Leadership

If you watch this Apple commercial, you might conclude that progress is driven by only a few special people. Indeed, people who rise to the top of organizations often do so through powerful personalities, strong technical skills, and strong work ethic. Yet, we see that as people rise to the top, other leadership competencies become more important in companies that are striving for excellence. For instance, leaders need to get along with people, develop capabilities in individuals and teams, maintain connections with various stakeholders, and exhibit emotional intelligence. In short, some leaders need to unlearn some of the habits that got them to the top so they can succeed in their executive roles.

In your reflection blog, consider how difficult it must be for a leader to grow into a person who can lead a system-wide change effectively. Perhaps you remember leaders who attempted system wide interventions but failed because they were not capable of pulling it all together. On the other hand, you may know leaders who were able to do what you thought would be impossible. From your point of view now, what is required for a leader to be successful?

            Being a strong leader must not be easy, so much is required of you when you are in charge of guiding everyone else. You have to be fearless, intelligent or at least appear to be, and most of all you have to learn how to think outside of the box to create change. While I was watching this commercial I have to say that I was almost intimidated, as I pursue my degree in business leadership I ask myself “can I ever be as great as the people shown on this commercial?” I also ask myself if the people that we see in this commercial felt the same way as me. Maybe these people were different and it just came natural to them, these great people that led us to change in this world must have actually been the circle pegs in a square hole. I believe what separated these great leaders from everyone else is that they did not listen to the “rules” and they did things the way that they wanted to.

            After a year of work I find myself at the halfway point of my MSLD, it is an exciting time and I feel that I have grown so much through all of the different readings which I have done. Overall the one thing that I have noticed is that many successful people and organizations are the ones that are learning to do things differently. It is not the ones that will continue to run a business as they did fifty or sixty years ago but those that look for innovative ways to change the world.

            This video states that the “ones who are crazy enough to think they can change the world actually do”this sends a great message to think outside of the box. In business we see people changing the structure of organizations so that things can run in a much more effective matter which will be conducive to an organization’s goals. We can take for example Renis Likert’s system 4 management style of how to run an organization. “In system four organizations believe in down, up , and sideways communication, a great deal of support between subordinates and leaders, and a larger amount of rewards and support for everyone in the organization no matter what position you hold” (Brown 2011) . I believe that it is ideas like this one that change the way we view how business is done, in the past people might have considered this a crazy way to run a business; but today because of innovators like Renis Likert we find it to be extremely productive.

            I once read a quote that said we need to “resist our tendencies to make right or true that which is merely familiar and wrong or false that which is only strange” (Matthew Taylor). This is an amazing quote and I keep it posted in my study along with other quotes so that I may never forget it. What this quote is saying is that we need to break barriers as we become leaders in life, we need to resist the want to not be different. I believe that this goes beyond business and it is a quote which we can also use in life, it is important for leaders to look outside of the box. To me this quote lets me know that I need to stop and think about why I might think that something is wrong; I have to ask myself if I believe that “something is wrong only because it is what I find familiar?” Maybe if I think about certain situations from a different perspective I can also shed a new light on problems which used to be an open and shut case.

            To answer the question of “what I think is required for a leader to be successful”; I have to say that thinking outside of the norm is what can make a leader successful. A leader in my opinion has to give everyone and everything a chance before shutting the idea down. They need to listen to every person around them without judgement or discrimination, they need to view everyone as a peer because they are only as strong as their weakest link. A true leader will know how to bring the best out of every situation by understanding that the world is not as black and white as it may seem.

References:

- Brown, Donald R. (2011). An Experiential Approach to Organization Development (8th ed.).    Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc.

- Taylor, M. (2015).