NewIssuesOutlines(ZT)

smart

1. Whether in politics or in business, leaders of any group need to understand that learning to compromise is ultimately more important than winning.

Position: It is true that effective leadership depends more on compromising than on winning.

A.     Political decisions in a democratic society are often the result of a compromise between various interest groups.

B.     The best way for a business leader to win in a transaction is to compromise.



2. Constant innovation and change within an organization are as likely to damage the organization as they are to improve it.

Position: Constant innovation within an organization is a double-edged sword, which could either improve or damage the organization.

A.     On the one hand, an organization that refuses to adapt itself to the constantly changing environment are sure to decline in the end.

B.     On the other hand, an organization that changes too frequently might find it difficult to coordinate its various departments.

C.     Successful leadership has a lot to do with handling the pace of innovation within an organization.



3. Government should place stricter limits on the ability of businesses to invade citizens’ privacy through telemarketing, e-mail, advertising, collection of personal information on consumers, and so on, even if those limits affect businesses’ profitability and competitiveness.

Position: There is no need for the government to take special measures to prevent businesses from invading their potential customers’ privacy.

A.     Businesses should have the freedom to market their products and services as long as they stay within the law.

B.     We can trust the invisible hand of the market for regulating the advertising behavior of businesses.

C.     Failing to respect the privacy of customers would ultimately harm the interests of businesses.



4. Companies should recruit and reward employees more for their enthusiasm and willingness to contribute to the mission of the organization than for their knowledge and skills.

A.     Admittedly, nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.

B.     However, the fundamental criterion of recruiting or rewarding employees should be their actual contributions to the company.

C.     The best employees are those who have both expertise and enthusiasm.



5. Previous failure in some enterprise is essential if one is to become a successful leader.

Position: Success is failure with the dirt brushed off.

A.     Experiencing failure strengthens one’s stamina and courage, two important qualities that enable one to confront challenges in the future.

B.      Failing is also an inevitable process through which we learn to be wiser.



6. The type of leadership that an organization needs (be it a college, a country, or a business, for example) depends largely on whether the organization is stable in crisis.

Position: The real challenge to the leadership of an organization is how to avoid crisis rather than how to maintain stability in crisis.

A.     Undoubtedly, one who can keep the stability of an organization can be trusted as an effective leader.

B.     However, a more important quality of a leader is to remain alert against crisis and to make sure that his organization stay on the safe road.

C.     What is just as challenging to a leader is to turn crises into opportunities and failure into success.



7. Highly skilled employees who are ambitious, self-motivated, and self-sufficient are more likely to be harmful than beneficial in an organization based on teamwork.

Position: It is a misconception that an ambitious, self-motivated, and self-sufficient person cannot play a constructive role within a team.

A.     First, people without ambitions do not qualify as competent members of a dynamic team.

B.     In addition, self-motivation gives each member of a team the enthusiasm to do his or her best job.

C. Finally, self-sufficiency or self-reliance enables the members of a team to take their own responsibilities, which is a prerequisite of any cooperation.



8. An explicit and enforced set of values is crucial to the success of any company or other type of organization.

Position: A company or any other type of organization depends largely on the creating and maintaining a constructive corporate culture.

A.     To begin with, an organization should make sure that all its members understand clearly its mission and rules of behavior.

B.     In addition, the organization should make efforts to enforce its values.

C.     The members’ sharing of a common set of values contributes to the organization’s cohesion and efficiency.



9. An organization cannot make real progress unless all its members share a common set of values rather than make decisions that are guided by their own values and beliefs.

Position: A company or any other type of organization depends largely on the creating and maintaining a constructive corporate culture.

A.     To begin with, an organization should make sure that all its members understand clearly its mission and rules of behavior.

B.     In addition, the organization should make efforts to enforce its values.

C.     The members’ sharing of a common set of values contributes to the organization’s cohesion and efficiency.



10. In today’s rapidly and unpredictably changing world, attempting to learn from the past is no longer the wisest strategy.

Position: Besides learning from the past, there is no better way to confront the present challenges.

A.     A common misconception is that the past is dead and no longer relevant to the present.

B.     However, in business schools, the most effective way of learning is still case studies.

C.     One who remains ignorant of what occurred before he was born is to remain always a child.



11. The most important quality for a leader of an organization to have is not the ability to plan, to organize, and to solve problems but rather the ability to communicate the organization’s mission and to inspire people to work toward fulfilling that mission.

Position: True, what is especially lacking today among leaders is the ability to motivate people to devote themselves to the mission of an organization.

A.     A leader can hire experts to plan, to organize and to solve problems.

B.     What nobody can help the leader to do is to communicate effectively the organization’s mission to every member of the organization.

C.     What is just as challenging is to motivate people to work enthusiastically for the fulfilling of that mission.