The technological advancement of the world today is as a result of these successful engineers who in most case never show excellent leadership skills especially the technical engineers. Most of these engineers such as Nikola Tesla, Elon Musk, and Alexander Graham Bell among many others tend to lack specific personality traits that are still required for leadership (Guttman 2011, pp.8). The following report is an evaluation of a prominent engineering leader; Sir John Monash, with emphasis on the background, performance as an engineering leader, the strengths, and weakness of the leader, and the lessons learned from the leadership skills.
The choice of Monash is as a result of the command ability that enables him to oversee various soldiers in various battles, thus showed excellent leadership skills that are very inadequate among many engineers and soldiers. According to Hussain & Hassan (2016), commander is any individual who can lawfully exercise and oversee the completion of assignments by the subordinates, while a leader is an individual that can influence the behavior of people willingly. These skills were available in Monash hence led him to be the only Australian general that has an international reputation.
Sir John Monash was an Australian civil engineer and soldier, born June 27, 1865, by Louis Monash and Bertha, nee Manasseh, in West Melbourne, Australia. In 1891, Monash got married to Hannah Victoria and was blessed with one child named Bertha and lost the wife a year after the World War I. In 1893, Monash attained degrees in arts, civil engineering, and law from Scotch College and Melbourne University (Hurst 2018, pp.81). After the graduation, Monash was employed as a civil engineer with contractors and engaged in the construction of railways and bridges as well as assisting them with legal matters 1895, Monash was appointed a captain for two years, later promoted to the rank of lieutenant-colonel as the head of the intelligence corps (Eastwood 2014, pp.27). In 1904 to 1905, Monash joined J.T.N Anderson and worked as both the contractor and consultant and later joined David Mitchell and John Gibson; the builder-chemist duo. Working together, the trio established the “Reinforced Concrete & Monier Pipe Construction Co.
In 1912, Monash was appointed Commanded 13th infantry brigade at the battle of Gallipoli during the Dardanelles Campaign in Turkey in and showed immense leadership skills though did not receive training in the military affairs (Vasek & Vaskova 2017, pp.408). Later Monash was selected as the chief censor after the formation of the Australian Imperial Force that comprised 13th, 14th, 15th, and 16th battalions, and all were under his training. The four battalions participated in various activities such as Gallipoli Campaign, Western Front, Battle of Broodseinde and Battle of Messines. Monash led brigades and participated in several wars that led to be credited as one of the best generals especially on the Western Front. In 1920, Monash was selected as the Director-General of “Repatriation and demobilization” department that was formed after the war to oversee the reconstruction of the country then became the “State Electricity Commission of Victoria” in 1920.
The organizational capability and leadership skills accredited Monash as the “Knight Commander of the order of the Bath in 1918 and 1919 were made the “Knight Grand of the Order of St Michael and St Geroge.” During his life, Monash was capable of writing a book “The Australian Victories in France “ that was launched in 1920; however, the great leader suffered cardiac arrest in1931 and died at the age of 66.
Participating in various activities, Monash showed different leadership skills that are being celebrated and copied by many people from the engineering, military and even education. John Monash is considered an inspiring leader due to various factors.
The transformational leadership entails four components that are idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation and personal attention. These component were all available in John Monash, however the inspirational motivation and the intellectual were the most evidential throughout the life. Inspiration leadership refers to the ability of a leader to energize and create a sense of direction to the employees or the followers with an aim to achieve a particular change (Briggs 2014, pp.5). The leadership style entails stimulating the individuals to attain the objective, through the motivational support and empowerment of the followers and employees
John Monash exemplary exhibited the transformational leadership throughout the life and through various positions using both the inspirational and intellectual component of the transformational leadership. According to Young (2012,pp.10), inspirational leadership style entails different aspects such as promoting individual respect, dignity, and integrity; facilitating change and empowering employees and follower; fostering group cohesion; and inspiring commitment for a specific objective. Monash used the skills in all the professional fields such as in law, as a scholar and as a soldier as discussed below:
As a soldier and commandant, Monash inspired the soldiers to work as a team that led to the victory of various battles as stated above. Monash is considered as one of the Australians that shaped the country engineering field and still celebrated until today. This is evidential in the Advitech Group Headquarters that contain four rooms for meeting named after respected engineer leaders with Sir John Monash included After the World War 1, Monash assumed the position of the General Manager and the chair of the State Electricity Commission of Victoria (Nunan 2013,pp.14). During the tenure as the chair, Monash showed inspirations leadership style that enabled the SEC to become an essential body in the development of Victoria’s brown coal reserves as an electricity source by the end of 1930. Monash had the communicating skills and intellect that he displayed across the staffs inspiring to achieve more in the engineering field (Chemolli 2017, pp.35). During this period, Monash ensured that electricity was a commodity that would be accessed by all people and not only the rich through setting up foundations of Victoria, which acted as an industrial and economic power in Australia.
As a leader, Monash played a significant role in the introduction of the reinforced concrete to Australian engineering practice thereby; making Australia became the first in the world to have notable successes with the pre-mixed concrete (Massersmith & Chang 2017, pp.13). Concrete is practiced among engineers to construct buildings through the use of binders, aggregates, water and chemical admixtures to make buildings stronger. During the introduction of the concrete system, Monash inspired so many people not only through the ability to come up with the new technology but through the ability to preserve the challenges that were faced. Monash was able to repair the cracked bridge under his own expense and even redesigned the skewed arch at Bendigo that collapsed and killed a bystander.
John Monash inspired a large number of people to get educational enlighten through the academic prowess in theater, language, music, law, engineering and the Jewish scholarship (Rehman et al. 2018,pp.9). “The privilege of education carries great responsibilities-it is given not for an individual benefit alone, but to befit persons for the higher duties of citizenship and for the roles of leadership in all fields to make Australia great.” (van Zundert 2015,pp.360). Monash believed in education, an inspiration that was developed by the ability of the parents to work very hard to secure his knowledge to the fullest. Monash thought that experience is the primary tool for economic development, social inclusion and determinant of future life, therefore, participated in various activities that facilitated the development and enhancement of education across Australia (Murphy 2015, pp.254). The different academic push led to the development of the John Monash Scholarship Programme that aims at recognizing excellence and leadership among the Australian students (Zacher & Johnson 2015, pp.1215). Various beneficiaries of the scholarship have demonstrated excellence in multiple fields and leadership potentials that have led to the development of Australia. Other facilities include the Monash School and the university, and all formed to celebrate the scholarship life and the academic capabilities of John Monash.
Soldiers are always frequent in war-torn zones and still need inconsistent and robust leadership skills to facilitate their continued participation and victories in various battles and mostly considered to have inadequate leadership skills. However, John Monash was able to lead Australian army even though did not receive formal training: Joining the military and becoming a lieutenant at the age of 20, lieutenant at the age of 22 and a captain at the age of 30 was facilitated by the leadership skill(Ewer 2015,pp.8). Monash had various personalities and attributes that enabled the motivational and inspiration of the troops to multiple victories.
John Monash’s engineering organizational skills such as management and administrative transformed the troops to the victories. Being introduced into the army at the tender age, Monash perceives the period as new military era hence was inspired to come up with new military technologies such as new artillery training gun (Henderson 2015, pp.694). Monash encouraged so many people through the regular lectures on technology especially on the application of the artillery and munitions that eventually changed the perception of Australians (Crawley 2015, pp.70). John Monash was always present at every point of war, an attribute that impressed the troops members to follow Monash .in most cases the actions together with the words encouraged the soldiers and made them believe on their capability to win the wars, therefore, Monash through being present in their spirits, and the leadership enabled to reduce the stress among the soldiers that would have affected them. Additionally, John Monash intellectual capability facilitated proper decision making and guidance to the troops in situations that seemed to be tough.
Monash was a team, and at some point, Monash became involved with the staff work through which was able to learn the military matters. The involvement with the staff activities rather than perceiving himself as a leader enabled Monash to motivate the staffs to do better and perform even during the war. During the war, Monas inspired the soldiers and encouraged them that whatever the situation, he was right behind them since he understood the character the Australian soldiers (Rivas & Tarin 2017, pp.8). Monash knew clearly that the soldiers would not do anything unless they fully realized what that has to do, and therefore, was always there to guide and offer decisions. Through the military leadership, Monash exhibited strict discipline and the army vigor, that ensured that every soldier to know and understand their responsibilities.
Through the qualities to bring people together to work as a team, Monash was able to create peace in 1923, during the Melbourne Cup Day when the Victoria Police struck leading to rioting and looting. Monash was called by the Victorian Premier, together with the old General such as Elliot, McCay and Johnson were able to create peace. After the return to Australia, many people such as Prime Minister Billy Hughes saw him as a political threat and as great competitor, therefore, made sure that no military or Federal Government positions came on Monash’s way.
Monash was intelligence capability was high that enabled him to study various subjects such as art, law, and engineering in the college. In the Scotch College, Monash excelled in mathematics making him be highly regarded in the college. During the Australian’s revolution to independence in 1918, John Monash became the first Australian to be appointed a commander of the entire Australian Army Corps as a result of the intelligence he possessed(Potter 2018,pp.18). Being an engineer, a lawyer, a teacher, a Jew of Prussian ancestry provided Monash with a wide range of intellectual capability and personality that drove the troops to successive battles victories. The soldiers that were in Monash’s team always believed and knew that the war machines would work since he was intelligent in administering command.
Monash tactical intelligence enabled the introduction of “bite and hold” tactic to win over the enemies. Through the model, the military was able to strike the enemy with the developed technology and always encouraged the troops only to attack when it can hold. Those battles were carefully planned based on the general intelligence and mapping, Monash guided that.
Sir John Monash succeeded in the leadership positions as a result of the passion of the task coordination. Monash facilitated the introduction of scientific mind among the staffs and at some points enjoyed working together with the crews to gain some knowledge such during the army leadership since he had no training.
Sir John Monash is an accurate definition of diligent as he worked ambitiously to earn every position that he held during his life. Monash was able to study at the same time become a part-time soldier that earned him some cash for the family and the sickling mother’s treatment. By the time Monash formally graduated, he was already employed as an experienced engineer at the Melbourne’s Princes Bridge (Korosenyi & Patkos 2017, pp.620). Through the hard work, Monash was able to help by introducing the concrete engineering practice and the resolution of various engineering disputes.
Monash was a great planner who talked about everything according to the plan and mostly used the daily agenda plan to determine the extensiveness of the tasks. Monash used to cross off each completed tasks with the horizontal and vertical lines, linking the vertical lines to make a continuous line. The gaps that remain showed the outstanding works, and always headed to the next agenda.
The only weakness that can be attributed to Sir John Monash is that he never consulted fully in making some of the decision during the battles that led to the loss of a considerable number of soldiers. During the attacks such as on Hindenburg Line in 1918, Monash deliberately ignored the advice from the subordinates that the 27th division of the United States had not secured its objectives, hence ordering the 3rd Division to launch an assault that failed.
The Sir John Monash was complex making him a man of great ability with some flaws. Monash ability to challenge the traditional thinking facilitated the growth of some enemies who were threatened by his vision and determination. Monash was always courteous in the faces of the enemies, for example, wrote a consolation note to Murdoch after the approval of the shrine: From the success, we can learn that Monash was a great planner who left nothing to chance. Realizing his incapability to accomplish everything on his own, Monash carried out perfect planning for example through consulting everyone to have general views and never talked down to anyone. The success such as an engineer, a scholar, and a soldier deletes the common saying that the life of engineers as still dull. Most of the engineers are still viewed as introverts who are always busy with their inventions: never able to associate with others. However, Monash was a team builder who participated in various activities to bring social and economic benefit to many people.
Conclusion:
In conclusion, most of the engineer leaders are always perceived as dull leaders since they are always focused on their inventions, however; Monash’s life was a complex one making it enjoyable. Monash worked as a professional engineer, a part-time soldier and lawyer challenged the prevailing notion. The engineering organizational qualities enabled Monash to keep the troops as a unit and inspire them to various victorious wars. Additionally, Monash was a hardworking, intelligent engineer leader that facilitated the current Australian engineering situation and still celebrated through multiple programs such as Monash Schools, University and the Scholarships, and all made him the only Australian general who has an international reputation.
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