Crucibles of Leadership

(By Warren Bennis and Robert J. Thomas)

Review Paper | Section D

Submitted by:
Rishabh Jain | 2019PGP337

In Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for Leadership Workshop course

At
Indian Institute of Management Indore, Rau-Pithampur Road, Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India.
2019
In the article Crucibles of Leadership, a wide range of topics involving management and
organisational behaviour have been covered. The different perspectives and viewpoints that
managers face in diverse situations has been addressed by the author. The authors have
emphasized on the need for some of the elements required to improve the efficacy among
leaders. According to the author, a question that overwhelms people is how to become the best
leaders when compared to others. Some people who appear to be natural leaders seem to drive
other people and their actions without much effort. This is attributed to confront different
situations in life in attempts to providing required solutions.
Although there are a number of ways that have been commended to deal with pressing
situations, the ability to deal with adverse situations is the most important and hence overrides
all others. Those who are able to do that are better placed to be modelled as true leaders and
are distinguished among millions. These adverse situations, termed “crucibles” helps one
emerge as an extraordinary leader. Established from interviews and surveys carried within
firms and organisations, it has been found out that that experiences in early years shaped lives
of extraordinary managers. These experiences, in history, have proved to be violent,
demoralizing and have even taken life threatening forms. But these leaders have addressed and
confronted these experience in an inevitable manner. Studies by the authors show that leaders
are able to be challenged, face the challenge and have emerged as victors.
When addressing management problems, the impact associated is understood in the reading by
the authors. Along with the impact, the expected way out is provided and leaders gauged on
the method used. Leaders are generally expected to be on their toes and be well prepared for
challenging management situations, a pattern observed in the reading is that the author has
overlooked cases whereby a problem has be solved and neutralised in a short time. This has
been done due to the underestimations involved in those situations.
The authors have also discussed about preparedness. Leaders are expected to be prepared, ready
and alert about most of the management crisis that could follow, but it is observed that that’s
not the case among other leaders in general. This is mostly due to the unavailability of
necessary information with them. It’s discussed that training can equip them with all the
necessary skills that can help resolve management crisis situations in the future.
Besides deciphering and exploring the experiences of leaders challenged by crucibles,
Crucibles of Leadership also highlights some of the common characteristics among all these
leaders which help them differentiate from others, make them outstandingly brilliant and help
them make their way to the very top. These leaders tend to learn from differences which make
them distinguished and extraordinary in dealing with management crisis and challenges which
come during their management tenure.
These experiences also lead them towards acquisition of strong management identities which
helps augment the solution of the diverse management crisis that they face. With the various
cultural differences present between different organisational workplaces, managers have to
confront the diverse cultures, handle them efficiently and responsibly and hence take the
organisation to the desired level by effective management style. Not only professional goals
are achieved but also professional relationships are maintained and harnessed. Leaders who
thrive in new environments are generally known to study the culture first and then addressing
the dilemmas, crisis and crucibles in a way suited to the new culture.
Issues relating to sexual discrimination are demeaning. Especially when it comes to leadership
it is a crucible. Extraordinary leaders generally tend to establish a balance that provides a
platform for employees to prove their merit regardless of the differences in gender. That helps
as a base to justify the importance of gender equality in any organisation. Critically the authors
also focuses on how different leaders have overcome challenges and get acquainted to the new
identities to drive the leadership objectives as well as driving the organisation forward. The
adaptive nature of leaders helps them to transform an organisation which lacks consideration
to the one who proactively accepts employees from all races and gender. Leaders also have to
overcome the darkest moments in their lives and remain courageous and keep their morale high
so that they could transform organisation’s performance to the desired level. Leaders aren’t
defined by the past. They just remain focused on the course of achieving their dreams.
Apart from the negative crucibles discussed in the article, it also talks about some positive
challenges that leaders face. These challenges have transformed leaders and help them develop
their management skills. As per the article, leaders who met good mentors and performance
driven seniors ended up having developed stronger leadership skills and mechanisms. In
general, leaders ought to have a distinctive and convincing voice in the organisation, ability to
engage employees, a sense of integrity and adaptive capability in the organisation.
The article is a must read for managers and leaders in all spheres as it addresses fundamentals
of leadership and experiences that helped successful leaders grow into their current position. It
highlights the problems faced in the current business market. The issues discussed and the way
they were tackled by those leaders also help create a roadmap in the readers mind about how
to approach the problem. It particularly comes into help for new leaders as in the current era
organisations are recruiting people who not only can act as professional managers but also
leaders. Leaders in the sense that they are able to analyse critical issues and prepare a fool proof
and holistic mechanism that considers a wider perspective towards the problem and suggest
solution based on that mechanism. Issues relating to cultural differences are quite common
among multinational organisations and because of the nature of the business environment,
which permits practices and procedures, which aren’t conventional, it becomes absolutely
essential for managers and leaders to be culturally adaptable. It becomes quite essential that
these diversities across cultures is well respected and appreciated by these leaders. This
confrontation towards successful collaboration helps drive the performance of an organisation.
The article also discusses about the usage of new age technology in organisational
management. Leaders who are innovative acknowledge the importance of technology and tend
to increase its usage and gain edge on organisations which are stuck on manual and traditional
management option. The reason that they acknowledge technology is because of their curious
nature and a want for something new. It also helps organisations achieve higher economic
performance.
These leadership skills are utilised if an individual remains on the course of setting goals and
objectives and realising them. It means that whatever challenges comes in the way of leaders,
they just aren’t deterred by it and are determined enough to continue on their path. Leaders are
able to overcome such crucibles, having gone through similar and worse situations before. The
principles stated by Bennis and Thomas just confirm that every member in an organisation
would be able to appreciate the fact that each of them have a leadership responsibility. This
responsibility comes to the individual employee irrespective of their position in the hierarchy
of the organisation.
This comes in quite handy in addressing the issues of globalisation and hence the diverse
culture differences in an organisational setup and the explosive growth in technology which
has polarised these issues of organisational culture. Additionally, leaders are able to see
themselves and organizations prosper in contrast to cases where leaders excel at the expense of
the organization and vice versa. Above all, leaders have to remember that crucibles are
experiences, which are supposed to shape and redefine their identity other than crushing their
dreams.

References:
1. https://hbr.org/2002/09/crucibles-of-leadership