Leadership Ted Talk

Pages:

4

Academic Level:

University

Paper Type:

Annotated Bibliography

Discipline:

Management

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Leadership Ted Talk

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Leadership Ted Talk

Implementing different forms of decision-making, management, leadership, and command is necessary due to the complexity of community issues. The deployment of a particular form of authority is based on the social construction of an issue. Therefore, the switch from management to leadership and command is based on the context of the problem between tame, wicked, or critical issues. The change is crucial to solving the issue since one single issue may shift across the boundaries of these versions of crises, such as the Covid-19 pandemic. This Ted Talk will thus focus on the statement that the combination of manager, commander, and leader is necessary for the face of changing context of issues.

Management, Leadership and Command

In the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, there is a need to reconsider the way people and governments perceive leadership in terms of acting against societal issues. People and groups with legitimate power, such as governments, are accustomed to shifting between the command, management, and leadership roles based on how they perceive the context of the issue (Grint, 2020). The context is divided into three versions; critical, tame, and wicked. The shift is vital to the success of the situation as it changes our perception of the issue. Therefore, the role of leadership can be better understood by situating the covid-19 pandemic in the context of the three divisions.

Tame issues are complex but known; thus, their solutions exist. In addition, tame issues are solvable within existing expertise practice through unilinear operating procedures since they have happened before. This means there is only a limited degree of uncertainty regarding the issue, thus falling in management through a structured, logical approach (McKeown, 2018). In this context, tame issues constantly have an answer as the occurrence is not new to leaders. The manager must thus adopt a requisite approach to resolve the issue borrowing vital processes from the last time it occurred. In the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, the possible solution was to test for the virus by availing kits and providing experts with resources to understand the mode of infection and suitable treatment methods. In the case of President Trump, the administration provided economic assistance to the Centre for Disease and Control and Prevention (CDC) to provide scientific intervention in terms of vaccines.

The distinction between management and leadership is rooted in the degree of certainty. Managers operate in situations with a higher degree of certainty, while leaders are more prone to uncertain situations. The increase in an issue's uncertainty calls for the shift to leadership, such as solving wicked problems (Bentley, 2019). Wicked problems are complex and not easily solved; thus, the most viable option is to alleviate the effects of the issue through collective response such as community mobilization. The mobilization seeks to solve a problem the community would not contemplate and which happens abruptly. In addition, wicked issues cannot be solved without affecting the environment; thus, the community has to accept and adapt rather than overcome them.

The shift from management to leadership is due to the inherent qualities of leaders, such as influencing the community towards a particular goal of solving the novel issue. Therefore, leadership in this context signifies the importance of collaboration in addressing the covid-19 pandemic. Here, the leader must calm the community and reduce the anxiety of his followers who face an unknown issue. The leader also facilitates the development of an innovative solution to the issue rather than implementing known approaches to the new issue. Therefore, a wicked issue is suppressed through the implementation of leadership skills. The point at which the problem is solved can thus be expressed as the admission that there is no straightforward solution to the issue. Therefore, a leader should act decisively because no one knows how to solve the issue. However, the pressure from the community leads to leaders trying to solve the issue as a tame problem.

In the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, leadership involves the transfer of authority from individuals to the community due to the high degree of uncertainty. Uncertainty is associated with leadership; thus, leaders incorporate the art of engaging the community in providing solutions. The leader asks the right questions to experts rather than giving the answers. The absence of an outright response from the leader leads to collective solutions. The covid -19 pandemic is characterized by uncertainty and ambiguity, leading to leaders providing general solutions.

 Donald Trump and Boris Johnson's administration's response to the coronavirus pandemic highlights leadership roles in dealing with community issues. The two leaders first denied the significance of the pandemic as they labeled it as a brief interlude. Afterward, Trump and Johnson's administrations provided vague solutions to curb the spread of the virus, often appealing to their followers to implement social distancing and wearing face masks. The two leaders exercised leadership attributes by engaging the community to solve the issue rather than providing expert answers (Northouse, 2019). In addition, the two leaders asked the community to help each other due to the scarce supply of medical supplies and food resources as they did not know what to do to solve the issue. Leadership decision-making is the most difficult to implement since it implies the leader does not answer the problem. In addition, the solution to the issue takes an extended time to develop, thus proving problematic to the leader. In addition, decision-makers avoid the leadership version as it follows an unpopular task of having followers own their responsibilities as the answer requires constant effort from the community.

Reframing an issue from a wicked problem to a critical issue ultimately leads to the change in the method used to address the problem. Critical issues lead to crises thus need immediate action to prevent a catastrophe. Critical issues necessitate the shift from leadership to command where the legitimate power coerce followers to follow specific rules and regulations. A crucial issue in leadership presents very little time for collective decision-making; thus, authoritarian rule is the most appropriate action. There is no uncertainty regarding what a legitimate authority ought to do regarding indecisive action. Legitimate power is required to provide concise answers to the issue rather than engage the community or inquire about measures.

The Trump and Johnson administration exercised command and control in the face of the covid-19 pandemic when leadership and management failed to ease the spread of the virus. The two leaders issued directives such as the closure of physical businesses, quarantine mandates, lockdowns where people were required to stay indoors to curb the spread of the virus (Walker, 2020). In addition, the two leaders directed the seizure of physical attendance of work and closure of schools for the foreseeable future to protect workers from contracting the virus. The command version of leadership emphasizes the need to do right rather than seek popularity.

Conclusion

The role of decision-makers is to find appropriate answers, processes, and questions to address specific issues such as the Covid-19 pandemic. The combination of management, leadership, and command decision-making methods is appropriate for addressing situations that cover all three realms of issues: tame, wicked, and critical. The choice between these decision-making techniques lies in the context of the issue and the preferences for particular forms of power. Therefore, combining the three forms of decision-making is necessary since the context of a problem is subject to change over time.

 

 

References

Bentley, J. 2019. Leadership is a Wicked Problem. 2019 Volume 22 Issue 3, [online] (3). Available at: https://gbr.pepperdine.edu/2019/12/leadership-is-a-wicked-problem/.

Grint, K., 2020. Leadership, management, and command in the time of the Coronavirus. Leadership, 16(3), pp.314-319.

McKeown, T. 2018 "Good management is hard, but someone has to do it (and here are some suggestions)," Journal of Management & Organization. Cambridge University Press, 24(2), pp. 163–166. Doi: 10.1017/jmo.2018.16.

Northouse, P.G., 2019. Introduction to leadership: Concepts and practice. Sage Publications.

Walker, P. 2020. Coronavirus lockdown: what are the new rules announced by Boris Johnson? The Guardian. [online] 11 May. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/10/uk-coronavirus-lockdown-what-has-boris-johnson-announced.