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John Hamm In The Harvard Business Review. Article Review

¶ … John Hamm in the Harvard Business Review. This will be followed up by a two page analytical report comparing and contrasting the content of the Hamm article to selected principles, concepts or theories in chapters 10 through 13 in the our text book, Management of Organizational Behavior. In "The Five Messages He holds that any leader has just one job. This is inspiring his followers to make a difference and a better future for the organization. Effective communication skills are a critical tool that is needed for the accomplishment of this task. In Hamm's summation, business need to employ leadership in the way a SWAT team or an emergency staff organizes itself. Everyone knows what to do and time is analyzed efficiently to its fullest potential.

For a leader to inspire your their workforce followers, Hamm to greatness, suggests absolutely clear communication regarding the following five topics:

A. Organizational Hierarchy: When an organization reorganizes itself, it must quickly re-frame the change in such a way as to most efficiently optimize the resources and not to just blame, oust or devalue employees.

B. Financial Results: Leaders have to present the disappointing results, no matter what they are. These include, problems with capital fund-raising shortfalls. This needs to be seen not as evidence of punishable failure. Rather, it needs to be seen as a useful learning and diagnostic tool that enables the constant improvement of the organization.

C. The Job of the Leader: It is the job of the leader to let his followers know that their job is not to provide all of the answers, but rather to invite new ideas.

D. Time Management: Leadership communications have the importance of using business time strategically. This is not to accomplished by trying to get more things done faster. Rather, leaders have to have the moxy to know where they can best focus their organizational team's energy. It is by understanding that you is choice in how to use precious limited time that one can free up the needed resources to focus upon your the most important goals.

E. Corporate Culture: It is critical...

Then one must define the criteria for success in achieving those goals.
Good leaders are not megalomaniacs who prove their ability to lead by pistol-whipping their subordinates. Rather, they need to show leadership that inspires their subordinates with a clear vision that gives them the motivation to innovate during times of crisis. This is especially necessary during times of corporate transition and changeover when things are chaotic and leadership needs to be done in a crunch. The most effective CEOs ask themselves a number of probing questions. These include:

What needs to happen

1. To the organization today so that everyone knows where they want to go

Where is the confusion in the corporation?

2. Is there a vague concept or belief that can needs clarification or debunking?

What has the leader not communicated

3. clearly or completely?

What types of things are personnel taking for granted?

Hamm summarizes all of this very well in the beginning of the piece when he says: All too often, leaders fail to explain what they mean when they talk about organizational structure, financial results, their own jobs, time management, and corporate culture. Left unclear, these concepts can throw a firm into turmoil -- but when given proper focus, they confer extraordinary leverage (Hamm, 2006, 1).

All of the questions just listed help to focus CEOs in on communicating critical information in crisis times. Clarity of missions translates into decisiveness and effectiveness of execution. Without it, the company suffers the corporate version of death on the battlefield and bankruptcy stalks as surely as death would in a wartime situation.

Analytical Report:

In chapters ten through thirteen, Hersey, Blanchard and Johnson do not present any panacea or right style of leadership in a crisis. One size does not fit all. Leadership has to be tailored to specific situation the cloth is to a human body. Rather, the contributions of a leader to the effectiveness that he or…

Sources used in this document:
Works Cited

Hamm, J. (2006). The five messages leaders must manage. Harvard Business Review.

Hersey, P.H., Blachard, K.H., & Johnson, D.E. (2007). Management of organizational behavior . (9 ed.). New York, NY: Prentice-Hall.
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