Disucss about the Self-Management And Leadership Development.
Leadership is a major determinant of organizational success. The Australian Corporate world has had many successful business leaders each defined by the unique aspects and leadership traits that they possess. Successful leaders are known both for establishing successful enterprises and turning around the fortunes of failing organizations. Therefore the success of an organization is one of the aspects that are used to gauge the effectiveness of a leader. In addition, their ability to define and establish and define an organizational culture is used in accessing the effectiveness of a leader (Fox, 2017). Leadership is the act through which persons in influential position inspire their subordinates to achieve certain objectives. Leaders play both inspirational and motivational roles. Influential Australian business leaders have earned their popularity because of their leadership attributes and abilities (Aigner, 2011). Christine Holgate, the Christine Holgate, CEO Australian Post is among the most influential young Australian leaders. This report focuses on certain aspects about Christine Holgate.
Christine Holgate is among the most recognized Australian Businesswomen and the Current CEO of Australian post, a role which she has held since 2017 October (Dent, 2017). Before being appointed as the CEO of Australian Post, Holgate served as the CEO of Blackmores, a Nutritional supplement company based in Sydney Australia. She also serves as Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade Chair. Her previous roles include working as the MD Telstra Corp, Nonexecutive director at Ten Network Holdings, MD, and CEO of Blackmore (Adams, 2015). .Holgate was born to an Entrepreneur father in England, the United Kingdom about 54 years ago. She was brought up in a small farming community where she was introduced to the concept of work from a tender age. By the age of 15, she was already working as a window’s cleaner and ban the bomb badges seller (Rothstein & Burke, 2010). Holgate was also much involved in street campaigns and protests. She holds three postgraduate diplomas in purchasing and supply, marketing and management. She also holds a masters a degree in Business Administration. Her impressive education; together with her leadership acumen have been the main reasons for her success at many positions in different countries and organizations. This has also enabled her to rise steadily through the leadership ladder (Adapa & Sheridan, 2017).
Christine Holgate has been described as the most successful woman in the Australian Corporate world. She has held multiple positions in Australia, Americans, and Asia. In her, over 30 years in a corporate word, she has played leading roles in healthcare, media, finance and telecommunication industries (Fuda, 2013).. Her appointment as Chief executive of Blackmore came as a result of the impressive run she had at her former organization, Telstra where her hard work and impressive leadership skills saw her rise from the post of marketing director to Business Unit sales Head. She played a significant role in changing the fortunes of Blackmore to its current position as a leading Nutrition supplement company (Hewett, 2016).
Christine Holgate has been majorly focusing on leading teams through startup, growth, and change. Her main achievements in the organization that she has worked have been acting as an effective leader and turning around the fortunes of organizations that were not doing well previously. Through her effective leadership skills, she was able to inspire an organization change in Blackmores and lead the organization in recording a profit of 70%. She also improved the share price of the organization (Lussier, 2011). Because of her exemplary performance, she was named Australia’s CEO of the year in 2015, an award which earned the title of the best Australian woman for the great role she played in Blackmore (Adams,2015).
From the analysis of the Australia most successful businesswoman, two leadership styles can be identified. These are charismatic and transformational leadership styles. These are the main leadership styles visible in the leadership journey of Christine Holgate. Transformational leadership is a process whereby leaders work together with their subordinates to identify the requirement for a change in an organization and lead through the change process (Waddell et al., 2016). Transformational leaders create a vision to guide the process of change and motivate their subordinates to implement the needed changes (Tom & Barrons, 2012). After joining Blackmores a struggling company in 2008; Holgate introduced critical changes especially in the organizational culture and strategic alignment, which have enabled the organization to achieve its current success (McCauley,2015). These exemplify her transformational leadership traits. This is also visible in her push to expand Blackmore’s operation into Asian and China markets and diversification of its product offerings through the introduction of new products lines. The passion associated with transformative leadership lead her to accept a salary 50% lower than that of her predecessor (Dent, 2017). Her transformative agenda has led the organization through exceptional growth, turning the once local organization into a $2.5 Billion multinational organization. She also moved the company’s shares from below $40 in 2015 to about $199 by the time she left the organization. After joining Australian post in 2017 she was also passionate about expanding its operations to conquer the Australian market (Chanticleer, 2017).
Charismatic leadership is a leadership approach through which a leader uses persuasiveness and charm to win the support of their subordinates without reliance on their external power or authority. There is a high degree of commitment to a course among charismatic leaders. This aspect is also visible in the leadership of Holgate. Leading a change process often requires some level of charisma. Her charismatic leadership attribute helped her to rally Blackmore’s employees behind her into changing the culture and strategic alignment for the organization. Her confidence level in transforming the fortunes for Blackmores was also a reflection of her charismatic leadership attribute. She was also confident about transforming the structurally and financially challenged Australian Post into a modern logistics company (Cheryl, 2017).
Reviving struggling organizations
This is perhaps the most notable challenging encounter she has had in her leadership journey. The two leading organization that she has led, Australian post and Blackmores were facing myriad challenges. While Blackmores was struggling financially, Australian post was struggling financially, politically and had many controversies surrounding it. Her biggest challenge has been bringing these organizations back to a course of prosperity. Through her transformative and charismatic leadership approach; past experience and passion, she has been able to venture into external markets particularly in Asia and China (Dent, 2017). Her focus on expanding the operation of the organizations beyond the Australian border has seen her turn around the fortunes for Blackmores and now Australian Post.
Lack of experience in managing logistics organizations
Prior to joining Australian post, Holgate had never had a career in any logistics business. Her main preoccupation before were in Financial services, Telstra and Health manufacturing where she had served as chief executive for Blackmores since the year 2008 (Thomson & Lloyd,2011). Transiting into a different industry altogether was not an easy thing. She had had many eyes fixed on her with regard to the struggling organizations she has been associated with. Her positivity and passion for excellence have been her main tools for dealing with this challenge. This Challenge has also been partly overcome through collaboration with industrial players and logistic partners such as Chinese based JD.com.
As a leader, nothing is impossible if you put your mind to it
I have learnt that passion and determination is one of the major pillars of a successful leader. Christine represents an excellent case study of what passion and determination can transform a leader into. Her journey of moving from a window cleaner in England to becoming the most important woman in the Australian corporate world can only be described as a journey from grass to grace. She steadily rose through the leadership hierarchy because she had put her mind in what she was doing and was determined to make a difference (Kouzes, Posner & Bunting, 2015). Despite having come from a humble background this did not deter her from achieving exemplary success. Passion and determination are therefore important attributes of a leader.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Christine Holgate presents a classic example of a transformational and charismatic leader whose leadership acumen in the corporate world has seen her become the most important Australian woman besides turning around the fortunes of formerly dwindling organizations. Having come from a humble background, education and her determination have made her achieve in the leadership world much more than she would have ever imagined. Her most notable achievement and which has earned her much accolade is the role she played in reviving Blackmores and turning it into a successful international organization. She is also working towards the same with her current Organization, the Australian post through her efforts to penetrate the Chinese market. Her main achievements have come as a result of her Transactional and charismatic leadership approaches. For example, through a change of organizational culture business model and the introduction of additional product lines for Blackmore, she turned the organization into one of the most successful Australian Organizations.
References
Adams, K (2015). YPO | Success, Naturally: Meet CEO of the Year Christine …. [online] Available at https://www.ypo.org/2016/01/all-natural-success-meet-ceo-of-the-year-christine-holgate/ [Accessed 11 May 2018].
Adapa, S., & Sheridan, A. (2017). Inclusive Leadership: Negotiating Gendered Spaces. Cham, Springer International Publishing. [online] Available at https://public.eblib.com/choice/publicfullrecord.aspx?p=4939336.[Accessed 11 May 2018].
Aigner, G. (2011). Leadership beyond good intentions: what it takes to really make a difference. Sydney, Allen & Unwin. [online] Available at https://www.books24x7.com/marc.asp?bookid=45819[Accessed 11 May 2018].
Chanticleer(2017). Blackmores CEO Christine Holgate can handle Australia Post [online] Available at https://www.afr.com/brand/chanticleer/blackmores-ceo-christine-holgate-can-handle-australia-posts-challenges-20170627-gwza2u [Accessed 11 May 2018].
Cheryl, T. (2017). Blackmores CEO Christine Holgate quits to run Australia Post. [online] Available at: https://www.nutraingredients-asia.com/Article/2017/06/27/Blackmores-CEO-Christine-Holgate-quits-to-run-Australia-Post [Accessed 11 May 2018].
Dent, G. (2017). The curious case of Christine Holgate being paid less …. [online] Available at https://womensagenda.com.au/latest/christine-holgate-being-paid-less-ahmed-fahour/ [Accessed 11 May 2018].
Hewett, J (2016). How women like Blackmores’ Christine Holgate succeed in …. [online] Available at https://www.afr.com/opinion/columnists/how-women-like-blackmores-christine-holgate-succeed-in-leadership-20160517-goxa3n [Accessed 11 May 2018].
Fox, C. (2017). Stop fixing women: why building fairer workplaces is everyone’s business.Sydney,New South Wales.
Fuda, P. (2013). Leadership transformed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcour
Kouzes, J. M., Posner, B. Z., & Bunting, M. (2015). Extraordinary leadership in Australia and New Zealand: the five practices that create great workplaces. [online] Available at https://www.books24x7.com/marc.asp?bookid=82432.
Lussier, R. (2011)Management fundamentals: Concepts, applications, skill development. Cengage Learning.
McCauley, D. (2015). Christine Holgate: Blackmore’s chief executive wins CEO of …. [online] Available at https://www.news.com.au/finance/work/leaders/blackmores-chief-executive-christine-holgate-named-ceo-of-the-year/news-story/62d27648d01f27e718aa3d4760792591 [Accessed 11 May 2018].
Rothstein, M. G., & Burke, R. J. (2010). Self-management and leadership development. https://www.elgaronline.com/view/9781848443235.xml.
Thomson, P., & Lloyd, T. (2011). Women and the new business leadership. New York, Palgrave Macmillan. [online] Available at https://public.eblib.com/choice/publicfullrecord.aspx?p=729836.
Tom, D., & Barrons, R. (2012). The 7 Secrets of Leadership Success. [online] Available at https://nls.ldls.org.uk/welcome.html?ark:/81055/vdc_100049072449.0x000001.
Waddell, D., Creed, A., Cummings, T., and Worley, C.(2016) Organisational change: Development and transformation. Cengage AU.
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