Introduction
Nowadays, it seems that in any sphere of our life we need a leader to take us from point A to B, no matter what the distance is. Many books are written about leadership. Some people even earned their wealth by “leading leadership seminars”. The majority of these seminars are held on managerial or business leadership, but what about political leadership? Are these types of leaders so different, or are they just the same? Is a country just a big organization and other countries are either suppliers or rivals? Should a good manager be a politician in his soul? I will try to answer all these questions by comparing two outstanding historical figures: Theodore Roosevelt and Henry Ford.
They lived approximately in the same era. Ford founded Ford Motor Company in 1903. And Roosevelt was already the president since 1901. The time variable is eliminated in this analysis. One cannot say that because of different economic or demographical trends the outcomes were also different. So, we will talk about two completely different people from the perspective of leadership.
According to John Maxwell, there are 21 irrefutable laws of leadership, which serve as basis for any successful entity. It’s really worth taking a look at them. Names and explanations can be found in Table 1.
Table 1. “21 laws”. (Adopted from the book “21 Irrefutable laws of leadership” John C. Maxwell).
Law of Short Explanation
- Lid
- Leadership ability determines a person’s level of effectiveness
- Influence
- The true measure of leadership is influence nothing more, nothing less
- Process
- Leadership develops daily, not in a day
- Navigation
- Anyone can steer the ship, but it takes a leader to chart the course
- E.F. Hutton
- When the real leader speaks, people listen
- Solid Ground
- Trust is the foundation of leadership
- Respect
- People naturally follow leaders stronger than themselves
- Intuition
- Leaders evaluate everything with the leadership bias
- Magnetism
- Who you are is who you attract
- Connection
- Leaders touch a heart before they ask for a hand
- Inner circle
- A leader’s potential is determined by those closest to him
- Empowerment
- Only secure leaders give power to others
- Reproduction
- It takes a leader to raise up a leader
- Buy-In
- People buy into the leader, then the vision
- Victory
- Leaders find a way for the team to win
- Big Mo
- Momentum is the leader’s best friend
- Priorities
- Leaders understand that activity is not necessarily an accomplishment
- Sacrifice
- A leader must give up to go up
- Timing
- When to lead is as important as what to do and where to go
- Explosive Growth
- To multiply, lead leaders
- Legacy
- A leader’s lasting value is measured by succession
These laws can serve as points of comparison for any leader. John C. Maxwell explicitly makes references to characters of my paperwork – Roosevelt and Ford. Unlike Roosevelt who is an ideal example of the leader, according to the author, Ford is blamed for plenty of managerial and leadership mistakes. Whether it’s true or not, I will try to infer from their biographies and achievements.
In the conclusion of the introductory part, I want to cite one more classic book of The Harvard Business Review Series “Becoming a High Performance Manager”. In the chapter “Leaders and leadership. Opinion of experts”, Lionel Tiger says that the first challenge of any leader is to feel the inevitability of tomorrow, meaning that one should be aware that cannot lead forever and therefore, the delegation of authority should be a part of the leadership process today. Then a leader should be capable of identifying opportunities and threats in a prompt manner. And then he/she should acquire followers.
All the above can be applied both to Roosevelt and to Ford. Being on the crossroad between centuries, they took the paths that affected lives of millions of people all around the globe. But that doesn’t mean that they were effective leaders. So, let’s have a look.
Henry Ford
Henry Ford is a perfect example of business leadership existent out of American Industrial revolution that laid down various platforms for modern economic and industrial developments. Irrespective of any advantageous position or financial condition, the great American dream of becoming a world leader is something that comes out of the depiction of Henry Ford’s biography. Mr. Ford transformed the world’s approach towards manufacturing concepts through innovative approaches and clever understanding of human ability and strength. He had been the symbol of an organization and its technical prowess in automobile sector.
Looking into some personal details and Ford’s initial career days; born in the year 1863, Henry Ford was eldest to his six others brothers and sisters in a Michigan farmer’s family, an immigrant from Ireland. His passion for mechanics and machines ranging from a small watch to automobiles took him away from the family business of farming and later found himself as an expert of repair and tooling.
In his book “My Life and Work”, Henry Ford has himself provided details of his love towards machines and reassembling of watches and timepieces. In 1879, after the death of his mother, Ford left home and headed for Detroit, Michigan where he started his professional life as an apprentice machinist. In the year 1882, he returned to Dearborn and began working on the family farm and became adept at operating the Westinghouse portable steam engine. Later on he was hired by Westinghouse Company to service their steam engines. But Ford’s affiliation with gasoline engines began after he joined Edison Illuminating Company. He was promoted to Chief Engineer in 1893 and from here he provided full dedication to many of his personal experiments on gasoline engines. Those experiments paved the way for Model T, an engine for the racing cars. Ford’s various experiments resulted into reliable and reasonably priced and efficient automobiles. The automobile sector had arrived into the world economy as a reliable industry with easy to operate, handle and manageable products.
Moving on to the Automobiles and Ford’s contribution to this field; automobile sector in this 21st century got its root of development in the beginning of 20th century itself with inspirational brilliance of Henry Ford. He as a business leader introduced this world the concept of automobile assembly line. His unorthodox approach might have described his personality as well as controversy over working style, but the real result is nothing less than the towering success of Ford Motor Company and its emergence as the most successful corporation in the world. The approach of Henry Ford was very much in accordance with the growing economy with stock market boom and the final outcome was the high morale with extensive creation of job opportunities. The industrial revolution provided a very new direction over the platform of scientific management. The various innovations in ways of administration might have brought a suspicious characteristic into Ford’s personality as a businessman, but the same thing was the root of many administrative adventures in manufacturing sector as well as company–customer relationship. Often been accused of taking advantage of his faithful customers, it had been Ford brilliance that resulted the ultimate success of his company as well as manufacturing policies. One of the most controversial was the $5/day plan. The short-lived success if this policy might be a way to represent company significant gain over industries, but the reputation it achieved in mid-twenties begun to decline.
The scientific management-based approach for Human resources later transformed its workers more like machines. The approach which was based on work faster and harder for boosting production and cumulative wage led to the differences on the ground of age and strength with logical ability getting sidelined. It was the production and continuous work that was given priority by Ford while all other activities were given a bye.
Henry Ford created a still in the whole Automobile industry with his announcement of the incredible $5 dollar/day plan. This January 5, 1914 announcement changed the whole perception about Ford Motors among Union Leaders and other Automobile manufacturers. It was more of a shock than news. This provision was implemented immediately in all plants of Ford Motors. This surprise was implemented along with the provision of performance-based pay and profit-sharing with efficient male employees. All this news made Ford’s management practices an instant hit among employees with large number of workers flooded Detroit with a hope of becoming a part of Ford Motors. Ford had now become a god of automobile industry with its extraordinary products and at the same time with happiest workers in the industry.
But $5/day plan in the Ford Motors was not just for better production; it was aimed at providing access to workers’ life. The Company under the banner of “Corporate Welfare Program” was getting greater control of his workers. The Ford was now taking decisions as a benevolent dictator with Ford as a nation with its employees as its citizens. He was seen as the man who believes in cumulative progress i.e., progress of both company and employees.
The Company had a Sociology Department that had got authority to employees’ private lives. Their lifestyle was getting defined and the employees were made to act as per algorithmic approach so that their contribution to the company could be the highest and their income and share in the profit also on a higher growth chart. The final result was the emergence of a tight-knit community with
As controversies and Ford had a very close relationship; hiring of Criminals was among the ones debated the most. Ford’s senior authorities called this action as his sympathetic approach towards the rehabilitation of the people who have lost their path for better life and opportunity. This issue was debated throughout United States with Henry Ford and Ford Motors getting unprecedented media coverage. Innumerable news articles were published and at the same time the company received high respect among its new employees. This as a whole gives a very clear picture of Ford’s excellence in handling issues of every type.
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt was not even 43 when he became the youngest President in the US history. He had new vision for the nation along with the leadership style and led the Congress and the American public toward progressive reforms and a strong foreign policy. He believed that the President was a “steward of the people” and made everything necessary for the public good. In addition to holding elective office as a New York State Assemblyman, Governor of New York, Vice President, and President, he was also a deputy sheriff in the Dakota Territory, Police Commissioner of New York City, U.S. Civil Service Commissioner, Assistant Secretary of the Navy, and Colonel of the Rough Riders, all by the age of 42, at which time he became the youngest man ever to hold the office of President. He was one of the original members of the American Institute of Arts and Letters, and he was one of the first fifteen elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He was a founder of the Boone and Crocket Club, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the Long Island Bird Club.
As a president, Theodore Roosevelt was not only impressive but he was extraordinary. He was a strong believer of internationalization of US policies and ending of tradition of isolation politics in case of foreign affairs. On domestic front, he made dramatic changes through reversing the traditional federal policies so that the whole nation could be brought under proper order in terms of social justice and introduction of fair trade practices in American industry and commerce. As a Chief Executive, Roosevelt expanded the power as well as responsibilities of the Presidential office and introduced a model for practices for modern Presidency in the White House.
The Presidency under Roosevelt was completely a different affair. He was the youngest to become the most powerful person of United States which was raring to be a very strong nation. He brought a new sense of pride and excitement to Americanism. As a result, the Congress was led towards very progressive and public-centric reforms with ample significance given to foreign policy.
Conclusion
Organize a big company, make an invention that will shake the world and you will find yourself riding high? The biography of Henry Ford shows that it’s not quite the case. To be successful in business, one has also to be the leader and able to respond to changing environmental threats. Ford is definitely an example of negligence of the Empowerment Law (Table 1). John Maxwell states he revealed the exact antithesis of a leader. He was a very eccentric man, who was unable to conduct proper relations within his own company, even with his son, Edsel. What he wanted people to be is a screw in his mechanism. That obviously didn’t work. TO a certain degree he experienced lack of self-confidence and that’s the main reason he was unable to delegate authority. The pinnacle of it was the establishment of the Social department, which was spying on employees
To become a president and to be The President one has really to possess leadership characteristics. Roosevelt is considered the most effective leader since Lincoln. He led the nation through the war and made it really prosperous throughout generations. The Nobel Prize was just a small sign of his leadership potential. His achievements are obvious if you notice the Panama Canal on the world map. Unlike Ford, he wasn’t afraid to delegate authority. Maxwell points out that he neither became the leader at once, nor was born to lead. On the contrary, it was the process of the development which underwent. He was perfecting himself all the time, fighting all his way long. Not just several hundreds of employees were under his responsibility; his company’s name was the US.
Just by these two examples we can generalize, finding of differences in political and business leadership. First, neither political nor business leaders have to be born as such. This is the process of continuous development. And sometimes even in-born leaders fail because of lack of followers (Inner Circle law). The second point to summarize is the fact that to become a successful politician, one has first to prove his/her leadership abilities. And a manager can get to the pinnacle of his/ her career because of other non-leadership-related abilities (e.g., an invention in case of Ford). Third, a political leader may lack managerial requirements for understanding where to go; especially, in economic matters. The following table summarizes all the conclusions:
Table 2. Results.
Works cited
Ford, Henry. My Life and Work. , Online edition by Project Gutenberg. 2008. Web.
Henry Ford: Inventor at a Glance. Idea Finder., 1996. Web.
The Henry Ford: The Life of Henry Ford; American Association of Museums, 2003. Web.
Henry Ford Biography, Net Industries, 2007. Web.
Maxwell, John. The 21 Irrefutable laws of Leadership. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2007.
Miller Center Public Affairs. Theodore Roosevelt. University of Virginia, Web.
Roosevelt, Theodore. An Autobiography. NEW YORK: MACMILLAN, 1913.
NEW YORK: BARTLEBY.COM, 1999.