The Worlds Leadership - Research Paper Example

? Reflection of World’s Leadership Introduction Truly, a successful leader has a blend of qualities. If one qualifies to be ranked as a good leader in the current turbulent world, it thus means that such a person has outstanding leadership qualities and a firm understanding on all the necessary standings of leadership positions. Scholars on leadership theories, brings to light how to make better individual leadership qualities so as to become a helpful leader or manager. Arguably, every leader is required to get known of their qualities of leadership that are closely linked to the current world happening ranging from ethical standards, and political turmoil. As such, good leadership is a major tool every organization should consider especially in today’s modern world because it determines the difference between the success and failure of the organization (Holden, 2007). Many organizations in the world have succeeded while others have failed miserably due to application of poor or good leadership. This paper will identify two individuals who have portrayed both good and poor leadership skills that have helped them push their organizations towards success or failure. As such, the paper will look at the CEO of Apple Inc., Steve Jobs as an example of a good leader by analyzing his leadership styles and qualities. In addition, the paper will look at the CEO of HP as the example of poor leadership. Understanding leadership Leadership refers to an influence relationship that exists between leaders and their followers with an intention of bringing real changes and outcomes that depict shared purposes. On the other hand, a leader is a person who learns and acts in such a way that people respect him and follow him due to his recognized achievements and charismatic reflection. In a more generalized term, leadership is an integral aspect of management because it helps in the making of vital decisions that greatly benefit organizations (Canals, 2013). Additionally, leadership does not denote personality, but rather represents a price that individuals have to pay in order to attain success or experience failure. Therefore, in order to achieve success, the leaders have to set the pace for the rest of the team to follow because leading a crowd or a team may be extremely challenging. Development of leaders A leader is a person who learns and acts in such a way that people respect and follow him due to his charismatic reflection and recognized achievements (Holden, 2007). However, the major controversy that caused unending debates from scholars is how the leaders develop because others argued that leaders ‘are made’ while the rest opposed that leaders ‘are born’ with leadership traits. They also argued that leaders could adapt their leadership style depending on the situation at hand. Scholars came up with different theories to differentiate the two aspects. For instance, the traditional leadership theories claimed that leadership is nature borne of individual and shunned the great man theory that claims that leaders ‘are made’ by arguing that it was impossible to create such attributes on a grown individual. Contemporary leadership theories confirm making of leaders because it depicts an individual’sadvancing through a series of stages that portray the possibilities of an individual becoming a leader (Canals, 2013). To analyze the possibilities of an individual becoming a leader, the contingency, transformational, and transactional approaches offer the best forecast. However, changes in leadership continuously emerge due to environmental dynamics and acquisition of skill. Changes in leadership pattern from old to new Scholars researched the concept fostering transformational leadership in the 1970s with an aim of finding out the difference between transforming leadership and transactional leadership. Traditionally, the regular use of transactional leadership style was because it involves managing, supervising and motivating the employees. However, as the world advanced, the leadership style changed as well because most leaders today emphasize on transformational leadership, while others combine the two. This means that, in modern leadership both the leader and his followers realize the sense of higher purpose in terms of organizational success (Holden, 2007). Theoretical research depicts that the success of modern leadership skills will greatly depend on the clarity of the task, the culture of the organization and the degree of conflict in the group. Hence, charisma, vision, and transformation are the key necessities for the new leadership. Qualities of a good leader As mentioned before, good leadership is a determiner that makes a difference between the success and the failure of a company, organization, or institution. The most successful leader in the current competitive global economy is the one who exhibits characteristics of both transformational and transactional leadership styles. This is so because; a transformational leader is a leader who is capable of turning around the organizations towards success through reinforcements and exchanges. More so, a leader should be transactional because a transactional leader is able to organize and supervise his followers through motivation and inspiration. Generally, a leader should possess the capability of building up healthy and ethical relationships that would interconnect him with his followers in order to enhance organizational performances (Canals, 2013). There are many aspects that determine positive qualities of a good leader, and these qualities include; honesty, confidence, intelligence, ability and knowledge. Leadership styles of a good leader Leadership style is the behavior adopted by the leader and uses it in directing his followers towards meeting the objectives and goals of an organization. Leadership style determines the leader’s ability in leading his followers or team. A leader should be able to coach, connective, charismatic, visionary, and many other styles (Holden, 2007). A leader should have the ability to develop its followers in the future by influencing them to become leaders by molding their talents and influencing them to grow into a team. The idea behind this leadership style is that it influences individual personalities and areas of competence, which helps them in recognizing their areas of strengths. By coaching and influencing their personalities and skills, a leader makes a difference in the lives of its team because they mold the teams’ future. Fostering collaborations A good leader should be connected or be in a position to create emotional bonds that cultivates for bonding and belonging atmosphere in the organization. To achieve this style, a leader must drop off the ‘self’ mentality and adopt a collective mentality in order to attain the connectivity aspect. Prior to giving the leaders a working environment that is full of freedom, creating open communication avenues can also bring forth collaboration and cohesiveness among team members, which eventually ends at connectivity between the leader and his team. Believe in yourself and the ones around you A good leader has to believe in himself or be confident that his vision and objectives are perfectly executed (Betz, 2001). More so, he has to believe in his followers who are the major participants in executing the proposed visions and objectives through their input. In this regard, honesty and competence chips in to assist a leader in influencing team members to take up the same traits in the execution of their organizational tasks. Therefore, a leader should believe in himself and his team in order to envision the future of an organization. Love what you do A good leader should love what he does because it is the driving force towards his achievements of the organization’s goals (Holden, 2007). Loving what one does is vital because it gives him the strength to go the extra mile in perfecting the role at hand. Ideally, leaders should posses this style because their passion will reflect to his followers and the result is success for the organization. Infuse energy and enthusiasm to accomplish a vision of a better future In envisioning the future, a competent leader must be able to create ways in which an organization and its team would achieve the envisioned accomplishments. This means that a leader has to find ways of fostering motivations and inspiration to its followers who in turn contributes to the accomplishment of the organization’s vision. Personal reflection- a good leader I choose Steve jobs as my best example of a good leader because his records speak out. He is a renowned leader who broke the rules of leadership by practicing the modern transformational leadership skills. Steve job was Apple’s CEO for a long time until he resigned and passed on due to medical conditions (Lu?sted, 2012). However, in spite his demise, his leadership traits and skills have been adapted and help the company operate to date. This means that his leadership skills were generally outstanding because its application still puts the company firm on the ground. Steve jobs possessed both transformational and transactional leadership styles because he had micromanagement tendencies, yelled to employees, and judged quickly, but at the same time inspired his employees by connecting with them emotionally. A transformational leader is a leader who brings great positive change to an organization. This means that, Steve Job’s leadership style and traits made it, as seen in the world’s best performing company that has never let loose of its market share to date (Lu?sted, 2012). Steve jobs leadership traits Theorists throughout history have sought to examine trait leadership theory by trying to understand leadership through examination of characteristics or traits of a leader (Betz, 2001). The same theorists proposed five crucial ingredients of leadership that includes passion, vision, integrity, curiosity, and daring. In this respect, confirmation of Job’s exceptionality is by the fact that he possesses all of these leadership ingredients. Visionary Job was visionary because he communicated his visions and worked towards achieving it. To begin with, Jobs communicated his vision to his employees who alongside their CEO, stayed focused and headed towards the vision. This explains the fact that no dream and vision was impossible for Jobs and every vision that he planned on resultedinan execution despite what it takes. This explains why jobs in innovative mind and risk taking character came from his vision. The cultivation of his vision is by the fact that he dreams and anticipates on what customers would expect in the future, a situation that leads him to pursue the dreams. For instance, the CEO dreamt of introducing adventurous design of touch screen computers (iPod) that did not need a keyboard to operate in 2001.in spite of critics and speculations of failure the touch screen computers hit the market and became a success. Therefore, Jobs was exceptionally a visionary leader who never looked back (Lu?sted, 2012). Passionate Passion is an extremely crucial aspect that brings out the difference between a leader and a manager because a leader incorporates into his motivational work while a manager focuses on the definite process of dividing and managing work (Holden, 2007). Hence, a good leader is the one who demonstrates expertise and empathy. In this regard, passion was among the major aspects that helped push Jobs towards success because he not only loved his job as a CEO, but he also passionately loved personal computer products. This explains the reason for the innovating an outstanding PC that transformed the lives of customers by offering them exactly what they needed in terms of technological devices (Lu?sted, 2012). Daring or taking risks Daring and taking risks are essential ingredients for a leader to apply especially in today’s disruptive and unpredictable environment (Holden, 2007). Ideally, a good leader is the one who takes risks by venturing into new territories. Steve Jobs was an expert in this field because he is known for taking risks in pursuing innovative products. For instance, his desire to pursue the production of Apple computer II earned jobs the highest compliments even from Microsoft founder Bill Gates, who thought of the idea as a big risk, but Jobs dared and went for the innovation of the Apple computer II. Amazingly,the innovation of the computer succeeded and hit the market adding up to Apple’s success. Steve jobs leadership style Charismatic leader Steve Jobs was charismatic in the essence that he connected with his followers. For instance, he had the ability to give speeches that captivated the audience attention. He further cultivated employees’ attention with the ability of an evangelist. This means that Jobs was a gifted speaker who possessed the ability to capture the employees’ attention and the public in general. His charisma helped him perform tasks that seemed impossible, and he used the same charisma to convince customers to buy Apple products. More so, Steve Jobs was the number one sales person in Apple because he was the one to announce a new product or technology because he was an excellent communicator who captured the needed attention. Connective leader A good leader is the one who connects or create bonding in an organization. This means that a good leader creates a free working environment through open communication and participation. Jobs was exceptional in this field because he greatly participated in engaging his team towards the company’s visions. For instance, Jobs would take a hundred people to retreat each year where he and his team would cultivate on the company’s development. In the workshop, Jobs would always let the team on board to give out their opinions on what they would develop pertaining a situation that would lead to intensive discussions. In another note, Jobs had introduced a company culture where he held the meetings with the executives every Monday to set the tone for the week. All these aspects depict his connection with his team in executing the vision of the company (Lu?sted, 2012). The coercive leader Jobs added several modern leadership styles and coerciveness or pushing teams to do the right thing was among the style. Jobs demanded immediate compliance and that is why people quoted him claiming that he is not easy on his followers but rather he makes them better by pushing them because he expected obedience and compliance, which in turn creates the needed attention and brings out the best expertise from his team (Canals, 2013). Ideally, hiss coerciveness led teams to do the right thing; hence, contributing to the prosperity of the company. Personal reflection- a bad leader I chose Leo Apotheker the former CEO of HP as the example of bad leadership. The reason why Leo stands out as a poor leader is that he failed the HP Company miserably by tarnishing the brand image, decreasing the stock price, and failing the Touch Pad tablet and WebOs. Leo Apotheker’s leadership traits and style Evidently, a bad leader lacks all the qualities that a good leader should have. In this case, Apotheker lacked Steve Jobs leadership skills because according to analysts, he lacked the know how of running the high tech business. To begin with, the CEO , was no a transactional leader because he never organized and supervise his followers through motivation and inspiration, but rather he forced outcomes from his followers. This is evident because a transactional leader ends up bringing success to his organization, an aspect that never happened to HP during Leo’s term. Secondly, Leo was not visionary, an aspect that starts from building up healthy and ethical relationships that would bring him closer to his followers in pursuit of the company’s vision. Unfortunately, Leo was different because he lacked the vision and always went his way without minding to communicate the company’s clear vision. Therefore, Leo lacked innovative mind and risk taking character, which made him not pursue the company’s vision. The third aspect that made him and the company fail miserably is poor communication skills. In spite of the fact that he never communicated his vision, he too did not foster communication within the organization. He kept on his own and did things his own way, and since a leader reflects to his followers, the teams followed his leadership style, killing communication and coordination within the organization. His lack of communication is evident because, Apotheker never consulted the board on any intended progress of the company, but instead believed that if something was right in his opinion it was worth to pursue (McKee, 2011). This contributed to the failure of the renowned company. The other quality that Leo portrayed is that he believed in himself and neglected the people around him. This is the case because he believed that every idea he innovated was right and never sought for opinions from people around him because he did not believe in their capabilities. These selfish endeavors lead him to innovate the wrong products that incurred huge resources of the company. Generally, Leo Apotheker lacked all the needed skills a modern and transformational leader should have, and his failure depicts it. Conclusion In conclusion, possessing a unique idea and ability bring together and guide a team to realize the concept to life as the first initiative in bringing up a successful leadership position. Whereas coming up with a unique idea is not easy, the capability to carry out effectively the principles of leadership is what draws the line between good managers or leaders from those perceived to be rogue. Leadership is a business concept that applies in all fields of institutions, meaning that every institution that stands or fails is due to either good or bad leadership (Holden, 2007). Personally, I admire Steve Jobs leadership style and skills because they extraordinarily foster vision, success, and every existing or upcoming leader should consider Jobs example. On the other hand, Leo Apotheker though fired from HP should learn from both his experiences and from other successful CEOs. This will be crucial because it will help him in his future endeavors as a leader (McKee, 2011). Conclusively, it is vital to understand that leadership is a very crucial aspect that determines the present and future of an organization or institution; hence, individuals should go through an evaluation process in order to determine their leadership ability. Despite the difference between the 2 leaders, the discussed traits are learned but more permanent is the capability to put them into action and continually have them repeated with the aim to meet set goals and objectives. References Canals, J. (2013). Leadership development for a global world: The role of companies and business schools. (Leadership development for a global world.) Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Holden, D. (2007). “Team development: a search for elegance. Industrial management. Lu?sted, M. A. (2012). Apple: The company and its visionary founder, Steve Jobs. Minneapolis, MN: ABDO Pub. McKee, J. (2011). HP’s CEO failure was lack of leadership savvy. TechRepublic. Retrieved November 6, 2013 from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/hps-ceo-failure-was-lack-of-leadership-savvy/ Read More