"A good leader should not guide his/her followers, but should inspire them". Do you agree?

[Sushan Ekanayake]

I agree that leadership should inspire their followers and it is especially important during times of hardships. But I also think there are times to let the followers to make their own decisions and create their own answers to questions.

When a team is facing a hard time, the inspiration given by the leader will encourage the team to hold on without breaking into pieces. And persistent ordering of a leader will make the team mates to suspect their own intellect and abilities. So to keep up the team spirit, the leader has to let the team members to make their own decisions from time to time, and when they do something good, it is important to praise them too.

[Sushan Ekanayake]

When a leader lacks direction, how well can he give his followers. These days, leaders are made/ chose because of their ability to encourage and inspire either with their lives or personal experience. Thus, it is best suitable to say that a leader inspires his followers rather than guide them

Leaders are borne. Though there are many so called leadership programmes, those who emerge as leaders bring those leadership qualities from their birth. This ability to inspire his/her followers is such an ability which comes in handy when handling the team.

But at the same time, whatever the inspiration that the leader is having, he/she should have a clear idea about the task in hand and should be able to lead the team. Otherwise the team will loose their faith.

[Sushan Ekanayake]

I think a good leader should do both. A leader is a guide and an inspiration. I don’t really agree with the author’s take on Jesus as just inspiring His children. He does guide like a shepherd does for His sheep.

Exactly. A shepherd's task is to guide his flock. He cannot inspire them to behave. In most occasions Jesus compared himself to a shepherd who is guiding his followers towards the light. It is true that he inspired his followers by truly living the life that he expected from his followers. But he did not only inspire them, but also guided them and directed them to find the light for their souls.

[Sushan Ekanayake]

I have to agree to disagree. If a leader is supposed to guide his/her followers path, then the followers are walking the leaders path. However, a follower should also be inspired to find and follow his own path (I am not talking religiously). But then why would you call one a folower if he/she is not following the leader? So I think a leader should be guide the followers as well as inspire them to follow their own path.

Religious leaders have followers. I would like to say team mates to the team members when the main task of the team is not related to religious things. Religious leaders go on a certain pathway and achieve some spiritual supremacy, and then they show their followers the path to achieve the same. In such contexts the followers cannot go along their own paths, because then they will go towards a different destination.

[Sushan Ekanayake]

I do agree with the above and these words made me think of the practice of Ho’oponopono. When we act, we are coming from one of two places: memory or inspiration. The goal should be to act from inspiration and remove the stored data within ourselves that ultimately limits us from reaching a state of true bliss. With that being said, I do believe a leader should inspire others by first learning how to act from inspiration within themselves. Inspiration should always be the goal.

I don't say that inspiration is a bad thing. But experince makes one better. So one should always use one's knowledge and experience when making decisions and doing things. This is applicable to leading a group as well. Yes, you have to inspire yourself as well as yourself. But first of all you have to be knowledgeable and experienced (if you are lacking in these areas, it is better to develop them).

[Sushan Ekanayake]

Yes, surely a leader should inspire his/her followers as it can awaken motivation in them. But he/she has to pave the way to the end goal and guide his/her followers. Otherwise, all followers will not have the same end goal to focus on. In fact, just because a follower is inspired by a leader does not guarantee that he/she has a goal. This is why leaders need not only to inspire but also to guide. Because there might not only be followers who need the inspiration but also those who need the guidance.

Exactly. The leader should make sure that all the team members keep their focus on the final goal. It is a good thing to inspire one's followers. But if the leader just inspire them to work and remain idle, then with time the some team members will loose focus and some will even develop new goals. So to prevent that and achieve an expected target, a leader should guide his/her team.

[Sushan Ekanayake]

I disagree. Leaders should not only inspire his/her followers but also instruct, direct and guide them. A good leader should help their followers to achieve their goals and that would be achieved through several means and not only via inspiration. The bible has different instances where Jesus commanded his disciples on what to do and there are times when he asked them to simply follow him.
Overall, a good leader should be able to identify his/her follower's goals and know how to lead accordingly as some would do well with accepting and carrying out what is being told while some would learn simply by observation and some would do well with being directed and inspired.

Totally agreed. In various time a leader have to act in different ways to coordinate the team work and keep the team work going. Sometime he have to be a mentor, but sometimes a dictator. He should identify when to do it by himself and show the team how to do it, and when to just command or order them and get the things done. A good leader will be able to identify which character is needed when and only such a leader will guide his followers towards success.

[Sushan Ekanayake]

One of the definitions given in Merriam Webster for "guide" is: To point out the way for; direct on a course; conduct; lead. The keyword there is "lead." A good leader doesn't just inspire his/her followers and then leave them to flounder along a course they aren't familiar with; he 'guides' them or shows them the way. Of course, some will need more guidance, some less. A good leader knows when his/her 'inspiration' of their followers is not quite enough and when they need guidance.

I see.

Inspire means, fill (someone) with the urge or ability to do or feel something, especially to do something creative.

Inspiration is good to develop a character and also to keep one live and make one to do creative things. But when it comes to team work, all the creative or non-creative work should be directed towards a single goal. And it is the task of a leader to simply maintain that focus of his team members to achieve the common goal, while letting them to develop their own characters by inspiring them.

[Sushan Ekanayake]

TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP
As the name implies transformational leadership is a process, that changes and transforms people. It is concerned with emotions, values ethics, standards and long term goals. It includes assessing followers motives, satisfying their needs and treating them as full human beings. This focus on transforrmational leadership sets the stage for the discussion on the stated topic "A good leader should not guide his/ her followers but should inspire them". Transformational leadership involves an exceptional form of influence that moves followers to accomplish more than what is usually expected of them. It is a process that incorporates charismatic and visionary leadership.
An encompassing approach, transformational leadership transformational leadership can be used to to describe a wide range of leadership, from very specific attempts to to influence followers on a one to one level to very broad attempts to influence whole organizations and even entire cultures. Authentic transformational leadership is socialized leadership which is concerned with the collective good. Socialized transformational leadership trancend their own interest for the sake of others (Howell and Avolio 1993). This topic is important because it can sort out the complexities related to the moral uplifting component of of authentic good leadership (Zhu, Avilio, Riggo and Sosik 2011) who proposed the theoretical model examining how authentic transformational influenced the ethics of individual followers and groups. The authors hypothesize that authentic transformational leadership positively affect followers moral identities and and moral emotions.

Thank you for the important details. I see your point as this concept of transformational leadership can transform a person. It can change a person's life. It can make the followers to become leaders. And I think that covers what we discussed above as 'inspiration'.

And I think that this concept is unique as I believe that it contains the guiding part which is necessary for a leader, while making a person totally a new person by simply treating them as a well capable person.

[Sushan Ekanayake]

I think that inspiring his/her leaders is part of guiding them. Guiding them to what it is that inspires them! Inspiration doesn't happen without guidance in my opinion.

You have a point. If we take inspiration as the leader himself showing what to do and then by looking at him the team doing the same, then yes it an inspirational guidance. But if a leader inspires his team mates by his good qualities and work ethics, then when it comes to a certain task, the leader will have to specifically guide his followers unless he want to end up with failure.

[Sushan Ekanayake]

I agree, good leaders should both inspire and guide their followers. However, I believe inspiration is better than guidance. Inspiration opens your eyes to new possibilities, new perspectives, essentially guiding in itself because the act of inspiring someone makes them want to do or create something. Guiding is having a direct influence on a course of action, and is that not what inspiration does? Hope this makes sense.

What you said is totally correct. But the problem is whether it is more suitable for a leader or a mentor. Inspiration will make new leaders. But a leader's task is to guide a team towards a goal. For that I think guidance is more important than inspiration. But you cannot achieve anything without inspiration. So both are needed, but I think guidance is the most needed.

Well said. A good leader should do just that, lead, which means they'd focus on guiding their followers rather than inspiring them. Thanks for the feedback.

Of course. If a leader focusses his attention on guidance (not ordering or bossing around) then that will ultimately be the inspiration for his team. So the team will know their goal and actively work towards that with full efficiency.

[Sushan Ekanayake]

Leadership is not just inspiring someone, a Motivational speaker can also do that. So what's the difference? Leader need to guide the followers, sometimes there are people who don't know which path to choose, some are afraid to walk on the path they have chosen, some are confused, in those times a leader not only need to inspire them but guide them, encourage them. A work of leader is way more important than we think.

A nice way to think. You are correct. A motivational speaker can motivate and inspire his audience, but he cannot guide them towards a goal. That is what a leader can and should do. He should show his followers the pathway and how to go along it.

But when his followers lack behind or afraid to go forward, then the leader has to inspire them and motivate them. So, though a motivational speaker do not have to be a leader, a leader has to become a motivational leader whenever necessary.

[Sushan Ekanayake]

I agree with the author because a good leader should have the ability to mobilize and inspire others. A leader persuades, motivates, and encourages his followers. In the Bible, Jesus left a lasting impression on all His followers. He exercised servant leadership. He practically motivated and inspired people that they left all their possessions to spread God's word.

I agree. Jesus left a long lasting inspiration to his followers, and because of that there are many those who spread the God's word.

But even among his today's followers, there are clergymen who take leadership in a small community and guide them. So it shows that though inspiration was the beginning for the fire, guidance is necessary to make sure that it goes in the correct direction in a correct way.

[Sushan Ekanayake]

I think inspiring people as a leader is important because it will foster more trust and excitement in whatever the person is being inspired to do. But I think being a leader requires guidance, too, whether that’s guiding someone to follow their own inspirations or teaching them how to do something beneficial. Also, there are times when leaders just have to take charge so that they can get things done. If a leader is only short term or leading for the sake of efficiency or practicality, I think guidance is probably more important than inspiration. The concept of what a leader is is so broad that I don’t think statements that “a leader should always be/do x” are accurate.

Quite true. What a leader should do depends on many conditions. So we cannot narrowly discuss such a topic.

When a short term goal is to be achieved a leader might not get enough time to build the personalities of his followers while completing the task. So in such a occasion he has to just command his team and guide them through the right path.

But when a team is going towards a long term goal, it is better if the leader inspire his followers because in such an endeavour the lack of inspiration will lead to lack of interest of the followers.

[Sushan Ekanayake]

I think the two things in some way complement each other. Inspiring people is somehow guiding them, so I personally don't agree with the author on this one. Plus, the "job description" of the leader is in the name itself: to lead. If you want to appoint someone just to inspire, then the name should be changed from "leader" to "inspirer", and the role would be different!

Well said. The term 'leader' contains many other terms in it. guide and inspirer are also included in that. A leader won't be a real leader if he has all the necessary qualities. So both these qualities are very much important, but it is up to the leader to identify the situations, in which one is needed more and the other is needed less and apply accurately. Having just one quality won't make you a leader but, as you said, a guide or an inspirer.