"LEADERSHIP," writes the historian James MacGregor Burns, "is one of the most observed and least understood phenomena on earth." Indeed, there are untold volumes on leadership. Why, then, bother to write still another book about it? Because, although ours is a business dominated society, we have so little detailed discussion of business leadership. There are business chronicles, stories of great corporations and their achievements, some exposés, and other vehicles of self-justification. There are descriptions of ends attained, of outcomes. There are news reports of spectacular executive success. But nowhere is there specific documentation of the characteristic behavior of business leaders. Nor is it easy to define what a business leader is. The business world is an arena for achievers. Some are great financial manipulators. Some are spectacular marketeers. Some are technical innovators. Some build and rebuild communities. Are they leaders? They are executives, perhaps, but not always leaders.
The minds of CEO's are, in aggregate, a tremendous center of power in society. Upon these minds - how they tick, how they prioritize, how they view the vectors of change depends on the transmission of know-how, technology, capital, and jobs. In addition, as globalization increases, the socioeconomic impact of their thoughts becomes all the greater.
Gone is the day of the stern looking, tight lipped, antisocial dark suit who sits positioned in the large corner office secured by twelve foot walnut doors with gold handles. Today's workers demand involvement and interaction from upper management, no longer do the baby boomers see fit to have P and L figures discussed between upper management only. In order to be a successful CEO in today's society you must be able to demonstrate an understanding of the dynamics of value enhancement, to be aware of opportunities and to exploit them. The future and success of the company depends on how you view the company and how your employees view you. A CEO's understanding can have no limits, adapting to change is just a small step in dealing with the organizations future. When we discuss change we have to keep in mind that, the largest of corporations feel the pressures of change on a global level, competing with our global trading partners such as Japan, China, and Europe. In order to be global a corporation must be able to compete on a worldwide basis and to do this manager's must be able to think globally.
Today's CEO is required to come out of his designation ambit.
It is important in today’s changing economy that business leaders are not afraid to make necessary changes to succeed. When Jack Welch became CEO of General Electric in 1981, it was a lethargic business, satisfied with its output and entangled in bureaucracy. He understood the competition that overseas markets presented and the need for a new global strategic plan. He was able to envision the true potential of his resources and implemented drastic changes such as the Stretch, Work-Out, and Number One, Number Two business concepts (which will be discussed later) to achieve his goals.
What makes a company great? This is one of those pithy questions--like "What is great art?" or "What is great leadership?" that defy a simple response. Are companies deemed great because they have made buckets of money, or because they have made their employees happy? Are companies great when they make an impact on Wall Street or when they make an impact on the world? As a general rule all-visionary companies jealously preserve strong, and sometimes fanatical, corporate cultures even as companies adapt to rapidly changing times. Visionary companies heavily promote executives from within, constantly set lofty goals, and surprisingly, CEO’s are rarely charismatic. Moreover, visionary companies drive to make an impact on society, not just to make profits. This research project will serve two objectives: first to define what constitutes a visionary company, and then to show a comparison between a visionary company and a non-visionary company.
The CEO needs to create a corporate culture. His culture will determine what people should be doing and what should do not be trying. He can decide who will stay, who will leave, and how the job will get done. Culture starts with the boss. He can decide how he wants people to act and start modeling the behavior publicly. STOPPED HERE…!!!:)
Leadership is not a position but an action that is undertaken by an individual. Leadership is not just about giving orders, yet it is the action of serving others. According to Robert Townsend, “A leader is not an administrator who loves to run others, but someone who carries water for his people so that they can get on with their jobs” (2013). A good leader will support his or hers employees because a leader is not judged on their own actions, but they are judge on the success of those that they support. In the modern era, we look at business leaders in the same way that historians view military commanders or kings of the past.
Leadership has been written about millions of times in the past, and heading in the future, it will be the topic of many debates, books and newspaper articles asking, and in some cases answering the question, “What is leadership?” According to Peter Drucker: “leadership is lifting a person’s vision, raising his performance and building personality”.
This purpose of this paper is to explore leadership and its impact on organizations. Leadership as defined by XXX is “the power or ability to lead other people”; however, how does someone develop the skills to lead others. The skills and traits a leader should possess have been studied and written about for ages and ultimately the key is that leader is not born with leadership skills the skills are fostered and honed. Due to positive and negative impacts a leaders can have on their staff and ultimately their organizations leaders have an influential impact on the moral and success of the organization and its staff. Leaders who have not developed the skills to be a leaders for their organization and staff can
“The Five Temptations of a CEO” by Patrick Lencioni is a must read for every aspiring business major. The book covers many very critical concepts that most business students have very little knowledge of. Self-examination is the stepping stone to becoming a successful CEO. Every CEO encounters difficulties and must know how to recognize them in order not to fall victim to the Five Temptations of a CEO. The Five temptations are status over results, popularity over accountability, certainty over clarity, harmony over conflict, and invulnerability over trust.
“Leaders come in every size, shape, and disposition-short, tall, neat, sloppy, young, old, male, and female” (Bennis, 2009, p. 33). Unlike Johnson (2011), Bennis (2009) proposes additional components to leadership. First, there must be a vision. A leader has to have a well-defined direction and purpose. They must understand not only the direction they will take, but also the steps to achieve the stated objectives. The vision must be articulat...
The emphasis on leaders being not just executives and managers, and that not all executives and managers are leaders, is extremely vital. Anyone can strive to be a leader in whatever organization in which they are involved. Bennis and Nanus claim that leadership is about character, setting the example for how team members treat one other (and in a corporate setting, their clients as well), being truthful and sustaining organizational trust, and encouraging themselves and others to learn. On one hand, it can be easy to see how many people in leadership positions do no match up to these standards of leadership. On the other, it seems a bit like common sense to be truthful to others and to effectively communicate with people who work together everyday. Leaders is an effective tool for summarizing and inspiring leadership not in that it teaches tough strategies and manipulations, but that when looking at an overview of its content, Bennis and Nanus are essentially teaching human relations and human decency. All in all, this book highlights strategies for us all to be better in our lives and our everyday
Leadership at times can be a complex topic to delve into and may appear to be a simple and graspable concept for a certain few. Leadership skills are not simply acquired through position, seniority, pay scale, or the amount of titles an individual holds but is a characteristic acquired or is an innate trait for the fortunate few who possess it. Leadership can be misconstrued with management; a manager “manages” the daily operations of a company’s work while a leader envisions, influences, and empowers the individuals around them.
Chan, K. W. & Maubourgne, R. A. 1992, Parables of leadership, Harvard Business Review, July-August.
Goleman, Daniel. "What Makes a Leader?" Harvard Business Review. Jan. 2004. Web. 09 May 2014.
Leaders are the individuals who help to create options and opportunities. They help in identifying the choices and solve the problems. They build commitment and coalitions. Leaders do this by inspiring others and working along with them to construct the shared vision of the possibilities and commitments of a better group, organization or community. They engage the followers in such a way that most of the followers become leaders in their own right. The variety of demands of an increasingly complex world very often require that leadership be shared by most of the members of an organization, in appropriate ways for different situations. A leader is the on...
One aspect of a visionary leader is the ability to act as a change catalyst. In many ways, a change catalyst can only perform at highest level if the circumstances are right. Although Leonard Liu “failed” financially, his heritage of highly efficient business operations and a major financial loss prepared the right circumstances for Mr. Shih to act as change catalyst. Therefore, Stan Shih takes immediately charge by fundamentally altering Acer 's management, organizational structure and business model by deploying required changes in order strive towards a new vision. Despite facing a depressing reality, Mr. Shih articulates a new vision of a “Global Brand, Local Touch” supported by his “21 in 21” initiative of transforming Acer into a global federation of 21 public companies by the 21th
Being a CEO is proven to be much more difficult than trying to become one. Over the last few months we have been examining the reasons behind the successes and failures of some great CEO practitioners. It seems that, despite the different managerial styles, great CEOs employ some common techniques. The following pages contain the golden rules of successful business leadership.