Critical Analysis of “The Core of Leadership”

The editorial “The Core of Leadership” is simple to follow and well informed describing the attributes and behaviors of a leader. It also discusses how the concept of leadership has changed over time, and how leadership is used in action today. This article strives to describe what it means to be a leader in terms that even the uninformed can understand, making it quite easy to read. The intended audience for this article is, of course, potential leaders, including anyone from students to business professionals and those in managerial positions. 

The article itself was fascinating, and each segment added a fundamental viewpoint into what it means to be a leader. In particular, the questions that a good leader should ask was something I found to be incredibly useful (Souba, n.d., p. 416). Asking questions such as “What is the point of what we do?” as Souba suggests is a phenomenal way to determine the goal of the involved individuals and to bring about a solid method to lead the group in the right direction. As the article suggests early on, one of the best ways to lead a group is to find something that motivates them (Souba, n.d., p. 414), and figuring out why we do the things that we do is a wonderful method of finding our drive to complete whatever task may come up. Those questions such as “’ Where do we want to go? What do we want to accomplish?’” (Souba, n.d., p. 417) and the like are helpful tools for creating prominent leaders that I can an will surely make use of in the future. 

Overall, I found this article incredibly useful and interesting to read and have taken a lot from it. I’ve learned how much the idea of leadership is changed, as well as several new methods of becoming a great leader myself. The questions that the editorial poses are certainly ones that I will continue to consider. I have every intention of taking the things that I learned and implementing them in the future so that I may continue to grow.

Reference

Souba, W. W. (n.d.). The core of leadership [Editorial]. The Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, 119(3).