EMBA 560 Executive position week 4 discussion 4 - Essay Example

It brings to mind the famous words of Alfred Lord Tennyson: “Theirs not to make reply, Theirs not to reason why. Theirs but to do and die.” The poem “The Charge of the Light Brigade” is full of brio and bluster, but all the same the 600 soldiers it described all charged to their death without knowing why. Had their leaders explained why they had to make the charge, then the soldiers would have known that “someone had blunder’d” and probably would have declined to charge. Many executives avoid having to explain the “why” because it invites dialogue and discussion, it engages the followers to scrutinize the rationale of the action plan and to offer their own opinions, questions, and suggestions.

It brings the followers to the level of the executive even for but the duration of the question’s consideration. Reasoning brings people to the common level that logic imposes on people. When a person explains why, he/she lays before his audience the thought process that led him/her to the action plan. The thought process is therefore laid bare to the audience for their consideration – and judgment. The judgment may be favorable, and it may be not. In case it is not, at least to some people, then the natural human behavior would be to ask questions which the person doing the explanation.

If that person was in a position of leadership, and he could not defend his logic from the questions, then it reflects on his followers’ perception of him as a leader. 2.A link to the Martin Luther King "I Have a Dream Speech" can be found in the webliography.  The full speech is only 17 minutes long and well worth your time.  There are valuable lessons for executives in the structure and delivery of the talk.  Listen to and analyze the speech.  What makes this talk so inspiring? The speech itself is full of imagery, metaphors, and descriptive adjectives.

An example of a metaphor is the likening of the Declaration of Independence as a check or promissory note, and continued discrimination to the default of the check. It also makes use of repeated phrases “Go back to –“ , “I have a dream-“, and “Let freedom ring –“ mentioned repeatedly draws emphasis to specific points and images. The speech was effective in creating a sense of urgency (“Now”), and drawing emphasis on the immediacy of a full and impartial resolution. Structurally, the speech is effective because it first makes the case for the legitimacy of the colored people’s plea for equality, calling upon the promise of the Declaration of Independence declaring all men equal.

Then while it praises the new militancy of the colored people, it also cautions against violence and distrust against white people and points out that freedom and equality for the blacks is necessarily linked to the enjoyment of freedom of the whites. After that, Dr. King creates a vision of blacks and whites living harmoniously together as equals – his famous “I have a dream” series of proclamations. He quotes profusely from popular patriotic songs (“My country tis of thee”) and finally, he ends with a well-known Negro spiritual and makes it the high point of the entire speech.

In the manner of delivery, Dr. King makes well-placed pauses, and in some places runs on from one sentence to the next to maintain momentum. The sentences were longer in the beginning and the imageries delivered with emphasis, and towards the end as momentum was built up the sentences became shorter and more