Blog Entry 2

This week I learned a lot in my leadership class.  We did an essay on differentiating between leaders and managers.  I use to think that they were the same but after this week I have a clear understanding of the difference.  Management is more of using power to control their workers to accomplish a set goal; while leaders serve as a mentor to their employees.  A Leader motivates their followers to become leaders. Leaders are always open for suggestions compared to managers who have already came up with the plan and have the employees work towards the goal.

We also discussed two types of leadership, which are transformational and transactional.  Transformational are leaders who “transform” their employees and transactional leadership are leaders who reward their employees based on their transactions with the employee.  We discussed the five main practices of exemplary leaders from chapter 1.  The first, model the way, which I think is the most important of all the five.  This practice is basically the leader leading by examples.  The second is, inspire a shared vision; in this practice the leader shows his followers the vision of making the organization better by setting goals and a plan to achieving them. Challenge the process, which is the stage where the leader has to be prepared for any changes that the organization might face.  The leader has to trust his followers by enabling others to act. During a project the leader has to let the followers make suggestions and make decisions. The last practice is for the leader to encourage the heart whether it’s during a project or at the end of the project.  A simple encouragement or acknowledgement can go a long way. An exemplary leader can write a note that says “thank you” or an email that shows appreciation is always a good idea.

I will say that this course is much more interactive than other online courses.  I learned a lot this week and I am excited about next week when we have to choose a topic to write about for our academic essay.