Angela Ahrendts Leadership Analysis - Case Study Example

Biography Angela stated in her blog written for Harvard Business review, changing environment place presents different challenges to everyone. These challenges create distrust, uncertainty, and feeling of uncertainty and the way of dealing with is energy that is a powerful force. The only way to deal with uncertainty, distrust, and fear is the transformative potential of energy. Positive energy helps people to transform negative things into positive. Energy comes from the belief, instincts, trust, and intuitions (Ahredts, 2013). Angela further stated in her blog that a leader must be accessible and must allow others to share their views. This behavior of Angela created a comfortable environment at workplace, and employees started to freely share their ideas and bring creativity at the workplace. She believes that a leader must support his employees and these behaviors holds-up the concepts of democratic leadership style. She was open and ready to communicate with the employees and followers. Angela was highly innovative and creative. Some of the steps taken by Angela such as redesigning customer experience, and mobile payments are evidence that she is not a person who led with old rules; she is an innovator and believes to break the status quo and these concepts again lies in a transformational leader (Yarrow, 2014). According to her biography, her efforts have been very successful in transforming the brand Burberry and she led the company during tremendous growth period. She also was responsible for achieving significant growth of the brand globally (Apple, 2014). introduction Leadership is not a novel concept, and many theorists have presented several definitions of leadership. Leadership is not a management of people or work only; however leadership is defined as the ability of the leader to influence others in order to accomplish the stated goals. Leadership is about finding the hidden skills of others and driving these people help people in finding their directions or in guiding them. Leadership is a process of doing things through others and doing the things right. Leadership is a capability of developing course of action to stimulate people in order to move towards a general objective with passion. Leadership is targeting unseen realities. The core of the leader is the emotional management of own and others. It is an ongoing process of building and sustaining relationship among the people who wants to lead and those who are willing to follow. Successful leaders are those who understand and manage their own emotions as well as the emotion of others (Gallon, 2008). Leadership Theories and Concepts: Leadership theories answer one of the most interesting questions that what make people great leaders. Leadership theories have discussed important concepts related to leadership such as the great man theories, trait theories, behavioral theories, contingency theories, situational theory, participative theory, management, and relationship theories. Great man theory describes that leaders are born they are not trained or made. Leaders are born with essential natural qualities as intelligence, social skills, charisma, and confidence (Northouse, 2007). On the other hand, Trait theory argues that people have some natural qualities, and they are born with some specific traits and other sees such people as born leader. This theory is much like great man theories. Some specific personality characteristics shared by leaders are identified in trait theories. Such as, trait like courage, extraversion, and self-confidence are the traits of great leaders. These traits make the leaders successful. The other important theory is Behavioral theory of leadership. Behavioral theory of leadership says that leaders are not born but they can be trained. It is the opposite concept of great man theory; the emphasis of this theory is on leader’s actions not on inner states. The focus of this theory is behaviorism, and this can be explained by the very famous quote of Jhon B. Watson. He says, “Give me a dozen infants who are healthy, well-formed, and my own specified world to bring them up in and I will guarantee to take any one on random and train him to become any a specialist. I might select --- doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant-chief and yes, even beggar-man and thief, regardless of his talents, penchants, tendencies, abilities, vocations, and race of his ancestors” (Kruglanski and Stroebe, 2012). Contingency theory says that leadership is the one who is flexible to neglect old ideas. Moreover, this theory believes that diverse leadership styles can be used in different situations depending on the event. This theory argues that leadership has not specific characteristics and not a single style of leadership can fit in all circumstances. According to this theory success is a matter of multiple variables it is not dependent upon leadership only, followers’ qualities and different situational aspects play imperative role (DuBrin, 2013). Situational theories argue that leaders are those who are able to choose the best course of action according to the situation. This theory proposes that the adoption of different leadership styles depends upon the nature of the situation. For example, in an organization if a leader is the most qualified, knowledgeable and experienced person than others, then the authoritarian style of leadership would be best in this case. In contrast, if organization has multiple experts and qualified and skilled workers than the democratic style will work well. Participative theories consider that the best leadership style is the one in which input of others is taken into account. According to this theory, leaders must encourage people for participation and must make them feel participative through helping and engaging them in the decision-making process. However, leader still possess the right of allocation of others’ input. So, this style is opposite to authoritarian concept (DuBrin, 2013). Management theories suggest that the focus should be on the organization, group performance, and supervision. This theory is based on punishment, rewards, and also known as transactional theory. Relationship theories that are also acknowledged as transformational theories suggest having good relationship among followers and leaders. This theory suggests that the leader must pay attention to group performance and should encourage and motivate them by helping them in recognizing the importance of the task. Such leaders encourage people to utilize their potential. Leadership has numerous theories that depend upon the business culture, staff type, relationships’ quality, and history of business. Three leadership styles are the most common democratic, autocratic, and free region. The next part of this paper is to analyze and discuss the concepts and theories of leadership that are presented by Angela Ahrendts, who is a former CEO of Burberry. Analysis of Theories and Concepts of Angela Ahrendts Leadership does not mean to lead employees only. Leadership is about leading the audience of the organization and country. Angela Ahrendts was not a leader who has an impact on her employees only. She knows how to inspire her followers. When she came to Burberry and attended first meeting, she noticed that not more than 60 people were wearing the Burberry’s trench coat. According her if company’s top employees do not own their product so how they can convince others to buy. She believes to set an example so other will follow you. This attitude of Angela showed transformational qualities and described that the backbone of leadership is setting personal priorities and living those in such way that these priorities in turn inspire others. Angela can convince people to buy Burberry’s products by being an ideal. Transformational leaders always seek for new opportunities, are adaptable, and take calculated the risk. Angela Ahrendts has an ability to view the hidden talent of people and utilize this talent to gain business worth. When she came to know that Burberry has license of manufacturing trench coat in Italy and Germany she considered it as an opportunity and decided to go global. For designing, she suggested the name of his colleague, she has worked with at Donna Karan. By suggesting the name of her coworker, she had worked in her prior organization she avoided the maximum risk (Ahrendts, 2013; and Hedayati, n.d). Angela has idealized influence on people; she was an inspiration for many people, and they wanted to emulate her and follow her on a regular basis. She has all leadership qualities and knows how to take work from people by giving them importance. She believes on the power of emotions, positive thinking, relation building, and teamwork. She has all qualities of participative leadership. Ahrendts theories are based on believe of relationship building with people who are in and outside (customers) the organization. According to her emotional intelligence works the best because emotional intelligence makes the leader a good communicator, and helps in conflict resolution. An emotionally intelligent leader knows how to manage his emotions and the emotion of people working around. Such leaders have the ability to manage the emotions of others. Moreover, these leaders knows how different things could impact the emotions of others. A good leader must have listening skills because it helps in learning different situations and leader must follow his instincts. It helps in responding faster or in some situations restricts a leader to think on the situation before taking any immediate action. Leadership is about setting vision that allows organization and people to remain with that particular objective. When Ahrendts left Burberry and joined Apple. As a leader, she recognized the importance of Chinese customers and decided to make Apple’s stores friendly for them. She noticed that Apple has exploration of mobile payments but it is not applicable in Apple’s own stores. So, she decided to discover a way that would improve the process of payments. She decided to redesign the experience of customers that starts from finding a product and ends-up on payment. Ahredts (2013) had a strong belief in transforming people from negatives to positives. She believed strongly in people and had a believe that energy comes from instincts, trusts and intuitions. Belief: Belief has a support of evidence and facts. Belief is a driver of confidence and alignment. It sets energy in motion and cause to create success. Trust: Trust is the base of every relationship and builds greater powers and strength. It is the greatest source of affirmative energy, unlocks the doors of freedom, and encourages exploration. Instincts: Instinct is a gift of knowing something without any reason. Intuitions: Intuitions are the feelings that are mostly right than wrong. Intuitions guide people to utilize and make preferences. Beside all, empathy is greater creator’s energy. Empathy is creating environment or culture in which people feel free, safe, and have full space of idea sharing. In an organizational culture, where employees are connected with their vision and know what the organization needs to achieve in the long run, then employees in such organizational culture are highly motivated and ready to give their input. Moreover, in such organizational culture, employees want to contribute to the organization and share different ideas for the betterment of the organization. When people know that the leader wants to hear ideas from employees; he or she cares about their ideas and care them then they feel free and tend to be innovative. Innovation cannot be derived unless organizational culture does not allow people to be free. Angela has some qualities of democratic leaders too in which people are free to do what they want, but leader takes the ultimate decision. Success is not behind financial measures it is behind people management, a culture that is most connected, compassionate, and creative in which employees are united, have common beliefs, values and a shared vision can best drive the success of an organization (Somerville, 2013). Two very famous leadership styles of managers have been discussed by Mcgregor called theory X and theory Y. Managers that lie in theory X think that workers are lazy, will not be responsible and, therefore, must be controlled and punished. In contrast, those managers who believe on theory Y think that workers will take the responsibility, care about organization, and exercise self-control. Such positive assumptions allow workers to feel free, they become more creative, and innovative that ultimately benefits the organization. Therefore, after analyzing the theory X and Y, it can be analyzed that Angela was considered to have Y leadership style. She assumes that people must be involved in the decision-making process, their views must be taken into consideration and valued and these are characteristics of Y leaders (Arslan and Staub, 2012; and Russ, 2011). The concentration of theory X leadership style is on “task”, and theory Y concentrates on people. Angela Ahrendts has a sterling record of accomplishment, she is collaborative and open, struggles to bring trust throughout the organization, thinks that people should feel empowered, and her believe in partnership development present the concepts of theory Y. Angela takes inefficiencies as opportunities, always attempt to break status quo and think out of the box. She is eager to work hard with a positive thinking; work is a passion for her, and she loves to go out of her comfort zone. She is the one who believes on instincts more than anybody else. However, she trusts that connectivity with people brings new ideas - she is known to approach her executive team - by following this trust. She asks her executives to confuse her instincts with some facts. This freedom to workforce permits Angela to learn some novel concepts. She believes that the communication engage employees and engagement makes them feel motivated for a bigger picture of the business. She holds the concept of democratic leadership style that allows people to come up with innovative things. She believes when people are engaged, and input is taken from them and they are involved in the decision-making process, then they can be helpful for the organization. Angela has abilities to uncover the hidden realities when she came to Burberry she noticed that Burberry is a single British company among its peers, and she recognized that Burberry is the only company born from a coat. She believed the situation as an opportunity to take more advantage of this category and finally she recognized that all Burberry’s peers were targeting the women section. She applied British as branding strategy in order to create differentiation, and her quote that only we are born with a coat is only stated to differentiate Burberry from its competitors. All these qualities are part of a great leader. She believes that the innovation makes organization more effective and efficient in the achievement of its target. For example, when she came to Burberry she revitalized the concept of targeting consumers at Burberry and decided to target customers digitally, and the backend strategy was the operational excellence. She wanted Burberry to be admired and respected for the operational excellence of the business and marketing. She believes that digital is all about change, and she wants her teams to fall in love with this change because the organization needs to evolve on an annual basis. Angela as CEO stated that any CEO must create social enterprise and she must be entirely connected to everyone from those who involved in brand building to those who touch that brand. If a leader does not do that then she cannot have surety of success (Pederson, 2013). Due to these positive attitudes and behaviors of Angela, success has always followed her. Conclusion Throughout the analysis, it has been evaluated that Angela Ahrendts has all abilities that a great should have. After analyzing the leadership style of Angela, it can be said that her leadership is transformational. She believes in the concept of engaging people in the decision-making process and considers engagement as a motivational factor for customers. She also believes that employees need to be valued, and this can be important in motivating them. According to her, such thinking allows people to present their ideas openly in front of top leadership and have the ability to bring innovation. No idea is wrong, these are the words of Angela. From the analysis, it can be concluded that a good leader must has listening abilities that help the leader in learning new concepts. Organizational cultures where people are united, free, and encouraged to speak are more likely to be successful. A good leader is one who does not live with status quo. Good leaders are those that know to live with the change and are able to think out of the box. They have the capability to uncover things that had not been realized before as Angela did at Apple and Burberry. She revolutionized the concepts at both the organizations. Organizations that do not encourage participative culture and try to dictate their employees with defined objectives cannot sustain in such competitive environment. Leaders are those who have a positive attitude they know to handle their emotions and people’s emotions and know that at what extent these emotions can work. A leader must be emotionally intelligent. A good leader must build trust, and he or she must be approachable to all and work as a supporter. Angela’s concepts reflect that leaders should not stick with old styles, they must be flexible towards adaptability. References Ahrendts, A. (2013). Burberry's CEO on Turning an Aging British Icon into a Global Luxury Brand. HBR, Retrieved on June 13, 2014 from http://hbr.org/2013/01/burberrys-ceo-on-turning-an-aging-british-icon-into-a-global-luxury-brand/ar/1 Ahrendts, A. (2013). Why I Believe Energy Can Transform Companies and Communities. LinkedIn, Retrieved on June 13, 2014 from http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20130729095958-269697626-why-i-believe-energy-can-transform-companies-and-communities Apple. (2014). Angela Ahrendts. Retrieved on June 13, 2014 from http://www.apple.com/pr/bios/angela-ahrendts.html Arslan, A. & Staub, S. (2012). Theory X and Theory Y Type Leadership Behavior and its Impact on Organizational Performance: Small Business Owners in the Şishane Lighting and Chandelier District. SSRN. DuBrin, A. (2013). Leadership: Research Findings, Practice, and Skills (7th ed). USA: Cengage Learning. Gallon, J. (2008). Business Leadership: A Jossey-Bass Reader (2nd ed). United States of America: John Wiley and Sons. Hedayati, N. F (n.d). Leadership Qualities of Angela Ahrendts. Center for Work Life, Retrieved on June 13, 2014 from: http://www.centerforworklife.com/apple-from-the-closet-under-the-stairs/ Kruglanski, W. A and Stroebe, W. (Eds). (2012). Handbook of the History of Social Psychology. Great Britain: Psychology Press. Northouse, P. G. (2007). Leadership: Theory and Practice. Thousand Oaks. Pederson, T. (2013). CROSS media communication in corporate identity construction: when media becomes more than a communication channel: a case study of Burberry. Retrieved on June 13, 2014 from http://pure.au.dk/portal-asb-student/files/53480972/Sammensat_speciale.pdf Russ, T. L (2011). Theory X/Y assumptions as predictors of managers’ propensity for participative decision-making. Management decision, 49 (5), 823-883. Somerville, H. (2013). Angela Ahrendts explains her departure from Burberry, the company she “always dreamed of working for”. Silicon Beat, Retrieved on June 13, 2014 from: http://www.siliconbeat.com/2013/11/27/angela-ahrendts-explains-her-departure-from-burberry-the-company-she-always-dreamed-of-working-for/ Yarrow, J. (2014). Three Things Apple's New Retail Leader Angela Ahrendts Is Planning. Business Insider, Retrieved on June 13, 2014 from: http://www.businessinsider.com/angela-ahrendts-plan-for-apple-retail-2014-5 Read More