Leadership - The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. Part 1

Are leaders born or made?

Let us consider a situation.

The CEO of a company is about to retire, tension is now growing as to who will be the next leader of this company? Will it be the reliable assistant who all ways gets his work done on time, is charismatic and everyone loves him? Or will it be the CEO’s son or relative, who doesn’t really have the best communication or leadership skills, may not have as much experience as the assistant and not everyone likes this relative too much for various reasons.

This may depend on the type of ownership, or decision-making process the company takes. But would it be a good thing or a bad thing if either gets the job? What are the pros and cons and what are the considerations a successful company should take into consideration?

Some people might like to argue, give the job to the assistant since he has more experience and everyone already likes him. But what happens if this is a family owned business? Or can the assistant handle this type of position, whereas, if the relative gets the job, people will perceive it to be protectionism. On the other hand, if the relative gets the position and empowers the assistant to continue in the position he has, who guarantees that the relative will do a good job like his predecessor?

Now with all that in mind let's reconsider the opening question - are leaders born or made?

If the son was born into a leadership position - does that make him the right candidate for the job?

Just because the reliable assistant performs well on his current tasks, does that mean he will perform well as a leader in such a high position?

On the other hand, Let's consider if the relative is put in such a position would he have the chance or would he learn and adapt into becoming an effective leader?

The point:

There is no definite answer to any of the above questions. There is however considerations that must be taken into account.

A leader can be made, some are born - the only real question is - what kind of leader is he? And is he maintaining a successful and meaningful leadership?

There are four main types of leadership styles. The directional leader, the charismatic leader, the situational leader, and the leader that just hands over the job and lets his subordinates do the job with minimal involvement of his own.

Directional leader, is the leader that dictates the tasks, imposes deadlines and threatens that they better be met or else negative consequences will be faced. This type of leadership does not consider the parties involved, the situation, nor the possible inputs the subordinates involved may have. This type focuses mainly on the task at hand and may focus on the leader himself, providing him with seniority, power and control.

The charismatic leader, is sort of the opposite to the directional leader, where he reasons with his subordinates, encourages them, and tries all sorts of motivational and encouragement methods to get the parties involved and meet a desired deadline. This style focuses mainly on the subordinates believing that as long as they are happy and feel good they will in turn work properly. The leader is perceived to be a nice positive individual that would do anything to motivate his employees, to avoid conflict and to make the environment as friendly as possible.

The loose leadership style, is one where the leader hands over a task to his subordinates, devises the tasks amongst the group members, gives them a deadline and lets the birds loose. Closer to the deadline the loose leader reminds everyone that there is one or two weeks left and that they should start handing in their parts. This type of leadership focuses only on the task and its deadline. The leader shows very minimal involvement, offers minimal support and assistance. The subordinates are simply expected to perform on their own initiative and motivation. They are simply expected to have their parts of their tasks ready on time for the deadline.

Finally the situational leader, who hands over a task, identifies the strength and interests of each individual in the group, and according to the results of his findings, he hands over specific tasks to individuals that would best fit the job. Along the project, the leader every so often would touch base with every individual and would inquire about his personal life as well as the progress of his part of the task, reminding the group that his door is always open to their needs, questions, concerns and any other need that requires support. This leadership style focuses on many different aspects; the group as a whole, the task, the individuals in the group, the situations surrounding the subordinates including their personal and work lives - offering them support, assistance (when possible) and reassurance.



Which style do you think is the most effective? Please leave your comments and your thesis on this subject. Based on the discussion below a part 2 will be posted shortly containing the benefits and negatives of each leadership, the best ways to go about choosing the right type of leadership and answers or comments to any of your questions or pointers.

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Using Voice Memo for projects.

Some people are just not writers, as you can obviously see from my blog that is hardly updated or written properly. Some blogs are so popular based on the content they have, the way they are written and the "poetic" vocabulary that their authors use. Unfortunatly not every one has the privilage of that talent, me included! But that doesn't and shouldn't stop you from blogging or writing.

Trying and experience never hurts, it can only improve! Some people may face what I call "faze-out" - it is when you feel that you have so much to say and potentially write but when you actually come down to writing it - you faze-out and forget what you were going to say. This is the main problem I personaly face.
It was therefore decided to come up with a solution to this problem, since that is my job as the owner of a marketing and solutions agency where writing is a very large requirement, with all our case studies and ideas that we would like to propose.

While exploring my new iPhone I realized that it has quite a cool app called Voice Memo - which basically records your voice, making a memo. This app can be used for meetings, reminders or the like - sort of like a recording device on your phone! As I was exloring and testing this app I realized that you can record and save multiple such recordings and that you can label them what ever you like. That is when it dawned on me that - I speak way better than the way I write, I am good at giving presentations and so therefore I have decided to record what I had to say, save it, then transfer it to my computer and finally type up what I was hearing! I tried this method with one proposal and it worked beautifully. I did it with this article as well! And I feel that this is my best article so far and hopefully the start of many more good articles.

Here's how it works:

1. Write down in number form 1-10 on a piece of paper all the topics and pointers you would like to touch upon during your recording. Add some subsections to help you rember some key factors that cannot be missed.

2. Press the red recording button, and start talking stating the title of the subject in the begining.



3. Stop the recording when you have finished discussing the first pointer. (#1 on your list with its' subsections).

4. Press the "lines" button found on the bottom right side of your screen. (where the stop button was found).

5. The recording will then start playing and you can listen to your recording, and take notes of the information that you may have left out.



6. You will then need to press on the little blue arrow, which will take you to a screen, where you can then trim your recording - in case you want to, which you don't have to since you will be compiling this info later on. Same holds true for the sharing.



7. Once you have done reviewing and editing your recording - you would like to label it. This is done by pressing on the large box or where the time is being shown right now, this will bring you to a list of different lables. I suggest to always use custom, this way you can name the clip whatever you'd like.



8. Press done, go back to the begining and start on your second pointer. The same procedure should be followed until you are done.
Suggestion: When you are naming your clip - number them. Even though the latest clip recorded will be at the top, it is still easier to see the numbers and remember what clip is what.

9. You can then sync your phone with your computer, you can then play and playback your clip and type it up.

10. Finally, once all is typed you can then edit and compile all the info into one file. (if you want to get fancy you can even import these clips into GarageBand and make them into one track or album or whatever - I will let your imagination take you from there.)

Now, even though this article makes it sound that you must have an iPhone or a Mac for this advice - but you really don't. You can use an average regular or standard recording device, or any other app. This article is simply advising you to do what most secretaries do with recorded meetings. I am simply promoting this practice and saying that it is a good one to get accustomed to. I am also trying to encourage you that if you feel that you are challenged with writing an article - don't feel bad there is an alternative! Hey, you never know maybe soon these sites and blogs like blogger will start offering the voice option - I know that there are some people that use podcasting and video blogging - this is just another alternative!

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- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone