What Makes a Great Leader - Assignment Example

It would be very difficult to point to just one person and describe them as the world’s greatest leader. This is because leaders occur in different jurisdictions of human endeavor. This notwithstanding, wherever they are found, great leaders, seem to exhibit certain attracts that are common among other great leaders in different fields of study. Outstanding among these attributes is the attribute of managerial leadership. This is to say that these leaders have an excellent way of managing people under them as well as managing challenges that arise in the course of their duty. With this account, it will not be out of place to name the chief executive officer of Toyota, who is in the person Jim Lentz as a great leader.

The selection of Jim Lentz as an excellent is particularly with how he can manage challenges that arise out of the work that he does. It is said that our victory is not in never falling but rather, rising whenever we fall (Konadu, 2005). This is like saying that the assessment of who a great leader is should not be defined only by the successes that the personal records but also by the person’s ability to handle failure (Tolbert and Hall, 2009, p. 23). Jim Lentz was indeed phenomenal with his handling of the recent business misfortune that befell the company when “Toyota recently announced that it would have to recall 2.3 million vehicles for faulty brakes” (Stansberry, 2012).

When the problem occurred, it is said that the chief executive officer instead of leaving the task of explaining the issues to the public relations officers of the company decided to go on air in person to explain issues to customers and the general public. This was indeed an act of extreme selflessness, leadership by example, transparency, courage, and boldness. Through his intervention, his company did not suffer the kind of shock that experts associated with the issue. This was because he could personally win the hearts of many to follow his line of argument – something that leadership is all about (Konadu, 2005).

Managers are very good examples of leaders and once they are chosen to act on behalf of organizations, managers are expected to act according to the interest of their respective organizations (Tolbert and Hall, 2009). This notwithstanding, there are several things that employers, entrepreneurs and other stakeholders whom managers work for can do to induce their active participation in the organizations they represent. First and most importantly, there must be the use of motivation of all kinds.

Generally, motivation may be either intrinsic or extrinsic. Each of these can go a very long way to induce managers to act in the best interests of their organizations because motivations serve as catalysts for yielding results. The second point is to create a very lucrative working environment for managers. Most often than not, managers are thought of to be ‘Supermen’ who must be in a position to fix every problem including the very ones that would hinder the successful running of their duties. Read More