A good leader is essentially someone who is respected and supported by the people he or she leads because this person is smart enough to authentically know, trust, value, and encourage the flourishing of the skills that everyone brings to the group. Machiavellian leadership is based on the orientation towards power, the possession of which is associated with obtaining wealth and privileges. Moreover, Machiavelli defines stable leadership as a skillful combination of rewards and punishments. Although Machiavellian leadership is considered the most popular method for gaining power, the leader uses the ability to influence people and accomplish goals.
With Machiavellian leadership, the leader is expected to prioritize the organization’s well-being. Key characteristics define a successful Machiavellian leader, including being on guard for risks and unconcerned about fear, using rewards and punishments to shape behavior, and using power by deceptive means if necessary. Daft (2018) discusses the Evans family’s case to demonstrate the use of the Machiavellian method in a real-life situation. After learning the actions of her kids, she decided to use the technique to shape their behavior. For instance, she started to hand her children money so they would buy whatever they wanted without throwing tantrums. By doing this, Evans avoided gaining a reputation for being overly generous (Daft, 2018). Moreover, Evans put her children in an academic competition to motivate them to progress in school.
Moreover, with her daughter with Down syndrome, she used punishment to keep her from escaping the house. Even though it can seem like a strict and uncompromising approach to handling different behaviors of her children, the method showed positive results. For instance, children learned the value of money, their academic performance improved, and they started to follow the home rules.
A leader is someone who sees opportunities for improvement and inspires others to work toward that goal. Leaders may strive toward realizing their goal while prioritizing people. Machiavellian’s successful leaders are constantly on guard for risks, do not mind fears, use deception if necessary, and use rewards and punishment methods to shape their behavior. This approach is one of the most popular ones. However, it is used not only to gain power but to improve and influence others.
Reference
Daft, R., L. (2018). The leadership experience. Cengage Learning.