Term Paper on "Analyzing Leadership Secrets of Colin Powell by Oren Harari"

Term Paper 8 pages (2712 words) Sources: 8

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Powell cites that in the early years as an officer in the army, he used his experiences of youth, his first army assignments and his ROTC. He says that even as he moved, he encountered challenges to his personal values and still developed greater competencies. He eventually attained his warrior principles. He says he kept making painful decisions as he learnt more lessons in leadership approaches. He also learnt ways to get along and cooperate with his peers and even his subordinates. He also came to know that actions lead to consequences and thus, subsequently developed his consequences for his actions. He acquired and developed the strength to handle stress, complexity and ambiguity. He used his initial 10 years in the service to refine his leadership skills through the ranks. He says he learned the way to handle leaders in higher hierarchy. He resolved many crises. He was subjected to many situations of uncertainty and ambiguity. In my view, the initial years of his career were the defining moments that shaped what he came to be as he wrote the book.

Powell soon faced greater challenges in his career in the latter years. He used his earlier experiences to bolster his own confidence in higher office. He has been cited by his peers and seniors to have had strong work ethics. He reports to have gained from superior mentorship through the ranks up until he served his term as the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (Roth, 1994).

Powell was known for his exceptional negotiation skills with ARVN and communication approaches. He succeeded greatly at enabling his teams and those at higher levels reach consensus. Part 43 A of this review shows that the technical and conceptual abilities were developed in the early years of his military service. He attended graduate school at George Washington University. He took charge as a battalion commander for a year in the republic of Korea. He had a stint in the Pentagon for nine months, served under the fellowship program in the White House, attended school at the National War College and took his service to work as the Brigade Commander in 101 stAirborne (Air Assault) regiment. His strategic leadership development entails a number of elements. His strategic leadership improved as his competencies developed. He was appointed the secretary of state in 2011. He came on with a host of experiences that he had accumulated along his career path. He had served three presidents and worked for seven years in the Washington Circle. He was a master of system operations at the White House. He had shown that he would be an effective secretary of state. He came on with a different approach to his predecessors. While they only concentrated on foreign policy, he added himself the duties of ensuring that management worked efficiently. He stated in a speech he delivered in 2002 that he had not moved in government to serve the needs of the American people in foreign policy alone. He stated that he was taking up the job as the leader and manager of the department of foreign policy (Powell & Persico, 1996). He also shared a strong vision with the staff in the state department. He stated clearly that he was taking full charge of the management of the state department. The man has assumed and privately assumed the duties and obligations in a clear sign of statesmanship. The man evolved and transcended the two separate careers of military leadership to statesmanship by using the same competencies that made him succeed in his earlier career days (Johansen, 2003). Collin Powell is gifted with people skills and easily gains admiration from everyone he gets in touch with. This does not mean that everyone always agrees with him; that is an impossible task in a democratic environment. He is often consulted by both democrats and republicans on leadership strategies and other issues. In particular, he served as the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under President George W. Bush. He served in the same capacity under the senior Bush and was sought to be the running mate for Bill Clinton in his quest for presidency in 1992. He is one neutral technocrat that transcends party lines with ease and makes friends on both sides of the divide. This is the reason why Collin Powell has been the subject of discussion in over 20 books. He also has an autobiography named 'My American Journey'. Oren Harari identified a practical mission and leadership based on the people during the reading of Collin Powell's autobiography. This is the type of leadership that makes Powell stand out from the crowd.

Professor Harari, a Graduate of McLaren School of Business, University of San Francisco, pointed to sixteen leadership lessons, as espoused by this enigma by the name Collin Powell. The professor enumerated these lessons and explained them in his special review titled "Quotations from Chairman Powell: A Leadership Primer."

The article was widely accepted and was later endorsed by Collin Powell. Consequently, professor Harari decided it was worth the readers while to expand on every lesson in Powell's book. Each of the chapters attends to one of the lessons on the list of sixteen in 'The Leadership Secrets of Colin Powell'.

The book is generally an easy read; whether one wishes to do so from back to back or read each chapter independently.

Apart from the annoying obsession with an almost meaningless referencing of names, the book is invaluable to current and aspiring leaders (Lirely, 2003).

The strategic leader makes use of command and provides focus on vision. He makes use of peer skills and motivates other people in their teams to think and act prudently.

Collin manifested these qualities on a continuous trail through his career (Means, 1992). There are clearly many factors that made Colin Powell such a great success. However, if there is one outstanding attribute in all these, it is the fact that he could work with people from across the socio-political and economic divide.

Conclusion

Having considered Collin Powell's career and life, achievements and failures, leadership skills and effective ways of management, we conclude that, indeed, he is one of the best statesman America has ever produced. He has managed change, shown receptiveness to new encounters and experiences, and has demonstrated consistency in his character. Indeed, one will have to look long and hard to question Powell's integrity. So far, he is an icon and enigma. Although he has the option of retiring to the golf courses, he still chooses to serve the nation in challenging public positions (Johansen, 2003).

References

Harari, O. (2002). The leadership secrets of Colin Powell. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Harari, O. (2003). The leadership secrets of Colin Powell. McGraw Hill Professional.

Harari, O. (n.d.). Speed Review: The Leadership Secrets of Colin Powell. Retrieved January 16, 2016, from http://www.summary.com/book-reviews/_/The-Leadership-Secrets-of-Colin-Powell/

Johansen, G. (2003). Strategic Leadership Assessment of Colin L. Powell. ARMY WAR COLL CARLISLE BARRACKS PA.

Lirely, R. (2003, May 23). Book Review: The Leadership Secrets of Colin Powell. Retrieved January 16, 2016, from https://www.td.org/Publications/Newsletters/Links/2003/05/Book-Review-the-Leadership-Secrets-of-Colin-Powell

Means, H. B. (1992). Colin Powell: Soldier/Statesman, Statesman/Soldier. Ballantine Books.

Oren Harari -- Leadership secrets of Colin Powell -- Leadership Skills. (2007, June 2). Retrieved January 16, 2016, from http://www.prolificliving.com/oren-harari-leadership-secrets-of-colin-powell/

Powell, C. L.,… READ MORE

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