MindWiper

Importance of Leadership in Everyday Life

Ashim Sarmah

Importance of leadership can be found in business, entrepreneurship, politics, education, sports, social works and many more domains where effective utilization of the human resources is required.

How you define the importance of leadership?

No matter what, history is written by the leaders. Perhaps, you don’t know anything about your ancestor living 2000 or 200 years ago, but the world knows the greatest leaders living 4000 years ago.

Leaders have importance in providing guidance, encouraging creativity, motivating people, building a nation, cultivating innovation and changing the society. But evil leaders can bring massive destruction.

“I am not afraid of an army of lions led by a sheep; I am afraid of an army of sheep led by a lion.” –Alexander the Great

Everything rises and falls on leadership, an organization’s success depends upon the leader, a company falls because of the leader, not because of the market or the economy.

In this article, we will discuss the importance of leadership in seven different sections.

The world needs strong, ethical and authentic leaders more than ever, it was the leaders that allowed wars to happen, it was the leader that allowed 2008 economic crisis to happen and it is the action of leaders that causing high underemployment and unemployment across the globe.

Importance of Leadership in Nation Building

Nation building is not a one man’s exertion; nation-building needs leaders who can create leaders of leading people. 

However, it is becoming a common practice among political groups to project one charismatic leader as a hero or superstar, it is not the only fault of the political groups, lack of rational thinking and cognitive intelligence among people adds fuel to it.

Building a nation needs leaders for creating leaders of leading people across politics, business, education, social works, sports, culture and in many diverse sections of a nation. 

Swami Vivekananda; one of the greatest monks, philosopher of the 19th century once said,

“Give me 100 energetic young men and I shall transform India.”

Being a leader is not just utilization of positional power, it is a matter of dedication towards the fulfillment of needs of the society. 

A success of a nation depends upon building a national identity through state powers. Leaders must learn to acknowledge the reality of the nation that populace has evolved rapidly with the challenges put forward by the world today.

Importance of Leadership in Business

Starting a business or being hired for a managerial role doesn’t mean that you become a leader; effective leadership in business requires the capability of the person to provide guidance, motivate employees, build morale, delegate responsibilities, and improve satisfaction to steer up the business. 

The right kind of leadership can boost organizational goal as well as keep innovating the needs of the organization and society.

In business, there is a vast difference between a boss and a leader; here is one of the best quotes by George E.M. Kelly,

“Remember the difference between a boss and a leader; a boss says ‘Go!’ a leader says ‘Let’s go!’.”

Production and outcome of a business depend upon effective utilization of land, labor, capital, and procedures; but the leadership is the switch of everything to let them work together seamlessly. 

The wrong types of leadership can sink the whole company, while a great leader may combine different leadership styles to furnish the vision.

Importance of Leadership in Politics

The world is full of aspiring political leaders, but very few live up to the political leadership ethics, integrity, and morality. 

The word ‘politician’ has such a huge negative connotation around the society, but in reality, the politician is the one that stands for poor, build the nation and transform our lives.

Political leadership requires a focus on the long-term good of a country, above and ahead of short-term personal goal. 

Good political leadership requires the combination of charisma, integrity and execution skills; the leader has to become statesman than just being a politician, but the world is in need of many good politicians. 

Lord Krishna, the central God of Vaishnavite Hindu tradition said in the epic Mahabharata,

“The bad people can rule mankind, not because of their courage & power; but, because of abandonment of duties by the good people.”

A bad politician tries to deceive people through emotional fragility, unconscious rationale, and fictitious promises. For these reasons, there are always trivial debates continuing around the political environs based on caste, creed, race, and religion.

Importance of Leadership in Management

Good leadership in management is essential to business, government and to numerous groups of the organization that shapes the way we live. 

Leadership is about vision & innovation, whereas management is about maintenance of excellent standards, procedures, and policies.

“Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.” – Peter F. Drucker

A leader focuses on innovation, motivation, and inspiration of individual teams, whereas a manager is focused on systems, structure and efficient execution of intended goals. 

Management and leadership both are indispensable to each other’s; effective management is the route for implementation a leadership vision.

We need to coalesce of both leaders and managers to lead global organization, that roles are called as the managerial leader.

Managerial leaders combine fixed mindset of a manager and growth mindset of a leader, exploring and experimenting with their ideas and executing their vision. Managerial leadership style is most suitable for an entrepreneur.

Importance of Leadership in Sports

Sports coach and team leaders must have an effective leadership skill. As an effective leader, he or she has to deliver sports skills & tactics, organization & administration, philosophy & ethics, and growth and development of the team members.

Sports leaders have to evaluate their team members identify their strengths and weakness; motivate them in tough times, and strategies to build an effective team.

Sometimes sports leaders have to be a transformational leader according to the changes in tactics and strategies in sports.

Effective coaches & team leaders are responsible for creating cohesion among the team members. Sign of social cohesion among team members displays attraction, teamwork, and integration towards fulfilling an intimidating goal.

Relationship-oriented leadership style is mostly followed by sports’ personnel. Former captain of Indian cricket team, Mahindra Singh Dhoni is well known winning many matches by implementing relationship-oriented leadership style.

Importance of Leadership in Education

Leadership in education is one of the most essential requirements of society, but we are lacking efficient leaders in education. 

A nation can’t be built until we have efficient & effective educational leaders. Leaders are the one who can create a vision, who inspire the teachers, who motivate them towards building a generation of intellectuals.

Running an educational institute is not only about teaching students to qualify examination, guiding them to get certificates and making a reputation of an institute. 

An educational institute requires a vision & mission as a community development organization, strategies & tactics as a business organization, philosophy & ethics as a religious organization, and teaching methodologies as a spiritual organization.

An educational leader needs to identify the potential of the staff members, relevant educational paradigm, general consciousness of the students and required infrastructure to develop an institute.

The world is busy producing underdeveloped human beings and everyone talking about building a great nation. A Great nation can’t be built on economic well-being; a great nation is built on enlightened human beings to lead the masses through examples. 

Most of the people fail to reach “Formal Operational Stage” of cognitive development; as a consequence of this, our traditional education system is busy producing people without hypothetical thinking, deductive reasoning. and abstract thinking.

As an educational leader, you need to direct organizational changes, craft cooperative agreements with other stakeholders and navigate challenges at the school, local, state and federal level.

Importance of Leadership in Social Works

Social workers make the best leadership qualities across the society; they provide guidance and support in hospitals, community development, work for social upliftment, and making a difference in lives of individuals, society & organization. Most of the social leaders characterize servant leadership style.

According to National Association of Social Workers code of ethics, there are six important values that every social worker must hold; these are service, social justice, dignity & worth of a person, importance of the human relationship, integrity, and competence. 

Here is a one of the best quote on social works by Dieter F. Uchtdorf,

“As we lose ourselves in the service of others, we discover our own lives and our own happiness.”

While there are social workers in positions of leadership in many fields, they almost possess few common attributes; these are the capacity to work creatively, constructively and effectively with families, individuals, groups, society and nation to promote social justice, catalyze social change and make changes to individual, society, organization, and nation.