1.0 Introduction
The Seven Faces of Leadership, Robert J. Allio, Tata McGraw-Publishing Company Limited, 2003, 230 pages, RM56.70
In The Seven Faces of Leadership Robert J. Allio is explaining the new philosophy of management. This philosophy was never touch by other management gurus before. His wide experience in leadership and management made him capable enough to explore and discuss this philosophy. Robert J. Allio raised several issues regarding this topic such as: Are leader made or born? Can leadership be taught? What qualities do leaders share? Is there a formula for leadership? He had focused most on the business facet such as business management, marketing management, strategic management and others field of managements. The discussion is based on the Seven Faces of Leadership : purposeful, visionary, strategic, beneficent, adaptive, guiding and virtuous which form the subject of the book. He also added the models for leadership success and failure. Beside that, the deep discussion on the originated of leaders and example of the success and failure make this book is very special and so knowledgeable.
2.0 Brief outline of the chapter
The purposeful leader is the first of the seven faces of leadership. Through the experienced of the author, he said that his experience leads him to conclude that strong beliefs about values and purpose are the keys to the future success of any organization. The values and purpose play a vital role in the success of any organization. Values tell readers to act positively and in a good manner. It is the philosophy that leader must follow. If the values fail, then the performance of the organization will fail. If we don’t have purpose, then we will not reach the place that we want to go. It is impossible to achieve success without goals. The clear vision and mission will direct us to the achievement of the success. Values shape the purpose of our organization.
The visionary leader is the second challenge to function. The author said that this facet helps the organization to develop a clear picture of the future and how it expects to position itself in the future. Visionary leader identify a customer need to be met, a technology that must be developed, an injustice to be redressed, a change that is about to alter our world, or an opportunity waiting to seized. A good leader must have the ability to imagine and forecast the future. What will occur if they chose strategy A or other strategy? I do believe that a great leader posses the skill of imagination. It is true that caeser of the Rom won the battle because he had a good imagination. Napolean Bonaparte is a visionary leader when he conquered many countries in the west long ago. Anyhow I didn’t agree when Rober J,Allio said that prophets have never successfully foretold the arrival of major environmental, social, political and economic dislocations. In Islam, this all are in the Koran. Prophet Muhammad is the best example. If we read and explore the Koran, we will get many things. It is clear that Robert J.Allio gave his opinion based on his personal view without referred to the religion. Who is Robert J.Allio that can critic Prophets. He is none just an ordinary man that will die some day.
The strategic leader is the third facet of the Seven Faces of Leadership. Robert J.Allio quotes the word of Seneca the Younger which said that our plans miscarry because they have no aim. When a man does not know what harbour he is making for, no wind is the right wind. Therefore, a strategic leader must have aim to be successful. If leader don’t have aim, he will not able to plan and there are no push factors for the success. In the globalization era, leader must think out of the box and apply the blue ocean strategy. Robert J.Allio said that the development of an inspiring leader vision answers the question “Where do we want to go?”. But the strategic leader needs to choose the best strategy. Many methods can be applied such as Boston Cosulting Group (BCG) and SWOT Analysis.
The beneficent leader is the fourth of the Seven Faces of Leadership. Robert J.Allio said that the beneficent leader must implement the strategies credited by the strategic leader, a task he or she can carry out only if the followers are committed to the mission of the enterprise. The implementation stage is the most difficult stage. Whether the strategies are successfully implemented depend much on beneficent leader. A good strategy if not implemented is none. A leader must create communities by referred to strong boundaries, shared values, purpose and identity, trust and loyalty. Strong community makes possible the implementation of strategies, programme and project. The implementation process need support from subordinates in order to make sure that the strategies implemented are effective. That’s why he or she must build a good relationship with his or her subordinate. The beneficent leader must have the skill in giving the order and know when to use autocratic and participative management. There is no doubt that subordinates will do all the things asked by managers or leaders.
The adaptive leader is addressing the challenge of continuous change. Robert J.Allio said that yesterday’s strategy may have been brilliant, even elegant. But the odds are that today or tomorrow, a shift in the market, a competitior`s new tactics, a technological innovation, a federal or local regulation will render it obsolete. An effective leader will adapt effectively with the changes. The adaptive leader will understand the changes and try to be the first which will get the benefit from it. In the stages of an organization’s life cycle, the adaptive leader will adapt and come out with a new strategy in every stage to gain the competitive advantage.
The guiding leader discuss on the leader responsibility to ensure continuity high performance demands that he or she school a corps of respected individuals who share the values, purpose, vision and strategy of the organization. Robert J.Allio said that improving leadership continuity and succession demands a three stages programme : selection, challenge and mentoring. The guiding leader must guide others to follow the path of success. They have to lead by example. Then we ca minimise the number and magnitude of mistakes. A guiding leader must be a good mentor to his subordinates. The role of guiding leader is absolutely important in order to make sure the success of the organization is protected. Be a good thinker and mentor is the key to success of the organization. No one can deny this.
The virtuous leader is the last facet of the Seven Faces of Leadership. Robert J.Allio state that the virtuous leader recognizes that he or she must develop and strengthen the qualities that support them in the leadership role. Leadership qualities or attributes fall into intrinsic or genetic qualities and extrinsic qualities. The three cardinal qualities of a virtuous are character, creativity and compassion. Integrity and good ethics is very important to establish justice and goodness as guiding principles for an organizational decision. Action taken is for the prosperity of the organization. They will seek out new technology and new method. The virtuous leader also depends critically on effective communication.
3.0 Strength of the book
The philosophy of the Seven Faces of Leadership by Robert J.Allio is a concept that is not discussed yet by gurus of management. Even the late Peter Drucker never wrote this philosophy in his book. It is a new philosophy that express on the values and purpose of the leader for the success of the organization. This book is objective and explains clear points in every chapter. It can increase the performance of the leaders. Beside that, many examples were given in this book especially in the context of business. Many successful corporate leaders were mentioned in this book. It is also well organized which make us interested in reading this book. The most important is the philosophy in this book can be applied is in our daily activities as managers and leaders. The book is very informative and significant since Robert J.Allio is an experience person in the field of management and leadership. The content in the book based on his experience and the empirical study which he had carry out to make this book more useful to the readers.
4.0 Weaknesses of the book
Robert J.Allio explained more on the business leader. A lot of the examples given based on successful corporate leaders. Even though some great leaders were mentioned in this book such as Napolean Bonaparte, Sir Winston Churchill and many others, Robert J.Allio just give a brief explanation about them. He should discuss more on the attribute of the great leaders, their history and why they were successful. When we talk about leadership, it is good if Robert J.Allio can balance the political leaders and corporate leaders. By focusing much on the corporate leader, this book wasn’t discussed comprehensively on the leader. Beside that, in the evaluating leaders and leadership chapters, Roberts J.Allio compares the leaders by giving some example of the leaders. But he still gave brief explanation on the success and attributes of the leader. The readers will not have a clear idea on the greatness of the leaders and they also can’t get the example of the attitude of the leaders for their reference.
5.0 Conclusion
Lesson learned from the book are :
5.1 Leaders are born and leaders are also can be taught to become leaders. All potential leaders are born with certain qualities. But they develop into leaders only by forging their craft in the fire of challenge and competition. Leadership can not be taught by exposure to convenient academic modules, despite the claims of many leadership gurus. Paradoxically, however, men and women can be have to be leaders skills and qualities by teaching themselves. Leadership potential is activated by practice.
5.2 Power and authority maybe distributed or may shift from person to person or from group to group. Leadership however is still the pre-requisite for high performance. Effective leader make a difference – they produce good results over a sustained period of time.
5.3 It is clear that leaders are multi-dimensional; they have seven faces and responsibilities. To be a leader is to fill a set of roles, each of which satisfies a critical organizational need and objectives. The purposeful leader addresses values and purposes. The visionary leader focuses on the future of the enterprise. The strategic leader develops the action plan required to realize the vision. The beneficent leader attends to the needs of the community. The adaptive leader help the organization respond to the new demands of the environment. The guiding leader prepares followers to carry on the traditions of the organization. The virtuous leader practices the qualities required to be effective. The leaders must have all this faces to be effective leaders.
5.4 The organization has to bear the consequences if the leaders can’t apply the seven faces of leadership in their management. Even though some say that leader are born but this situation will not guarantee the effectiveness of the leaders. They have to learn how to manage and lead. This book tells us that leader can be made. Therefore, this book give the information and instruction to the readers how to be an effective and efficient leaders by the concept and beneficial example.
