HOMEWORK NO. 3 Leadership Styles. Communications & Media Essay

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15 October 2018
Leadership Styles
There are different types of leadership skills employed by different types of leaders. Every kind of leader uses different abilities depending on their personality and the organization they are leading. Examples of leaders include charismatic, visionary, transformational and institutional. This paper looks into examples of such leaders.
Jack Welch, the CEO of General Electric was an organizational/institutional leader. He was recognized his exceptional leadership style. He integrated new management concepts and with innovative leadership tools and techniques. Jack Welch understood very well that the key to success in the current global business environment is adaptability. As CEO he had organizational agility and flexibility to act swiftly to absorb the shocks and setbacks to ensure the stability of General Electric (Washington et al., 2008). When Jack became CEO, the company was making revenues of $25 billion. He grew the revenues five-fold to $130 billion. Income grew ten times from $1.5 billion to 15 billion. The company’s market capitalization rose by more than 30 times an increase of more than $400 billion. His leadership ranked the employees into three categories in the GE’s “20-70-10” system: the top 20% of performers, the middle 70% and 10% at the bottom. The 20% is made to feel loved, the 70% are told what to do to get into the 20% and the bottom 10% managed to get out of it (Washington et al., 2008). The system ensured continued success for the organization as each employee understood where they stood and their expectations.
Mary Barra, the CEO of General Motors, is an excellent example of a transformational leader. Having worked her whole career at GM, she understands the culture of GM and what needs changes. Barra started as an electrical engineer at the age of 18 and climbed up the corporate ladder for 33 years becoming the CEO in January this year. She is the first Woman CEO in a top-eight auto manufacturer (Christine 1). But the revelation of widespread defects in the ignition system in thousands of GM vehicles was the main obstacle she had to face in her new job. Only three months into the job, she was already facing multiple investigative hearing before Congress. The company was facing a multi-billion dollar class action suit and allegations that faulty switches caused the death of 13 peopl...