Leadership and Top-Level Management - Assignment Example

The paper discusses one of the major strengths of the leader as he is capable of tackling every possible situation and as a result, keeping the workforce motivated. Moreover, at times he also becomes equally participative towards the job roles assigned to the employees to help them achieve their targets quickly and effectively. Due to his participative nature, he attains a lot of coordination and support from the employee group (Dow Jones & Company Inc., 2014).

Contextually, it can be stated that the transformational quality proves to be a major strength for him as a leader whereas the participative and transactional quality proves to be a major strength for him as a manager. One of the major weaknesses identified is his hyper-aggressiveness in case of stress-related situations.

In terms of differentiation between leadership and management skills, it can only be stated that the leader is a visionary who strategizes measures for the improvement of performance and overall development of the employees. On the contrary, a manager regulates the flow of work within every team and ensures that the assigned deadlines get met up before time (Dow Jones & Company Inc., 2014).

During my professional career, I was made to work under this leader for one year. During this time, the team led by him attained the highest level of performance over other teams within the organization. His immense knowledge and participative nature facilitated the team members in effectively understanding the assigned job roles and completing the task in an effective manner (HubPages Inc., 2014).  The management and risk-handling capabilities of the leader taught me two crucial lessons, which I believe will turn out to be a major help when I will get the role of being a team leader. The first lesson is regarding coming up with some innovative plans for getting work done and the second is regarding motivating the employees who will be working under me to make them identify the actual level of potential within them (HubPages Inc., 2014).

Discussion 2

By taking into consideration, multiple theories and principles of leadership, along with the effective evaluation of the bankruptcy case filed by Ford Motors, it can be understood that the transformational leadership style of ‘Alan Mulally’ has paved a great path of success for Ford Motors during its tough times. Based on the profitability results obtained from his strategies, he can be considered an effective and ethical leader.  How ‘Alan Mulally strategized towards diversifying the brands undertaken by Ford, reveals his sound knowledge within the areas of marketing and brand promotion. Regarding all the poor product quality obligations that were charged against this automobile giant, ‘Alan Mulally’ appeared to have open-mindedly accepted their mistakes for re-attaining the trust of investors and customers against the brand’s products. All these projected ‘Alan Mulally’s transformational leadership capabilities in terms of adapting to every type of hostile situation. His efforts and leadership strategies appeared effective and completely turned the tide for Ford Motor (Kellogg School of Management, 2014).      

One crucial aspect, which can be learned from the case of Ford Motors and ‘Alan Mulally’ is regarding a leader’s capability of effectively tackling and analyzing any hostile situation. Moreover, based on the analysis, leaders easily come up with strategies for turning the odds into evens. Appropriate management skills regarding how to accept one’s fault and apologize to customers is another aspect that can be learned from ‘Alan Mulally’. Both of these learning aspects will prove to be beneficial for me in case I get promoted as a manager and the organization, in which I work, faces a similar kind of dilemma. Through this learning, I can easily tackle difficult situations and contribute to the survival of my organization (Kellogg School of Management, 2014).