Power Ambition Glory Book - Essay Example

POWER AND GLORY SYNOPSIS This book provides an excellent overview of the history of leadership and what lessons contemporary leaders,especially those in business, can learn from historical figures, especially those of the ancient world. This is fertile territory and authors are very good at exploring it. It really shows that there very little has changed over the last few thousand years. Moral leadership remains very much the same as it always has. In this book the authors describe the tactics and travails of a number of people such as Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar and Xenophon. These mens lives have lessons for us today but also in a way parallel the lives of some of the most significant business leaders of the 20th and 21st centuries. Business leaders and generals and political leaders all lead high stress lives. Many people depend on them for everything and their decisions have enormous impact. It is therefore very useful to understand what works and what doesnt. STRENGTHS, LIMITATIONS, AND CRITICISMS One of the best things about this book is how it covers so much ground so quickly. It provides an excellent overview of a number of historical periods and places. This part was a very exciting read. I knew little about Xenophon for example and his style of leadership. That was a model which is not often written about. This general style is very important: so many historical figures were also students of history. What happened in the past is the best predictor of what will happen in the future. A limitation that seemed apparent was that while there are similarities between business and war they are not the exactly the same. Sam Walton is not Alexander the Great. If things go bad for Sam, he loses money. If things go bad for Alexander, he and his soldiers are killed and his country destroyed. There is an important difference. When Hank Greenberg was voted out of AIG by the board of directors because of some of the mistakes he made with management, his penalty wasnt exactly the same as Julius Caesars. Life and death are rarely at stake in the business world (although sometimes they are). Another limitation is that there is no real discussion of women. If organizations are better able to understand when women leaders are most effective, they may then be able to increase the number of women in the leadership ranks which would result in better organizational performance. Increasing the numbers of women in the workforce is important to organizations around the world. In particular, workforce diversity continues to be a focus of most large corporations. Having a chapter or two on famous historical women and what business leaders could learn from them might also have been useful. This however is not a fatal flaw as there probably is a lack of material. Another possible limitation is the focus on American businesses. Only a few foreign companies such as Vivendi are mentioned. In part this is probably because the book is focused on the American market, but we do live in a globalized business climate these days. For me personally leadership means a number of things that are somewhat different than the authors suggestions. Leaders dont need to be bigger than life. They dont need to be historical figures. They are sometimes just people in your local community. Something that has had a big influence on me is the idea of integrity and leadership. I believe integrity is the most pressing leadership issue of today. To me it means having sound moral principles and being honest and upright. In our contemporary world it is clear we have a serious lack of these important principles. But it is not enough to say that it is important to have integrity—we must take steps to instil it where it is lacking. To begin with step one: discerning what is right and what is wrong is not an innate behavior or characteristic; it is learned. Education is key to building up this moral faculty. This faculty is built up through experience and through principles. In a country as politically complicated and as diverse as the United States, this takes a lot of work. We can’t shirk from hard work; we must embrace it. Step two: Sometimes integrity means acting on what you have discerned, even at personal cost. In our society, one would call a person who discerns and acts on what they have witnessed or experienced a “snitch”. Many times in the justice arena a person who has witnessed a crime or an altercation, definitely could inform at personal cost—whether jeopardizing their lives or the lives of loved ones. The choice is a hard one; turning to faith is the best way to find an answer. Step three involves saying openly that you are acting on your understanding of right from wrong. Even if it costs you personally, it is important to be honest. NEXT STEPS This book is very useful for business but also can be expanded into the international political climate which is very important for business too. What kind of leaders we have and how they approach the world is vital for the Wests continued success. In todays world it seem that America has to fight alone to preserve stability and peace around the world. Its businesses are more profitable and its military guarantees the peace. This is leadership, but other countries and blocs are depending too much on the United States. Certainly Steve Forbes would agree with this statement. America is much more technologically advanced and that it can attack safely other countries because it has the means to do so with technological warfare. However, as has been seen over the last few years in Iraq, American military power can get very tied up and may not always be very effective; it can sometimes limited in its ability to reshape a society or political system. The Europeans need to take a page from this book and their leaders need to take advice from some of the great men of history to take a more proactive, robust role in the world today in order to help solve all the problems. It’s important to ask the question, What is power? Many believe, and men like Alexander the Great surely believe that it is purely military force. The US is the lone power in the world with the ability to conduct expeditionary warfare on multiple fronts across the globe whenever it wants to. As was demonstrated in the Balkans in the 1990s, Europeans aren’t able to project a credible military force even within Europe. Therefore the Europeans resort to the only thing they have for managing international conflicts, international institutions such as the UN. The success of European integration and solving the "German problem" has led a lot of Europeans to believe that they live in a Kantian paradise where international institutions can banish war forever. Americans have a different historical reality, and think of the world as a Hobbesian jungle where hard power rules. All of this I agree with. These too are the lessons that history teaches us. Yes, Europeans don’t have a right to tell us that the use of military force in some situations is morally wrong and no you can’t do that, because they really do depend on us, but they are also somewhat correct in being apprehensive about our decisions because they are so significantly affected by them. I think the authors of this book would argue that it is better for them to have an iron in the fire to sit outside of the campfire and complain about the lack of heat reaching them. They should take more responsibility. That in part is the essence of leadership: responsibility and integrity. When considering these arguments it is vital to remember that power is not only power in a military sense. Power is also economic power. Europe is economically strong enough to trouble the US when it wants to, especially when it comes to important trade issues that can seriously affect American technologies and industries. Also, nowadays with the American Economy in so much trouble, it is important to look at the ways military power and economic power are interwoven. With America’s massive debt and deficit it is hard to imagine how it can also continue to police the globe without some serious economic restructuring. If you can’t pay for your military equipment you can’t fight with it. Europe, of course, is in a similar situation. These are some of the biggest leadership questions in the world today. The badly need a good answer. This book will allow readers to consider what Alexander or Julius would do in such a situation, how they would take a wide view of the situation and approach it with both foresight and boldness. REFERENCES Forbes, Steve and John Prevas. (2009). Power Ambition Glory. New York: Crown Business Burns, James MacGregor. (2003). Transforming Leadership: A New Pursuit of Happiness. Grove/Atlantic. Kouzes,James M. and Barry Z. Posner, (2003). The Leadership Challenge, Credibility, Encouraging the Heart. 3rd ed., Jossey-Bass. Wheatley, Margaret J. (2001). Leadership and the New Science: Discovering Order in a Chaotic World Revised. Berrett-Koehler. Read More