Ten years ago my entire high school football team went to the movies to see a movie called “Remember the Titans”. This movie offered many lessons to be learned but there is one particular quote that stuck with me even to this day. The quote said,
“Attitude reflects Leadership, Captain” (2000, Remember the Titans).
Does the attitude of a set of followers really reflect leadership?
First, I will define what leadership is. “Leadership is the exercise of influence by one member of a group or organization over other members to help the group or organization achieve its goals” (George, Peg. 91). Looking at that definition the word influence sticks out because it is talking about something affecting a person to make certain decisions (The Free Dictionary. Com).
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In our textbook, it talks about work attitudes and how they are caused by dissatisfaction and organizational commitment (George, 2008). I believe we can effectively say that it comes from the leaders. It’s the leaders that run the organization. They make important decisions that affect the lives of their followers. Dictionary. Com defines attitude as a “manner, disposition, feeling, position, etc. With regard to a person or thing; tendency or orientation” (Dictionary. Com). If attitude is a feeling with regard towards a person then it must reflect leadership in some way. If any person has any type of influence on someone’s life they are going to feel some way about the scenario. Rather bad or good there will be an attitude an existence about the particular leader in the position of power. However, to play devil’s advocate, I old have to say that there are other variables that go into how a person feels within an organization, group, or team.
There is the problems that surround individuals not liking each other, there are the problems that arise at home, and basically, any other problem that arises for the follower. The attitude of a person may shift day-to-day, but is that because of how that person feels about the organization or how he or she feels about their leader. I really believe that overall the top leaders affect how a person feels about the organization and the lower-level leaders affect how a follower feels on a day-to-day basis.
Let’s face it an organization is an entity made up of people but it is not a real human being. So it is the leaders who make the decisions. I believe it is a leader’s responsibility to help their followers in any way they can. Some people may think where does the leader draw the line between work and personal life. An effective leader sees no line between the two. He or she understands that the follower’s personal life affects how they will perform on the job. Knowing this an effective leader will find ways that do not extend beyond the scopes of the law to help his follower.
If the leader does not really care then it will show and the follower’s problem is not solved but another one is created. Is it the leader’s fault that his followers are having problems at home? No, it definitely is not the leader’s fault. However, a leader is here to serve his followers and that is the burden that comes along with the job. I would have to say that leadership does reflect attitude because a poor deader will have poor followers and a good leader will have happy followers.
