The Leadership Aids - Movie Review Example

Introduction Summary of ‘Be Prepared To Lead’ (Video The First video features four fictional business leaders named Pen, Power, John, and Job. In most respect, the four leaders resemble each other very little in terms of their ages, where they work (they work in very different industries) and they have their individual personalities. However, the four leaders share the trait of leadership where eighteen members under them respect them, trust them, and look to them for guidance. Part one of the Be Prepared to Lead video, demonstrates the techniques for classifying leadership styles into one of four categories namely Delegation, Influence, corroboration and Direction (Be prepared to lead). Part two of the video accesses strengths and weaknesses of each leadership style and demonstrates ways and adapting your leadership styles to change business circumstances. In this part the video explains how the subordinates of the leader determine the appropriate leadership styles for the different situation measured by their response to your leadership style. Part three of the video looks at the persona of a leader. The personality and character attributes team members of an organization expects to find in their leader. The video explains the need for the leaders to adapt to changing organizational situations. The commentator of the video clearly states that the purpose of the video is to help an individual develop his or her own personal leadership styles. Critical Analysis By defining four distinct management approaches, the video strengthens an individual’s leadership skills as supervisor or a manager. It is obvious that diverse management situations in any organization will demand different leadership styles from the leader. It is also true that different employees in the different organization respond differently to the methods of direction provided by their leaders. However, there are standard leadership styles that define a better leadership in any organization and employees will undeniably respond and corporate well to better leadership, which in turn promotes sustainable productions and profitability for the organizations (Be prepared to lead). A critical analysis of this video shows that its purpose is to demonstrate those standard leadership styles and what traits a good leader should possess. This leadership video aids the leaders or any individual who may be placed in a leadership position sometime in their lives those leadership skills and style that they would employ when the tough situations rises in their place of leadership. The video also describes how employees respond differently to the various leadership methods, and explains how the natural approaches of the leader can be modified to facilitate better response from the employees. This is a helpful video because it helps to develop great leaders in all levels of the organizational structure. When for example, we have a good supervisor in the lower level management, of the organizational structure, productivity increases from this level and climbs all the way to the top-level management (Be prepared to lead). The atmosphere is also improved throughout the business environment and the top level managers also are relieved of unnecessary hustles because of the good response corporation they receive from their junior staff. The video teaches an individual how to: Take initiative. Recognize their leadership potentials. Build their leadership traits. Earn the trust of their employees. Build the vision and communication skills. Recognize the various leadership mistakes that happen in organizations. Develop their own personal leadership styles. The video also encourages the leaders to treat the juniors fairly, develop their team, admit their mistakes, and build the community. It is worth noting that the video demonstrates that good leadership skills is what makes an individual a leader but the willingness of others to follow that leader is what makes a good leader. This is the reason the video has not only looked at the ideal leadership styles but also looked at the persona of a good leader. The video showcases that to receive a good response from your team, traits such as respect, trust, admiration and many other traits are required. The video also demonstrates that although not every leader was a born-leader, however, everyone has the potential to learn these leadership styles and become better leaders for their organizations. Leading by Example (Video two) Summary: Critical Analysis Lead by Example is an incredible video for leaders who are responsible for seeing their organizations through the tough economic situations that all the organizations encounters. The Video is a very good guide especially for every manager in the organizations. The facilitators looks at the things that we do in the form of their everyday practices that fosters the attitude of trust and ultimately a reciprocal actualism from the subordinates. First, the narrator looks at training. He looks at a retail business turnover, which he puts at approximately 100% a year which means that the workforce in these companies is turned over once every year. The point here is that because of this phenomenon most of the retailers views it as unproductive to spent finances training their workforce because the workforce would not be in the company for long (Leading by Example). The narrators takes a contrary position by stating that the reason the workforce are not in the company for long is because no one invests in their training. The narrator uses experiences and put the leadership lessons he has learned from their company where he states that they spend 2% of their budget to train their workforce. He states it is a lot of money but believe that this is the reason the company is one of the dominant company in United States because they believe that you have to spend money so as to make money. The film presents a model that redefines the correct function and intention of leadership. Through the movie, one can note that any leadership that allows people avoid the truth of realism is irresponsible and eventually unproductive. Through providing a paradigm for good leadership, it is evident that responsible leaders assist people move their habits, values, priorities, and practices to put up varying circumstances and new demands. From the film, the facilitator contends that leaders are required to have fervor for insight and an inexorable obligation to discovery (Leading by Example). Noteworthy, discovery here means the perspective and exact features of the challenges humans face, and discovery concerning how their influence affects others in problem solving schemes. In order to exemplify responsible leadership at work, the film goes to the extent of using real life examples and case studies, some of which are drawn from his personal experiences. Notably through the discussion, the film has provided a paradigm that describes the acceptable purpose and intention of real leadership. It is evident through the writings that any leadership that lets people to keep away from the truth of realism is considered irresponsible, and finally fruitless. Through the provision of a paradigm for real leadership, the film attempts to reveal to the readers that responsible real leaders assist followers move their values, habits, priorities, and practices so as to create changing situations and new demands. If truth be told, the film has presented succinct confirmation with the aim of supporting his arguments and key points. Leadership in an age of creative destruction (Video 3) The narrator first takes an overview of Leadership in an Age of Creative Destruction. He notes creative destruction as the main defining feature of modern capitalism. He then discusses the advantages of adopting the "fast-follower" strategy, before finally looking at technology. The narrator notes that many leaders tend to have overestimated the impact of the new technology we have in this age simply because which is short-term of a new technology, while underestimating the long-term impact. In Leadership in an Age of Creative Destruction, the narrator explains the growth/adoption "S" curves which is a typical growth line, with one end pointing up and to the other to the right. This is a series of the “S” adoption curves with each curve cannibalizing the curve before it (Leadership in an age of creative destruction). He notes this as the essence of creative destruction, where old technologies should be replace with the new technology, and create unforeseen opportunities beneficial to all parties. The narrator convincingly argues that the creative destruction explained here is the major defining characteristic for the modern capitalism. He notes that one skill can only be developed on the basis of our peripheral vision. He notes that the "S" curve that in many case lenders our own technology obsolete often will appear from unforeseen or rather unexpected direction. Besides the need to adopt the new technology in our companies, the narrator explains the importance for leaders to be creative. His presentation helps the leaders and their team to alternate between invention and discovery in their companies by incorporating the internal strengths of knowledge, attitude, and imagination along with the external forces of culture and resources. In summary, this video will help leaders to of organizations to understand how technology, creativity, decision making, and motivation to their employees, should be adopted as important leadership styles in an Age of Creative Destruction. The video demonstrates some research findings on these aspects (Leadership in an age of creative destruction). The narrator finally looks at the uniquely human perception in relation to their time horizons in which their goals and values change over time. In any film or motion picture, the placement on stage plays a very big role in directing the theme and informing the audience about the nature and cultural orientation of such production. Mise-en-scene is therefore the term used in describing the major designs and aspects of a film or even theatre production. This usually means the visual theme used in telling the story. Looking at the movie Leadership in an age of creative destruction, the use of these visual themes has been widely analyzed as a way of characterizing the western culture. Speaking in such terms, we see that the characters, the props, sets, composition, lightning, and costumes applied in the movie relate to the western picture and idea. After watching this movie attentively, it will be noted that there has also been a different selection of costumes. For instance, men appear to wear hats and jackets almost all the time. On the other hand, women appear to be dressed in long and smartly decorated attires. This presentation of costumes makes it possible to characterize the nature of the western cultural and behavioral practices of the time. The use of color is also significant from the plot of the movie. Most of the women dress in light colored costumes which beautiful colors and decorations. This has therefore played a big role of characterizing the life and dressing codes of the time in which the movie had been set. How leaders boost productivity (Video 4) The facilitator of the video talks about how leaders boost productivity by framing the whole subject in the first part of the video and particularly talking about the role of a leader. In the lat part of the video the facilitator and passes specific suggestions that anyone can use to boost the productivity of their own companies. The video emphasizes on training and education as a means of boosting productivity in an organization (How Leaders Boost Productivity). The facilitator states that training and education is directly proportional to productivity where the more the training the more the productivity and the lesser the training the lesser the productivity. Some characteristics of training and education that the video looks at include; Leaning as energizing. A feeling of progress in the lives of learned people, which makes them earn more, and their self-esteem is boosted so they become more productive in their jobs. The video urges managers to encourage training and education for all categories of their employees so as to boost the productivity of their companies (How Leaders Boost Productivity). The facilitator gives a personal experience where he states that he has spent most of his time training people on these subjects. However, he states that he have over the years come to understand that 85% of what people learn in the organizations is in formal and casual but not in the classrooms. So he recommends the new employee to be placed under the most productive worker, so as to learn a lot from such workers. Works Cited How Leaders Boost Productivity. Dir. Zenger, Jack. Stanford Alumni Association. 2011. Be prepared to lead. Dir. Hopkins, Johns. A Space Odyssey, 2010. Leading by example. Dir. Alex. H. New York: Warner Bros Pictures. 2007. Leadership in an age of creative destruction. Dir. Saffo, Paul. Read More