The Leadership Challenge Essay Example for Free

The Leadership Challenge Essay Challenges are what this book expands on, most especially, challenges pertaining to traditions and myths about leadership. Kouzes and Posner look at the issue of leadership and ask, What’s new, and what’s different? Through their research they conclude that even if the context has changed, the real meat of leadership remains the same. In their book The Leadership Challenge, the authors provide real examples of what true leaders really are and suggest that anyone can do the same and practice these principles so that they shine as leaders in their own spheres of work or activity. Written in 1987, many thought it would be one of those books on leadership but since it comes at a time when the world is undergoing a lot of changes and there is a big demand on excellence. The newest edition emphasize once again that the fundamentals of leadership, the very essence of what it means to be a good leader is the same today as it was two decades ago. Thus, they posit that â€Å"Leaders do exhibit certain distinct practices when they are doing their best. Good leadership is not only an understandable but also a universal process†¦and Leadership is not a private reserve of a few charismatic men and women. It is a process ordinary managers use when they are bringing forth the best from themselves and others.† Perhaps this is what makes the book a hit. The authors are able to hit the weak spot of readers as the challenge is brought out to everyone to do their best because being a true leader requires the very same characteristics that one may already be doing in his own field of work, yet just needs some honing. Thus, the context may change – like there are many modern things that had been changing globally, and in this aspect, leadership has changed dramatically; yet the very essence of leadership is still the same, such as the values and virtues that one cultivates in ordinary life. The book is divided into seven parts with thirteen (13) chapters. It helps that the authors are real leaders themselves. Consider this: Jim Kouzes is Chairman Emeritus of the Tom Peters Company and an Executive Fellow at the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the Leavey School of Business, Santa Clara University. Meanwhile, co-author Barry Posner is Dean of the Leavey School of Business and Professor of Leadership at Santa Clara University. They come up with a Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI) and other publications have made them the authors to beat. Part One of the book establishes the background of what leadership is all about. They challenge readers on how people can be made to follow leadership—that is, by free choice. Thus, they were able to identify five common practices common to most extraordinary leadership. They maintain that leaders do their best when they challenge, inspire, enable, model and encourage. Leaders interact well with their followers. Right from the start they provide real life examples such as that Tom Melohn who in a period of eight years increased the sales of the North American Tool and Die (NATD) by a factor of 5, increasing its pretax profits by 750 percent, and decreasing annual turnover from 27 percent to 4 percent. By year eight, NATD was ready to open a new plant which Melohn calls â€Å"Plant 20† receiving its ninth â€Å"vendor of the year† award. From there the authors analyze how Melohn did it considering that he could not even hammer a nail or screw the license plates onto his car, claiming he has never read a book on business since his studies focused on history. He was merely a peddler of packaged goods. He attributes his success because: â€Å"We set three objectives for NATD. First, we planned to from the company profitably. Second, to share the wealth among employees. And third, and equally critical, it was important to have fun—not just the two owners, but all our employees.† From this the authors dissect Melohn’s leadership capabilities within the company. It is in these examples, peppered all throughout the book, which makes The Leadership Challenge a great read. Readers are able to identify with the true-to-life examples of ordinary men and women who did their best to make their lives and those of others memorable. The quality and type of leadership depends, in part, on the attitude or stance of the organizational head. The general outlook of companies with regards to community service and mitigation of negative externalities may have originated from its founder. Leadership is a primary aspect of management, and an effective leader is someone who knows how to motivate the colleagues to act for the attainment of goals. Good leadership will empower employees to become collaborators in the programs. A holistic organizational participation thus dispels the notion that innovations of management are just personal whims of the managers. Good leadership is a response to the changing attitude and values of the clients and the society, and to get obstinately stuck in the old notion of sheer profit-making is placing one’s self under the risks of being static. Thus, the authors explain that once successful companies are no longer successful because they have become static along the way when they failed to change and adapt. The authors also underscore that successful leaders have well-designed strategy for planned change. Good leaders also possess well-planned out strategies which are major courses of action adhered to by an organization in order to meet its goals. They are the company’s methods of responding to threat and opportunities. Their philosophies, programs, practices and decisions, must be in line with the other systems and activities of the organization. Good leaders possess good business ethics, in that it is the ultimate act of deviating from the former exploitative system of capitalism and industrialization. Balancing between strategic logic and social involvement with tangible projects may actually be an implementation of ethic’s moral rights model. Yet the authors provide readers with excellent examples of a leadership model which is not based on power. Rather, it is based on the tools that leaders use to encourage people to be involved in accomplishing the company’s goals by making â€Å"extraordinary things happen,† as the authors refer to. Prominent in each chapter are examples of leaders who were able to overcome crisis situations. The authors maintain that knowledge is not the sole capability of the leaders. They argue that knowledge is distributed in all levels of the organization and that in order for the organization to benefit from the knowledge of the other men and women in it, they must be empowered well. Thus they state that it is not a matter of making people feel that they are part of the company. Rather it is a matter of making people part of it. Thus, it is not based on feeling. There is more a reaching out of leaders to these employees such that they are encouraged to be true followers pursuing the goals of the organization. Finally, the authors argue that empowerment of all members is very important in making changes more effective. The more involved people are in the process of change, the more effective the change will be and the more lasting it will be for the company Good leaders today enhance their ability to influence their subordinates in order to facilitate efficient decision making process within the organization. This means enhanced strategies in motivating and influencing employees to achieve their tasks. The core need for good leaders is to have the ability to communicate well with employees their roles in the accomplishment of organizational goals and targets. There are lots of valuable leadership forms in the book which many leaders could use. They represent the most effective and the least effective leadership strategy. The issues of motivation are also delved into in the book and this is the prime mover for many workers. Workers need affirmation that what they are doing is correct and exceptional. The inability of the leader to convey the message that job is well done only demoralizes them. This invokes feelings of uselessness and diminishing self-worth eventually giving no incentive to perform a good job anymore. To be extremely coercive is not an effective communication tool for workers would not be able to confirm their role in the over-all design to achieve the goals. The authors end the book with the Leadership Practices Inventory which was developed to empirically measure the conceptual framework developed in the case studies of managers’ personal best experiences as leaders. This puts a nail in the many concepts that they posit in the entire book. Today, there are researches that investigate how the inventory is related to other independent measures of managerial effectiveness.

Use of Foils to Illustrate Deceit in Shakespeares Hamlet :: GCSE English Literature Coursework

Use of Foils to Illustrate Deceit in Hamlet      Ã‚  Ã‚   In his play, Hamlet, William Shakespeare uses a variety of characters from different social backgrounds to paint an elaborate picture of deception. From the opening line of "Who's there?" the reader gets the impression that people are not what they seem in this play. The interrelationships between the royalty and people of the court are developed to illustrate the similarities and differences between the characters. Shakespeare skillfully reveals the deceptive nature of man and the ruin it causes through his use of foils.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Foils are integral to this play, because many of the devious plots are revealed to the reader through them. A foil is a secondary character that illuminates certain things about a primary character to the audience. The major character may reveal secrets, such as murderous plots or traps, or feelings, for example, a perspective on death or the love of another character. This can happen if the minor character is primarily a listener on stage. Another scenario is if two characters, major and minor, share similarities, but have distinct differences. These variations in personality will reveal something important about the main character. The "something important" could be a fatal flaw or a good point of their personality. Many foils are used in this play, but there are two important ones which happen to be for the same character.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Laertes is a foil for Hamlet and their deceptions are quite painful to all involved. Laertes and Hamlet are the same sex and approximately the same age.   They also both live abroad, France and Germany, respectively. Laertes and Hamlet both deeply love in different ways a maiden named Ophelia. Ophelia is Laertes' sister and receives advice from him about Hamlet. Hamlet proclaims his love and lust for Ophelia many times throughout the play. [Where in the play does he proclaim his lust for her?] For example, on page 659, [Citation] Polonius reads to the king and queen a love letter from Hamlet which states, "Doubt truth to be a liar, but never doubt I love." [This says "love," not "lust"; shame on you.] Laertes tells Ophelia that Hamlet does not love her, that she is just a passing fancy to the prince. Hamlet and Laertes both have meddling parents. Polonius, Laertes' father, sends his servant, Reynaldo, to spy on his son.

Argue for/against Social Networking

When sat down by a man, let us call him ‘Vincent' for now, and asked to contemplate an understanding of modern society how does one react? Obviously ‘Vincent' is looking upon you for a conclusive answer to this, after all, his rather stern look on his wrinkle free, cosmetically moisturised, face, nestled above a ‘Skinny-Fit' tight black suit worn on his gym harassed body, is expecting an answer. However, just as you begin to start an ‘umm..' filled explanation of your personal interpretation to the very meaning of modern society he stops you; reaching into his pocket to silence his buzzing iPhone. â€Å"Sorry about that, just had a new friend request on Facebook, you know how it is†. A response that immediately makes you realize that in fact your flawed theory of modern society is not as you first thought, but is rather sitting across the table from you in Starbucks (one of the select with free wi-fi, of course). Whilst naturally this metaphor is going to be biased in perspective it lays out many of the key features of society noted within the last few, recession deprived years. Major players being incorporated into our everyday life: the need for access to the internet, the surrounding claustrophobia of technology and the nonexistence absence of the likes of ‘Facebook' from our lives. Evidently however this is no such element of negativity in our lives, however could it be? We commit to our jobs, our families and our sharing of information – all freely of course. Alternatives are there, the – somewhat handicapped – benefits system, a life alone and a disconnection from the knowledge of what society is doing as of now. The only reason this newly discovered element makes face into our lives is because we welcome it, embrace it for it's true value for society. Speaking of values: our friend ‘Vincent' happens to be a combined banking-marketing-sales extraordinaire, knowledgeable of course on all products, on the money that we all value so dearly and without a doubt the economy. It is therefore an inarguably brilliant idea to approach him for his opinion on social networking, for us naà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ve members of society have nothing to lose and all to gain in terms of knowledge on our own day to day living conditions. Now it is our turn to ask the question, but this is no feat for ‘Vincent' to overcome. This brilliantly presented metrosexual man has his answer already prepared, after all, he knows. ‘Social media is simply the greatest benefit we have made available to us' – the first golden nugget of information we learn. Grasping onto each and every word we have little choice but to beg for an expansion on this idea, wishing not to be kept in the dark about his views. †To people like me†, and I quote, †the social network is the best marketing tool man could create' ‘It allows for us to sell you a product at any time, but not just any product, a product tailored to you via all the information you provide daily†. ‘Tailored' to us? What better a reason could we have than this to enable identification of our lives; after all, modern society moves quickly, saving time in a way alike this is beneficial to all. In no way detrimental? †Socially society has evolved, much in thanks due to social networking† †The electricity used in the use of social networking ultimately ends up benefitting the economy through tax and the likes of† †After all, how else could friend A and friend B communicate with such ease?† I had to stop him there: ‘Vincent' was blowing through my boundaries for enlightenment of brilliance for one day. He has a point, we all think the same whilst reading that. Socially we are all so much closer, universal, able to talk so fluently to one another over text, so flawlessly typed. Nowadays overcoming the boundaries of not seeing the other reciprocates emotions are simple, why one just incorporates a ‘:D' to show joy, or a stigmatic ‘-.-‘. The need for face to face social interaction is less than ever, something we as society naturally embrace, for interaction takes time, and our capitalist motto of ‘time is money' could never be truer. You get the point. Social networking's effect on our lives has been as great as the tone of menace from the strong, metaphorically feminist, business like woman sitting to our right, disgraced at the use of ‘man-kind' and my creation of a ‘man' for the wider metaphor rather than a unisex character named ‘Sam'. Daily we offload information private to us without whole knowledgeable consent, daily we allow for our face to face interactions to be interrupted. These issues themselves are detrimental, but detrimental to modern society? How can something be detrimental to society if it is society?

The Origins Of The And The Buffalo Wild Wings Across The...

Warhammer terrain have something you like to do, even if we’re mega nerds.† Warhammer is about having a hobby, something you enjoy doing and can spend your excess time and income on. These people enjoy being mega nerds, so that is what they do. This group is a perfect outlet for them to do so. The origins of the group can be traced back several years. Red is the founder and unofficial leader. One of the oldest members, he is a longtime Warhammer player with over 10 years of experience. Many members turn to Red for minor rules questions that arise during games. Aside from Warhammer, the group will do things like eat at the Buffalo Wild Wings across the street after meetings. Several of the older members are married, with Red†¦show more content†¦This happened not only in this game, but in all the others I observed as well. No matter which side was winning, players would give each other small bits of advice to prevent them from missing out on a good m ove or making a stupid mistake, and even to make sure they hit the most units possible with their explosive weapons. I initially thought this was due only to the friendly nature of the group. Later, though, I realized that, while this was the main factor, something else may have been at work as well. The members want to point things out to show that they know what they are doing. It makes them feel influential, regardless of whether they are winning or losing. After a particularly devastating turn for Lance’s army, Bruno finally had accumulated enough objectives to win the match. â€Å"Good game, sir,† said Lance, and cordially shook Bruno’s hand. This gentlemanly sportsmanship gave me an idea of the group’s calm, welcoming attitude. Lance wasn’t playing with the sole goal of victory. For him, Warhammer was more of a hobby than a duel. When asked about his favorite part of Warhammer, he replied, â€Å"Painting the models. For me it†™s the hobby aspect.† He still enjoyed putting his gloriously painted models to work in battle, but it wasn’t why he played Warhammer. Despite this, he still had a place at the Warhammer group, even though the group only battles. Furthermore, his politeness and friendliness made Bruno welcome as well.Show MoreRelatedConfucianism in Journey to the West31834 Words   |  128 Pages this thesis adds to the general pool of comparative textual-visual research. It illustrates the different methods of message conveyance that are used within different types of media, which is useful for any type of comparative multimedia study. After an introductory section, this thesis will have a theoretical section, a section containing relevant background information, and a methodology section. Next, it will present a thorough comparative discourse[7] analysis. 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