Leadership Effectiveness Report - Essay Example

If we were to look around ourselves, there are millions of examples that make an attempt at essaying the characteristics that make an ordinary person a leader - a hero for a lifetime. Whether it is in our movies, art or literature - there have been constant portrayals of leaders and their qualities. Such qualities are singled out as the most effective when it comes to possessing a commanding personality, understanding and harnessing the dynamics of human behaviour and finally, as well as performing under high pressure and trying situations.

These leaders have been inspiration for the masses and their leadership skills have entire theories dedicated to the same. In this context, it is extremely important to understand that no leader is perfect and that his or her result orientations will not always reap the accurate benefits owing to unforeseen circumstances or even certain personal flaws. This has a strong implication in the realistic analysis of the leader and his or her leadership skills. On this basis, we will carry out a study of optimum effectiveness in a particular leader in a typically corporate setting.

The person in question is Chief Executive's CEO of the year for the year 2006 - A.G Lafley of Procter and Gamble. This choice has facilitated analysis on the basis of a competing values framework where we will study the situational leadership theory and the five models that form its elements. Also, we will start by emphasizing on the election issues that face the criteria managers when working on such a framework. In doing so, we will set a context for discussion of Lafley's traits and effectiveness of the same as core leadership values where Procter and Gamble's basic policies are concerned.

Competing Values FrameworkAs a company that took off on the strength demonstrated by a candle maker named William Procter and a soap maker called James Gamble in 1837, Procter and Gamble was a company that started out by producing soaps and candles, only to deviate and set up factories producing a plethora of products like radio programs, fabric softeners and the very popular Pampers for babies, among many others. Caught in the midst of various battles revolving around issues like animal testing, downsizing, logo controversy and toxic shock syndrome and tampons, this company was at the receiving end of several critical lawsuits.

In 2005, it suffered $12 million due to these reasons. Most were of the view that Procter and Gamble was over - a dysfunctional company. Most but one - A G Lafey as the CEO of the company delivered it back to its original splendor and how. (www.pg.com)This shows a nuance of putting the right man in the right job - in other words, a foolproof selection process. A.G Lafey is a man who has defied the barriers that come in the way of an effective election process. In distributed systems, leader election is a dynamic concept that can cause various interrelated processes to participate and crash at the same time.

In this context, the usual point to point communication is replaced by buffered broadcasting to replicate effective process communication. To study Lafey's contribution and his effectiveness more critically, I will resort to a leader election protocol design's blueprint that is set in a dynamic context so as to study his effectiveness as a leader in terms of the