Colin Powell’s Background and Achievements
Colin Powell is one of the most respected and admired American public figures. He is a retired four star US Army General. He was also appointed as 65th US Secretary of State in 2001-2005, under the presidency of George W. Bush (Britannica.com, 2018). In both the profiles, Colin Powell has shown his excellent leadership quality. Powell is a situational leader, who adopted leadership based on different situations.
A positive attitude or optimism, confidence, focused approach, decisive mind, good communication skill, empowering personality and empathetic nature, morality, commitment, and having a vision are some of the important characteristics of a great leader (Blanchard & Miller, 2014). By analyzing the leadership style and quality of Colin Powell, it is seen that, the key traits are:
- Great visionary as well as strategist
- Hard worker
- Focused mind
- Optimist
- High commitment to the people of the nation
- Ability to identify the correct alliances
- Highly moral and ethical character
- Ability to understand the motivational factors for the people
- Trustworthy
Before being the Secretary of State, Powell was an accomplished US Army leader. He had an exceptional ability to be confident about his decisions and also make people trust him. He was assertive, visionary and a great strategist (Biography.com, 2018). He was sure that the decision he was making were in the best interest of his people. He was empathetic towards his troops and encouraged them to share their problems with him. Powell had a great understanding of the factors that could motivate his troops. He was also an enthusiast, which influenced his men positively. Tolerance for frustration was another important trait of Powell, which was a great skill for any military leader. In warfare, things might not always go right according to the plan, and in those situations, Powell kept his cool and emotionally stable, which helped to maintain stability and confidence among his troops. His highly moral character helped him to gain popularity among the American citizens.
(b): Application of Hersey – Blanchard Situational Leadership theory on Powell’s leadership
Colin Powell’s leadership style displayed the characteristics as per the Hersey – Blanchard Situational Leadership model. During his military career, Powell displayed the methods of situational and contributed leadership style, suitable to the situations that arose from time to time, as well as matching the leadership with the readiness and standard of the troops. The Hersey – Blanchard Situational Leadership model has four components, namely, directing, coaching, supporting and delegating (Vandayani, Kartini & Hilmiana, 2015).
Analysis of the leadership style of Powell shows the following:
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Powell used his assertive communication skills to define tasks and supervise the troops closely |
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Powell focused on two way communication by encouraging the teams to give feedbacks regarding the decisions and strategies. Powell displayed this ability mostly in the war zones. |
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The team members had more control on the decision making process, although Powell had the final say. He mostly focused on supporting and motivating his teams. |
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Powell empowered his followers for decision making and problem solving by staying active in the situation, although the followers had the main control. This style was least used by Powell because, as a military leader, he should have the ultimate control on the situations. |
Cultural background has an important impact on leadership styles. Colin Powell was the first African-American to be the Secretary of State. Being an American citizen, Powell encouraged the in equal rights of people and hence, he said that ‘Organization charts and hence titles count for next to nothing.” (McMaster, 2017). According to him, the organizational hierarchy should be dynamic and flexible. He believed that leaders should be able to motivate and inspire the followers and take decisions for their benefits, but if the organizational hierarchy was rigid and had managers without any leading power might take the organization down. Hence, Powell followed the rules that the person having an exceptional influential capacity should be given position in the organization to run the business effectively, since, people would not follow someone who does not have any official power. Thus, he
Key Leadership Traits of Colin Powell
Colin Powell introduced the Powell Doctrine in the context of 1990-91 Persian Gulf War. As a chief of the Joint Chiefs and national security advisor, he realized from his Vietnam War experience that the impact of any war is extremely widespread and it affects not only the political stability of the involved nations, but also the economy, and civil life. Thus, he established that if USA needs to go to a war, it must have a clear and precise military objective. At the same time, he also established that the nation should go to war only when the national security interest is threatened (Little, 2016). Powell emphasized on the idea that if USA must go to a war, it should utilize its resources in a manner that it comes out victorious, minimizing the casualties by ending the war very quickly (Middup, 2016). His ideology was reflected in the Kuwait war, that lasted for only 100 hours ending the era of Saddam Hussain. This made him a hero to the Americans.
Colin Powell served in Vietnam twice in his early military career. After the investigation of My Lai massacre, in which US Army forces killed 300 civilians, Powell was negatively impacted by the ethics of war and its impact on the society or community. Although his report refuted the allegations, later on he introduced the policy of minimizing the casualties while maximizing success if a nation must go on a war when national security is threatened. This was known as Powell Doctrine. The implication of this doctrine was to reduce the wastes of resources as well as reducing the life loss in the community by ending the conflicts in a faster manner. Thus, the impact of Vietnam War on the society had a negative impact on the leadership of Powell, which helped him to be more empathetic and compassionate towards the civilians and army members and become one of the best leaders in the American history (Ignat, 2017).
Conclusion
Colin Powell received numerous honors for his service in the US Army forces and as the US Secretary of State. Powell was the chief strategist for invasion in Panama in 1989 and in the Persian Gulf War in 1990-91. These events made him accomplish huge success not only in the military, but also in improving USA’s status in the global politics and economy, which also improved the lives of American citizens. He was an exceptionally successful situational leader. Thus, Powell emerged as one of the best and most respected people in America.
References and bibliography
Biography.com. (2018). Colin Powell. Retrieved from https://www.biography.com/people/colin-powell-9445708
Blanchard, K., & Miller, M. (2014). The secret: What great leaders know and do. Berrett-Koehler Publishers.
Britannica.com. (2018). Colin Powell | Biography & Facts. Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/biography/Colin-Powell
Ignat, C. (2017). PROJECTING AMERICAN POWER THROUGH MILITARY LEADERSHIP. In International Scientific Conference” Strategies XXI” (Vol. 2, p. 126). ” Carol I” National Defence University.
Little, R. A. (2016). The Big Lebowski: The Dude’s Lessons in Law and Leadership for Military and National Security Attorneys. Pace L. Rev., 37, 191.
McMaster, H. R. (2017). The art of command: Military leadership from George Washington to Colin Powell. University Press of Kentucky.
Middup, L. (2016). The Powell Doctrine and US Foreign Policy. Routledge.
Pauly, R. J. (2017). Strategic Preemption: US Foreign Policy and the Second Iraq War. Routledge.
Van Wart, M. (2014). Dynamics of leadership in public service: Theory and practice. Routledge.
Vandayani, P., Kartini, D., & Hilmiana, Y. A. (2015). The impact of national culture on effectiveness of situational leadership Hersey-Blanchard. DEVELOPMENT, 1, S4.
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