The Diversity of Leadership Styles: A Reflection of World's Leaders - Essay Example

Reflection of World’s Leaders Leadership When talking about good and bad leaders the first thing to know is what exactly leadership is and what qualities decide whether a leader is a successful leader or an unsuccessful one. Leadership can be explained as an influential relationship between leaders and followers who look for bringing real changes while fulfilling their mutual purposes. Leadership style varies from person to person and this is what makes the most distinguishable difference among different leaders and often is the key decision maker for creating a good leader or a bad one. However, leadership is not a “one size fits all” thing. Often in real life situations, a leader strategically adapts a different style than their usual one or uses a combination of different leadership styles depending on the people they are dealing with and the situation they are in. (Harvard Business School, 2013). Leadership Styles Though leadership style varies from person to person, the common leadership styles can be categorized as below: Charismatic leadership - In Charismatic leadership style, the leaders infuses enthusiasm in their people and motivates their people to achieve and move forward. Charismatic leaders generally tend to believe more in themselves and their decisions more than that of their team. The organization tends to be completely dependent on this type of leader and there is a threat of the whole organization collapsing if the leader leaves. Autocratic leadership - In autocratic leadership, the leader has all the power over his people and is the sole decision maker and does not take any input from the team. Bureaucratic leadership - Bureaucratic leaders follow rules strictly and ensure that everything is done according to procedure. Bureaucratic leadership style proves to be ineffective when it comes to organizations dependent on flexibility and innovation. Transformational leadership - This is considered as the best leadership style used in business. Transformational leaders inspire both their teams and themselves to deliver the best which results in a higher level of commitment and productivity in the organization. Laissez-faire leadership - These leaders give complete freedom to their people in their work and provide their team resources and advice when required. People/relations-oriented leadership - In this style, leaders completely focus on developing and supporting their people. This encourages teamwork and the style is people oriented. Task-oriented leadership - This type of leadership only focuses on getting the job done. They plan, organize and monitor the work. Servant leadership - When a leader simply meets the need of the team, he is classified as a servant leader. Democratic/participative leadership - Democratic leaders take decisions but they take inputs from the team and consider their inputs while taking their final decision. They encourage people engagement and creativity. Transactional leadership - In this style, the team members obey their leaders and enter into a transaction of being paid for their compliance and their effort (Bonnici, 2011). Bill Gates-A Phenomenal Leader One of the most successful business leaders considered in today’s world is Bill Gates. The leadership style of Gates is a combination of Transformational and Charismatic. There are many effective leadership styles as mentioned earlier but in business, a leadership style called "transformational leadership" is often the most effective approach to use. Transformational leaders have integrity, inspire people with a shared vision of the future, set clear goals, motivate people towards these goals, manage delivery, and communicate well with their teams. Charismatic leadership style is similar to transformational style as a charismatic leader is enthusiastic and energetic in motivating his people to perform and achieve. Thus, he has an ability to create commitment and enthusiasm among his team. The difference between charismatic leaders and transformational leaders lies in their intention. Transformational leaders want to transform their teams and organizations. Charismatic leaders are often focused on themselves and may not want to change anything. Along with the exceptional qualities of a transformational and charismatic leader, Gates also possessed the downside of a charismatic leadership style which is that he believed more in himself than in his people (The Washington Post, 2011). It is widely known throughout the globe that Bill Gates was the youngest, wealthiest CEO of our time but this success was not achieved with luck. In fact many people still think that by Bill Gates became a successful billionaire by chance. Luck could not be further from the truth when it examining the life achievements of Bill Gates. It is evident that he had many leadership qualities and the most important attributes to this were his capability to analyze, interpret, and be competent. His analytic intelligence is mentioned in his biography that provides evidence of his abilities by scoring 1790 on an 1800 Harvard entrance exam. His freshman years at Harvard may have also developed intrinsic motivation for larger scale achievements with a creative imagination to “Rule the world” of which he and his friends were quoted to be saying (Forbes, 2013). Why I think Bill Gates is a good leader I chose Bill gates because he is a highly influential and successful business leader exhibiting exemplary skills and mindset. He shares his vision with the masses and inspires them. During the early 1970s, computers were too expensive for the average customer. However, Gates through Microsoft successfully delineated the efficacy of computers to the public; he transitioned his leadership approach several times during Microsoft’s rise from a small software firm in a garage to the one of the most valuable companies in the world. His ability to shift roles from a programmer to a charismatic visionary has helped Microsoft to manage its growth over a course of two decades. He has found more success with his venture into Philanthropy. Though he is not the first in donating and working for the empowerment of under developed countries still he has gained a large number of followers from emerging economies like Brazil, Africa and Asia. Philanthropy has proved to be a win-win situation for Bill Gates and has started to give a positive quantitative benefit to his image and business. Many times in his career, he has adapted different leadership styles or a combination of various leadership styles depending on the situation he was handling. As a leader he has been flexible according to the needs of the organization. According to Researcher Meryl David’s”….the wonderful innovations that have come out of Microsoft since its inception have everything to do with Bill gates’ leadership style which encourages suggestions from all ranks and debates all ideas “. Gates quoted that he “wants to rule the world” when his age was seventeen years. He is now a worldwide recognized intelligent, visionary, charismatic and transformational Business leader (Foo, 2006). SWOT analysis of Bill Gates as a leader from a Human Resources point of view: Strengths: Gates is an expert in his matter which is one of the best characteristics of a leader. He comes from an influential family and has used his personality to meet his business agenda. He is charismatic and goes a long way in helping developing countries. He is visionary and generous and donates a part of his wealth for empowering underdeveloped nations. Weaknesses: He has the reputation of a result driven leader. He has an aura which makes people find it difficult to relate to him Opportunities: Philanthropy Business ventures in the health industry Image building through media and other networks. Threats: The dark side of leadership – everyone has at least one bad trait among the many good ones. Gates is sometimes criticized for his dominating approach. Competition from Technology rivals like Apple and other big companies (The Wall Street Journal, 2009). Adolf Hitler - A hated leader Adolf Hitler is one of the most hated characters in history. He is infamous for his leadership in the Nazi party and as the chancellor of Germany. He has become one of the most hated leaders after the Holocaust and the devastation following the World War II. People question about his leadership after the damages he influenced in World War II and the holocaust. He clearly had a lack of respectable values and looked for fulfilling his personal ambitions when he joined the Nazi party. His leadership is denounced because of his unrespectable lack of morals and his behavior and relationship with his people. Hitler had a personalized leadership trait which was non-egalitarian and exploitative. He wanted ultimate authority and stressed to be the only decision taker. In Nazi party, he assumed other positions so that he could be in more legitimate power but seldom considered the interests of the party. The followers of Hitler were often cruelly punished for their wrongdoings, were never heard and were harmed by Hitler in his quest for unrelenting control. He combined his leadership style with his desire for personal control and his leadership was mainly dominated by stubbornness and indecisiveness. He was rebuked for his ability to take quick and important decisions which he put off for weeks while military conditions worsened. From being the leader of German State Hitler became the commander-in-chief of the armed forces in 1983 and then the commander in chief of the army in 1941. Hitler’s style of command involved a number of problems and shortcomings. These were mainly his stubbornness, his depth of knowledge, no concern for his people as well as his power hungry personality. All of which created problem in the German command system. Hitler was considered as a megalomaniac after the war that looked only for personal authority and as a result lost the war for Germany. Hitler followed Autocratic leadership style. He preferred individual control over all decisions and took little or no input from his followers. He mainly demonstrated dictatorship and control over his people and distrusted his Generals and viewed himself as the infallible leader at the top of the government structure (BBC, 2011). Why I think Hitler is a bad leader Hitler lacked a number of qualities that were essential for him to control the military affairs effectively and successfully. Most of his values were looked upon as immoral and disrespectful. One of the majorly important traits that a successful leader should possess is the ability to use his most important resource i.e. his people efficiently. For effective use of the people resource, people engagement is very important. Hitler’s authoritative and dictatorial ways were against this theory. Most of the people resent it when their opinions in the organization do not count. Besides this, Hitler was known to postpone critical decisions many times which were important for the military affairs. He was known to shun serious and intellectual efforts which did not match with his preconceptions. Though he had little knowledge of military and foreign affairs, he tended to reject any opinion that he did not find suitable based on his own instinct. Hitler used his personal command to a very high extent. Hitler clung to his decisions stubbornly without listening to any of his people’s opinions. For this stubbornness many of his decisions proved to be wrong For example, in 1944, he decided to attack in the Ardennes, when many of his commanders tried directly as well as indirectly to persuade him to give up his unrealistic plan, he did not agree. Hitler took all the important operational decisions regarding Germany’s procedure in the war and his short sighted decisions resulted in the catastrophe involving Germany and Europe (Roberts, 2001). Below is a Strength and weakness analysis of Hitler from the Human Resources perspective: Strength: Quick decision making is considered as a positive aspect of autocratic leadership style, but in Hitler’s case this was not applicable as he was known to defer important decisions for days. Weakness: Dictatorial and Controlling - He was control oriented and took himself as the topmost decision maker. He moved position in his party to gain more control without considering if the move resulted in benefit or loss for the party. Hitler was infamous for his distrust for his team. He was known to not trust even his high ranked generals. Ruthless and looked for his personal benefit above the benefit of the party and people. . He moved position in his party to gain more control without considering if the move resulted in benefit or loss for the party. Hitler had a tendency to postpone crucial decisions which resulted in major military damages. Lack of far sightedness which resulted in the holocaust - Hitler took the key decisions in the operational procedure of the World War II and his loss for long sightedness resulted in the major fall of Germany and Europe. Having immoral and destructive values - He seldom cared for his people’s well-being and took immoral and authoritative decisions without consulting any opinion from the team. Worked in isolation and did not take input from his team (BBC, 2011). How did their leadership style affect you and your leadership style? What did you learn from them? I found the leadership style of Bill Gates extremely influential. I think the combination of charismatic and transformational leadership styles is ideal for a people’s leader. The beginning part of Gate’s career was highly dominated by charismatic style when he got a compensation for his programmers group through a royalty payment system. His self-leadership traits are demonstrated by his commitment toward his ideas and goals at such a young age. I think along with being a visionary, far sighted, and inspirational, a leader should also be generous, confident and able to manage his people well. A successful leader is characterized by being able to take crucial decisions quickly and effectively. I think a leader should be flexible enough to adapt his leadership traits according to the demands of the situation he is facing. Taking cue from the leadership ways of Bill Gates, I have learnt to be flexible, far sighted and quick in my decision making. I aspire to be a generous leader like him who tries his best to give back to the world. The way he has taken on Corporate Social responsibility for his company and donates for the empowerment of under developed nations is inspiring for many leaders worldwide and establishes him as a leader who leads people directly in his company as well as indirectly through his social activities. From Hitler’s leadership traits, I have taken the cue not to be stubborn and completely dictatorative in my leadership ways. I think being stubborn in one’s own decisions when leading a team or an organization may pose the threat of the fall of the organization as happened in the case of Germany. I feel it is appreciative to engage people and take their opinions when working as a team so that the team feels motivated and participative about the work. That way, the team would be more enthusiastic and feel to be an important part of the whole process. For being a successful leader, believing in one’s decision and capabilities is definitely a key factor. But along with that, the need to be flexible, inspiring and motivating the followers is equally important for the success of the work. Only dictatorship and authoritative is not likely to work for an organization. But a style and sense of leadership where critical decisions are made using proper judgment and far sightedness as well as keeping into consideration the opinion and the well-being of other people is crucial to be a renowned and successful leader (Manz, 2008). References BBC. (2011). Hitler’s Leadership Style. Retrieved from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/hitler_commander_01.shtml. Roberts, J. (2001). Adolf Hitler: A study in Hate. The Rosen Publishing Group. New York. Foo, F. (2006). Is Bill Gates a great leader. Retrieved from http://www.zdnet.com/is-bill-gates-a-great-leader-1139260529/. Forbes. (2013). Bill Gate. Retrieved from: http://www.forbes.com/profile/bill-gates/. Harvard Business School. (2013). Leadership & Management. Retrieved from: http://hbswk.hbs.edu/topics/leadership.html. Lowe, J. (2001). Bill Gates Speaks: Insight from the World's Greatest Entrepreneur. New Jersey. Wiley. Manz, C. (2008). Dynamic leadership: Toolbox for the Value-Based Entrepreneur. Retrieved from http://www.valuesbasedleadershipjournal.com/issues/vol1issue2/manz_et_al.php. The Wall Street Journal. (2009). Raising Bill Gates. Retrieved from: http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB124061372413054653. The Washington post. (2011). Bill Gates Testifies on Novel. Retrieved from: http://articles.washingtonpost.com/keyword/bill-gates. Bonnici, C. (2011). Creating a Successful Leadership Style: Principles of Personal Strategic Planning. R&L Education. London. Read More