Leadership, Knowledge, And Learning: Understanding The Connection

The Importance of Knowledge in Leadership

Leadership is one of the essential elements of a successful organization or society. In any country or organization, when the leader is strong and is supported by the people, and has the ability to say and act according to morality, the country becomes successful (Imran, Ilyas and Aslam, 2016). The following essay looks at how an effective leader doesn’t just know the way, but how they follow the path that they know and how they show the same to others as well. in the following essay, I will look at some of the theories that are related to organizational learning and attempt to look at how a leader knows, goes and shows the way of learning to other people. My aim in the following essay is to understand how leadership and knowledge are connected, and how this can be evidenced by real-life leaders not just from organizations, but from society as well. 

Knowledge in a leader is an essential trait for the leader to become successful. In terms of an organization or company, where the primary motive of the company is to become more profitable and expand as much as possible, the leader becomes the CEO. Therefore, according to me, the leader must be able to visualise a way for the company to become more profitable (Berta, Cranley, Dearing, Doghearty, Squires and Estabrooks, 2015). A successful leader also knows the path from the way that mistakes are made. According to theories by Chris Argyris and Donald Schön, there are two main types of learning that are common in leaders (Chandler and Huang, 2015). The first is single-loop learning, where a different set of actions have been taken to ensure that the same result is not achieved. For example, where Windows was not successful in the release of Windows 8, Bill Gates, who was at that time the CEO of Microsoft, decided to take a step back, and revamp some of the issues with Windows 8 and come up with a software that was similar, yet also different and aimed to adapt to the new system of having laptops that could also be used as tablets as well. This was the primary reason that Windows 10 was extremely successful. The other type of learning is double loop learning, where the goals and beliefs are re-examined instead of the actions. When Apple stopped the sale of the iPod Shuffles, they noticed that people were not interested in having a device just meant for music, when their phones could do the job for them. The CEO, Tim Cook, re-examined the goal, which would have been to increase their profits and discontinued the device, thus making them more valuable.  Most leaders who have been described as visionary have been able to look at what they wanted their companies or societies to become. Martin Luther King Jr, who is a visionary leader in the American Civil Rights Movement, started his most famous speech with “I have a dream”. This is one of the examples that show that most leaders who are successful have been able to know the path and the end result that they are aiming towards (Ortenblad, 2015). It is only when the leader knows of the path that they are able to convince others to be able to walk the path with them. If the leaders of Australia or the United States of America or India did not know the way to make their countries free from British rule, they would not have been successful in ensuring that the British left. That is the same case, according to me, for all leaders. 

Types of Learning in Leaders

However, it is not just knowledge of the path that gets leaders to make something great for their country, society or their company. Leaders have to be able to go the way themselves successfully. Gandhi asked for the people to India to fight using non-violence. However, the people would not have selected the method of non-violence if Gandhi would not have taken the path himself (Chadwick and Raver, 2016). The saying “Actions speak louder than words” is extremely apt in this scenario according to me since most people are able to believe actions, but not words. It is easy to preach of non-violence towards the British and to see that it was the way that India would gain independence, but going that way would be difficult. In times of crisis, it is often the CEO of the organization that is expected to show the way. For example, when Facebook was going through some hard times, it was Mark Zuckerberg who was expected to show the way by taking a minimal salary so that the other workers, those who had been severely affected and would lose their jobs, would be able to continue working, It often depends on the president or prime minister of the country to walk the same path as that of a poor person, so that they can empathize with the poor of the country (Illeris, 2018). When the leader goes the way, I feel that it adds to adaptation. According to Richard Cyert and James G. March, adaptation was a theory where the organization changed its rules and regulations over time to meet the society’s standards (Jain and Moreno, 2015). For any leader to be successful, they have to be able to adapt their rules and that of their company to the societal standards. It could otherwise, lead to protests and government shutdowns, such as what is happening in the United States of America, under President Donald Trump. In order to go the way, the leader must also know the way that they are choosing. If there were steps to success, the first step would be known, and the second step would experience. Most leaders that are chosen in organizations have experience in the field and in the organization as well (Walumbwa, Hartnell and Misati, 2017). 

The third and final step would be to show the way. This would mean passing on the knowledge and wealth of information that they have gathered through their experience to others, so that they can also benefit from it (Hotho, Lyles and Easterby-Smith, 2015). This is an extremely important step as well since it is the main method by which future generations can learn from the past and previous mistakes, and thus, ensure that they are not repeated. Barack Obama, for example, who is the first black president of the United States of America, shortly after he finished his last term as president, opened a fellowship program for students all over the world, so that he could pass on information from his experience to other young leaders, so that they could also be successful leaders. Showing need not just be to the future, it could also be showing the way to followers, and competitors, so that the followers can go down the same path that is chosen and the competitors (in the case of a company) can take a hit to their confidence as well. It is important for the organization to have a leader who is able to convince the employees that the way they are going and the work that they are doing is for the benefit of not just the organization, but of themselves as well (Raelin, 2016). This is why it is essential for the leader who is chosen to have a leadership style that is charismatic and transformational. According to the Learning Curves Theory by John M. Dutton and Annie Thomas, leaders in the organization who understand that their employees make errors, and these errors can be decreased by virtue of experience, and who are thus, willing to show other employees how to work from their own experience would make the best leaders (Jyoti and Dev, 2015). Steve Jobs was one such leader. In the earlier days of Apple, he would ensure that employees in Apple, many of whom did not have his experience, would be benefited from his experience (Covin and Slevin, 2017). He did this by working directly and talking to each, and every one of his employees and this would be of immense benefit to the employees, who might have made a mistake and would benefit from the experience that Jobs had to offer. 

Conclusion

I feel that a leader is capable of ensuring that the company can run without him. A successful leader makes sure that the employees in the organization, or the citizens of the country or society in which he is the leader are able to work the best that they can and that he can also benefit from the employees. A leader who is successful and wise will understand that he must be able to see the path that he has chosen and that it is a path that he is able to go on. He must then be able to share his experience with the many others in the organization, to ensure that his wisdom and knowledge are passed on as well. 

References

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