Leadership in Business: Analysis of Tesco Plc's Leadership

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of leadership within Tesco Plc. It begins by defining key leadership qualities and personal characteristics crucial for effective leadership in the workplace, emphasizing the importance of communication, honesty, commitment, and decision-making. The report then explores capabilities essential for building relationships and trust, such as active listening, praise, shared values, and emotional intelligence. It examines the leadership styles prevalent at Tesco, specifically democratic and transformational leadership, evaluating their strengths and weaknesses. The democratic style is praised for its employee engagement and idea flow, while the transformational style facilitates change and reduces employee turnover. However, the democratic style can lead to delayed decision-making, and the transformational style may limit employee autonomy. The report concludes by discussing how Tesco can improve its leadership abilities to manage changes effectively, focusing on self-management and relationship-building skills.

Leadership in Business

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................4
Leadership Qualities and Capabilities.............................................................................................4
Leadership Qualities and personal characteristics of a leader at workplace..........................4
Capabilities most relevant for effective leadership in terms of building relationship and trust..5
Capabilities leader displayed at the workplace......................................................................6
Leadership Style ..............................................................................................................................6
Appropriate leadership style for the chosen organisation......................................................6
Strengths and Weakness of the leadership style ....................................................................7
Individual Leadership .....................................................................................................................9
Reflection of leadership style and leadership capabilities along with various strengths and
weakness in respect to that leadership style...........................................................................9
Capability required to be a better leader and how it can be achieving in terms of self
management and relationship building ..................................................................................9
Empowerment ...............................................................................................................................10
How organisation can shift from paradigm of control to paradigm of empowerment.........10
How the organisation can implement the shift and how the employees can react...............10
How can be leadership abilities be improved and implement to manage changes..............11
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1
.........................................................................................................................................................3

INTRODUCTION
Organisation aims to achieve their objectives to ensure their survival and growth for
which they need to make their human resource competent. Leadership plays a crucial role in
motivating the employees by influencing them and creating vision for them which help the
employees to be focussed for the targets that they have to achieve (Wildavsky, 2017) .
Leadership in business is the capability of the management of the company which helps them to
establish and achieve the goals. Further it also facilitate the management in decision making. The
organisation which is taken for this report is Tesco Plc, which is a multinational groceries and
general merchandise store that offers a wide variety of products. This report develops the
understanding of the qualities of the leadership and their capabilities with in the organisation and
this can be analysed on the basis of their traits, skills. Various leadership style will be analysed
along with that the leadership capabilities of an individual which will help the organisation to
achieve their objectives will also be considered.
Leadership Qualities and Capabilities
Leadership Qualities and personal characteristics of a leader at workplace
A leader is the one who helps the people to work by guiding them, showing the ways in
which they can perform. This take the individual and the organisation towards the success as
they know how to turn the vision into reality. Various qualities and personal characteristics
which are most essential that make a great leader are :
Great Communication skills : A leader must motivate the employee to work for which they
need to have communication skills. This will help the leader to engage all the employees and
make them active in all the activities of the organisation. With this skills the leaders can deliver
in an effective manner which will help them to get the better outcomes.
 Honesty and integrity : This is one of the important quality of the leader to be honest
with the employees and to do what is right. This will help them to make their employees
loyal towards them and for the work. The leaders can motivate and monitor the
behaviour of the employees for accomplishing their goals from their honestly and
integrity (Swanwick & McKimm, 2017) .

 Commitment and Passion : The leaders have to be passionate and committed to what
they want to achieve this will help them to put an example before the employees. This
will motivate them to follow the same path which is followed by the leader.
 Decision making capabilities : A leaders need to have decision making capabilities
which has profound impact on the employees of the organisation. The leader should
consider all the aspects before decision-making this will develop the same habits of the
employees (Sethibe & Steyn, 2017).
Along with various qualities the leaders have personal characteristics which will help
them to get work done effectively in the organisation. The leaders of Tesco must have
communication skills, honesty and integrity, commitment which will make them employees to be
the same and to work in similar .
Capabilities most relevant for effective leadership in terms of building relationship and trust
The leaders faces various challenges in the organisation when they deal with the
employees . To deal with such challenges they have to build relations with the employees and
need to build trust. For this the leaders must posses some capabilities such as :
 Build a culture of listening: The leaders can build relations with the employees by
building a culture of listening. With the help of this they can listen to the problems of the
employees and can make them actively participate in the activities. This capabilities of
the leaders will help them to build a healthy environment in the organisation as it will
build trust among all the teammates (Rubin, & Babbie, 2016).
 Use Praise: Praise is a strong motivating factor which enhances positive emotions of the
employees and improves their performance. This capability of the leader will help them
to identify the effectiveness of the employees and accordingly guides them to achieve
their goals. The leaders will share their knowledge which will boost the performance of
the employees and this develops the trust among the leaders and the employees (Dias,
Joseph & Michael, 2019).
 Develop shared values: Values are the rules which are not written but ned to be
followed to maintain the decorum of any place. The leaders need to have this capability
as this will facilitate them to integrate the goals of the organisation and the individual
goals. This will make them perform better and to be devotional towards what they do.

The shared values build relations between the leader and their employees with which they
can easily resolves the issues faced by them.
 Recognise emotions: Emotional intelligence is crucial for all the leaders as to understand
the emotions of the employees are important for them. If the employees can share their
problems, thoughts and opinions the leader can easily understand the mindset of the
employees. On the basis of which they can put responsibility to them and this will build
strong relations among them (Priest & Gass, 2017).
Capabilities leader displayed at the workplace
The leaders need to have some or the other qualities, capabilities and characteristics
which will help them to make their employees competent enough. Various such qualities,
capabilities are present in the leaders of Tesco. The leaders in Tesco have better communication
skills which is why their staff consistently work without any delays. Along with that the issues
can easily be resolved by the leaders as the staff can easily convey they problems and the issues
to them. For building the trust the leaders in Tesco build the culture of listening which make the
culture of the organisation comfortable as everybody has understanding with each other.
Leadership Style
Appropriate leadership style for the chosen organisation
Leadership styles are the approach which helps the leaders to implement the plans by
providing the directions and motivating people. There are various leadership styles which are
used by the leaders in the organisation. It helps the leaders in guiding the employees, helps them
in decision making, delegating the authority and the responsibility etc. The leadership style
which is used in Tesco Plc are :
 Democratic Leadership style : Democratic style of leadership is one in which the
leaders takes on the basis of the inputs of the members. But the final decisions is of the
the leader which are based upon the the opinions of the employees and the staff members.
This is one of the most effective style of leadership as it allows employees from all the
level to participate. In Tesco this style of leadership is very common as the leaders know
that their staff communicated to the customers on regular basis so they can provides the
best solutions to the problems which are faced by the customers (Fiaz, Su & Saqib,
2017). This styles motivates the employees which is why the organisation can provides

the effective services to the customers. The management of the Tesco appoints the
leaders in each department so that they can easily handle the organisational process
direction. The aim behind appointing a leader for every department is that the leader can
make the employees clearly understand the role and responsibility. Also it will help them
to effectively implement the strategic decisions with the help of effective
communication. The team leaders in the company also follows the same style of
leadership such as the team leaders has given authority to the employees to take every
day decisions that can support the operations of the company (Bassell, Lambert &
Friedman, 2019).
Transformational Leadership style : This is such a leadership style in which the
employees have the basic tasks to do with a time limit but the leader push them to get out of their
comfort zone. When the employees start any job they are provided with various responsibilities
and list of goals which they have to achieve within the time limit. This style is used by Tesco as
this helps the leaders to clearly communicate the employees about their tasks which will help the
employees to be focussed. On the basis of this style of leadership the leaders at Tesco easily set
the goals for the employees and motivates them to work by enhancing their participation in
various activities of the organisation. The team leaders uses this type of leadership style for the
employees who has been working for a longer period of time as they delegate the tasks to them
and does not supervise them constantly (Abdelhafiz, Alloubani & Almatari, 2016).
Strengths and Weakness of the leadership style
The leadership style used by the Tesco is Democratic and Transformational style of
leadership. The style will help the leaders in self management and relationship building. Their
strengths and weakness for the company are given below :
Strengths of Democratic style of leadership : The democratic style of leadership is one
of the most effective method to motivate the employees and get work done from them. Some
advantages of the democratic styles to Tesco plc are :
 This style of leadership connects people with their work as the employees has been given
full opportunity to give their opinions to the management and the leaders which will help
them in decision making. This make the employees feel integrated part of the ingratiation
(Pratto, 2016).

 This style of leadership promotes the flow of idea as the employees are engaged in the
process of decision making. Also this encourages the trust and respect among the the
employees and the leaders. This develops a comfortable environment for all which makes
improves their performance .
Weaknesses of Democratic Style of leadership : Along with some strengths they styles
has some weaknesses for Tesco Plc which are :
 The decision making of the organisation gets delays as they have to consider all the
inputs of their employees which takes time. They need to consider all ideas and opinions
of the employees as they are the one who constantly communicate to the customers so
this make s their decisions accurate but delayed decisions .
 This style of leadership is time consuming as the leaders and the management has to
make choices out of various options available to them. Also it can affect the relationship
among the employees and the leaders as the one whose opinions are not considered will
get demotivated (Muller & Turner, 2017).
Strengths of Transformational style of leadership :
 The leadership styles reduces the turnover cost of the company as they communication is
effective which is why the employees do no face any issue.
 This style of leadership helps the leaders to effectively implement change in Tesco as
they deal with day to day products so they have to frequently implement the change as
per the change in taste and preference of the customers.
Weaknesses of Transformational Style of leadership :
 In this style the leaders seeks that the followers should follow them but this can affect
their performance as they may not agree to it and it can lead to employees burnout.
 This type of leadership is effective only in case the communication is continuous
otherwise the employees and team mates will lose their interest in the task.
Individual Leadership
Reflection of leadership style and leadership capabilities along with various strengths and
weakness in respect to that leadership style
I have various leadership capabilities that can be used in Tesco Plc are shared vision and
recognise emotions. The leadership capability of developing shared vision is to win people. It

helps me to link vision of an individual with the values of the organisations and their vision and
mission. The other capability that I would have used to make the operations of Tesco more
effective as directing employees to perform in right direction maximises the possibilities of
achieving organisational growth and success. Such capability will help me in creating a culture
for learning which will help in bring innovation and execution within an organisation (Hawkins,
2017).
The leadership style which I would have applied to the Tesco is Coach Style leadership
style which will help me in nurturing the strengths of the individual working in the organisation.
Also with the help of this leadership style the performance of the team can be improved as in this
the focus is on the individual as it is believed that improvement in their performance will
contribute to overall performance. The strengths of this leadership style for me is that it makes
the business environment a positive workplace by increasing the skills of the employees through
various trainings also it helps the company to implement any change effectively as I can make
their employees learn faster. While the weakness of this style of leadership is that mentoring may
not work effectively in all situation and a specific coach need to be required for different
situation as every situation cannot be managed by a person.
Capability required to be a better leader and how it can be achieving in terms of self management
and relationship building
The capability which I want to develop as a leader is of self awareness which will help me to
understand the reasons for any specific decision is been taken. This capability of the leaders is
must as to know all aspects are very important before guiding anybody or before taking any
decision. Also the capability which I want to develop as a leader in Tesco is of accountability as
it only motivating is not crucial accountability for the activity also make the followers learn from
the leaders and these both contributes to their success. Both of these capabilities will help the
leaders to build the relations with the employees as they can communicate well and understand
their issues well as they have awareness about the issues. Along with this it will help the leaders
in self management as they accept the accountability which makes them more conscious about
their decisions as such actions of the leaders motivates the followers.

Empowerment
How organisation can shift from paradigm of control to paradigm of empowerment
It is presumed that the leaders motivates and influence the people which enhance their
performance. But a significant change or shift has been clearly seen from control and
commanding which reflects power based leadership towards empowerment. In the control or
power based leadership people were asked to perform various task while in empowerment
approach people are given authority to take various decision and to participate actively in the
organisational activities. The organisation such as Tesco Plc can shift from control or power
based leadership to empowerment as in that they use contingency theory which restricts their
employees to work as per the situation. While with the shift to empowerment the employees can
satisfy their customers by taking necessary decisions as per the situations say while handling the
customers at the stores (Goodwin, 2019).
How the organisation can implement the shift and how the employees can react
The empowerment need to be implemented in the organisation by the leaders to keep their
employees motivated and this can be implemented in the organisation by creating a vision. This
can be done by making the employees understand the goals of the organisation and how they will
going to benefit them in the long run. By sharing the mission statement with employees it can be
implemented as it will make them understand the aims and behaviour of the organisation. In
addition to this through training, development and by building trust the empowerment can
effectively be implemented in the organisation.
Some employees in the organisation may resist such shift as it can reduce their authority
and responsibilities while some may resist such shift as it can increase their authority,
responsibilities. But leaders by creating a vision can make them comfortable with such change
and by making the people understand the benefits of such shift and adaptability of
empowerment.
How can be leadership abilities be improved and implement to manage changes
For every organisation it has become very important to understand and implement the
changes in the organisation. To get it done effectively the leaders need abilities which they either
posses or have to develop. The leaders need to listen to the front line people as they are the one
who directly communicate to the customers on regular basis and they can suggest the issues

which they can probably face. The leaders need to know the priorities of the organisation as on
such basis they can make their plans and strategies with the help of which they can determine
what and where they have to brig changes and to what extent. The leaders are the one who
influences the people to accept the change so with the help of such abilities the leaders in Tesco
can effectively and efficiently implement the shift of control to empowerment (Grayson, Coulter
& Lee, 2018).
For making improvement various strategies can be implemented in Tesco for
implementing the empowerment such as:
 Gender awareness planning and participation of the women employees need to be
considered.
 Strengthening of the tenure and the establishment of the common rights which can bring
the gender equality.
 Self confidence need to be developed among employees so that they can achieve the
targets effectively.
CONCLUSION
It is concluded from the report that the leaders in the organisation play a crucial role in
motivating the employees and enhancing their skills and performances. The leaders have various
skills, abilities and capabilities which helps them to achieve the goals of the organisation. To
implement the changes such as empowerment they have to develop various capabilities which
help them to make other s in the organisation comfortable. Also various leadership styles have
been used by the leaders to achieve the objectives which can vary from organisation to
organisation.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
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qualities of marketing executives: A quantitative analysis. Journal of Global Scholars
of Marketing Science. 29(1). 138-150.
Dias, N., Joseph, N. M., & Michael, J. (2019). Transformational Leadership in Nursing::
Aspiring Leaders Development Program for Indian American Nurses. Nurse
Leader. 17(5). 432-439.
Fiaz, M., Su, Q., & Saqib, A. (2017). Leadership styles and employees' motivation: Perspective
from an emerging economy. The Journal of Developing Areas. 51(4). 143-156.
Goodwin, D. K. (2019). Leadership: In turbulent times. Simon & Schuster.
Grayson, D., Coulter, C., & Lee, M. (2018). All in: The Future of Business Leadership.
Routledge.
Hawkins, P. (2017). Leadership team coaching: Developing collective transformational
leadership. Kogan Page Publishers.
Muller, R., & Turner, J. R. (2017). Project-oriented leadership. Routledge.
Pratto, F. (2016). On power and empowerment. British journal of social psychology. 55(1). 1-
20.
Priest, S., & Gass, M. (2017). Effective Leadership in Adventure Programming, 3E. Human
Kinetics.
Rubin, A., & Babbie, E. R. (2016). Empowerment series: Research methods for social work.
Cengage Learning.
Sethibe, T., & Steyn, R. (2017). The impact of leadership styles and the components of
leadership styles on innovative behaviour. International Journal of Innovation
Management. 21(02). 1750015.
Swanwick, T., & McKimm, J. (2017). ABC of clinical leadership. John Wiley & Sons.
Wildavsky, A. (2017). Leadership in a small town. Routledge.
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