Key Points from the Article
The key fact that article tries to establish that unlike the common perception, leadership is not something that is mysterious or hypothetical. Instead, leadership is as much as about sanity, rationale and logic as it is about having charisma and having the ability to make people listen to you. Most of the times, people tend to over emphasize on the exotic personality traits and instead ignore the more nuisance parts of the leadership as claimed by the article. This article tends to establish that leadership is something that is pretty much the way management seems to work and both the traits are supposed to complement each other. The key difference though between the management and the leadership is the fact that while management is about making sure that the way practices and the procedures are supposed to be followed, the leadership is about how someone is able to adapt to the changes that are happening around them. The greater is the frequency of change, the greater is the likelihood that the exceptional leadership skills are going to be needed to. The core idea though is to make sure that how the strong leadership and strong management must be carried out to ensure that they get to complement each other.
Critical Evaluation of the Article
The article is able to raise some valid points with regards to what are some of the aspects that are being overlooked in terms of the way leadership is perceived these days. The article provides a good idea that how the leadership development in the organization is supposed to be carried out. The article expresses a correct perception when it talks about the fact that what is lacking in the organizations these days in terms of the way leadership development is supposed to be carried out. Most of the people are opting for reactive approach when it comes to the change management and due to that, they are waiting for the outside interference with regards to the way change management is supposed to be done. What is needed to be done is to make sure that the active effort is carried out with regards to the change management in the organizational setup. Each person within the team should make an attempt to stand out on its own. The organizations should also be able to identify people who try to stand out on their own and to things their own way rather than taking someone else’s lead in terms of the change.
Practical Application of the Article in the Workplace
There are many practical applications with regards to the way change management was being implemented in the organization at the broader level and how they were reactive to the way change was supposed to be implemented. The example of Google stands out the most. Since long time, the alarm bells were ringing when it comes to the way need for diversity was being felt in the organization. Despite this fact, there was much of an effort carried out by the Google employees to make sure that they understand and execute these things at the first place. It took a scandal and a leaked memo from the employee that how worse things were in terms of the diversification in the organization. Since them, it has been all a damage control exercise on the part of the Google to make sure that they create an impression within the organization to make sure that they can show the world that how serious they are in terms of the way diversity is needed in the organization. Again, even to manage this issue, they opted for Global Diversity Manager rather than allowing someone from their team to stand up and deliver this message.
References
Kotter, J.P., 2001. What leaders really do. Harvard business review, 79(11).
