Assignment Instructions
Write a research paper or approximately 750 words reviewing Ronald Reagan as a leader. Evaluate this leader with respect to the employees that he or she supervises. Apply what you have learned in this class to the following discussions in your paper:
- A description of your leader and why he or she was selected
- A brief description of your leader’s daily responsibilities
- A brief description of your leader’s direct reports and their duties
- Your leader’s strengths
- Your leader’s weaknesses
- Your leader’s key accomplishments
- Why has this leader been so successful?
- Include two to four sources, which may consist of readings from the University Library, your text, other selections, and your own experiences
Sample Solution – Evaluation A Leader – Ronald Reagan
Evaluating a Leader
The selected leader in this case is Ronald Reagan. Reagan was selected due to his strong leadership abilities in his lifetime. He was elected a leader in almost all places he worked and he eventually served as 33rdCalifornia governor for two terms and as the 40th United States President for two terms or eight years. Reagan demonstrated great leadership abilities and always worked to bring positive changes. Reagan played a great role in bringing social changes as a governor and as a president. The review will be highly based on his terms as a governor of California and as president of the US (Fessler, 2007).
Reagan Daily Responsibilities
As a president Ronald Reaganacted as Commander in Chief of the armed forces, and the head of government and state. His responsibilities included giving command to the armed forces of the country as the highest in command when necessary. Other responsibilities included enforcing and implementing the laws drafted by the Congress. He also had the responsibility of appointing the federal agencies heads who include the cabinet. He also had responsibilities of signing bills and vetoing of the country. Reagan could also draft bills for motion in congress. As a president Reagan was responsible of running the country and ensuring that everything moves smoothly from internal government affairs and foreign ones. As a governor, Reagan was responsible of controlling the county budget, signing and vetoing bills of the state, and convening special legislature sessions for special purpose. He also acted as the commander-in-chief of military forces of California State (Pfiffner, 2011).
Reagan Direct Reports and Duties
Reagan was the head of the government and state in the US. He was able to appoint various government officials including the cabinet members, policy czars, chief of staff, personal assistance, and envoys among others. All these individuals reported back to him. All these individuals play a great role in enhancing effective running of the government. Cabinet members developed strategies to improve different situations in various government ministries. Personal assistance help in planning meeting and reminding the president about these meetings. Policy czars enhance the drafting of different policies and presenting them to the congress as required and based on the president preference. Chief of staff supervises workers in the white house among other roles.
Reagan Strengths
Reagan great strength was the ability to form economic policy agendas that liberated California from financial crisis; budget deficit during his time as a governor and the U.S. during his time as the president. With good policies, he was able to reduce the level of inflation and in uplift the GDP of the country. Reagan also had a strong moral stand and he was determined to fight social crisis that included drugs, racial discrimination, arm legalization, abortion and freedom of worship in public schools among other things. Strength is that Reagan was a powerful communicator. He also had a sense of humor which eased even the tensest situation during his leadership.He was also a visionary leader with intellectual, personal, physical and moral traits of a resilient, visionary leader (Alturasinstitute.com, 2016).
Reagan Weaknesses
Reagan main weakness was signing of abortion bill during his first months as a governor of California. This is among things he regretted doing later and cited lack of experience as the main cause of this failure. His other weakness was his divorce with his first wife Jane Wayne before he joined politics. This made him documented as the first US president to have divorced. This somehow contrasted his moral standards as a leader and raised unnecessary questions.
Reagan Achievements
Some of the great Ronald Reagan achievements include the reduction of inflation in the country during his first term as the president from 12.5% to 4.4%. He also enhanced the GDP growth from 7.5% to 10.8% during his term (Mack, 2000). He also managed to eliminate the budget deficit in California during his term to budget surplus. He also managed to end cold war and facilitated the fall of the Soviet Union. Reagan also played a great role in fighting terror originating from Middle East countries that included Libya, Afghanistan, and Lebanon. Reagan foreign policy brought great change not just in America, but also in the entire world (Toaldo, 2012).
Why was Ronald Reagan Leadership a Success
Ronald Reagan leadership was regarded as a success due to positive changes it brought to the United States and the world in general. He had great achievements which were not managed by any of the preceding presidents of the country. He found the country in a bad economic state while entering in the office for the first time as the president. However, he managed to enhance great positive economic changes within the shortest time of his services (Mack, 2000). He was also able to achieve so much in foreign policy, success that resulted to the end of cold war and falling of the communist Soviet Union. His ability to end the cold war earned him great legacy as a leader. Ronald Reagan played a great part in uplifting the American glory as the superpower country in the world. He was able to end the cold war which had been going on for ten years eight only three years. He demonstrated aspects of visionary and charismatic leadership which focused more on addressing the social problems in the country (Fessler, 2007).
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