The Importance Of Leadership In Management

Perhaps leadership topic is one of the most widely discussed and researched in management. This comes on the reason of leaders and their crucial importance to organizational success. It’s said that, in most situation a team, i.e. organization is only as good as its leader.

The founder of modern management Peter F. Drucker gives the off standard definition of a leadership concept. According to him leadership is not about magnetic personality or making friends and influencing people, but leadership is lifting person’s vision to higher sight, the raising a person’s of performance to a higher standard, the building of a personality beyond it’s normal limitation. Among all the other traditional definitions of leadership, three aspects stand out

Nothing tests a leader as crisis. Crisis can hit at anytime, anywhere, and no organization can escape this stage. And especially nowadays, with rapid changes in economical and political environments, the need of crisis management and leadership is becoming essential. During all hard times, by the light of nature people tend to follow along only a strong leader they trust in. All of this is applicable to a modern business environment as well. In challenging times, only a good leader can keep corporate spirit alive, employees calm and brought together, and eventually lead company successfully through it. Effective crisis leadership can rescue an organization from chaos and deliver opportunities where before there were only disadvantages. Organizations that successfully handle crisis situations can come out of them stronger and with greater employee, customer, and community loyalty than existed prior to the crisis. Leaders must look deep into the crisis for such opportunities that not only benefit the organization but also raise the potential for individual achievement among the organization’s

Literally, Anne provided Xerox with new lease of life. In the beginning of new millennium, Xerox almost went bankruptcy with total debt of over $ 17 billion and recorded losses within last 6 years. From the beginning, Mulcahy and her team devised a bold plan for recovery. In 3 years she moved Xerox from losing $273 million to earning $91 million. Above all, Money magazine dubbed this case as “the great turnaround story of the post-crash era”. Mulcahy said that effective communication was perhaps the single most important component of the company 's successful turnaround strategy. "I feel like my title should be Chief Communication Officer, because that 's really what I do," she said, emphasizing the importance of listening to customers and employees. "When I became CEO, I spent the first 90 days on planes traveling to various offices and listening to anyone who had a perspective on what was wrong with the company. I think if you spend as much time listening as talking, that 's time well spent." Mulcahy believed that among other key businesses changes, motivating employees at Xerox was a key way to pull the company back from the failure. Her leadership guidelines were honesty with employees, confidence and believe in values and principles she espouses. Thus, Mulcahy’s led managed approach not only successfully saw the company through this difficult time but also