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26.09.2012 Feature Article

MANAGERS OR LEADERS: THE CHOICE OF A MODERN CEO

MANAGERS OR LEADERS: THE CHOICE OF A MODERN CEO
26.09.2012 LISTEN

INTRODUCTION
In most parts of the world today; some CEOs or Business owners have considered appointing the best managers they have spotted or being in the media for awhile through any means available to them no matter what may cost them; even worse from their main competitors. Obviously there are typical examples of managers or key players of firms you can observe being in the vicious cycle of swapping mostly in the same industry.

One may wonder whether that's the path modern business want to tread on: filing the job vacancies with the 'already-made' managers in the industry without considering perhaps the consequential snag such move can pose onto the business. Piling up the most cream of the industry may not add aggregate or substantial profit to the business; it may rather lead to an inexorable additional cost.

In one instance a forward-looking CEO of any company must do three things in this regard: Manage the present, selectively reflect on the past, encourage peer initiative, and create the future. Creativity, ingenuity, and the visionary aspect of the eagle should be the prime virtues of every business owner if he/she wants to sustain the business empire to meet the unexpected turn-out of tomorrow.

“Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future”-John F. Kennedy

Many first-time entrepreneurs will agree that the reality of running a small business is very different than what they had expected. Some business owners may have the misconception that once they launch their business they will be able to finally have more available free time to do their things, have stress-free lifestyle; however this is completely not true. A significant amount of sacrifice is indispensable in running your own business environment. Many business owners may not be prepared for these daily challenges and may lack the necessary personal drive and motivation to manage their employees, deal with customers, or even run a whole company sometimes and this in tend lead to chasing 'bigwigs' they believe to be the best caliber for such purpose to take over the affairs of the investment venture.

No one want to dispute the reality of tapping the ideas of the ingenuous to effect a change but sometimes change is actually not necessary with a second look at the status quo. Innovations and improvement are indispensable if we all want a change in all aspects of our economy. The working environment should also be a venue for training and development of employees. To garner people to manage a business is appropriately not better than training even the young ones to take up those positions to engineer the attainment of the aspirations of the business you have toiled before establishing.

"Every factory must be a school to educate, like Che Guevara said, to produce not only briquettes, steel, and aluminum, but also, above all, the new man and woman, the new society..."-Hugo Chávez, at a May 2009 transformation workshop

Consider a few of the great innovation stories of the past few years that the world has unprecedentedly experienced: Google, Facebook, Peace FM, Microsoft, Adom FM, and Twitter. Now ask yourself why wasn't Google created by Jack Dorsey? Peace FM by Kwasi- Twum? Microsoft by Mark Zuckerberg? Adom FM by Osei Kwame Despite or Fcaebook by Bill Gates, or Twitter by Larry Page and Sergey Brin?

What do you think the world would have being if Ronaldinho were an Afro pop Singer and Michael Jackson a Striker on the pitch? All these personalities have being unique in creativity, talent, and their corporations or fields too have been well. Critical studies in them about their background will surprisingly reveal perhaps that they either begun their establishments while they were young or were attached to young responsible and talented persons.

Why do established corporations struggle to find the next big thing before new competitors do? The problem is pervasive; and the examples are countless. The simple explanation is that many companies become too focused on executing today's business models there by hand-picking people they can work with to achieve this in no time and forget that business models are perishable but customers are always there for more. Success today does not guarantee success tomorrow.

“Obviously everyone wants to be successful, but I want to be looked back on as being very innovative, very trusted and ethical and ultimately making a big difference in the world”- Sergey Brin

Focus on the future of your business through a human resource development perspective with unique orientations designed to build and shape the business. Prudent capacity building programmes provide classic orientations that shape all aspects of a business. The contemporary view of capacity building goes beyond the conventional perception of training or organizing workshops. Many of these workshops have yielded gross results in many corporations in our world today. The central concerns of business environment management should be - to manage intuitively, to resolve conflict, to manage organisational pluralism, to foster communication, and to ensure that all forms of the business are judiciously exploited. This requires a broad and holistic view of capacity development.

The question that comes forth again is what is a business for?

Most people primarily believe that business is set in order to make money. That's not bad at all; but business is not only about making money. Business is also about society, building human capital, and partly about socialization.

“A business has to be involving, it has to be fun, and it has to exercise your creative instinct”.-Richard Branson

Managers and Leaders: the concept of the personalities

Tough, persistent, smart, analytical, tolerant, and goodwill- all these are qualities you want in your best manager; that alright. How else can they perform their jobs: solving problems and directing people and affairs? But let's face it; it takes neither genius nor heroism to be a manager. Even highly valued managers do not inflame employees' or subordinates' passions and imaginations. Nor do they stimulate the change that the organisation requires. For those qualities you need leaders, not managers to drive corporate success.

Managers and leaders are two different personalities. Managers seek order, control, mechanism, and are almost compulsively addicted to disposing off problems even before they understand their potential significance. Leaders are commonly like artists; they tolerate chaos and lack structure. Artists normally become fanatical when they see their fans cheers and chants whiles they perform on the stage. They [Leaders] keep answers in suspense giving room for their followers to say what they have on their mind, and prevent premature closure on important issues.

It is a well-known fact that it takes a competent leader to successfully start, run, and cultivate a business. Many successful entrepreneurs have this leadership ability. They are able to execute their goals in a timely manner and possess the integrity to deliver. They are great delegators and attract a solid management team. In addition, they assume the security and risks of their company while still focusing on their objectives and motivating others in order to guide their company towards success.

CEOs need both managers and leaders to excel. But too often they don't create the right environment for leaders to flourish. Leaders perceptively probe every aspect of proposals and opportunities to discover the positive aspects present in almost every situation and this could be best ingredients that will spur corporations to attain their objectives beyond proportion.

Conclusion
A new entrepreneur with a brilliant business idea should learn how other businesses have fared during different seasons of the year and understand how the economy plays an influential role in a company's success thereby breaking the mystic views behind competitors and benchmarking. Did they employ new people in their quest to spur? Or they groomed their employees to attain great potentials? In addition, consider to raise good personalities that can put your organisation on a new platform of analytical thinking, brainstorming, planning and handling humans. After all, individuals who plan well tend to be the most successful individuals.

If you want to be really good at something, it's going to involve relentlessly pushing past your comfort zone and sacrifice now that you have established your own organisation, as well as frustration, struggle, setbacks and failures. That's true as long as you want to continue to improve, or even maintain a high level of excellence in your entrepreneurial organisation. The reward is that being really good at something you've earned through your own hard work can be immensely satisfying.

My regards to you reading!
Address of the Writer:
Richard K. B. Eyiah
+233 (0)266730702
cobbybill526@hotmail.com

www.brandportgh.com
Accra

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