Leadership and Condoleezza Rice Essay Example

George W. Bush, becoming the first black woman (and second woman) to hold the post.

She went on to become the first black woman to serve as U. S. Secretary of State—she became the nation's 66th Secretary of State in 2004, following Colin Powell's resignation, and served from January 2005 to 2009(A&E network, 2013) Rice was known for being a charismatic, situational and transformational leader. As Secretary of State, her policy was transformational diplomacy. These styles would serve her well in both her National Security Advisor role and that of Secretary of State. Leadership and Condoleezza Rice. Leaders come from all different walks of life.

They are poor, undereducated, overeducated, rich, African American, Caucasian, Hispanic or Asian. It is not what they have externally, that makes them leaders, but what internally drives them. Styles may differ however all of them are based off of influence and power. Influence may be used for positive or negative and the power may be real, implied or perceived. “Influence may be used for positive or negative. It is how the leaders get the followers to achieve goals. “It is not dominance, control or the forcing of compliance” (Pierce & Newstrom, 2011 p9). The power may be real, implied or perceived.

The follower understands the leader has the right to make decisions however that right is granted. Key Traits of Leaders Traits are characteristics of individuals. In this sense traits are qualities that leaders must possess in order to be effective leaders. There are six key leader traits as identified by our textbook.

* Drive- indicates a willingness to make a high effort level.

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Desire to Lead- They must be willing to step up and set the example and want to lead others.

* Honesty/Integrity- Leaders must possess a moral compass that allows them to hold true to their ethical standards.

These traits form the foundation of any leader follower relationship.

* Self Confidence - They must believe that they can obtain the objective or goal.

* Cognitive Ability- Leaders must be able to multi task and show that they have the intelligence to understand and complete the goal.

* Knowledge of the business- They must understand the organization and what drives its success and what is needed to obtain that success. (Pierce & Newstrom, 2011) Condi Rice exhibits all six of these leadership traits.

As a young school girl, she grew up in Birmingham Alabama during the time of Martin Luther King and the Birmingham bombings. Her parents instilled in her a belief that she could be anything she wanted to be if she worked hard enough. Her goals changed over the years until she made a switch to foreign policy and international politics. Drive- to succeed made her the first African American female Secretary of State. Desire to Lead- was evidenced by the key roles she played after September 11th 2001, when she orchestrated key elements of the attacks on Iraq and the Taliban.

Honesty and Integrity- Known throughout her career for her ethics and Integrity, she has continued to be placed in roles that mentor young leaders and served to facilitate negotiations with major global states. Cognitive Ability and Knowledge of organization were a combined trait for Secretary Rice.

Her first six months as the secretary were noted by the following accomplishments. She reopened nuclear negotiations with North Korea, even authorizing bilateral talks, which George W. Bush had adamantly refused to conduct all through his first term as president.

She persuaded Bush to endorse similar (if less promising) negotiations that Britain, France, and Germany had initiated with Iran, which he had also vigorously opposed. She crafted the terms of a United Nations resolution to investigate war crimes in Sudan, a measure that first-term Bush had resisted. She dropped the campaign—which had been launched with great verve by Vice President Dick Cheney—to replace Mohamed elBaradei as chair of the International Atomic Energy Agency and then got U. S. intelligence agencies to resume briefing IAEA officials, a practice that had also been discontinued in the first term.

As a prerequisite to all the above accomplishments, she staved off Cheney's intense efforts to appoint his protege, John Bolton, as deputy secretary of state and implicitly acknowledged Bolton's unsuitability for a concession prize—U. N. ambassador—by assuring Democratic opponents that he would be carefully "supervised. “(Kaplan, 2005) Rice also successfully negotiated Israel’s end of the occupation of the Gaza strip with no repercussions on either side or a wavering of alliance between Israel and the United States. Emergence and Retention of Power

Condi Rice first emerged as a leader on the political front when working for President George H Bush. President Bush placed her in a highly volatile position for a woman. She was give charge of relationships with the Soviet Union, a place where even male leaders were not always welcomed. When promoted to Secretary

of State, She advises the leader of the world's largest superpower and has an unparalleled level of trust with and access to the president. And she has served two other U. S. presidents, George H. W. Bush and Ronald Reagan.

She was considered the world’s most powerful woman. That perception kept her dominant as a leader in global affairs. Statements made by President Bush to the free world and her own tremendous abilities kept her in the fore front: "During the last four years, I've relied on her counsel, benefited from her great experience and appreciated her sound and steady judgment (Forbes, 2011)Her nickname is the Warrior Princess for her use of diplomatic activism. Rice’s main base of power came from legitimate authority. President Bush Sr. appointed her his National Security advisor.

That role gave her legitimate authority to negotiate with other countries on behalf of the United States. This allowed her to ensure that other nations knew that what she delivered was accurate and backed by a Super Nation. It was her implied right to make decisions that would be binding and effective on both her country and the other party. As Secretary of State, her authority never wavered but increased as she was known to be extremely close with President Bush and the fact a policy decision from her was the same as coming from the President.

Although relying on legitimate power, Rice could use the coercive and reward power to stimulate the acquiescence of other nations. Negotiating was one of her strongest assets and she was known to delicately push and keep others on target and arrive at vested

interests. Four Leadership Dimensions * Support- Behavior that enhances someone else’s feeling of personal worth and importance. Condoleezza Rice was known for her ability to interact with global leaders from opposing factions and leave them feeling a valued friend of the United States. Interaction facilitation- During the worlds focus on CIA “torture” of prisoners, Rice was sent to Europe to defuse the situation. Feelings ran high between NATO allies, however she worked her magic and the following statement was issued by European press “After a week from hell, Rice appeared to have been successful in easing tensions with her European colleagues” (Leist, 2005). She successfully conveyed the United States intent on dealing with terrorists in such a way that NATO nations no longer raised grave protests. * Goal Emphasis.

Particular attention has been noted to one of Rice's key traits. Global leaders say that she pushes hard upon objectives but manages to use velvet gloves while doing so. * Work Facilitation is evidenced by her roles as Foreign Affairs secretary and the key amounts of information she had to resource and coordinate. Cultural Environment One must adapt one’s self to the cultural environment in order to achieve the most desired effect. This is where situational leadership comes into play. The situation affects the follower and the leader or the leader –leader scenario.

The cultural environment can be many different things. In Rice’s case, she made history in the gender barrier breakdown. Condi Rice reshaped the cultural environment in two arenas. She was the youngest Provost in Stanford's 102 yr. history and the first female and African American. She proved that age and gender

did not detract from effectiveness in the college arena. The second was her appointment as Foreign Affairs Advisor “She is the first woman to hold this critical job, but talk of her gender seems to be a distant memory. “It doesn't even matter anymore.

You don't see woman, you just see ability," said Ivo Daalder, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution who was the director for European affairs at the National Security Council from 1995-1996(CNN, 2004) She had managed to assimilate the culture well enough to be perceived as a political icon versus a female playing in a man’s world. Meta-analysis I was unable to find any type of meta-analysis on Condoleezza Rice. After researching this, I did come up with a hypothesis for one but unfortunately lacked the time to do a complete work up.

The meta-analysis would compare Condoleezza Rice’s leadership traits with her tenure as both a provost and a senior political official against a male figure in the same positions. This could determine that there is no gender barrier and leadership traits are inherent no matter what the position or it could prove the opposite. Leadership Style Rice’s leadership style has evolved over the years. Her first tenure as Stanford Provost is the first time she had to figure out an effective way to fight the prejudice and faculty pissing contests in order to be successful.

Condi's first instinct is not to conciliate," Blacker said. "Condi's first instinct is not to smooth over differences. Condi's first instinct is to figure out what needs to be done and the direction you want to go in (and) put together

a strategy and then implement. " Her style was sometimes considered brash and authoritarian, not in sync with the "Stanford way. " Connie Rice says her cousin "goes her own way, to her own drummer and her own pace. "(CNN, 2004) As her career progressed, Condoleezza Rice’s style matured.

Rice was known for being a charismatic, situational and transformational leader. She changed from the brash young authoritarian to a charismatic leader who grew her styles with her ever-increasing responsibilities. Situational Leadership- In personal negotiations with global leaders, her leadership styled changed based off leader –leader and situation. One cannot say followers played a role in this as negotiations were of like status. Transformational leadership- As Secretary of State, her policy was transformational diplomacy. With a mission of building and sustaining democratic, well-governed states around the world and the Middle East in particular (Rice). To that end, she has relocated American diplomats to such hardship locations as Iraq, Afghanistan and Angola, and required them to become fluent in two foreign languages. She also created a high-level position to de-fragment U. S. foreign aid. ” (A&E)

After her political career was behind her and she returned to Stanford, she talked about what she thought leadership was and is. Rice said the defining characteristic of a true leader is that he or she never accepts the world as it is, but strives always to make the world as it should be”(Peterson, 2012) She consider those her personal principles and the ones she has chosen to embrace throughout her career. While understanding that she was considered a fore runner for the presidency, she loves policy but not

politics. Two Sides of Leadership It is rare when one can look at a public figurehead in the political arena and not say there is good and evil in their influence and power.

Condoleezza Rice is one of those leaders who used her influence and power not for herself but for the perceived greater good of her country. As the political leader she was, she could have been embroiled in the dark side of politics while still being effective in her job. I have not found one piece of research to support her allowing herself to lean towards the negative aspects of leadership. She influenced world leaders and struck blows for democracy. Her personal views were not always in conjunction with her professional but it was never made public to the free world during her tenure.

She is the author of several books and one details her time as National Security Advisor and Secretary of State. Critics have said that she now divulges that she was not in agreement with President Bush and the Iraq war, but instead uses Barack Obama as an example for his handling of Libya. The former secretary of state takes shots at Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld for their conduct of the war in Iraq Rice wants us to believe that she opposed the handling of the war in Iraq.

If she really felt that way she should have followed the example of former Secretary of State Williams Jennings Bryan. (Bannon, 2011) If this was the case then I might see some of the dark side creeping out in the book. However this is just one person’s

account of what the book says. I have not found any other articles to substantiate this. Not the End for Condoleezza Rice Condoleezza Rice made the following statement about her exit from the political arena: “President Obama said I do solemnly swear and I said I’m done” (Katz, 2013).

She has returned to Stanford University and her love of foreign policy education. She is also adamant about never running for president because she prefers to spend her time at home doing what she is doing. She is also spearheading a campaign for education reform and the need to teach children properly and ensure that they are able to get as much education as they want. It has become her other great passion. She continues to break the gender barrier and was admitted into the Augusta National Golf club with South Carolina businesswoman Darla Moore.