Leadership of Lesley Gillespie: Baker's Delight and Beyond

This essay provides a comprehensive analysis of Lesley Gillespie's leadership, focusing on her role as co-founder of Baker's Delight. It begins with a background of Gillespie, highlighting her entrepreneurial journey and the establishment of the successful bakery franchise. The essay then delves into her leadership approaches, emphasizing her motivational style and implementation of engagement surveys to understand and address employee needs. It further explores the challenges Gillespie faced, such as workforce management and efficiency issues, and how she navigated these hurdles. The essay concludes by extracting valuable lessons from her leadership, emphasizing the importance of employee engagement and communication, and how her approach can inspire other entrepreneurs. The analysis draws on leadership theories and provides a detailed overview of Gillespie's impact on the Australian business landscape and the baking industry.

Running head: LEADERSHIP OF LESLEY GILLESPIE
LEADERSHIP OF LESLEY GILLESPIE
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1LEADERSHIP OF LESLEY GILLESPIE
Introduction
Lesley Gillespie is one of the most famous entrepreneurs functioning within the
Australian territories. She is the co-founder of one of the bakery franchise chains active within
the Australian boundaries, Baker’s Delight. The other person who has been her partner in the
establishment of the famous bakery franchise chain is Roger Gillespie (Koehn 2017). The
following essay attempts a discussion on the leadership qualities that are demonstrated by the
famous Australian entrepreneur Lesley Gillespie. The essay opens with a discussion on the
background of the leader in discussion. The essay proceeds to discuss the approaches towards
leadership that the concerned leader has demonstrated. The essay moves along to shed light on
the various challenges that were faced by the leader during her career. The essay nears a
conclusion with a perusal of the lessons that a person could have learned from the life as well as
the achievements of the famous Australian entrepreneur, Lesley Gillespie.
Background
Lesley Gillespie, a well-known Australian entrepreneur has been one of the most
inspiring people who have been functioning in the business society of Australia. The lady has
been known to essay the role of a teacher at a school during her early days. The entrepreneur had
taken her courses for bakery and had developed a passion for the same during her days as a
university student. Lesley along with her husband Roger Gillespie had embarked on the journey
for the creation of one of the most famous Australian bakery chains, Baker’s Delight (Waters
2014). The entrepreneur had started to build up this chain in the year 1980 and had taken steps
to make it a global bakery chain by the year 1983 (Toscano and Danckert 2017). The bakery
chain, Baker’s Delight is at present one of the major bakery franchises that is operation in the
countries of Australia, New Zealand and Canada as well.

2LEADERSHIP OF LESLEY GILLESPIE
Lesley has been functional as the Chief Executive Officer of the baking franchise chain,
Baker’s Delight. She is a part of the Board of Directors of the company and is known to jointly
own the chain NQR of the discount grocery. The total worth of Baker’s Delight stands around
almost 564 million dollars (Bakersdelight.com.au 2019). The leader in discussion Lesley
Gillespie has depicted all the characteristics of a motivational leader and is known for the
spectacular development of the company in the last 33 years (Fitzsimmons 2015). The company
was known to have opened almost franchisee openings within the Australian territories by the
year 1988 and the number has been increasing ever since. The entrepreneur had faced a number
of difficulties in the development and the creation of the franchisee bakery chain and the
establishment of the chain as one of the best that have been operating within the concerned
national and international markets.
Leadership approaches
The leader in discussion, Lesley Gillespie, is majorly observed top maintain a great
relationship with the employees who have been serving the organization in discussion, Baker’s
Delight. The concerned leader is known to have been implementing the various motivational
leadership styles in order to deal with the development and the expansion of the given franchisee
bakery chain (Herzberg 2017). The leader in discussion is known to have developed for herself
the position of being one of the most successful entrepreneurs active within the Australian
market as well as setting her footsteps in the international market for the bakery business.
The major contribution of Lesley towards the Australian society is the empowerment of
the women who have been living within the concerned territorial boundaries. The women
members of the society are known to be making up a greater portion of the organizational
workforce of the Baker’s Delight. The leader is observed to have motivated the majority of the

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employees of the concern by implementing the AON Hewitt Engagement Survey and the Gallup
Engagement Survey within the organisation. This helped the concerned organisation to deal with
the issues that might be raised by the employees of the organisation (Alshmemri, Shahwan-Akl
and Maude 2017). The leader is also observed to be implementing the Herzberg theory in order
to deal with the development in the physiological and the egocentric factors that are influential in
the development of the workforce of the company as well (Stoyanov 2017). The major factors
that were covered within the span of the Herzberg theory refer to the working conditions within
the organisation, the job satisfaction that is derived by the majority of the organisation as well as
the responsibilities that are imposed on the staff of the organisation. The leader is also known to
have been implementing the various factors that might help the employees of the organisation to
serve the organisation in a better manner.
Challenges faced
The concerned leader in discussion has faced a huge number of challenges in the
development of the Baker’s Delight to be one of the leading franchise bakery chains within the
Australian territory as well as in the international markets of New Zealand and Canada. The
major challenges that were faced by leader referred to mismanagement of the people who forms
the workforce of the organization. This might be considered to be a challenge due to the fact that
the organisation might not be able to achieve its goals within the given time if there is improper
management of the members forming the workforce of the company (Korporaal 2014). The
improper management might further lead to the development of the hurdles within the activities
of the company, thereby affecting the competitive advantage of the company as well as the
overall performance of the company.

4LEADERSHIP OF LESLEY GILLESPIE
The other major issue that was faced by the leader in discussion was the lack of the
efficiency of the given members of the organisational workforce. This might further lead to the
curbing of the issues that are faced by the company in discussion in overall performance in terms
of the overall performance of the organisation (Hatch 2018). This further creates a negative
impact on the competitive advantage of the company in the given market. The leader might also
need to introduce the major training sessions as well as meetings in order to get to the root of the
issues within the given organisation. This might also help in the proper detection and the removal
of the issues that are faced by the organisation in discussion. The employees of the organisation
who are not properly trained to undertake the proper operations of the organisation often pose
problems for the smooth operations of the company.
Lessons learned
The lifestyle and the leadership style that is demonstrated by the famous Australian
entrepreneur in discussion, Lesly Gillespie has been a great example for the other upcoming
entrepreneurs. The leader is known to have been extremely motivational towards the
organisational workforce members as well as puts forth a proper display of the needed focus
within the organisation. The motivational leadership style as is practiced by the leader in
discussion helps the upcoming entrepreneurs in the development of the leadership style as well
as the management of the issues that might arise within the issue. The leadership style of Lesley
Gillespie further helps in the development of the understanding of the physiological as well as
the egocentric factors that influence the working conditions and temperament of the concerned
members of the workforce of the organisation. This might in turn help in the increasing of the
employee engagement within the company thereby increasing the working morale of the
employees as well (Sanjeev and Surya 2016). The discussion on the concerned leader has further

5LEADERSHIP OF LESLEY GILLESPIE
helped me in understanding the fact that the other members of the organisational workforce
should be motivated in order to improve their contribution towards the concerned organisation.
The discussion on Lesley Gillespie also helped me to understand the ways in which the
employee engagement might help in the development as well as the proper functioning of the
concerned organisation. The employee engagement also helps in gathering a number of opinions
that are provided by the concerned employees who have been serving the organisation at the
various hierarchical levels within the society (Hur 2018). The study of the leadership style of
Lesley Gillespie has also helped in the understanding of the major importance of including the
employees within the internal operations of the organisation as well as that of the communication
processes within the organisation.
Conclusion
Thus, from the above discussion, it might be pointed out that the leadership style of
Lesley Gillespie has been extremely helpful for the new entrepreneurs who have been emerging
within the global market. The leader in discussion Lesley Gillespie has depicted all the
characteristics of a motivational leader and is known for the spectacular development of the
franchisee bakery chain, Baker’s Delight. The entrepreneur had faced a number of difficulties in
the development and the creation of the franchisee bakery chain and the establishment of the
chain as one of the best that have been operating within the concerned national and international
markets. The leadership style of Lesley Gillespie helps in understanding the physiological as
well as the egocentric factors that influence the working conditions and temperament of the
concerned members of the workforce of the organisation. Thus, in a nutshell, Lesley Gillespie
might be termed as one of the most influential entrepreneurs in the baking industry.

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7LEADERSHIP OF LESLEY GILLESPIE
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