Leadership
The book by Buckingham has great ideas and insights on management. The book discusses leveraging of strengths as a theme and gives all business people including students, business professionals and entrepreneurs critical lessons in outstanding achievement and insights on great management success in one’s career and leadership. Exploring the “One Thing” (Buckingham, 2005); that is the main idea in the book, shows critical differences between great leadership and great management and offers clear suggestions and insights for developing the skills effectively. On the first part of the book titled “The One Thing You Need to Know about Sustained Organizational Success” (Buckingham, 2005), Buckingham agrees with the idea that any great organization requires a great leader. However, he states that the challenges being faced by the organization stipulate the importance of the managerial role.
Buckingham states some key points that contradict many management scholars’ opinions about leadership and management. He does not believe in the interchangeability of leadership and management. He also refutes the claim that everyone in the organization has to be a good leader regardless of his or her position in the firm. Buckingham believes that a leader or manager can improve their performance through training, experience and practice. However, he states that the core talents are quite crucial for one to achieve this and without them, it would be virtually impossible to excel in the two areas. He states, “A powerful ego, defined as the need to take grand claims, is one of their most defining characteristics” (Buckingham, 2005). This clearly defines his opposing position on humility and self-effacing in an effective leader.
Buckingham defines the core responsibility of a great manager not as many of the other writers on the subject discuss it to be. He negates the belief that the role of a great manager as to ensure quality customer service, enforcing quality, setting standards or building high performing teams. The major concepts that Buckingham addresses include skills that he gives managers to avoid failure in their duties. He says that great managers know exactly what they seek when doing selections of people and know that it is crucial to select the people who have what they are looking for. He also says that the definition of clear-cut expectations is an important practice in good management. Recognition and Praise is the third skill to avoid failure in management and the fourth one is showing explicit and open care to one’s staff through bonding.
The key skills mentioned above are all significant and crucial to Federal managers since they lead public offices. Federal managers require sound judgments and intuition in their daily duties to enable them select the appropriate candidates as they deal with very many people on a daily basis. The skills discussed in the book also apply greatly in my day-to-day duties as a manager since I am a human resource manager. I deal with the recruitment, review, and assessment of performance for my company. As discussed earlier the key discussion point of the book squarely focuses on my line of work. It has helped me greatly improve in my activities as a manager and has displayed key weaknesses and strengths that I possess.
From the book, I have made a discovery of an opportunity for growth that involves the discovery of my dislikes. Buckingham states “discover what you do not like doing and stop doing it” (Buckingham, 2005). This clearly defines that one should identify roles in the office they do not like to perform and should stop them. This shall in turn lead to a better performance of one’s duties since they shall enjoy their work. At the same time, Buckingham identifies a strength that I possess. He states that the knowledge of what roles engage one’s strengths and which do not is important. Moreover, one should have discipline enough to reject the latter. I possess this strength, as I know how to avoid the frustrating and boring activities that do not engage my strengths.
References
Buckingham, M. (2005). The one thing you need to know: about great managing, great leading, and Sustained Individual Success. New York, NY: Simon and Schuster.
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