Sheryl Sandberg and Warren Buffet as Two Leading Influential Leaders - Essay Example

work Table of Contents Introduction 3 Discussion 3 Conclusion 7 References 9 Introduction Effective leadership style of an individual helps him or her to guide the entire team to achieve the developed common task. The leadership style of a manager or a leader within the organization effectively depends upon the behaviour, attitude and adopted trait of a leader. On the other hand, efficiency and effectiveness of the leadership style of a leader significantly judged by the result and performance of a leader. Leadership style of leaders used to differ from an individual to another individual due to the cultural differences or gender differences of people. It is true that female leaders used to avail different types of leadership traits comparing to the male leaders. This particular essay will discuss about the leadership style of Sheryl Sandberg and Warren Buffet. These two individuals are quite popular among the individuals in the corporate world due to their effective leadership style. In addition to this, the essay will compare and contrast the leadership style of Warren Buffet and Sheryl Sandberg. Discussion It is true that several leading organizations in this world are trying to capitalize on the potential business opportunities in order to increase global market share and get potential competitive advantages. It is true that several leading multinational organizations are trying to adopt and implement effective and appropriate leadership style in order to maintain effective business performance. Role of an effective leader within an organization is to motivate entire team to perform effectively under any kind of pressure situation. This part of the essay will discuss the leadership style of two renowned organizational leaders, such as Sheryl Sandberg and warren Buffet. It is important for the readers to know about the background of the leaders before discussing their adopted and implemented leadership style. Sheryl Sandberg was born in the year 1969. She is known to be a one of the most successful corporate leaders. She is one of the leading American business women. Sheryl Sandberg became the vice president of Google’s Global Online operations and Sales department. Slowly and gradually her popularity started to increase due to her effective adopted and implemented managerial and leadership skills. In the year 2008, she shifted to Facebook and became the Chief Operating Officer of Facebook. In addition to this, she was selected as the member of the board in the year 2008. She is the first women leader to do so. In the year 2012, Sheryl Sandberg was named in the annual list of one of the most influential women leader in the Time 100. It is true that Facebook can be considered as one of the leading social networking websites through which several individuals can get connected with their friend, relatives and family members anywhere in this world. Facebook follows flatter organizational hierarchical structure. Therefore, it can be stated that the management of the organization always develops employee centric business operation strategies. In addition to this, the management of Facebook always gives effective value and respect to the employees within the workplace to improve the workplace performance level. Sheryl Sandberg has become one of the important members in the Facebook family. Sheryl Sandberg controls the operation activities of Facebook including public policy development, marketing, sales, business development, human resource and communications. Digital and online social media marketing has become important aspects for several business organizations. The management team of Facebook understood the significance of these aspects under the leadership of Sheryl Sandberg. She brought the concept of online advertising and promotion through Facebook page. In addition to this, her innovation and influential leadership trait helped the organization to gain more popularity among the Facebook users and business clients. Most importantly, this particular activity helped the organization to maximize its business profit. It is highly important for an operational leader within an organization to maintain effective relationship with both external and internal stakeholders of the organization in order to enhance business operation performances (Gilbert, 2012, p.17). Sheryl Sandberg always tries to take care of the personal and professional wants and needs of the employees. In addition to this, effective adoption and implementation of democratic leadership style helped her to influence entire workforce to perform effectively. In addition to this, her adopted and implemented leadership style can be considered as the transformational leadership style in which the organizations implement change management in the business operation processes in order to overcome previous organizational issues or in order to improve the business profitability (Bass and Riggio, 2006, p.29). However, Sheryl Sandberg proposed and implemented change management process in the business operation in order to maximize business profit (Britain-think, 2012, p.9). In addition to this, she also tries to maintain effective relationship with the business clients and the Facebook users by the adoption of several new aspects in the operation. Warren Buffet is one of the leading American investor, business magnate and philanthropists. He can be recognized as one of the successful investors in this 20th century. Warren Buffet is the largest shareholder and CEO of the Berkshire Hathaway (Miles, 2002, p.98). In the year 2008, Warren Buffet was named as the wealthiest person in this world. On addition to this, Warren Buffet was named as the third wealthiest individual in this world in the year 2011. In the year 2012, Time Magazine named Warren Buffet as the most influential people in this world. According to him, stakeholders, shareholders, customers and employees are important to business growth (Marshall, 2010, p.75). He mentioned that an organization cannot growth without the valuable support of both external and internal stakeholders ((Wright, 2013-14, p.11). Therefore, it is highly important to provide proper value and respect to these stakeholders to gain potential competitive advantages. However, the leadership style of Warren Buffet can be considered as laissez-faire leadership style (DeVoon, 2007, p.196). It is true that Warren Buffet always tries to motivate the employees in order to maintain effective business performances. He always considers high integrity, competent, vision, influence, motivation and inspiration in his leadership skill in order to ensure effective team and workplace performance (Wright, 2013-14, p.17). Laissez faire leadership style can be considered as important leadership style that can help the employees in the organization to work independently. His influential leadership style helped several CEOs to implement unique strategies in the business operation processes (Fletcher, 2003, p.7). Now-a-days, several CEOs are adopting and implementing his technique in order to maintain efficiency in the business performances. Most importantly, this particular leadership style helps other individuals or followers to adopt and implement self-dependent strategies in the business operation processes (Reader, 2013, p.96). Moreover, it is true that Warren Buffet always tries to motivate the followers by providing practical example of his life. He is quite intelligent. In addition to this, integration of hard work and maintaining strong ethics in decision making process helped him to become one of the popular leaders in this world. Most importantly, warren Buffet also can be considered as one of the effective transformational leaders ((Wright, 2013-14, p.5). He started his journey from the clothing industry. Now, he is popular among the people in this world due to his significant ability to invest in stock and make huge money. He never tries to take the short cut to make wealth. Strong dedication and hard work helped him to become one of the leading successful and wealthy individuals in this world. Sheryl Sandberg is one of the leading influential women leaders. On the other hand, warren Buffet is one of the leading influential male leaders ((Wright, 2013-14, p.13). In addition to this, both these individuals have integrated transformational leadership aspect in the adopted and implemented leadership style (Wright, 2013-14, p.9). Effective implementation of change management process helped these leaders to gain huge success in this competitive corporate world. It is true that women leaders always try to integrate care, kindness and influence in the leadership style. On the other hand, male leaders used to incorporate integrity, discipline, punctuality, vision, motivation and loyalty in the leadership style (Bhavani and Coyle, 2000, p.228). Therefore, the leadership style used to vary from an individual to another individual due to gender and cultural background. Sheryl Sandberg used to motivate the employees within the workplace by taking care of the needs of both employees and customers. On the other hand, Warren Buffet used to maintain integrity, ethics and discipline in the decision making process so that the organization can avoid several types of conflicts. Conclusion It is clear from above discussion that, effective workplace performance in an organization significantly depends upon the leadership style and process that are adopted by the organizational leaders. It is highly important for the organizations to take care each and every aspect associated with workplace performance to enhance business performances. Sheryl Sandberg and warren Buffet can be considered as two leading influential leaders in today’s corporate world. Both these individuals have adopted and implemented transformational leadership process in their influential leadership style to implement effective change management process to ensure positive outcome. In spite of several similarities, their leadership style used to differ from each other due to different genders of two leaders. However, it is true that both these leaders have become successful by implementing particular leadership style. References Bass, B., and Riggio, R., 2006. Transformational Leadership. London: Kogan Page. Bhavani, R., and Coyle, A., 2000. Black and Ethnic Minority Women managers in the UK. London: Sage. Britain-thinks., 2012. What is Leadership? London: Britain Thinks. DeVoon, W., 2007. Laissez faire law. London: Routledge. Fletcher, J., 2003. The paradox of Post Heroic Leadership: Gender matters. Center for Gemnder in organizations. 17(1), p.7. Gilbert, K., 2012. Transformational Leadership Style. New York: McGraw-Hill. Hansardsociety., 2013. Sex and Power 2013: Who runs Britain. [Online]. Available at: . [Accessed on February 11, 2014]. Marshall, E., 2010. Transformational Leadership. Stamford: Cengage Learning. Miles, R., 2002. The Warren Buffet CEO. New York: Springer. Reader, C., 2013. Summary of the Sages. London: Sage. Rosener, J., 1990. Ways Women Lead. London: Harvard Business Review. Wright, T., 2013-14. Gender & Leadership: Trade Union and Public Life. Wright, T., 2013-14. Gender, Intersectionality and Organizations. Wright, T., 2013-14. Introduction to Gender, management and Leadership. Wright, T., 2013-14. Masculinities and Femininities in Organizations. Wright, T., 2013-14. Sexuality and Gender at Work. Read More