Photo taken in the White House of Chief of Staff Dick Cheney and his strategic team during a campaign strategy session

How to Put Your Leadership & Strategic Skills to Good Use

Case-Study: Effective Strategic & Leadership Skills in Business & Politics …

Organizations and governments are posited to lead people.

Can political and corporate leaders lead the same way?

From a political viewpoint, an example of how a leader can dramatically affect the way a government performs its functions is Charles O. Rossotti who, in the Internal Revenue Service, made a fundamental change in the processes by which this governmental organisation served its clients.

Moreover, Eisenhower, former president of the United States in World War II, effectively lead both the American government and the Allied Forces in Europe in defeating Adolf Hitler.

This shows hope for leadership at the political level.

Powerful Leadership Eisenhower Quote

Eisenhower’s leadership provides lessons for top management executives in today’s organisational challenges but does anyone care.

Politics and corporate leadership have merged today with the current presidential candidates.

Many leadership theoretical models stem from research based on military leaders and their followers.

Examples such as the ones mentioned above posits that leadership has a critical role in politics and does affect governments’ functions.

In describing how outstanding leadership is in business and politics, investors recognise how outstanding business leadership is when they say that a good leader can make a success of a weak business plan, but that a poor leader can ruin even the best strategy.

Furthermore, pundits decide upon the valuation of publicly trades stocks based on current and future leadership.

How to Lead a Corporation Like Harley Davidson …

Rich Teerlink, who dramatically changed Harley-Davidson in the 1980s, and fundamentally built a different organisation that still prospers today.

The success of leadership at the Harley-Davidson Corporation has stood the test of time.

For example, Harley-Davidson’s leadership created a more effective organization built upon three primary principles:

  1. Focusing on people
  2. Challenging norms
  3. Continuing to change fundamentally.

At Harley, every employee can take part in leadership decision-making.

What You Could Learn From Steve Jobs …

Another example of business leaders in a highly competitive environment is Steve Jobs, former leader of Apple, who built a highly effective organisation through taking a change-oriented leadership approach, which profoundly manifested itself in talent, product, organization, and marketing.

Evidence from these examples suggests that leadership is highly demanding at both the political and corporate level.

For government and business organisations to make a sustained change and eventually a higher degree of effectiveness, leadership is the key to success.

When effective leaders are absent, companies lose their required directions to meet a high degree of competitiveness. They cannot carry out a successful change to adapt to today’s business environment involved uncertainty.

Governments have succeeded and failed based upon the various leaders that make the decisions that impact society.

References:
Mills, D Q 2005. Leadership: How to Lead, How to Live. MindEdge Press, Waltham, MA.
Teerlink, R & Ozley, L 2000 ‘More Than a Motorcycle: The Leadership Journey at Harley-Davidson’, Harvard Business School Press, Boston, MA.

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