What Makes a Good Leader?
According to McCall (1998), experience should be the greatest criterion determining a good leader. Although talent is also an important factor in clarity, the experience is fundamentally significant because most executives are not only born, but they also learn, grow, and change in time. Most people, however, elaborate that those who agree to undertake duties to gain experience are being tested. Nevertheless, McCall explanation shows that this kind of thinking is a misguided interpretation. In fact, experience allows an individual to learn from this process, which is regarded as a powerful tool and a teacher of potential leaders (McCall, 1998). Apparently, an experience can only be gained after an extensive practice in one’s field of study. Moreover, experience allows an individual to be focused and fully equipped for future crises or situations. Being part of an organization’s business strategy allows an individual to acquire new skills needed to tackle any changes in the future.
On the other hand, although the writer indicates that making poor decisions is the main reason that leads to the downfall of a leader, I believe that the rigidity should be classified as paramount. According to McCall (2008), potential leaders should understand that organizational functions change with time. Consequently, each era comes with different but equal measures of challenges and positive impacts. Therefore, they should be able to undertake and apply different leadership styles amid the forces of globalization. McCall recorded that any leader who used his/her managerial skills twenty years after World War II was termed as inadequate. This is because the world today is characterized by extensive global competition, economic upheaval, deregulation, and technological revolution. Otherwise, regardless of anybody’s talent or experience, individuals will either become legendary or experience a faded glory because they either choose to use agility and different leadership style or rigidity during their terms of leadership.
References
McCall, M. W. (1998). High flyers: Developing the next generation of leaders. Boston, Ma:
Harvard Business School Press.
