Question

How does this poem, The Blind Men and the Elephant apply to the study of leadership? Discuss, the challenges of trust in developing the leadership-follower relationship. Discuss your own experiences involving leader-follower exchange.

Answer 1

In the poem "The blind men and the elephant" all the six blind people happen to be correct about the description of the elephant after what they had experienced but they start to quarrel with each other for proving one's description to be the correct of all while all of them were partially correct about the elephant. Thus this poem tries to explain the consequences of partial truth or not understanding the other's perspective and considering oneself to be correct when it might happen that the other person is also genuine on his part.

Thus this concept can be applied to the leadership in the sense that when followers have a drive to achieve something but all of them have a different perspective about how it can be accomplished and thus try to prove their own point to be the most correct , it results in conflicts , thus the leader is the person entitled to a position with necessary motivational and influencing skills, competencies and directing abilities through which he or she unifies and integrates all the individual efforts, perspectives and opinion and thus directs them towards a particular goal. The leader through showing them the right path, eliminating the disagreement, building coordination and encouraging team spirit helps the followers to understand each other, respect each other's opinion , advises them to evaluate other's perspective before passing any judgement. The leader tries to impart to its followers the knowledge and benefits of working in sync with each other, sharing information with each other , inorder to prevent arise of any partial truth, incomplete information etc. Thus this poem will help the leaders to always try to eradicate the differences in opinions and differences of opinions so as to perform activities in a unified manner.

In leadership - follower relationship, a leader is entrusted with the resources, time and efforts of followers and are given a particular position to instruct, supervise and direct them inorder to accomplish the goal or objective and achieve a desired result. At some point if the leader will fail to perform his duties in best possible manner the leader is pointed out and hold responsible for any mishap or loss.

Moreover leader is hold accountable for the decisions he has made and the choices he advised the followers to make. The followers thus expect the leader to show the best possible way to achieve the goal, act in the most moral and ethical manner, be diligent in imparting knowledge and discuss properly the essentials to achieve the ultimate motive. Moreover followers trust the leader with the confidential data with the expectation that it is safe with the leader, and expect that leader will act in the best of their interest and will prioritize their interest over his own interest. They trust that leader will warn them in advance about the consequences of a particular activity and if the leader makes a decision that proves ineffective and inefficient then it creates trust issues among the followers as they might formulate a bad opinion about their leader. If leader fails to unify the followers he is seen as incompetent among the followers and it creates disintegration of activities and separation of goals and interests among followers.

My experience:

The leader of my team has always proven to dominate our desires and objectives and governed the activities of group to accomplish them in the most timely and economical manner. He always tries to push our limits by providing us with a new fresh target everyday and hence keeps us motivated towards accomplishing that target. Moreover he also acts as a nentor for us advicing us what to do and when to do and what is the best possible manner of doing it. He supports our suggestions, opinions and initiatives and tries to coordinate the individual efforts of all team members for achieving a single objective. He maintains an effective position and is a combination of both strict as well as friendly depending upon the situation.

Once there rose a trust issue when the our leader was found to be associated with our opposition group. , but later through clear confrontation and understanding he proved to be just an acquainted with them and there was nothing such thing to worry. Thus he is seen as a genuine and trustworthy person believed to work for the interests of followers.

Dear student hope i explained well..please feel free to comment and provide feedback. Wishing you a good luck and God bless.

Thankyou.

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