Organizational Communication Leadership

Jeff Bezos's Leadership Style Driving Amazon's Growth Student Name Institutional Affiliation Course Code Instructor Date Leading organizations around the world have a track record of continuous growth and critical decision making by their leaders. Each of these leaders display a specific type of the same, which is reflected throughout the organization, especially its workplace culture. The visionary leadership by the people or the person at the top lays a solid foundation for not only stability but also flexibility in operations. Among the world leading companies is Amazon Inc., a corporate juggernaut that has risen to its position thanks to the visionary leadership of its founder, Jeff Bezos. Analyzing his leadership style can help understand how much it has benefitted the company. Jeff Bezos is an iconic leader in the business world due to his accomplishments. He founded Amazon in 1994 and served as its CEO until 2021; he oversaw the company's exponential growth from a small unknown startup to one of the world's most valuable companies. Bezos' leadership was instrumental to Amazon's rise from an online bookseller to a trillion-dollar e-commerce and cloud computing giant. His background before Amazon includes working on Wall Street and as a senior vice president at the hedge fund D.E. Shaw (Jackson, 2023). Bezos exhibits transformational leadership qualities that empower innovation and change within Amazon. He encouraged risk-taking by creating a decentralized structure where teams could pioneer new projects (Jeff Bezos Transformational Leadership and Contribution towards Innovation, 2022). He also promoted agility and speed by making high-velocity decision-making a leadership principle. Transformational leadership is about continuously aspiring to see the best and also get the best out of others. Transformational leadership acknowledges the fact that an organization or a team cannot grow positively, if the distinct elements, the cogs, the employees are not growing personally. A transformational leader therefore focuses on the individual development and excellence of those he leads; and counts on that as a cumulative contributor to the overall success and progress of the organization. Such a leader also looks at the long-term mission and vision of his plan, finding ways to slowly but gradually achieving that vision. To this end, a transformational leader will always be there on a day-to-day basis pushing the team to be better. Bezos motivated employees with an inspirational vision to create "earth's most customer-centric company" and pushed them to "think big" when developing products and services (Amazon, 2023). He inculcated the belief that for one to be good at their duties, proper interpersonal relationship was important. His focus on understanding customer needs before competitors also exemplifies his transformational approach. He often prioritized client satisfaction before any other perspective of the client. The members of the team gradually learn how to also support each other while at the workplace. This not only inspires confidence in his team, but also makes the staff to be fiercely loyal to him and to the goals of the organization. However, Bezos balances his transformational style with transactional leadership as well. He was deeply involved in reviewing business plans and metrics, setting targets, and providing blunt, detailed critiques of ideas not driven by customer needs. It is usually important for a leader to be keen on the actual things being done by the staff, so as to have a feel of their experiences. By being practical, the employees also see that their boss understands their job as well, and any challenges that might arise from ...