Management Styles through Different Leaders

A growing body of evidence in the business environment supports that leaders are made and not born. However, a good leader must have patience, commitment, knowledge, and experience to manage the subordinates. In other words, a good leadership style is developed through training, education, self-commitment, and accumulation of experience. (Zaleznik, 2004). More importantly, leadership is one of the most researched concepts in business studies because of the contributions of a leader to the organizational achievement. This study also compares the management styles through different leaders by reviewing leadership styles of Carlo Slim and Bill Gates.

A good leader transforms an organization and shapes the economy. Carlo Slim and Bill Gate are the examples of the leaders who use their different management styles to transform the economy and their respective organizations. The objective of this document is to provide an analysis of management styles through leaders. This study also compares the leadership styles of Carlo Slim and Bill Gates.

Kyak, et al. (2011) define the conceptual leadership as a selective, role-taking, empathetic and selective process that assist in handling the strategic initiative of an organization. Clarks, (2009) points out that leadership is the major factor that determines the success or failure of an organization. However, leadership and management overlap because an individual must have both leadership and management skills to be effective in an organization. Management involves an ability to achieve a specific task. However, leadership is a broader concept that involves a process by which leaders nurture and communicate ideas to the subordinates.

A strategic leadership plays an expanding role in enhancing competitive advantages. In a healthcare organization, leaders are called upon to use their problem-solving skills and knowledge to develop creative solutions to problems. Creative leadership involves the ability to invent or develop new solutions to challenging problems. One of the exemplified leaders in the healthcare organization was Robert, a nurse leader, who used democratic leadership style to assist her staff growing independently. (Clark,. 2009). Henry Fayol argues that both leaders and managers delegate powers to their subordinates to assist an organization to balance responsibility and authority to achieve a specific task. However, management process involves planning, staffing, organizing, controlling and directing. In this Essay we will compare the management styles through different leaders.

Bill Gates

Bill Gates is one of the exemplified leaders who integrate management process into his leadership ability to achieve competitive advantages for the Microsoft Corporation. He is a business giant, and highly regarded in the IT and business world, often ranked in the Fortune 500 as one of the top 10 most admired business leaders. Bill used autocratic leadership styles to direct his subordinates before his retirement from Microsoft in 2008. Gates’ success was attributed to his controlling ability and quick decision-making process. (Demuth, & Hammond, 2013).

Sometimes, Gates exhibited more than one leadership styles depending on circumstances. While Gates used the autocratic style as the dominant leadership style in managing the business, however, Gates would not have been successful if adopted only an authoritarian style because the authoritarian style is not appropriate for innovation and can hinder the creative ability of followers.

Zentner, (2016) believed that Bill was a servant leader who focused on helping others to achieve their goals. “Servant leadership focuses on the betterment and support of others by seeking to meet the interests, needs, and ambitions of others’ above one’s own.” (Zentner, 2016 p 1). When a servant leadership style is implemented appropriately, it can enhance employee behaviors and outlook, which drives motivation for higher performances and changes.

Carlos Slim

Carlos Slim is another leader in Mexico who integrates the transformational leadership styles in his management style to transform himself into a business giant. Mr. Slim is a native originally from Mexico. At a tender age, he received a business lesson, which helped him to understand the method to increase his personal fund. At the age of 12, he started investing in shares and after completing an engineering course at the University of Mexico at the age of 25, Slim incorporated his first company named Inmobiliaria Carso in 1966. He inculcated the spirit of transformational leadership by diversifying his business ventures using the visionary skills to actively invest in various businesses when Mexico was facing the economic problems.

Management Styles through Different Leaders – Carlo Slim and Bill Gates

Carlo Slim leadership style is influenced by his personal beliefs and principles, which he has inculcated in transforming his business empire. Unlike founder of Microsoft who used the autocratic leadership style in managing the Microsoft Corporation, Slim incorporated the transformational leadership styles when making a business decision. Yavirach, (2015) argues transformational leaders use the intellectual capability to stimulate their subordinates to achieve better performances.

Slim uses the transformational leaders to transform Telmex into the biggest telecommunication company in the Latin America. Although, both Slims and Gates are entrepreneurs, and multi-billionaires in the North America, however, their leadership principles are different. While Gates uses the combination of autocratic, and servant leadership styles in running his business empire, Slim focuses on the transformational leadership style using the intellectual capabilities and charismatic qualities to solve the business problems. While both leaders use different styles in managing their business, both have been successful in their line of businesses.

Conclusion

Many leaders in the North American have been able to combine both the management and leadership styles to transform their organizations into business empires. This study proves that management styles through different leaders do overlap, however, a combination of both leadership and management skills is critical to achieving competitive market advantages. The study also compares Gates and Slim management styles through different leaders, and the results of the analysis reveal Gates uses the combination of servant and autocratic leadership styles to manage his businesses, however, Slim relies on transformational leadership style to solve business problems.

References

1. Clark, C. C. (2009). Creative nursing leadership & management. Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett.
2. Demuth, P., & Hammond, T. (2013). Who is Bill GatesNew York: Grosset & Dunlap, An Imprint of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
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4. Yavirach, N. (2015). The Impact of Transformational and Transactional Leadership to Subordinates Job Satisfaction, Organizational Commitment Affect to Team Effectiveness. SSRN Electronic Journal. doi:10.2139/ssrn.2159035
5. Zaleznik, A. (2004). Managers and Leaders: Are They DifferentHarvard Business Review.
6. Zentner, A. (2016). Bill Gates: A Servant Leader. Research Gate Journal