Leadership Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words - 1

Leadership - Essay Example Many researchers have been struggling to define and explain the leadership traits, theories, challenges and related affairs. The importance that has been given to this area of research is the importance of leadership on employees, performance and overall success of the organizations. There have been a lot of facts and myths associated with the concept of leadership. In the past, leadership was linked by people with the superhuman characteristics bestowed by God to various leaders. This idea was further developed by Weber and named as Charisma by him. The leadership charisma involved the qualities and special characteristics that leaders posses. The leaders having leadership charisma are Charismatics. The concept of Charisma actually directs towards the special power and influence of Charismatics over the followers (Rickards & Clark, p79). In addition to the concept of charisma in leadership, it has been a point of debate if leadership skills are inborn or they can be taught. Researchers have been struggling to find an appropriate answer to this. However, it is not unjust to say that the answer to this question contains an equal portion of both statements. The answer to this question has been given attention for the reason that it may help organizations have effective leaders. Brainpower is the only thing that requires being in a person naturally. Knowledge can be gained, skills can be learnt but intelligence cannot be generated. A person needs to be intelligent and sharp in order to gain knowledge and utilize it. Leadership requires certain traits in a person. These traits include strength of mind, interest to resolve issues, ready to face challenges, power to proceed with plans, will to succeed, determination and passion (Levicki, 2008). Leadership qualities, theories and concepts are valuable and useful when it comes to practical life. The leadership skills are not limited to benefit in businesses but

Organization Behavior Essay Example for Free

Organization Behavior Essay âž ¢ Anne Mulcahy at the age of 23 she was the director of human resources, head of the Xerox âž ¢ She spent her first 16 years companys fledging desktop computer business, and chief in sales, then eight years in an assortment of management of staff to Xeroxs CEO. âž ¢ She never aspired to run Xerox nor she was groomed to be CEO. In 2001 she became the CEO of Xerox. âž ¢ She accepted the position when the company was in horrible financial shape. It had $17.1 billion in debt and only $154 million in cash. It was about to begin seven straight quarters of losses. âž ¢ Mulcahy felt a deep loyalty to the company. She felt an obligation to do everything in her power to save Xerox. Duty and loyalty compelled her to take a job that nobody else really wanted, despite the fact that she had zero preparation. âž ¢ She didnt know financial analysis. She had no MBA and her undergraduate degree was in English/journalism. So she asked the companys director of corporate finance to give her a cram course in Balance Sheet 101. He helped her to understand debt structure, inventory trends, and the impact of taxes and currency rates. âž ¢ This allowed her to see what would generate cash and how each of her decisions would affect the balance sheet. Mulcahy says now that her lack of training had its advantages. She had no preconceived notions, no time to develop bad habits. âž ¢ She appealed to employees with missionary zeal, in videos and in person to save each dollar as if it were your own. In 2002, for instance, she gave all employees their birthdays an off. The gentle pressure was vintage Mulcahy: Work hard, measure the results, tell the truth, and be brutally honest. âž ¢ After less than two years as CEO, Mulcahy has made startling progress in turning Xerox around. Employees appreciated her truthful and straightforward style. They also liked the fact that she was willing to work shoulder to shoulder with subordinates âž ¢ She was working hard, people felt obligated to work harder too. But Mulcahy is no softy. Shes smart, energetic, tough but passionate. âž ¢ She showed the ability to make hard decisions. For instance, she slashed costs in part by cutting Xeroxs workforce by 30 percent and she shut down desktop division. She oversaw the streamlining of production, new investment in research and development, and restructured the sales force so vague lines of authority became clear. She met with bankers and customers. âž ¢ In 2003, Xerox had had four straight quarters of operating profits. The companys stock was up to $11 a share. And while Xeroxs future was still far from secure, at least it was beginning to look like the company would have future. 1. How did Anne Mulcahy create trust with employees after becoming CEO? âž ¢ We see that Anne Mulcahy is the ultimate loyal employee in Xerox. She represented herself as a Savior who would deliver them from the storm though she didn’t have any vision nor she was trained but she was determined in doing her task. Duty and loyalty compelled her to take a job that nobody else really wanted. âž ¢ Though she didn’t have any knowledge in financial aspects she learned in the short span of time and took initiative to cut costs by using strategies like reducing the work force, which was a smart move of cutting cost, and she restructured sales force, etc. âž ¢ She appealed to employees with missionary zeal, in videos and in person to save each dollar as if it were your own† âž ¢ She believed in these words that it is an era to work hard, measure the results, tell the truth, and be brutally honest. âž ¢ That is how employees, appreciated her truthful and straightforward style. They also liked the fact that she was willing to work shoulder to shoulder with subordinates 2.Did Mulcahy have a vision for Xerox? Explain. Anne Mulcahy had no vision or any aspiration to run Xerox. We can see this as initially when the Xeroxs board chose her as CEO of Xerox. She was neither groomed nor aspired for this position. But she accepted the position with a mixed feeling. She took the position when the company was dooming. She had a deep loyalty to the company and she realized her responsibility to save Xerox although she was not prepared. But she had a determination to save Xerox. 3. What qualities do you think helped Mulcahy to affect the turnaround at Xerox? âž ¢ Charismatic quality: She has an inborn quality to stand in any kind of situation that is a special quality of determination to serve her company. âž ¢ She also had inner qualities like self-confidence, Problem-solving ability. When she took the position of CEO the company was in horrible financial shape. A leader needs lots of self-confidence in such situation, which Anne Mulcahy had. âž ¢ She stood to save her company and sole the crisis. Mulcahy wasnt groomed for the CEO position is a true understatement. For instance, she didnt know financial analysis. She had no MBA and her undergraduate degree was in English/journalism. So she asked the companys director of corporate finance to give her a cram course in Balance Sheet 101. He helped her to understand debt structure, inventory trends, and the impact of taxes and currency rates. This allowed her to see what would generate cash and how each of her decisions would affect the balance sheet. Mulcahy says now that her lack of training had its advantages. She had no preconceived notions, no time to develop bad habits. âž ¢ Passionate: She was passionate in doing her work and also influenced others to follow her and she believed that employees should â€Å"Work hard, measure the results, tell the truth, and be brutally honest.† âž ¢ She also had other qualities like smartness, energetic, tough but passionate 4.What does this case say about leadership experience? Through this case we can see that Anne Mulcahy is a successful leader. Why a leader? Because she was a shepherd to her company leading her sheep’s. And Anne Mulcahy is said to be a leader as she lead her people to follow her. A Leader is an individual person who initiates and implements that is what Anne Mulcahy did. She can be called a Transformational leader as she implemented changes. For instance she slashed costs in part by cutting Xeroxs workforce by 30 percent and she shut down desktop division. She oversaw the streamlining of production, new investment in research and development, an restructured the sales force so vague lines of authority became clear. She met with bankers and customers. Most importantly, she traveled. She galvanized the troops visiting Xerox offices—sometimes hitting three cities a day—and inspiring employees. This is what matters as a leader to influence people to follow them. And she led her company from â€Å"rags to riches†

Defining Good Advice :: Definition Essays

Defining Good Advice The first thing I know about good advice is that it can come from anyone. I found this out by looking at the narrative stories that we had to write in the beginning of this assignment. For example, J.Lutts got his advice from a friend, while Chris Lefstad got his advice from his uncle, and Nate Hilson and Nate Hall both got their advice from their parents. Although, Robyn Isaacs says, â€Å"Usually it (advice) is given to me by someone I know and trust on a personal level.† I don’t totally agree with this. I think that good advice can come from people we don’t know. For instance, take the three text book examples of giving advice on using contractions. I don’t personally know any of the people that are giving me this advice. The part that I do agree with Robyn is that you do need to trust the person on a personal level. I trust that the authors of these text books know what they are talking about when they give me advice on using contractions. I wouldnâ₠¬â„¢t take advice from a five-year old on when to use contractions, and when not to use contractions. The next thing that good advice depends on is how it is said. Sometimes when I get good advice, it needs to be expressed in an urgent way. Someone can yell at me to get out of the way when I am walking right into traffic. It is good advice and it needed to be hollered at me, otherwise I wouldn’t have paid attention to it, and I wouldn’t know how important this advice is to me. But other times, good advice needs to be said on the same level as I am on. I wouldn’t want my dad to yell at me when he was giving me advice on switching schools. I wouldn’t listen to him. He has to talk to me on the same level. I wouldn’t ask someone for advice if I didn’t think that they would give it thought, and suggest to me in an appropriate way, what their opinion on the subject is. That leads to another characteristic of good advice. When I seek good advice, I am going to go to someone that knows something about what I am going to ask. Chris Lefstad asked his uncle for advice on choosing a specific career in computers because his uncle went through the same thing.

Island :: essays research papers

I came to the conclusion that Langston was writing about te struggle to freedom for blacs. Lanston Hughes wrote about racism often in his poems, and this particular poem seems to follow that pattern. Hughes gives the feeling of loneliness and dismay at the fact that he is not considered equal to white people. The poem represents the struggle for freedom and to be considered equal. The speaker conveys a feeling of sadness and loneliness in the tone of their voice, as stated in the opening sentence of the poem. "Wave of sorrow", expresses the sadness, by the speaker who I interpret to be a black person caught up in the struggle to have equal right. Hughes uses language that is used in everday life. There are no obsolete of slang words incorporated in the course of the poem. The author uses static imagery, painting a picture of an island standing alone by itself off in the distance. I see a sunny, smoothe sandy island surrounded by cal waters and a warm atmosphere. Langston Hughes uses four stanzas which are all couplets written in closed form. The rhyme scheme is an end rhyme with the pattern ab cb cd ad. This is a unique poem structure with the first line reapeating itself again in line seven, and the third line repeating itself again in line five. This is a lyric poem, meditation, which in this case th physical object is the island. The rhythm is set to be short quck verses with pauses to lead into each couplet. The word choice of the poem is use to keep the poem's structure short and compact. The word order is slightly different from normal use. The unconventional syntax is used to create a rhyme scheme. I decided to do this poem because of the versatility of the meaning. The way Hughes writes "Island" it leaves the reader to develop their own opinions of the author's meaning. This poem can be interpreted in many different ways, for instance: I also thought that this poem could mean a person is close to reaching their goal and by saying "Wave of sorrow, Take me there", I interpreted that as meaning they needed some sort of motivation to point

What is Euthanasia?

Euthanasia is one of the most highly discussed topic in society today. It is not morally correct it has to do with killing someone and ruins the intrinsic value of a human being. That is my argument towards euthanasia. Euthanasia goes against nature. Those that oppose say that it is mercy killing, but it is still killing. I am with the majority who are against this so-called mercy killing. Before presenting my arguments, it would be best to define the term â€Å"euthanasia†. Euthanasia can be defined in many ways. Here are categories that fall in with the term euthanasia. â€Å"The term involuntary euthanasia is where the decision is not made by the person who is to die; the patient's life is ended without the knowledge and consent. It is basically a form of murder. Passive euthanasia is to speed up the process of death to a person and stopping some type of support to let that take its course.' (academic, coup) Like: stopping a form of medical procedure, stopping nutrients of food and water and allowing the person to dehydrate or starve to death, with that not delivering CPR. â€Å"The term active euthanasia involves causing the death of a person through a direct action, in response from that person.† (ACADEMIC.COUP) A well-known example of that is the case of Dr. Kevorkian. He gave a lethal dose of medicine to kill a terminally ill patient. Dr. Jack Kevorkian was a retired pathologist who assisted in the deaths of over 130 people. The famous court case of Dr. Jack Kevorkian brought awareness to the controversial issue of euthanasia to the public. â€Å"In Michigan, Dr. Jack Kevorkian was convicted of the second-degree murder because he administered a controlled substance to end the life of Thomas Youk and had prepared a video showing his action and let the video be broadcast on national television (NY Times). A different yet similar situation and legal case would come about Saskatchewan, Canada when a wheat farmer named Robert Latimer would take the question of euthanasia into his own hands. â€Å"Robert Latimer murdered his young daughter, Tracy, on October 24th, 2008. Behind the reasoning of Latimer's act which was immoral is that he couldn't help to see his daughter suffering from a severe form of cerebral palsy and her disability. He killed her by placing Tracy in the back of his car and ran a hose from the exhaust to the cab, while he watched her die. Latimer was then convicted on November 4,1993 of first-degree murder. The year after he was convicted of second-degree murder.† (Inclusion Daily). So the question is: what's the difference between his actions of killing his Tracy who suffers from serious pain, and a doctor who received given permission to kill an individual who is also suffering from pain? Eventually Dr. Jack Kevorkian, and Robert Latimer, were both charged with murder because they chose to practice euthanasia. If murder is prohibited by law because people take murder into their own hands to kill others, then why shouldn't euthanasia be too since doctors kill their patients even if there is consent. A doctor must receive authorization to assist in the death of a patient who is overly sick. Because of this many have questioned why doesn't Robert Latimer have the right to take his own daughters life, since a doctor would have had to ask him anyways to have the right to kill Tracy? Latimer apparently saved his daughter from suffering, which is the same reason many people.

Divine Horsemen essays

Divine Horsemen essays After viewing Maya Derens film Divine Horsemen: The Living Gods of Haiti, it is clear that Deren is depicting the beauty and power of the Haitian Voodoo ceremonies. We are able to experience this through narration explaining the different ceremonies, her focus on music of the ceremony, dance and her cinematography techniques giving you a better understanding of this practice. Any false perceptions that we have had about this mysterious religion in this traditional society she clearly clarifies. In American culture there are many false perceptions on the sociality of religion in other societies, the mere word conjures images of doll stuck with pins, evil zombies. This film completely shows that this way of life is exaggerated in Hollywood films. An example of a fiction film is The Serpent and the Rainbow. An anthropologist in the film goes to Haiti in search of a magic powder that will heal and make the dead walk. In his search he witnesses strange and bizarre incidents such as walking zombies, curses, live burial. Deren shows us the positive motivation behind the several ceremonies and the narration definitely helps understand that ceremonies are a way of communicating with the divine through several spirits or what they call Loa. In the film she shows a ceremony where a man dressed in white that is dancing to the drums being played by another man is surrounded by other persons who are singing. He then starts to gyrate as if he was having an epileptic seizure, swinging his hands and the camera continues to do a close-up on him to the point where you see how his eyes looked, as if something had hypnotized him or he was being controlled by a spirit. This was the ceremony for the Loa Legba. The narration explains that Legba is the god of the crossroads and is very important to the Haitians as he is given the ultimate respect that is displayed when the people all move back and give him space so that he can bring...

9 Myths About Learning Italian

9 Myths About Learning Italian Its easy to listen to popular opinions about how difficult it is to learn a language.   But just like any other self-improvement activity or skill (dieting, working out, and sticking to a budget come to mind), you can convince yourself with a multitude of excuses why you cant pronounce Italian words or conjugate Italian verbs  or you can use that time and energy to learn la bella lingua. To help you get over that as quickly as possible, here are ten of the most common myths about learning Italian. Italian is More Difficult to Learn Than English Reality:  Research shows that Italian is  easier to learn English. Beyond the scientific reasons, though, as a child, no one knows any better when learning to speak their native tongue. One way around the frustration when learning Italian is to remember that everyone was a beginner at one time. Children laugh and enjoy speaking and singing nonsense words for the sheer joy of hearing themselves. As the Italian proverb says, Sbagliando simpara - by making mistakes one learns.   I Wont Be Able to Roll My Rs Reality: The fact is, some Italians cannot roll their Rs either. Its called la erre moscia (soft r), its oftentimes a result of a regional accent or dialect and also traditionally associated with upper-class speech. Italians from the north of Italy, especially in the northwest region of Piedmont (close to the French border), are famous for this speech variation - which shouldnt be a surprise, given the influence of the French language on the local dialect. In fact, the linguistic phenomenon is also called la erre alla francese. For those who do want to learn to roll their Rs, try placing your tongue against the roof of your mouth (near the front) and trill your tongue. If all else fails, pretend youre revving up a motorcycle or repeat the following English terms a few times: ladder, pot o tea, or butter There Arent Any Schools Near My Home Reality: Who needs a school? You can study Italian online, listen to a podcast,  listen to Italian audio, or find an Italian pen pal to practice writing. In short, the Internet is a multimedia platform where you can utilize all the elements necessary to learn Italian. Ill Never Use Italian Reality: No matter your motivation for learning Italian, new opportunities can present themselves in ways you cannot imagine initially. Youll make friends when you visit, find a TV show you love, or perhaps, even fall in love yourself. Who knows? Im Too Old to Learn Italian Reality:  People of all ages can learn Italian. To a certain extent, its a question of determination and dedication. So stop procrastinating and start practicing! No One I Know Speaks Italian, So Theres No Opportunity to Practice Reality:  Contact the Italian department at your local college or an Italian American organization since they frequently sponsor wine tastings or other events where participants can meet and mingle to practice Italian. Or join your local Italian Language Meetup group. Organized by Meetup.com, the Italian Language Meetup is a free gathering at a local venue for anyone interested in learning, practicing, or teaching Italian. Native Italians Wont Understand Me Reality:  If you make an effort, chances are theyll parse out what youre saying. Try  Italian hand gestures, too. And if you strike up a conversation, youll be practicing Italian. An important part of learning to speak Italian is building your self-confidence - so the more you try to express yourself, the quicker youll learn the language.   Im Only Visiting Italy for a Short Time, So Why Bother? Reality:  Why bother, indeed? Travelers to Italy will want to learn Italian survival phrases to help them with both the practical (you do want to know where the bathroom is, dont you?) as well as the mundane (i.e.,  how to decipher an Italian menu).   I Have to Use a Textbook to Study Italian, and I  Dont Like Them Reality:  There are  many effective ways to study Italian. Whether its reading an Italian textbook, completing workbook exercises, listening to a tape or CD, or conversing with a native Italian speaker, any method is appropriate.