Exerted Leadership: Mentoring Responsibility
Write article on the below topic in 300 words
Discussion
Give an example of how you have exerted leadership on or off the job in a situation in which you did not have a formal leadership position. Explain why you describe your activity as leadership.
Note: Because your first paragraph is an example from your life, you do not need references for it. However, you DO need a reference in the second part where you explain why you describe it as leadership. One reference is sufficient.
Please respond to the article in 200+ words
Discussion 1
Few years ago I was working as a software engineer in a non leadership position. During the summer two intern software engineers were hired by the company. I was given the responsibility to mentor and guide the two interns and help them in achieving their goals. It was a completely new type of responsibility for me to take on. I understood how managing people is difficult and how this responsibility of guiding others is different than being led by others. I had to create a roadmap for the two interns to follow and I also had to plan out how they will achieve their goals. I managed both of them closely and scheduled multiple meetings discussing their progress and kept evaluating their performance. After the end of their internship both of them successfully reached their goals and I rated both of them a satisfactory performance rating.
The responsibility to mentoring and guiding interns was a leader’s role. While guiding and mentoring the interns I was managing both the interns and was continuously evaluating their performance. This is essentially a management role and as Nienaber (2010) stated management is intertwined with leadership. The responsibility to coordination were considered as leadership as well (Nienaber, 2010) and as I was coordinating the two interns, my responsibility also is considered leadership. Leadership have a broad meaning and existed since first interactions of humankind (Nienaber, 2010). Similarly management has practiced since early civilizations. Since I was guiding and mentoring the interns, I had to create plan for the interns to follow and had to keep track of their progress, my job was both managing the interns and leading them.
Reference:
Nienaber, H. (2010). Conceptualisation of management and leadership. Management Decision.