Leadership at Work Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Leadership at Work - Essay Example Leadership and management share similar traits because management is indeed, quite similar to leadership in many potential ways. Leadership makes use of management in order to achieve its objectives. Unmanaged people can not be led. However, good leadership requires rational decision making skills, problem solving skills, organizing skills and right use and management of time. Effective leadership leads to an improved quality, stress regulation and innovation. Creativity and innovation are fundamentally required for effective leadership. Workplace constitutes employees that vary in their individualistic goals, concerns, aims, approaches, thinking, personalities, and behavior. Accordingly, they require to be dealt with in differing ways in order for the leader to get the optimum amount of work from them. Leadership is essential in order to ensure smooth running of work in any workplace. Therefore, managers appoint leaders after visualizing leadership qualities in them from among the employees, or in other cases, assume leadership themselves so that the employees may have clear indication of their duties and responsibilities. Theoretically, quite a lot of leadership theories have surfaced that include but are not limited to the Trait Theory, the Great Man Theory and Contingency Theory. For example, Trait Theory believes that few people are born with leadership traits (leadership-expert.co.uk, n.d.). A successful leader combines the traits righteously. However practically, many people have developed leadership qualities as per the need of the hour. Leadership as modeling requires an individual to be his/her own self, and stay confident about it. People generally are aware of their weaknesses, and tend to project an improvised image of their self, which saps originality and makes them look banal. Followers may loose trust in a leader whose leadership reflects banality. Decision making is one of the most

West Coast Mainline Modernisation. Project Analysis Essay

West Coast Mainline Modernisation. Project Analysis - Essay Example The various transportation facilities and infrastructure that are developed in the process are roads, bridges, rails and other facilities that aid in mobility and access. These developments are done in stage or per project basis that ascertains specific end-results employing project management. Project Management is previously a management philosophy that soon evolved into a business process (Kerzner, 2009). It involves planning, organising, securing and managing resources to achieve goals. It is to be understood that a project has its specific start and ending, and is dependent on time, budget or funding, and deliverables. It is usually expected to bring positive or beneficial results. Its temporary nature make it unique from business operations which is a continuous one or somewhat permanent in the delivery of products or services. This paper will discuss and analyse a rail industry project – the West Coast Main Line Modernisation - and describe the project management proble ms encountered in this project completion. In the project implementation of a rail, various management stages involved are Output Definition, Pre-Feasibility, Option Selection, Single Option Development, Detailed Design, Construction, Testing and Commissioning, Scheme Handback and Project Close Out (Network Rail, 2003). †¢ A brief description of your chosen project. The West Coast Main Line or WCML is the rail backbone of United Kingdom when it comes to importance and number of populations served. It underwent several modernisation stages and the latest of which was the Network Rail modernisation that commenced by the 1990s. Plans for the upgrade and renewal of the line by Virgin Trains for the tilting Pendolino trains with increased speed of 140 mph or 225 km/h was aborted when deemed ambitious. The proposed upgrade involved the adoption of the moving block signalling which worked with light rail systems and metro lines, but not yet proven with high-speed heavy rail network (O ffice of Rail Regulation, 2007). Owned by Network Rail, WCML is the busiest mixed traffic railway route provider, an intercity link connecting London, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool and Glasgow to the West Midlands, North West, North Wales, and the Central Belt of Scotland. Handling about 75 million passengers per annum translated to about 43% of UK’s rail freight traffic, it is also links many other smaller towns and cities serving as a suburban railway. The various operators of the WCML are Virgin Trains, East Coast, London Midland, Southern, CrossCountry, First TransPennine Express, Northern Rail, Arriva Trains Wales, First ScotRail, DB Schenker Rail (UK), GB Railfreight, Freightliner Ltd., and Direct Rail Services Ltd (Network Rail, 2007). It was designated a priority Trans-European Networks route. It connects to European mainland via the Channel Tunnel. In 1955, it was modernised and electrified implemented in stages from 1959 to 1974. Electrification was first implem ented on the route from Crewe to Manchester completed by 1960, followed by Crewe to Liverpool by 1962, London by 1965, Birmingham by 1967, and Weaver Junction to Glasgow by 1974. The introduction of the Inter-City brand in 1966 came with high-speed long-distance services where journey clocked in 2 hours and 40 minutes from London to Manchester or Liverpool (Thomas, 1971). Modern coaches followed with the Mark 2 and air-conditioned Mark 3, and soon linespeed was raised to 110 mph or 177 km/h with electric locomotives that doubled passenger traffic from 1962 to 1975 (British Railways