Beef Tips

March 2019 Management Minute

“Leadership”

By: Justin Waggoner, Ph.D., Beef Systems Specialist

What is leadership? And what makes a leader effective? The term leadership is simply defined as “the action of leading a group of people or an organization” or the “ability to lead other people.” History has given us a number of examples of excellent leaders who have motivated groups or organizations to accomplish tremendous acts against overwhelming odds. Pick one. Any leader of your choice. What made this individual a great leader? Could we concisely come up with a list of traits or characteristics that made this individual an excellent leader? Now pick another. Do your two leaders have anything in common? What made these leaders effective? Although leadership has been the focus of tremendous study and numerous books, we still do not understand it. However, I would contend that the one thing all great leaders share is that they helped those they were leading get better and accomplish bigger things than those individuals thought was possible. As a leader, “What are you doing to help your people get better at what they do?”

For more information, contact Justin Waggoner at jwaggon@ksu.edu.

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