Leadership Approaches in Sports, Business and Politics

This essay illustrates the way in which leaders from sports, business and politics have adopted a particular leadership and approach on the basis of the leadership theories. It compares the leadership styles of Sachin Tendulkar, Narendra Modi and Bill Gates and their strategies for success.

LEADERSHIP
AND
MARKETING STRATEGY

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Leadership Approaches
Leadership qualities have an effective role in the success of the individuals. The way an
individual leads its unit plays a critical role in achieving the goals of the institutions they are
leading. Leadership qualities have different roles to play in the fields such as Sports,
Business and politics. Some of the leaders set an example for the others in their respective
fields. It is their leadership style, approaches and traits that makes them successful
(Patching, 2011). It is critical that what approach a leader chose and how he implements this
approach in his profession so as to achieve the desired goals. This essay is going to
illustrate the way in which leaders from sports, business and politics have adopted a
particular leadership and approach on the basis of the leadership theories.
In sports like cricket which is a team game there is always a requirement of a leader that is
able to lead their side to home. Usually in Cricket the players that are most dependable and
are performing at their best is selected as a leader. Sachin Tendulkar is one such personality
in the Cricketing history who has headed the team in many of the matches. The first thing
that needs to be understood about his captaincy is the fact that he was being given the
captaincy in the time when Indian cricket was facing lots of challenges. This was the major
reason even after having effective leadership approach he failed to draw stats in his favour
(Khanna, et al. 2016). It is due to his poor captaincy records that most of the critics states
that he was not a good leader but this was not so true. He was often seen to go to the
bowler for giving the advice about how he should bowl in particular situation. He is one of
those leaders who knew that the best way to lead is to lead by self-performance. The
leadership approach that he followed is the Functional or group approach where he
leadership from his previous captain and his experience. Following this approach he focused
on responsibilities, accountabilities and function that he has to play as a leader. He
understood the fact that leaders first have to prove themselves and act as a role model for
the team. This is why his major aim was to self-perform so that other players can also do so.
Narendra Modi is one of the most charismatic leaders that the world politics has seen over
the years. Success of his leadership is illustrated through the fact that he had been the chief
minister of a state in Gujarat from 2001 to 2014, till the time he did not become the prime
minister of India. India being one of the biggest democracies in the world has election every
five year. Narendra Modi has never been defeated neither as a chief minister of Gujarat and
now he is two times prime minister of India. He is not only recognised in India rather he is
known for his leadership skills all across the globe and he has made a significant impact in
the world politics (Price, 2015). His leadership traits are exceptional and have a tremendous
belief in himself which he transfers into his party workers. His speaking skills and leadership

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quality of understanding the behaviour of the others has made him a great leader. Due to
this he has been seen to practice the behavioural style of leadership. This is again illustrated
through the two dimensions i.e. concern for production and concern for people. Both of these
concerns relates to the McGregor Theory of X and Y. Among the different approaches to
leadership he is following the approach of a charismatic leadership. He knows the power of
strong vision that arouses strong emotions in his followers.
Third is the leader from the Business who is also very much successful in his profession as a
businessman. He is Bill gates is the owner of the large tech giant Microsoft. He has been at
the top of the world’s richest men for years. He is a college dropout who went before his
dreams. He also has large numbers of followers hence making his approach to leadership as
charismatic having strong vision about what he has to do (Green and McCann, 2011). He
transfers this vision in his organisation and employees. He is known for being a situational
leader where he transforms his leadership approach as per the situation he and his company
is in. The leadership theories that justifies his approach to leadership is path-goal theory
given by House and House and Dessler as well as the theory of Hersey and Blanchard i.e.
he is extremely dependent on the competence of followers. Bill gates also follow
transactional leadership approach which is illustrated by the fact that he appeals to followers
to achieve the organisational goals as it is in their own interest. On the other hand this leader
is known to follow transformational leadership where he always creates a vision for his
followers so as to transform their performance and that of the organisation (Youssef-Morgan
and Luthans, 2013). Bill gates appeals to values and ideals of the individuals within the firm
to make it happen. He also rewards people on the basis of their performance.
All these leadership style that respective leaders have chosen is different but is according to
the nature of their profession. Sachin Tendulkar is considered to be the least successful
leader among the three. The major reason for this can be understood by the fact that the
other two is known for utilising aggressiveness in their approach to leadership according to
the requirements in their profession. Among the three basic style of leadership that is
defined by Lewin, Sachin is considered to follow the democratic style of leadership where he
consults to his team mates before taking any decision. This is good for the team games such
as Cricket. On the other hand Narendra Modi is understood as more autocratic leaders who
listens to everyone but takes decisions own his own (Singh, 2016). Both Bill gates and
Narendra Modi is often seen to follow the laissez-faire style. Most of the time they both keep
the authority to take decisions on their own. According to the Belbin style of leadership all
three of them are known to follow the team leader style.

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Fred Fiedler’s Contingency gave a theory of leader effectiveness and according to these
theory leaders does not change their leadership style rather they adapt their strategies
according to the situation. This theory suggests that leaders were either task-oriented or
relationship oriented. On the basis of this it can be said that Narendra Modi is both task and
relationship oriented leader where he wants the tasks to get completed on time and hence
accomplishing organisational goals (Miller and Sullivan de Estrada, 2017). It is due to this
task oriented leadership that he has been successful in running the government and also in
accomplishing many projects for the people welfare on time. He wants that all his followers
also do the hard work like he does. At the same time he believes in making positive
relationship with others on the basis of mutual trust, confidence and respect. This is very
much essential for any political leader as they have win elections which cannot be done
without making a positive relationship with the people. Relationship oriented approach is
also critical for him in the political diplomacy with other leaders from other parts of the world.
It is due to this that he has received highest honorary awards in many countries. On the
other hand Sachin Tendulkar is known for following the strategy of task oriented leadership
(Palrecha, Spangler and Yammarino, 2012). Bill gates also follows task and relationship
oriented strategies for leadership. This is because it helps them in making a good bond with
the employees and also helps him in achieving his organisational goals.
Strategies followed by the Narendra Modi have made him successful. For Instance his
leadership is based on the strategy of motivating the party workers in such a manner that
they work hard like what he does (Hall, 2017). This helped him to reach to as many people
as possible. In motivation he uses his extensive quality of speaking. On the other hand the
strategy that is most widely used by Bill Gates is team strategy and hence he promotes his
employees to work as a team where he can easily achieve the goals he has. Bill gates
adopted leadership strategies that helped him to bring innovation culture within the
workplace. This was necessary for them so as to achieve the desired goals. Bill Gates is
also known for motivating his people on the basis of the vision he has and the organisational
goals that he has set for Microsoft (Murphy and Johnson, 2011). He is an able communicator
which helped him in transferring his ideas to his followers. On the contrary Sachin Tendulkar
is known for his leadership strategy such as team building. His leadership strategy of not
being aggressive on the field made him an ineffective captain as aggressiveness is an
integral part of the leadership that can give them success. His leadership strategy included
keeping his performance according to the requirement. This is the major reason he batted at
different spots and sometimes also bowled according to the situational requirements.
One thing that was common in the leadership strategies of all of them is that they believe in
hard work. All of them aim to manage their team with this hard work and hence

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contemplating the same from others. This has helped Narendra Modi to manage his cabinet
where he wants that all his colleagues’ works in the same way as he is working. His
leadership strategy helped him in marketing his profession in an appropriate manner which
was again helpful in winning elections as he transformed himself into the brand Modi (Mehta,
2014). In whole of his advertisement campaign of the general election 2019, he was the
poster boy of the party. It was his leadership strategy that gave his party a success which his
party had never achieved in the past. His strategy in leadership aimed to put the nationalism
at the top of his agenda.
While comparing their leadership style it is also found that Bill Gates seems to be more profit
oriented leader. This is the major reason why he kept promoting innovation culture within the
workplace as it enables his organisation to stay ahead of competing firms. Sachin Tendulkar
is more a leader whose main aim was to win rather than his individual profit and losses.
However it is also to be noted that being a businessman Bill Gates could not afford a loss
while in cricket some losses can be acceptable. Still it was the failure of the Sachin
Tendulkar’s strategy that he was unable to continue to lead his organisation for longer period
of time. Leadership style of Bill Gates suggests that he seems to be very long sighted leader
which is reflected in his growth over the years (Bell and Dyck, 2011). His strategies such as
product improvement on regular basis and capturing new markets suggests that he is a
leader who thinks for the long term success. When comparing it with Sachin Tendulkar he
seemed to be leader with short term approach and hence concentrated on the series wise
events to remain successful. On the other hand, Narendra Modi concentrates on following
both long term and short-term approach to leadership which is necessary for his success as
any small planning mistake can lead to huge political loss to him and his career.
Leadership strategy of Narendra Modi is to take as many people as possible with him. This
is because for success in his professional career, it is highly required that the people that are
associated with him showcase faith in him (Hall, 2018). He tries to bring everyone on the
same platform so that he can hear the perception of as many people as possible. Bill gates
also have some similarity in this context as he provides his employees a platform where they
can put their ideas and all these ideas are welcomed by him. This has helped them in the
management of the human resource at the same time in management of his operations.
I have been the leader in the student wing in my college where my major role was to
manage all the student related programmes within the firm whether it is cultural or any other
kinds of programmes. In this I use to follow the leadership style that is more similar to the
Narendra Modi. This is because I take the approach of behavioural leadership in my work.
This allows me to improve the way in which I deal with the people that are working with me. I

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give them the opportunity to speak so that I can understand their behaviour which is very
much crucial for effective team management. This was essential for me in terms of the fact
that I was working with the people that was from different cultural backgrounds. I also
believe in controlling the team with discipline. This makes my approach to be both result
oriented and relationship oriented. It has allowed me to manage the team and hence making
it a high performing team that was able to achieve all his tasks on time. I felt that the
leadership approach that I have adopted helped me in managing the team environment to
be positive. I was also making long and short term goals so that I can be successful in most
of my events and strategies. At times I also believe in adopting strategies that are contingent
hence following the leadership style of the Bill Gates (Grint, et al. 2016).
Throwing lights on the leadership approach that I have undertaken I found that the leader
with which I am most dissimilar is Sachin Tendulkar. This is because I do not believe in
leadership strategies that are short term as I believed in making team that can perform in the
organisation for the long term. It was also dissimilar in terms of the fact that I believed in
being aggressive for achieving the task that is given to me and my team. I feel that I can
improve my leadership skills related to team management by adopting the leadership
approach of the Bill Gates. This is illustrated from the fact that I can be contingent at times
and hence changing my strategies of leadership according to the situations. I also feel that i
will have to adopt transformational and transactional leadership approach so as to build a
better high performance working team. In this regard I will also place communication as an
integral part of the leadership and hence will promote the people to share their ideas so that
the allocated tasks can be completed by our team on time with more efficiency. I also have
to learn conflict management strategies. This is because in the high performance team there
are larger numbers of conflicts that arise within the team due to perception difference. For
this I will need the help of the management that are associated with the company.

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