Karen Blackett 1

LEADERSHIP REPORT: KAREN BLACKETT

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Description

Karen Blackett Background Information

Karen Blackett is the UK county manager of WPP and the CEO of Group M UK and

further the former MT 35 Under 35 winner. She is a renown and proven business leader with

track record in creation of vibrant culture a consistent delivery of business growth and

success, and energizing team. These traits among others have enabled her to be named by

Vogue as ‘One of the 25 Most Influential and Inspirational Women of 2018’ (Vogue, 2018).

Apart from this, she also has been ranked as ‘Top of the EMpower 100 Ethnic Minority

Executive Leaders List.’ Based on her current role as the UK County manager of WPP, she

was appointed as the first ever woman leading the UK county WPP. Additionally, being a

chairperson of MediaCom UK and Ireland alias Group M are among the most influential

aspects that have had a role in her leadership prowess. Having advocated passionately for

diversity and inclusion, Karen Blackett was appointed the ‘Race Equality Business Champion

by the UK prime minister in 2018 (Gordon Poole Agency, n.d.). This has also led to her

being a regular fixture in the Power list 100 of most influential people in the UK (Gordon

Poole Agency, n.d.). Having more than 20 years of experience in the media industry, Karen

Blackett is more than a leader, understanding the metrics of effective leadership.

Leadership Challenge

In the management of change, leaders always experience diverse challenges making it

harder for the leader to ensure effective leadership (Dover et al., 2020). Regardless, different

leaders adapt different strategies thus ensuring they address the challenges. For Karen

Blackett, the main challenge experienced was championing for change. This was a major

issue that led to her spending 7 years to champion for diversity at MediaCom in the UK.

What made her more considerate on change is that the company was not inclusive and

through her inspiration, she was successful in ensuring that inclusiveness and diversity were
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adhered to. This can be noted from her appointment as business champion in race equality by

the UK prime minister. In her championing process, Blackett strived through partnering with

specialist talent companies thus enabling her make change. Additionally, she launched and

continued the evolution of apprenticeship scheme that she had formed at MediaCom through

setting KPIs for all the managing in the UK offices in a bid to ensure the organization focuses

on diversity increment. This approach was also considered when she was appointed at UK

county manager at WPP thus inspiring change and improving diversity in the organization. In

her goal at WPP, she strived at ensuring that WPP reflected a modern British community and

their customers. One of the initiatives that Blackett launched the WPP roots inspired by the

cultural inclusion program focused at ensuring cultural inclusion program Ogilvy Roots and

had a key mission of changing the culture and how the organization approached, talked, and

discussed issues regarding race, ethnicity, religion, and culture in the industry. Its objective

was ensuring diversity with greater representation across the board. All these with the

consideration of her well-known voice and presence in the media and corporate world and

self-motivation were effective in reaching her diversity and inclusion objective.

Analysis and Evaluation

Leadership Approach

From the section analysed, it has been noted that having been a well-known leader,

Blackett always considered the relevance of leadership concepts and approaches. As can be

noted, in the WPP and MediaCom, Blackett mainly employed transactional leadership and

social influence approach in influencing diversity.

Based on transactional leadership, Hühn et al. (2018) stated that this is a leadership

style where a leader always guides followers towards established goals via the clarification of

roles and task requirements. This can be noted in the WPP and MediaCom. Additionally,

Raziq et al. (2018) clarified further that Blackett is more of a transactional leader and
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portrayed transactional leadership through her clarity to tasks. To Raziq et al. (2018), this is

an aspect that features mainly structured policies and procedures hence attaining correct

aspects. Another significant aspect in the transactional leadership is a focus on goals and

change. Nielsen et al. (2019) stated that in achieving goals, transactional leaders always strive

in motivating and directing followers through appealing them for self-interest. This is an

aspect that Adriansyah et al. (2020) stated is attached to transactional leaders never acting

positively or negatively unless there is something to gain. This can be noted from the

Blackett’s trait of launching different programs that focus on attaining different goals.

Blackett launched the systematic approached including KPIs and WPP Roots that were

mainly centred at ensuring diversity in the workplace. This proves her value for structure in

achieving goals. Through these programs, Blackett ensured that she not only attained

diversity in the organizations she led but also focused at achieving her personal goals of

inclusivity in organizations across Britain.

Second and most influential in her leadership was social influence. As defined by

Alvesson and Einola (2019), social influence is a phenomenon where people always have a

tendency of changing their behaviour due to those around them. Blackett was a leader who

considered this as a strategic move in ensuring she changed the perceptions and behaviours of

those around her. Being a UK county manager for WPP which is a global creative company

based in 112 countries with the organization being the second largest with 14,000 people

working across the brand and further a chairwoman at WPP’s MediaCom with billings over

£1.3 billion, this was an opportunity for pioneering for diversity and influencing different

organizations to consider diversity and inclusion. Another consideration of social influence in

Blackett’s leadership is based on her experience as a keynote speaker. She utilized this

efficiently in changing behaviours, attitudes, beliefs, and perspectives of different cultures.

Additionally, her talks and training programs were more efficient in enabling her influence
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beliefs and behaviours. As noted by Vaughan-Johnston et al. (2021), vocals have a

considerable effect in persuasion thus influencing the behaviour and attitudes of people.

Blackett was more experienced and portrayed social influence through her talks and training

programs. During these programs, she demonstrated social influence within the media and

corporate world thus enabling her to socially influence her audience.

Generally, through her application of transactional leadership and social influence,

Blackett was able to ensure that diversity and inclusion were well incorporated in different

organizations.

Leadership Effectiveness

Just as any other leader, change is an issue that will always be a challenge and as to

Karen Blackett, change was an issue that although met with different challenges as can be

noted by scholars and relief examples from leaders, it was also challenging and needed

strategic decisions in addressing it. As discussed before, it took her time and considerations

of different means to ensure that change based on diversity and inclusion was

addressed.Generally, from the above discussion, as can be noted through the approaches that

Blackett considered along her leadership, it can be deduced that she was more effective from

a descriptive perspective. The section considers a more analytical perspective in her

leadership.

Focusing on her application of social influence in enabling her advance her bid in

ensuring diversity and inclusion, it can be noted and justified that Blackett was a successful

master in being a social influencer. From a leader-follower perspective, Price and Van Vugt

(2014) stated that this is a voluntary relationship where the interaction between a leader and

the follower voluntarily relates. Followers voluntarily follow whereas leaders voluntarily

lead. This is based on some positive incentive to act as each party acts based on a beneficial

exchange. Through her leadership, Blackett effectively considered the leader-follower theory
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where through her leadership, she was willing to lead and voluntarily lead through her actions

that were leadership oriented. This led to followers voluntarily acting. Employees and other

leaders in the organizations she led voluntarily played their role through striving in strategies

that were relevant in changing diversity. It should also be noted that Blackett considered her

experience as a social influencer in addressing diversity and inclusion. Blackett has

experience in the forefront of the media industry of over 20 years. This made her gain more

experience in keynote speaking. Her stye of speaking mainly considers forthright and

engaging and providing the audience with dynamic insights into the marketing and

commercial acumen constructed along her leadership. This were well combined along her

speaking. From a social influencer point of view, Blackett successfully combined the

journalism professional in the presence of the media industry with her keynote speaking. As

can be noted, among her keynote speaking topics included influence and leadership based on

creating an exceptional culture, diversity and inclusion, unlocking and understanding the

consumer, world-class leadership, and future-proofing your business in the 21st century

which considers talent everywhere and opportunity nowhere (Gordon Poole Agency, n.d.).

These were more effective in influencing individuals and corporates. Through her keynote

speaking, listeners were more willing to include change in their leadership to include diverse

cultures, races, languages, and religions. Generally, based on the consideration of leadership

concepts, Blackett was successful and more effective in ensuring that her goals in achieving

diversity were not solely based on personal goals but rather based on achieving inclusivity of

the minority in a community that is diverse. She was effective in the application of different

learnt traits and strategies in ensuring that diversity and inclusion was achieved not just in the

community but in organizations. She ensured that this was an aspect that was norm in every

organization a scan be noted in her recent clients such as Barclays, Civil Service, and
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Amazon among others which are organizations that have evolved to value diversity and

inclusion.

Secondly and most significantly is based on her background. Karen Blackett has

always been acknowledged as a woman who has always been passionate. It should also be

noted that she is from a minor group. As can be noted by a study by Nelson and Piatak

(2021), women in leadership always use indirect strategies in fighting for the rights of women

and the inclusion of women in leadership. Additionally, Fine and Sojo (2019) noted that the

trait of change is also seen more in women from the minority group where they strive through

powerful means to rally influential groups who have more voice when it comes to diversity

and inclusion. This is more of the trait seen in Blackett. She has, through her leadership and

influential position, strived through various means to champion for diversity and inclusion.

This can be noted from her consideration of KPIs and WPP Roots initiatives that targeted at

ensuring diversity and inclusion was adhered to in the organizations she led. Different

organizations were considered including specialist talent companies that enabled her to

achieve her goals. It should also be noted that through her consideration of her social

influence approach and further her transactional leadership style, she was able to utilize the

media and the corporate world to inspire and energise the workforce to embrace diversity and

inclusion that reflected the modern Britain that Naz et al. (2019) stated is a society that

embraces diversity as noted by the differences in culture, race, language, and religion.

Generally, despite taking more than 7 years, Blackett was more effective in her

approaches considered. She did not only consider the relevant theoretical and conceptual

leadership approaches in enabling her achieve her lasting impact in different organization but

also ensured that she had an implication in leadership. She strived through different means

despite being a woman from a minority group. She considered the impacts of her social

influence knowledge gained from her journalism career and further the consideration of her
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position in management to ensure that the organization had an impact in diversity and

inclusion. This was more that an achievement as she has been assigned different roles I

different organization as she has always been a champion in diversity and inclusion. Her

achievements can be noted from the statistics in diversity and inclusion in organizations she

has led. As noted by Gordon Poole Agency (n.d.), within the five years of Blackett being a

CEO of MediaCom, there was a notable transformation. Based on ethnicity and diversity,

there was a transformation in leadership from a 11% diversity inclusion to 19%. Additionally,

based on women inclusivity in leadership, there was an increase of 44% of women in senior

management. This proves the efficacy in managing the challenges.

Conclusion and Recommendation

Conclusion

From the discussion mainly base don the leadership challenge and the analysis of the

efficacy of the leadership styles that Karen Blackett used along the challenges experienced

along her leadership, it was noted that she was effective in her application of the leadership

concepts. Having considered social influence and transactional leadership, Karen Blackett

was more effective in her pioneering for diversity and inclusion in WPP and MediaCom. She

considered the utilization of her journalism career and leadership skills in the creation of the

WPP Roots culture that focused at strengthening a culture of diversity and inclusion. These

can be noted from her diverse roles in multiple companies and significant change in women

in executive leadership and diverse race, culture, and religion in the organization. Generally,

her application of social influence and transactional leadership style was successful and more

effective given the challenge. Her experience in social influence courtesy of her knowledge in

journalism and further the application of keynote speaking experience, Karen Blackett was

able to challenge the organization on how it practices diversity and inclusion. She was

effective in her pursuit for diversity through the consideration of help from specialist talent
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companies thus ensuring she achieved her goals. She also effectively applied transactional

leadership considering that she developed cultural means that consider alignment to a path in

doing something as recommended by transactional leadership. Generally, throughout her

leadership, Karen Blackett has been a more effective leader in dealing with the challenge

surrounding her despite the time it took her to address the challenges. This might be an issue

she ought to consider in her leadership journey in addressing future challenges through more

effective means.

Recommendation

From the analysis considered, it was noted that despite being effective in the

implementation of change based on diversity, Karen Blackett took more time in ensuring that

a culture of diversity and inclusion was embedded in the culture of the organization. Having

taken 7 years for the change to be noted and her success further noted, more strategies could

have been considered in making sure that the change was faster.

It should be noted as acknowledged by Chatterjee et al. (2018) that despite culture

being merely considered as a concept in organizations, it takes time to build an effective

culture and the culture may seem not worth the time. Regardless, this can be made more

simpler with time being reduced through the consideration of different recommendations. A

study by Uhl-Bien and Arena (2018) noted that implementing change in an organization

mainly considering the aspect of culture always has an efficacy in ensuring the employees

within the organization are effective in applying the culture in their daily practices. As such,

for Blackett, apart from her leadership prowess and consideration of social influence, she

would have ensured that diversity and inclusion would have been adopted in the organization

through connecting the culture with accountability. As Mansaray (2019) noted, it is easier in

a more difficult situation forgetting the values set in place to define a company that are

accountable to their actions courtesy of leaders within the organization. Along her pursuit for
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change to a more diverse and inclusive culture, Blackett could have considered this as the

role of the organization in ensuring that diversity and inclusion was among the key

consideration of the organization. This means that through considering the role of the HR

team in ensuring that diversity was an issue adhered to, then the company would have strived

through other effective means in addressing the issue thus minimizing the time it took her to

ensure that change was adapted. Secondly and significantly is based on aligning the culture

with strategy and processes. This can be through the consideration of the mission, vision, and

values that are the heart of the organization. This would have enabled her ensure that the

organization was more effective in its hiring of people from different cultural backgrounds,

races, and religion thus enabling the achievement of diversity and inclusivity in a shorter

time.

Despite the challenge of time, Blackett was more effective considering strategies that

have been proven more effective in ensuring organizational change. Different leaders can

consider the application of these strategies in enabling cultural change among other

organizational changes in organizations they lead. For instance, through the utilization of

transactional leadership concepts, Karen Blackett was able to align the KPIs and WPP Roots

with the organization’s missions hence enabling her achieve both diversity and inclusion

while enabling the organization grow further. Organization leaders can consider this strategy

in the implementation of change especially those that consider the utilization of transactional

leadership. These leaders also can adopt the utilization of social influence along their

leadership in ensuring change. Blackett mainly utilized her leadership position and further the

consideration of social influence in ensuring a win-win aspect to both the leader and the

follower. As noted from the leader-follower theory, her social influence was more effective in

ensuring that each party involved in ensuring a successful culture implementation was more

than willing in ensuring that the culture was implemented.

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Self-Reflection

The main problem that was attached to the group was inconsistency of information

considering that each participant had to ensure relevant and timely information with a

consistent explanation. Additionally, considering that each section progressed based on

previous information, it was a challenge to ensure that each participant submitted a valid and

reasonable assigned section. This made it challenging to ensure coordination along each

stage. This was an issue that affected my actions given the role of depending on previous

section. Regardless, this is an issue that needed coordination. As part of the group, it is

recommended that the group should work as a single thus needing constant share of

information each member being able to understand fully their role and ensure a timely

delivery of the sections to be done. Generally, nothing would have been done to evade the

issue thus needing cooperation and consistent communication. It is recommended that along

working with th group, each member should be timely in delivering their responses along

with consistent communication. As such, this would ensure that timely delivery and

discussions are achieved. Additionally, this has an implication on how to ensure the

participation of each member is done in a consecutive manner without breaking points that

might have brought about confusion.

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Appendix