Report on Christine Holgate's Leadership: Theory and Challenges

This report provides an analysis of Christine Holgate's leadership style, drawing on her background, work history, and industry involvement. It identifies her leadership approach as charismatic leadership, supported by examples of her actions and decisions. The report also explores two significant challenges she faced, including maintaining growth and managing strategic financial plans, particularly during her time at Blackmores and later at Australia Post. The analysis reflects on the lessons learned about leadership from studying Holgate's career, highlighting the importance of goal-oriented strategies, adaptability across different industries, and a focus on values beyond monetary gains. The report concludes by referencing various sources that provide further insights into Holgate's leadership and its impact on the organizations she led.

Leadership

LEADERSHIP: 1
Contents
Work history, educational background and industry involvement.........................................................3
Actions that describe the leadership theory associated with the Christine Holgate................................4
Two challenges faced by Christine Holgate...........................................................................................5
Learning about leadership after studying Christine Holgate..................................................................6
References.............................................................................................................................................8

LEADERSHIP: 2
Answer to Question. 1).
Work history, educational background and industry involvement
Christine Holgate is a renowned Australian business woman who deals as a CEO (chief
executive officer) and director of Australian post. Before replacing the previous CEO of
Australia Post, Holgate was the CEO, MD (managing director) and executive director of
Telstra corporation ltd. Moreover, Christine Holgate was the CEO of nutritional
supplementary Company Blackmores in November 2008. Holgate is recognised as an
outstanding business leader (EY, 2016).
The chairperson of Australia Post named as “John Stanhope” was impressed by the
experience and this experience have successfully grown the business in Asia. Christine
Holgate is chosen to head one of the most Australia’s oldest, organisational structurally
financially challenged organisation. The inbound small parcels grew up to 45 percent in the
first half of the financial year. Majority of growth in number of small parcels were from
china. Ms Holgate announce that the Australia Post will spend $ 300 million in creating
capacity and capability to avail the automatic tracking of parcel (Siecap, 2015).
Christine Holgate has almost the international experience of leadership in various regulated
industries such as healthcare, telecommunication, finance, and media. In addition to this,
Christian Holgate has an experience of 20 years as both non-executive and executive member
of the company (Klettner, Clarke and Boersma, 2014). The primary responsibility of
Christine was to lead the teams in such a manner she can regulate the change that can help the
organisation to deliver the growth and expansion in future. Moreover, she has held senior
management position in America, Australia, and Asia. By looking at the skills and current
position of Christine Holgate, it does not make any sense what actually she had studied.
Nevertheless, Christine has a three post-graduate diploma and a master degree in Business
Administration (MBA) (ABC, 2018).

LEADERSHIP: 3
Christine is recognised as an inaugural chair of the ASEAN council of Board of Australia.
She has supported the development of trade relation between Australia and other member
countries of ASEAN. Apart from the business leader, she also served Board of Collingwood
Football. She is renowned as non-executive director of Ten Network holdings limited. In
2015, Christine received a recognition among the top 100 women of influence by financial
review of Australia. She first women who was awarded as best CEO of the year by the CEO
magazine. In 2013, Rotary Paul Harris Award honoured Christine for her adorable charitable
work.
Answer to Q.2).
Actions that describe the leadership theory associated with the Christine Holgate
Leadership is a practical skill that focuses on influencing the behaviour of employees.
Christine Holgate, as a business leader, claims that purpose and passion can solve the most
difficult challenges of a business especially when there is a step of massive change. Such
traits of leadership helps the organisation to overcome and decrease the frequency of letter
deliveries. Holgate focused the importance of generating emotions in a team. She has a strong
understanding of social goals and objectives. She values kindness, continuous learning, and
authenticity. This leader also describes oneself as “free market socialist.”
The stock price of Blackmores has become five times since 2014. In her nine years of career,
she crowded profit at Blackmores by supporting sustainable growth for the products in Asia.
The time when she was honoured as CEO of the year, she discussed her personal journey to
become one of the most respected business leader. She also stated the reason behind her
intense focus on culture and values in the organisation. Moreover, she discussed the key
strategic challenges that is faced by Australian Post while tackling the new stage of its
transformation in E-commerce market in Asia and Australia. Holgate has never been a part of

LEADERSHIP: 4
a logistics company before and spent her most of her career in Health, manufacturing and
financial sector (Keating, 2014).
While selecting a theory of leadership, most preferable as per the Holgate traits would be
Charismatic leadership. Charismatic leader is a leader who encourages particular behaviour
of others by communicating an effective personality (Gebert, Heinitz, and Buengeler, 2016).
A charismatic leader is a persuasive person whose deeds are driven by conviction and
commitment. This leader not only have a different vision and ideas to grow the organisation
but also society. Holgate is a warm, authentic, innovative and a creative leader who is good at
motivating other employees. She believes that a business should serve both its business as
well as the community (Evans, 2016). She is so determined that she was to build new
business strategic plans in a logistics company where she has never worked before. A
charismatic leader is not made by delegation of power by the authority but it is her/his
personality traits that make him a leader. Nevertheless, at the same time Holgate is a
conventional leader who is appointed by board of directors (Holgate, 2016). Moreover, a
charismatic leader has a strong knowledge that she applies in making the business strategic
plans. Holgate has a strong knowledge base of global e-commerce that is valuable for the
company when they starts pursuing the Asian strategy. The charismatic leader named Holgate
is passionate at seizing the chance and opportunity for everyone they work for shareholders,
community, and workforce. The attitude of Holgate towards the job is never for earning only
money. She said that she could have greater impact to assist equality of women (Johnston,
2018).
Answer to Q.3).

LEADERSHIP: 5
Two challenges faced by Christine Holgate
Before working in Australian Post, Christine Holgate had been working in Blackmores for
some past years that has resulted to significant growth in the company. A major challenges
associated with Christine Holgate is to maintain the force and drive for growth. The
challenges is unsustainable growth, as there is a large hike in share price. It is possible that
when share price will decrease it can be drastically low. This challenge was encountered
when in last past two years, the share price of Blackmores had shown a drastic increase in its
price from $27 in August 2014 to $217 in January 2016. Holgate would use path goal theory
to maintain the healthy relationship to their workforce with the task performed by them. This
can lead to hyper growth of an organisation which will be reflected in the share price
Sacavém et al., 2017).
Apart from reviewing leadership, theory there is a leadership style that is ardently followed
by Christine Holgate. Another challenge associated with the behaviour of Christine that it is
believed that Christine would be an autocratic leader because she is not afraid to make any
decision that can be proved wrong. However, this business leader is successful in their own
way to execute work. The leadership ability of this business leader has a profound effect on
the strategically made financial plans. From Blackmores, Christine Holgate led to expansion
strategies for Asia especially in China (Sacavém et al., 2017).
Learning about leadership after studying Christine Holgate
With the emerging need to achieve the organisational goals, leaders play an important role in
achieving those organisational objectives (Klettner, Clarke and Boersma, 2014). After going
through the case of Christine Holgate, it is being noticed that not only delegation of power
can make a leader by their deeds. The leader is quite goal oriented as just after the
announcement of CEO in Australian Post. The leader started making business strategies to
cover the whole world with efficient services (Benn, Edwards and Williams 2014). Although,

LEADERSHIP: 6
this business leader have never worked in logistics industry. The leader has worked in various
industries such as manufacturing and financial services. Nevertheless, it is no less to any
undertaking and managing a business risks.
The leader’s personality also reflects a strong love for her work rather than focusing on
money. Initially, Holgate led Telstra`s marketing team and further form strategies for their
business sales and channels which serve small and medium businesses. T5his business has
also faced challenging financial crisis in terms of debt in 2008. Without the patience level,
the leader debt to finance its art campus in Warriewood. The leader focuses on expanding the
business and maintaining the existing market such as manufacturing the Blackmores
pipelines and expanding its business in Asia by strengthening the local management and
offering the product range in local market.

LEADERSHIP: 7
References
ABC (2018) Australia Post names Christine Holgate as new CEO, replacing Ahmed Fahour.
[online] Available on: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-06-27/christine-holgate-new-
australia-post-boss/8654762 [Accessed on 27/09/18]
Benn, S., Edwards, M. and Williams, T. (2014) Organizational change for corporate
sustainability. US: Routledge.
Evans, S. (2016) Cod liver oil and family tragedy shape Blackmores CEO Christine
Holgate’s destiny. [online] Available on: Sydney Morning Herald:
http://www.smh.com.au/business/retail/cod-liver-oil-and-a-family-tragedy-shape-
blackmores-ceos-destiny-20151214-gln4hf [Accessed on 27/09/18]
EY (2016) EY Strategic Growth Forum China. [online] Available on:
https://www.ey.com/cn/en/services/strategic-growth-markets/ey-strategic-growth-forum-
china-2016-speaker-christine-holgate [Accessed on 27/09/18]
Gebert, D., Heinitz, K. and Buengeler, C., (2016) Leaders' charismatic leadership and
followers' commitment—The moderating dynamics of value erosion at the societal level. The
Leadership Quarterly, 27(1), pp. 98-108.
Holgate, C. (2016). Other People’s Business: Blackmores CEO Christine Holgate. Radio
National (RN) Drive. (P. Karvelas, Interviewer) ABC.[online] Available on:
http://mpegmedia.abc.net.au/rn/podcast/2015/11/rnd_20151104_1835.mp3 [Accessed on
27/09/18]
Johnston, D. (2018) Australia Post's positive result from Deloitte Access Economics report,
but mail delivery delays on CEO Christine Holgate agenda. [online] Available on:

LEADERSHIP: 8
https://www.thecourier.com.au/story/5592093/australia-post-ceo-wants-faster-deliveries-and-
more-post-offices/ [Accessed on 27/09/18]
Keating, E. (2014) Gail Kelly retires: Five leadership lessons from the first woman to lead
one of Australia’s big banks. [online] Available on:
http://www.smartcompany.com.au/people-human-resources/leadership/44621-gail-kelly-
retires-five-leadership-lessons-from-the-first-woman-to-lead-one-of-australia-s-big-banks/
[Accessed on 27/09/18]
Klettner, A., Clarke, T. and Boersma, M., (2014) The governance of corporate sustainability:
Empirical insights into the development, leadership and implementation of responsible
business strategy. Journal of Business Ethics, 122(1), pp. 145-165.
Sacavém, A., Martinez, L.F., da Cunha, J.V., Abreu, A. M. and Johnson, S.K., (2017)
Charismatic Leadership: A Study on Delivery Styles, Mood, and Performance. Journal of
Leadership Studies, 11(3), pp. 21-38.
Siecap (2015) Australia Post’s Christine Holgate discusses leadership. [online] Available
on: http://www.siecap.com.au/australia-posts-christine-holgate-discusses-leadership/
[Accessed on 27/09/18]