Leadership from the book "It Worked For Me" by Colin Powell

Leadership from the book “It Worked for Me” by Colin Powell
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Leadership from the book “It Worked for Me” by Colin PowellLeadership refers to an enduring process of showing others the way to achievement of common goals. In general, leadership involves reliable and keen foresight on the part of a leader. Collin Powell is a renowned American military man whose views on leadership- as demonstrated in the book ‘It worked for me”, are widely accepted and highly regarded the world over.
Powell's outlook on leadership encompasses a cross-cultural and global perspective (Harari, 2003). Within the writings of his book lies the philosophy that leadership, as an art aims to achieve and realize by far more than that which management as a science ever can (Powell, 2012). As an ordinary young man who was quite unsure with the possibility of things he could achieve in his life, he encountered numerous life challenges. Growing up in New York City as a ‘black' youngster at a time when racial prejudice was rampant not only in the United States but also in many Anglo-Saxon areas of the world. In addition, being a son of relatively low income earning and Jamaican immigrant parents, he bore a not so supporting background in the cultured America. Powell did a couple of casual jobs before joining the military. The book ‘It Worked for Me: In life and Leadership' is majorly a collection of his life experiences from childhood all the way to the height of his career- working as a top military official under four different presidential administration. The author has previously indicated that if not for his reverence and outmost devotion to principles of leadership, he would never have achieved much in life.
Colin Powell is currently a retired United States Army Four-star General as well as former head of the country's Joint Chiefs. He believes that leaders are not born but are made and shaped with distinctive principles; basing this on his service experience in the United States military. Powell also finds a lot of significance in adapting a range of leadership mechanisms that are hereunder reviewed in this paper.
According to Powell (2012), good leadership is mandatory for any organization to excel. A good number of scholars come to terms with Powell's ideologies regarding expected character traits of effective leaders. His principles emphasize on leadership having qualities that involve talking responsibility, for not only general matters of mission but also, for small issues of foundation that describe the ideals upon which societies and communities are founded. Additionally, for purposes of efficiency and effectiveness in assuming responsibility, leaders require strong foundations of knowledge and skills in carrying out specific objectives bestowed upon them by the larger society.
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