Leadership is the process of inspiring others to work hard to accomplish important tasks. A great leader plans, leads, controls and organize the management process efficiently. Having expertise can be helpful to work as a CEO, but it does not seem to be required to be a successful CEO when we see many real-life examples. According to Bloomberg Business Week, there are many CEOs who dropped out of college or never even attended college ,but made it to corporate top spots. They are the people who have had a "vision" to make it happen looking to achieve influence.
A famous example is Bill Gates, Time magazine called him " Havard's most successful dropout." His expertise may come from technical understanding or access to information relevant to the issue at hand. It can be acquired on the job, through experience. However, the most important factor as a successful CEO may be outstanding leadership skills that lead and grow gigantic corporations. It includes visionary leadership that brings to the situation a clear sense of the future and an understanding of how to get there. Imagining and looking at the bigger picture are the main roles of the CEOs. According to Exploring Management, traits that often shared by effective leaders, are drive, self-confidence, creativity, cognitive ability, business knowledge, motivation, flexibility, honesty and integrity. No matter what kinds of industries are out there, every organization needs an effective leadership by inspiring leaders.
In Zicklin business school in Baruch College, students are required to take various business courses including finance, management, accounting, and marketing regardless of their majors. The reason is that gaining knowledge in different subjects will help the students to understand business as a whole. At the same time, students can have a broad perspective when they have to solve problems in the future. When one's expert power and referent power meet, the possibility of becoming an efficient leader will be unlimited.
sources:
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1988080_1988093_1988082,00.html
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/pf_article_107139.html
http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/money/industries/technology/2004-11-11-intel-succession_x.htm
I agree with your view on leadership and education. I believe leadership qualities are more instilled within a persons personality versus being learned. However, hopefully the diverse business courses we are required to take at Baruch will be beneficial to our future career objectives!
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