Fundamentals of Leadership: Leadership Styles Report

This report provides an analysis of leadership styles and characteristics, focusing on Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon, as an example of an effective leader. It explores his visionary leadership, ability to adapt to changing situations, and his focus on customer-centricity. The report also highlights the importance of understanding environmental and societal factors, such as government policies and economic conditions, in shaping leadership approaches. The author, a team leader in a multinational company, reflects on their own leadership style, emphasizing democratic leadership and the importance of honesty, integrity, and collaboration. The report concludes by discussing how economic conditions and societal changes influence leadership styles and the need for leaders to adapt and innovate to meet evolving challenges. This analysis aims to provide students with a comprehensive understanding of effective leadership principles and practices.

Running head: LEADERSHIP STYLES AND CHARACTERISTIC
Leadership Styles and Characteristic
Name of student
Name of University
Author note
Table of Contents

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LEADERSHIP STYLES AND CHARACTERISTIC
Leadership styles and characteristics of leadership...................................................................3
Characteristics of the leader being admired...............................................................................3
Own leadership style..................................................................................................................4
Environmental and societal factors influencing approach to leadership....................................5
Economic conditions influence leadership style........................................................................5

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LEADERSHIP STYLES AND CHARACTERISTIC
Leadership styles and characteristics of leadership
The major purpose of leadership is to make the organisational vision achieved and
ensure that each and every organisational members are guided properly towards successful
accomplishment of the business goals and objectives with ease and efficiency. The leaders
are also handed over with the roles and responsibilities of setting the performance targets and
manage cooperative interaction among the employees of the organisation to ensure putting
the right amount of efforts, furthermore facilitate learning and development along with
refining the policies, principles and procedures required to create convenience for the staffs to
contribute largely to the organisation (Ahmad & Ibrahim, 2015).
Considering the scope of the assignment, I have selected Jeff Bezos as an effective
leader whom I admire. Jeff Bezos is the CEO of Amazon, one of the largest multinational
company with its headquarters in United States. Jeff has been a visionary leader, according to
many, and has been a technology entrepreneur, philanthropist, investor and also the president,
CEO and chairman of Amazon. Amazon is a multinational technology company that has
specialised on e-commerce technology and delivers good quality technology based solutions
including cloud computing services, artificial intelligence and digital streaming services
(Walker & Aritz, 2015). The company sells grocery items, electronic goods, food items and
most importantly, everything that people need to fulfil their needs and requirements
effectively at present.
Characteristics of the leader being admired
I admire the leadership of Jeff Bezos because he has been revolutionary and has
transformed the entire business by facilitating the e-commerce and even focused on
enhancing the business performance largely. The behaviours and characteristics that the
leaders present within the organisation reflect the leadership style that they possess and also

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their leadership approaches and practices are understood easily. Jeff Bezos, the CEO and
leader of Amazon, has been visionary not only in terms of the efforts put by him but also
because of his honesty, wisdom and ability to adapt to changing situations along with ability
to innovate consistently too (Pierro et al., 2013). The two most important characteristics of
the leadership style of Jeff Bezos are the ability to monitor and adopt the external trends and
also knowledge and skills about managing machine learning and artificial intelligence.
Bezos is known for its fast actions and quick resolution techniques that can help in
dealing with the issues properly, furthermore make effective decisions that are fruitful for the
business. Bezos has set examples to his subordinates and even considered their views and
opinions before making any decisions to ensure that the decisions are accurate and can bring
positive outcomes for the business. The unique and innovative leadership style possessed by
Bezos has also helped him to adapt to changes according to the nature of people and brought
together people to act collaboratively and do the right things in the right way. Not only these
qualities make him a perfect leader, but also his prioritisation on sleep and spending quality
time with family members set him apart from the other leaders as well (Buble, Juras & Matić,
2014). The vision of becoming a customer centric company has extended his leadership
qualities while at the same time, he communicated with both internal and external
stakeholders to communicate the vision and guide them in the right direction to enhance their
thinking. Bezos has also conducted a market research to assess the market conditions and
made sure to anticipate the online shopping behaviour largely, which has also helped the
company to fulfil the needs of clients properly. Bezos has also exploited the opportunities to
self-promote, which has also improved the brand image and strengthened the customer base
and established trust and loyalty among the customers too (Nanjundeswaraswamy, 2015).

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Own leadership style
I have been working as the team leader of a multinational company in the field of
marketing and sales. According to me, a true leader must hold qualities and skills such as
honesty, openness and becoming adaptive to situations. I have respected the opinions of team
members just as Bezos did at Amazon, which has also enhanced the morale among
employees and made them commit themselves fully. I have followed the democratic
leadership style to focus on the responses of employees and make collaborative decisions too.
Few of the common leadership traits that I and Bezos hold include compassion,
integrity, collaboration and honesty and these are essential components of a good leader,
whatever the size or nature the company and industry might be. There are few differences in
terms of leadership style possessed by me such as to facilitate engagement of stakeholders,
remain communicative and empower people within the workplace.
Environmental and societal factors influencing approach to leadership
The Government influences have enabled implementation of organisational laws,
policies and principles, which have been promoted by the leader to make employees follow
those and undertake actions effectively. The taxation policies and huge amount of disposable
incomes have also favoured the management of e-commerce, which further improved the
leadership qualities to assist employees and develop the market for the purpose of gaining
potential success in business (Stone, 2013). The emphasis on environment friendly goods
production, nowadays, has led to implementation of environmental programs to prioritise on
waste management, consumption of energy and maintaining the sustainability standards too.
This has influenced the approach to leadership for managing corporate social responsibilities
and increase the scopes for lower carbon lifestyle, furthermore become a leader in the e-
commerce industry (Collinson & Tourish, 2015).

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Economic conditions influence leadership style
The changing demands and expectations of customers and high disposable economy
have made multinational businesses to innovate and make changes for developing growth and
expansion of business. As a team leader, I would like to ensure that the tasks and roles are
delegated properly to the employees and each of their opinions are taken into consideration
before making a decision. The first and foremost thing would also be to keep them motivated
and encouraged, furthermore promote the democratic leadership style to facilitate
coordination at work, teamwork and increased morale of employees in case of economic
crisis situations too (Schoemaker & Krupp, 2015). The honesty and integrity makes a good
and successful leader, who can maintain diversity at workplace and also ensure meeting the
deadlines on time too. I will also like to create equal opportunities for women at work like the
male individuals, to maintain diversity and promote a healthy culture where there is no
discrimination and everyone are treated equally. This will also foster a good culture and
ensure team work, coordination and positive outcomes.

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References
Ahmad, H., & Ibrahim, B. (2015). Leadership and the characteristic of different generational
cohort towards job satisfaction. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 204, 14-18.
Buble, M., Juras, A., & Matić, I. (2014). The relationship between managers’ leadership
styles and motivation. Management: journal of contemporary management issues,
19(1), 161-193.
Collinson, D., & Tourish, D. (2015). Teaching leadership critically: New directions for
leadership pedagogy. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 14(4), 576-
594.
Nanjundeswaraswamy, T. (2015). Leadership styles and quality of work life in
SMEs. Management Science Letters, 5(1), 65-78.
Pierro, A., Raven, B. H., Amato, C., & Bélanger, J. J. (2013). Bases of social power,
leadership styles, and organizational commitment. International Journal of
Psychology, 48(6), 1122-1134.
Schoemaker, P. J., & Krupp, S. (2015). Overcoming barriers to integrating strategy and
leadership. Strategy & Leadership, 43(2), 23-32.
Stone, B. (2013). The everything store: Jeff Bezos and the age of Amazon. Random House.
Walker, R. C., & Aritz, J. (2015). Women doing leadership: Leadership styles and
organizational culture. International Journal of Business Communication, 52(4), 452-
478.

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