Leading With Impact, Assessment Example

Abstract

This paper discusses the leadership of Catherine the Great. An analysis of her activities, reforms, and laws is done to determine the extent of her transformational leader and the extent to which she was not.

Leading with Impact: Catherine the Great

The history of women and leadership is rich and long. It has occurred beyond the remnants of endorsed power. Undeniably, there are women who spearheaded various political and environmental campaigns; and fought for the rights of the children, humanity in general and peace. Women also took part in the expansion women’s suffrage among the many other contributions they have made in the making of a better society. Catherine the Great, for example, is one of the most influential people that the world has ever known. Catherine the Great is one of the countless women who have made huge contributions in transforming the world as it is known today. As a matter of fact, she managed a life packed of successful undertakings and is considered to be one of the longest reigning leaders that Russia has ever had. She is also one of the most celebrated leaders in the history of the world, more particularly in Russia and Europe.

The question that needs to be answer is what makes Catherine the Great a pronounced leader? Catherine the Great is surely a transformational leader. This is particularly true in her approach to cause changes in the lives of her people and her desire to change the system in the society. In this regard, Catherine the Great created a positive change in the nation and actually brought Russia into power. It cannot be denied that during her reign in Russia, success is one of the most sought after thing in life. People in the society want to be successful in their own field, profession and perspective. This is reflected during the first decade of her rule as the leader of Russia. She made huge reforms on the education and the legal system as well as the culture of Russia. This goes to show that her rule is founded from the fundamentals of life and improve from thereon.

Such fundamentals are loyalty, industriousness, friendship, enthusiasm and cooperation. These fundamentals are not limited in the confines of her royalty but extend to the real world where people need guidance and a leader that will fight for them. This is particularly true because when conducting a business- in this case the welfare of the people- one must be knowledgeable about the basics and fundamentals that must be set in order to properly run a nation. Catherine the Great understood this concept and took advantage of it to cause transformation in the nation.

It must be remembered that in order for her reign, people and nation to grow and continue, its foundation must be solid. This means that it must be founded upon patience and faith. Catherine the Great strived hard to work her way up into the ladder of leadership. It took her 18 years to get her hands into power. And during those times, she equipped herself with knowledge on leadership and studied how politic works. She educated herself on the ins and outs of leading a nation with particular attention to war, trading and the struggle for power. However, Catherine the Great paid attention to her skills as well and not just the acquisition of knowledge. She understood that skills are very important too if she wanted her rule to be successful. She worked hard to make sure that she developed all the skills set needed in order to succeed. She might have a lot of limitations and not to mention the power struggle that was prevalent in her time, she still managed to pull through with a goal in her mind to develop new leaders and made the foundation of Russia stronger than it could and will ever be.

She was able to succeed in establishing a strong foundation for the future Russian leader by her adaptation of the ideologies of the West and encouraged and pushed her league of leaders to send their children in the West for their education. This is one of the hallmarks of a true transformational leader. It is a known fact that a leader of a transformational leader is one that allows for the development of the leaders and making sure that they are trained well-enough to assume leadership positions later on. Aside from this, a transformational leader is one that uses motivation, boost the morale of the people and more importantly value the people. These are but some of the characteristics of Catherine the Great. Although she is goal-driven, she did not lose sight of balancing her goals and the values of the nation.

It can be said that Catherine the Great is able to manage and balance its goals without sacrificing the communication and the way she treated her people. This is by the way an indicator t of a good leadership style. She listened to her people. As a matter of fact, when the peasant revolted, Catherine the Great slaughtered a significant number of landholders as a way of appeasing the revolt. Catherine the Great was a motivated leader. Her motivation drove the performance and productivity of her leading nobles. Although it can be said that being motivated is not necessary a good leadership trait because it can be overdone yet a motivated leader gets things done and Catherine the Great got things done. She enacted different laws and reforms that helped the country and its people.

This can be attributed to three distinct examples: a) motive for power- that allowed Catherine the Great to conduct more aggressive act and exciting risk-taking activities. This led to the consolidation of power from the serfs and landholders or feudal lords. In addition, it was during her reign that the elite people of the Russian nation were cut off from the traditions so that Catherine the Great can work on the enhancement of the power of the States and not rely on the dictatorship of the elite. It cannot be denied that, even in the present day, the elites can take control of how the economy works and how the government should be ran. Catherine the Great did the opposite. She focused on building and strengthening of the State power; b) motive affiliation- this pushed Catherine the Great to support and build the military strength all for the glory of economic expansion and growth. Moreover, she increased her affiliation with the Western countries by adopting their ideologies, expanded the nation’s involvement with the affairs concerning the European countries, and imported various philosophers from France to show patronization of the science and the arts. She even went as far as reforming law codes to reflect the Western-style of leadership and ruling, and; c) responsibility- this pertains to the manner in which she made an impact in the way Russia conducted its business and in which direction it will go. Under her reign, women in Russia were given more freedom and were allowed to attend cultural events in public which was forbidden at the time. She stabilized the economy despite the rampant corruption, political struggle, power struggle and rebellion. She exerted efforts to establish the mining and the metallurgical industries in Russia. However, it is remarkable how there was never a major war that occurred during her reign.

However, it cannot be denied that she somewhat lacked in detail-orientation. This is particularly shown when she slaughtered landholders as a reply to the revolting peasants. Yet, at the same time she did not do anything about the high taxes that were put on the shoulders of the peasants. Being detailed-oriented means that there is a need for the leader to have a team that will maintain the focus of the governing body. This also means helping to ensure that the leader and all the reforms, laws and codes that are being enacted are in alignment with the vision. This is one of the challenges that limited Catherine the Great in becoming one of the best transformational leaders in the world. In addition, this only showed that Catherine the Great valued power more than anything else due to the fact she valued the landholders more than the peasants who are contributing to the stabilization of the economy. It cannot be denied that the laborers were the one that has more contributions to the economy. Without them, there would not be any existing and successful industries in Russia.

The problem with the reign of Catherine the Great is that it would seem that her visions and missions, although great, are contradicting with each other. It is imperative to note that at one point, she cut the elite off the tradition of the nation to enhance state power and then turn around and gave the aristocrats more power. The bureaucracy was overrun and dominated by the aristocrats. It can be said that this is due to the fact that the main goal of her reign is to strengthen her monarchy against any forces and power that threatened the monarchy.

With all the foregoing, Catherine the Great held a very important role in the determination of the nation’s success. Although she had her own philosophy and goals, she focused on the power she can attain and how she can maintain it. Although, she pushed her governance to correct the mistakes of the previous leaders who created a weak economy and pushed the people (nobles and aristocrats) to be the best they can be, it is apparent that in the process she created a resentful environment. This was materialized by the constant and unending revolts from the peasants. It is about balancing between goals, motives, methods, resources and results. It is not always whether the leaders get the ultimate power or be known on a global scale. Rather it is about strengthening the very core of nation- its people but not just the selected few. In this regard, it cannot be denied that Catherine the Great is one transformational leader but she has her limitations and some of her goals, enactments, laws and reforms did not reflect the collaboration of all the leading nobles and the general public in the process of identification of the changes, visions, and inspirations that are needed to be transformed. But then again, Catherine the Great succeeded in her quest to modernized Russia and made it a powerful empire.