Martha Stewart and Her Leadership Style - Coursework Example

Martha Stewart Running head: LEADERSHIP STYLE Martha Stewart: Leadership with an iron fist and a creative touch of Client of University Name of Class Martha Stewart 2 Martha Stewart: Leadership with an iron fist and a creative touch Martha Stewart built an empire based on a principle of living that she designed and sought to share with others. Through the use of inspiration and example, she has promoted stylish living and innovative theories on creating the perfect home. Martha Stewart, head of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, is considered a hard leader, guiding her corporation through intimidation and high expectations. She is known for being meticulous about the product that she produces and being involved in every aspect of the business in order to ensure that this standard of excellence is carried throughout her enterprise. While she has attained success, the reports on her are not always favorable, giving the appearance of a leader who behaves as a dictator with no real regard or respect for her employees. However, her compassion was fueled by her experiences in prison after being convicted of insider trading. The results of this incarceration spurred her to take on the cause of unfair sentencing guidelines that left many of her fellow inmates in untenable situations for whom she became an advocate. Martha Stewart is an example of a hard leader who creates results by not allowing for her people to fail resulting in a personal drive fueling an empire. Martha Stewart created a success through an idea. Her idea was based on the concept that keeping a well run, organized home with lovely aspects of etiquette and creative uses of home talents was the central desire to most women. As it turns out - she was correct. In describing the foundation of her success, she is quoted as saying “My ideas are good…..I know what women want”(Price, 2007, p. 53). As she grew her business from a catering service, through to owning a magazine, a sizable share of the book market, and through her television show, she repeatedly proved that her ideas were strong enough to influence the cultural identity of the modern woman. Martha Stewart 3 Her use of careful simplicity and creative uses of nature impacted the female identity by suggesting that a more beautiful life was possible just beyond that ridge, and women flocked to attain that dream. As Martha’s signature description of her own ideas stated, “It’s a good thing”(Kerns, 2007, p. 26) According to Joseph Nye (2008), there are two styles of power that will support leadership in a cooperate environment. A soft leader will use charisma, persuasion, rhetoric, and be an example in order to hold power and create success. George Eastman of Kodak and Robert Noyce of Intel both lead with this sort of power. A hard leader will use hiring, firing and demotion along with promotions and financial incentives in order to hold power over the corporation. Examples of this include Andrew Carnegie of the Carnegie Steel Corporation and Thomas J. Watson of IBM. A hard leader will rule through intimidation, while a soft leader will lead through inspiration. However, there have some leaders who have drawn others into their vision through the use of inspiration and then led them through intimidation which allows for a type of leadership that is rare and ultimately more powerful than the use of one or the other of the approaches. Examples of these types of leaders include both Steve Jobs Bill Gates, and a particularly powerful female leader, Martha Stewart. It an be argued that those with great innovation are more often insensitive to those they must use in order to increase the propagation of their ideas. When the driving idea is more important than any other purpose within the company, then leadership sometimes fails to see the people and will be disconnected to the humanism of business, but instead depend on the fear that will drive their employees. Using Machiavellian techniques will create a leader who is both loved and feared. Machiavelli said that it is more important for a leader to be more feared than loved. It Martha Stewart 4 is easier to turn on those we love than on those we fear (Nye, 2008, p. 41). Martha Stewart has led her people in an atmosphere of an extreme expectation of perfection. The consequences of not living up to her standards would be dire and the occurrence of being recognized for achieving that goal is not frequent. Therefore, the challenge of working under such a leader who also has inspirational ideas draws a large pool of talent from which she can hand pick the best and most talented to support her vision. Stewart is considered hands-on as a leader. She involves herself in all aspects of her business, overseeing every detail to ensure that her standards and expectations are achieved (Silverstein, Fiske, & Butman, 2003, p. 166). Denhardt (2006), in an attempt to structure the theories of leadership in line with the theories of movement, identifies four styles of personality that is most often seen in leaders. The four styles are thrust, shape, hang and swing. Denhardt then goes on to identify Stewart as fitting into the thrust category, which is defined by saying that “ The ‘thrusting’ pattern of movement and thinking is very direct and assertive, independent and critical, quick in pattern recognition, seeing the whole, and quite hands-on” (p. 104). Stewart has run a corporate level business by being aggressive and demanding, leading in her industry through the expectations of excellence. Through the use of an autocratic form of leadership structure, Stewart has gained a reputation for excellence, but also a reputation for being too difficult and overly demanding. According to Jacqueline Edwards, an autocratic leader is identified as one who does not take others into consideration when making decisions, nor do they lead with the intent of creating success for anyone other than themselves or their ideal. As well, this style of leadership is considered manipulative and intimidating, creating an atmosphere of high stress (p. 43). Stewart Martha Stewart 5 is identified by Edwards as being this kind of a leader. While her management team is talented and strong in experience, it is Martha’s vision that is followed. Her image is the image of the company and without it, the enterprise would not exist. The strength of her leadership allows her to retain control as without her to head the image, the company would have no substance. Another aspect of her leadership style which is indicative of the autocratic style and the sense of dependency that her control asserts is that she is bold and decisive, making smart decisions and carrying them out, even when the decisions she makes may not be mainstream thinking. One such move was when she bought her own magazine from Time Warner when she didn’t feel the publishing company was doing justice to her vision. Having the funds to purchase the magazine would not be easy to raise and she was advised against making this move. However, she discovered a route that would make her billions, funding her move and increasing the success of her corporation. She took her company, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Inc. public, which began selling at an IPO of $18 and peeking at $36, before settling into an average of around $20 (Lamb & McKee, 2005, p. 127). The single thing that is most cumbersome to the company is that Martha Stewart’s image is the foundation on which it rests. The way the public perceives her is the way in which her business will flourish. This was tested when in 2002 she was investigated and ultimately incarcerated for insider trading. An investment in the company of a friend led to her receiving inside information that a drug that the company was testing would not be approved by the FDA, which would inevitably lead to a decline in the value of the stock. Stewart made $43,000 for selling the stock on the information she received, which constituted an illegal trade and landed her in federal prison (Lamb & McKee, 2005, p. 129). Martha Stewart 6 However, even the prison term was the result of decisive decision by Stewart. Her company was bleeding funds as a result of the indictment and pending trial. An extended judicial process would only continue to hurt her company so she voluntarily entered prison immediately after sentencing so that the incident would support the renewal of the health of her company, rather than a prolonged appeals process and further publicity damage from too much time in the negative spotlight. Even from prison, Martha lead her business, despite having stepped down from the top leadership role. When she didn’t like the direction that Sharon Patrick was taking the company, the person to whom she had given over her title of CEO, she successfully had her removed and replaced. In the end, the decline in the profitability of Stewart’s company was not a result of her direct leadership, but in response to charges that were brought against her for having sold off shares of a business and making a profit of a few thousand dollars because of information that was not yet public, making her guilty of insider trading. While the actual event was a minor incident in her business life, it became central to the value of the shares in her corporation when news broke of her arrest (Doh & Stumpf, 2005, p. 64). Despite this decline, Stewart moved forward and starred in her own spin-off from Donald Trump’s The Apprentice and regained her television program in order to continue her role as an example of good living to millions of women. A leader who can come through such an embarrassment as a prison term and continue her vision, despite a decline, is one who is committed to her ideals. Although she is a hard leader and an authoritarian when it comes to her role, she found compassion for the women she saw in the prison and has since actively sought reform and been an advocate for those with whom she shared that time in her life. Although she has been seen as too hard, her success has been undeniable and her leadership absolute. Martha Stewart 7 List of References Himsel, D. (2004). Leadership Sopranos style: How to become a more effective boss. Chicago: Dearborn Trade Pub. Denhardt, R. B. (2006). Dance of leadership: The art of leading in business, government, an society. [S.l.]: M.E. Sharpe. Doh, J. P., & Stumpf, S. A. (2005). Handbook on responsible leadership and governance in global business. Elgar original reference. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar. Lamb, L.F. & McKee, K. B. (2005). Applied public relations: Cases in stakeholder management. Mahwah, NJ: Routledge. Nye, J. S. (2008). The powers to lead. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Price, J. F. (2007). Martha Stewart: A biography. Greenwood biographies. Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press. Silverstein, M., Fiske, N., & Butman, J. (2003). Trading up: The new American luxury. New York: Portfolio. Read More