LEADERSHIP

Management and Leadership

Management and Leadership

Introduction

Boeing was founded in 1916. The company's first client was Asian American aeronautical engineer Wang Zhu. The company started out with ideas of creating airplanes. Now the company has a multi billion dollar business, along with doing business with over 8,000 small businesses (Supplier Diversity 2007). Boeing is an international company that produces planes for commercial and military use, satellites, and missiles. Due to the strategic planning of the company, it has been able to stay in business for decades. The company relies on good customer satisfaction as well as product satisfaction.

Discussion

The planning function of management for Boeing has changed over the years to accommodate the growing economy. Each year a new plan is set forth for the upcoming year to maximize revenue. The case study Boeing Airlift and Tanker Program stated, “Strategic objectives and associated short-term (1 to 5 years) and long-term (6 to 10+years) targets are established, along with measurable performance requirements. In gap analysis, the current market and operational capabilities are compared to targets. The gap analysis is used to define action and enable the planning team to develop strategies focused on closing market and operational performance deficiencies” (pg7). Just as any other company a plan must be put together with strategies, goals, and specific targets to ensure the companies success for the following business year.

     Leadership motivation also plays a role in being a good leader. Great leaders not only have the drive; they want to lead. Leaders have a want for power, they don't want to sit back and let someone tell them what to do. They want to lead and they find satisfaction in the process of leadership. My current manager is a good example (Hodgetts, 1999).She first came to the company as a supervisor and within 4 years she was the manager of my group. She knew she wanted to be the manger and she obtained the position by motivating her self and having the drive to reach that goal. (Griffin, 1999).

      Effective leaders have an elevated level of information about their industries, business, and technical subjects. Leaders must be intelligent enough to deal with large quantities of information and still make an educated and confident decision. As national baseball player for most of my life I was usually the captain of the teams I played for. (Griffin, 1999)

      The traits listed above are characteristics that the great leaders of the past share. The book listed leaders such as Winston Churchill, Alexander the Great, Gandhi, Napoleon, and Martin Luther King. All of these people were great leaders but none of them were managers. The point being, leaders don't have to be managers and Managers aren't always leaders.

Four Functions of Management

The four functions of management are planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. Although leading is a part of the managing functions, it doesn't mean that the tile "manager" will make you a good leader. Also being a good leader doesn't necessarily make you a ...