Leadership and Learning

Running head: LEADERSHIP AND LEARNING
LEADERSHIP AND LEARNING
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1LEADERSHIP AND LEARNING
The essay evaluates and analyzes the quote by John C. Maxwell in which he says that a
leader is a person who knows, goes and shows the way. This thinking of Maxwell points towards
some of the basic elements that go on to build good and effective leaders. The quote will be
analyzed in relation to its significance concerning the essential leadership aspects. The knowing,
showing and going ways of effective leadership need to be essentially discussed for better
understanding of leadership. Leadership oriented wisdom will be gathered in order to understand
how greater levels of effective leadership can be reached.
The essay is a reflection on my understanding and analysis of the factors that were
pointed out by Maxwell. The factors are related to knowing, showing and going the way in order
to implement effective leadership. According to Bolman and Deal (2017) leadership depends on
how effectively, various frames can be harmonized and inventive response to various new
circumstantial challenges are managed. They have essentially divided the organizations into four
frames model. The frames are namely factories, families, temples and jungles. The ideas of these
four are the basic things to be considered in an organizational context. As opined by Dixon
(2017) organizational learning can be effectively enhanced through better collective actions of
people. It is further noted that organizations act as strong social systems focused towards the
development of individuals, the organization and the larger system of which the organization is
an essential part. In my opinion these point towards the knowing part more in the organizational
context. In my opinion knowing is the primary important part in leadership. This is because
knowing creates a better understanding of the situations that need to be managed for effective
leadership. According to Chadwick and Raver (2015) learning is very important for
organizations as they need to keep on adapting to situations. In order to achieve the same,
specific goals need to be set. This will enhance the prospects of “knowing”. I believe fixing

2LEADERSHIP AND LEARNING
specific targets helps to know better, whatever the person wants to achieve. This is very
important in case of a leader. This is especially true in the social context. A person is deemed to
be a leader if he/she knows better ways of achieving things. Very commonly we see that the most
knowledgeable person is selected as the leader in the society. A leader should have knowledge of
how success can be achieved. For this target needs to be set as this is the first step towards
successful achievement of target.
Another significant aspects that has been discussed is in relation to going the distance in
leadership. According to me this is the next step towards effective leadership after knowing. In
face relevant studies have pointed that failure to do this step properly leads to ineffective and
failed leadership. This is as true in organizational setup as much as social or other scenarios.
Salas-Vallina et al (2017) opine that transformational leadership can help towards generating
better organizational learning. It was found that workplace happiness can be enhanced along with
organizational learning through transformational leadership. This is a kind of leadership that also
focuses a lot on leading by example. The actual sense of going the way in terms of leadership is
to do exactly what is required for effective action. Hence, for being an effective leader I have to
perform on the same level on which I require the people I lead to perform. Leading by example
is a significant trait of transformational leadership. In this type of leadership, the leader identifies
necessary changes, creates a vision to approach the changes required and executes the changes
through cooperating with subordinates or team members (Shafritz, Ott and Jang 2015). Doing
himself what a leader wants to be done is important as it establishes the confidence of the
followers on the leader, on the team and on themselves. If a leader merely directs the
subordinates of followers to do certain tasks it does not go a long way towards increasing the
effectiveness of the functions necessary for success. Moreover, if the leader is not aware of the