Effective and Authentic Leadership

Effective and Authentic Leadership

Character is defined as the actual moral condition of an individual. It partly depends on the inborn qualities and partly on the lessons that a person is taught while growing up and the circumstances he/she has passed thought during that growth period. Consequently, this can be cultivated through good habits in childhood. An adage goes that “sow an act and you reap a habit. Sow a habit, and you reap a character”. From the interview between Charlie Rose and David Brooks, they discuss the book, which was written by Brooks with the title “The Road to Character.” He addresses his critical issue which concerns the modern western culture. Besides, Brooks criticizes people’s obsession, which focuses on self-saturation obsessiveness. From the interview, I agree that for an individual to achieve Character, he/she must have passed through many challenges, which will help them learn many positive lessons and build leadership qualities in them.

N.T Wright discusses the relationship between virtue and Character. He emphasizes that Christians have become so preoccupied with who gets the eternal reward and who doesn’t and thus have forgone the teachings from the New Testament, which guides the believers on how to live. People can be persuaded to embrace virtue through Character. Besides, Wright says that Christians are guided by God to develop Character, and thus leadership qualities are brought out in unexpected scenarios. Likewise, Brooks during the interview talks about virtues and he categorizes them into Resume Virtues and Eulogy Virtues. Resume virtues are what make us appear pleasant at our working places and the skills that adds us value at the market place. Eulogy virtues on the other hand represents what people will say when we have passed away.

Consequently, Brooks questions the importance of people seeking remembrance after their passing yet they put so much on themselves.  From the statements mentioned above, it is clear that both Brooks and Wright suggest that people should use their attained Character to foster their virtues, which entails doing good to other people in society. As a result, unity will be achieved.

According to Andy Crouch, culture is portrayed as what human beings make of the world. After these things are made, eventually, the world that we live in is affected in several ways’. People cannot escape or withdraw from culture since it is there to be done. Additionally, Crouch states that “character can only be changed through the creation of more of it.” He also says that culture will even exist in heaven. This thus helps us to ask ourselves questions on whether we will make into the New Jerusalem (Zion) through our daily cultural artifacts. We know that our ability to come up with a good culture entirely depends on God’s grace and favor. While watching the interview, I noticed that Brooks talked about people living in a culture that teaches to promote and advertise themselves and to master skills and ability, which will make them successful in their lives. But that, however, gives little concentration to humility, honest self-confrontation, and sympathy, which are very important in building one’s character. Brooks testified publicly that he decided to write the book to save his soul. The book is all about a cultural change that is encouraging people to understand that they should possess a culture that sees them as the Centre of the universe rather than the culture of thinking humbly of themselves. My reflection on culture lies in the ability of Christians to promote and cultivate moral values, which will help them grow spiritually. Spiritual leaders can do this through condemning wrong items such as pornography, critiquing unethical behaviors, copying good cultural deeds, and consuming culture, which involves actions that glorify God.

James Kouzes and Barry Posner provided a leadership model design in their book The Leadership Challenge (1987). In their model, they have provided the practices of authentic and effective leadership. The two managed to come up with these practices after intensively doing research on people’s personal experiences about excellent leadership. From that, they thus concluded that leadership is a universal and understandable process that involves five practices within which two key behaviors are included. The methods are the model way, inspiring a shared vision, challenging the process, enabling others to act, and encouraging the heart. Leaders should always set an example. Posner and Kouzes believe that it is essential to achieve small things for one to build the momentum for more prominent achievements. From the interview, Brooks used a character by the name George Marshall who showed the power of service towards any organization. He was just a small boy who was unimpressive, and he learned proper conduct through his dedication to the army.

Moreover, a great leader should always seek more information and challenge existing ideas while seeking new ones. While doing these mistakes and discouragements might occur, but critical lessons will be learned. Dorothy Day is another character from the Road to Character by David Brooks, who made use of her sufferings. Instead of complaining, she discovered her lessons and turned them into a definite purpose. All these acts suggest that leadership qualities are attained through sacrifice and willingness to endure pain as growth takes place.

Leadership principles and practices were reflected in the film since Brooks discussed the importance of building Character. When Character has been expertly made at a personal level, the culture will be enhanced easily by various types of leaders in the world. Besides, leadership can be understood in the concept of actions done by an individual rather than what he/she says to please other people. Character and culture, therefore, qualifies to be the initial steps to consider to build while developing one’s leadership qualities.

References

Horton, M., Mathewes-Green, F., McLaren, B. D., McManus, E. R., & Crouch, A. (2011). The Church in Emerging Culture: Five Perspectives. Zondervan.

Patterson, J. M. (2016). David Brooks, The Road to Character.