Bill Gates — Leadership AnalysisLeadership and its styles have become one of the most controversial topics of today’s world. Entrepreneurs are looked at as leaders and it is a must to categorize them and decipher their personality traits. However, first it is very important to ‘understand what leadership means and what are these traits that we can subject leaders to. Richard Bolden has noted down several quotes from scholars stating what leadership means to them. According to Richard, leadership is a subjective matter and depending on the way it is looked at, every person can have a different opinion about what leadership is. Therefore, if one view suggests that leadership does not mean to coerce people but is a trait that influences people to pursue socially acceptable objectives then people such as Hitler or Sadaam Hussein cannot be considered as leaders as they were fighting for their personal agendas (Bolden, 2004). One of the quotes Bolden mentioned by Kellerman described that the need to understanding what leadership means is not important. Kellerman quoted,” “Scholars should remind us that leadership is not a moral concept. Leaders are like the rest of us: trustworthy and deceitful, cowardly and brave, greedy and generous. To assume that all leaders are g00d people is to be willfully blind to the reality of the human condition, and it severely limits our scope for becoming more effective at leadership.” (Bolden, 2004) One such realistic and influential leader is Bill Gates, the founder, technology advisor and board member of the Microsoft Corporation, which is a company that provides software solutions and helps people and businesses to overcome obstacles (Microsoft, 2014). Bill Gates was born on 28 October 1955 in Seattle, His late father, William (H.) Gates II was an attorney and his late mother: Mary Gates was a school teacher at the University of Washington, (Microsoft, 2014). He enrolled into Harvard in 1973 and found his passion for computers. He learnt about the first microcomputer andrealized how convenient it would be to have one in every workplace. Therefore, Gates dropped out of Harvard in his junior year and pursued his dreams by starting Microsoft in 1975. (Microsoft, 2014) Bill Gates has been aspiring leader who has led his company to become the most technologically advance in the world. According to his biography, his mission ‘was to “improve software such that it would be easy, cost-effective and make computers more fun to use” (Microsoft, 2014). He has successfully pursued his dream and has led Microsoft to thriving heights under his leadership. Besides being a leader Bill Gates is a devoted philanthropist as well and travels frequently with his wife, Melinda Gates to places that require health attention of learning care. Bill Gates has an array of varying personalities, that will be further discussed in this analysis stating the leadership styles and theories that best fit Bill Gates and shape him to be the leader he is. A BBC news article has described Bill Gates in the following words “Gates has come to be known for his aggressive business tacties and confiontational style of management" (January 26, 2004). According to university lectures, the traits of a new leader include the need for empowerment in a leader and humbleness. A leader should be diverse in his decision and make those decisions ethically. Gates had the above-mentioned traits and did not hire or judge people based on their race and gender but on their ability to do well. When Bill Gates hired, Rowland Hanson, former vice president of Neutrogena, he was so sure he wanted to hire him, despite the fact that Rowland knew absolutely nothing about computers. But Gates believed that if Rowland could sell hand lotion he could sell anything. (Edstorm, Eller, 32-42). Not only diverse, but Bill Gates has been described as a powerful leader who willed himself into making his dreams come true (Lunenberg, 2012). There are a handful of people in this world who have been believed to havedone the same, According to Fred Lunenberg, power is the ability to influence, ‘Therefore, leadership requires power, as it may be a coercive or a non-coercive way of influencing people, to lead them to their work outcomes (Lunenberg, 2012). Bill Gates had a vision in mind to start Microsoft and provide and easy and interactive way to use computers. He took the decision to drop out of school and started his company with a handful of people until Rowland came up with the idea of transforming Microsoft into a brand and its software into Windows (Edstorm, Eller, 32-42), Rowland couldn’t alone do this though, he needed the influence and power Gates had, only Gates could convince his team to go forward with the strategies and turn Microsoft into one of the most recognized brands in the world. (Edstorm, Eller, 32-42). This further means that Bill Gates falls into the Great Man Theory of leadership, which suggests that a man has to be powerful and influential to be able to make a difference. (Bowerman, Montgomery, & Wart 2010). The traits that make up the personality of a person play a significant role in defining a person’s leadership style, Bill Gates was known to be an influential leader who was highly demanding but allowed the freedom of creativity and innovation, rewarding teams and accepting an individual for his work (Gilliard, n.d) Moreover, he is known to be an authoritative leader who falls under the authoritarian style of leadership as he is quick to make decision and trusts his instincts instead of conducting a brain-storming session to select an option with lower risk (Gilliard, n.d), Furthermore, Bill Gates has presented actions that confirm his traits as a leader in this society. He has always encouraged future leader to follow their passion and has called failure to be a learning lesson Despite his riches, he has never given up on learning and growing in his career. A recent Forbes article stated how he has been making an effort to improve his public speaking skills (Forbes, 2014). Moreover, he continues to learn from his peers andlooks up to personalities like Warren Buffet to always keep learning from them (Hedeyati, n.d). Fielder’s contingency theory suggests that a leader is action oriented and functional when it comes to his traits therefor, Bill Gates being an autocratic leader in his Behavioral approach, falls under the category of being an action oriented leader He derives power and authority from his position and is a coerce leader who takes quick decisions Bill Gates is an extremely competitive and driven person. Moreover, he is, very intelligent and was quite stubborn as a child (Carter, 2014) His was a fast-learner as he quickly adapted to the knowledge of different softwares and was quick in applying the theories at Microsoft. Not only was he passionate but from the beginning he laid eyes on the computer at Harvard he had a strong vision to ease the use of computers and dreamt of having one in his office ever since (Carter 2014). His development interview from Microsoft suggest how he always wanted to develop his, team to its full potential so that he could reach out and achieve his goals (Hedeyati, n.d) He is quick on making decisions showing his self-confidence and willingness to pursue his ability to understand computers. Physical and personal traits do not make a leader but his or her qualities do. Bill Gates is an exceptional leader because he possessed most of the qualities in a great leader. According to an article posted in BusinessWeek, Bill Gates is an extremely optimistic person who believes world poverty can end. He is self-confident as he makes quick decisions and trusts his instincts as well. Furthermore, he is an extremely task-oriented person (Nahavandi, 2009) who is a workaholic and very focus on his own job and is the only one who can initiate a structure in the company. He is not people oriented; however he accepts his employee’s ideas and values them.He once quoted, “if you take the top 20 employees away from Microsoft, our company is worth nothing" (Vitalities, 2014) This suggests he understand the worth of his, employees and recognizes the efforts they make towards the company but when it comes to making decisions he is the kind of leader that stands his own. Bill Gates has influenced several people throughout his life and has many followers that look up to him and work for him. The different followership styles listed in our book allow us to determine what kind of followers have helped Bill Gates in making Microsoft successful and without such the company would truly be worth nothing. Amongst all the different types of followers, Bill Gates is for the most part followed by effective followers. Effective followers are critical thinkers who can work independently on an idea and will find the best way to solve a conflict or serve the organization. Bill Gates’ followers are great examples for being effective followers. Rowland Hanson can be one such example, despite knowing very little about computers, he had a great hand in transforming Microsoft in a brand name that lead to success (Edstorm, Eller, 32-42). Furthermore, people that work for him and follow him at the Gates foundation are effective in their tactics as well. Cristina Liu, finance manager for the Gates foundation manages all the finances daily and consults with all the partners to explain the numbers and current trends in the market (Gates Foundation, n.d). In Addition, there is Luis Montero who is the Senior Communication officer of the foundation and helps the foundation make connections and grow with time. He makes the important connections with the health and development departments to find areas of need that may require the help of the foundation (Gates Foundation, n.d). These people are great examples of effective followers that have been employed by Bill and are dedicated to their work and follow the leadership of Gates, Furthermore, Bill Gates has always been known as an aggressive person as heonce reportedly fired the first President of Microsoft on the first year of his job (Bowerman, Montgomery, & Wart 2010). Therefore, he is regarded as a non- charismatic leader who is more impactful rather than impressive. Thus further proving that Gates is an autocratic in his approach as he is a High-task Low-relationship leader who is more focused on his work and steers clear of distractions. In Addition, Gates has always been compared to other aspiring leaders such as Steve Jobs and even Mark Zuckerberg but he has stood out for reasons that he has left Microsoft behind but still continues to be its leader (Wessel 2011), When comparing other leader have always been worried about their legacy when its time to leave it behind, Apple’s Steve Jobs did because Apple was his legacy and he was nothing if not for Apple Inc. However, Bill Gates has moved forward, left Microsoft bebind and is creating newer legacies with his wife Melinda Gates (Wesel, 2011). The two of them have created a foundation to help the poor and needy people of this world. The foundation has given away approximately $25 billion, which is more than Apple Ine’s market capitalization worth (Wessel, 2011) The recently elected Satya Nadella, is the third CEO of Microsoft. He too believes Bill Gates to be an exceptional leader and his first request was to be able to ear more about the company from Gates. Nadella said that he learnt the most important lesson of leadership from Bill, which in his own words was, “Bill is the most analytically rigorous person, He’s always very well prepared, and in the first five seconds of a meeting he'll find some logical flaw in something I’ve shown him, T'll wonder, how can it be that I pour in all this energy and still I didn’t see something? In the beginning, I used to say, “I'm really intimidated by him.” But he’s actually quite grounded, You can push back on him. He'll argue with you vigorously fora couple of minutes, and then he'll be the first person to say, “Oh, you're right.”Both Bill and Steve share this. They pressure-test you. They test your conviction.” (Nisen, 2014) According to further statements from Satya Nadella, he believes Bill Gates to the leader that motivates employees and gives them the energy to perform their tasks (Nisen, 2014). Bill Gates is a believer in moving forward and is always looking to make a change, that why when a person or employee talks about how things were previously done, Gates thinks this is a trap that can decrease the ability of a person to think outside the box and move forward to face challenges (Nisen, 2014) One of the essential methods used to describe a leader and his personality are the big five personality traits, which include extroversion, agreeableness, openness to experience, emotional stability and Conscientiousness. Describing Bill Gates in each of these traits can help determine if he is an emergent leader or an effective leader. Bill Gates is a dominating and autocratic boss who is task-oriented and focuses greatly on getting his job done as quickly as possible, therefore, he displays high on being an extrovert. Furthermore, he has been a visionary since he was very young and encourages creativity in his employees as well, therefore being highly open to experience. Not only did Gates show himself to be an extremely responsible person by stating his own company but he also took up the task of leading it to suecess in turn being high in conscientiousness. Bill Gates always appear to be put togetier and in control of him by being an emotionally stable person. Although, he is not exactly agreeable since he is not known. to be avery friendly person, he is still philanthropic and cares for the poor and needy enough to seem emphatic. (Daft, 2007) He was once reported to have said, “I hope you will reflect on what you've done with your talent and energy. I hope you will judge yourselves not on your professional accomplishments alone, but also on howwell you work to address the world’s deepest inequities, on how well you treat people a world away who have nothing in common with you but their humanity” (Bloomberg Businessweek) Through statements such as this he continues to show his desire to lead the people of this world into being humanitarians and displays his affection for the people in need. He is truly a phenomenal leader and a role model for endless people as he has succeeded in achieving his dreams, Some might argue that Bill gates has thrived on situation based leadership as he came into developing computers when people had the most need for them (Burns, 1978). However, his intelligence and leadership traits have helped him see his vision through, making him one of the richest men in the world and an optimistic philanthropist who wants to end the reign of poverty. References:Bill Gates: Founder and Technology Advisor. (n.d.). Bill Gates: Founder and Technology Advisor. Retrieved June 13, 2014, from hitp://www microsoft. com/en-us/news/exec/billy/ Bill Gates Leadership Style - Leadership and Development. (u.d.). Leadership and Development. Retrieved June 13, 2014, from http://leadership-and- development.conv/bill-gates-leadership-style/ Bill Gates. (n.d.). News. Retrieved June 16, 2014, from http:/topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/g/bill_gates/index.ht ml?inline=nyt-per Bowerman, K., & Wart, M. (2010). The Business of Leadership: An Introduction. Florida: ME. Sharpe, 2010. Burns, J. M. (1978). Leadership. New York: Harper & Row Bolder, R. (2004, January 1), What is Leadership. . Retrieved June 13, 2014, from hittps://ore.exeter.ac.uk/repository/bitstreamv/handle/10036/17493/what_is_leade rship.pdf?sequence=1 Carter, D. S. (2014). Bill Gates. Salem Press Biographical Encyclopedia, Coy, P. (2014, January 21). Bill Gates Is Crazy Optimistic About Ending Poverty, Bloomberg Business Week. Retrieved June 13, 2014, from http://www. businessweek.com/articles/2014-01-21 /bill-gates-is-crazy- optimistic-about-ending-poverty Daft, R. L., & Lane, P. G. (2008). The leadership experience (4th ed.). Mason, OH: Thomson/South-Western, Edstorm, J., & Eller, M. (). Barbarians led by Bill Gates . ().: . (Original work published ) Fiedler, F-E (1967) A theory of leadership effectiveness, NY: McGraw-Hill Gallo, C. (2014, February 7). How Bill Gates Radically Transformed His Public Speaking And Communication Skills. Forbes, Retrieved June 16, 2014, Great leaders. (n.d.). Great leaders, Retrieved June 13, 2014, from hitp://leadership07_tripod.com/id2. htmlHedeyati, F. (n.d.). Leadership Qualities of Bill Gates: how to be a successful leader. Cemer For Work Life. Retrieved June 16, 2014, from http://www centerforworklife comvleadership-qualities-bill-gates Lunenburg, F. Power and Leadership: An Influence Process. Jnternational Journal of Management , 15. Retrieved June 14, 2014, from http://www nationalforum.com/Eleetronie%20Journal%20Volumes/Lunenburg, %620Fred%20C%20Power?620and%20Leadership- An%20Influence%20Process%20UMBA%20V 15 120N1%202012.pdé Bill & Melinda Gates foundation. (n.d.). Employee Profiles, Retrieved June 16, 2014, from htip:/www.gatesfoundation.org/Jobs/Employee-Profiles ‘Nahavandi, A. (2009). The art and science of leadership (Sth ed.). Upper Saddle River, NI: Prentice-Hall. ‘Nisen, M. (2004, February 20). The most important leadership lesson Microsoft's new CEO learned from Bill Gates. Quartz. Retrieved June 16, 2014, from. hitp://qz.com/179282/leadership-lesson-microsoft-new-ceo-satya-nadella- learned-from-bill-gates Profile: Bill Gates. (2004, January 26). BBC News. Retrieved June 13, 2014, from hittp://news. bbe.co.uk/2/hi/business/3428721.stm Bill Gates http://books.google.com/books?id-LngR2PSiWaYC (Electronically accessed on 01 AUG 2009) Why Wellness At Work. (n.d.). Employee Engagement. Retrieved June 16, 2014 Wessel, M. (2011, November 1). Idolize Bill Gates, Not Steve Jobs. Bloomberg Business Week. Retrieved June 16, 2014