Leadership Project: The Qualities And Attributes Of Its Leadership

Leadership Project
Student’s Name
Institution
Leadership Project
Introduction
One of the key determinants of success in an organization is leadership. The type of leadership present in an organization determines the behaviors of employees as they carry out their duties to help attain organizational goals. Theories have been put forth by scholars to explain leadership behaviors and how they impact a company’s performance. These theories explain different types of leadership and how they impact the behaviors of employees in an organization. The Fortune 500 companies have leaders with different styles of leadership and each have achieved success in their own different ways. This paper examines two leaders, Satya Nadella, and the late Steve Jobs, both of whom have had remarkable influences in the performance of their respective companies. The paper compares their leadership styles and performance and goes on to assess the change of leadership styles over time. Finally, I offer an assessment of my leadership style.
Leadership profiles
Satya Nadella
Satya Nadella is Microsoft’s current CEO, a position he has held since February 2014 (Nadella & Euchner, 2018). Before then, Nadella held various leadership positions in the company including overseeing consumer and enterprise operations. He also served as the VP of the company’s Business Division. Prior to joining Microsoft, Nadella was a technology staff member at Sun Microsystems.
There are certain attributes that underpin the success of Nadella as the leader of Microsoft: humility, confidence, and intelligence. Nadella portrays great humility when dealing with the members of the organization. According to Eragula (2016), in order for a leader to build trust and respect with employees, they must have humility, regardless of the power and authority they possess. The author mentions that Nadella’s humility plays a key role in encouraging employees in the company. In an email sent to the employees in which he shared the mission and vision of the company, Nadella addresses them as “team” rather than subordinates (Eragula, 2016). Eragula points out that such respect of the employees goes a long way in encouraging them. Confidence is another key attribute that defines Nadella. In the wake of declining reputation the company was facing during his appointment, he launched new products that turned around the company’s fortunes. As informed by Eragula (2016), when confidence is blended with humility, followers can easily trust their leaders. Nadella has also portrayed a great deal of intelligence as the company’s CEO. Nadella learns from his interaction with people and the environment. In a trip to Europe, Nusca (2016) describes how Nadella “extracted intelligence in each European capital” (p. 83).
The transformational leadership theory fits well the leadership behavior of Nadella. As informed by Arnold and Loughlin (2013), transformational leaders inspire commitment, engagement, and satisfaction among followers. Nadella’s leadership behavior is consistent with the components of transformational leadership: idealized influence, intellectual stimulation, inspirational motivation, and individual consideration. In regards to idealized influence, Nadella not only acts as a role model, but he also shows the employees direction by emphasizing continuous learning (Miller, 2018). Nadella also portrays intellectual stimulation by encouraging new ideas from the employees. He also provides inspirational motivation through communicating vision as described previously. Finally, Nadella shows individual consideration in that he communicates clearly his expectation of every member of the organization. As informed by Miller (2018), when he took over, he paid attention to the dispirited employees he inherited.
Steve Jobs
The late Steve Jobs is of the greatest leaders to have graced the technology business environment in recent times. He co-founded Apple in 1976 but was ousted in 1985 (Isaacson, 2012). However, he came back to rescue the company in 1987. His return changed the company’s fortunes as it set the foundation of what Apple is today. He set the company in a success trajectory that would see it become one of the most valuable brands in the world. He resigned in August 2011 and died in October the same year.
While his leadership drove the success at Apple, he was known to be a difficult person. In their article, Kaiser, McGinnis, and Overfield (2012) describe him as supremely arrogant, obsessively controlling, volatile, perfectionist, and brutally candid. Furthermore, the authors note that he would curse and take credit for the ideas of employees. In the research by Isaacson (2012), Jobs is described as petulant, impatient, and tough around the people he worked with. However, as pointed out by Isaacson (2012), his rudeness was accompanied by the ability to inspire employees to develop innovative products that contributed immensely to the company’s success.
One of the leadership behaviors under behavioral leadership theories is autocratic leadership. According to Ghuman (2010), autocratic leaders possess all the decision-making rights and want the employees to do as they say. They also tend to use punishment and fear to motivate members of the organization. From the above description of Steve Jobs, it is deducible that he was an autocratic leader. While such a leader is not good with employees, their style allows for quick decision-making which is integral in the competitive business environment. It is without a doubt that his autocratic leadership style was instrumental in turning the fortunes of Apple around.
Company performance
The performance of both Nadella and Jobs were remarkable duri...