Biography
Warren Bennis is a renowned author and reputable professor of business administration at the University of South California, Los Angeles. He is the founder and chairman of the Leadership Institute at the same university. His counterpart, Robert J. Thomas is also an author and a senior fellow at the Accenture Institute of Strategic Change. The two have co-authored several books and articles and are working on a book, Crucibles for Leaders to be published soon (Bennis & Thomas, 2002).
Critique and summary
Crucibles of Leadership covers a wide range of topics surrounding organizational behavior and management. In addressing different situations, which face managers and other leaders, the authors acknowledge a myriad of viewpoints throughout their analysis. They emphasize the need for some of the elements and principles discussed in getting the best out others and in promoting leadership efficacy among leaders.
In Crucibles of Leadership, Bennis and Thomas acknowledge that many people are always overwhelmed by the question of how to become the best leader among others. While this is one of the lifelong unanswered questions, there are some people who seem to be naturally leaders and find themselves driving others without any form of struggling. This is mainly attributed to individuals’ ability to confront different situations in life in attempts to providing required solutions (Bennis & Thomas, 2002).
Although there could be numerous ways that have been recommended to deal with pressing situations in management, the ability to find substantive meaning in negatives overrides others. Is it possible to see a problem with positive eyes and suggest an amicable solution? Those who have such a capacity are better placed to be singled out as true leadership models among millions (McMahon, 2010).
In so doing, one is able to emerge as an extraordinary leader by gaining strength even after going through extreme adversity in which he/she would be expected to crumble and give up. Bennis and Thomas refer to diverse situations, which shape leaders around the world as “crucibles”. From many of the interviews and surveys carried out within firms and organizations, it had been established that extraordinary leader must have had experiences during their early years in management that shaped their lives.
These experiences, however, can take varying forms with others turning out to be violent, demoralizing or even life-threatening. Nevertheless, the question of how leaders confront these experiences is inevitable. From Bennis and Thomas’s survey, leaders are able to be challenged, face the challenge and emerge as victors.
How true is Bennis and Thomas’s analogy and assumption? In addressing and confronting management issues and problem, which arise, it is important to understand the impact of the problem together with its expected. Although it is a good idea and quality among leaders to be prepared for tough and challenging moments, the authors overlook cases where leaders are able to confront a problem for a short time because of underestimations.
What about preparedness? Even though leaders are expected to be alert and ready for management crises, this is usually not the case among other leaders because of lack of necessary information and training to allow them to have skills to handle management challenges (Gordon, 1961).
Besides exploring the experiences of successful leaders in handling challenges, Crucibles of Leadership addresses common characteristics of these leaders which make them outstanding and relentlessly pushing through to the top. Leaders who are able to “learn from difference” are considered extraordinary in dealing with management challenges, which may occur during their leadership tenure (Bennis & Thomas, 2002).
This enables individual leaders to be transformed for acquiring new identity, which augments management of traumatizing circumstances. What about cultural differences? There is no doubt that organizational culture varies from one place to another and manager may be forced to confront conflicting cultures in implementing their leadership roles and steering a company to desire levels (Mulhern, 2007).
Such situations allow leaders to adapt approaches that would not only promote the realization of goals but also maintain existing professional relationships. Leaders who thrive in new environments take time to study the new culture before considering specific ways of dealing with dilemmas, problems or any other crucible which may arise.
Issues of sexual discrimination can also be demeaning in leadership as some cultures may have a preference for one gender over another. Extraordinary leaders aim at striking a balance that would prove the ability of employees regardless of their gender differences, thus justifying the importance of considering equality within an organization.
Even if some leaders do not take cases of prejudice seriously, they have been found to be belittling and discouraging especially in cases where victims are unprepared to cope with them. Racial discrimination and abuse are also common in organizations, which have an interracial labor force (Huang, Hsu, & Chiau, 2011). In dealing with racists and sadists, leaders tend to concentrate on their dreams other than paying attention to people who may not see any single value in their efforts.
Critically, the author focuses on how different leaders overcome challenges and get renewed to acquire new identities to drive their leadership objectives. The findings are, however, skewed towards leaders lack consideration for non-leaders and other members of an organization who might not be aware of how to become good leaders and appreciate diversity. What is covered mainly looks at adaptive means of leaders.
Additionally, leaders have to overcome darkest moments in life, which take away the morale to lead and transform organizations’ performance to reputable levels in the market business. As described by Bennis and Thomas, leaders are not defined by the past but remain focused on the course of realizing their dreams.
Although the article covers a wide range of negative crucibles, there are positive challenges, which help leaders to develop their management skills. Leaders who meet good mentors, and performance-driven seniors end up developing reputable leadership skills. In general, leaders ought to have a distinctive and convincing voice, ability to engage others, sense of integrity and adaptive capability (McMahon, 2010).
Application
Crucible Leadership is indeed a worthy-reading material for leaders, managers and employees. It addresses fundamentals of life, career and leadership, which are core in any form of management.
The issues discussed and proposed models of leadership significantly address a wide scope of what happens in the current business market. At present, most organizations target people who are not only professional managers but also leaders who are able to analyze issues and propose a holistic mechanism that adopts a wider approach in designing a possible solution to the existing situations.
Issues of cultural differences are quite common because of the nature of business environment, which permits practices and procedures, which might not necessarily be conventional. As a result, having a cultural adaptive ability cannot be ignored in ensuring that managers and other leaders appreciate these diversities and are prepared to successfully confront them in maintaining the performance of an organization.
A good example is incorporating technology in organizational management. Although almost everybody around the world acknowledges the importance of technology in business, there are organizations and or leaders who are still stuck on manual and traditional management options (McMahon, 2010).
In dealing with such individuals, it is imperative to engage them and let them recognize the importance of adopting technology in business management. This would go miles further in allowing the person to get a clear and distinct comparison of the past and expected results in order to get to a higher level of economic performance.
In utilizing these leadership skills in the current environment, one would be expected to remain on the course of realizing set goals and objectives. For instance, a manager can remain focused to achieving a certain target regardless of existing economic challenges affecting the Euro Zone and diffusing to other parts of the world.
This would mean that leaders are not derailed and deterred from their target regardless of challenges, which could be encountered (Huang, Hsu, & Chiau, 2011). Leaders are able to overcome such crucibles, having gone through similar and worse situations before. By applying principles discussed by Bennis and Thomas, every member of an organization would be able to appreciate the fact that everybody has a leadership responsibility regardless of their ranking in the organization.
This is quite important in addressing issues of diverse organizational culture, which have been polarized by globalization and the exponential growth in technology in the recent past. Additionally, leaders are able to see themselves and organizations prosper in contrast to cases where leaders excel at the expense of the organization and vice versa. Above all, leaders have to remember that crucibles are experiences, which are supposed to shape and redefine their identity other than crushing their dreams (Bennis & Thomas, 2002).
References
Bennis, W., & Thomas, R. (2002). Crucibles of Leadership. Harvard Business Review, 559-567.
Gordon, R. (1961). Business leadership in the large corporation: with a new pref. California: University of California Press.
Huang, C., Hsu, P., & Chiau, W. (2011). Perceptions of the impact of chief executive Leadership style on organizational performance through successful enterprise. Social Behavior and Personality, 39(7), 865-878.
McMahon, J. T. (2010). Leadership classics. Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press.
Mulhern, D. (2007). Everyday leadership: getting results in business, politics, and life. Michigan: University of Michigan Press.