Chapter+9+-+Public+Leadership

When looking at the three chapters that our group has been charged to analyze, it can easily be surmised that our topics of Leadership in Groups and Teams, Leadership in Organizations, and finally Public Leadership could be viewed as an evolution of leadership amongst other, slowly progressing towards complete exposure to the public. Nevertheless, my specific task is to examine the final component of this evolution, as Public Leadership is “one of the most visible and dynamic forms of social influence” (Hackman 254).

First and foremost, it has to be noted that public leadership comes in various shapes and forms, as it can be revealed from the political realm to your local place of worship. Furthermore, when divulging into public leadership, it is imperative to recognize that every public leader must influence the attitudes and behaviors of others—no matter what the environment. Stemming from this, the authors then went into the importance of public relations in leadership and in particular five intrinsic values that a leader must possess to effectively utilize public relations to his or her advantage. From performance, to two-way communication, and finally taking a proactive stance on sudden changes that will affect followers—these are a few of these essential elements a leader must possess in the public relations realm. But unfortunately, these values above are all for nothing if the leader is unable to properly develop and execute public speeches. Most importantly, the authors stressed all the preparation that goes into public speeches (pre-speech planning, organization, language, and rehearsal, all before the actual delivery), as the final product should be the easiest part of the process due to diligence in planning. Also I would be remiss to not mention the importance of anticipating questions from the audience and/or media after a speech, and the importance to act as natural as possible during the speech (utilizing gestures, emotion, etc.) as they display control and ease of the situation.

Tying into public speaking is an important facet of public leadership: persuasive campaigns and campaign stages—as they hinge upon proper communication skills, (such as public speaking) as effectively portraying your organization or group’s message to the public demands these skills in order to be effectively persuasive. Without going into the minutia of persuasive campaigns and campaign stages, as they repeat many of the important facets of public speaking, I would like to press onto the final issue the authors illustrated in the chapter: collaborative leadership. Collaborative leadership is essential to discuss while on the topic of public leadership as it not only places importance on the leader him/herself, but also followers. In summary, collaborative leadership can be seen as the act of bring the populous into your belief structure and in essence making them take accountability of leadership as well. This is a key point to explain as it not only configures itself toward stake-holders, but also those who are involved in a broad-manner, as anyone can feel they are not only a part of the process, but also the leadership and future of the organization or group.