Thursday, 21 April 2016

Rules for Leadership by Jon W . Blades



Introduction
1.            From the beginning of human life on earth the human race is practising of studying leadership. Many scholars and mil leaders have put forward there theories of leadership but still a single, widely accepted theory of leadership does not exist, but the point of agreement of both the thoughts is that leadership plays a critical role in how well an organize performs. Good leaders are thought to cause more successful organizations and out comes, while poor leaders are thought to produce less successful results. 
2.            About the Book
a.            Name                              -        Rules for Leadership
b.            Written by                       -        Jon  W . Blades
c.            Printed by                       -        Army Education Press
d.            No of pages                    -        111
e.            Quality of paper               -        Fine
f.             Hard bound / paper back  -        Hard bound.
About the Author
3.            Lieutenant Colonel Jon W. Blades, US Army, commanded Infantry Companies, in Germany and Vietnam, served as a bde / bn operations officer in Germany, Vietnam and Korea and commanded a basic trg bn at Fort Jackson, South Carolina. He holds a Ph D in Social Psychology and taught mil psychology and leadership at West Point and has served with the Leadership Division, Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Personnel, Department of the Army.

4.            Summary of the Book
a.            An Overview : Rules for Leadership.         In this section author explains why the need for studying and carrying out a research work on leadership factors and leadership behaviour was felt. He chalks out the basic concept of leadership and the different ways and means for a leader to force his personality or deal according to the personalities of his subordinates to get maximum benefits out in the form of good individual or group performance.
b.            Leader Actions : Style and Enforcement of Performance Standards.        This section deals with the factors which has significant influence on unit performance. “Leadership style”. The leaders choice of style is the strongest influencing factor on the amount of success that the group achieves because it is the style of the leadership through which the subordinates motivation and will to perform in the worst conditions is inculcated. The leader sets a high min level of acceptable performance for his group members and always insist that the subordinates meet that level which is set for them.
c.            Group Skills : Member and Leader Intelligence and Ability.      This section deals with the ways in group performance gets affected by the member intelligence and ability and the leader intelligence and ability, alongwith examples in both the cases when leader is using a directive style or non directive style.

d.            Group Incentive: Member and Leader Motivation.         Here the writer discusses in a fair manner the cases of member and leader motivation. The way they affect the group performance in relation with the leader ability, competence and high performance standards. After that, the way member ability and competence affect the leader motivation, co relates them and proves that motivation is the root of the will to perform.
e.            Group Bonding : Unit Cohesion.                Unit cohesion is directly related to or is majorly affected by the competence and enthusiasm. Higher the competence and enthusiasm better will be the working relationships among the members and they can efficiently utilize there abilities and others in less time.
f.             Using the Rules for Leadership.       In this section the writer explains in short, all the ten rules. So, to facilitate the reader to get the crucks of all these rules, their affects on the performance and the means to implement them. Infact it is the summary of the whole book where the important points have been repeated to make the reader realize their importance and remember them. 

Recommendations
5.            The book being a through study on the leadership and explaining rules with regards the mil life, must be read by the officers and acted upon. This will assist them in knowing the mechanics of improving their, member group performance logically.
Conclusion
6.            The writer has tried to demonstrate several things. One’s decision regarding which leadership style to use should be based upon the levels of his own ability and the ability and motivation of his subordinates. There are some very specific things one can do to improve member and leader ability and motivation, group cohesion, and the leader’s ability to enforce performance standards. The most significant findings concern the effects that leadership standards, member and leader intelligence, ability and motivation, and group cohesion have a unit performance.

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