Leadership in Organizations: Reflection and Analysis of Mayer

This report delves into the multifaceted nature of leadership within organizations. It begins with a personal reflection on the author's leadership experiences, highlighting key components, personality traits, and motivational skills essential for effective leadership. The report then identifies areas for personal development, including strategic thinking, listening skills, coaching abilities, and time management. The second part of the report analyzes leadership theories, such as trait, behavioral, contingency, and power/influence theories, and their application in the context of Marissa Mayer's leadership at Yahoo. Different leadership styles like transformational, transactional, and distributed leadership are also discussed, offering a comprehensive understanding of leadership in practice and the importance of adapting leadership approaches to diverse organizational contexts. The report contributes to the understanding of leadership principles and their practical application.

LEADERSHIP IN
ORGANIZATION

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
In order to operate the organization in an effective and efficient manner leading the
organization with efficient leadership qualities is very important, as a leader sets out the outline
of doing the work in line with the organization objectives and goals as well as make sure that it is
communicated to the subordinates in the same manner without any ambiguity. Further because of
its rising importance in smooth functioning of the organization different leadership styles and
practices have come into force which are setting a benchmark for future budding leaders to
follow (Beugré, Acar and Braun, 2006).
In order to show these points in practical perspective successful leadership styles of
Marissa Mayer are taken into account who is an outgoing CEO of Yahoo and a former GOOGLE
vice president, praised for her work for developing Gmail, Google Maps and Google News,
faced difficulty in disposing her duties and how with her efficient leadership behavioral theories
emerge out to be a successful leader (Zohar and Tenne-Gazit, 2008).
TASK 1
Reflection of own experience of leadership.
Leadership is a quality which impart your personality and make you uncommon in the
crowd, whether it is in the playground at pre-school, student council in high school or various
teams or in an organization where you are working, From my academics a common theme
evolved in me and I had a strong desire and willingness to lead. For a long time I had a feeling
that it is because (Wang and et.al., 2005) I am enjoying being in a position of authority, an
influencing position where I could shape the direction of a particular projects or take some
decisions or initiative. According to me leadership can be defined as the ability to make an
impact. Leadership can also be termed as as a title or a position of authority that one is chosen
for or given to make decisions and lead a group of people. The individuals are leaders and they
are easily capable to influence and create significant impacts on the people but we forget that
leaders are everywhere in our society and more often than not they are leaders in an unorthodox
sense. They can be artists, teachers, or musicians and these leaders have many impacts on their
social communities and groups those who choose to do so intentionally are leaders in their own
right. Becoming a leader is not an easy task so not everyone can become a leader. According to
me there some of the main or key components or personality traits, capabilities and motivational
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skills that are to be essentially to be present for effective leadership to take place. However, I
think that there are many leaders who are capable of creating or generating impact and also there
are numerous individuals out there who do this on a daily basis who we would never consider as
being leaders in the traditional sense of the word (Trottier, Van Wart and Wang, 2008).
The below presented is my own experience as a leader which has been paramount to me
redefining my definition of leadership. I have been very much of fortunate to and always had
many formal opportunities to bring out the necessary growth and development in the leadership
skills and be provided with opportunities to present it as well. And this has helped and aided me
with the tremendous exposure to upcoming opportunities and also boosted up my growth as a
leader. I have been to Russia for an internship program and there I realized that such
opportunities are unheard of in their communities (DeRue and Ashford, 2010). They were not
having student councils, leadership institutes, refining activities and programmes in summer or
entrepreneurship incubators. These were all formal institutions that allowed me to practice and
develop my leadership skills. Many of the students with whom I had a chance to work with were
upcoming entrepreneurs with ambitious goals for solving critical problems in their communities.
And from them many of were pursuing various community service projects and also many of
them had experiences on international projects which they sought out on their own.
There was one student in our class, jui, and was specifically with an inspirational
personality. She was from a very low-income family and by founding an adventure sports start-
up she used to finance her tuitions. She started to work with a hot-air balloon pilot and began
offering excursions to individuals in the nearby city of Samara. This was a brand new offering
UN-apprehended to an area that had a proportion of very less tourists attraction. Despite this
seemingly massive hurdle, Julia persevered with her vision and successfully ran this business
over the course of the last two years (Avolio and Gardner, 2005). After that she also started and
expanded their offerings which included mountain biking and hiking tours as well. A
determination and commitment she made to her education and creating a service that genuinely
added value in a unique way for her community was showed by these activities. She didn't had
any mentors or trainers, venture capitalists or incubators to help guide her through this process.
Own her won she carried out a research, made a investment of little capital that she could afford
and courage to take on this enormous challenge. So according to me she is a true leader.
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I feel very much fortunate about my self and also grateful for having the opportunity to
experience (Gentry and Leslie, 2007). This experience inspired me to know that youth all around
the world embody a passion for change, a desire to lead and a commitment to making an impact.
LEADER is a phenomenal initiative that is supporting this dream and opening doors that
otherwise may never have opened for our students, the entrepreneurs, and for us.
Areas for own development.
Personal development is the concept of which the following are the ingredients or the
activities that improve awareness and identity, develop talents and potential, build human capital
and facilitate employability, enhance the quality of life and contribute to the realization of
dreams and aspirations. It is a lifelong process. Every leader in himself is a unique personality
and that's why he is enough capable of being at the position at the post or at the authority level
and is called to be a leader (Sendjaya, Sarros and Santora, 2008). To give a head start the below
mentioned are the key areas where is a need for development :-
1. Strategic thinking: According to field I need to broader my vision and perspective and
try to take a longer range of decisions. I need t get a step back in day-to- day tactical
details of the tasks and should try to focus more on what and how rather than on why.
2. Listening: I am a quite weak listener so I should learn to pay attention and demonstrate
to others that that I value what they have to say. Making the use of active listening, open-
ended questions, body language, and eliminate distractions that get in the way of my
ability to listen will absolutely bring the necessary developments (Singh, 2008).
3. Coaching: I need to divert my leadership style or theory away from always directing and
telling and learn to guide and develop my direct reports and should also work with each
of my direct reports to create their own individual development plans.
4. Cross-functional knowledge and perspective: Also have a need to learn about other
aspects of the business other than my own functional depository and also there is a need
of bringing an increase the interest to attain the other fields of knowledge.
5. Time management: I need to have a handle on where I’m wasting time and shift my
focus to more value-added activities (Gifford and et.al., 2006). Learn ways to work more
efficiently and prioritize.
6. Talent management: Also there is a need of many improvements in my abilities to
assess, hire, promote, and the necessary developments. Fill all open positions with
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nothing but “A” players and replace chronic under-performers. Develop a “virtual bench”
for all key positions and a succession plan for my own position.
7. Leadership presence: I need to be more active an also bring improvements in the ability
to “command a room” and communicate in an authentic way that inspires others with a
positive behaviour. Also there is a need to develop so more motivational techniques in
order to make the co-workers perform well (Ouimet, 2010).
TASK 2
Leadership theory and concepts in the analysis and evaluation of leadership of
Marissa Mayer
Some people are born leaders while some learn and inculcate leadership through their
work-life experiences like position held, nature of responsibility work pressure and through this
different leadership theories are noticed which describe what qualities are important to make a
good leader:
Trait Theory: In this theory what makes a person a good leader is answered a person
personal characteristics like honesty, integrity his intelligence power to monitor himself/herself
are considered. In this theory leaders generally have insight knowledge of an organization goals
and objectives and therefore possess high degree of self confidence as compared to other non
leaders (Beugré, Acar and Braun, 2006).
Behavioural Theory: in this theory different behaviour of leaders are distinguished from
non leader in the way of responding to different situations are answered like the ability of them
to deal with pressure like not loosing their calmness and patience and how do they behave with
their subordinates like in an autocratic way which includes not including the team suggestions in
making crucial decisions or in a democratic way which includes inviting suggestions from the
subordinates before implementing a task.
Contingency Theory: In this theory the situation effect on good leadership is considered.
Like as described above about the autocratic and democratic leadership styles, this theory tells
that in what circumstances a particular style is best for implementation like when decisions has
to be taken quickly (Zohar and Tenne-Gazit, 2008) for routine activities and the contribution of
team suggestions will not affects the team outcome autocratic leadership is followed but when a
task is to be performed in an innovative way and different perspective has to be taken into
account democratic leadership style is followed.
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Power and Influence Theory : in this theory a leader exercises his power and influence to
get the things done. It may be legitimate, reward generating and even coercive. It all depends
with the nature of the situation and personal perspective of a leader.
While considering the different leadership theories, individual practices different leadership style
that is based on their personal traits and behaviour in order to make their leadership discharged
more efficiently which includes:
Transformational Leadership: In this type of leadership a leader believe in bringing up
the change as he is responsible of how a task has to be done in different ways., therefore it
includes several qualities like power to influence and convince (Wang and et.al., 2005). A leader
practising transformational way does not believe in theoretical ways and have his own
charismatic and visionary style of getting work according to that. Like in the case of Marissa
Mayer who was being criticized for her leadership style and declining profits in Yahoo during
the initial phase of her joining but gradually with her own insight she was considered as a new
hope for yahoo through many of the journalists.
Transactional Leadership: This is totally opposite to transformational leadership as this
applies going with the theoretical concepts and applying them to the present situation. They
confined themselves with the rules and do not deviate from them. It is practice d on those type of
organization where nature of work is routine and not complex, the company has to abide by
certain legal and political considerations (Trottier, Van Wart and Wang, 2008).
Distributed Leadership: In this type of leadership a leader follow them policy of
decentralization that is he divided his nature of work within sub leaders and make them
accountable for their part of action. In this type of leadership people feel wanted an important
part of the organization and they are motivated to deliver their best. This type of leadership is
effective in those organization who are facing opposition from various employees.
Ethical Leadership:In this type of leadership a leader follow various ethical standards
while delivering their leadership qualities like practising fairness, honesty and a proper code of
conduct. It can be personal ethics, ethics related to some industrial standards. In this style they
can influence in the way that goals and objectives can go hand in hand with following them as
per the ethics and values (DeRue and Ashford, 2010).
Competing positions regarding the ethics of leadership.
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While incorporating all these styles and methods a leader has to ensure that it maintains a
competing position which means it distinguish their nature of work from other leaders by
ensuring a strong position in the organization and overall in the industry (Avolio and Gardner,
2005). For that following ethical leadership in creating a competing position is considered to an
important point to be pondered into as a good character and integrity are the pre requisite of a
good leader. When the team of a leader is performing well apart and the employees are satisfied
with their leader a strong reason of it is that they find a strong connection between their ethical
standards and the work environment and therefore the leader should have a sound value system
and the way he applies that system in his/her decision making. Some of the ethical practices he
can follow to gain a competing position in the industry in terms of (Gentry and Leslie, 2007).
Trustworthiness: People under him/her should have a sense of trust that their leader will
be there with them in every way it is required and the leader will only help them in rising in
future.
Respect: a leader should have a sense of respect for its team mates. In order to generate
the work as per his/her requirements, he/she should have the quality of a good listener respecting
the mind-frame and viewpoints of other people and accepting that every individual is different
and this is to be respected.
Responsibility: No matter what to the extent of following decentralization among his
team he should ultimately be responsible for the final outcome (Sendjaya, Sarros and Santora,
2008).
Fairness: being fair means not favouring one person over other, recognition the work of
the person in terms of not taking their credit. Not blaming others for the final outcome.
Caring: Apart from maintaining professional relationship with the subordinates a good
leader can have competing position over other leaders if he supports them emotionally like
resolving their hardships, showing compassion and kindness towards them. Following these
practices a leader will able to judge the emotional intelligence of a person and they can respond
to a particular situation. Knowing this it will indirectly help the leader in motivating them
through the right direction as per the individual needs (Singh, 2008).
Citizenship: ultimately the leader has to make his efforts which not only benefit the
organization but also the society at large that is whatever work is performed is done as per the
prevailing laws of the country so that he/she can set an example to others that ultimately
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whatever be your efforts it should contribute towards the economy development along with
being in alignment with the present law.
Evaluation of the leadership qualities and comparing the same.
Marissa Mayer Mark Zuckerberg
Passionate: She has a great passion about her
work , she must have been retired by now but
instead of that she is working from 9:00 am to
8:00 pm. A person simply cannot have that
energy unless she is committed to the brand, its
products, and is excited about the potential of
that product to change the world.
Persuasive speaker: The inspiring
communicators are great leaders and also tell
stories to make an emotional connection with
their audience. Mayer is an exceptional
storyteller and presenter (Ouimet, 2010).
Motivator: The leaders in real sense creates
meaning and feel to the work of their
employees. She actively invites her employees
to help build the brand.
For instance : Mayer adopted a concept from
her days at Stanford office hours. For about 90
minutes a day, beginning at 4:00 pm, Mayer
used to hold office hours at Google.
Employees would add their name to a board
outside her office and, on a first-come basis,
would get a few minutes of her time. These
sessions gave an opportunities for the
employees to give their feedbacks and present
their thoughts (Beugré, Acar and Braun, 2006).
Purpose: The really great companies have a
sense of purpose at the root of all that they do,
from hiring employees (Gifford and et.al.,
2006), to attracting the right investors, to their
marketing and their customer service.
Facebook is the organization which has created
a way of staying on touch with individuals
around the world a place to bring people
together and build communities, and a tool for
sharing information.
Partnerships: No entrepreneur leader can run
a company alone. Success is a team sport.
Great leaders recognize their own weaknesses
as much as their strengths and bring in the right
people in to form partnerships that drive
success.
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CONCLUSION
From the above carried out analysis of variety of the theories of leadership have been
explained and also the competing positions regarding the ethics of the leaderships is also done.
Further the evaluation of the above mentioned case studies have been done and also. Moreover a
reflection over own experience of the leaderships has been critically explained. And at last
analysis is done for the different styles of leaderships and how they are effective.
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REFERENCES
Books & Journals
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Online
Erasmus University Rotterdam. 2016. [Online]. Available through.
https://www.eur.nl/minor/minoren/faculteit/rsm/mensen/. [Accessed on 3rd December
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LSE. 2016. [Online]. Available through.
http://www.lse.ac.uk/study/summerSchools/summerSchool/courses/Business%20and
%20Management/MG204.aspx. [Accessed on 3rd December 2016].
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