Abstract
In his book “why should a boss listen to you, the seven disciplines of the trusted strategic advisor” James E. Lukaszewski, has divided the book into two major parts. In the first part which contains several chapters, Lukaszewski has tried to bring out the basic reality one faces when advising a top leader. In his argument, the author proposes that an advisor carefully examine the top executive in order to understand some of the things the executive goes through on a daily basis when executing the work. According to Lukaszewski, some of the key aspects concerning the top executive the strategic advisor needs to know to include the thinking and operating aspects of the leader, the leader’s expectation of the staff, and their concern about whether plans and leadership can affect the organization negatively or positively. By studying the above-mentioned aspects, the advisor will be able to understand the loneliness, distractions, obstacles, and pressures the executives face in their daily activities. In some cases, the executives are always the last to know what exactly goes on within the organization as a result of self marginalization in the organization (Lukaszewski 17).
The second part of the book brings out the attributes the strategic advisors should possess in order to effectively and efficiently advise the executive. In his book, Lukaszewski highlighted some of the attributes of a strategic advisor as follows: An advisor should try as much as possible to earn the trust of the executive, the advisor should be perceived as being visionary in the way he/she addresses the executive, well-developed management skills and perspectives should also be manifested in the way the advisor addresses the executive, the advice was given to the executive should affect the organization in a constructive way, the advisor should also try to convince the boss to accept the advice depending on how he/she is addressing the boss. Lastly, through the strategic advisor’s advice, the organization should be able to be sustained and even improve in the output with time. In this paper, an extensive evaluation of the attributes of the strategic advisor according to Lukaszewski will be analyzed considering the two major sections of his book and finally, the conclusion made. Body
Most staff members in any organization try as much as they to earn the listening ear from their bosses. In most cases the staff may be aware of the mess in an organization or maybe have a suggestion that might be beneficial to the organization and wants the boss to know but just isn’t aware of how best to relay this information to the boss. Therefore, they make a lot of effort in their daily tasks so as to impress their boss in order to have their attention. In order to address all these struggles by the staff to earn the bosses attention, James C. Lukaszewski in his book “why should a boss listen to you, the seven disciplines of the trusted strategic advisor?” tried to come up with strategies that that one should use in order pass the message to the relevant authority.
Lukaszewski argues that the most urgent step one needs to know before advising the boss is to understand the realities the executives go through when executing their daily roles. This involves several aspects of the leader’s life. In his suggestion, Lukaszewski proposed that understanding the way leaders think and operate will give one a good platform to approach him/her for advice. When trying to understand the leader’s thoughts and operations, one needs to know the tasks and objectives the leader wants to accomplish in an organization. The knowledge of things that motivate the bosses is also a very critical consideration in understanding the thoughts and operations. Therefore the advice to be given should focus on how best to motivate, help solve problems, make decisions, and how achieve and to accomplish the objectives and goals the boss had set in life.
The author noted that the bosses always seek many pieces of advice but will only weigh up and consider the advice that is in line with the boss’s expectations. Therefore bosses will always prefer listening to the advisors who are very trusted and consider the boss’s expectations more important than their own self-interest. The strategic advisor to be considered by the boss should have a real impact on the operations and decision-making made by the boss on behalf of the organization. Therefore the strategic advisor should gain confidence from the boss, vastly understand what the bosses want, and finally be above other staff members in terms of behavior, timeliness, and presenting the feedback in a more organized manner (Lukaszewski 18).
In part two of his book, Lukaszewski put forward and clearly explained the seven discipline approaches that one needs to observe in order to become a trusted strategic advisor in any organization. A strategic advisor needs to be trustworthy and must be able to maintain trust when carrying out the duties. The leadership skills and vision of the strategic advisor can easily be portrayed through effective speaking when explaining, describing something or when teaching others. Management ability of an advisor should also be developed this is in order to coach, counsel, and instruct the manager according to his/her own perspective. Any strategic advisor trying to win the confidence of the boss should be able to have some strategic thinking capacity in matters concerning management and leadership. This unique quality helps the advisors to have to be thinking and making decisions in a new perspective every time. Thus the ability to solve different problems by applying different approaches. The advisors’ ability to predict and forecast the outcomes and the results of an organization is based on the actions being undertaken and decisions being made at that particular moment. This attribute can be perfected by closely observing the past experiences either yours or that of other people. The strategic advisors ought to be giving the advice in a more constructive way i.e. in a way that the managers are able to clearly understand. Lastly, the strategic advisor should be in a position to show the manager how the advice they give can be used (Lukaszewski 19).
Conclusion
After going through the book “why should a boss listen to you, the seven disciplines of the trusted strategic advisor” by James E. Lukaszewski, I was able to evaluate myself and realized that I m best suited for a strategic advisor to my boss. Based on the way I have executed my duties as a company staff I have diligently performed my work thus being trustworthy. In my day to day life, in able to make critical decisions and take responsibility to solve management and leadership related problems, therefore I’m able to see the world from the managers’ perspective thus helping him/her make good decisions and playing a role of a coach and a counselor. Having worked in the organization for some time, I m able to forecast and project the outcomes of the actions and decisions being made based on past experience. However, my major weakness is compelling the manager to adopt my advice because I know the final decision lies with her/ him. In order to overcome this, I am trying to convince the manager by giving the pilot advices whose results can easily be se
Works cited
James, E., L. The seven disciplines of a strategic advisor.17-20. Bass press 2008. Print.