Being an Effective Leader: Literature Review

Being an Effective Leader: Literature Review Introduction How to be an effective leader? Leadership is not management or instruction. Leadership is the ability to inspire or influence others towards the leaders goal and a real leader have followers. If someone has followers, then he or she is a successful leader. Besides that, must be a real leader. A successful leader must make his or her followers believe that they are a team or family, not only the relationship between leader and subordinates only. If they have confidence in you and be your followers that is the successful beginning of the goal. However, an effective leader is someone who establishes a clear vision. Furthermore, leader should also be able to educate his subordinates since they have the ability to work independently. Next, for businesspeople, one of the important things have to worry about is to inspire people or influence others towards the leaders goal. Now, here are some methods to make tasks easier and how to be an effective leader such as positive attitude, self-asse ssment and be fully prepared.    Bee Kai Ying, 1507526 First: An effective leader must have positive attitude Firstly, positive attitude is important for a leader. A great leader is able to control their emotion well. They would not bring negative emotion to work. This is because they know these emotions can affect others especially people in leadership position. For example, when facing a problem that are not expected, from ability to stay clam can bring confidence to team members and prevent other team members feeling confuse. Moreover, a good leader will seek advice from team member without caring their position. Besides that, a positive thinker will not be jealous others ability and are willing to learn from them. Positive thinkers team can improve a lot. For example, a positive thinking team will treat a difficult situation as a chance to show their ability while a negative thinking team will not because they are worry for failure. Even when positive thinker fail in the challenges but they can quickly overcome failure and accept the challenges again. They will not stop because of the fa ilure but will improve because of learning the failure and never give up. At last, positive thinking not only affected the leader themselves but will also affected the team members and encourage the team toward their personal or team goals.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚      Wong Chung Hing ,1507484 Second: Effective leaders own self-assessment Self-assessment is the process for leaders to evaluate their performances, behaviours and have better understanding on their strengths and weaknesses. As a result of owning self-assessment skill, they are able to work on their limitations and improve their abilities including confidence, communication skill and team-building skill as an effective leader. Moreover, leaders are able to hire the subordinates or team-mates who complement him on his insignificance. There are some tools and techniques have been prepared for self-assessment and one of the most famous tool is Leadership Steps Assessment (LSA) (James G. Clawson, 1999). By using LSA, one can learn on clarifying one selfs centre, whats possible and what others can contribute, supporting others, being relentless as well as celebrating progress. In addition, leader should always know the perception of people on him. He may request the people to comment on his best and worst qualities and eventually improve the best qualities whil e getting rid of the worst qualities. Last but not least, leader who own self-assessment will learn from their mistakes once they realize their errors. They will face the mistakes and take the responsibility to overcome them.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Chong Yee Lee 150784 Third: be an effective leader must have fully preparation To become an effective leader one must prepare yourself to lead well before you do anything. First, make a list of everything you need to do. Opportunities are often the beginning of the great cause when you are ready to welcome the opportunity, better than have a chance and you are not prepared yourself. When leaders fail it is due to lack of preparation. Next, the leader never stopped being accountable to yourself and others. You cant expect subordinates to perform better if they are not prepared to successfully deliver what you expect from them. Because the things you express to subordinates and what their receive of the ideas is different. Being prepared for the unexpected is your accountable. For example, when the leader demands more from subordinates, enforcement of pressure rises so does the pressure guides subordinates rightly done their own position job. At the same times, improve the performance of the standards for the leader you will notice that preparation become a major measure of success. A leader needs to brush up yourself, such as invest in your own skill sets and capabilities to improve your solution to problem-solving. The preparation does not guarantee success, but the lack of preparation can certainly happen your tendency to failure.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Lee Chi San, 1508085 Conclusion Last but not least, a great leader is a person who must have positive attitude, self-assessment, and be fully prepared. First, an effective leader should be able to fully prepared. When a leader has fully prepared before doing anything, it will help to decrease the rate of failure of the goal. For example, a leader should prepare or provide a vision for where the company is heading in such a way that people can buy into that vision. Secondly, leader must have own self-assessment. For example, leader will learn from their mistakes towards the goals. It will win the heart of the people you are leading and the possibilities are endless. Thirdly, leader also should have positive attitudes. Effective leaders inspire you and influence others all their thoughts, words and actions are charged. They look inside and bring the best of you to the surface.For example, a leader must be a positive thinker, good example and good mirror in front of people, because it can inspire people towards the go al. In short, a successful leader can lead all subordinates together to achieve the goal and let all subordinates voluntarily follow from the start to the end. This is what an effective leader must have.   Ã‚  Ã‚   1507526, Bee Kai Ying Why Do Countries Trade With One Another? Why Do Countries Trade With One Another? There are several reasons why countries trade with one another. Trade among nations is taken as a sign of good intent and a means of maintaining non-hostile diplomatic relations. Trade is used to empower allied nations by providing them with valued resources such as oil, grain, or bullets, as well as crippling and weakening rivals by imposing economic sanctions on goods services such as: military armaments, food, or medicine. Bans such as these are used to punish nations or motivate a change in their political and economic behavior. A course of action that the United States of America has pursued several times when suspect of nations endoursing terrorism. Moreover, trade unifies neighbouring countries with shared economic ideals by creating a common currency and trade laws that bolster each partys economic power. The establishment of the euro for example in 2002 united 12 countries and is now used in 22 countries, currently overpowering the US dollar.   Essentially countries trade in order to purchase goods and/or services that would not have been available within their borders either due to insufficient resources or underdeveloped technology. Therefore through trade, countries are able to obtain any desired good or service that would have otherwise been unattainable or would have placed a burden on economic activity. International trade may be described as a interdependent web of sustainability among countries. International trade therefore mirrors specialisation, this being a key concept underlined in the law of comparative advantage. The law of comparative advantage involves the opportunity costs of two or more parties (a firm or company, in this case a country) in their production of a good or service and highlights their ability in producing it at the highest possible efficiency in relation to all the other possible goods or services that could have been produced in its place. In this sense, there is merit in trading with other countries when international differences are present in the opportunity cost of given goods. An isolated economy with limited resources is able to produce tractors and hats for instance. The more resources allocated in the production of tractors, the less are available for the production of hats and vice versa. The opportunity cost of tractors is the quantity of hats sacrificed seeing that resource allocation was focused on the production of tractors and not hats.  This situation can be illustrated by the diagram overleaf: Diagram (a) shows the maximum combination of tractors and hats this economy can produce. In the event that all resources were used to produce maximum tractor output while sacrificing the production of hats all-together, then the outcome would be shown by point A. Similarly, point D represents the event that the economy sacrificed the production of tractors to achieve maximum hat output.  Points B and C correspond to relative trade-offs. Point E represents inefficient use of resources, while point F requires more resources than the economy has at hand and can only be achieved by development of the given economy. The curve A-D is known as the production possibility curve. Using the principle of comparative advantage, countries derive whether it would be beneficial to start trading and if so, if it should export or import. Take for instance the market for wheat. The wheat industry is large seeing that it is produced in many countries making it a good example in terms of analysing the gains and losses a country may experience as a result of trade. For example, Country As market for wheat is isolated from the world market. There are no transactions be it exports or imports and the market for it is comprised uniquely by its domestic buyers and sellers. The diagram overleaf depicts the market equilibrium without international trade: (b) In an economy like Country As, domestic supply and demand are balanced by adjusting the price. In the absence of international trade consumer and producer surplus are in equilibrium.   To determine whether or not Country A should trade with other countries the domestic price of wheat should be compared to that of other countries, commonly known as the world price. If the domestic price of wheat is lower than the world price then Country A becomes an exporter of wheat seeing that domestic wheat producers take advantage of the increased foreign prices and begin selling to other countries. By contrast, if Country As domestic price of wheat were higher than the world price then it becomes an importer of wheat since consumers are eager to buy cheaper wheat from abroad.   The principle of comparative advantage is a key element as far as trade is concerned. By considering the domestic price in relation to the world price of wheat Country A derives whether or not it has a comparative advantage in producing it. The opportunity cost of wheat is derived from the domestic value. In other words, how much of another good Country A has to sacrifice in order to produce one unit of wheat. A low production price of wheat states that Country A has a comparative advantage to the rest of the world. Conversely, if Country A has a high production value, other countries have a comparative advantage.   Diagram (b) shows the domestic equilibrium price and quantity for wheat during pre-trade conditions. Once Country A starts trading, the domestic price increases to reach the world price level. This is to say that domestic producers will now sell at this new increased price which in turn forces consumers to pay more. This is shown by the diagram below: (c) Quantity demanded and quantity supplied differ when in trade. The new excess quantity is used as exports to other countries. Before trading, the price level adjusted itself so that domestic supply and demand could balance. Consumer surplus being areas A + B and producer surplus area C. Total surplus summing up to areas A + B + C. Now that a new price has been set, consumer surplus is A while areas B + C + D are the producer surplus. The new total surplus is A + B + C + D. Producers surplus increases by areas B and D making them better-off. While consumer surplus is reduced by area B. Due to producer gain trumping consumer loss, total surplus in Country A increases. This example shows how trade bolsters the economic state of a country and reinforces the pro-trade argument. Following these points, one concludes by saying that trade among nations is beneficial seeing that it allows each party to allocate its resources accordingly in order to specialise in what it does best, while obtaining other desired goods at a lower rate. When countries decide what to specialise in upon entering trade with one another, their opportunity costs are taken into consideration seeing as relative production costs differ from country to country.  The following model puts into practice the example with hats and tractors. Take for instance two countries producing hats and tractors, Greece and Britain. British workers earn 6 pounds an hour whereas Greek workers earn 3 euro and have an absolute advantage in terms of both goods. Table 1 shows that less British unit labour hours are needed for both goods. Britain is relatively more productive in terms of tractors seeing that it takes 1.5 times longer for Greece to produce one. However, it takes Greece only 5/4 times longer to make a hat.  Britain holds the comparative advantage for tractor production and Greece in hats. By sacrificing 10 hats, Britain acquires 40 extra labour hours to make a Tractor.  The opportunity cost of a tractor in Britain is 10 hats and 12 hats in Greece. The opportunity cost of Greece however (1/12 of a tractor) is less than the opportunity cost in Britain ( 1/10 of a tractor.).  Once again, this proves that Britain has a comparative advantage in tractors and Greece in hats. Specialisation and trade allows these countries to produce and trade each good more efficiently. Greece focuses on hat production a nd Britain on tractor. Trade has proven to be a very beneficial course of action for countries to take part in. Benefits from trade range from maintaining good-willed relations between nations, to empowering allies with precious resources, to weakening foes by stripping them away and finally to allow each country to obtain goods and services in demand that would have otherwise been impossible to attain. Through the principle of comparative advantage countries determine a number of factors. Initially, with the use of a production possibility frontier diagram, they derive opportunity costs for different combinations of producing goods. Efficient resource allocation paves the way to specialisation of goods. Secondly, they see if they have a comparative advantage in entering international trade and exporting (buying). Trade, exports to be more precise, increase countries economic power as it increases Total Surplus. Finally, when faced with the option of multiple good production, countries compare their compar ative advantage in relation to each good and settle for the most efficient outcome. As a result of specialisation all parties benefit from reduced costs.