Leadership Self-Reflection

1 Leadership Self-Reflection 1. Leader’s Characteristics and Skills A leader’s character and skills largely determine whether they are successful or not as they apply their leadership competence to lead their followers and drive their organization towards success. The selected prominent leader is Jeff Bezos. Bezos is the founder and CEO of the multi-national technology company Amazon. He is an American internet entrepreneur, industrialist, media proprietor and investor, and ranked as the richest person in the world. Bezos is chosen for this analysis because he is identified as a successful leader, renowned for planning and delivering results by enforcing creativity.

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2 As the founder and CEO of Amazon, Bezos has managed to grow a business empire and run one of the top Fortune Global 1000 companies (Groysberg & Slind, 2012). Bezos was born on January 12, 1964 in Albuquerque and was raised in Houston and later Miami, He graduated from Princeton University in 1986 with a degree in Engineering and Computer Science. He worked on Wall Street holding jobs in various related fields after graduation, until 1994 when he founded Amazon. His successful leadership has steered Amazon to become a top global brand that continues to dominate the global markets.

The leadership qualities, skills, and style of Bezos are considered as key to Amazon’s winning strategy and success. Bezos has outstanding strength and is considered an extraordinary leader. He displays high integrity and honesty and this has earned him admiration globally as a leader. He has outstanding personal capability in terms of technical and professional acumen, and uses innovation and fata analytics as a basis for driving the company to success. Jeff Bezos has outstanding skill in leading teams, as he focuses on small teams of five to seven members to work on ideas. The approach has been effective in facilitating effective communication, coaching and exchange of ideas between team members, Bezos has powerful influencing and persuasion skills and these are traits that set him apart as a globally renowned transformational leader. He sets the values, beliefs, and principles for the company and then persuades personnel to follow the core values.

Bezos is strategic in leading change in his organization. Through his ability to develop strategic perspectives for Amazon, champion change and focus on stakeholders, Amazon has recorded tremendous success. Further, Bezos’ interpersonal skills are outstanding, as evident in his ability to relate well with personnel at Amazon and other external stakeholders. He demonstrates outstanding proficiency in communicating powerfully and prolifically, inspiring

3 teams to attain high performance, building relationships, developing others and collaboration and teamwork. Bezos also values diversity and Amazon is recognized as one of the most inclusive global companies that embraces a diverse workforce. Bezos also strives to make employees at Amazon to think like owners as he asserts that “We know our success will be largely affected by our ability to attract and retain a motivated employee base, each of whom must think like, and therefore must actually be, an owner” (Warrick, 2017).

2. Comparison to Personal Characteristic and Skills: The skills and characteristics identified in Jeff Bezos are compared to my own leadership attributes to determine the extent to which I can be termed as an effective leader. Just like Bezos, I demonstrate significant strength in displaying high integrity and honesty. I always stick to the truth despite the repercussion and act with honesty in all circumstances. However, Bezos has demonstrated personal capability that is higher than my own. Nonetheless, I demonstrate strength in professional and technical acumen, solving problems and analyzing issues, being innovative and showing learning agility. Bezos is a remarkable world leader that I admire and resonate with his approach to leadership and his outstanding personal capabilities inspire me to work towards becoming a better leader.

In terms of focus on results, I demonstrate competence in focus on results, establishing and setting goals. I also demonstrate strengths in driving for results taking initiative, making decisions and taking risks. Compared to Bezos, I score remarkably well in terms of focusing on results, and admire his model of setting goals for Amazon and influencing the team towards attaining the set goals. I am impressed with my scores in terms of focusing on results, and I am working towards demonstrating the kind of leadership that is demonstrated by Bezos, who shows outstanding strength in all areas. In terms of interpersonal skills, I have demonstrated strengths in

4 terms of communicating powerfully and being impactful, inspiring and motivating others to high performance, building relationships, developing others collaboration and teamwork, and valuing diversity. However, Bezos has demonstrated outstanding strength in interpersonal skills and recognition of others has enabled him build powerful innovative teams that have been rallying for Amazon’s success.

My scores also show that I demonstrate strength in developing strategic perspective, championing for change, as well as customer and external focus. Just like Bezos, I believe that the secret to driving a successful organization is by building successful teams that steer the organization towards success. Through his leadership and leading change even in the most uncertain times for online commerce, Bezos has grown an innovative market trendsetter that explores al available opportunities to integrate innovation to drive business. I am inspired by Bezos’ influence to lead change at Amazon, and this I will strive to apply his approach to lead small successful teams that ate highly motivated to execute their roles.

3. Leadership Qualities That Make One a Successful Leader: Mainly, my own characteristics/skills as a leader will support the success of an entrepreneurial activity. An entrepreneur is an individual who ventures into business despite the hurdles and demonstrates resilience as they strive to build successful business entities. Therefore, I believe that my demonstrated skills and characteristics as a leader will enable me become a successful entrepreneur.

I have demonstrated strength in honesty and integrity, and I believe this will lead me to pursue credible and legit business ventures to attain growth and success. I believe that leading change in an entrepreneurial venture is an important direction that the business owner should follow to attain success. My demonstrated strength and ability to develop strategic perspective,

5 championing change, and customer and external focus will enable me to lead change in my business to implement the most workable strategies that will drive my company to success.

Entrepreneurship is about being innovative to disrupt the market and influence the customers to embrace new products and services. Therefore, I believe that my ability to lead change will empower me to become an innovative entrepreneur who is ready to take up all available opportunities.

I have demonstrated strength in my interpersonal skills in terms of communicating powerfully as well as motivating and influencing others to attain high performance for the organization, as the business owner, I will strive to build rewarding relationship with employees to support the vision of the business. I am also inclined to developing others and nurturing a culture of teamwork and collaboration so that the team can realize the set goals. Besides, I have also demonstrated strength in terms of focusing on results, thus will be influenced to drive he teams towards success, taking initiative, and making favorable decisions that consider the interest of all stakeholders.

4. Identify Needed Training, Development, or Actions: Whereas I have demonstrated strength in almost all areas of leadership evaluation, I believe that I may need additional training and development to refine my skills and characteristics to be a successful entrepreneur. I believe that the entrepreneurial venture is about risk taking in the business exploits. I will need training to be well equipped with skills on how I can take the most viable risks that will drive the organization to success.

Whereas I have demonstrated strengths in being innovative and driving change, I believe that I need more training on how to identify opportunities in the market and put into place

6 innovative strategies to exploit these available opportunities to grow the business. Just like Bezos, I would like to develop my abilities in data and analytics to make accurate predictions in the market to invest in the most viable opportunities. Bezos is renowned for his innovation in strategic opportunities, which has propelled the company to become a global leader in online selling business.

I would also like to change my approach to work teams in the work setting, to focus on small functional teams that are more effective. Just like Bezos, I would like to focus on small and functional teams where members liaise to achieve a common goal. I would like to be a friendly yet firm leader just like Bezos. As he engages his employees, Bezos likes to make employees to feel like owners so that they are dedicated towards attaining the set organizational goals. Like Bezos, I believe that the success of my entrepreneurial venture will be dependent on my ability to attract and retain motivated employees, each of whom must think, act, and be an owner. Such an approach would benefit the business as I will have more functional teams whereby employees are working towards the common goal of pushing the business towards success. Just like Bezos, I would like to nurture a work setting where employees feel valued and appreciated, thus teams are more motivated to work towards attaining the set goals.

I would also like to improve on my knowledge of computer analytics and it integration into the business to make a successful venture. Fundamentally, Bezos knowledge of data analysis has fundamental in leading an innovative company by monitoring trends and predictions in the market to offer innovative products and services that are competitive on the global level. As an entrepreneur, I would like to have the ability to monitor trends in the market and make valuable investments that are based on accurate prediction of the markets. Besides, I also admire Bezos’ effective coaching, communication, conflict resolution, and team management approaches,

7 which I intend to embrace to be an effective entrepreneur in influencing the commitment of team members in working towards attainment of the shared vision of the organization

References Groysberg, B., & Slind, M. (2012). Leadership is a conversation. Harvard Business Review, 90(6), 76–84.

Warrick, D. D. (2017). What leaders need to know about organizational culture. Business Horizons, 60(3), 395-404.