Leadership, Self-Reflection, and Bezos' Leadership

This report delves into the multifaceted realm of leadership within organizations. It begins with a self-reflective analysis of the author's personal leadership experiences, exploring the challenges and triumphs encountered while leading a team, including the development of personal skills and the strategies employed to motivate and manage team members. The report then transitions to an examination of established leadership theories, such as traits theory, behavioral theory, and contingency theory, providing a theoretical framework for understanding different leadership styles. A significant portion of the report is dedicated to evaluating the leadership approach of Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon, aligning his actions and strategies with the leadership theories discussed. The analysis considers Bezos' leadership traits, behaviors, and how his approach fits within the contingency model, providing insights into his success. The report concludes by synthesizing the self-reflection and theoretical analysis to offer a comprehensive understanding of leadership in practice.

Leadership in
Organizations

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
PART 1............................................................................................................................................1
1. Self experience of being a leader............................................................................................1
PART 2............................................................................................................................................4
2. Leadership theories and concepts for evaluating leadership of Jeff Bezos.............................4
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10
APPENDIX....................................................................................................................................12
Action plan for improving personal skills as a leader ..............................................................12

INTRODUCTION
Leadership plays a vital role in the every corporation as it helps in achieving the goal and
objectives in effective manner. Leaders are some one who provide guidance to team members
about how they should do their job and attain targets in minimum time period. The main
intention of leaders is to motivate as well as encourage employees so that they do not feel
stressed and perform their task smoothly (Antonakis and House, 2013). Without a supervisor,
group members are like orphan who have guardian for taking their care. The present report is
based on the leadership in organisations where by theories and concepts of leadership has been
explained and analysis of Jeff Bezos'( CEO of Amazon) leadership behaviour is done. In addition
to this self reflection of leading experience is also described here.
PART 1
1. Self experience of being a leader
I am playing the role of a leader in Amazon. In the present journey of my leadership, I
have seen so many up and downs. My leader experience has been paramount to me redefining
my definition of leadership. I have received so many opportunities to develop my personalised
skills. For example, I have the power to make development plan of the organisation and for this I
am giving my best. First of all, I analysed the working of my team members as on the basis of
their skills I will allocate them work so that they do not face any type of trouble while
performing at work place. Secondly, I have designed aims and objectives of my project that is
what should be followed so that profit can be earned from this plan. All the formulated aims and
objectives should be attained with in a given time frame. As being a leader, I am training my
workers so that they give their best and catch their goals.
Apart of this, I usually conduct meetings in order to make aware the whole team about
the updated information and policies of venture. My listening skills is very good as I carefully
listen each and every point my colleagues and do not miss their conversation so that I provide
them efficient solution. I also faced so many challenges as different conflicts emerges among my
team members. These disputes has been rising as all staff members are from different areas and
that is why they follow dissimilar culture and tradition. So, it is very difficult for me to handle
such a conflictual situation. But have given my 100 % in resolving their issues by listening
matter of both the sides of disputes. I am motivating my workers to go the extra mile for the
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company. But I come to know that only paying fair wages to them is not enough to inspire them.
There are so many other ways for encouraging them for the same. I can generate self esteem in
my work force via rewards and recognition, or by providing them new responsibilities so that
they can can increase their investment in the firm. I am also giving a golden opportunities to
workers of earning more money besides their basic salary. This can be done by achieving
incentives. I made a proper plan of offering incentives to them. Here they have to achieve
minimum of 80 marks and this is provided by me on the basis of their performances and
achievements.
Employees can also take permission of doing work from home in some emergency
situation. So, they do not need to come office. By showing a soft corner to my team members I
can build a positive image of myself among them and by this I can motivate personnels for doing
extra works. I have a positive attitude and due to this I can face any type of difficult situation
happily. This is the sign of a good leader. Apart from this, I do creative activities for my
employees so that they do not feel stress. For instant, I celebrate their birthdays and also make
trip to visit new places in the last of month so that workers feel relax and fresh their mind after
doing a lot of work.
I concentrate of building a positive environment at the work place so that no disturbance
and conflicts will rise there and affects on the performance of team. For this, I examine the needs
and desires of individuals and provide them basic facilities so that they can do their task
comfortably. Trustworthiness is another factor that I used to maintain as employees feel free or
comfortable in coming to me and sharing their concerns and questions. In return, I usually assure
that their problems will be solved very soon and I start working on their issues. By doing this, I
can earn or maintain a bond of trust with them. This is lead a good impact on their performance
as well as behaviour.
Apart from this, I also need to develop some areas and skills of mine as I am poor in
some skills. Firstly, I require to improve my communication skills as I am weak in this. My
English is not so good and due to this I am unable to communicate properly with my team
members. For this, I have top join some communication programmes where by I learn to speak
English fluently. This will take some time but after I do not face any problem while talking with
my team members. Secondly, I also need to more polish my problem solving skills as some of
the issues are so complex which is not resolved properly. This creates an adverse effect on the
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whole organisation. If issues are not solved properly then this act as serious risks in future. So,
this has to be resolved properly. I can built a good problem solving skill by taking a proper
training where I would be train in context of this by creating certain scenarios . While my
training period, I undergo different cases that has to deal so that I make a good problem
resolving ability. Thirdly, my managerial skill needs to be developed as correct management is
not happening in company. The allocation of job and observation on the performance of workers
are occurring appropriately by me and due to this workers are suffering a lot. This is not good to
change the work of an individual again and again as this consumes a lot of time so it is very
important to recognise the skills and qualification of each and every personnel for assigning them
proper job.
The managerial capabilities can be improved by doing a survey on the worker's ability. I
need to conduct some exams or tests for my team members. On the basis of this, I can conclude
and decide which employee is good in which field and as a result I can easily assign them that
work of that sectors. Some of the weaknesses also highlighted in this evaluation which is good
and can be removed by providing them proper training and development activities. This strategy
helps me a lot while dealing with this situation and I can allocate job roles to my group members
at a faster rate. Motivation among staffs should also be created by me effectively. I can do this by
providing them satisfaction from their jobs. If I offer them job as per their desires then they feel
good and also enjoy their working hours.
Besides this, I have to built a positive work environment. This can be made possible by
encouraging team works and idea sharing and providing them all the tools and knowledge for
performing their job well. I should always be available all the time when my associates needs my
presence. I should also resolve conflicts as it emerges, provide freedom to the workers for
working independently when appropriate. In addition to this, I can also enhance the level of
motivation by offering them incentives to work toward. I will make a plan of individual bonus
for each personnel and team incentives for inspiring the workers as a team. I would introduce
both non financial as well as financial incentives. The fist one involves additional holidays,
compressed work weeks, etc. On the other hand second one include cash prizes, restaurant gift
certificates, gifts, Parlour coupon, etc. Motivation can also be given by providing professional
enrichment. I will allow workers to continue their education and also promote them to take part
in industry organizations. In addition to this, sending them work shops or for tuition and
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seminars would motivate them a lot as they feel themselves so special and an important part of
venture.
PART 2
2. Leadership theories and concepts for evaluating leadership of Jeff Bezos
There are so many leadership theories and philosophies given by different scholars and
successful leaders. Jeff Bezos who is the founder and chief executive officer of Amazon is also a
good leader. He has taken idea of doing better leadership from some theory which are described
below :
 Traits theory : This concept fundamentally shows that leaders are born. It states that
people have some especial characteristics from their birth or consist of some character
traits. This can be proved by examining the life of Jeff Bezos as he has great quality of
being a good leader from their birth (Bolman and Deal, 2017). He consist of some traits
from his born like willingness to aid each other, keenness to show forgiveness, genuinely
caring , etc.
 Behavioural theory : This is totally different from trait theory's concept as it rejects any
discussion about inborn potential approaches to leadership. According to this, there are
no born leaders and supervisors are made by a good training and teaching about traits that
a leader should have. Any person can be a leader, but they should have proper
surroundings and training for leading qualities to develop.
 Contingency theory : This theory was proposed by Austrian psychologist Fred Edward
Fielder. This concepts focusses on the significance of personality of leaders and the
conditions in which a leader operates. He and his associates outline two style of
leadership which are discussed below :
◦ Task motivated : These are those persons who believe in accomplishing goals and
their tasks allocated to them. They used to motivate workers regarding their task
(Bryman, 2013). For this, they usually set some aims and objectives for their group
members and encourage them to achieve those in a specific time period.
◦ Relationship motivated : This refers to development of interpersonal relationship.
This type of leaders mainly concentrate on making good relations from all of their
associates so that they can coordinate with each and other and attain any task very
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smoothly and easily without creating any type of dispute or conflicts. They used to
maintain a healthy relationship with their group members so that a positive
environment can be build at the work place. By this, workers come to their leaders for
sharing their views and issues freely without hesitating. Jeff Bezos fall under the
category of task motivated leaders as they promote their team members to do more
work so that he can make his company more strong and give significant competition
to their challengers.
(Source : Fiedler’s Contingency Model, 2017)
Fiedler measured style of leadership by using LPC Scale (Least Preferred Co- Worker
Scale). One who scores high on this scale are considered as relationship motivated. On the other
hand, individual who scores low are understand as task motivated. The central to contingency
theory is the concept or idea of situation, which is defined by three factors :
 Relationship with leader- members : This shows common environment of team and
the feelings like reliance, faithfulness and confidence that the team should have for their
leader (Fahed-Sreih and Morin-Delerm, 2012).
 Task structure : This is associated with the clarity of task and deals to completion of
jobs.
 Position power : This is linked to the amount of reward and punishment authority the
supervisor has over persons in the team.
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Illustration 1: Fiedler’s Contingency Model

Such three factors influence the favourableness of different situations in corporations.
Situational leadership theory : This philosophy refers to those leaders who used to adopt various
life style as per the situation and development level of their group members. It states that no
single style of leadership is best. In spite of this, it all reckon on the condition at hand and which
type of schemes and strategies are best suitable to the task. The Goleman theory of situational
leadership are explained below :
 Coaching leaders : These are those person who focuses on personal improvement of
individual and job associated skills. This style suited best with person who know their
employee's limitations and are open to remove it.
 Pacesetting leaders : This style works better with self starters who are extremely
motivated. They set more expectation for their followers (Groves and LaRocca, 2011).
 Democratic leaders : Such type of individual give a vote to their followers in almost all
decisions. But , this is so time taking and should not be adopted when deadlines are
looming.
 Affiliative leaders : Such leaders put the workers first. In those situation, where morale
is very low, superiors use to praise and help their team in order to build their self
confidence.
 Authoritative leaders : These leaders are good at examining issues and determining
challenges. So, they aids their group members in solving their problems.
 Coercive leaders : Such persons have a clear vision and they know how to attain it. This
style is best suited in disasters or if an enterprise needs a entire overhaul. Transformational and transactional leadership : Transactional leadership encourages
compliance with the present goals of organisation and performance expectancies through
monitoring and by using rewards as well as punishments. Here leaders are task and
outcome oriented (Helms, 2012). Here employers focus on how workers do their jobs
and warn them to complete their work on time. Jeff Bezos follow transformational
leadership. On the contrary, Transformational leadership concentrates on enhancing the
motivation level of employees and involvement and try to relate worker's sense of self
with corporation-al values. In this style, leaders concerns about building strength and
reducing weaknesses of their followers by increasing their abilities and their
commitment to goals of venture.
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 Distributed leadership : This leadership is mainly concerned with the activities of
leadership instead of particular roles and responsibilities of leadership. It considers with
shared , extended and collective leadership practise that generates the capabilities or
capacities for change and development (Hoch and Kozlowski, 2014). This also includes
mobilising expertise of leadership at different levels so that more opportunities will be
developed for doing changes and for building capacity for improvement.
 Ethical leadership : This is a form of leadership where by an individual demonstrate and
conduct activities for the mutual good that is accepted and suitable in all area of their
lives. This is composed by three main factors that are listed below :
◦ Be the example : An impressive attribute of a leader is leading by example.
Followers here judge their team heads on the basis of their actions rather than their
words. Ethical leaders should have honest, ethical and unselfish behaviour for their
associates. They start with earning esteem from their followers. Person might be
more probable to follow those leaders who respect others and represents integrity.
◦ Champion the importance of ethics : The primary role of this type of leaders is to
focus on the whole importance of ethics involving standards of ethics and other
issues related with this.
◦ Communicate : Successful ethical supervisors should be best communicator. They
should always interact with their followers so that they come to know about their
issues and needs.
Jeff Bezos should include all those factors in their leaders as well as themselves so that
they can effectively create a positive environment at their work place. In addition to this, this
also aids in being a good leader and increases the esteem of them in front of followers. Critical leadership perspectives : This states the critical perspectives of a leader. This
find out for challenging the common assumption that emotionality is the antithesis of
rationality (Northouse, 2015). This also explains emotions of leadership and disclose or
uncover how toxicity and dysfunctionality are not very simple, negatively powerful or a
restrictive phenomena, but can also impacts on production and enable connotations.
 Styles of leadership : There are various styles of leadership that should be followed by
Jeff Bezos. Some of them are described below :
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 Laissez- Faire leadership style : Such type of leaders lack direct supervision of workers
and remain fail in providing appropriate feedback to followers under his supervision.
Extremely experienced persons need very little monitoring so they fall under this style.
 Autocratic leadership style : This style of leadership permits mangers for taking
decisions by tier own without taking help or input from others (Schneider and George,
2011). Here supervisor consist of whole authority and impose commands on their
followers.
 Participative leadership style: Such type of leadership style give importance to the
input of their group members and peers, while participative leader is responsible for
making final decision. This style give motivation to the personnels by giving them
authority of taking part in the process of decision making.
(Source : Styles of leadership, 2017)
CONCLUSION
From the above based report it can be concluded that leadership plays an eminent role in
the functioning of every venture as a leader should be present to guide their employees about by
telling about their faults. They used to motivate them very much so that workers give their best
while achieving aims and objectives of company. Jeff Bezos is considered as a best leader and
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Illustration 2: Styles of leadership

need to follow different leadership style in Amazon which has been explained in this
assignments.
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REFERENCES
Books & journal
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John Wiley & Sons.
Bryman, A. ed., 2013. Leadership and organizations. Routledge.
Fahed-Sreih, J. and Morin-Delerm, S., 2012. A Perspective on Leadership in Small Businesses:
Is the Need for Achievement a Motive in Predicting Success?. International Journal of
Entrepreneurship. 16. p.1.
Groves, K. S. and LaRocca, M. A., 2011. An empirical study of leader ethical values,
transformational and transactional leadership, and follower attitudes toward corporate
social responsibility. Journal of Business Ethics. 103(4). pp.511-528.
Helms, L. ed., 2012. Comparative political leadership. Springer.
Hoch, J. E. and Kozlowski, S. W., 2014. Leading virtual teams: Hierarchical leadership,
structural supports, and shared team leadership. Journal of applied psychology. 99(3).
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Northouse, P.G., 2015. Leadership: Theory and practice. Sage publications.
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Implications for performance, teams, and leadership. Organization Science. 24(5).
pp.1517-1538.
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32(1). pp.60-77.
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transformational leadership styles, emotional intelligence and job performance.
Researchers World. 4(1). p.15.
Spisak, B. R., Nicholson, N. and van Vugt, M., 2011. Leadership in organizations: An
evolutionary perspective. In Evolutionary psychology in the business sciences (pp. 165-
190). Springer Berlin Heidelberg.
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