Transformational and Charismatic Leaders - Coursework Example

Change oriented leadership, transformational and charismatic leaders Now serving as the CEO of Yahoo, Marissa Mayer’s approach to leadership is one that continuous to arouse mixed reactions from bystanders. Understanding her background functions to enlighten her personality and leadership traits, which in turn enlightens our understanding of her leadership approach and change management approach. As a teenager in high school, many described Marissa as an astoundingly studious individual. She completed the tasks assigned to her on time and strived to deliver impeccable results for the tasks she undertook, a behavior she naturally carried into her adulthood life. At the time of her appointment as Yahoo’s CEO, Marissa was five months pregnant. This did not deter her ability to deliver as a leader; in fact, it motivated her to work harder. She only took a two-week maternity leave and went on to build a nursery right next to her office, which meant no telecommuting and constant access to her new-born. Suffice it to say, Marissa gravitates towards a more situational management approach whereby she is more hands-on; a practice that is unorthodox for most CEOs. For example, she takes a more direct approach to hiring staff whereby she follows strict hiring policies, which entail conducting stringent achievement and educational background investigations (Weisberg, 2013). As evidenced by employee remarks and owners of the small companies that accepted mergers with Yahoo, Marissa Mayer is a charismatic leader. David Pogue, a former New York Times columnist cites Marissa’s charisma as one of the reasons why he accepted her offer to join the Yahoo editorial team. In addition, majority of owners of the companies acquired by Yahoo during Marissa’s tenure also cited her charisma as one of the major reasons for accepting acquisition offers. They agreed to sell their companies despite prior knowledge that their companies might face possible dissolution (Weisberg, 2013). Before Marissa took over as CEO, Yahoo had not released any noteworthy new products, which caused the company’s market share to plummet drastically. Since taking over, Marissa Mayer’s first year has been quite eventful. She commenced with the purchase of over twenty (20) small ICT based companies, a strategic decision driven by the need to diversify Yahoo’s product range. Her ability to recognize a problem, identify alternative solutions, and settling on the best alternative solution to the problem attests to Marissa’s exceptional transformational leadership traits. In addition, she did not let critical bystanders deter her from her task of transforming Yahoo. Transformational leadership empowers one to remain steadfast when faced with criticisms by leading by example, which functions to enhance the morale and performance of employees. For example, Marissa faced resistance when she barred employees from telecommuting and teleworking, as she believed that more innovation resulted from all employees working together in the office. The high resistance Marissa faced was because her decision went against Yahoo’s organizational culture, which valued telecommuting and teleworking. Her transformational leadership qualities faced further criticism and ridicule when she announced that Yahoo as a search engine would not be given top priority. Yahoo was initially founded to rival Google, one of the largest search engines across the globe. Marissa understood that it was futile for Yahoo to focus on revenues generated from it being a search engine. Marissa’s strategic goal was to concentrate more on content, mobile frontier and largely advertising in an attempt to connect to her employee’s sense of identity and collective identity of Yahoo as an organization. Only transformational leaders can implement such bold moves, as they intolerably believe that change through example and praise of exemplary task completion contributes to an organization’s success (Weisberg, 2013). Transactional leadership requires decisions from the leader to reflect on the performance of the employees. Such leaders are best in situations of renovating a company to position it higher in a market rather than let it be engulfed with the cruel environment. Such environments would be best exemplified in crisis or emergency situations, such as Yahoo’s desperate extended hand for requiring a bail out. This requires the introduction of a system that will ensure the maintenance of a specific desired talent level by the employees. The “bell curve grading system’s” introduction into Yahoo by Marissa attests to her transactional leadership traits. She expected managers of the various departments to let go of employees who fell at the bottom of the bell curve. In addition, by being intricately involved in the process of hiring new employees, her transactional leadership qualities are clearly conveyed. She also employed the use of the “management by exception factor, where, if her subordinates did not meet the company’s acceptable performance levels, she would have to intervene to initiate a corrective action for the improvement of the company’s performance (Weisberg, 2013). Marissa’s leadership approach and change management process has both benefits and drawbacks. Since taking over, many can attest to the fact that Yahoo has been really active on the M&A front (Kessler; 2013). The acquisition of the small companies that Yahoo has purchased so far has injected a fresh work force, coupled with a new line of innovation from innovative company founders. This leadership approach functions to motivate employees not to slack, but rather complete their tasks diligently and with the thought of praise after completing what the management sort after. This style is however, also marred by massive drawbacks. Her transactional style and hands-on approach may prompt the company to lose out on exceptionally competent people. This style may also be interpreted by the rest of the team that she does not predominantly possess trust in her workforce and subordinate managers. Such lines of thought may significantly slow down decision making via forming a sort of bottle neck at the top level management. Her leadership style may also stifle innovation as the results of the performance required would leave no quota for thinking outside the box. Rather, such an approach would mean that the employees would only focus on the tasks, and performing them impeccably for fear of reprimand. Fear is a negative extrinsic motivator that fails to sustain desirable results in the long term (Weisberg, 2013). References Weisberg, J. (2013, September ). Yahoos Marissa Mayer: Hail to the Chief. Vogue, p. 23. Read More