Leadership Styles And Theories: Exploring Different Types Of Leaders

Autocratic Leadership: Characteristics and Responsibilities

The leaders are important for the organization as they make the differences with their visions and capabilities for realizing the visions. There are different types of leaderships styles can be seen in the eminent leaders, who keep their mark by their visualization, intelligence, efficiency, and skills to influence their subordinates to achieve a specific goal. The leadership theories support in understanding the leadership process of the leaders (Bennis, 2009). There are several global leaders such as Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, who has made a headline in several medias in last few years by their innovative ideas and charismatic leadership style.

Autocratic leadership which is also known as the authoritarian leadership is the leadership style in which the leader take control over all the decisions. They make decisions on the basis of judgments and ideas and rarely accepts the advice from the followers. The autocratic leaders are able to make quick decisions as per the need of the situation. They are also effective when there is a need of controlling the situation in an appropriate manner (Floyd, 2006). A leader should have the capability to control the situations, make effective decisions and motivate their employees towards their goals (Burns, 2012). The most important things that should be kept in mind by the autocratic leaders respect the subordinates, explain in detail the rules and regulations, be consistent and educate everyone before the implementation of the plan. The leaders have the responsibility to achieve the goals of the organization with the help of their leadership styles.

The Steve Jobs is depicted to be following the transformational and the charismatic leadership styles. The transformational leadership style is depicted to be including the initiatives in the form of changing the environment of the organizations and the groups as it is depicted to be motivating others than they are intended to it. The setting of the challenges for purifying the qualities is made with depicting the achievement of higher quality expectations and also the higher performance (Giuliani & Kurson, 2007). The Charismatic leadership styles are depicted to be a manifestation of the revolutionary powers in which the sheer changes in the behavioral changes are identified. This is simply illustrating the transformation of the beliefs with the increment of the followers’ values. The differentiation of the attitude towards a specific object is identified as it is depicted to be underlying the normative orientation in the form of structuring the specific attitudes and also the underlying normative orientation is illustrating the appropriate power by framing the attitude in an appropriate way (Raum, 2008).

Bill Gates: Autocratic Leadership Style and Effective Decision-Making

Bill Gates is one of the most successful business leaders in the world. He always had focused on his goals and encouraged innovation and creativity. He had worked very hard to establish its company in the market. For this, he always had motivated and encouraged its team members with its leadership skills and knowledge. Bill Gates requests his staff members to report and present their own ideas and concepts on a regular basis (Hunt, 2013). In regular meetings, Gates regularly raise questions that will be beneficial for the company and solve the issues in an appropriate manner. Autocratic leadership style was followed by Bill Gates to control its employees. However, like Gates, many leaders exhibit more than one leadership style. Depending on the situation and conditions, different leadership styles can be followed by the leaders. Most of the leaders adopt one or more than one dominant leadership styles (Pinnock, 2012). Bill Gates has always been successful because he only followed the authoritarian style to carry out its tasks and motivate its employees. Autocratic leaders like to control their employees and situation. The autocratic leadership style is very much effective in emergency circumstances or when there is the quick decision is required (Iszatt-White & Saunders, 2014). The main reason behind the success of Bill gates can be determined by his quick decision-making processes. The decision making processes in business is considered as the most significant aspect of achieving the goals of the organization. However, Bill Gates has appropriately managed all its staff members and processes.

The business leader Steve Jobs is identified as the unconventional leader who is depicted to be consisting of the well-built management styles. The leadership styles undertaken or followed by him is depicted to be showing the increment of the ability to articulate its own vision and also to bring the employees, investors and the customers in the track of the journey (Kaushik & Bhatnagar, 2008). This enabled him to shown the appropriate characteristics of setting the vision with showing the enhancement of the business by undertaking the following styles of the leadership. These leadership styles enabled the Steve Jobs to overcome the harsh challenges during the establishment of the business. Steve is also gaining many failures, but by sticking to the leadership styles, he managed to stand again in the business world by wrapping its weaknesses and the issues (Owen, 2012). As per the leadership qualities are identified, Steve Jobs is depicted to be consisting of adaptability, focus, urgency and the vision. The innovative and the determined genius descriptions can be easily depicted the form of the legacy as identified in this context. The suitable characteristics are determined to be showing the development of the qualities in a perfect way and also the out control characteristics can be easily controlled by determining the adaptability characteristics (Cotton, 2012). The focus and the urgency are very much important as it determines the quality work delivered within the prefixed time period. The vision must be obtained for determining the target for the achievement in its own life. This is the overall characteristics in the leadership style point of view of Steve Jobs.

Steve Jobs: Transformational and Charismatic Leadership Styles

Conclusion

There are various leadership styles followed by the eminent leaders in order to motivate and influence their subordinates. Bill gates are one of the most dynamic leaders in modern age follows the orthodox autocratic leadership in his company Microsoft, but with his grasp in this field and huge acumen he can easily influence his men to follow him unconditionally (Peters, 2005). Alternatively, other eminent leader Steve Jobs with his transformational leadership style charismatic approaches had brought revolution in the electronic world.

Personal analysis: As per the course of the management is considered in this case, the study of the leadership in this course work enabled me to identify my strengths and the weaknesses. The strengths that have been present in me is identified to be leading quality, accuracy, managing the queries and appropriate usage of the tool in managing the profitable outcomes. The weakness that has been identified in me is depicted to be loosening of hope while facing the extreme level of difficulties.

The goal which is set by me is to overcome the loosening of hope during the extreme difficulties. The PDP provides the clear guidance of the issues as I face it during this case.

The personal objectives which are defined by me are to overcome the weakness and to enhance my skills with the help of building the leadership qualities in me.

Leadership theories provide guidance to the leaders about different aspects of leadership. The leadership theories are as follows:

Trait theory: This theory states that people are either made or born with certain qualities that help them to enhance their leadership roles.

Skills theory: This theory depicts that acquired abilities/skills and learned knowledge are important factors in the effective leadership practices.

Situational theory: This theory states that different situations need different leadership styles. It depicts the ability to adjust or adapt different leadership style as per the circumstances.

Contingency theory: This theory states that an effective leader is contingent on how well the style of the leaders matches with a specific situation.

Transformational theory: This theory depicts that leadership is a process by which an individual engages with other people in order to establish a relationship that results in increased morality and motivation among leaders and followers.

Transactional theory: This theory shows the exchanges that take place between followers and leaders.

The leaders play a significant role in motivating their followers and achieving the goals of the organization. The leaders should open doors for perception and analyze the things in an appropriate manner. They should put efforts to develop people and motivate people to support the changes in the organization. The leaders set standards for other and themselves. They think about others and introduce new ideas. They explain organizational views and importance of change within the organization.

Personal Analysis: Identifying Strengths and Weaknesses

Identification of the benchmarking tool is very much important as my career is concerned since it enables in defining the appropriate measurement and the comparison of the performance of mine for the purpose of identifying the work progress and the strategies which will lead to the improvement. This must be applied for the betterment of my skills as well as for my career.

The finding clearly reflects the steps which are very much crucial for the identification of the appropriate tool and also the implementation process can be easily identified. The steps include the planning, identification, collection of data, analysis and the implementation. These steps enable in defining the appropriate measurement of my career and also the context of the improvement can be made in my personal context.

For the purpose of determining the opportunities, the collection of the data regarding the context of the improvement must be made by me for implementing the opportunities of leadership.

The rationale illustrates the identification of the appropriate goals which is identified to be showing the planning of the work. The goals must be appropriately placed for the achievement of the target made by me for the development of my skills.

The obstacles or the challenges that is faced by me is that the inappropriate placement of the strategies which are depicted to be the major challenge faced by me during the achievement of my goal.

The strategies include the planning process with setting the goals for the achievement of overcoming my weakness and also to strengthen my leadership skills.

I have to list all the tasks in an appropriate manner. The timeframe will allow me to set deadlines for each task which is important for me to complete the tasks in time.

I can measure my performance with the help of setting standard objectives. SMART objectives will also enable to measure the performance of the tasks.

I have to use the resources in an appropriate manner to accomplish the tasks. I have to also use the skills and knowledge of my team members.

Leadership Developmental Objective		The behaviors and the competencies that I want to develop is indicating confidence which is lacking too much in me. I am aiming to overcome this for improving my leadership skills and the time frame allocated by me will be between one to two months.
Development Activities/opportunities	Rational/Relevance	Obstacles/challenges	Strategic process involved	Timeframe	Basis and Measures	Resources
I want to overcome my weakness. I lose my confidence in extremely difficult situations. So, I want to enhance my leadership skills and knowledge to deal with such situation which is my leadership goal. In the long run also, it will help me when I start working for any organization.	The reasonable or the realistic basis illustrates the accepting of situation present in my path while selecting my opportunities and also these must be appropriately executed for the development of my weakness.	The main thing that can obstruct me in achieving my goals is not able to handle huge pressure or critical situations. It is a great challenge for me to overcome from this problem.	I will definitely want to face my weaknesses, again and again, to overcome from this. The most important thing is that I have to keep my mind cool and be patience when such situation arises in front me. Leadership skills and knowledge will enable me to overcome such problems.	I think it will need one to two months to attain the leadership knowledge and skills and implement strategies.	The measurements can be easily depicted by the conduct that I used to carry out in my work and also this will signify the completion of the specific objective with quality within the prefixed time frame.	I have to enhance my skills and knowledge to achieve my development goals. I also need appropriate guide and mentorship.