Leadership Approaches in Sports, Business and Politics

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.