Leadership Paper

Final Leadership Paper

Prior to this class, I thought of leadership to be a common concept that goes unnoticed by most of the people. However, now I realize how much it stands out and differs from person to person. The different techniques and notions that I learned in this class is not only relatable to me as a senior but will also help me when I start working at Stanley Black & Decker.

Like I mentioned in my previous paper, Jay Gatsby is my heroic symbol of leadership. And he mainly stands out to me because of his personality. I believe a lot in first impressions and the first impression that his character gave me was extravagant. There is a very common catch phrase that I believe in “First impression is the last impression”, and I think that is what caught my attention to Jay Gatsby. He was a common man during his youth but achieved his American Dream and beyond in a short span of time. His determination and perseverance are some of the qualities that I as a leader want to possess. Although the steps he took were unsavory, but his determination towards his goals and all his achievements substantiated it. However, I learned that ambition and determination require one to sacrifice the comforts of life and commit to the long-term hustle of achieving goals that we have set for ourselves. Only after an individual has succeeded in personal leadership can he lead by example and motivate others to follow his lead. And I think Gatsby has had that perseverance in himself to go through that path. I, however, can relate well to this because there were numerous instants when I had the option to indulge into my comfort zone and slack my success. This can be extrapolated to the concept of Level 5 leadership as dictated by Jim Collins in his book Good to Great which constitutes Humility and the Will to persevere and the only way to garner both is to have high self-regulation and control and redirect impulses.

Secondly, I feel leadership is something which someone might not be born with but a person can learn how to manage people over the course of time. People can also learn to manage change in personal lives keeping and having a stable state of mind. I admired Jay Gatsby’s ability to adapt to different situations. He was from a poor family who had to join the army. He survived those years and worked towards achieving all that he had. During this transformation, the adaption to change must not have been easy and it is very important for a leader to have emotionally stable mind to be able to accept change the way he did. Not only Gatsby, but my another favorite leader Indra Nooyi was also not resistant to change. She believed that change would only make her grow. She started her career at Boston Consulting Group, then she joined Motorola, after that she worked at ABB and finally made her remark at Pepsico. Over the course of her career she has only grown and given these companies profitable outcomes.

Gatsby was impeccable at convincing people and making people believe in him no matter how big or small they were. And he could do that because he believed in himself and he believed that he could achieve his goal. And I think that is equally important for a leader. If you don’t believe in yourself, then you will never be able to make anyone believe in you. At times, I feel that I tend to be a follower in teams and do the work as assigned to me. That being said, I lead initiative in teams but I want someone to guide me through the project. I also like to have a control style in teams so that my voice is heard and I can make the change I would like to see. Coming from a business family, I have always seen my father leading 1000+ people. Since childhood, he would take me to his manufacturing plant and that is how I learned how to manage people. I have received positive feedback from the team members I have previously worked with and I tend to develop this skill in the future too.

However, I believe that servant style leadership will be more effective for me in the future as I aspire to help my father run his company. I want to make my employees feel that I care for them and know about their day to day problems. I want to work with them like their colleague and not their boss. That being said, I will still control them but I will make sure all employees have a say in decision making. In this class, I have come across a few examples that have achieved success in this practice. Just like Indra Nooyi, I aspire to be more of leader than a manager, I plan to spend my time providing a vision and resources to lead by my team rather than directing and supervising. Not only that but I would want to take a step further than being their manager in the office. For example, as a token of appreciation, Indra Nooyi writes letters to her employee’s parents to thank them for their children’s hard work. That is very thoughtful and sensitive.