Business leadership - Essay Example

How are leadership and management complementary, yet essential in their own right? Leadership and Management have different sets of functions but both strong leadership and strong management are essential components of a successful corporation. Management is about dealing with the complicacies of functions and operations while Leadership deals with the adaptation to change. Without a viable management, any firm whose nature of functioning is complex might become disorganized and hence proper management might bring about discipline and integrity within the organization, which ensures quality and profitability.

Again, in topical times, the business world has undergone persistent changes in terms of technology and regulation and to deal with them, leadership is essential. Hence, both leadership and management are complementary in nature (Kotter, 6). What does it mean to say, “leadership is about change?” and how does the concept of “alignment” relate to leadership? The phrase “leadership is about change” signifies not just any type of chance but an alteration in the business environment. When the surroundings change new strategies will be required to match the changing needs.

This is ensured by leadership the term “enabling” can therefore sum up the idea of change in this context (Heifetz, xii). Leadership is all about adapting to the changes, which will require effective communications with the subordinates. “Aligning” refers to empowering people to carry out tasks and is a problem of communications (Kotter, 10). What is “emotional hijacking”? Emotions certainly play an important role in leadership. This is most evident in the way two leaders might handle a same situation differently.

Temperament is very important and if a leader becomes enraged during communications, its effectiveness is lost. Though emotion itself is too personal to associate with the business world, yet the link with emotions lie in the way a leader handles emotions of himself and the others. Emotions therefore play a strong role in deciding the best leaders (Goleman, Boyatzis and McKee, 17). In this context, “Emotional hijacking” indicates the state of confusion or deviation from the task, which results from negative emotions like anger, irritability, or a sense of failure.

For instance, communication with the employer or the boss might lead to depression and low mood or tension which affects work. An example is cited about an international hotel chain where something similar took place and nine out of ten times such interactions affected the mood of the employees negatively. This also reduces emotional intelligence (Goleman, Boyatzis and McKee, 21-22). Contrast Kouzes and Posner’s view of leadership and that of Bolman and Deal, as articulated in the latter’s article, “Reframing Leadership”.

According to Kouzes and Posner, “leadership is not about personality, it’s about practice.” The authors have listed their practices as “Model the Way; Inspire a Shared Vision’ Challenge the Process; Enable Others to Avt; Encourage the Heart” (Kouzes and Posner, 26). The authors also believe that leadership entails a team effort and a leader elarns by “enabling others to act” (Kouzes and Posner, 30). Unlike them, Bolman and Deal suggest that leaders use certain corporate systems (for e.g. visions, goals, allocation of capital) to judge the extent of change and the degree of adaptability required.

They often use their experience to judge a particular situation (Bolman and Deal, 54). According tot hem leaders work by influencing behaviors or attitudes and hence personality plays a strong role here. He needs to manage others’ personalities by affecting their behaviors and approach to work.. Works Cited Bolman, Lee G. and Terrence E. Deal. “Reframing Leadership”, In, Gallos, Joan V. Business Leadership, John Wiley & Sons, 2008 Goleman, Daniel Boyatzis, Richard and Annie McKee. “Primal Leadership: The Hidden Power of Emotional Intelligence”, In, Gallos, Joan V.

Business Leadership, John Wiley & Sons, 2008 Heifetz, Robert, Foreword, In, Gallos, Joan V. Business Leadership, John Wiley & Sons, 2008 Kotter, John P. “What Leaders Really Do?”, In, Gallos, Joan V. Business Leadership, John Wiley & Sons, 2008 Kouzes, James M. and Barry Z. Posner. “The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership”, In, Gallos, Joan V. Business Leadership, John Wiley & Sons, 2008