Friday, February 14, 2020

Transformational Leadership Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4250 words - 1

Transformational Leadership - Essay Example Based at Fort George, the Black Watch is the 3rd Battalion of the Royal Regiment of Scotland (3 SCOTS) (Arm 2011). Serving the Black Watch as a Company Sergeant Major, I handle a total of 120 soldiers under my command. To become successful in each of the military mission, the Army as a group needs good leadership. Considering my role and responsibilities as Company Sergeant Major, this report will focus on applying leadership theories, principles and techniques in my chosen profession. Prior to the conclusion, factors that make a good leader will be thoroughly discussed. Unlike the role of managers who are managing business organizations, leadership in the military is not about organizational hierarchy, top-down management, or even the use of positional or authoritative power in terms of controlling a group of soldiers. Likewise, it is a myth that military officers within the army are all about following the chain of command since soldiers who are in the military service treat one another as members of a large family. Even though effective commanders are expected to possess command skills and practice good leadership, the true concept of leadership is not about commanding a group of soldiers who are under the control of the commanders Yukl (2002, p. 2) defined leadership as â€Å"a process whereby intentional influence is exerted by one person over other people to guide, structure, and facilitate activities and relationships in a group or organization†. On the other hand, McNamara (2008) defined leadership as â€Å"a process by which a person influences others to accomplish an objective and directs the organization in a way that makes it more cohesive and coherent†. In relation to these definitions, Taylor, Rosenbach, and Rosenbach (2009, p. 1) explained that effective leadership â€Å"is all about getting people to work together to make things happen that might not otherwise occur or to prevent things from happening that would ordinarily take place†. It simply means that effective military leaders include those individuals who are capable not only in influencing other soldiers to strictly follow what is being commanded to them but also motivate, inspire and empower a group of soldiers as uniq ue individuals under my guidance.

Saturday, February 1, 2020

The Custom Woodworking Company Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The Custom Woodworking Company - Essay Example First of all, the project went wrong from the initiation phase itself. In fact, in the initiation phase, the idea for the project is to be ‘fully explored and elaborated’ (Baars, 2006, p. 3). In addition, a proper decision regarding the purpose of the project, the parties to be involved, and the base of support to be provided should all be decided. Evidently, the initiation phase had to answer such questions as the purpose of the project, the feasibility of the project, the people to be included in the project, what results are to be obtained, and the possible boundaries of the project. In other words, according to Heyworth (2002, p. 12), the project concept phase requires solid and clear decision-making process. For this purpose, first of all, a project priority list should be made with clearly defined goals of the project. In fact, there is a lack of this understanding of priority in the case of Woody 2000. For example, there is no project priority list. Instead the pr oject is trying to achieve a number of goals at the same time. Firstly, there is the desire to expand the manufacturing process in order to harvest the benefits of the commercial construction in south-western BC. Secondly, the company wanted to solve the problem of falling production efficiency due to less manufacturing space. When the company develops the project concept, it is not clear as to which goal it is trying to get. One can see that this happened because of lack of coordinated leadership. To illustrate, the company management brought too many people to the concept phase, including Bruce Sharpe who wanted to expand business, Miles Faster who wants to increase production efficiency, John Carpenter who wants computer controlled automation, and Kim Cashman and Spencer Moneysworth who want to cut costs. As a result, what happened was a disjoined decision making. It happens because the people in the phase possessed various ideas about what the project should be. In order to solv e the problem, it was necessary for the team to decide what has to be the priority. As a result of all of these, even when the project was approved, it lacked a specific definition as the project was trying to reach various outcomes at the same time. In other words, different members were concerned about different outcomes. In addition, one can see that the estimated cost is $17 million. However, Woody has decided to spend a maximum of $17 million. It is very evident that a project is likely to cost more than the roughly estimated cost. Thus, the decision to spend not more than the roughly estimated amount will cause financial troubles for the project The real objective of the project could have been to expand the manufacturing process in order benefit from the boom in construction. In order to achieve this objective, the company could adopt a number of different strategies. First of all, the company could start another manufacturing unit in a different place. As already seen in the case study, there was a property available at attractive price some fifteen miles away from the head office. It was possible for the company to develop a new production unit without disrupting the existing production unit. Another option for the company was to expand its existing production plant, and thus raise production capacity. However, the best possible solution at this point is to start a new production plant in the new profitable location with all modern