Leadership in McDonalds during COVID-19 pandemic

This report analyzes the leadership skills required to develop and execute effective strategies during the COVID-19 pandemic in McDonalds. It discusses various leadership theories, styles, and models, evaluates the leadership styles and skills used by McDonalds, and compares them with an emergent leader. The report also provides recommendations for leadership skills beneficial in uncertain times.

Leadership in McDonalds
during COVID nineteen
pandemic

Executive Summary
This report has been prepared with an objective of identifying and assessing
leadership skills that are required to develop and execute effective strategies required for
decision-making amid uncertainties. In the following report, five sections are included – in
first section, introduction of the main theme and contents of the reports are discussed. In the
second section, various leadership theories, styles and models are outlined which have been
discussed in the report further and in the third section these skills and styles of leadership are
analysed. Further, these skills are then compared and analysed in context of leadership of
chosen organisation and an emergent leader. In the fourth section, firstly, current leadership
styles, models and skills practised by leadership of chosen organisation are discussed and
then, contrasted with thoughts and skills of emerging leader and finally a comparison has
been drawn between two. In the last part, a conclusion has been drawn on the basis of above
findings and analysis. And also, recommendations have been made for the skills that will be
beneficial for leaders in not just short-term but in long-term as well and also in not just
regular business conditions but also when uncertainties are prevailing in business conditions
as well.

Contents
Executive Summary...................................................................................................................2
Introduction................................................................................................................................4
Leadership theories, styles and model.......................................................................................4
Outline of leadership theories, styles and model...................................................................4
Evaluation of leadership styles and skills..................................................................................6
Evaluation of leadership styles and models mentioned above...............................................6
Leadership skills.....................................................................................................................7
Own leadership styles and skills............................................................................................8
Leadership styles and skills used by leadership of chosen organisation....................................9
Leadership styles and skills currently practised by McDonalds............................................9
Leadership styles and skills to be used if I were the CEO of McDonalds...........................10
Comparison between my preferred leadership style with leadership style of CEO of........10
Conclusion................................................................................................................................11
References................................................................................................................................14

Introduction
Leadership can be defined as a process of social influence which is aimed at
maximising the efforts of subordinates towards the achievement of a common objective. All
leaders possess certain skills like good communication skills, good team building skills,
negotiation skills, problem solving skills, ability to delegate, motivation skills, flexibility,
adaptation, etc. which are require for leading a team not only in good times but also through
tough and uncertain times (Marques, 2015). Below mentioned report has been prepared with
an objective of identifying, assessing and analysing emergent leadership skills that are
required to develop and execute effective strategies required for decision-making amid
uncertainties like ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.
Leadership of McDonald’s Corporation (herein after referred as only McDonald’s has
been taken as case study for the purpose of preparing this report. McDonald’s is an American
multinational fast-food company having its headquarters at Chicago. It is famous for its
cheese burgers and French fries but also, offers soft drinks, milkshakes, wraps and desserts. It
as also introduced salads, fish, smoothies and fruits in its menu to attract customers who
prefer healthy foods. It was founded in 1940 by two brothers Richard James and Maurice
James McDonald as a hamburger stand. They chose golden arches as their logo which looks
like English alphabet M and franchising as mode of expansion of their business. It operates
only few restaurants under it while offers two types of franchise model – one, in which
franchisees have to lease properties, owned by McDonald’s and other in which, company
franchises its name to be used with same quality standards to be maintained as company. This
model results in earnings from rent and royalty which forms significant part of company’s
revenue. Leadership of company is represented by its board of directors which is headed by
its President and CEO. He and his team believe driving company growth strategy in a flexible
manner so that they can face challenges brought by uncertainties (Martin, 2015).
This report contains four sections. In first section, various leadership styles and
theories have been outlined. In, second section, above mentioned leadership styles have been
discussed. Also, various skills and qualities that must be possessed by a leader are also
discussed and few leadership skills that are required to be present in leaders of McDonalds
and its comparison with strength and weakness of an emerging leader are also evaluated. In
third section, leadership style and skills that are practised by leaders at McDonald’s are
discussed. Also, discussed are the leadership skills that can be adopted if given a chance to be
CEO of management and then analytical observations have been drawn to compare between
two above mentioned leadership styles and skill set. In the final set, conclusions have been
drawn up based on above mentioned discussions and then an action plan has been
recommended for such skills that can bring benefits and improvements in the business
operations and results in testing times like one brought on by Covid-19.
Leadership theories, styles and model
Outline of leadership theories, styles and model
A leader is one who provides direction to the team, one is leading. There are various
theories, styles and leadership that helps ascertain the required leadership skills to be adopted
and followed. Below mentioned are various leadership theories:

 Situational theory – During the course of leadership, a leader come across varied
kinds of situations that pose different challenges (Lopez-Cabrales, Bornay-Barrachina
and Diaz-Fernandez, 2017). This theory proposes that no leadership style is best in all
situations and team environment must decide which particular style of leadership is
appropriate in the prevalent situation. For example, if team needs experience to guide,
authoritarian style is appropriate while if team members are skilled, democratic style
would be more effective.
 Transactional theory – An organisation operates according to its organisational
structure which has a direct impact over style of its leadership. This theory focuses on
the hierarchical aspect. For example, leader has a defined target and wants to achieve
it in personalised manner. Then, autocratic style is appropriate as it is based on “Do as
I say”.
 Transformational theory – This leadership theory inspires leaders to develop a
personal relationship with all their team members and transform their leadership style
not only as per the required situation but also according to the requirement of
individual team member. It asks a leader to make use of both authoritative and
persuasive style of leadership.
Various leadership styles based on above theories are:
 Autocratic style – Such leaders believes that they are all know types and therefore,
makes all the decisions themselves while taking a very little input from the team
members. It is a command and control type approach to leadership which is not liked
much and can lead to absenteeism and employee turnover. However, such leadership
is required when team members are inexperienced and some complex situations arises
or there is a need for quick decision-making.
 Democratic style – This style of leadership encourages participation of team members
in decision-making process. Although, the final decision-making power is vested in
leader, this leadership allows development of creativity and innovative thinking
amongst the team members. Team members of such leaders are usually highly
productive and satisfied with their job. However, this leadership style can lead to
delay in decision-making.
 Authoritative style – Leaders of this style exercises complete authority in their team
affairs and adopt a “follow me” approach (Mikkelson, Sloan and Hesse, 2019). They
are the ones who set targets, determines the steps to achieve those targets and
supervises target completion at every step. Teams with this type of leaders are usually
highly productive. They are different from autocratic in the way that they don’t just
issue order rather, engage with team members to achieve the targets. They might
allow team members to choose their own course to achieve common objectives.
 Persuasive style – This style of management believes in motivating team members to
tackle every business situation that arises in front of them. A leader does not
necessarily need to put pressure over team members to persuade them, they can be
persuaded by using human emotions tactically.
Model based on application of above-mentioned styles are:
 Team-oriented model – This model of leadership is team oriented i.e. leaders organise
collaborative team environment in which main focus is on providing opportunities

and motivation to all team members to develop to their highest potential. Therefore,
this model is also referred to as “people-oriented leadership” as it has the capability of
producing most efficient, most productive and satisfied employees.
 Action-oriented model – Adair’s leadership model – It identifies three approaches for
leadership function – accomplishment of task, maintenance of team and fulfilling
personal needs of every team member, to be achieved in balance without giving
importance to one over another (Tortorella and Marodin, 2018). Adair believed that
leaders need not necessarily be born, person with correct attitude and character can
develop leadership skills while facing tough times. Such people are able to adopt any
leadership style that is the need of the situation.
Evaluation of leadership styles and skills
Evaluation of leadership styles and models mentioned above
A team is a group of individuals who work together to complete a common target.
They share responsibility, authority and accountability. Team is guided and lead by a team
leader. All organisations are combination of multiple groups which are led by board of
directors or top management. There are various factors that influence success of a team
during a crisis or uncertain situation, one of which is influence of leader (Covelli and Mason,
2017). From the above-mentioned styles and models of leadership, it can be noted that:
During the situation of uncertainty such as induced by Covid-19 pandemic lock-down,
it can be seen that in companies with autocratic and authoritative style of leadership, whole
responsibility of bringing the company out of crisis comes on the leadership since,
subordinates are required to do only what they have been asked to. This will restrict strategic
thinking capabilities of the company. However, these styles of leadership will also bring in
quick decision-making which is required in such situations. Moreover, since responsibility
would be lying with over few people, there will be no confusion about clear communication
and decision-making channels. On the other hand, democratic and persuasive styles of
leadership will allow company to enjoy more brains for strategic thinking and it might come
up with better, quicker creative and innovative ideas to deal with uncertain situation.
However, there are possibilities as well that in allowing so many people to brainstorm,
decision-making gets delayed and the crucial time in which company must have acted,
passes, increasing pressure more over company resources. And also, it might become difficult
to persuade people to act according to management wishes which also results in delayed time
which would have not happened in the case of autocratic and authoritative style of leadership.
Both the above-mentioned leadership models – action oriented and team-oriented are
good while dealing with uncertain situations. During uncertainties, it is very important to be
pro-active and prompt in dealing with the responses that market is bringing over the company
performance (Balta and Petecel, 2016). For example, during lock-down, there was
widespread uncertainties in the market, supply chain was disrupted, production was reduced,
clouds over employment status, reduced demand, etc. all had domino effect over each other
which making it more difficult for companies’ management as well as government to deal
with them. Action-oriented leadership will promptly take actions to reduce all uncertainties in
their process as soon as they identify it like assuring employees that their jobs are safe, which
will stop panic among them and they will not rush upon changing demands in economy

violently. Gradually, supply chain will be restored and production will also improve. This
will have reduced negative effect over company. Team-oriented leadership with the help of
whole team will be able to implement safe-guarding measures to protect company like
ramping up economic promotions, aligning production according to procurement and
demand, eliminating wastage of resources in the process, etc. However, there is no certainty
that these leadership model will definitely be a success considering the never seen before
uncertainty level induced by Covid-19.
Leadership skills
Leadership skills are those skills that help a leader effectively lead a team. In regular
business conditions, leaders and managers are required to possess skills like communication
skills, motivation skills, interpersonal, team management skills, etc. but during uncertain
conditions, responsibilities of leaders increase and they need to have more refined skills as
uncertainties have only one certain thing that, it is unpredictable and needs flexible changes
in leadership pattern (Phillips and Phillips, 2016). Leadership of McDonald’s should possess
below mentioned qualities that help them bail out company amid uncertainties such as posed
by Covid-19 pandemic:
 Strategic thinking skills – This skill differentiates a manager from a leader i.e. leaders
are able to think strategically while managing their team. It refers to having a vision,
as to where they want to take their team and how will they take them. Leadership of
McDonald’s need to have refined strategic thinking and develop a new strategy that is
flexible enough that it can be improved with every change required.
 Planning and delivery skills – A leader need to excel at planning things and not just
planning but also, executing their plans to turn them into reality. Time management
and self-motivation help a leader in achieving these skills. Risk management,
facilitation skills, group management skills makes decision-making more effective.
Leadership of McDonald’s needs to develop new plan incorporating changes required
such reduction in demand due to lock-down and uncertain employment status.
 People management skills – All leaders lead and work with a certain team of varied
individuals. Therefore, it is important for leaders to acquire people management skills
like problem solving skills, negotiation skills, influencing skills, etc. Leaders shall
provide ample developmental opportunities to their team members and must create an
environment that helps them perform and develop. Also, team members must be
regularly motivated to perform better. During lock-down, there was uncertainty over
employment status, leadership needs to step up and assure people that their jobs are
secured and that their presence matters to company.
 Change management and innovation skills – Business environment is dynamic and
ever changing. Therefore, it is very important for leaders to change their management
process to suit the present situations. Leaders should encourage innovation in the
process (Uhr, 2017). It is general for people to resist changes that either they don’t
understand or goes against their personal welfare. For example, furlough scheme or
temporary lay-off measures brought out during Covid-19 induced lock-down. Leaders
of McDonald’s shall possess such skills that can influence them to condone such
changes.
 Communication skills – It is one of the elementary skills that are required to be
possessed by leaders. It helps a leader in developing inter-personal relations with their

team as well as customers of the company. They should not just be good speaker; they
need to be good listeners as well. Leadership of McDonald’s shall listen to all the
doubts about company among employees and customers and establish communication
with them to quash their doubts.
 Persuasion and influencing skills – These skills are required by leaders to effectively
manage inter-personal relations among their team members. It helps in conflict
management and managing positive interactions between team members. Compassion
and other tools of emotional intelligence helps leaders in developing these skills. For
example, leadership of McDonald’s shall persuade all departmental teams of company
to regain same sales, business and operational level that was pre-uncertainty level.
Own leadership styles and skills
In view of the above-mentioned styles and skills of leadership, it would be no misnomer
to say that no leader has characteristics of only leadership style, everyone has reflection of
one or more characteristics of all leadership styles such as I possess this thinking that a leader
should step ahead to lead and instruct from front when they are leading inexperienced team
members like autocratic leader (Farrell, 2017). However, it shall not be a blind following,
rather it should be based on two-way discussion about the welfare of both team and team
member like an authoritative leader. A leader shall have management abilities so that they
can influence, motivate and persuade team members to behave in desired manner like
persuasive style of leader and at the same time, should involve team members in strategic
thinking and must provide them reasonable independence so that they can learn, grow and
have their own trajectory of development. Out of all, I believe, I resonate most with
democratic style of leadership, for I believe that a team should work like one unit like flat
structure of organisation rather than organisation with hierarchical structure which asks one
to lead and others to follow.
There shall be a supervising and reporting relationship but that shall not come in the way
of development of individual team members. But, when there are independent team members,
conflicts are possible to arise. Therefore, team leaders must develop certain characteristics in
their behaviours which help them perform and also motivate their team to perform under their
leadership with their focus on self-development along with team development, which is
possible only with co-ordination and co-operation among team members (Sriyakul and
Jermsittiparsert, 2019). Example of such behaviour are-
 Self-evaluation – Keep track of their performance and continuously strive to perform
better, which encourages team to gather information about their performance and self-
monitor themselves.
 Self-goal setting – Team leaders are provided outline of goals that they are required to
perform by top management. Working on this line, leaders shall develop self-goal
targets that encourages team members to set performance goals for themselves as
well.
 Self-criticism – Team leaders must accept their mistakes when they have faltered and
self-start corrective actions. This will encourage team members to be self-critical and
accept each other’s mistakes and helping out each other to correct them.
 Group brainstorming – All team leaders are required to take multiple decisions, few
of them are urgent decisions are needed to be taken quickly but some decisions allow

time to take them. Team leaders should ask for participation of all team members so
that there can be multiple alternatives to choose from and moreover, this will allow
team members to feel more connected with the company.
A good leader must possess excellent communication skills, negotiation skills,
motivational skills, problem-solving and conflict management skills, influencing skills, etc.
and I’m happy to realise that I’ve developed all the above-mentioned skills so that I can
become a good leader. Although, I’ve no experience in handling such big corporate crisis
which is a weakness for me to emerge as a good leader, I believe I’ll be able to develop
solution with the help of my team for my ability to stay calm and think ahead is one of my
biggest strength that are important while handling crisis situations. Moreover, I’m flexible
enough to improvise myself according to the situation and for the experience, that comes only
with experience.
Leadership styles and skills used by leadership of chosen organisation
Leadership styles and skills currently practised by McDonalds
Leader is someone who is entrusted to take team forward together in order to achieve
targets of the group and organisation (Urick, 2016). McDonald’s as an organisation follows
functional structure with board of directors at the top and further departments under board.
To manage whole corporate structure of McDonalds, board follows Adair’s Model of
action-oriented leadership as discussed above. It helps company develop a constructive
model in which leadership focuses on self-development of company personnel. They are so
committed to the cause of the company and communicates this enthusiasm to people. Under
top leadership are various departmental teams headed by a team leader. They are required to
behave as a mediating channel between their team members and senior leadership. Hence,
they are required to possess excellent communication skills and team management skills.
They are responsible to execute all the strategies prepared by top leadership into a realistic
target.
Other than corporate leadership, leaders of the individual restaurants or restaurant
managers is equally important for they are entrusted with responsibility of making each unit
of the company a success. They are responsible to set targets, plan budgets, maintain stock,
manage personnel, drive marketing campaigns and foster customer relations. For executing
above mentioned responsibilities, team leaders at McDonalds are allowed to create rules for
their team. They are asked to give their opinion as to how they can improve the process and
results for the business. This style of leadership which is adopted by McDonald’s at
restaurant level is known as team-oriented leadership. Team leaders of the restaurants are
required to exhibit characteristics like behaviour management, influencing skills, relationship
building, people management, etc. All of their activities are directed towards achieving
accomplishing the corporate goal set by top management for the company. Other than
manager, rest of the staff at a retail outlet are all attendants working at the same level,
therefore span of control of manager is narrow. One merit of that it allows managers to
exercise better control (AlMazrouei and Zacca, 2015).
One thing worth notice is that whether it is corporate level or retail outlet level,
McDonald’s follow autocratic leadership style. In it, all the strategic decision-making is
entrusted with leaders and subordinates have to do nothing but follow what they have been

asked to. Opinion of subordinates are not included in strategic thinking especially in retail
outlet. This might look like restricting but looking at the company’s structure and employee
turnover level, it is understood as the personnel working there are most of the time students
and youngster who are working to earn pocket-money and would not be able to offer much of
an advice. Looking at the organisational structure of the company, it is not suitable for it to
pursue any other style of leadership at corporate level like persuasive and democratic style for
company already has a complex operations channel, it will increase decision-making time for
the company and this lengthy decision-making process might hamper some important
decisions which are required to be taken at urgent basis or when decision are required to be
change frequently to suit need of the changing environment like in the situation created by
Covid-19 pandemic. Moreover, company has a high turnover level and new employees take
time to adjust and will not be much of value for the company till the time they are not able to
understand policies of the organisation and the business environment in which company
operates (Monzani, Ripoll and Peiró, 2015).
Leadership styles and skills to be used if I were the CEO of McDonalds
If I were a leader or CEO of McDonalds, I would have gone for team-oriented
leadership model at both corporate and retail outlet level. However, I would have preferred
transformational style of leadership at corporate level. Transformation leadership pattern
will help to encourage employees of functional departments at corporate office to perform
better. Leaders will be more team oriented and will try to establish better relationship with all
team members to assess their needs and provide them opportunity to bring creative and
innovative change in the processes rather than only following what they have been instructed
to do. It will help them develop and they will feel more committed to company. Committed
employees are more productive and work with better efficiency in uncertain situations
because they feel loyalty and duty-bound towards company which has fulfilled their needs, as
stated by Maslow in his hierarchy of needs theory (Murari, 2015). In uncertain situation like
in Covid-19, company sales go down, production decreases, supply chain disrupts, etc.
McDonald’s is a multinational company but has standardised operations of food quality and
services everywhere, in such situations, motivated corporate office employees only will be
responsible to bring new strategy that will help company to at least go back to its previous
operational level.
At retail outlet level, I would prefer persuasive and democratic leadership style.
Teams will be able to have independence in their working manner under the democratic
leadership of their outlet manager and when team members will be made part of the decision-
making process, it would give them a better opportunity to grow and develop, while company
would be having more brains to brainstorm and will be able to get more innovative and
creative ideas. This will be able to create a win-win situation for the both and employees will
be more loyal, committed and easily motivated. Leaders shall persuade team members to step
up during uncertainties and give more than their best for company’s welfare as their personal
welfare is attached. They can work over time, on less payment, give their support in
promoting company among their peers, etc. till the uncertainty period goes on and their
efforts would be paid off once the company will recover from crisis period (Stock, Zacharias
and Schnellbaecher, 2017).

Comparison between my preferred leadership style with leadership style of CEO of
McDonalds
As discussed above, current leadership of McDonald’s follow autocratic style of
leadership at both corporate level and retail outlet level while they follow action-oriented
leadership model at corporate level and team-oriented leadership at retail level while I would
have preferred transformational leadership at corporate level and democratic leadership at
retail outlet level and team-oriented leadership model at both levels.
McDonalds follow autocratic leadership and an autocratic leadership never motivates;
it always dictates. It can have two types of effects – one, that employees can become habitual
of taking orders and working according to it (Mehta, 2020). This will result that they have no
professional growth and will not be able to create much value for the company in the long run
while second, unilateral decision-making and expecting employees to only follow, might
exerts pressure on team members which they might find stressful. When stress mounts so
much, they leave the company and therefore, McDonald’s has a high employee turnover.
Such situations can be dealt accordingly in the leadership structures that I would have
preferred had I been CEO of McDonald’s. With the transformational leadership style, I would
have had positive relationship with my subordinates and would have known what and what
not works for them. Decision-making would have not been needed to be unilateral and then,
company neither would have high turnover nor there will be no willed employees. Although,
wilful employees do pose a threat of having exercised their independence in a wrong manner,
they will also be creative minds with free thinking and possibly, if trained properly might
suggest some ideas that will turn out knight in shining armour for the company in the
situation of uncertainty. For example, there are employees in the marketing department of the
company who have some brilliant ideas to change marketing gimmicks of the company
during lock-down so that company would be able to deal early with negative effects of
Covid-19 induced lock-down. But, since they were not asked anything and were not allowed
to suggest without asking by autocratic leadership of board of director, those ideas did not
reach to the top leadership which worked only on the ideas that they had in their mind.
Considering the capabilities of leadership, it can be positively said that those will be fruitful
ideas but creative ideas of those employees, if had reached till top management, might have
worked earlier and better for both the company and the employees.
Company can adopt other style of leadership but may be is fearful of backlash from
functional teams which may perform in more independent manner than as whole company
team (Gross, 2018). It is multinational company and requires standardisation in operations to
maintain same values and qualities all across globe. Therefore, senior management allows
only that much freedom to retail outlets that behave in the manner they have been asked by
the senior management as they believe only autocratic leadership will help it in thriving.
Standard company practises though has an impact on the business performance of
McDonald’s as well as on its image in the minds of customers. However, management
change is always capable of bringing in fresh ideas and better results for the company and
management changes not always needed to be change in manager, it could be management
style as well, for it is said – changing viewpoint can change whole outlook and outcome.

Conclusion
Summary of findings and analysis of above report
From the above report, it can be concluded that leadership is not just a position, it is a role
that is highly looked up at, it is a role that is anticipated to not just lead organisation during
regular business conditions but also, during uncertain situations. Whenever any situation
arises which is not regular, it is leader to whom, all the team member looks up to for guidance
and steering way ahead. Role of leader is critical for team and company to come out of an
uncertain situation without being harmed much. It was also concluded above that there are
various styles that leaders adopt while leading their teams such as autocratic style,
authoritative style, democratic style and persuasive style of leadership and there are certain
models of leadership like action-oriented and team-oriented that might follow, which reflects
and gets reflected in their leading style. For example, leadership of McDonald’s follow
autocratic style of leadership and believes that since, their company’s operations are so
complex, only they should take complex management decisions which are only required to be
followed by their subordinates to maintain a standardised approach in operations
management. Further, there was a comparative analysis drawn up between my personally
preferred leadership styles and skills and it can be concluded from them that no leadership
style is superior over other and that no leader follows characteristics of one leadership style.
Every leader reflects traits of all styles in necessary and required conditions.
Recommendations
Leadership is an all-pervasive requirement in not just company but in life as well
(Cunningham, Salomone and Wielgus, 2015). It is responsibility of leadership that it steps up
whenever there is situation of uncertainty. Most important skills that are recommended to
leaders while dealing uncertain situations are to be dynamic, open and flexible enough to deal
with complexities without panicking and making regular changes in company’s strategy,
policies and targets according to the prevalent situations and also, never be complacent while
leading a business for, business environment is so dynamic that complacency will either
make company miss out on opportunities or will make it vulnerable to more threats. Digital
media skills are must to possess by all leaders for the business world is not only becoming
global but also digital. All the traditional skills that are attributed to leaders are very
important but it is the personality of leader that matters the most for, with one’s personality is
associated one’s leadership style. For a company, to have a sustained growth, it is
recommended that its leaders adopt such leadership styles and skills that will bring it loyalty
of its team members. Loyal team not only enables in delivering better results but also, helps
in bailing out of uncertainties better.
For example, to deal with uncertain situations that company will face in future, it should
incorporate provisions for necessary changes in its leadership model. One possible leadership
model that can be more comprehensible for McDonald’s will be the one suggested by
Harvey, Millett and Smith. They had proposed an all-inclusive model for team development
(Owen, 2017). It had eight key points –
 Clear goals – Leaders shall possess clear thinking skills so that they can anticipate
possible outcomes and then develop goals accordingly for team to achieve.

 Decision-making authority – Leaders shall be flexible enough and delegate necessary
responsibility and authority to team members that can help them develop and sparing
leader enough time for strategic-thinking.
 Accountability and responsibility – Delegation helps determining accountability and
leader shall not only fix responsibility but also lead team members towards
improvements with necessary influencing skills.
 Effective leadership – An effective leader is one that possess excellent
communicational skills and facilitates clear communication channels that enables
team to perform well in every situation.
 Training and development – Leader should motivate their team members and
encourage them to develop creative and innovative solutions to problems in hand and
shall facilitate necessary training and development facilities that empower them.
 Resources – Resources are always scarce (Goleman, 2017). It is responsibility of
leaders to optimally allocate and utilise them. It is their efficient administrative skills
that will enable them to manage optimum utilisation of resources in crisis situations as
well.
 Organisational support – Multiple teams work within an organisation and intra-team
and inter-teams’ problems and conflicts arises. It is problem solving and conflict
management skills of leaders that facilitate co-ordination and smooth operations
within organisation.
 Rewards for team success – Working in a team, one can develop solutions to any
problem that arises. It is team building skills of leader that facilitate that rewards for
success be shared within team rather than taking credit alone or sharing with few.
Above-mentioned skills and action plan will not only help company develop benefits in
short run but will also facilitate development of sustainable ecosystem for a long term. Also,
leaderships of company shall identify leadership behaviour among individual employees that
can provide it innovative and better solutions to deal with issues. Such personnel shall be
trained and motivated further, as they have the capacity to provide value to company for
long-term (Wang, Kim and Lee, 2016).

References
Books and Journal
AlMazrouei, H. and Zacca, R., 2015. Expatriate leadership competencies and performance: a
qualitative study. International Journal of Organizational Analysis.
Balta, A. and Petecel, A., 2016. SUBORDINATES LEADERSHIP. STYLES OF
LEADERSHIP. Journal of Criminal Investigations. 10(1). p.107.
Covelli, B.J. and Mason, I., 2017. Linking theory to practice: Authentic leadership. Academy
of Strategic Management Journal. 16(3). pp.1-10.
Cunningham, J., Salomone, J. and Wielgus, N., 2015. Project Management Leadership Style:
A Team Member Perspective. International Journal of Global Business. 8(2).
Farrell, M., 2017. Leadership reflections: Extrovert and introvert leaders. Journal of Library
Administration. 57(4). pp.436-443.
Goleman, D., 2017. Leadership that gets results (Harvard business review classics). Harvard
Business Press.
Gross, R., 2018. Connecting the Links Between Leadership Styles and Virtual Team
Effectiveness. Journal of enterprising culture. 26(02). pp.185-205.
Lopez-Cabrales, A., Bornay-Barrachina, M. and Diaz-Fernandez, M., 2017. Leadership and
dynamic capabilities: the role of HR systems. Personnel Review.
Maria Stock, R., Zacharias, N.A. and Schnellbaecher, A., 2017. How do strategy and
leadership styles jointly affect co‐development and its innovation
outcomes?. Journal of Product Innovation Management. 34(2). pp.201-222.
Marques, J., 2015. The changed leadership landscape: What matters today. Journal of
Management Development.
Martin, J., 2015. Transformational and transactional leadership: An exploration of gender,
experience, and institution type. portal: Libraries and the Academy. 15(2). pp.331-
351.
Mehta, M., 2020. Effect of leadership styles on corporate entrepreneurship: a critical
literature review. Organization Development Journal. 38(2). pp.65-74.
Mikkelson, A.C., Sloan, D. and Hesse, C., 2019. Relational communication messages and
leadership styles in supervisor/employee relationships. International Journal of
Business Communication. 56(4). pp.586-604.
Monzani, L., Ripoll, P. and Peiró, J.M., 2015. The moderator role of followers’ personality
traits in the relations between leadership styles, two types of task performance and
work result satisfaction. European Journal of Work and Organizational
Psychology. 24(3). pp.444-461.
Murari, K., 2015. Impact of leadership styles on employee empowerment. Partridge
Publishing.
Owen, J., 2017. The leadership skills handbook: 90 essential skills you need to be a leader.
Kogan Page Publishers.
Phillips, A.S. and Phillips, C.R., 2016. Behavioral styles of path-goal theory: An exercise for
developing leadership skills. Management Teaching Review. 1(3). pp.148-154.
Sriyakul, T. and Jermsittiparsert, K., 2019. Effect of Cultural Traits, Leadership Styles and
Commitment to Change on Supply Chain Operational Excellence. Journal of
Computational and Theoretical Nanoscience. 16(7). pp.2967-2974.
Tortorella, G.L. and Marodin, G., 2018. Lean manufacturing implementation: leadership
styles and contextual variables. International Journal of Operations & Production
Management.

Uhr, C., 2017. Leadership ideals as barriers for efficient collaboration during emergencies
and disasters. Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management. 25(4). pp.301-312.
Urick, A., 2016. Examining US principal perception of multiple leadership styles used to
practice shared instructional leadership. Journal of Educational Administration.
Wang, X.H.F., Kim, T.Y. and Lee, D.R., 2016. Cognitive diversity and team creativity:
Effects of team intrinsic motivation and transformational leadership. Journal of
Business Research. 69(9). pp.3231-3239.