Business about leadership as a business strategy - Assignment Example

? Leadership Introduction A leader can be defined as the person who is capable of influencing and monitoring a cluster of people towards the attainment of common goals. A leader can also be examined as such person who has numerous followers. Furthermore, a leader requires performing his duties well and capable of showing proper path to his group members so that the goals can be achieved. He must be able to convince the followers to follow his path as well as reward them for doing so (Woodruff, 1995). Leaders who are focused upon their principles and values tend to be successful at larger scale. There are majorly seven principles that need to be followed by the leaders to be successful. They are accepting accountability, continuation of learning through practice, sincerity, anticipation of the results, admiration for individuals and families, leading with integrity and establishment of the goals. There are theories presupposing that as the group tends to mature, the leaders are capable of varying his or her leadership style. However, there are leaders who may not change and therefore have a preferred leadership style. There are situations when the leaders may require adapting their leadership style so that they can fit any given situation. Therefore, it is significant for the leaders to be self-aware (Woodruff, 1995). The main objective of the paper is to identify the leadership skills of two different leaders. The two leaders that have been chosen for the study are Alan Mulally and Bill Gates. The study will try to compare and contrast the leadership skills of these two personalities and to obtain the effectiveness of the leader. Alan Mulally as a Leader Alan Mulally, the President and Chief Executives Officer of Ford Motors Company who has been successful at maintaining the position of the company and thereby enhancing its competitive position can be recognized as an exemplary leader. The automotive industry had not been performing quite well during the pre-recessionary period when Alan Mulally joined the organization. However, it had been noticed that the performance of the Ford Motor Company had been quite well even during such difficult situations in comparison to its competitors. The prime reason behind the positive performance has been the leadership strategies that were followed by the company under Alan Mulally (Yale School of Management, 2010). During the times of tough competition and other challenges, the company was engaged in preparing a model that demonstrates the way automakers as well as the CEOs of the company needs to handle the harsh conditions and do the needful. It had been noticed that Mulally was trying to integrate constancy of purposes along with lucidity and teamwork in managing culture at Ford Motors (Yale School of Management, 2010). It was Alan Mulally who had accelerated the company’s restructuring plan. Under his leadership, the huge losses incurred by the company along with the falling market have been reversed, thereby ensuring that the company had a strong balance sheet. It can be noted that it was under his leadership that Ford Motors was successful at selling off Aston Martin, Land Rover as well as Volvo (Yale School of Management, 2010). The esteemed Taurus brand had been revived and the company was capable of expanding the Lincoln brand under the leadership of Alan Mulally. Furthermore, the stakes held by the company in Mazda was withdrawn. Ford Motors was capable of delivering high quality products which were fuel efficient, elegantly designed and safe. The strategies were so developed by Alan Mulally that the company was successful in meeting the needs and demands of the customers by making complete utilization of the resources. This led to full year profit as noted in 2009 and in the first quarter of 2010. The sales of the company surmounted for all types of products and the best thing to notice is related to the fact that the sales of the company was capable of earning triple to the overall growth of the industry (Yale School of Management, 2010). It had been identified by Yale School of Management that even though Ford Motor Company has good leadership skills at several levels, Alan Mulally was capable of standing as a promising leader by developing of the new business and therefore preventing the great one that has been once withered because of unavoidable challenges. For instance, inspirational model provided by Alan Mulally helped in reigniting the spirit of Ford culture and had also assisted in enhancing the strength of the products. The model was capable of providing new life to the motor company and was also capable of recollecting its original position in the market place (Yale School of Management, 2010). From the above discussion, it can be stated that Mulally’s leadership style was result oriented. Thus, his management can be identified as being authoritative (Scribd, n.d.). Bill Gates as a Leader The other business leader chosen for the study is William H. Gates III who is the Chairman and Chief Executives Officer (CEO) of Microsoft Corporation which is a well-recognized name in the software developing industry. The main characteristic that is worthy of noticing is that he is a strong positivist and believes on the notion that if the person is capable of applying his or her intelligence, he can achieve anything. The vision of Bill gates is that each of the business houses along with the household needs to have a computer and therefore must have Microsoft software. This indicates to his professionalism to surmount every challenge in the pathway to become the leader in the industry. Bill Gates had been quite passionate regarding technology, software and coding. In addition to these he had been a risk bearer and a continuous learner as well. The company under the supervision of Bill Gates has always tried to recruit best employees so that it can stay ahead of the fierce competition with increasing productivity. Bill Gates has exerpertise in all aspects of organizational management. He believes at practicing autocratic behavior with the employees which is one of the significant reasons for long term association of the employees with the Microsoft. Thus, the leadership style followed by Bill Gates can be identified as participative in nature (Kumar, n.d.). Bill Gates Style as Fiedler’s Model Source: (Kumar, n.d.) It is worthy of stating that the Fiedler model explains the fact that leadership effectiveness can be achieved when there is communication between the style followed by the leader and the nature of the environment at which the leader tends to operate. Furthermore, it states that in leadership the significant attribute is the personality factor that may either lead to relationship-oriented or task-oriented leader. Bill Gates seems to have found the best place where the positional power is quite high. The reason behind this is that he has maximum authority in the company along with a well-defined task structure since he is responsible for directing his sub-ordinates to accomplish the goals of the organization (Kumar, n.d.). The leader-member relation in case of Bill Gates is also identified to be quite effective. In this regards, it can be observed that according to the situation mentioned here, Bill Gates can be identified as being task-oriented leader where the work needs to be completed by the followers as per his direction and therefore the common goals of the organization can be achieved. Bill Gates has demonstrated his vision regarding what can be done by the company if it wants to succeed in the long run (Kumar, n.d.). Bill Gates has always tried to pay attention towards recruitment and retention of the best talent in the organization and thereby looks for ample of qualities in the recruits. It has been noted that Bill Gates tries to give complete sovereignty to his managers to hunt the best talent for Microsoft and therefore tries to entrust power to managers so that they are capable of operating their independent departments. Therefore, Bill Gates can be identified as being an effective leader (Kumar, n.d.). Similarities and Differences among the Two Leaders The similarities among both the leaders are that they both employ transformational leadership style. The transformational leader is one who tends to implement new ideas into the process of achieving the desired goal. The main characteristics of these leaders are that they are flexible and quite malleable with any kind of given situation. It is the significance of the transformational leaders to support their cohorts by performing as a role model. Both the leaders have proven that they are effective leaders and are determined with the innovative processes for identifying the various issues in the organization and therefore resolving them as soon as possible. However, it can be mentioned that although both the leaders seems to have been engaged in practicing result-oriented leadership. For instance, Alan Mulally makes use of both result-oriented as well as relation oriented leadership style at the organization. He makes use of the people of the organization and engages them in the decision making of the company as well. Alan Mulally can be identified as being situational leader since he tends to be quite flexible and adaptable by his nature. Conclusion Leadership is one of the best strategies that can assist the companies on the pathway towards growth and success. There are different types of leadership styles that can be practiced by the organizational leaders. However, it is to be remembered that the leaders need altering their leadership style as per the change in the business environment. It can be mentioned that Alan Mulally and Bill Gates are effective leaders and it is under their leadership that the company has been successful at achieving great heights. Their visions are communicated to the followers effectively and therefore the followers work hard to accomplish the aims of the organization. It is in this context that the study has been affective in demonstrating the fact that it is the vision and goals of the effective leader which can lead to success and assist in maintaining the competitive position of the organization in the market. References Kumar, D. (No Date). Report on leadership style of bill gates. Retrieved from http://www.scribd.com/doc/16315025/Leadership-Style-of-Billgates Scribd. (No date). Alan Mulally case. Retrieved from http://www.scribd.com/doc/60489587/Alan-Mulally-s-Case Woodruff, D. M. (1995). Become an effective leader. Retrieved from http://www.managementmethods.com/forms/Become%20an%20Effective%20Leader.dmw.pdf Yale School of Management. (2010). News. Retrieved from http://mba.yale.edu/news_events/CMS/Articles/7169.shtml Read More