Essay on Leadership on the Line

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Writing Assignment Leadership on the Line By Ron Heifetz and Marty Linsky 1. Pre-reading assignment: Write a summary of your thoughts and ideas about leadership. - Leadership is a very complex & multi-faceted area. - Leadership can be a science, but most often is an art. - Leadership can be difficult to define. - Leadership can be very visible and also, invisible. - Leadership has many types/forms. - Leadership can vary according to the situation and the persons involved. - Leadership can be both inborn as well as learned. Then incorporate your thoughts on the following prompts into your paper. a. As you first think about adaptive leadership as described in this book, what new insights emerge from this leadership model when you think about your agency or team? - Going back to page 11…(If leadership were about giving people good news, the job would be easy. People do not resist change, per se. They resist loss. You appear dangerous to people when you question their values, beliefs, or habits of a lifetime. You place yourself on the line when you tell people what they need to hear rather than what they “need” to hear.) This brings to mind how people on our department respond to management’s actions. Delivering a message to people whose minds are not primed for it is a source of much unnecessary conflict. As a leader, one must constantly consider how to communicate with the others on the team if overall & long term success is to be achieved. There will be many times, however, when the situation does not afford leadership an ideal time, place, or recipient for the message. The question on page 13, “Of all that we value, what’s really most precious and what’s expendable?” is in fact a question that leaders must constantly ask ourselves. From page 13, the statement, “The sustainability of change depends on having the

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