

Future plans can include the desire to acquire the specific knowledge on the study that interests the most. The investigation of what schools or lessons should be taken to become a professional a person is to be or what the requirements for it are, as well as understanding the need for self-tuition in order to achieve these goals. Close targets can include the need to enter college or university, finish it with honors to be able to find job position in a good place or start-up a business. In addition, such near goals can be a desire to gain a practical experience or obtain higher education, as well as learn foreign languages to be able to let personal dreams come true on future proficiency. No less important is an understanding that an initiative on some important issues can also take place in this stage of a plan (Lepard & Foster, 2003).

Organizational Challenges for Plan Development

The next moment important for the plan development of professional and life paths is the allocation of external obstacles that may hinder a person in achieving its goals. It may be, for example, close people who do not agree with these plans or some different circumstances like the need for funds for education, moving to another city, and living in the comfortless conditions.

In some cases, the person has to be ready to admit himself/herself that an obstacle is insurmountable. Therefore, it is necessary to adjust initial plans. If, in this case, there is no wish to give up on professional dreams, then there is a necessity to find strength to wait for a better time to start implementing it (Simerson & Venn, 2006).