Management Questions

Question One

Level five leaders can drive an organization to success because of his integration of humility and professional will. The manifestation of humility gives the level-five leader a higher chance than the level-four leader. The level-four leaders emphasize on commitment towards the organizational goals, as well as the achievement of high-performance standards. However, level -5 leaders will achieve better results than level-4 leaders because of the practice of humility. Humility refers to a modest or low view of one’s importance. The demonstration of humility for level five leaders means that the leaders do not allow their executive positions blind their intentions. Humility enables level five leaders to focus on driving the company to success (Collins, 2001). Humble executives perceive success as a joint effort rather than his individual effort. The leader thus encourages teamwork and motivates employees to work towards attaining the overall organizational objective. Additionally, a humble level-five leader interacts with the employees by allowing open bottom-up; top-bottom communication. The organization reaches a consensus through joint decision-making rather than executive decision-making. A level five leader focuses on driving the organization to success irrespective of his executive position. The level five leader thus looks beyond his term and strives to ensure that the organization succeeds beyond his leadership terms. In contrast, a level-four leader is short-sighted and strives to achieve organizational success up to when his leadership term expires.

Question Two

The right employees are an organization’s most valuable assets thus the need for an organization to ascertain it has the right people. The right people for any organization are self-motivated and thus possess the inner drive to achieve the best result. The right people are willing to make sacrifices and go the extra mile to achieve organizational goals. The right people also strive to surpass their set targets and drive the organization towards success. The right people also focus on the long-term goals of the organization, and this engage in strategies, to ascertain the attainment of the goals. Personally, I could be right for an organization that supports career growth and advancement. The provision of training and career advancement opportunities i.e. promotions would motivate me to keep working for the success of the organization. An organization should engage in a mutual working relationship with the employees. The employees provide their output thus enabling the organization to realize profits while the organization provides employees with a chance to progress. I would also be right for an organization that provides its employees with a degree of autonomy. An organization that is allowing employees to take responsibility for their actions and also engage in decision-making fosters innovativeness.

Question Four

I agree with the statement "good is the enemy of great". The good mentality puts individuals at a comfort zone that results in relaxation and lack of effort. A good company becomes comfortable and complacent with their accomplishments. The good mentality pushes organizations to focus on what to do to become great rather than what not to do or what to stop doing (Collins, 2001). An organization can easily be satisfied with the achievement of good that they fail to make the effort to improve and achieve greatness. An organization that is good may acquire solace from their goodness and thus put no more effort to be great. An organization that is good attains the basic level of achievement. An organization that is good can easily be overwhelmed by competition. In contrast, an organization that is great sets itself apart from its competitors. Good is an enemy of great because it prevents risks taking. An organization that is comfortable will make no effort to take risks and disrupt the status quo. The element of being good creates the mentality that an organization is functioning as required. The perception thus leads to inflexibility towards change as an organization feels there is no need to change. A good organization fears that risk taking moves may result in failure thus disrupting the good streak. The good mentality thus hampers an organization’s efforts to being great.

Question Five

According to Jim Collins, a level-5 leader is self-confident and has no qualms preparing their successors for the position. The level 5-leader must be self-confident on his ability to hire competent people who can take over as leaders. A level-5 leader has long-term interest for the organization thus strives for overall organizational success rather than success during his term of office. A level-5 leader is also modest and humble and associates organizational success with team effort rather that his contributions. The level-5 leader is also a hands-on leader who works with his subordinates rather than delegate and a practice hands-off approach. Individuals who want to become level-5 leaders must develop humility and act in a humble way (Collins, 2001). The individual must also learn to ask for help. The request for assistance is not a sign of weakness, but it is an indicator of genuine strength as it allows an individual to call upon the expertise of a qualified individual. A leader striving to become alevel-5 leader must learn to take responsibility for failings. A level five leader does not engage in finger pointing so as to evade the accusation. The potential level-five leader must learn how to appreciate team effort and receive recognition of failures as a team. An individual who desires to become a level-5 leader must develop his sense of discipline. Discipline is an essential virtue in the workplace that pushes an individual to remain focused to a course despite the hurdles. A discipline leader will not back out of a challenging task at the first sight of trouble. Instead, he will be the source of encouragement to his team.

Question Eight

The biggest surprise that I encountered in this unit arose from Jim Collins book. Specifically, I was surprised by the revelation that the first step in driving a company towards success involves the hiring and placement of the right employees. Personally, I have always thought that the success of an organization lies in its ability, to create a new direction for the organization. I thought that an organization must first create a strategic vision that gives employees a sense of direction. Jim Collins revelation is thus objects mu beliefs. An organization that hires the right employees is bound to grow to greatness. The right workforce understands their responsibility and is willing to go the extra mile and ascertain organizational success. I was surprised to understand that an organization can have the right people but with the wrong assignment. I learned that the management must ascertain they understand the skills and competencies of every employee thus establish where each employee can be most productive.

References

Collins, J. (2001). Good to great: why some companies make the leap and others don’t. Random House business books

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