Week 7 Final Paper: Model the Way, Challenge the Process

Week 7 Final Paper
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Introduction
People living in developing nations face many problems including poverty which has a psychological toll on the people, especially if they have been living with it generation after generation. This case study showcases a leadership issue in the non-governmental organizations that work with relief aid, particularly when the leader sent in the developing nation is from a developed country. Leaders from developed nations that reassigned with roles of alleviating poverty in developing nations, would have a hard time connecting with the people and making their ideas and strategies of alleviating poverty accepted and implemented by the poor communities. Such leaders are taking a significant role that involves life and death and they are dealing with a vulnerable population that have people of different cultures, in a new nation, and living a life that the leader would actually see for the first time. These leaders have trouble communicating and building relationships that could lead to positive outcomes. Leaders in organizations that work on poverty alleviation in developing nations, would need to take a different approach when formulating their leadership style and strategic plans. They can do this better through the writings of Kouzes and Posner (2007).
Model the way
A leader should be credible since credibility is the foundation of leadership. People would have to believe in the leader in order to believe what the leader says. Leaders are supposed to model the way, through finding their voice and setting an example. Leaders need to stand up for their beliefs and be clear on the guiding principles. They should have their own voices and give clear and authentic voice to their values. With this, they will get commitment rather than imposing their values on others (Kouzes & Posner, 2007).
Credibility and respect is earned through creating long-term relationships and consistently showing ones commitment to values and principles that are seen as important to all stakeholders. A leader’s idea must be evident in their speech and actions and it must be seen by those that come in contact with the leader, so that they can have a clear picture of what the leader and the organization represents(Gentry et al, 2016). Leaders from affluent countries like the United states, that are working in developing countries to alleviate poverty, would need time to earn the people`s trust and respect. If leaders from other regions would act in a condescending manner or mistreated the locals, anything that they would offer in terms of advice or resources would be rejected and ignored. Leaders would have to come and work alongside the poor communities, understand the forces that play in their lives individually and as a community, and that help them in achieving their full potential (Corbett & Fikkert, 2009).
Instead of working from an affluent location and offices where advices and charity is dispersed from a distance, a leaders should be at the scene, learning from those that are in need and working diligently to develop strategies that would alleviate the people from poverty. When trust and understanding develops between a leader and the people that are in need of assistance, the leader can be a model in various ways of thinking and functioning to the people (Oliphant, 2016). This will instil hope and it will show the other leadership staff on how to approach their mission and interact with the local people. Once a new member joins the team, the leader has another chance to model the right way of showing respect and honour to the poor people they serve(Xu et al, 2015). This will lead to alleviation of poverty of the soul that leads to people believing that they are inferior and powerless, and also alleviation of monetary based poverty (Corbett & Fikkert, 2009).
Inspire a shared vision
When someone described their personal best leadership experience, they would mention the times that they imagined an exciting, highly attractive future for their company. Leaders are driven by the vision of what their organization would become. Leaders would imagine attractive opportunities that are in store when their team arrives at the end of the journey. Leaders believe that they can make a difference and they have that desire to make something better than it exists today or change the status quo, or innovate. Visions that leaders only see are invaluable in creating an organized momentum of change in a product or an organization. A person will not follow another unless they accept a vision as their own (Oliphant, 2016). Leaders would need to inspire commitment not command it, through making what started as “my vision, our vision”. Leaders see things that are different from the way other people do. Kouzes and Posner (2007) believe that leaders believe in a possibility of a strong, better future and they can inspire others to join them to making possibilities, realities.
The core of relationship building is woven through exemplary leadership(Gentry et al, 2016). For the people in poverty to work hard in doing away with poverty for good, they need to believe that there is an alternative path that is offered by their leaders. This alternative path has to be possible, credible and worth the hard work that they would need to overcome this poverty in order to implement the new way of thinking and functioning (Oliphant, 2016). Leaders have to invest their time and energy to familiarize themselves with the people and understand their challenges (Xu et al, 2015). They need to develop a relationship with them which would generate trust, and only after this can the vision of the leader be shared with the people living in poverty (Corbett & Fikkert, 2009).
As leaders would to gain the trust of the local people, they also have to gain the trust of their working staff. Just as the leaders work on knowing the people inside out, so should they invest time with the staff and build a relationship. Societal changes that would be significant to the poor community would only occur when the constituents of the leader are on the same page, and they have their own ideals on the organizations plan for change (Kouzes & Posner, 2007). The leaders would set the ultimate goal and articulate the core objectives of the mission or goal. Each constituent would be empowered to flesh out the details as they start adopting the vision.
When everyone has merged with the vision of their leader, it becomes a shared vision (Oliphant, 2016).This vision would bring about possibilities that constituents had not believed them to be possible. Once the spark of new possibility is generated by the leader, the community and the staff will work together to achieving a true transformation that can occur beyond which any person would have hoped for (Collins & Hansen, 2011). The poor would work hard towards the vision and they will receive a transformation that would help them and their community in bettering their lives. The shared vision will provide motivation among the constituents and foster determination and hard work towards alleviating poverty.
Challenge the process
Leaders should venture out (Kouzes & Posner, 2007). Leaders are people that lead others to greatness and they accept challenges. Leaders would challenge the process by looking for opportunities through experimenting, taking risks, and learning from past mistakes. Leaders should be willing to step out into the unknown and change the status quo (Gentry et al, 2016). Leaders search for opportunities to innovate, improve and to grow.
Kouzes and Posner (2007) agree that a great leader does not keep everything the same. When they see a challenging issue presented before them, they create a conducive atmosphere to innovate and modify things to be done and to be better. Leaders encourage creative solutions from their members since they are not the only ones with answers, so they are open to view, ideas that can come from any source, either internal or external. Despite the fact that ideas are not always successful, leaders would still try and learn from its failures as they pursue something else. Each victory would build momentum, team confidence and they would believe that they are able and confident enough to tackle any challenges (Oliphant, 2016).
Leaders working in developing nations would use this leadership strategy in finding ways of alleviating poverty. The challenges of overcoming generations and generations of poverty would be difficult and the leader cannot fix that alone and at a fast rate. Such a problem is seen as overwhelming and it may make one not want to intervene (Corbett & Fikkert, 2009). Leaders willing to step into the role that requires them to work in the realm of poverty alleviation, would need to be immersed in the culture of the people whom they will be changing their lives (Brown, 2011). They would agree to partner and genuinely attempt to understand the nature of the contributing issues and...