PAD 515 DIscussion 9 Bringing Change to Public Leadership

Bringing Change to Public Leadership

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Bringing Change to Public Leadership

Bringing Change to Public Leadership

Leadership continuously presents challenges to the leader as a person and his/her capabilities. An individual moving to a public leadership position will always face challenges caused by changes regardless of how good a public leader he/she is. Public leadership in itself is a challenge. There are generally two types of challenges that a public leader is likely to face: internal, coming from within the public leader; and external, from situations and people.

Public leadership not only gives an individual the chance to demonstrate his/her abilities but also reveals his/her limitations. Internal challenges that act as obstacles to good leadership are: insecurity, intolerance, lack of confidence, and fear. External challenges are faced by every public leader, for example, opposition from the public, public criticism, and inadequate funds and other public resources (Brookes).

Actions that can be used by the public leader to address internal challenges are: reaching out for help, and being conversant with what is going on around him/her. Actions required to address external challenges are: being resourceful, facing conflict directly, seeking collaboration and being proactive.

Emotional intelligence is a person’s aptitude to manage and comprehend his/her own emotions and also emotions of the individuals around him/her. For a public leader, possessing emotional intelligence is vital for success. According to American psychologist Daniel Goleman, the main elements of emotional intelligence are: motivation, social skills, empathy, self-regulation and self-awareness (Goleman, 1998).

A public leader can improve his/her motivation by determining how motivated he/she is to lead, and being optimistic no matter the challenges faced. A person can build social skills in public leadership by: inspiring other people by praising them; improving on his/her communication skills; learning how to resolve conflict. Empathy can be improved by responding to people’s feelings and paying attention to their body language. A public leader can improve his/her ability to self-regulate by practicing being calm and holding himself/herself accountable when something goes wrong.

References

Brookes, S. (n.d.). Crisis, Confidence and Collectivity: Responding to the new leadership Challenge. Sage Journals.

Cavazotte, F., Moreno, V., & Hickmann, M. (2012). Effects of Leader Intelligence, Personality and Emotional Intelligenge on Transformational Leadership and Managerial Performance. The Leadership Quarterly, 443-445.

D., G. (1998). Working with Emotional Intelligence. New York, NY: Bantum Books.

Introductio: Leadership in a Crises-Constructing World. (November 1, 2015). Leadership.

Public Leadership Development Facilitation and the Crossroads Blues. (September1, 2015). Management Learning, 391-411.