Management and Leadership: An Analysis of Paul Polman's Leadership

This essay provides an in-depth analysis of Paul Polman's leadership at Unilever, examining his transition from level 4 to level 5 leadership. It explores his personal humility, professional will, and the sustainable results he achieved, including the 'Unilever Sustainable Living Plan.' The essay highlights his modesty, self-blaming attitude, and his focus on the greater good over mere profit. It discusses his strategies during the financial crisis, the promotion of products like Axe and Dove, and his ethical and moral principles. The analysis concludes that Polman's effective leadership significantly contributed to Unilever's market value and positive impact on global consumers, making him a model leader.

Running head: MANAGEMENT AND LEADERSHIP
Management and Leadership
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Discussion........................................................................................................................................2
‘Every good-to-great company had level 5 leadership during the pivotal transition years.’.......2
Personal humility and Professional will of Paul Polman.............................................................2
The modesty of Paul Polman.......................................................................................................3
Sustainable results created by Paul Polman.................................................................................3
The self-blaming attitude of Paul Polman...................................................................................4
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................4
Reference List..................................................................................................................................5

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Introduction
Paulus Gerardus Josephus Maria Polman is a Dutch Businessman. In 2006, he joined
Nestle after a prolonged tenure with Procter and Gamble. He worked at Procter and Gamble for a
prolonged period of 27 years. He is the Chief Executive Officer of the Unilever company which
is a British-Dutch consumer good Organization (Caldwell, 2012). Being an effective leader of
the above-mentioned organization, Paul Polman has received several awards for business
leadership associated with sustainable development.
Discussion
Image of Paul Polman
‘Every good-to-great company had level 5 leadership during the pivotal transition years.’
Unilever Company, for the first time in 123 years, appointed an outsider as the Chief
Executive officer of the company who was Paul Polman. The chief reason behind this decision of
the company was that Unilever was losing track in the share market and urgently needed

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guidance of an effective leader to bring back the company on track. The mentioned leader took
the lead of the company during the aftermath of the financial crisis and that was the pivotal
moment of the organizational evolution. As was expected, Polman turned around the fortune of
Unilever during his four years at the helm. Under his leadership, the mentioned company
experienced a better than expected revenue on 2010 (Lewis, Andriopoulos & Smith, 2014). One
of the effective strategies that were implemented by Polman to promote Unilever was active
promotion of its products like Axe and Dove.
Personal humility and Professional will of Paul Polman
One of the chief transitions from level 4 to level 5 leadership is selecting personal
humility over personal glory. Personal humility involves recognition of weaknesses along with
seeking the talents and inputs of others. Professional will, on the other hand, includes the
creation of superb result along with enhancement in the transition from good to great. Paul
Polman is globally considered to be the leading light of the Unilever Company. His thoughts are
not concentrated only to the organization, but he is also concerned about the social challenges
faced by the increasingly interdependent world. Like several other CEOs of the World, Paul
Polman is reflective and it seems that his convictions have appeared from Personal humility and
self-doubt. For instance, he stated that no company or governmental organization will be able to
cope up global issues like water and food scarcity. Hence, he made his company, Unilever, to
take part in campaigns associated with global issues (Smith, Lewis & Tushman, 2016). When it
comes to professional will, Polman stated that strong alignment of the business with societal
interest along with long-term planning can be considered as the two effective ways of sustained
success of the Unilever Company. Under his leadership, the company is aiming to decouple its

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revenue and enhance its positive social impact with the help of the ‘Unilever Sustainable Living
Plan’.
The modesty of Paul Polman
Being a level five leader, Polman displays a compelling modesty and realistic approach
towards his employees. According to him, celebrations of small victories are good but dwelling
in it can be harmful to the organization. When Unilever exceeds its target by 2010, Polman stated
that the company needs to work harder to achieve the long-term goal.
Sustainable results created by Paul Polman
Being the CEO of Unilever Company, Paul Polman has led the company with a
sustainability-first agenda, driven by ethical and moral principles. Under his guidance, the
organization has become one of the front-runners in various polls. Consumers now relate the
name of Unilever as one of the most ethical companies which in turn can be considered a highly
sustainable result of Polman’s effort (Confino, 2013). On his way to implement and maintain
sustainable result for the company, Paul Polman has faced numerous challenges. Being an
efficient leader, instead of backing off, he has taken several risks and has put the benefit of the
company above his own benefit in order to achieve long-term sustainable results.
The self-blaming attitude of Paul Polman
Being a leader of level 5, Paul Polman has always emphasized on creating an n excuse –
free company. In order to achieve this goal, he has always implemented a self-blaming strategy
along with identifying the exact issues of the organization that need to be resolved to achieve a
better tomorrow. This perception of self-actualization reflects on his various interviews where he

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clearly voices about the situational complexity and role of self-actualizing attitude to overcome
those dilemmas (Browne & Nuttall, 2013).
Conclusion
From the above discussion, it can be concluded that effective leadership of Paul Polman
is one of the chief reasons behind the huge market value of Unilever Company. His ideology of
to concentrate on greater good instead of just making a profit not only motivates his fellow
employees but also impose a positive impact on the global consumers of the company.

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Reference List
Browne, J., & Nuttall, R. (2013). Beyond corporate social responsibility: Integrated external
engagement. The McKinsey Quarterly, (April), 1-11.
Caldwell, C., Dixon, R. D., Floyd, L. A., Chaudoin, J., Post, J., & Cheokas, G. (2012).
Transformative leadership: Achieving unparalleled excellence. Journal of Business
Ethics, 109(2), 175-187.
Confino, J. (2013). Interview: Unilever’s Paul Polman on diversity, purpose and profits. The
Guardian,4
Lewis, M. W., Andriopoulos, C., & Smith, W. K. (2014). Paradoxical leadership to enable
strategic agility. California Management Review, 56(3), 58-77.
Smith, W. K., Lewis, M. W., & Tushman, M. L. (2016). Both/and” leadership. Harvard Business
Review, 94(5), 62-70.