Introduction
Most companies and organizations have succeeded in achieving their objectives through effective leadership. Leaders play a major role in instilling an organizational culture that ensures its missions are accomplished. Various books have noted leadership in different perspectives; the most common is its relation to skills and attitude, some consider manages to be driven mainly by skills, while others, attitude. Several managers have managed to inspire their companies to higher heights with improved efficiency and production hence maximizing profits, expansion, and company development; however, questions have been raised on the real drive-in managers. Besides, mythical views have also appeared to drive leadership debate (Sullivan & Decker, 1997, pp. 2-30). This paper will address the mythical view that leaders never fail.
Literature review
Failures have been used as lessons for leaders and obstacles help instigate behaviors of leaders. Myths have it that people live in success, and leaders should never fail. This is in respect to the notion in hospitals where it is easy for doctors to be sued for patients’ failure to recover. Leaders must undergo several years of development, and this helps in reducing their chances of failure. They are culturally known to excel in everything they do and are taken as examples to others in an organization or society, but this does not mean they cannot fail since failure is part of development (Sullivan & Decker, 1997, pp. 2-30).
Discussion
The myth that leaders never fail has been taken by most people in organizations, especially those at junior levels of the firms. I have always associated leaders with some special level of understanding given their positions and experiences. Even though they face shifting trends and an increasingly challenging environment, we expect them to make the best of the decision in every situation. Having witnessed most managers sacked for mistakes that directly affect the company’s operations, I developed the notion; leaders never fail. These sentiments have been shared by junior staff who expect their leaders to lead by example. In this respect, other staff members can be understood to fail in their duties, but not their leader (Sullivan & Decker, 1997, pp. 2-30).
Some leaders have also instilled this belief in people, especially political leaders who give promises and convince the electorates that they will never fail them. These have in most cases backfired as they fail to accomplish even the least expected of them. Incorporated world, like in health sectors, a doctor is expected to be successful, in every activity, without any chance for approximations. This myth has failed to live up to its expectations, with realities showing that people learn from mistakes, and obstacles may not necessarily be overcome as required and this has been witnessed in some companies adopting ineffective policies aimed at surging them forward, only to bring them down. For instance, some managers in the football world buy very expensive players expecting to get a return, but end up in big losses (Sullivan & Decker, 1997, pp. 2-30).
Conclusion
This myth is only applicable as a notion but never happens in reality, where different challenges in a constantly shifting world face managers. In some cases, they make the wrong decisions and incur heavy losses, which even cost them their jobs. After all, leadership has various aspects of execution, some are run by skills, others attitude and yet most, a combination of both. It is therefore quite wrong to believe this myth, as it does not work out in reality (Sullivan & Decker, 1997, pp. 2-30).
Reference
Sullivan, J. E., & Decker, J. P. (1997). Effective Leadership and management in Michigan: Addison-Wesley Nursing.