Introduction
Leadership is a very complex quality that can often be misconceived. Since it involves the influencing of people who could be also leaders or followers, its effectiveness is mostly accurately rated by the people who are led. This implies that it is difficult for the leader himself to gauge the quality of his/her leadership since such an opinion may be based on bias. Given the demanding conditions for an effective leader, it may be very difficult to find a leader who qualifies for the title of an effective leader.
Where Have All the Leaders Gone?
In the book, Where Have All the Leaders Gone?, the author, Lee Lacoca criticizes the effectiveness of contemporary leaders both in business and in politics and helps the reader to gain an insight into the practice of evaluating leadership and the qualities one should possess as a leader.
The title of the book is used to accentuate the fact that according to Lacoca, contemporary leadership has been diluted and it is extremely difficult to find a person qualifying to be a leader in the society today. Given the dire need for effective leadership in almost every realm of life, it is apparent that Lacoca proposes a revolution in leadership if the world is to benefit from business and political leadership.
Qualities of an effective leader
The success and power of organizations depends on the kind of leaders that they have. Leaders may either make an organization succeed or they may run the organization into losses depending on their effectiveness and the support they get. They must therefore be respected and given an adequate freedom to perform their duties. This statement gives an insight to one of the many qualities of a good leader which is the quality of being confidence and having a firm stand. Let us have a look at some of these qualities.
According to Lacoca, leaders must be curious listening to the people they lead curiously and reading extensively. This helps a leader to get different ideas and grow his/her base of decisive ideas. It also makes a leader to test his/her beliefs. This way, a leader can know if the things he/she believes in are wrong or right.
This evaluation is very important because it could draw the thin line between success and failure of an organization or government. That is, if a leader believes in wrong or unrealistic things and he/she is adamant to accept other people’s ideas or to evaluate his/her ideas, the will most probably be implemented in the organization that the leader represents and this could be very disastrous to the organizations (Lacoca, 2007, p. 33).
Creativity is central to effective leadership. The leader must be always willing to try different ideas as long as they make a good difference in the organization. Lacoca criticizes former United States President George Bush for acting out of instincts in handling the Baghdad issue. He says that President Bush was instinctively trusting that everything would be okay without knowing the facts and therefore, the issue went unsettled.
It is common knowledge that a leader must be able to communicate effectively. Leadership is all about influence and the greatest weapon of influence is convincing power which is achieved and perfected through communications. In negotiations, handling crises and giving complements, a leader must know what to say and the impression he/she is supposed to make on the recipient of the information.
A leader must also strive to be truthful. An exception to this requirement is only when the disclosure of the truth may negatively affect the organization. For instance, when confidential information about the company is demanded, the leader should know how to handle the situation (Lacoca, 2007, p. 17).
Another very important quality of a leader is character. A leader has to be always willing to know and do the right thing. Leaders should not misuse their power to drive baseless policies but they should act with reason, conscience and responsibility. Lacoca criticizes Former President George Bush of making a myriad of Iraqi citizens die innocently and making thousands of American soldiers lose their lives in the war in Iraq.
He argues that the reasons for the war are unclear and suspects that the war was largely based on personal grievances. An effective leader must, therefore, act for the good of the organization and forego his/her interests. Still under character, a good leader does not like being controlled.
If a good leader knows that something is good, he/she may listen to counsel but he/she implements what he/she thinks is for the best of the organization. This has been the reason for a number of resignations by leaders since if there is another dictatorial power behind the leader, the leader cannot function well and he/she eventually resigns or is fired (Lacoca, 2007, p. 41).
Finally, an effective leader must have charisma and be competent. He/she must be able to attract a respectable following with his/her ideas, policies and general conduct. Leaders must also know the world around them and be competent enough to do things knowledgeably.
A leader in a given industry must make sure that he/she knows virtually everything about the industry. The effect of ignorance can be illustrated by the recent BP oil spill that cost the company billions of U.S. dollars. The leaders of the company should have anticipated the same and put measures in place to avoid it. More importantly, the people close to the leaders must be knowledgeable and always willing to give viable ideas. If the people close to BP CEO could have been as knowledgeable as required, the disaster could have been avoided.
Conclusion
Leadership is one of the occupations that people should be extra careful before they get into. Poor leadership may translate to genocides, hunger, life threatening diseases, deaths due to poor medical care, poor education leading to high crime rates, poor economy etc. The list of the repercussions of poor leadership is essentially endless. It is therefore of essence that people are cautious before becoming leaders. Leaders, on the other hand, should do all they can to lead people and organizations well and perfect their weaknesses.
Reference List
Lacoca, L. (2007). Where Have All the Leaders Gone? Web.