Leadership Today: Guidelines for Today’S Effective Leaders

By Stavros Baroutas

Leadership Today is a useful, informative, profound and insightful book that clarifies and sums up various definitions and features of the personality of a true leader. It is of no secret that many people these days clamor for a competent leader. However, it is the authors contention that in order to obtain such dream to manifest into reality, the public must first be able to identify the categories of an efficient leader. Stavros Baroutas brilliantly enumerates certain qualities that separate a leader from a follower, not a very easy task considering how frustrating it may sound when people tend to cease searching for them when one does not seem to meet such expectations.

Multiple features, qualifications and standards of what constitutes a capable leader are being discussed in this book. Indeed, it is very timely that this book has been produced especially at a crucial point when great leaders are in high demand. Most applicable in the field of business and entrepreneurship, this book helps identify the relevant factors to which the leaders of a corporation could identify their organizational structure. The information in this work helps to find key elements to boost performance and production from company employees. Also, the compelling pages of this book allow readers to explore the factors behind the phenomenon of procrastination and lack of motivation from individuals who used to perform with ardent passion and love for their work. The author delves into how leaders can adhere to such dilemma and what attitude should be applied when dealing with these deficiencies.

Providing readers with relevant answers to questions and problems that are commonly encountered in todays business companies, this book helps every manager smoothen out tangles and bumps along the transition period of every change in the growing business setting, an inevitable occurrence in the professional and corporate trend. These are just a few of the many useful points that this beneficial book can offer. You can read more to http://www.stavrosbaroutas.com OR to www.baroutas.com

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris UK
• Release date: Sep 9, 2011
• ISBN: 9781465351531

Book preview

Copyright © 2011 by Stavros Baroutas.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2011915592

ISBN: Hardcover 978-1-4653-5152-4

ISBN: Softcover 978-1-4653-5151-7

ISBN: Ebook 978-1-4653-5153-1

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted

in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,

recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,

without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the

product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance

to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

This book was printed in the United States of America.

Contact Author: [e-mail]

Contact translator: Maria Ampelourgou, [e-mail]

To order additional copies of this book, contact:

Xlibris Corporation

0-800-644-6988

www.xlibrispublishing.co.uk

[e-mail]

302671

CONTENTS

Acknowledgements

About the Book

Introduction

About Leadership

Searching for Leadership

Leadership vs. Management

Communication and Leadership

Development of a Leadership Figure

Real Leadership

Fake Leadership

The Real Leader

A Leader and Other Executives; Relations

Leadership Skills and Features

Association to the Organisation

Culture

Leadership and Strategy

Flexibility

Principles and Values

Motives

Denial in the Workplace

Leadership Attitudes

The Art of Leadership

Leadership, Respect and Altruism

Heroes or Leaders?

How to Keep Followers Faithfull

Renouncing Leadership

Leadership and the Common Good

Adjustment to Various Settings

Conclusion

Books

Articles

DVDs

Notes

At some point, while cruising in a hot-air balloon, a man realizes he has lost orientation . . .

Making his way to the ground, he notices some man down below. He lowers the balloon further and shouts:

– Excuse me sir, could you please help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but I’m afraid I have no idea where I am . . .

– Certainly sir! You are ascending in a hot-air balloon, hovering approximately 30 feet above this field. You are between 40 and 42 degrees North latitude, and between 58 and 60 degrees West Longitude, comes the reply.

– You must be a programmer, says the balloonist.

– I am, replies the man. How did you know?

– Well, everything you have told me is technically correct, but I have no idea what to make of your information and the fact is I am still lost.

– You must be a project manager, says the man below.

– Yes, I am, replies the balloonist, but how did you know?

– Well, says the man, you don’t know where you are, or where you are heading to. You have made a promise which you have no idea how to keep, and you expect those below you to solve your problem. The fact remains that you find yourself in the same position you were before we met, but now it’s somehow my fault!!! . . .

A new way of thinking for the New Economy calls not only for new theories, but for new ways of thinking about theories . . .

Ellen Langer

Professor of Social Psychology

at Harvard University

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

No work of any kind could possibly reach its final form without the contribution of certain people. Hence, this writing attempt owes to all those people who readily contributed to its realisation, exhibiting remarkable patience and good faith. Be that as it may, in no way do the content or certain facts cited throughout the pages of this book refer to the aforementioned individuals, let alone represent them in any possible manner. What helped me while introducing certain hypothetical—or not—situations was my personal experience, after assuming teaching and consultation positions in various companies, both Greek and multinational.

Along these lines, I would like to thank my friend Nikos Kiousis, Business Executive and Consultant, who supported me and provided me with much valued advice during harsh professional circumstances. Thank you Nikos!

Likewise, I thank Christos Karabelas, CEO of Ericsson Romania Corporation for his never-ending knowledge.

Likewise, I would like to thank Mr. Isaak Kesisoglou, Professor of Surgery in the 3rd Clinic of Surgery of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (peripheral general hospital of Thessaloniki, AHEPA), who provided me with information about management in the public sector.

Furthermore, I thank Nikos Vasileiadis of the Healthcare Company Sanofi-Aventis, who sacrificed a significant part of his summer vacations gathering information for my questionnaires.

Moreover, I thank Akis Aslanoglou, Sales Manager Novartis Pharmaceuticals S.A., for his high professional ethics, as well as for providing me with information concerning his domain of activity.

Likewise, Petros Andreou, Area Manager of Medochemie Pharma and Giannis Vrettos, Sales Manager Abbott Diagnostics, for their trust in my enterprise.

I also thank Social Anthropologist Christos Matikas for his valuable appreciation of my texts, as well as Graphic Designer Manos Mpoulakis for his remarkable ideas, as far as the book cover and layout are concerned.

My acknowledgements to my friend, Dimitris Malliaris, for his trust so far and to Dominick L. Flarey, former President of Breyer State University, PhD, MBA, RN, FACHE, for his support and quick response to any of my inquiries. Also, to Kelly Aslanidou for her patience and immense help with foreign bibliography, as well as her additional help in my second research doctoral programme.

I also owe a big thank you to my father and my brother Panagiotis for their love and trust, as well as to Mr. Athanasios Zisopoulos and all those who still believe in me.

Finally, I would like to thank the rest of the people who were willing to help me in my writing attempt and yet opted to remain anonymous for personal reasons.

ABOUT THE BOOK

The book you are about to examine constitutes an attempt to sum up and clarify various definitions and features of the personality of a leader, a notion much in fashion these days. This may be the case, since people have always been asking for a competent leader. There are times when one is able to identify numerous individuals who would qualify as efficient leaders and somehow periods when no one seems to meet such expectations. The constitution of a capable leader comes down to multiple features, summarised and analysed further in the book. It appears that leadership is an ever demanding affair to engage with nowadays.

In which ways is it possible to modify the structures of an organisation through leadership? Such a scheme demands the executives’ commitment and devotion to its goals and outcome.

Which factors prevent the executives from identifying with the pursuits/outcome of a company of organisation? Which factors reduce their activity to a nonchalant execution of duties? In other words, what prevents the employees of an organisation from adding up to their usual performance?

Along the same lines, what makes individuals pass from a stage of creative enterprise to swamping in the stagnant art of getting by? How can a leader challenge such phenomena and which is the appropriate attitude to be employed?

This book provides readers with answers to questions and problems encountered in today’s business companies. It qualifies as source of information during their studies and serves to smooth out their introduction to the current business setting. Moreover, it is of use to every manager who is aware of the constant change in today’s business setting, as well as of the adjustment needs stemming from such transitions, in both professional and socioeconomic contexts. Finally, the book examines current leadership deficiencies, in terms of existing and non-existing parameters.

All the above are illustrated in a way that underscores the role of a leader regarding such operational problems, at the same time distinguishing between the duties of a leader and a manager.

INTRODUCTION

The world we live in is everlasting; yet every single bit of existence has an expiry date. The clock is ticking; time is flowing and in any definition of leadership it should be taken into account that every single action, no matter how short it might last, has an essence in time. An act of leadership might as well constitute an isolated case; still, by means of chain reactions, real leadership is founded on a series of procedures implicating a particular aftermath for the employees of an organisation/company, as well as society as a whole.

People are in favour of proper leadership and its followers; that is, a mode of leadership which directs its advocates towards the common good and the interest of society. Therefore, individuals ask for leadership at home, in the workplace, as well as within the various social groups they pertain to. At this point, taking into account the abovementioned principles, there arises a definition of the term leadership: leadership is the construction and execution of remarkable deeds, employing ethical means and serving equally ethical purposes.

Nevertheless, within the context of competitive economy, leadership is bound to determine the winners and losers. Hence, judging from the current state of affairs, one would question the ethic parameter in leadership means and purposes, no matter how levelling this may sound.

The aforementioned definition may sound weird, considering the presence of terms such as remarkable and ethical. One should bear in mind that, as long as leadership constitutes a series of actions and relations occupying certain space in time, it also implicates the notion of repetition; repetition which serves the common good. This is where the key to efficient leadership lies. Alas, performance of quite a few leaders comes to absolute zero. Such a fact allows for doubts concerning the existence of actual leadership figures.

Leadership does not constitute an inherent feature in human character. However, experience on its own is inadequate. Directors and managers base their schemes on various ideas and hypotheses; only after having tested the last ones are they capable of learning through experience. A number of questions come up at this point: Which are the factors they are likely to take into account? Who are the ones to be affected by their schemes; in which way and to what extent? What motivates people to work hard for the attainment of certain goals? Which parameters determine the existence of settings where one’s success is guaranteed, whereas others’ pursuits come to nothing? What is the role of money in such matters? It may be that proper leadership acts to the benefit of majorities within certain groups, in such a way that power/authority does not associate directly to the capital.

The term leadership denotes, by definition, a sense of human value. In a setting lacking leadership, people ask for a leader in such a manner that they are most likely to support whoever appears more competent at the time, compromising for the sake of their values and interests.

In this book an attempt is made to bring theory to practice, by means of knowledge and professional experience acquired during my occupation as salesman, later trainer and director of Northern Greece, especially after observing a number of other directors, as well as the impact of their actions on the rest of the employees in the organisation/company. Which actions of directors/leaders leave a lot to be desired according to the rest of the executives?

On the other hand, serving as external observer through my experience as external associate (trainer) in certain companies and employee in others, I aim to report leaders’ deficiencies regarding attitude towards the rest of the employees; what is it that they failed to accomplish in order to gain their followers’ support? Which are the essential elements to assure such a support on the part of the employees?

This writing attempt is laid upon experience, theoretical knowledge and observation. It is my firm belief that it will be of help to students—since it summarises large part of theories from foreign bibliography—as well as to executives and employees in the public or private sector.