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Q. Think about any two leaders you have known, preferably one good and one weak.

They can be business persons, coaches, someone you work(ed) with, and so forth. Make a list of five traits, practices, or characteristics that cause you to consider one good and the other weak. Compare the things you choose with the seven factors used to differentiate effective organizational leadership.

I.

Leadership is an influence process; therefore, leaders are people who, by their actions, encourage a group of people to move toward a common or shared goal. A leader is an individual; leadership is the function that the individual performs. This year, 2012, is the election year in the United States and the Republican Party front runner in the presidential candidacy race, Mitt Romney, is oft written about and his qualities on leadership are compared to those of the incumbent, President Barak Obama. For example, the Christian Science Monitor in February ran an article about the favorability of a business executive being elected as a US President. The article, Does America need a CEO in the Oval Office?, spoke on the following qualities of a leader, especially one vying for the top-most political office of the land, that of the President of the United States: i) ii) iii) iv) v) vi) vii) executive experience, decision making skills, an understanding of how the US economy works, trustworthiness, personality, character, and steadiness

Apart from the point on understanding how the US economy works, the author seems to be skeptical on the rest of the qualities when Mitt Romney is compared to President Barak Obama. Therefore, we may say, from the authors viewpoint, and this is also my opinion, Mitt Romney is a weak leader and President Obama is a good leader / strong leader.(Note: Necessarily may not be the opinion of the writer of the article referenced below! In this case, my interpretation of the whole point could be biased, just read the article and make an opinion yourself Ronald Ongeri Onchwari, Nairobi, Kenya) Seven factors used to differentiate effective organizational leadership Job-relevant knowledge Intelligence Intelligence Five traits, practices, or characteristics Mitt Romney President Barak Obama

Executive experience Decision making skills An understanding of how the US economy works Trustworthiness

-Ve = =

+Ve = =

Honesty and integrity

-Ve

+Ve

Ambition and energy, the desire to lead, selfconfidence, selfmonitoring personality

Personality,character, and steadiness

-Ve to +Ve

+Ve

II.

The seven factors used to differentiate effective organizational leadership are: self-confidence, honesty and integrity, intelligence, job-relevant knowledge, ambition and energy, the desire to lead, and self-confidence. Compared to the list of the qualities above, it is seen that leaders who are perceived to be weak score poorly on most of the factors and those that are thought to be good will have a strong score but also miss on some points. References Does America need a CEO in the Oval Office?, The Christian Science Monitor, February, 2012
Source: www.CSMonitor.com

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