Effectiveness Of Bill Gates As A Managerial Leader

There is a great importance put on business leadership, this is directly due to how a business not only functions but in how fruitful the company can become. A great leader essentially can take a business plan that is weak yet turn it into a success, whereas a poor leader stands a higher chance of ruining the best of business plans. That is why it is essential to develop effective leadership throughout a companies entire management program at all levels. How does one develop or retain strong leadership? Companies must be focused on hiring strategies that encompass very specific parameters, building from within whilst creating a strong foundation for employee development and succession planning. Leadership is essential in any organization. The style and theory embraced determines whether the company will or will not achieve their goals. in all cases theory must be embraced, as a companies theory, style, and strategy is greatly dependent on the industry the company is in (Sadler, 2014). “The behavioral theory is one of the widely used theories of management. It suggests that leaders are made and not born. It gives room for training to install leadership traits in leaders at the expense of denying them a chance. There are various leadership styles embraced by companies (Cyert, & March, 2005).”  This paper takes a look at the management styles of two specific

When people think of a hero they think of Superman, Batman, or Spiderman, but what they should think of are people that make difference. Bill Gates has made a huge difference in today’s world; he is an extremely successful entrepreneur, an active philanthropist, and a very motivated person in general. With this motivation he has and will accomplish anything he puts his mind to. He was CEO of Microsoft and became the richest man in the world. He also created one of the most credible and generous charitable organization in the world. As a positive influence on today’s world, Bill Gates has proven himself as person with his good work ethic, positive attitude, and great accomplishments.

Bill Gates' approach to planning, implementing and managing strategic-level initiatives throughout Microsoft Corporation and the long-term effects of his leadership strategies on the culture of the company is the subject of this analysis. Using the model on effective strategic leadership found in the text (Hitt, Ireland, Hoskisson, 2013) each of its dimensions are also used for assessing Bill gate's leadership style and effectiveness. As the model shows that the factors of effectively managing the firm's resource portfolios, sustaining an effective organizational culture and emphasizing ethical practices form the foundation of effective strategic leadership, these three foundational elements form the basis of the analysis. Determining strategic direction and establishing balanced organizational controls are also essential for guiding organizations to above-average performance and profitability (Hitt, Ireland, Hoskisson, 2013). Based on this framework and the insights gained, an assessment is also made of Microsoft's ability to sustain an effective, productive organizational culture. Inclusive in this analysis is also an assessment of Bill Gates' strategic leadership style, with two suggestions of how Gates and his predecessors at Microsoft could create higher levels of strategic entrepreneurship throughout the company. This analysis concludes with the identification and discussion of two strategic

Concern for production speaks to how a leader accomplishes organizational goals and objectives while concern for people pays attention to the staff in the company or organization that are chartered to reach goals (Northouse, 2013). The Leadership Grid is established by drawing the horizontal axis representing the leader’s concern for results and the vertical axis representing the leader’s concern for people. A score is assigned for each of these dimensions with a range from 1 (minimum) to 9 (maximum) concern. Plotting the respective scores from each axes provides a look at various leadership styles. There are five styles of leadership identified: Team Management, Middle of the Road Management, Impoverished Management, Authority-Compliance, and Country-Club Management (Northouse, 2013).

The theories applied to Steve Jobs have opened my mind to realise how important effective leadership styles are to organisations. A lesson learnt from Steve’s leadership qualities is that a leader can adapt different style of leadership and this makes a leader more effective and efficient. The late Apple boss was a master of employing various strategies to adapt to differing scenarios and situations. Steve Jobs did not exhibit a single rhetorical style, but rather altered it depending on the situation and yet still managed to deliver a constant message to support his company’s

Bill Gates was the former CEO of the computer software giant Microsoft. It was not purely on inherited merit or luck that he was able to lead and maintain Microsoft, one substantial attribution to the success of Microsoft was due to the leadership style of Bill Gates. The main philosophy that Bill Gates used was autocratic leadership. Autocratic leadership can be defined as: a person who maintains most of the decision making process for themselves (DuBrin A.J., 2013). An advantage of the autocratic leadership style was that corporate decisions were made more efficiently, if Bill were a democratic or consultative leader, it might have taken longer for Microsoft to seize primary markets of interests. Gates was also competent in delegating tasks to the right people, such as allowing the engineering teams to work at full capacity to meet their production goals. Microsoft’s success can be linked to the proper delegation of duties to the correct personnel, and a focus on goal-based decision making.

This is the essence of the managerial grid defined by Blake and Mounton (1964)which sugest five key leadership styles .

Bill Gates is one of the most visionary leaders of our time. He created in his mind the idea of the greatness of computerized systems and that vision even though far at that time transformed in our present. He foresaw that computers will be an essential part not only in future business but in the lives of Americans. His efforts and strategic planning delivered him the opportunities to develop different operating systems including Windows. Windows Software has been an essential key in his financial success because this software took the market by storm providing customers the opportunity to multitask and leave behind the systems that were operated only on a command based entry. His revenues after the expansion of his company has made him been ranked by Forbes as the richest man on earth for the last thirteen years. During the years he served as chairman of Microsoft he established new ways to deal efficiently with human resources issues; like for the hiring process he stated in the past that he prefers intelligence over experience in an employee because they are easier to train and to adapt to the world of Microsoft.

The contents and assignment in this course has helped me understand the various theories of leadership and how different leadership styles can have a negative or positive effect on followers and organizations. The leadership theories helped me understand the concept of leadership better because it educates me on the different leadership options that are available. Leadership and followership is not based on specific characteristics. Leaders must draw from things and approaches to find the right style. A follower’s attitude determines the way a leader leads. According to Johnson (2011) “Being a good follower means ensuring your boss is supported, but only if he is making optimum decisions”.

When we analyze the success of large corporations like Ford, General Electric and International Business Machines, it is evident that they had series of leaders who were visionary and believed in empowerment of people. When we analyze tough phases of a company or companies that had a fall and ultimate demise, we clearly see a linkage between failure of company and absence of effective leadership (Canwell, Dongrie, Neveras, & Stockton, 2014). The successful organization had leaders who made right decisions at right time and implemented them strategically. The implementation part needs excellent human resources and the ability to lead to them to get the task done. While different situations may need different style of leadership, the sophisticated manpower fueled by technological advancements and globalization have made some leadership styles less effective and some leadership styles to be highly effective (Feser, Mayol, & Srinivasan, 2014). This paper will discuss a tough situation faced in one of my former organization. The organization needed a different leadership style to tide over the falling sales and attrition. Three different leadership styles, their pros and cons, and the likely success in solving the problem will be discussed in this paper.

* Bill Gates has high need for achievement, he fully focused on achievement. He is known a demanding boss who encourages creativity and recognizes employees’ achievements.

An effective leader influences their employees in a desired manner to achieve goals and objectives. Different leadership styles can affect an organization’s effectiveness and performance. The objective of this paper is to analyze the review of literature on various leadership styles over the past years and how effective and ineffective different leadership styles are in the workplace.

If you knew Bill Gates well, you would know that he’s full of desire. All the software ever written in the world is never sufficient for Mr. Gates. He always desires something noble. He believes something good is not for just a few people. But it’s for all. This is should not be in the negative light because that’s what actually gave birth to Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Mr. and Mrs. Gates wanted you to desire something good and work toward it. So they delved into charitable giving and are recording great successes worldwide. Bill’s desire was that there should be something different from the gigantic machines called the computer in those days. He desired something that everyone could use with ease. And he introduced it to the world.

The style of leadership varies with every individual. It has been stated that today’s successful leaders have created in their organizations an atmosphere where every employee believes in management, their strategy and the importance of their individual contributions in achieving the organizations goal. Blake Mouton’s Managerial Grid is a model using in identifying leadership style that is based on the concept that there are two behavioural dimensions: concern for people which can be defined as the degree to which leaders are aware of and consider the needs of their staff, their skill sets and development potential when making decisions about specific tasks to be completed. The

People have always asked if there is any style of leadership that is most effective. Nevertheless, numerous theories and models have been created to show that there is no style of leadership that is the best. Rather, styles of leadership need to adjust depending on the variables such as the leader, the situation, the subordinate, the task, the environment and other factors. Paul Hersey, Kenneth H. Blanchard, and Dewey E. Johnson noted that if the leader’s style of behavior is appropriate or matches the situation it is considered effective. If it is not appropriate to a given situation, it is deemed ineffective. The difference between the effective and ineffective styles is often not the actual behavior of the leader, but the appropriateness of that behavior to the environment in which it is used. In reality, the third dimension is the environment.