Is strong leadership good?
Leadership is a term that gets tossed around promiscuously almost every time a politician, business magnate or football manager speaks on what is required to get results. So what is leadership? Leadership is the art of motivating a group of people to act towards achieving a common goal. Strong leadership is when you are able to motivate this group of people well and be able to achieve the goal. Is strong leadership good? May look simple and obvious now, but strong leadership is not always a good thing.
There are strong leaders all around the world, from the United States’ President Obama and Martin Luther King to Burma’s dictator General Than Shwe, England’s Margaret Thatcher to Cuba’s Fidel Castro. All these are examples of strong leaders but this does not necessarily make them ‘good’. Put aside politicians and there are more examples of strong leaders, in sports there are top managers such as Sir Alex Ferguson (Manager of Manchester United) and even a gang leader can be considered as strong leader (but with a bad character).
There are leaders in almost all aspects of life.
In this essay I am going to try to show you that strong leadership is good, but it can also be used for less then good reasons.
The Term Paper on A Good Manager Will Always Be A Good Leader
In this essay I will demonstrate how a good manager _can_ often be a good leader, but why I also believe that explicit differences in characteristics; attitudes and methods prove them to be unique. I will do this by firstly, defining what I feel a good manager is, and what I feel a good leader is. In doing this, I will compare and contrast the two concepts in order to finally draw conclusive ...
Martin Luther King, Jr. was an American pastor, activist and a leader in the American – African civil rights movement. His main aim was to ensure improvements on civil rights in America. He is famous for his ‘I have a Dream’ speech in 1963 and became the youngest person to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for his work to end racial segregation and racial discrimination through civil disobedience and other non-violent means. In a time where racism was everywhere and the norm, it required a person with a tremendous amount of courage to come up and try to put an end to it all, especially with the threat of death from white supremacists all around the country, Martin Luther King, Jr. may have been assassinated 1968 but he has still been receiving posthumously awards, such as the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977 and a Congressional Gold Medal in 2004. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day was even established as a U.S. national holiday in 1986. This shows that Martin had such a strong following and belief from all his supporters and followers till this day. The world has changed with his help, this is evident with the racial harmony that can be seen in many communities today between the African – Americans and the whites. Martin Luther King, Jr. illustrates what we would call a good strong leader but unfortunately not everyone is like him.
General Than Shwe is the head of state of Myanmar. He also holds several positions that amounts Than Shwe to be ‘head’ of Myanmar’s ruing military junta. Myanmar is governed by the military junta, which controls most of the countries ministry and cabinet posts. Since Burma has been under military control for the past 40 years, it has made it one of the poorest nations in the world. Along with the dictatorship, corruption has also rooted itself everywhere. In 2007, General Than Shwe’s second daughter was reported to have sold Burmese land to Chinese businessmen. This included about a $200 million bribe. A quote from a senior official from the Ministry of Trade, “who do they think they are? (Than shew family) to do whatever they want with the properties that belongs to the state not to them”. General Than Shwe is obviously a strong leader who is able to stay in command for such a long period and time and able to suppress opposition parties in Burma, but he is using the country for his own personal gains.
The Essay on Dr Martin Luthor King Jr
In order to understand the profound meaning to Martin Luther King Day, we must first understand what it is, who he was, and above all else, what he stood for. This will be difficult to accomplish eloquently in one page, but I will try my best. Martin Luther King Day is a time when we are supposed to remember the sacrifices made by great American icons in pursuit of equal civil rights; some of ...
Gangs in general are considered to be a negative impact on society, but if you think about it, to become a leader of a well established gang, you would probably have to be a very strong leader. You have to be able to control and order around men who are usually very unruly. Take John Gotti Jr. for example, he was the boss of the Gambino crime family in New York City. Tremendous planning, vision and control were required of Gotti to take charge of such a risky business that was always under the watchful eye of the FBI. In the end of the day, he was the boss of the mafia and all his men listened to him. Studies done by Jankowski, M. (1991).
Islands in the streets, on 37 gangs showed that there were three types of structures. Firstly, vertical/hierarchical structure, which divides leadership hierarchically into different levels, and where power and authority are related to one’s position in the chain of command. Secondly, horizontal/commission structure, which consists of several officeholders all at about the same rank with relatively equal authority over other members, the leaders sharing duties as well as power and authority. Finally, influential structure, which assigns no written duties or titles to any leadership position in the organization, but instead usually has from two to four members who are recognized informally as leaders because of their charisma. Obviously John Gotti was on top of the packing order and his strong leadership and will got him there.
CEO’s of companies is another example of strong leaders. There are many good CEOs across the planet that deserve their astronomical salaries, but there are some who do not as well. For example, Enron’s former CEO Kenneth Lay. Kenneth Lay was one of America’s highest paid CEOs and was even on the shortlist for President Bush’s Treasury Secretary. Unfortunately Kenneth was found guilty for 10 counts of security fraud and related charges. This caused Enron to go bankrupt. Enron’s bankruptcy during 1991 was the largest in U.S. history when filed, which caused 20000 employees their jobs and many of them their life savings. Furthermore, investors lost billions. So now we ask ourselves, how did we let one man do all this? We invest a lot of faith, and give a lot of power, to business leaders. This gives the colossal and incontestable decision-making power to the CEOs and when they make a choice there is the potential to make or break lives, industries, nations and even the world economy.
The Essay on Individual Leadership and Power Paper
• Review the Leader Motives in Ch. 5 of Leadership: Enhancing the Lessons of Experience. How would you characterize Ho Ching’s motives? • Review Highlight 5.3 in Leadership: Enhancing the Lessons of Experience. What role, if any, do managerial differences based on gender play here? Format your paper consistent with APA guidelines We have described power as the capacity to cause change and ...
To answer the question whether strong leadership is good? Yes strong leadership is vital in a country but only if it is in the hands of the right persons.
What does this show? Strong leaders are instrumental in almost everything. We have already talked about leaders of countries and leader of the mafia, and strong leadership is what they have in common.
Parents as a form of leadership???
