Pratik Parikh
INTD 1810
December 4 2012
Leadership At New Levels
As Ronald Reagan states, “The greatest leader is not necessarily the one who does the greatest things. He is the one that gets the people to do the greatest things” Leadership is defined differently by each person. Leadership to most people is a process by which “a person influences others to accomplish an objective and directs the organization in a way that makes it more cohesive and coherent.” There are four key factors of leadership: the leader, the followers, the communication and the situation. I was given the opportunity to interview Mr. Jim Hobin, a business owner, but also a robotics mentor. Jim Hobin has a different view on leadership.
Leadership style must change as the situation change. Jim Hobin runs a lucrative construction business. He know that running such lucrative business with qualified employees “requires me to just send instructions and hope they get done.” Jim Hobin know that because he has professionals working for him he does not need to constantly look over their shoulders. With his employees he uses a supporting leadership style because he passes day-to-day decisions. On the other hand, he is a mentor of a robotics. He realizes that, “because you kids are new to all these tools and concepts, I have to be present there at all times and make sure everything gets done correctly.” However, with students he used a coaching style of leadership because he is very supportive but also gives straight forward directions. Here Jim Hobin realizes that as the type of followers changes his tactics of leading the group.
Group Dynamics is another factor Jim Hobin considers how a group works makes all the difference in success. When Jim Hobin works out on the field with his employees “the relationship between us reflects how fast we get the job done but also how well it gets done.” Jim says that if a group is not able to decide where to start or how to do it nothing will get done. He went further to give me an example with our team. He said, for example, if you did not talk to our team everyday and decided everything on your own would everyone do the work as diligently as they do? And the obvious answer is No, because if people do not have a say why would they want to work. Jim understands the importance of how a effectively team
