According to the Organizational Behavior textbook, “leadership is the use of non-coercive influence to direct and coordinate the activities of group members to meet a goal” (Griffin, Phillips, and Gully, 2016, p.406). While Jack Welch had some problems as a leader for General Electric, some of his leadership qualities were beneficial to the company and the people. Welch maybe was missing a few aspects of being a great leader, he did have some that made him a good leader. For instance, Welch demonstrated the leader qualities of job-centered behavior, achievement oriented behavior, and transformational leadership. All of which are not bad qualities, but these three qualities are missing the concern a leader has for their subordinates. Compassion …show more content…
This is where achievement oriented leadership comes into play. Achievement oriented leadership is a part of the path goal theory of leadership. This theory states, “…effective leaders clarify the paths (behaviors) that will lead to desired rewards (goals)” ((Griffin, Phillips, and Gully, 2016, p.421). The achievement oriented side of this theory means that Welch’s leadership qualities would involve setting difficult goals, expecting employees to have high performance levels, and showing confidence that his subordinate will put in the effort to reach those goals (Griffin, Phillips, and Gully, 2016). The core and secondary problem are results of this leadership method. Employees began to feel overworked, because they were trying to achieve these challenging goals, while still picking up the pieces of those that were let go due to the restructuring. It is great to set goals for a company, but do not make them unrealistic. Some of Welch’s ideas and goals were not realistic in a short time …show more content…
One quality that people could see in Jack Welch was transformational leadership. Transformational leadership is “the set of abilities that allows the leader to recognize the need for change, to create a vision to guide that change, and to execute the change effectively” (Griffin, Phillips, and Gully, 2016, p.439). This leadership quality is found in someone that has a tremendous influence, because influence is needed to effectively implement change. While some people struggled with the restructuring of the company, the changes made did make the company strong and powerful in the business world. When Welch was forced into retirement, people were afraid of who would become the next CEO, because Welch was someone that changed the company for the better. While changes made were not always successful in a short period of time, Welch was able to take twenty years and completely transform a company, that takes vision. Over those twenty years, Welch was able to see what needed to be changed, and what needed to be fixed within those changes. He transformed a good company into a great
Throughout this book, author Robert Welch demonstrates values of compassion, caution, and knowledge. These values interweave in Welch’s explanations of how the healthcare system of this country has so much money invested in it, and yet, manage patients receive so little care. This country has a healthcare system that is currently operating out of a broken model that does not place value on individual health, but on profit incentive.
Dr. Kerfoot (2006) suggests that there are leaders who are genuine and supportive with regard to frontline employees and can identify with their needs and then there are those that are self-motivated and self-loathing that they neglect the important needs of the staff and are pre-occupied with the managerial tasks at hand as they deem employee needs less important but Farber (2004) purports that leaders must prove their leadership by their actions of doing what is moral and ethical, “demonstrating progress and literally changing the
Encarta Dictionary within Microsoft Word defines leadership as,” the ability to guide, direct, or influence people.” Expanding upon that definition, my personal definition is influencing people to follow to achieve a goal, regardless of how unpleasant. Leadership is not something that happens overnight, it needs to be cultivated over time. During that process, it is necessary to identify delinquencies and make adjustments. Reviewing the feedback provided by my LPI/360 assessment, the three areas identified I need to improve on are, praising people for a job well done, actively listening to diverse points of view, and becoming more visible within the workplace.
One may wonder exactly what it is that qualities a strong leader possesses. A strong leader is determined, and strong willed. They must be of good judgment, and without bias. They cannot easily be persuaded, and they are firm, yet at the same time, a good lead must also empathize with his subordinates, and have the best interest at heart for said subordinates, at all times. However, with that being said, a good leader cannot be afraid to discipline his subordinates when necessary. Unmistakably, being a leader is a very difficult feat – one which not everyone can accomplish. A leader must be an authority, a friend and a counsellor, all at once. They must be responsible, and always take into account the disadvantages of a situation. Not everyone is suitable to be a leader, whereas, just about anybody can be a good role model.
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.
I have been fortunate to work with several heads of departments within a couple years of graduating college. During this time, I have worked with quality leaders and not so great ones. The quality leaders were competent, skillful and endowed with people skills. These leaders gave me the opportunity to grow and a sense of purpose. After reading The Leadership Advantage by Warren Bennis, I was quickly reminded about a former superior of mine that lacked the understanding and knowledge of what qualities a leader should have. The company also did not entertain a culture that promotes employee satisfaction.
“Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others” (Welch). Leadership is inspiring others to learn more, do more, and become more. Ineffective fail to possess certain characteristics which effective leaders do. Willingness to help others, selflessness, and strictness; these are the qualities of a both good and effective leader. Without these qualities, leadership would fail and being a leader would mean nothing.
Leadership is defined as ‘the process in which an individual influences the group of individuals to attain a common goal’. The goal is achieved by cooperation, communication and cohesive behaviour. A leader is someone who stands for his cause and takes responsibility, but can also motivate others to do the same. There is a clear difference between being a boss and a leader. A leader can motivate others and inspires them to aim high and achieve anything they set their minds to. However a boss plays more of a supervising role. Power should naturally come to a leader but that power should be treated with respect and never be abused. A good leader should;
Perhaps the most important qualities of a leader are passion and motivation. Especially when leading a group for a particular cause, a leader must be personally attached to that cause. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., for example, is a legendary leader because he fought for a cause that directly affected him. had he not been pushing for a personal reason, his actions would not have been as passionate. This would have caused a lack in motivation, another essential leadership quality. A leader faces many roadblocks and opposition and thus, must be motivated to continue fighting and leading. A leader’s attitude and opinions are valued by the group and therefore, if a leader is motivated, the group will be, too. The continued actions and successes, no matter how small, which move the group closer to its goal also help its motivation and drive.
Many Scholars characterize the core qualities and skills necessary for an effective leader. Useem defines leadership as “Creating a vision and translating that vision into actions”. Historically, an effective leader was assumed to be exceptionally knowledgeable, authoritative, and dominate. Those leaders applied the command and control method to lead an organization. With the passage of time, this definition has been changed. The modern definition of an effective leader is honest, courageous, trustworthy, inspirational, and result-oriented. Today’s leaders create shared values and vision, and empower others to achieve their targets.
As John P. Kotter suggests in his article "Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail," not establishing a sense of urgency is a number one failure for leaders. Lacking a great enough sense of urgency, senior managers in Engineered Woods Division did not cooperate in moving the division from commodity to a specialty business and the efforts remained fruitless. This was a leadership issue that few members of senior team were motivated and passionate about the transition.
When Jack Welch was named CEO of General Electric, Welch saw a company in trouble even though the business world saw GE as an intrinsically healthy corporation, secure in its position as a world industrial leader. Welch knew that the company was too large to fail yet GE was too unwieldy to adapt for further growth. The changes he instituted restructured and revolutionized GE and made Welch the most respected CEO in business today. After reading the book there were three parts that really stood out for me.
I was a jr phone sales opener in a call center for about a year in my mid twenties. Coming into to this position I was expecting to learn a lot more about business, sales and marketing then I knew at the time. I left that place (before they eventually went belly up) feeling half empty headed. I believe it was due to the consistent and very much overwhelming affiliative leadership. It's not like it was coming from just one or two supervisors. Literally from every single person. Not going to lie, I definitely played the part when I needed to. After a while it was very obvious to me that this consistent use of leadership style without the use of any others is terrible to the fundamentals of an organization needing to grow. Of course, there is nothing wrong with a pat on the back when it is warranted. This company might of well have been rewarding failures. They were offering incentives just for effort, it almost seemed more than completing tasks. Most employees caught onto this and began to do the minimum to get rewarded. At no fault of their own, it was as if they were wired to just get by or accomplish the least to get rewarded. The entire time this was all going on, I don't ever remember any critical conversations from supervisors to employees for poor performance and not even once did I ever receive constructive feedback. Affiliative
There are many examples of poor leadership behavior in today’s workplace. Inadequate leadership can be detrimental not only to a team within an organization, but also to the entire organization itself. I believe it is vital for upper management to ensure that their leaders are properly trained and aware of how to handle certain situations and employees. When a leader’s weaknesses are overlooked, large problems occur.
Transformational leaders are needed to transform low performing organizations to acceptable to high performance. At other times, the leader is expected to move an organization from a crisis. In order to accomplish these tasks, the leader must overhaul the organization culture or subculture. This task is accomplished by nine ways of transforming others: 1. Raise others awareness. The leader makes others aware of the rewards and how to achieve them, i.e. pride in the job or financial incentives. 2. Help others look beyond self-interest. The transformational leader helps others to look at the “big picture” by describing an entire scenario, i.e. if we hire more employees to do x, we will have to make cuts in other areas. 3. Help people find self-fulfillment. The leader helps others not to focus on minor satisfactions, i.e. getting a job done before the deadline ...