Bill Gates' Leadership: A Study in Transformational Leadership

This essay provides an analysis of Bill Gates' leadership style, identifying him as a transformational leader who initially exhibited autocratic tendencies but evolved to embrace innovation and change. The essay examines his key traits such as passion, expertise, and influence, highlighting how these qualities contributed to his success at Microsoft and his philanthropic endeavors. It explores how his leadership is portrayed in the media, linking his philanthropic work to his transformational leadership style. The essay also discusses his successes and failures, emphasizing the importance of valuing time, and concludes with personal reflections on leadership traits and skills learned from the module. The essay also references media portrayals of Bill Gates, including his philanthropic work, and discusses what businesses can learn from his approach, particularly the value of time. Desklib offers similar resources for students.

LEADERSHIP IN PRACTICE

YOUR LEADER - WHAT MAKES HER/HIM A LEADER?
The chosen leader in the technology
sector is Bill Gates. Bill Gates is the
American computer programmer and
the well known entrepreneur who
founded and establish the confounded
Microsoft corporation. Microsoft is the
world's largest personal computer
software company. He makes well
contribution in the sector of technology
as his passion for the technology and
the computing eventually results in the
world's largest software business
company. His never compromising
attitude stay him encouraged to
achieve reasonable objectives.

WHAT SPECIFIC LEADERSHIP MODELS AND THEORIES
COULD HELP TO DESCRIBE OR EXPLAIN THEIR
APPROACH TO LEADERSHIP IN THEIR FIELD OF
EXPERTISE?
Transformational leadership theory-
Leadership of Bill Gates can be defined as
the transformational leadership as he is
the transformational leader who achieve
their goals through open communication
with the integrity and respect he holds for
his working staff(DeWitt, 2020) . This
mutual respect results in staff satisfaction,
employee retention and overall enhances
the productivity. He motivates team
members to make dreams real.

WHAT IS THEIR LEADERSHIP STYLE?
In the earlier times the leadership style of Bill
Gates considers as the Autocratic leadership
styles as the company make sure the
organisation grew at pace which is envisioned.
This leadership believes that the appropriate
way to manage the team is to control them in
their working. But due to the passing time Bill
Gates change their leadership styles and turns
into transformational leaders with the aim and
strong passion towards innovation and
bringing change.

WHAT TRAITS / CHARACTERISTICS DO THEY
DEMONSTRATE? HOW / WHY?
The traits that shows in Bill Gates leadership
are discussed below:
• Passion- Bill Gate managed to win the trust
of millions of the consumers because of his
passion and the commitment towards work .
His passion inspire his to team to achieve
goals.
• Expertise- His deep knowledge in the
subject to innovation and technology makes
his expert in the technological market.
• Influence- After his major success and the
working styles. Bill Gates influenced millions
of people to reshape the organisation.

WHAT AREA OF LEADERSHIP DOES THIS PERSON BEST
DEMONSTRATE? (USE MODULE THEORY E.G. SKILLS/ BEHAVIOUR/
SITUATIONAL/ TRANSFORMATIONAL
The leadership styles of the Bill Gates
best demonstrate the transformational
leadership style because of his great
communication with the teams and the
staff and his integrity towards his work.
They have the staff with great
knowledge and experience which is
build by the Bill gates by
understanding the view points of the
staff and providing them training.

BRIEFLY OUTLINE HOW ARE THEY PORTRAYED IN THE MEDIA? -
HOW DOES THIS RELATE TO THEIR LEADERSHIP STYLE / INTERNAL
LEADERSHIP? USE QUALITY BUSINESS REFERENCES E.G. FT/
ECONOMIST/ FORBES/ TRADE PRESS.
Bill gates is the owner of the Microsoft
company but he having his foundations and
charities which promotes global health
initiative all over the world. Bill gates portray
in the media as a business tycoon, corporate
mogul and a philanthropist. The quality of
philanthropist is connected with the
transformational leadership as his effective
way to treating people shows in the working
as well as in the charity work(Waddington,
2018). Forbes mentions in their articles that
Bill Gates is the philanthropist who work for
people as well as foe environment.

WHAT ARE THEIR SUCCESSES AND FAILURES?
Before introducing Microsoft Bill Gates
failed in the business which is called
Traf-O-Data whose objectives is to go
through the raw data from the roadway
traffic counters. But after that he
launches Microsoft which is the great
organisation which is a great success
as there is a need of the software in
the market which enhances the
working of millions of people.

WHAT CAN BUSINESS LEARN FROM YOUR CHOSEN
LEADER?
From the working of the Bill Gates
business organisation can learn the value
of time. Bill Gates is having the great
understanding of time and in accordance
to that he uses his day wisely and as per
the priorities which impacts the most. He
once said no matter how much money a
person can earn but he can't buy more
time. A business organisation should use
time wisely.

YOU ALSO NEED TO ENSURE YOU INCLUDE A
RANGE OF MEDIA E.G. RADIO/TV INTERVIEW CLIP/
TWITTER FEED/ NEWSPAPER ETC.
As per the twitter and the newspaper
Bill Gates is an inspiration for the
whole generation. The recent
newspaper article said that Bill Gates
is on the way to change the world
again through another cheap
technology. He influences and
reaches millions of people with the
helps of twitter, newspaper and radio.

WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED SO FAR ON THE MODULE
ABOUT YOUR OWN LEADERSHIP TRAITS AND SKILLS?
WHAT DO YOU WANT TO DEVELOP GOING FORWARD?
From this module and the
understanding of the leadership
concept I have learned that in respect
to became the leader and a great
influencer it is important to
communicate effectively with the staff
and team. In order to learn something
a person must value the time and set
priorities in accordance to it.

REFERENCES
• DeWitt, P.M., 2020. Instructional
leadership: Creating practice out
of theory. Corwin Press.
• Waddington, K., 2018. Developing
Compassionate Academic
Leadership: The Practice of
Kindness. Journal of Perspectives
in Applied Academic Practice, 6(3).