Contrarians Guide to Leadership and Apex Thinking - Coursework Example

 Contrarian’s Guide to Leadership and Apex Thinking Introduction Effective leadership is one of the most important competitive advantages of an organization or group with a specific objective. Successful completion of every task depends on well assigned goals and collaborated human efforts. Certain deeds require long term preparation and endurance whereas short term accomplishments also require rather intensive strategies and actions. However, the swiftness of action does not necessarily indicate the efficiency of leadership; instead what make one’s leadership extraordinary are relentless efforts, accurateness, and the way of thinking. The objective of this paper is to explore the reliability of this assertion based on the concept of ‘thinking gray and free’, proposed by Steven B. Sample. Contrarian leadership: overview Though volumes have been written on leadership, ‘The Contrarian’s guide to leadership’ is an excellent piece of work toward the leadership studies initiated by Steven B. Sample. The essence of the book reveals the differences of leadership qualities from conventional as well as contrarian point of view. The author has given great significance for the concepts of thinking gray, and free. Majority of people formulate judgments based on conventional ideas by which they determine things as good or bad, and true or false. However, unlike common people a leader is someone who approaches issues from different perspectives. According to Sample (2003), an effective leader “needs to be able to see the shades of gray inherent in a situation in order to make wise decisions as to how to proceed” (Sample, 2003, p.7). But ‘thinking gray’ is an extraordinary characteristic which necessitates rather sincere efforts to build up variance in thinking power. A good decision will always comprises of all relevant facts and arguments which reflects the essence of thinking gray. Through his book, Sample tries to bring out three major hazards to effective leadership associated with binary thinking. According to the author, popular media are some of the stumbling blocks to effective leadership because they largely influence ‘thinking gray’; and at the same time it is not suggestible to attempt to think gray about everything such as cloth, food or popular music, as it would transfer ones’ brain into a ‘jumbled mess’(Sample, 2003, p. 12). It should be noted that thinking gray is entirely different from thinking skeptically since the later tends to judge as ‘not true’ everything one hears or reads. ‘Thinking free’ is a closely related concept to ‘thinking gray’; the difference is that the former takes that process of inventiveness to the next level. As Sample says thinking free primarily allows us to ‘contemplate really outrageous ideas, and subsequently apply constraints of practicality, practicability, legality, cost, time and ethics’ (Sample, pp.12-13). The argument here is that thinking free is of immense power which can alter the persisting constraints into competitive advantages of a group. The concept would help a leader to identify the underlying impediments to organizational cohesion and profitability. Many of the problems leaders usually confront with are just superficial which require comparatively less efforts to overcome. However, identifying the intensity of the problem is important with strategic formulation. The broad vision and incompatible ability to handle various contingencies within the arena of one’s imagination demonstrates a leader’s potential. According to Sample, leadership is not solely a scientific approach to emergencies; for he says “leadership is an art, not a science” (Sample, pp.17). Decision making in contrarian leadership The efficiency of one’s leadership is determined by the long-term effects of one’s decisions through which the leader exercises a significant faction of his power and authority in the long run. According to Jenrette (1997, p.170), giving credit and recognition to others as they succeed in their task is the real key to leadership. However, the two general rules regarding contrarian leadership such as 1) take decisions according to our own capacities and 2) don’t take decisions today which can be postponed to tomorrow have a contemporary significance. When almost all leaders take instant and dependant decisions, they presumably cause adverse effects on the group guided by them. Machiavelli in his famous work ‘The Prince’ suggests that a too predictable leader may be manipulated by his lieutenants and followers (cited in Sample, 2003, pp.23). An effective leader will not only be concerned about his subordinates’ needs but also about his senior officers’ problems associated with role disparities and ideological differences. In the same way, before reaching decisions on crucial matters a leader must take all probabilities of individual resistance into account. Hence, it is advisable to keep his superiors informed of the decisions and similarly, while formulating decisions, leader has to give emphasis on his followers’ opinions and views as well. This is the reason according to Sample why American presidents like john Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, and Richard Nixon could not win the Vietnam War (Sample, 2003, p.26). In contrast, some other great leaders of the world including Abraham Lincoln and Gandhi were of rather contrarian view. These examples speak how situations can become one of the major factors determining the effectiveness of leadership. Similarly, only a thinking gray and free approach will help a leader to gain his followers souls. As the famous Italian politician Machiavelli (1952) says, ‘a leader to be either loved or feared but not hated’; and it is preferable to be feared than loved since people may take undue advantages from a leader who is only loved (cited in Sample, 2003, p.44). A Critical Analysis to Apex Thinking Polk and White (2007) have explored the further scope of thinking gray and free through their ‘Apex thinking’ strategies and theory of leadership. This book also points out some common misconceptions of people on leadership. The authors define the concept of apex thinking as “the strategic adaptation of leadership theory for application to everyday leadership reality in order to achieve maximum results and goals within organizations and one’s life” (Polk & White, 2007, p.24). The leader or CEO of the organization should be capable of encouraging workers to accomplish the firm’s goal through collaborated efforts and information sharing. An effective CEO must maintain some powers in order to control his subordinates to make them adhere to the organization’s code of discipline. However, as the proponents of apex thinking purport, the power acquired by communication process is more long-lasting and credible than power acquired by force (Polk & White, 2007, p.33). However a leader must be concerned about the up to date organizational operations which helps him to adopt suitable strategies. Similarly he should have well planning, organizing, directing and forecasting capacities which determine his success or failure rather than his theoretical knowledge in the organizational activities. The CEO should be an individual person with his own personality, conceptions, observation, decisions, and assessments instead of duplicating successful leaders. The Polk and White also promote the leadership view of Machiavelli; to be feared is better than to be loved. This theory has a crucial importance in an organizational environment since majority of Chief Executive Officers are confused of whether to be loved or to be feared. It is to be noted that no worker would respect or obey the CEO on the ground love; on the other hand they abide by the CEO with the fear of being terminated. At the same time, in order to have sufficient information about the organizational factors, the CEO or leader must maintain a good relationship with his workers. According to Rinke (2004, p.21) workers get admired as they feel they are part of a winning team involved in a worthy cause and led by a great person. Similarly a leader should have enough knowledge about the performance/weakness of his employees at their respective positions. It would make him capable of reviewing the role assignment and to define what one can do and what one cannot. In addition to this, the assessment would help him design strategies to uplift the workers’ level of performance. This is what Machiavelli says, “It is necessary to be a fox to discover the snares and a lion to terrify the wolves” (Machiavelli, 1952, p.93). It is always advisable to aim the overall improvement of the firm rather than proceeding with advanced business strategies. On the other hand, a leader should have the feasibility to replace the weak individuals with his own new team as he identifies some of them not fit to the organizational concepts. Polk & White also suggest that if an organization is very large in size and consists of hundreds of employees the CEO can appoint some top managerial personnel so that he can extend his concentration to all (Polk & White, 2007, p.81). Conclusion In order to change the monotonous and mechanical nature of the work, the employees’ working positions should be rotated at a regular interval of time. This rotation process also enables the management to substitute the workers in cases of unexpected absence or resignation. Since this process is a better chance for the leader to assess the all-round performance of his subordinates, he can distribute works among them according to their skills. Similarly the leader must not trust any worker too much but follow the concept of thinking gray and free; and must take maximum time to reach decisions regarding organizational matters. In order to avoid the chance of leadership flaws and legal suit the leader should update his superiors (if any) with latest information on every organizational decision. By doing the above all with due care and intelligence would give enough opportunity for an individual to demonstrate his effective leadership. References Jenrette, R. H. (1997). The Contrarian Manager. USA. McGraw-Hill Professional. Machiavelli, N. (1952). The Prince. Plain Label Books Polk, C. H. & White, W. M. (2007). Apex Thinking: a guide to long term leadership for the rising CEO. Mountain State University Press. Rinke, W. J. (2004). Don’t Oil the Squeaky Wheel: And 19 Other Contrarian Ways to Improve Your Leadership Effectiveness. USA: McGraw-Hill professional, Sample, S. B. (2003). The Contrarian’s Guide to Leadership. San Francisco. Jossey-Bass. Read More