A leader is a person from a group of people who is prominent because of his/her skills and personality and these qualities of make others follow him. Great leaders are visionary as they can predict about the future changes in accordance to that particular goal or objective. A major sign of a leader is that he/she has ability and skills of motivating a group of people to achieve a common goal. In business the leaders have the same job to perform. They have to interlink company’s goals by merging the people’s wishes because a group of people cannot achieve anything unless or until they have a common objective. In order to fulfill those objectives they would be requiring someone to motivate them and boost their energy level. A common direction has to be set by the leader for other to follow. He has to be organized and provide justice to his employees. Even organizations/companies are likely to fall apart in seek of its goals or objectives without a sufficient help of a leader. Infect role of a leader is one of the most important roles in the organization. He bears heavy responsibility to keep the company on track in terms of its objectives. Employees of certain level always want to follow someone’s footsteps in order to achieve their goals. A great leader can provide them this opportunity by setting an example by him. A good visionary leader can be very beneficial for the company as he/she can warn the company for upcoming hazards. He can also build a strategy against the upcoming challenges since he has sensed them ahead of time. It would allow company to have enough time to rethink on the strategy and prepare them for the hard times.
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If we refer to the previous history of the World, we will see the examples of a few of Good Leaders and a lot of Bad Leaders. “A few Good Leaders” because we are declining rapidly to over fall due to our overall Human Behavior in the Society and we do not have such qualities to deliver Good Leader to in abundant, to the World “A lot of bad Leaders” because greed of men and low tolerance with others in this rapidly falling Society in our overall Human Behavior is bound to produce Bad Leaders. But still we are manage to produce one or two or may be dozen good Leaders in the last century. Let’s see why they were good leaders and why millions of us followed them in terms of their exceptional Leadership qualities
Effective Leader
A good leader is a person who has an exemplary character. It is of utmost importance that a leader is trustworthy to lead others. A leader needs to be trusted and be known to live their life with honestly and integrity. A good leader “walks the talk” and in doing so earns the right to have responsibility for others. True authority is born from respect for the good character and trustworthiness of the person who leads. Like the Prophets, they were a true symbol of exemplary character. Life before the claim was neat and spotless because they spend their lives according to the rules of purity, honesty and Truthfulness.
Moreover Good leaders are tolerant of ambiguity and remain calm, composed and steadfast to the main purpose. Storms, emotions, and crises come and go and a good leader takes these as part of the journey and keeps a cool head and in the times when nations pass through difficult hours, these exceptional leadership qualities helps the nation pass that difficult time with great courage, steadfastness calmness.
There are three main things that make a good leader. The first is that a leader must practice what he preaches. The second is that he has to look after and protect those around him. The third is that he must be able to develop other good leaders. I will go into more detail about how to implement all three of these characteristics, so that you too can become a good leader. A good leader is excellent at practicing what he preaches. I love the quote that states, “Your actions speak so loud that I can’t hear what you are saying.” The greatest leader of all time was Jesus Christ and he was the best at practicing what he preached. This goes back to the old proverb that says, “Live by the sword, die by the sword.” This is the same with leadership and how much a leader abides by what he says. As a good leader, how can you expect people do what you say, when you don’t even do what you say?
Personal example
My personal example for good leader is my Dad. He owns a hardware store in Toronto and I had learned a lot from him. He is always very organized, patience and a good example for me. He is open hearted in its action and always response in kind to difficult situation. He is very reasonable for his employees and this why I learned a lot from him
Poor Leader
This society has been very generous in producing bad leaders in abundant if we see the examples of our current political so called leader. Their negative approach to pass through the time of crises and their destructive thinking has brought this world at the brink of destruction. It is with their blessings that we as in a state of war for the last Hundred years. At this point, there rise a lot of questions that why they become bad leaders and why they have brought us at the state of War. Here are a few point which can solve all our questions that come into our vary minds.
Very much the opposite of a good Leader, a bad leader is a person who does not possess the quality and guts to grab the hand of his nation in the time crises. And bad leaders do not have such vision and qualities to take the nation through difficult times because they lack in their innovative and analytical thinking to solve the problem their nation face at the time of crises. They spend their kingly life as they do not care about the needs and problem of their nation. At the times when a nation falls due to economic crises, they do not lower their standards of daily life and they do not care about the nation. A bad leader does not share the bad time with his nation and he continues to live comfortable life.
Nothing makes him special, because he is not known for his virtues and good abilities. He is always known as a notorious person who does not care for the Needs of his nation. Unfortunately for us all, bad leaders occupy positions of power in business and government. There are seven major traits of bad leader. And leaders fully loaded with such traits can make the life of their nation a living Hell and these traits with little definitions are as follows:-
Incompetent Leaders: – Someone who is not competent to take effective action.
Rigid Leaders: – The leader and at least some followers are stiff and unyielding”
Intemperate Leaders: – The leaders who cannot stand the theology of his neighbor and want to impose his own thoughts by force.
Callous Leaders: – A callous Leader is the one who is indifferent to the suffering of others.
Corrupt Leaders: – Leaders who misuse the power and position and utilize the resources and wealth in his possession in an ugly manner.
Insular Leaders: – The Insular Leaders do not have knowledge and awareness of his surroundings. He is unaware of the happenings around the world. Like he is living in the cave for centuries.
Evil Leaders: – Evil Leaders use their thinking in an Evil manner; they possess destructive thinking, and utilize the powers and resources in criminal activities.
Personal example
Bad leader was my boss Mr Anthoney. He was very lazy. He use to steal pizzas from work place and that’s what created a bad example for rest of employees and this also cost company too much money even he wasn’t a good example for a company because he never thinks about the whole team or a company he just think about himself.
Who is the best leader from articles and why?
I would like to choose Mr. Jim Goodnight as the best CEO through all the articles we studied because he was a great leader with great vision for the company. His strategies were extremely positive and influential for employees. He wanted to create an environment where employees would like to work and be more productive for the company. He was very motivated and supportive to his employees. According to him “When I joined SAS, I wanted to be in and help grow a company that was as much fun for the employees as it was for the ownership” (Pfeffer 1998) and this is the perfect example of great CEO. He wanted to make SAS instuite a perfect place to work. He uses to believe in intrinsic motivation of employees. He treats his employees with respect because he knew that they are the future of the company. Even for his employees he introduced so many benefits such as provided onsite medical facility for employees so they don’t have to go and search for doctors. Even doctor fee was covered till first dollar by the company or onsite child care centre for employee children so they can see them during their lunch breaks. Even junior high school onsite so they can drop of their children to work easily. Theses all facilities were very essential because beside them he also provided onsite gym and many other facilities. For employees it was more like fun place to work they use to bring their family during weekends to SAS ground for BBQ and stuff. Even he uses to motivate his employees. He wanted them to work at their best and this is why SAS employee’s turnover rate was lower than 4%. He wanted to create more convenient work environment for employees such he eliminated commission based culture for SAS because he wanted his employees to be more customer oriented then just making numbers. This is he inspired me so much. There were many other good leaders as well such as Jack Welch from General Electric who introduces strategies to eliminated bureaucratic strategies to make his employees more productive or Wolfgang Schmitt from Rubber Maid article who created an positive structure so company and be more efficient but they all worked majorly to increased the revenue of the company and solely My Jim Goodnight was the one who worked for his employees.
What changes was he able to affect at GE?
Jack Welch was the CEO of General Electric for almost two decades. In 1981 when he came on board the company was struggling through many issues but with his calm and steady nature he was able to save General Electric and uphold it to the position where the company is at now. He was one of the great leaders like Charli Eitel at Simmons Corporation, a leader who supports his company and adopts strategies to save company from any difficult situation. He adopted many strategies to bring change as General Electric.
Structural Changes
His focus was to come up with strategies to save the company and the best strategies he can adopt was first changing the organizational structure. There were about 10 groups of sub companies with 46 divisions, and 190 departments with 43 strategic business units. This structure was creating massive work load for Welch therefore he decided to introduce more effective structure like Rubber Maid company did in 1980s. He removed barriers between CEO and business by eliminating “Sector” position from SBU Structure. According to him there should be more direct communication between corporate executives and business. He didn’t want to create a huge distance between management and employees unlike Nut Island where employers had no connection with employees. Welch wanted to eliminate all the sectors so he can be more close to the business.
Cultural Changes
Cultural changes were the second most import changes what Welch bought in General Electric. He tried to introduce cultural change where there was more freedom for employees so they can express their opinion and be more productive for the company. Therefore the first thing he did was eliminated bureaucracy in the organization. He wanted to create flexible rules for employees like SAS Institute had for their employees. Their employees were working in an open environment where every employee is allowed to make a suggestions and management will value their opinion. Even according to Welch he wanted to create a culture of a small company “a place where all felt engaged and everyone had voice” (Levy, & Wonzy, 2005). This was a positive approach to the benefit the company for long term.
HOW did he make those changes?
Welch made numerous changes once he came to a board to work for General Electric. First 1981 to next five years he worked on organizing the organizational structure and for that he lay off almost half of the company’s employees because he wanted to cut the size of employees so he can give company a proper direction. Due to his extensive employee lay off magazine names him a “Neutron Jack,” (Levy, & Wonzy, 2005) which means that wherever he goes his employees were vanished from there in a large quantity. After being done with creating a proper structure he started to work on development of the company.
Establishing a sense of importance
He developed sense of urgency’s for employees. Make them realize that this is the requirement of business and without them they won’t be able to survive in the business. Such their first priority is restructuring of General Electric. He wanted his each business to be the number 1 competitor in industry or if they can’t make it then they will sell that business.
Forming effective leadership team:
In late 1980’s during the second stage of the “Rocket”, Welch convinced his employees to become better leader so they can be productive for the company. He initiated `Software’ called Work-Out and Best Practices.
Work out: It was introducing a forum so employees and employers can input their opinion in that website so they can avoid unusual bureaucratic issues. Welch invited managers and employees into New England town meetings for three days where employees from can come up with particular analyses and recommendations regarding their department and then their bosses have to make instant responses. This process was introduce to “clean up” General Electric and, to make workers more productive by avoiding unusual bureaucratic style. Regarding his this approach Bloomberg article mentioned that “Jack put his time and energy into developing people” (Levy, & Wonzy, 2005).
Best practice: This was his second method of learning from other companies so General Electric managers can learn how to achieving higher productivity growth. He wanted to create an environment of small collaborative teams so that employers can focus on developing effective strategies rather than controlling individual activity. Besides they can also focus on treating suppliers as partner so they both can perform well also emphasize on constant development to increase their productivity.
These two were important steps to overcome the existing bureaucratic style and adopt new productive ways to be successful in a business.
Create a vision of what the organization will become
Welch changed a company structure and culture by going global. He introduced how global market can influence the culture.
Going Global: Going global was a major decision that took place in era of Welch because once they had solid base at home they really moved forwarded into competing with world market. This was changing of culture and adapting of new market structure. They decided to use same strategies for international market as they used for local such as either #1 or #2 competitor or disengaged.
Developing Leadership: Leadership also had a huge influence on cultural structure of a company. He is the one who had to lead the company along with 290,000 employees. It is his job to maintain the smooth transitions at work. Usually Leaders working in a huge corporation does really work hard because it comes with a job security of lifetime. This is why it’s their duty to create an environment where people can perform their best. According to Welch leadership can be characterized in 4 ways, first who perform their duties- fulfill financial obligations and share values of the company. Second who does not fulfill their duties and does not share our values. Third who forget about commitments but does share values of a company. Fourth who does fulfill their duties, give significant profit to the company but never share values and they are the most difficult one but since they do perform very well it’s hard to find them. They also work on 360° feedback process from employees and according to Welch “people are removed for having the wrong values,” (Levy, & Wonzy, 2005) he insisted. “We don’t even talk about the numbers.” (Levy, & Wonzy, 2005) He explains what he is looking for is productive managers not people who just value numbers.
Creating a vision
Boundary less Behavior: According to Welch he wanted to create a vision for the company a vision that state in the 1990s: The Third Wave of General Electric. Over here he initiated a boundary less behavior vision for his employees. He wanted to introduce “open, anti-parochial environment.” (Levy, & Wonzy, 2005) This is basically having an open environment where every employee without regards to their salary or position can share their ideas. They want to be comfortable doing business all over the world such as they explained in the article. They want to be as comfortable doing business in Budapest as they do in Louisville USA.
Stretch: This is basically striving to achieve impossible. Over here manager are liable to set higher and unrealistic goals for their department and then try to achieve them. If they fail to react they won’t be accountable for it although if they meet that extra ordinary goal then they will be rewarded.
Service Businesses: Welch really prioritizes this issue in 1980,s he showed interest in service related companies. Before that they were the last priority of the company. Once he showed some interest and invested money in it they came up with the software called “In Site” for CT scanners and MRI equipment. It was basically a sensor installed in those equipments so they can maintain the service standard of that product. This whole investment on GE turned the whole pyramid upside down.
Empower other to take action
This process is to communicate and improve the vision on the company so they can make it a better place to work and this procedure started in the last decade of Welch employment.
Six Sigma Strategies: This strategy was used to empower employees so they can work up the standards of the company. This happened in 1994 when employees were facing problems due to poor quality of its products and processes so Welch introduced this strategy from Motorola Corporation. It was a performance scale which is used to eliminate the unnecessary actions from the working process. According to Grey Rainer, Vice president of Development process this happened to be (Levy, & Wonzy, 2005) the biggest opportunity for growth, increased profitability, and individual employee satisfaction in the history of our company.” (Levy, & Wonzy, 2005) It was a well developed plan which helped General electric in eliminating operating at error of rates 10,000 times the 6 Sigma level.
Inspire and celebrate small wins
Once the company performing better and according to the requirement of Welch, he was pleased to see their performance and felt that he had assembled a first class of leaders.
Keep interest and effort on further improvement
This effort was for the continuous improvement of the company because he still wanted to progress more because he wanted to set standards for future employees and the employees who don’t meet the standards so far. He introduced a scale for them a term called “A player with 4 E’s.”
According to him a player is someone who had a great vision of leadership, great energy to motivate employee and implement strategies and courage to change the culture.
Four E’s
Four E’s consist the following:
Energy: Encourage new ideas and apply strategy to implement them
Energize: Motivate others by his overwhelming enthusiasm to believe in new idea.
Edge: it is basically making through all the difficulties
Execution: it is a consistent ability to turn idea into results.
Institutionalize changes; reduce leader dependencies
As he was leaving the organization he made the final changes. Before leaving he introduced the e-business so that company can adopt this new business technology as well. This was his finally effort to change the culture because he believes in continuity and he knew it takes a decade to make any new strategy actually work.
Was he successful or unsuccessful (or both) at making these changes-and why do you say that
He was extremely successful in changing the organizational culture and structure of General Electric because he gave the company a whole new direction to work on. The company generated 23% annual profit and this shows he was a great leader. Changes he made for the company shows he was successful in making and implementing all his goals and strategies which he promised a decade ago with his employees.
How did Welch change and “leverage” culture at GE to achieve his objectives while CEO?
He introduced new cultures which eliminated the bureaucracy from the system so employees can work accordingly. He introduced “Workout” and “Best Practice” strategies so he can eliminate the distances between management and employers. This gave employees opportunity to argue on any fact especially if they can make any difference and this action saved millions of dollars of the company. He really supported his employees SAS Institute where he tried his best to come up with strategies to make the company more pleasant place to work. He even created a broader vision for a company by going global this way he gave his employees opportunity to compete with other nations and make work more challenging for them. Then he enforced his employees in developing appropriate leadership skills to be successful in business environment. It was his job to create a positive vision for the company and that is what he did. He worked all by his honesty and integrity to save the company by changing organizational culture and structure. He even introduce a Boundary less behaviors strategy and this was the key point of his success because it gave his employees opportunity to share ideas all across the company without the limitation or without distinct of origin. Everyone was free to participate in company decisions and that was a truly success of changing of environmental culture. Also he adopts “Stretch Strategy” to give his employees a new vision of success so they can think beyond the boundaries of facts and actual figures and try to achieve them. He adopted “sig sigma” and “four E’s” strategies to show his employees how to improve themselves if they ever lose track and this all results in enormous success of the company.
Citation:
Nut Island: Levy, P.F. (2001). The nut island effect. When Good Teams Go Wrong,
General Electric; (Levy, & Wonzy, 2005)
Levy, P.F, & Wonzy, M. (2005). GE’s two decade transformation: jack Welch’s leadership. Hardware Business School,
Hurley, R.F. (2006). Decision to trust. Harvard Business School,
Eight ways to built collaborative teams Grattan, & Erickson, 2007)
Grattan, & Erickson, 2007 Grattan, L, & Erickson, T.J. (2007). Eight ways to build collaborative teams Harvard Business Review,
SAS: ( Pfeiffer, 1998) Pfeiffer, J. (1998). SAS institute: GRADUATE SCHOOL OF BUSINESS,
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