A641.1.3.RB - What is Great Leadership?

In the activity facilitated by Dr. Richard Boyatzis through the video "What is Great Leadership?", it was rather apparent that I have experience both resonant leaders and not so resonant leaders in my professional experience. In going through the activity I was able to immediately point out an extremely effective leader that I have worked with. I identified one of my first managers as the effective leader, and I was able to rapidly identify that she was a great leader because of how she made me feel, and the relationship that prioritized with myself and the rest of her team. This manager took the time for the “small stuff”, which often really is the important stuff, relationship building!

On the other hand I named a different prior manager as not being as effective in that leadership role. Looking back to my experience working with him it was apparent that he did not take the time to relationship build with his followers, instead he was simply task oriented and focused. This role was in a field that can easily lend itself to an extreme focus on tasks and efficiency, but in the long run this lack of focus on the individuals serving him was missed opportunity to be a resonant leader.

As we learned in the activity, its proved that the old standard of command and control is simply ineffective, especially in the complex work environments we are in today. Instead a strategy of ask and inspire is one that build lasting relationships, that bring about stronger outcomes, and make for resonant leaders. It was not too surprising to learn that the people delegated as managers in the workplace and that we are exposed to day to day are not commonly that great at leading. I believe that a lack of proper education or training is partially responsible for this whole, but just as stressed in the video by Dr. Richard Boyatzis, we know what great leadership is, its in our heart. So it is our responsibility to strive to strengthen our relationships with our followers and our peers, to work towards being resonant leaders.