Business Leadership Development - Assignment Example

Business Leadership Development TASK a) Identify and discuss three of McNamara’s central lessons in preparing and strengthening a leader’s judgment– particularly in the area of crisis and conflict. First lesson: One of McNamara’s central lessons, particularly in the area of crisis and conflict, directed to empathize with the enemy. As revealed in “Fog of War”, Robert S. McNamara intends to highlight the hardships of life during war like situations, which is very different from that experienced when performing any day to day activity. Learning this lesson, McNamara realized that war kills the emotions of individual, wherein he strongly favors decisions to prevent war. It is with this lesson that McNamara believes empathy can reduce the risk of conflict to a great extent (Blight and Lang 28-29). Second lesson: Another key lesson learnt by McNamara through his life experience, as revealed in “Fog of War” postulated that “In order to do good, you may have to engage in evil”. There have been examples throughout the history where protestors have been causing self-destructive acts, such as that committed by Mr. Norman Morrison, a Quaker who burnt himself outside the office of McNamara. While such acts are still counted to be evil, the underlying causes of these acts, as debated by McNamara, are good (Grothaus, “The Fog of War – Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara”). Third lesson: Although listed as the sixth lesson in “Fog of War”, a non-negligible lesson learnt by McNamara was to “Get the data” beforehand when making a decision for the countrymen. As per this lesson, McNamara aims to deliver a broader prospect to the people, making an all-inclusive decision without taking any judgment on one or two aspects. He believes that the final decision should be made only when the entire scenario has been taken into consideration (Grothaus, “The Fog of War – Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara”). b) What are McNamarra’s strengths and weaknesses as a leader during his time as Secretary of Defense? You might frame your answer around his own eleven lessons? Strengths: The seven lessons learnt by McNamara reveals many attributes of the personality, as a leader. One of his key strengths was his ability to realize and interpret factual data without ignoring empathy. Finding a blend of these two attributes in a single leader exhibits the uniqueness of the skills that McNamara possessed. Another key strength of McNamara, which made him a much versatile and successful leader, was his self-critiquing and continually scrutinizing nature. It was owing to these skills that at most of the time his decisions were aimed to be all-inclusive. In addition, his empathy towards his enemies and war victims, especially his countrymen also exhibits his responsible nature, which can also be attributed as a major strength of this personality (Grothaus, “The Fog of War – Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara”). Weaknesses: Although celebrated as a successful leader, McNamara was also criticized for his rigidness towards accepting the fact and agreeing to his mistakes, which could yield better results (Viceroy, 2006). As revealed in George’s “7 Lessons for Leading in Crisis”, the author criticized the leadership qualities of McNamara alleging his decision to proceed with Vietnam War as a mistake and a depiction of the leader’s agony to accept his faulty assessment (George 24-25). c) You are now leading the leader – your methodological approach is at the heart of this sensitive issue – pull from the broader literature in the course to support your discussion. According to me, blending culture, facts and ethics to attain an objective or goal is the most challenging task a leader has to perform, which is clearly evident in the leadership experiences and lessons of McNamara. Being a leader, and in such position to advise McNamara, I would have certainly concentrated on the decisions to deliver significance towards protecting the nation in uncertainty of the war like situation. Undoubtedly, making McNamara recognize his mistake would have been a particular challenge under such circumstance. Under such circumstances, it would have been much essential to make him realize how his own leadership principles were coming in contrast with his practices. As apparent, during the Vietnam War, the scenario was quite different, where the decision taken by McNamara clearly was affecting humanity. While on the other hand, he has been arguing on empathizing his enemies too. In my point of view, under such circumstances, I would have tried to resolve the matter in discussion with McNamara to have withdrawn from war. However, such discussion would have been time consuming and subjected to special aid from other governmental bodies to be successful. McNamara’s leadership traits can be observed as more inclined towards a paternalistic culture. Correspondingly, to deal with such a scenario, I would have aimed at conducting repeat discussion with McNamara and augment his confidence that even if he accepts that the decision of Vietnam War was wrong and that he should withdraw from the same, his followers would remain true to him and understand his point of view on the humanitarian ground (Pellegrini and Scandura, 572-574; Pellegrini, Scandura and Jayaraman, 394-399). I believe that with such measures and developing a more democratic culture, I could have dealt with the situation in making McNamara realize and accept his mistakes as a true leader. TASK 2 i) In reference to Table 23-1 (the McCauley et al. study), identify and discuss a job transition, task related characteristic, and obstacle that has strengthened your leadership development and, more directly, your “experience”. In general, perceptions of the job transition are often argued to depend mainly on the positive and negative aspects of adverse conditions. It mainly depends on how an individual is managing his or her responsibilities, especially when facing adversities. These assumptions may leave someone with excitement and other may feel distress. Job transition mainly depends on the individual perception and its significance related with adversity, when confronting the same (Nohria and Khurana, 682-683). As per my belief and understanding, confronting adversities increases the responsible attitude of the individual to implement new ideas and adjust to the changing scenario. While continually changing scenario can be identified as a task related characteristic while adversity in workplace indicates an obstacle, co-occurrence of these incidents assist leaders to take decisions on complex issues, finding ways to remove overcome the barriers and manage job transitions (Johns Hopkins University, “Job Transition Guide”). It is worth mentioning in this regard that such adversities promotes the ability of a leader to interpret all the facts associated with the situation, having a critical understanding of the pros and cons of any decision being undertaken (Banish and Nawaz, “The role of culture in Organizational change”). Based on my experiences, I completely agree with such a notion. During my leadership experience I have come across many difficult relationships, especially with colleagues who were senior than me. With a gap in understanding prevailing between us, it was for sure that I was facing adversities in my workplace to manage the team. To counter the adversities I received help from my superior and went on assessing the causes of such a situation when I realized that the team members required recognition and better involvement in my decision making process and thus, I followed a leadership transition, which motivated me to accept challenges with complete will-power to overcome the same. ii) In reference to Table 23-2 (the McCall et al. study), select two from the five potential powerful development experiences that best help shape and support your “experience” story. Staff assignment: Staff assignment plays a crucial role in any organization. It helps the manager to maintain the workflow within the organization and anticipate any future adversity likely to be faced when conducting the scheduled operations owing to difficult relationships, as it facilitates close observation of the staff members. Accordingly, it helps the organization and the leader to make necessary changes in order to increase the efficiency in taking necessary decisions to deal with such disruptions (Nohria and Khurana, 685-687). While I also focused on staff assignments in my working experience, I strongly agree that it helped me to deal with the adverse situation when I observed adversities in my workplace. To be specific, the sole problem arose when I had to manage members who were senior than me in the workplace causing disruptions in the normal flow of the operations. Conducting staff assignments helped me to understand the specific requirements of my team members and take strategies accordingly to deal with the same, without disrupting the workflow. Thus, I can certainly admit that staff assignment was a powerful development experience that helped shaping and supporting my experience. Difficult subordinates: In relation to my experience, I also admit that difficult subordinates, although challenging, helped shaping and supporting my experiences at a large magnitude. Undoubtedly, during the beginning of my job experience, my subordinates were much difficult towards me, where I was struggling to enforce my instructions and overcome the rigidity in the workplace environment. It was in such circumstance that I realized the necessity of conducting staff assessments and the significance of a practicing a two-way communication procedure (Nohria and Khurana, 685-687). iii) Lastly, in reference to Table 23-3 (McCall et al.), identify and discuss one sub-lesson from each of the five demands of leadership based on the “lessons” taught by experience. Setting Direction – Taking Responsibility: As argued by Drucker (2004), an effective leader must take responsibilities to make decisions in alignment with the staff concerns and organizational goals as well as values to attain optimum productivity. In doing so, the leader must have a clear understanding of the objectives and the required steps to accomplish the same. When considering my experience in leadership, I admit that I had to face various issues when facing adversities in terms of conflicts between members, which became quite a sensitive issue involving members who were senior than me in the organization. It was during that time when I had to take responsibility to communicate the scenario to my members and deal with the situation intellectually, emphasizing better involvement of senior members in the strategic decision making and delivering staff assignments (Nohria and Khurana 688-692). Alignment – Dealing with Conflict: Undoubtedly, dealing with conflict formed a vital facet in my experience. As Kotter (2001) addresses, convergence is not very necessarily observable within modern workplaces, where leaders have to face conflicts in terms of adversities when implementing their planned strategies with the aim to yield the desired degree of profitability. In my experience, I also had to take measures to resolve conflicts, but in a more participatory manner. The step further assisted me to align the organizational culture with the determined goals and yield better efficiency in the entire operational process (Nohria and Khurana 688-692). Setting and Living Values - Sensitivity to People: McNamara’s one of the key lessons was to “empathize with the enemies”. Applying the same principle at a broader context, it can be asserted that empathizing with followers is essential for a leader to gain their confidence and acceptance that further helps in channelizing them and setting as well as living values developed therein. As stated by Goleman (2004), it is one of the key components of leadership and emotional intelligence to empathize with people, which helps leaders to understand emotional reactions among team members take decisions accordingly as required. While I lacked in emotional intelligence initially in my experience, especially in the ground of empathy or sensitivity towards people, I was able to develop my skill in the field with greater significance to my personal ability of sensitivity and sympathy towards others (Nohria and Khurana 688-692). Executive Temperament - Persevering through Adversity: Studying Goleman (2004) it becomes clear that executive temperament has attracted much controversies, when indicating its effectiveness on leadership practices. My belief in this context is that neither over depiction nor low depiction of temperament by a leader can make the entire practice effective. As per my personal assessment, I have a moderate degree of temperament, which I believe to have helped me in various adverse situations. I would like to mention in this context that as per my observations, an effective leader will need to take control in his/her hands, to preserve efficiency during challenging situations. Although, empathy should also be given considerable attention so as to ensure that a productive culture is preserved within the organization, even when facing hardships (Nohria and Khurana 688-692). Growth of Self and Others - Personal Limits and Blind Spots: As per my personal opinion, growing oneself and helping others grow simultaneously, forms one of the foremost roles and responsibilities of effective leaders. However, such growth potentials are deemed subjected to personal limits of the leaders and their blind spots (Nohria and Khurana 688-692). Leaders, in this context often face problems to identify and rectify their personal mistakes and limits, also attributable as blind spots, while searching for problems and limitations in others (George, Sims, McLean and Mayer, 2007). It is in such circumstances that a leader requires true advice from his/her followers to be efficient. Notably, the example of McNamara’s leadership weaknesses can be illustrated in this context (George 24-25). TASK 3 1. What are the authors’ central lessons? Essay 1: When Does Leadership Matters? A Contingent Opportunities View of CEO Leader The authors’, i.e. Wasserman, Nohria and Anand in Nohria and Khurana (27-64) emphasized that effective leadership helps the organization to sail successfully in the long-run. It helps the organization to overcome difficulties and attain the goal with minimum hurdles, ensuring overall productivity. Implications of practicing effective leadership can certainly be argued as a significant and essential matter in assuring organizational success, as it prevents and eradicates loopholes prevailing within the organization making right and fair decisions. It is therefore essential that leaders lead with determined objectives to meet the organizational goals taking into consideration the mission and vision of the organization and accomplishes the work. Leadership thus helps to reduce risks to a significant extent remaining committed towards the stated responsibilities. Essay 2: What Is This Thing Called Leadership? The central lesson that the can be gathered from this essay by Hackman in Nohria and Khurana (107-109) indicates towards a more organized and illustrative description of leaders’ roles and responsibilities within an organizational context. This lesson mainly focuses on the quality and the value of the leadership based on six key themes, i.e. domain, criteria, functions, context, conditions and it. It is believed in this context that leadership brings changes into the organization and it implements new ideas and concepts based on these key themes, to ensure overall efficiency within the working environment. 2. Provide a critical review of the essay – why does it matter? Essay 1: When Does Leadership Matters? A Contingent Opportunities View of CEO Leader This particular essay describes that leadership is a key factor for any organization to be successful. It transforms resources into the significant output. It resolves issues within the organization to maintain decency and productivity. It also empowers and inspires individuals to increase efficiency of their command. On the whole, leadership can also serve as the life-blood for organizational performance. While these outcomes of the essay indicates a general understanding of leadership roles within an organization and its significance thereupon, critical understanding to the same shall reveal that the actual role of leadership, as per Wasserman, Nohria and Anand in Nohria and Khurana (27-64) is focused on calculating risks involved in the command and forecasting as well as interpreting its results when integrating and exploring the different perspectives and the unpredicted opportunities within the situational context. Hence, it can be asserted that the roles and significance of leadership within an organization is much wide ranging and broad (Mills, “Leadership How to Lead, How to Live”). Essay 2: What Is This Thing Called Leadership? In this essay, Hackman argues that leaders must have the capability to influence the behavior of the followers towards the desired direction, interpreting the attitude of others towards the command to get the work done. From a critical perspective, Hackman defines leadership as fundamental to setting directions and seeking that followers are able to attain the goal, visualizing how to achieve the mission and vision of any organization. Nevertheless, Hackman in Nohria and Khurana (107-109) also argues that leadership may also prove effective, when applied efficiently to eradicate conflicts and to harness the efforts and responsibilities of the staff in the organization wherein absence of effective leadership quality may certainly affect the overall activity of the organization. 3. How are the essays relevant to you and your leadership development? The essays discussed above have widened my knowledge significantly, when concerning leadership roles and responsibilities towards an organization. It has helped me understand the criticality of practicing effective leadership and its significance within organizational context. In my practices, I initially used to perceive such issues to be specific and unique to my experience. However, going through the essays I was able to understand that the issues I faced in my leadership practices were nothing unique but a very common challenge to any aspiring leader. In addition, with limited knowledge to leadership practices, I was certainly confused when facing adversities in my workplace. It was in this context too that the essays assisted me to develop my understanding on the mechanisms that I can take as a leader to cope with such situations and yield better productivity to the organization. TASK 4 a. i) My personal Mission My personal mission is to groom my leadership capabilities to the extent wherein I can deliver utmost productivity and efficiency to my organization. I also aspire to remain responsible and ethically guided by my leadership principles in my daily performances. I wish to induce sensitivity as well as empathy in my leadership practices, which shall assist me in yielding a better appraisal as an effective leader. Nevertheless, I also wish to blend my leadership strategies with a goal-oriented motive and channelize the same into my followers. I understand the mission to impose considerable challenge in my leadership practices but shall also widen my developmental prospects in the same. a. ii) My strengths and areas to improve my Character My strengths, as per my self-assessment, are my characteristics of empathy, goal-orientation and my ability to inspire confidence in others. Although these character traits may allow me to perform as an effective leader, particularly owing to my limited knowledge and experience in the leadership practices, I will need to follow particular guidelines in improving my traits to a better level. For instance, I will have to improve my ability to motivate others by my action that shall make my task as a leader to motivate others, quite easier. I will also need to improve my communication skills when channelizing information to my followers and others, so that it will help me obtain their acceptance within a short span of time. I will further improve my trait of responding to others, which will again help me assure better productivity from the team, making the members satisfied in their work. a. iii) My strengths and areas to improve my commitment to Service As per my personal understanding, I have always remained committed to my work wherein my job responsibilities and roles have attained prime significance in my developmental planning. My key strengths in this context can be identified in terms of my ability to assess facts and develop a realistic goal in account of my job roles and responsibilities. I also deliver due significance towards maintaining ethical standards in my leadership practices, especially when developing strategies to motivate and channelize the team. However, I believe that even though I am able to develop a realistic goal to achieve, I lack adequate competency in planning actions for the successful accomplishment of the same. It is in this context that my commitment to service gets deteriorated. Hence, I will have to pay due attention towards assessing and reassessing my actions plans aimed towards the attainment of the determined goals. b) Why should we be led by you? According to me, I believe that I can set realistic goal and channelize values to the team members to motivate them in one direction. I believe that this particular quality helps me ensure that my team members are motivated, respected and valued based on their competencies that further shall boost their confidence in accomplishing an assigned task. I believe in empowering and delivering credit to members individually as well as in team. It is thus that I often take the initiative to develop members individually and accordingly, pay attention towards their role development in a team, assisting in their overall development as a potential leader. I also believe that every individual possess some leadership traits that can help me attain the goal if nurtured efficiently. With this motive, I aspire to involve my team members actively in my decision making process, valuing their commitment as well as contribution. Works Cited Blight, James G. and Janet M. Lang. “The Fog of War: Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara”. United States: Rowman & Littlefield, 2005. Print. Banish, B. J. and Muhammad I. Nawaz. The Role of Culture in Organizational Change. Change Theories. Web. 30 May, 2014. Drucker, Peter F. “What Makes an Effective Executive?” HBR’s 10 must Reads on Leadership, (2004): 16-21. Print. George, Bill. “7 Lessons for Leading in Crisis.” San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2009. Print. George, Bill, Peter Sims, Andrew N. McLean, and Diana Mayer. “Discovering Your Authentic Leadership.” HBR’s 10 must Reads on Leadership, (2004): 99-106. Print. Goleman, Daniel. “What Makes a Leader?” HBR’s 10 Must Reads on Leadership, (2004): 4-12. Print. Grothaus, N. The Fog of War – Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara. Lesson #9, n.d. Web. 29 May, 2014. “Job Transition Guide”. Johns Hopkins University, n.d. Web. 30 May, 2014. Kotter, John P. “What Leaders Really Do?” HBR’s 10 must Reads on Leadership, (2001): 25-33. Print. Mills, D. Q. Mills Leadership How to Lead, How to Live. The Meaning of Leadership. Web. 29 May, 2014. Nohria, N. and Rakesh Khurana. “Handbook of Leadership Theory and Practice”. Boston: Harvard Business Press, 2013. Print. Pellegrini, Ekin K. and Terri A. Scandura. “Paternalistic Leadership: A Review and Agenda for Future Research.” Journal of Management 34.3 (2008): 566-593. Print. Pellegrini, Ekin K., Terri A. Scandura and Vaidyanathan Jayaraman. “Cross-Cultural Generalizability of Paternalistic Leadership: An Expansion of Leader-Member Exchange Theory.” Group & Organization Management 35.4 (2010): 391 –420. Print. Viceroy. The Fog of War - 11 Lessons from McNamara. You Cant Change Human Nature. Web. 29 May, 2014. Read More