HUMANBE

Reaction Paper

Darwyn Albert T. Mendoza C33 Prof. John Andrew C. See February 19, 2013

“Vocation of the Business Leader: A Reflection”

The nature of business leadership is both a complex and compelling phenomenon. Many discussions of leadership confuse personality, important objectives, formal position and specific behaviors with acts of leadership. It may involve certain characteristics, but leadership is not confined to these characteristics; rather, it’s all about influencing others in a substantial way. True leadership in business is a subtle quality, and thus we often confuse management duties with personal style with leadership. Management and leadership are related, but they are not the same. You can be a manager or a leader; you can also be both or neither. The biggest difference between managers and leaders lies in the way they motivate others. When executing plans as a manager, you focus on supervising results, comparing them with goals and correcting deviations. In contrast, as a leader you focus on energizing people to overcome hurdles in reaching goals. Effective leaders hunt pressing issues such as influence, power, dependence, and policies for change.

This 32-pages volume is designed as a vade-mecum, for business leaders trying to integrate their faith with their work, as well as for professors in formative moments in schools and universities. In the article, I thought of it that when businesses and market economies function properly and focus on serving the common good, they contribute greatly to the material and even the spiritual well-being of society. Recent experience, however, has also demonstrated the harm caused by the failings of businesses and markets. The transformative developments of our era—globalisation, communications technologies, and financialisation—produce problems alongside their benefits: inequality, economic dislocation, information overload, financial instability and many other pressures leading away from serving the common good. Business leaders who are guided by ethical social principles, lived through virtues and illuminated for Christians by the Gospel, can, nonetheless, succeed and contribute to the common good.

In the article, “Vocation of the Business Leader: A Reflection”, I had learned many strategic leadership skills. I think for me, it’s a well worth reading article. One of my favorite parts of the article is its warning against leading a “divided life”, and exhortation to “servant leadership”. Being a leader doesn’t mean that you can do all the things you want. There are things that are meant to happen in the right place and in the right time. If you would show a good example to your followers, they would consider you as a great leader with compassion and intelligence, that which results to good distinction to the followers and the leader.