Leadership Paper

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I feel that I will have to make some changes to my leadership style and work along with my colleagues. But I would want to earn more about different styles that are effective in different countries. For a fact I know that China has an authoritative leadership style and it works the best for them. I am still learning about different leadership styles and plan to continue doing so even after college to go in depth about which style will suit me the best when I am in a different country dealing with different kinds of people.

One thing which really intrigued me in class was the application of hedgehog concept in numerous day to day situations. This is something I have always been curious about. It is very important to do what interests you and follow your passion. This is very important to be successful in life. The benefits of this concept was clearly visible from Ricardo Semler’s management philosophy, where he made work as fun as possible for employees and gave his employees the power of decision making. This resulted in an increase of revenues from $4 million to $212 million in 15 years. I feel it is very important to make employees feel that they are a part of the company so that they can be effective in their work and help the company grow.

We discussed in class how having a control style can make employees feel less motivated and add less value for the company. It is really important to appreciate what everyone brings to the table and give them the respect they deserve. Like Rivkin of Wells Fargo, Jack Welch of GE or Indra Nooyi of Pepsico, I aspire to be at par among such leader and further develop my skills to know myself and my team better. Determination and perseverance is my key to success, however I want to be a leader who inspires people to do their best by having good communication and personal contact.

To summarize, I want to be a leader where I can inspire my employees to be stewards rather than employees. When I start working next year, my plan is to apply the skills I have learned in this class. 3-4 years down the line, I want to join my family business and make sure I get to interact with every employees and know about their goals and aspirations. I don’t have to be a traditional leader where employees are scared to talk to me. This class has helped changed my mindset a lot and I am sure that I will be a better leader now. There is a long way to go but I plan to learn from the leaders I have mentioned in this paper.