Leadership

A good leader should understand thoroughly the nature of leadership and its characteristics before he can shape his behaviors, attitudes and styles. In United States, there are so many cultural differences at work or in life that a good understanding of leadership roles is necessary in order to communicate efficiently and effectively for synchronization. The ability to understand and realize someone’s true contribution is a common mistake most of us make. Also, a great leader has to be able to understand the use of “WE” and “I”.

I am from West Africa and my culture is very different from American culture. My sense of leadership was built in the combination environment of School and family. This course makes me realize the impact of behaviors and attitudes at my current and first employment in a professional American corporation. When reporting a project that we have done together, some of my colleagues have the tendency of using the pronoun “I” frequently instead of “WE”. If I hadn’t stepped in from time to time, I can only assume that my manager would have given them all the credits. At the same time, I suppose and assume that my manager, as a leader, would know and realize my contribution in the project by analyzing how I elaborate myself.

I tend to believe that my leadership style is similar to women’s because I work hard and expect that my performance would be recognize while others are reaching out for opportunities to interact with higher levels. My take in the geographical differences discussed in class is that one should not assume the state of mind or ability of another person and both parties should really take the time to understand and know each other before they establish any assumption. During the interview for my current position, the hiring manager made a comment saying that he cannot continue the interview at a technical level because he’s not an engineer and I smirked but he frowned. In my culture, smiling

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