Leadership of Graeme Hart Samples for Students †MyAssignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about the Leadership Style of Graeme Hart. Answer: Leadership holds a different meaning in different scenarios. In general terms leadership can be defined as the process in which an individual influences the behaviour of the group to achieve a common goal (Northouse2015). According to the literature present on leadership it is evident that leadership theories have evolved over the time but none of them is completely. The reasons responsible for the changes in leadership concept are situations, working environment, cultures, new laws, growing organisational complexities, context, psycho- social development and information overload (Nawaz Khan, 2016).Every leader has its unique style of leadership. Style of every leader is guided by some or the other leadership theory. Hart is the kind of person who has not given any interview to press of New Zealand in about a decade. He has a family of 4 including a wife and two children. He can be termed as self-made man. Today, Graeme Hart is the richest New Zealand's richest person listed in the Forbes magazine (NZ Herald, 2017). He usually acquires underperforming businesses that manufactures everyday products like water bottles, milk bottles, foils and paper (Forbes, 2017). He is the owner of Rank Group Investments Ltd., Carter Holt Harvey Ltd. and Reynolds Group Holdings Ltd (Bloomberg, 2016). He is the kind of person who generally prefers to stay away from the lime light. He does not like to make frequent public appearances. He is a leveraged buyout investor who does not prefer to share the risk as well as the returns with shareholders. He solely takes the responsibility of risks and rewards. Further discussion will include detailed analyses of the leadership style of Graeme Hart (Hunt, 2010). Leadership style of Hart can be linked to various theories of leadership. He can be termed as a narcissistic leader. It is kind of leadership where the leader keeps his needs at first priority. He acts dominant, arrogant and hostile (Braun, 2017).The research shows that these types of leaders have both positive and negative impact on the organisation. Some leaders from the history such as Napoleon, Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Mahatma Gandhi displayed this type of leadership. This factor can also be seen in the leadership style of Hart as he himself takes the control of the situations. He does not like to share risks or rewards with the stake holders. He usually invests in projects which lack leadership and emerges as the leader for those. These leaders are perceived to be skilled orators and creative strategist. The problem with such type of leaders is that they lack empathy and are poor listeners. Most of the leaders belonging to this category provide negative results because they are always involved in controlling others. The results can be positive if the leaders work for themselves (Maccoby, 2004). The leadership style of Graeme Hart also has the resemblance with the transformational theory of leadership. This theory explains how leaders of that particular style affect the organisational performance. This is a style characterised by motivating the followers or subordinates to achieve something extraordinary. He has few characteristics of transformational leadership but his style cannot be regarded entirely as transformational style leadership. The basic qualities that of a transformational leader that hart possess are always willing to take right risk, capable enough to take difficult decisions, self-management, internal motivation, proactive in nature and he has the ability to set the goals of his organisation concise and realistic. His style of leadership cannot be completely termed as transformational because he does not have the characteristic of sharing organisational consciousness, not a very active listener and sometimes he fails keep his ego on check. Another style which can relate to the leadership style of Graeme Hart is Charismatic leadership. The word charisma describes the special or extraordinary gift that is possessed by only few individuals (Northouse, 2012). This style basically relies on two factors charm and persuasiveness. Charismatic leaders carry a powerful personality that attracts followers. They possess some extraordinary qualities that are difficult to pin down and inspire other to work. They do exert any kind of undue pressure on the followers but their self-image carries the charm that automatically attracts the followers. This concept involves three basic elements vision or vision, extraordinary qualities and recognition (Avolio and Yammarino, 2013). As charisma is also an important element of transformational leadership therefore both transformation and charismatic styles are related to each other and also share some common characteristics. Major qualities or characteristics of charismatic leader are visionar y, ability to inspire the trust, excellent communication skills, full or energy and enthusiasm, tactful in dealing different situations, action oriented and have the ability to make the followers feel capable (Dubrin, 2015).Graeme Hart possess an effective blend of all these characteristics. Therefore his style can be attributed as charismatic and outspoken. Based on the analysis of leadership style of Hart, trait theory can be applied to explain him better as a leader. Trait theory states that individual is a leader because of certain characteristic that he / she possess, these characteristic may be inborn or developed over the time. There is a set of certain intellectual, physical and intellectual traits that draws the difference between leaders and non-leaders. According to this theory the personnel characteristics of leader are major source of leadership success. It can be seen in the life of Graeme that he was not an inborn leader. After school he worked as panel beater and tow truck driver. Experience of various fields helped him to acquire certain characteristics. His MBA degree from Otego University also helped him to develop his leadership traits. The distinguishing characteristics of Hart that helped him to succeed as the leader are cleverness, tactful, conceptually skilled, decisive, risk taking ability, alert to external envi ronment, persuasive, self-confident and dominant. The key characteristic of Hart is that he takes the responsibility of his decisions. He proactively takes the risk and also does not make anyone liable for negative outcomes. At the same time he does not shares the rewards with others for the risk that he has taken. Leadership and management are two related but different concepts. There is a thin line of difference between a leader and manger. Some common differences between them are discussed here. Leaders have a unique personality whereas mangers do not have this kind of personality. Managers try to mimic the style and behaviours of others. Leaders do not try to fit into others shoes they have their own style whereas mangers display the learned behaviours. Leaders are innovative an act as agents that bring changes. Managers work within the set procedures rules and regulations. Leaders try out change if it doesnt works; managers are consistent only with the best practices that work. Leader creates a vision for followers to pursue whereas managers set goals for employees to achieve. Leaders inspire the followers to work towards a vision. They work to turnout vision to reality. The want their followers to be part of something bigger and extraordinary. Leaders realise that working in teams for com mon vision can bring results as compares to individuals striving for personal objectives. Manager does not set long term visions they focus on setting goals for short terms. They measure the employee performance through those goals and objectives. Leaders are risk takers whereas mangers are often regarded as risk takers and mangers are regarded as controllers of risk. Leaders are always willing to take risk even if it leads to failure. They believe failure as stepping stone for success. Managers do not believe in taking risk, they always work to minimise risk. They tend to control or avoid the risk or problems rather than embracing them. There is broad difference between thinking process of leaders and managers. Managers think from a narrow perspective whereas leaders think from the broad and long term perspective. Leaders are motivated towards achieving long terms goals. Managers need rewards or acknowledgements at regular intervals, for maintaining motivation towards the goal. Lea ders are the one who build a kind of relationship with people whereas managers build process and systems for the people (Arruda, 2016). From the above stated differences it is clear that leader and manger are different from each other in various aspects. Now the question arises that whether a good leader can be good manger or not. G of Graeme Hart is a good leader but does he have the managerial efficiency. Being a good manger and a good leader both are different things but to take organisation to the heights both are required good leadership and good management as well. To be successful in long run an individual must have the passion to make improvements to the organisation and must be capable enough to drive the efforts towards the final stage (Sriperambuduru, 2014). It is usually possible that a good leader can turn a good manager but opposite is not possible. Hart is good leader but not a good manager. According to an article of Forbes magazine both leadership and management require different skills. There are very few people who have mastered both the arts. It is okay for the leaders, not to be good managers. Le aders just need to realise the importance of the good management in the organisation. They just need to assign value to the discipline of management (Clark, 2013). Hart himself is good leader and has realised that the importance of the good management. He has professionals for the management in the same way like accounting, marketing, production etc. He takes the major decisions himself, takes risk and bring about changes. But those changes and decisions are supported by framework of policies and practices taken by the management. It is evident from researches that having bad manger can cost so much for an organisation. Having too many managers is also harmful for the organisation. Therefore it is important for the organisation to maintain the equilibrium in quantity and quality of managers (Beck and Harter, 2014). Hart is a good leader and well aware about the kind and mangers that he needs to keep in the organisation. Harts executive team is small in size and includes skilled tal ented people. Hart does not let his managerial inefficiency affect the organisation in any way. His leadership capabilities take edge of the managerial inefficiency. It can be concluded that that Graeme Hart is the inspiration to many. He is a self-made man and reached to the position of richest man with continuous hard work and efforts. His leadership style can be linked to narcissistic style, transformational style and charismatic style. He is a private person does not public appearances. He is the one who always keeps his needs and perspectives at the first priority. His style can also be termed as transformational or charismatic because he has the ability to motivate the followers. He masters the art of communication. He is a risk taker and decision maker. He has that charm in his personality that inspires others to take actions. Trait theory of leadership can be applied to the context of Hart. He was not an inborn leader. His leadership skills developed over time while working with the major leadership traits or qualities are cleverness, tactful, conceptually skilled, decisive, risk taking ability, alert to external environment, persuasive, self-confident and dominant. It is clear that leadership of Harr cannot be questioned. But when it comes of his efficiency as a manager the things are different. Manger and leader both are different terms. There are varieties of differences among them. Thus both of them require different skillset. In various cases it is seen that good leaders are not mangers. Hart lacks managerial capabilities but does not ignore the importance and need for good management in the organisation. He has a team of talented management executives to perform the management task. He keeps the major decision making concentrated to his hands but the task of following and implementing those decisions to the management. His leadership abilities takes edge over managerial in efficiencies. References Arruda, W. (2016). 9 Differences Between Being A Leader And A Manager. The Forbes. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/williamarruda/2016/11/15/9-differences-between-being-a-leader-and-a-manager/#78c42d6c4609 Avolio, B. J. and Yammarino, F. J. (2013). Transformational and Charismatic Leadership: The Road Ahead. Emerald Group Publishing Beck, R. and Harter, J. 2014. Why Good Managers Are So Rare. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2014/03/why-good-managers-are-so-rare Bloomberg, (2017). Company Overview of Carter Holt Harvey Limited. Retrieved from https://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/private/person.asp?personId=8683263privcapId=875316 Braun, S. (2017). Leader Narcissism and Outcomes in Organizations: A Review at Multiple Levels of Analysis and Implications for Future Research. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5437163/ Clark, D. (2013). Why Great Leaders Make Bad Managers - and That's OK. The Forbes. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/dorieclark/2013/01/10/why-great-leaders-make-bad-managers-and-thats-ok/#31dedbac69cc Dubrin, A. J. (2015). Leadership: Research Findings, Practice, and Skills. Cengage Learning Forbes, (2017). Graeme Hart. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/profile/graeme-hart/ Hunt, G. (2010). Lord of the deals. Retrieved from https://www.noted.co.nz/archive/listener-nz-2010/lord-of-the-deals/ Maccoby, M. (2004). Narcissistic Leaders: The Incredible Pros, the Inevitable Cons. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2004/01/narcissistic-leaders-the-incredible-pros-the-inevitable-cons Nawaz, Z. A. K. D. A., Khan_PhD, I. (2016). Leadership Theories and Styles: A Literature Review.Leadership,16. Northouse, P. G. (2015).Leadership: Theory and practice. Sage publications. Northouse, P.G. (2012). Leadership: Theory and Practice. SAGE Publications NZ Herald, (2017). Billionaire Graeme Hart has climbed the rankings of Forbes magazine's richest people in the world. Retrieved from https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3objectid=11822168 Sriperambuduru, M. R. (2014). Can one be a good leader without being a good Manager?. Retrieved from https://www.bayt.com/en/specialties/q/115791/can-one-be-a-good-leader-without-being-a-good-manager-please-share-your-valuable-comments/