Analysis Of 12 O Clock High Leadership

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Film Summary The fictional film I chose this week was the 1949 film 12 O’clock High which was produced by Darryl F. Zanuck and directed by Henry King. The film was based on the United States Army’s, Eighth Air Force and its hard-nosed commander Brigadier General (BG) Frank Savage, played by the movies lead actor, Gregory Peck. Peck’s character, BG Savage, was portrayed as a hard charging, do or die pilot and commander that demanded absolute adherence to discipline and one hundred percent effort through mission accomplishment or death. The fictional Eighth Air Force depicted in the movie was not used to this type of leadership and showed outward signs of dissatisfaction and contempt. This initial resistance was due to the lax leadership of …show more content…
In particular the issue of allowing yourself to be thought of as just one of the guys. I have witnessed this type of leadership failure many times throughout my career. Leaders that develop close bonds to their subordinates and develop a relationship that completely blurs the hierarchal structure of authority and responsibility. These leaders are seen as mostly ineffective and are often removed. However, they are revered by their personnel but not for reasons of efficiency or mission accomplishment, but because they were great people. Often times they are perceived to be great because they have lost the ability to reprimand their people when needed and have created an environment of disorganization and inability. “The traditional paradigm just seems safer: be firm and a little distant from your employees. The people who work for you should respect you, but not feel so familiar with you that they might forget who’s in charge” (HBR, …show more content…
Leaders must have a strong understanding of the needs of the individual or group. They must have a clear grasp of human needs and how culture, age, gender and environment effect these needs. Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, in particular the third and fourth tier discuss an individual’s need for belonging and esteem, (Simply Psychology, n.d.). While this is important, many leaders will tell you not an exact road map to success. “The reality is that human needs can’t be neatly arranged into a pyramid. Motivation isn’t simple, and it’s certainly not linear” (HBR, 2014). Kouzes and Posner offer a way to analyze your leadership to see if you are achieving any, or all, of these five practices of exemplary leadership. And while not all of this information was new to me, I appreciate the way in which it is presented and laid out. I wish I had this book a couple decades

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