Essay Example on Leaders: Inspiring Direction and Pursuing the Right Thing

Introduction

The term leadership can inspire a lot of thoughts. It brings a variety of images to a person's mind. For instance, a passionate political leader persuading a personal cause or an explorer cutting a pathway through a dangerous jungle for the rest of his team or my own best an executive trying to develop a strategic plan for the company to gain a competitive edge of the rival organizations. Leaders assist themselves and others in pursuing the right thing; they set the direction for others to follow, build an inspiring vision as well as develop something unique and new. Leaderships is entirely about mapping where an individual would want to be to win as a team or a company, and this is dynamic, inspiring, and inspiring. The classical, as well as the most pervasive through the line from the management and business around the globe, emphasize great leadership as the most different variable for a successful organization or business internationally (Chen & Silverthorne, 2005). Yes, in a way they are, this is because the greatest of leaders make a significant difference in the fortunes of any given organization. However, it is essential to note that the most significant leaders display exceptional levels of persistence; they strive to overcome the greatest of challenges and obstacles. They attract talented people to their organizations; they influence a group of individuals toward accomplishing a predetermined goal and guide their organizations through the harsh and critical episodes in the history of the organization, and William McKnight is no different. Although the organisation faces challenging faces during their growth, great leadership style is essential for the success of the organization

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William McKnight Leadership Skill

However, not all leaders can have the same leadership style or character traits. Some of the well-known leaders were visionary, entrepreneurial, or transformational leaders. It is also imperative to note that not all good leaders have to be a charismatic extravert to establish successful and creative organizations. William McKnight, a general manager, a chief executive and then chairman of 3M for over fifty years was a quite as well as soft-spoken individual. Also, he was thoughtful modest, humble, a good listener, serious as well as unobstructed kind of a leader. Hardly anyone knew him, yet the company that he led earned fame and admiration from other organizations and many other individuals all over the world. From this, I believe that William McKnight's leadership dimension would be skillful.

Challenge That William McKnight Faced as A Leader In 3M And How He Handled It

Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company, commonly referred typo as 3M is the most innovative organization in the world, having generated approximately 100,000 patents from the year 1902 of its establishment. However, in the year 1904, the organization was failing (McKnight, 2008). However, although the five founders of the organization had done their best an invested both their money and time in the running of the organization, the company's first sale of the mineral corundum ended to be their last. About three years passed without the founders realized their failures, that their mines possessed no corundum. However, it contained a worthless mineral commercially referred to as anorthosite. In November of the same year, the organization had no resources to continue its operations, and the company debts were piling up.

Through this crucial stage in the organization's existence, the founders thought of selling their control interest to raise money, but it is very challenging to find investors who would take a chance on a dying organization. However, a shareholder named Edgar Ober believed that the company should abandon mining all together and focus on the manufacture of abrasive. Sourcing help from a friend Ober become the new president of the company in the year 1905. Ober served as the company president until the year 1929 and for the first 11 years without compensation. Through this challenging stage of 3M development, McKnight was hired in the year 1907 as a bookkeeper. McKnight was very observant, hand working as well as a royal employee, and in the year 1909 hew was named the first company's accountant. His being skillful and attentive, he figured out that the organization needed help selling products, cutting down on cost while improving on the company's product quality. With a lot of energy and intelligence McKnight attacked these problems. In the year 1911, he was named the company's office manager for the nascent Chicago office. He brought with him the obsession of improved quality, which saved the organization from bankruptcy as well as made a name for him. He believed that the organization should avoid very competitive markets. And in the year 1914, McKnight became the company's general manager, and he used this opportunity to distinguish himself by creating a product enhancement process while sticking to his philosophies of improved quality during the five-year price war while the company anticipated the collapse of 3M. He ultimately saved the company by employing skills that help grow the company sales since when he became the general manager by 17.1 percent on a compound annual growth rate basis from 264,000 to 1.2 billion dollars.

To further ensure that the company was stable and safe, he passed a rule that saw employees invest up to 15 percent of the employees working hours on innovative independent ventures. He embraces the power of failure by allowing the employees to spend approximately one full working day daydreaming of new projects. During this time, the organization generated a billion dollars. "The mistakes that people will make," said McKnight, "are of much less important than the mistake that management makes if it tells them exactly what to do" (McKnight, 2008). And this is the most challenging challenge William McKnight faced as a leader, and he handles it skillfully and intelligently, saving the firm from bankruptcy.

William McKnight Leadership Style

William McKnight is a democratic leader as he reinvigorated 3M administration to delegate their responsibilities and also encouraged both the male and female workers to exercise their creativity. And his statute of governance was as follows "as our business grows, it becomes increasingly necessary to delegate responsibility and to encourage men and women to exercise their initiative. This requires considerable tolerance. Those men and women, to whom we delegate authority and responsibility, if they are good people, are going to want to do their jobs in their way" (McKnight, 2008).

Emotional Intelligence and Its Importance in Leadership

Emotional intelligence can be described as the capability to understand and control one's emotions and reorganize and influence the sentiment of all other people around. Therefore, emotional intelligence is critical toll employees at all levels in an organisation but more so to the individuals that occupy the leadership role (Anand & UdayaSuriyan, 2010). A leader's emotional intelligence can have sweeping influence over the connection they have the subordinates, the way they control their team, and the way they interact with everyone at work.

Emotional intelligence helps the leaders in a company foster a safe working atmosphere, in which the staff feels comfortable to take calculated risks, air their views, and suggest ideas. In a secure working setting, working collaboratively is not just an objective but a parent of the organisatio0nj culture entirely.

The leaders who are emotionally intelligent use their emotions to stir the organization forward. The leaders in all organizations have the responsibility of effecting change in their respective organizations. Therefore, if the leader's area ware of their possible emotional reaction to the proposed amendment, then they can prepare and plan on how to use them optimally.

Also, emotionally intelligent leaders do not take things personally but can forge forward without worrying about the effect on their egos. Personal conflicts between the staff and leaders are one of the major hindrances to organizational productivity.

Importance of Following and Communicating A Vision as A Leader

The essence of leadership is that it has a leader; you should have a vision. The vision must be clear and well-articulated. However, there is no need to have an idea for the organization and cannot communicate it effectively to the employees. Apart from communicating the vision, it is essential as a leader to follow the concept (Kohles, Bligh & Carsten, 2012). Leaders affect change in the organization, and leading by example, motivates the employees not to resist any change. Communicate the organization's vision helps the employees to have a common goal about the organization. In addition to this, it shows the employees that their opinion about the organization is needed, and apart from leaders having the best interest of the organization at heart, they also care about their employees. Communicating the company vision helps reduce misunderstanding and errors. Describing the company vision keeps the support staff forced on accomplishing a shared goal. The leaders in the organisation need to set a tone for all the others to emulate. Setting a tone for the employees can be very challenging, but it helps the employees to view their role from a broader Organisational perspective than a small task-oriented. It sets a pace for everyone to follow.

Conclusion

In conclusion, each leader has a different leadership style. Some are authoritative, and others are democratic. A leader needs to recognize what are there strengths as well as the weaknesses. They need to set their prophies and principles which they can use to set a pace for their employees to follow effectively. Delegating the role and communicating of a vision helps the employees understand where the organization is coming from and where it is ended, and having a leader for a role model can be very beneficial for the success of the organization. Focus Is essential as a leader; for instance, William McKnight was very focused and strategically identified the issue facing the organization employed his principles consistently to overcome the challenges that faced 3M.

References

Anand, R., & UdayaSuriyan, G. (2010). Emotional intelligence and its relationship with leadership practices. International Journal of Business and Management, 5(2), 65. doi: 10.1108/01437730510607871

Chen, J. C., & Silverthorne, C. (2005). Leadership effectiveness, leadership style and employee readiness. Leadership & Organization Development Journal. doi: 10.1108/01437730510600652

Kohles, J. C., Bligh, M. C., & Carsten, M. K. (2012). A follower-centric approach to the vision integration process. The Leadership Quarterly, 23(3), 476-487. doi: 10.1016/j.leaqua.2011.12.002

McKnight, W. (2008). The Art of Leadership in IT. Information Management, 18(10), 48. doi: 10.1109/TEM.2006.872247