Leadership Style: What Do People Do When They Are Leading?
Assignment 4: Leadership Style: What Do People Do When They Are Leading? Due Week 9 and worth 100 points Choose one (1) of the following CEOs for this assignment: Larry Page (Google), Tony Hsieh (Zappos), Gary Kelly (Southwest Airlines), Meg Whitman (Hewlett Packard), Ursula Burns (Xerox), Terri Kelly (W.L. Gore), Ellen Kullman (DuPont), or Bob McDonald (Procter & Gamble). Use the Internet to investigate the leadership style and effectiveness of the selected CEO. Write a five to six (5-6) page paper in which you: 1.Provide a brief (one [1] paragraph) background of the CEO. 2.Analyze the CEO’s leadership style and philosophy, and how the CEO’s leadership style aligns with the culture. 3.Examine the CEO’s personal and organizational values. 4.Evaluate how the values of the CEO are likely to influence ethical behavior within the organization. 5.Determine the CEO’s three (3) greatest strengths and three (3) greatest weaknesses. 6.Select the quality that you believe contributes most to this leader’s success. Support your reasoning. 7.Assess how communication and collaboration, and power and politics influence group (i.e., the organization’s) dynamics. 8.Use at least five (5) quality academic resources in this assignment. Note: Wikipedia and other Websites do not qualify as academic resources. Your assignment must follow these formatting requirements: •Be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides; citations and references must follow APA or school-specific format. Check with your professor for any additional instructions. •Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student’s name, the professor’s name, the course title, and the date. The cover page and the reference page are not included in the required assignment page length.
What Do People Do When They Are Leading?
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What Do People Do When They Are Leading?
Gary Kelly of the Southwest Airlines
Gary Kelly is the Chief Executive Officer of the Southwest Airlines and also serves as the president and chairman of Board in the company. He is a permanent Texan who studied at the University of Texas, Austin and acquired a B.B.A. in accounting. Gary has served proudly as an alumnus within the university in a variety of capacities that include the McCombs School Advisory Council. In addition, Gary is also certified as a Public Accountant, serving with the Board of Directors that belonged to Lincoln National Corporation (Lauer, 2010). He is also the Chairman of the Airlines for America. He had previously worked in the Job Council of the President. The Southwest Airlines has developed tremendously while under the leadership of Gary. Gary started his career at the Southwest Airlines only as a Controller and climbed the ladder into Chief financial Officer as well as Vice President Finance. He was later promoted to the Executive Vice President and eventually was made the Chief Executive Officer as well as the Vice Chairman around July 2004.
The twenty-eight years Southwest veteran had assumed the duties of the President and Chairman in the 2008. Moreover, before working with the airline company, Gary had been a CPA with the Arthur Young and Company within the city of Dallas and Controller for the Systems Center, Inc around the year 1986. The airline company has progressed to the extent of being among the largest airline in the nation in respect to originating domestic travelers being carried plus it contains mainstay on the list of Fortune magazine. The Southwest Airlines Company was ranked among the most admired firms around the globe, emerging in the seventh number in the year two thousand and thirteen. One of the secrets behind his success is the leadership style that he practices, as he is a collaborative leader. He also emphasizes on the teamwork and open communication among the employees, which has been very successful in fostering the company’s development. This begins by ensuring that the entire group of employees has embraced and understood their sense of purpose which is interpreted as taking care of their customers. This practice has continually been applied within the company as there are usually few complaints from customers while the leaders put customers’ satisfaction amongst their first priorities (Hughes, Cain & Haque, 2008). The Southwest employees are known for being at the right place in the right time taking care of the customers when they require any service. Gary is also very charismatic, a style that is aligned perfectly with the culture of the company that emphasizes on being relaxed, happy people.
As a leader, Gary possesses and encourages all leaders to have the trait of interpersonal skills, especially in the turbulent business environment. This is because the technical aspects of respective professions ought to be among the easiest sessions of the job. Gary has interpersonal relationship with people he work with regardless of their ranks. This way, Gary has been able to maintain a good relationship with them where mutual determination to reach a certain goal is established. In addition, the Southwest Airlines possess great efficiency with the whole airline fleet bears Boeing 737s that permits in keeping the maintenance and costs low. There is also a maintained investment grade balance sheet and taking pride in never having any furlough or layoff. The low price of fare may also be embedded within the minds of customers. The well and old fashioned morals, as well as integrity of Southwest, were among the contributors of Gary’s personal values. The morals might have been partly or wholly been instilled from his father with whom he had a good relationship. He brought these qualities into the airline company through the manner in which he conducted himself in daily activities, while he focused also on heartening a work environment where employees would enjoy their jobs while doing it at their level best.
Gary’s values have influenced the ethical behavior of the organization in a great way. The mai...