Question :
Using relevant theories and models critically evaluate and analyse the leadership of a 21st century business leader. If you were in the position of the leader, what could you do to be a better leader and make a stronger impact on the followers and on situation/s?
Leadership positions are one of the most important positions for any organization. An effective leader is one who can take the team together to reach common goals and objectives. There are various examples of leaders who have been able to expand the organizations. The leaders like Steve Jobs are known for their attitudes and behavior. This report is based on the leadership attributes of Sergey Brin. He has been the anchor and the reason behind the success of Google. Sergey and Larry established Google and 16 years back and since then they have never looked back. Sergey is one such leader who has played an instrumental role in the development of employee of Google. Sergey realizes that employees are the power of Google and Google can truly attract customers only when it has a talented pool of employees. In turn, employees of Google have also supported Sergey and Larry in their initiatives. Sergey and Larry have developed certain initiatives and plans in order to establish better connect with customers.
It can be said that one thing that separates successful organizations is the presence of effective and efficient leadership. One thing that set apart companies like Google, Apple and Microsoft is the presence of strong leader at the top. An effective leader is one who can drive the initiatives in the company. An effective leader is one who can think out of the box and can bring innovative changes in the organization. An effective leader is one who knows the meaning of calculated risk and who is willing to bear the risk in order to save his or her team. It can be said that leadership is both an art and a science. Leadership is not only an objective thing but it is a subjective phenomenon that is based upon number of parameters, it would also be correct to say that a leader also requires the support and encouragement of his or her team (Parasnis, 2011). In the end the motivation level of leaders can be high only when he has the support of his team.
The objective of this paper is to critically evaluate and analyze the leadership of a 21st century business leader. There are number of successful leaders, for this paper a leader in a large organizations is considered. This paper would focus to discuss the leadership style of Sergey Brin. Larry and Sergey Brin established Google Inc. in the year 1998 and since then the company has expanded in almost every part of the world. The success of Google depends a lot on the leadership attributes of Larry and Sergey. Larry has played an important role to integrate all the employees and Sergey has been an important person who has been handling the external environment of Google. The objective of this paper is to discuss the leadership style of Sergey Brin.
Google Inc. was founded in the year 1998. The company was founded in the field of Information Technology. This field was the growing field in that time and Google took benefit of industry sentiments. The objective of Google is simple, be innovative and creative. Google always believe to develop innovative products that can make the life of customers easy. Sergey has been instrumental in the success of the company. Sergey has always believed that the employees of the company are the biggest assets. Sergey has always believed to create a culture wherein employees are free to work. It is reported that Google has one of the best internal culture to work. Sergey has always remain closed to employees. He had taken several initiatives to ensure that the motivation levels of employees remain high. For example, Sergey is always approachable by employees. Even an entry-level engineer from Google-Bangalore can approach Sergey and discuss the policies (Lara, 2014). Sergey strongly believe that the employees of Google are the biggest source of new ideas and innovation. Google has also focused to link the personal goals and objectives of employee to the organizational goals and objectives.
The leadership style of Sergey can be best described as democratic. Sergey believes that the decision in the organization should be the joint responsibility of all the employees.
Sergey has always believed that Google would be able to reach the exponential growth rate because it has the support of its employees. Some of the traits of leadership of Sergey can be discussed as:
Employee first: Several organizational theory have suggested that customers should always be put first and in fact all the employees and managers should work to make customers happy. Sergey believes that employees are the first line of customers for Google. He believes that customers of Google cannot be happy, unless their employees are happy. It is the employees that would eventually work on strategies and policies in order to make customer happy. Therefore Sergey adopted the policy of, ‘Employee first’. It is one of the most important leadership traits in Sergey that differentiates him for other business leaders. Sergey has always believed that it should take its employees as its partners. Sergey also believes that the company should always work to protect the rights of its employees.
Team player: Sergey has always believed that best learning is learning from team and organizations can achieve their goals and objectives only when management adopts a team centric approach. Sergey has developed culture wherein employees of Google are encouraged to form team. The teams formulated in Google are used not only for official and formal purpose but also for informal purpose.
For example, teams at Google usually go out for team outings. Sergey has developed a rule that every team at Google should go out for team outings without fail.
Sergey believed that the productivity of employees would improve further if they work in team. Sergey has always played an important role in order to improve the synergy among team workers. He has always believed that team should have a pyramid like structure with the senior leaders of the company at the top of the pyramid. Sergey has always focused to stay on the top of the pyramid.
Effective and transparent communication: Sergey believes that “knowing what you want accomplished may seem clear in your head, but if you try to explain it to someone else and are met with a blank expression, you know there is a problem”. Sergey has always believed that more than half of the problems and issues of management can be resolved with effective and transparent communication.
Sergey believes that an effective communication is one that is two ways. Effective communication is not only about saying something but it is also about listening to others. In modern day organizations, management would just communicate their policies to employees but managers spend very little time to understand the problem and grievances of employees. Sergey has developed a platform in Google so that employees can reach managers with just an email. It can be said that training new members and creating a productive work environment all depend on healthy lines of communication.
Sergey also believes that company should have transparent communication channels with employees. Transparency helps to create a healthy environment in the company. Sergey has demonstrated the best practices of effective and transparent communication at Google. Every employee, engineer or managers have to have transparent communication channel to interact.
Confidence, Optimism and commitment: One of the biggest assets of Sergey Brin is his confidence. In an organizational setting, confidence is the most sought after attribute of leaders. Confidence Sergey believe that confidence is the most important characteristics of leaders because employees cannot be confident of their work unless their leader is confident. Sergey has always shown confidence and commitment towards organization. Sergey expects a great dal of commitment from employees working at Google and he can expect the commitment because he is unconditionally committed towards the growth of Google. It can be said that confidence, optimism and commitment are three pillars of the leadership attributes of Sergey. Many researchers believe that confidence and optimism are drivers for risk taking ability. Google has witnessed the exponential growth rate in the market. It is one such company that is well known in almost every country and state (McKelvey, 2008). People of all the ages and races and culture use Google as a search engine or email. This all has been possible only because Sergey demonstrated the required confidence. This all has been possible because Sergey and Larry were able to visualize the future of the company. This all has been possible only when Sergey and Larry hired committed employees.
Intuition and decision making ability: As discussed above, leadership is both an art and a science. When leading a team through uncharted waters, there is no roadmap on what to do. Everything is uncertain, and the higher the risk, the higher the pressure. That is where the natural intuition has to kick in. The natural intuition is one of the biggest leadership attributes of Sergey. Intuition and personal instinct is something that comes in the art part of the leadership. Sergey has believed that his intuition and decision making ability could help Google to continue its growth. Its intuition has helped company to emerge as a successful player in developing countries like India and China. Sergey has always believed in democratic style of leadership. The important decisions at Google are made with the consent of important stakeholders. The company also believes that its employees are the most important stakeholders of the company. It is always difficult to make tough decisions. Sergey believes that this difficulty can be overcome if the management has the support of its employees.
Ability to inspire: An effective leader is one who is able to inspire the team members. Sergey believes that he should be able to get the team working. He believes that an effective leader is not only the individual contributor but also he or she should be a team player. To say the least, a leader is effective when he or she has the ability to inspire the people under him (Brezina, 2012). Sergey knows that the performance of team matters and therefore Sergey would focus to inspire the employees of Google. Sergey has taken several steps to inspire the employees of Google.
For example: Every year, all the employees of Google are given New Year gift. These gifts act as inspiring agents for employees. It also helps to increase the motivation level of employees.
For example: Every year, all the employees are taken out on a tour with other team members. This offsite is considered as an inspiration gesture from leaders.
For example: Google provides free lunches and dinners to its employees. It also helps to inspire employee.
The above-discussed initiatives were started by Sergey in order to ensure that motivation levels of employee remain high.
Sergey Brin strongly believes that one of the most important drivers of the productivity of employees is ‘motivation’. Sergey is string support of Maslow theory of motivation. Sergey believes that employees could be motivated with both monetary and non-monetary measures. Google is known to pay best in class salary. Sergey also realizes that different employees in the company would have different levels of motivation (Boggs, 2008). For this reason, Sergey believes in Maslow need theory of motivation. It can be depicted as:
Sergey also believes in two-factor theory of motivation. The two-factor theory (also known as Herzberg’s motivation-hygiene theory and dual-factor theory) states that there are certain factors in the workplace that cause job satisfaction, while a separate set of factors cause dissatisfaction.
In order to ensure that the motivation levels of employee remain high, Sergey ensure that the grievances of all the employees should be taken into consideration. Sergey has always focused to develop internal culture that can provide best hygiene factors.
Different things that I would have done
Sergey is a great leader and it would take me years to reach any stage near him. There is a lot of learning that I can learn from the leadership style of Sergey. I believe that Sergey has some of the best leadership attributes and traits. Sergey Brin is a powerful leader and he has been able to exercise its power in positive ways. Sergey has channelized his power in order to take the organization forward. The work of Sergey demands appreciation and I am a true fan of Sergey. Still some of the things that I would have done differently can be discussed as:
Emphasis on developing countries: Google is a high valued brand in USA, Australia and European countries. However its success in developing countries has not been as exponential in developing countries as in developed countries. A large volume of Google comes from its operations in developed world. Probably, Google requires specific strategies to deal with its operations in developing countries (Manyika, 2011). If I were at Sergey’s place I would develop specific policies to increase the business output from developing countries.
Helping governments and public authorities: Google has been able to maintain a strong database of information about its users. This information can eventually help public authorities and government officials. I would love to see the partnership between government and Google that would eventually help the society.
Conclusion
The above paper discussed the leadership style and leadership attributes of Sergey Brin. He has been a great leader of Google that has brought Google to heights in the last 16 years. It is expected that Google would continue to grow and flourish under the leadership of Sergey. He is also lucky to have a partner like Larry that has supported him on every step. Sergey has always shown confidence in his skills, his partnership with Larry and his employees. The above paper discussed the leadership traits of Sergey and it also discuss the various qualities that Sergey posses. It can be said that Google Inc. is on a right path of growth and development. It is expected that Google would continue to grow at this exponential growth rate. Sergey has also believed to develop a culture wherein other leaders can also be nurtured inside Google. Sergey would like to see Google in a position where its employees can emerge as leaders and take Google to new avenues.
References
Baack, D. W., & Boggs, D. J. (2008). The difficulties in using a cost leadership strategy in emerging markets. International Journal of Emerging Markets, 3(2), 125-139.
Baird, C. H., & Parasnis, G. (2011). From social media to social customer relationship management. Strategy & Leadership, 39(5), 30-37.
Brezina, C. (2012). Sergey Brin, Larry Page, Eric Schmidt, and Google. The Rosen Publishing Group.
Lara, F. J. (2014). Search Engine Optimization and Ethical Leadership Strategies. In Strategies in E-Business (pp. 79-90). Springer US.
Manyika, J. (2011). Google’s CFO on growth, capital structure, and leadership.TMI-Treasury Management International, (200), 44.
McKelvey, B. (2008). Emergent strategy via complexity leadership. Complexity Leadership, Part 1: Conceptual Foundations.
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