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The Leadership Style of Successful Leaders

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Introduction A successful leader constantly adjusts his or her leadership style to suit the prevailing circumstances. Hence the leadership style adopted at any given time should ideally be dependent on the situation. This is the gist of situational leadership. In this report, I highlight the dominant leadership style in BP, one of the world's largest oil and gas companies. The Selected Leader and his Leadership Style According to Yahoo Finance (2012, n.p.), "BP p.l.c. provides fuel for transportation, energy for heat and light, lubricants to engines and petrochemicals products." The company's current Chief Executive Officer is Robert W. Dudley. Mr. Dudley took over from Tony Howard whose tenure at BP came to an end two years ago amidst one of the worst disasters the company has had to deal with in recent times. According to scientists, "the BP spill is by far the world's largest accidental release of oil into marine waters"¦" (Robertson and Krauss 2010, n.p.). Prior to taking over from Howard, Dudley was the head of a body established by the oil and gas company to manage the oil spill. The body was christened the "Gulf Coast Restoration Organization" (BBC 2010, n.p.). At this time, one of his main responsibilities included overseeing "efforts to contain the Gulf of Mexico oil gusher" (Koenig 2010, n.p.). Given the circumstances surrounding his appointment as the head of the body established by BP to manage the oil spill and later on as the company's C.E.O, Dudley's

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