Portfolio Essay: Final Draft
Josef Ackermann (Deutsche Bank/Germany)
Using Darling and Leffel’s (2010) framework, this essay will evaluate on how Josef Ackermann demonstrated his leadership style as a Swiss banker, the former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Deutsche Bank and Chairman of Zurich Insurance.
As defined by Peter Northouse (2001), leadership is a process, in which an individual influences a group to achieve a common goal. And to achieve that goal, a visionary leader should put forth much effort to critically apply his leadership skills and knowledge. In general, leadership is more than management. To be successful, a leader has to be strategic, show motivation and innovation, and should be flexible and focused
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One of his biggest goals was turning Deutsche Bank into one of the world's top three advisers on mergers and acquisitions and returning its status to the top ten in market value (Guyon , 2004).
As a Director-level leader, Josef Ackermann has been well regarded and recognised by many as a successful and effective manager and leader, shifting the style of management from a conventional mode to one that focused on the needs of shareholders and on international expansion (Mitchell, 2010). According to Lussier and Achua (2010), leaders such as Ackermann are able to take swift and decisive action, even in the most difficult situations, and take calculated risks while persevering in the face of failure. Strong communication skills, self-confidence, the ability to manage others and willingness to embrace change also characterize a successful leader.
Ackermann has also been a member of the influential Washington-based financial advisory body, the Group of Thirty and also served on other company boards, including Bayer AG, Deutsche Lufthansa AG, Linde, Mannesman, and Siemens AG. Ackermann changed the distribution of power within Deutsche Bank, resulting in criticism from traditionalists and praise from those who shared his global focus, allowing him to become the most powerful man in Germany's financial industry (Loades-Carter, 2005). Ackermann successful steered his bank through the 2008 global financial crisis. Quoted in his speech before the Atlantic Council, ‘Germany will
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
Leadership can be defined as the process of identifying a goal, motivating others, and make them to achieve the mutually goals (Giltinane, 2013). According to Humphreys (2002), successful leaders do this by applying their leadership knowledge and skills. A good leadership is not only good at management, but also use different leadership styles in different situations. A successful corporation must has a good leader who have the flexible ability which can provide a suitable leadership to make the company successful. Furthermore, there have no perfect leadership styles in the world. Different leader have different leadership styles which also have the different strengths and weaknesses (Ali & Waqar, 2013). Leaders need to consider
Dependent on the situation a leader can use a supportive, directive, participative or achievement-oriented behavior type to motivate subordinates to achieve higher performance levels.
Meindl, J. R. (1990). On leadership: An alternative to the conventional wisdom. Research in Organizational Behavior, 12, 159-203.
When looking back in one’s career, each manager in the organization leads and develops employees differently. A person can apprehend that each leader has their own leadership style with
Ken Blanchard’s book “Leading At A Higher Level” takes a very practical approach at explaining the most important contributing factors to achieving and maintaining a successful business or partnership. It explores the various styles of leadership primarily and demonstrates their level of efficiency through real world examples and step-by-step applications. Its 2009 revised and expanded edition, co-written with thirteen other successful authors and motivational speakers, addresses a vast audience, from the young future entrepreneur to the successful CEO. The book breaks down the three key conditions for building and remaining a strong and successful team - a clear vision and strategy, a consistent focus on the needs of the customer and the right kind of leadership, that is determined by the situation.
Throughout the last twenty odd centuries, a vast amount of company leaders have altered and reinforced their management style and ultimately this has created high levels of inspiration, leading individuals to become a better leader. (Krebs. V, 2008, para.1).
Born in 1961, Jacqueline Hinman is the current CEO of CH2M Hill. She has an Engineering degree from the Pennsylvania State University (Europeanceo.com, 2015). It is worth noting that the CEO is very aggressive in her workplace, having been the only woman in construction management in 1985. Despite negative responses from her male counterparts, she strived to remain faithful to her ambitions to make CH2M Hill one of the best run companies in the world. The essence of this research paper is to give Hinman’s leadership style and its impact on CH2M Hill Company. In this regard, it depicts her role as a transformational leader at the company I currently work for.
Leadership is defined in Webster’s Dictionary as the “action of leading a group of people or an organization.” Leadership is also the ability to set trends, inspire, motivate, and sway others to produce desired results. There are different styles and ways of performing leadership and a good leader has the ability to take ordinary people, put them all together, and hopefully yield successful results. For organizations to have sustained results from their performance there must be a good balance of business insight, technical and interpersonal skills, and good team dynamics. A leader must know how to use all these areas as well as trust and communicate with their people in
Over the years, a great deal of time, and research has been dedicate to the study of leadership. Even with extensive data on the topic, many still disagree on what leadership really means. Hence, leadership is a word that has many different meanings and different researched theories associated with it. On a basic level, leadership involves having and establishing a clear vision, sharing that vision with followers, respecting followers, and leading an organization with excellence while ensuring that everyone is part of the team. Leadership is also a method by which a leader uses his or her influence towards getting a group of followers to take ownership or buy into a vision.
A leader is defined as a person with responsibility to influence one or more followers and directing them to achieve a set objective (Sethuraman, 2014). In order to achieve that set of objectives effortlessly, effectively, and efficiently, the most important and valued trait of a leader is an effective leadership styles. Effective leadership styles are required in every organization at every level to be successful. The success or failure of an organization depends on the quality of leadership particularly on the part of top management. An effective leadership style can be developed on the basis of understanding of the situations (Sethuraman, 2014). Top management should know which leadership style is needed based on the situation to be most effective to gain trust and respect from their employee. There is no single method of influencing the behavior of employees for every situation. The employee’s level of knowledge on the task and can determine which leadership style that will be most effective for the situation. Preparing leaders to lead
Jack Welch’s outlook towards leadership and management is summed up into a few uncomplicated thoughts:
Leadership is an approach for a leader to guide, motivate, supervise, manage, and influence others in different situation to reach a goal. According to the Pettinger (2007), the leadership can be explained in several situations. First, the leaders have the responsible to provide vision and direction to the followers. Second, the leaders shall energise and motivate the followers. Third, the leaders shall set and enforce absolute standards of behaviour, attitude, presentation and performance.
I have learned many lessons from Jack Welch on leadership. Jack Welch has been with the General Electric Company (GE) since 1960. Having taken over GE with a market capitalization of about $12 billion, Jack Welch turned it into one of the largest and most admired companies in the world by the time he stepped down as its CEO 20 years later, in 2000. Jack Welch used his uncanny instincts and unique leadership strategies to run GE, the most complex organization in the world and increased its market value by more than $400 billion over two decades. He remains a highly regarded figure in business circles due to his innovative leadership style. Jack Welch demonstrated Kouzes and Posner’s five practices of modeling the way, inspiring a shared
Leadership is when a person motivates, inspires, encourages, and directs activates that will lead to reaching goals (Jones and George, 2013). Being a leader is an important role, one can be a leader at their job, and in their home life.