In Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for Leadership Workshop course
At Indian Institute of Management Indore, Rau-Pithampur Road, Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India. 2019 In the article Crucibles of Leadership, a wide range of topics involving management and organisational behaviour have been covered. The different perspectives and viewpoints that managers face in diverse situations has been addressed by the author. The authors have emphasized on the need for some of the elements required to improve the efficacy among leaders. According to the author, a question that overwhelms people is how to become the best leaders when compared to others. Some people who appear to be natural leaders seem to drive other people and their actions without much effort. This is attributed to confront different situations in life in attempts to providing required solutions. Although there are a number of ways that have been commended to deal with pressing situations, the ability to deal with adverse situations is the most important and hence overrides all others. Those who are able to do that are better placed to be modelled as true leaders and are distinguished among millions. These adverse situations, termed “crucibles” helps one emerge as an extraordinary leader. Established from interviews and surveys carried within firms and organisations, it has been found out that that experiences in early years shaped lives of extraordinary managers. These experiences, in history, have proved to be violent, demoralizing and have even taken life threatening forms. But these leaders have addressed and confronted these experience in an inevitable manner. Studies by the authors show that leaders are able to be challenged, face the challenge and have emerged as victors. When addressing management problems, the impact associated is understood in the reading by the authors. Along with the impact, the expected way out is provided and leaders gauged on the method used. Leaders are generally expected to be on their toes and be well prepared for challenging management situations, a pattern observed in the reading is that the author has overlooked cases whereby a problem has be solved and neutralised in a short time. This has been done due to the underestimations involved in those situations. The authors have also discussed about preparedness. Leaders are expected to be prepared, ready and alert about most of the management crisis that could follow, but it is observed that that’s not the case among other leaders in general. This is mostly due to the unavailability of necessary information with them. It’s discussed that training can equip them with all the necessary skills that can help resolve management crisis situations in the future. Besides deciphering and exploring the experiences of leaders challenged by crucibles, Crucibles of Leadership also highlights some of the common characteristics among all these leaders which help them differentiate from others, make them outstandingly brilliant and help them make their way to the very top. These leaders tend to learn from differences which make them distinguished and extraordinary in dealing with management crisis and challenges which come during their management tenure. These experiences also lead them towards acquisition of strong management identities which helps augment the solution of the diverse management crisis that they face. With the various cultural differences present between different organisational workplaces, managers have to confront the diverse cultures, handle them efficiently and responsibly and hence take the organisation to the desired level by effective management style. Not only professional goals are achieved but also professional relationships are maintained and harnessed. Leaders who thrive in new environments are generally known to study the culture first and then addressing the dilemmas, crisis and crucibles in a way suited to the new culture. Issues relating to sexual discrimination are demeaning. Especially when it comes to leadership it is a crucible. Extraordinary leaders generally tend to establish a balance that provides a platform for employees to prove their merit regardless of the differences in gender. That helps as a base to justify the importance of gender equality in any organisation. Critically the authors also focuses on how different leaders have overcome challenges and get acquainted to the new identities to drive the leadership objectives as well as driving the organisation forward. The adaptive nature of leaders helps them to transform an organisation which lacks consideration to the one who proactively accepts employees from all races and gender. Leaders also have to overcome the darkest moments in their lives and remain courageous and keep their morale high so that they could transform organisation’s performance to the desired level. Leaders aren’t defined by the past. They just remain focused on the course of achieving their dreams. Apart from the negative crucibles discussed in the article, it also talks about some positive challenges that leaders face. These challenges have transformed leaders and help them develop their management skills. As per the article, leaders who met good mentors and performance driven seniors ended up having developed stronger leadership skills and mechanisms. In general, leaders ought to have a distinctive and convincing voice in the organisation, ability to engage employees, a sense of integrity and adaptive capability in the organisation. The article is a must read for managers and leaders in all spheres as it addresses fundamentals of leadership and experiences that helped successful leaders grow into their current position. It highlights the problems faced in the current business market. The issues discussed and the way they were tackled by those leaders also help create a roadmap in the readers mind about how to approach the problem. It particularly comes into help for new leaders as in the current era organisations are recruiting people who not only can act as professional managers but also leaders. Leaders in the sense that they are able to analyse critical issues and prepare a fool proof and holistic mechanism that considers a wider perspective towards the problem and suggest solution based on that mechanism. Issues relating to cultural differences are quite common among multinational organisations and because of the nature of the business environment, which permits practices and procedures, which aren’t conventional, it becomes absolutely essential for managers and leaders to be culturally adaptable. It becomes quite essential that these diversities across cultures is well respected and appreciated by these leaders. This confrontation towards successful collaboration helps drive the performance of an organisation. The article also discusses about the usage of new age technology in organisational management. Leaders who are innovative acknowledge the importance of technology and tend to increase its usage and gain edge on organisations which are stuck on manual and traditional management option. The reason that they acknowledge technology is because of their curious nature and a want for something new. It also helps organisations achieve higher economic performance. These leadership skills are utilised if an individual remains on the course of setting goals and objectives and realising them. It means that whatever challenges comes in the way of leaders, they just aren’t deterred by it and are determined enough to continue on their path. Leaders are able to overcome such crucibles, having gone through similar and worse situations before. The principles stated by Bennis and Thomas just confirm that every member in an organisation would be able to appreciate the fact that each of them have a leadership responsibility. This responsibility comes to the individual employee irrespective of their position in the hierarchy of the organisation. This comes in quite handy in addressing the issues of globalisation and hence the diverse culture differences in an organisational setup and the explosive growth in technology which has polarised these issues of organisational culture. Additionally, leaders are able to see themselves and organizations prosper in contrast to cases where leaders excel at the expense of the organization and vice versa. Above all, leaders have to remember that crucibles are experiences, which are supposed to shape and redefine their identity other than crushing their dreams.