Leadership concepts and applications

Leadership as a term has been described variously. In basic terms, leadership as a process can be said to be a situation whereby an individual or group of individuals organize and seek support of others so as to accomplish a particular task or a given set of goals in an orderly and well coordinated manner. In this text, I come up with a description of a recent situation where leadership was exemplified in a proper or deficient manner.

On the 2nd of May 2011, the U.S. president issued an executive order for an operation that saw the killing of Osama Bin Laden who until his death was of one of the most wanted men in recent times. Until his death, Osama had been hiding in the Pakistani town of Abbottabad. The operation, carried out by Navy SEALs, sparked a heat of debate with Pakistani officials claiming they came to know of the secretive operation only after its completion. This in the view of many Pakistanis was an assault on the sovereignty of their nation. Based on these facts, it is possible to examine and analyze the leadership approach as well as style involved in the run-up to the operation that saw the killing of the man on the most wanted list of FBI.

Though the war on terror has been touted as an all inclusive undertaking bringing together like minded partners, claims by Pakistan that it was not consulted over the raid could be constructed to mean that the U.S. was keen to control all the major decisions involving the operation with minimal input from the former. If this was the case, the leadership exemplified in this scenario can be taken to be autocratic leadership. According to Daft and Lane (2007), an autocratic leader basically derives power from the position he or she holds. In that regard, it can be noted that the U.S. could have based its actions or lack of consultation thereof on its position as a superpower. Autocratic leaders largely make decisions on their own based on the total authority they posses (Ghuman 2010). In most cases, autocratic leadership is contrasted from democratic leadership where participation from all players involved in a given task is encouraged.

In my opinion, though the leadership exemplified by the U.S. In the operation that led to the killing of Osama Bin Laden has its strong points on many fronts, some deficiencies can be identified. In terms of ethicality, the lack of consultation can be justified on the grounds that secrecy was of the essence if the U.S. was to kill the man blamed for the innocent deaths of thousands of people across the world. Hence the authoritarian leadership exemplified in this scenario was for the greater good. Further, it can be noted that based on the circumstances of the case, quick decisions had to be made and swift action was of the essence. According to Ghuman (2010), authoritarian or autocratic leadership allows quick decisions to be made.