Lawrence, the president of Harvard University once said in 2001 that the world of 21st century has to implement an education system that will produce future leaders and promote growth of innovative ideas. Warren Bennis and Burt Nanus in their book “Leaders: Strategies for taking Charge”, state that the 21st century leadership is completely different from management. They argue that a successful leadership can only be achieved through trust, authority and vision. They emphasize that successful leaders are those who can enforce authority to workers, clearly express the vision to them and create a trustworthy environment in the organization. The authors further believe that the current successful organizations are supported by a strong leadership. This leadership is competent enough to develop new vision and implement changes that drive the organization towards the vision. The authors come with an idea which they call transformative leadership that refers to those people who try to find ways of empowering the current society. These people who are in leadership entrust people to work, change followers to leaders and also change leaders to agents who can implement change. The authors assert that authority encompasses four approaches which include capability, satisfaction, importance and community.
In the second chapter of the book, Warren Bennis and Burt Nanus explain that leaders of an organization allow it to get a vision and turn the vision into reality. They term this as ‘managing others as you manage yourself’. They argue that the problems that are currently faced by managers and leaders are caused by the tendency of being excessively managed or inadequate leadership from most organizations. The authors further define the difference between leadership and management. They state that management means to conduct, to be in charge of a responsibility, to achieve and to bring about action. On the other hand, leadership means to direct, influence, guide, and act. The whole book describes that leadership is guided by four major strategies which include concentration by vision, sense by communication, trust by locating and establishment of self by optimistic self consideration. The authors believe that through the employment of these strategies, there is a creation of a common learning in leadership that results into an effective organization. Bennis and Nanus asserts in their book that the best leadership to an organization is that which has an objective, communicates these objectives, organizes itself effectively and empowers its personnel to serve our current society.
Bennis and Nanus describe transformative leadership as those leaders who have the ability to raise and shape their follower’s motives and objectives. These leaders should achieve the community that reflects the interests of leaders as well as those of followers through a significant transformation. In this case, I view leadership as a path that gives leaders a chance to raise their followers’ degree of awareness such as freedom, self-actualization and fairness. Warren Bennis and Burt Nanus describe how leadership can raise the degree of awareness or consciousness. They believe that effective leaders are those who can organize themselves. They also state that leadership has the ability to form an institution and authorize the personnel to satisfy their demands. They also assert that successful leaders must have five important skills which include the ability to deal with problems in present terms instead of the past, capacity to understand people’s personalities, ability to relate courteously with all people regardless of their relationship with them, capacity to trust and work independent of recognition and support from other people. In conclusion, I believe that leaders should be guided by a number of strategies when serving their organization. These include; being reactive, changing both the internal and external environment and developing a link between these environments.
Works cited
Bennis, Warren G. and Burt Nanus. Leaders:the strategies for taking charge. New York: Harper & Row, 2003.
