Analyzing 5 Real-World Leadership Scenarios

Successful leaders remain flexible to adapt to perfect style and approach essential for different leadership scenarios. Approaches that pay attention to detail, combine risk with caution, display value, lead from your front, and empower allows leaders to get yourself into and master any situation.




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Jack Stahl, the President of Coca-Cola between 1978 and 2000 and CEO of Revlon between 2002 and 2006 supplies a good illustration of a leader who harnesses situations to his advantage. In his book Lessons on Leadership: The 7 Fundamental Management Skills for Leaders at All Levels he elucidates most all cases where the leadership he exerted during specific situations made a big difference.
Early in Stahl's career, his mentor Doug Ivester tasked him with preparing a prospectus for the public offer of Coca-Cola's bottling division. Stahl delegated the project without adequate oversights, and Ivester asked for an early draft, Stahl found the draft more incomplete than he expected. Ivester caused Stahl late to the night because the project were built with a definite and irreversible deadline. From this experience, Stahl discovered the key of Ivester's effectiveness: the skill to blend high-level oversight have real profit delve into details and adopt a hands on approach when needed. Stahl since that time makes it essential to train others to focus on details as an effective substitute for micro management, and put the experience to great use to handle Coca-Cola's operations in 180 countries, a Herculean task 3 decades ago when the internet was nonexistent as well as the world wasn't as connected as today. Stahl focused on deriving key metrics from his information systems, yet remaining alert to details.

In 1986, Margaret Thatcher deregulated the real estate markets in the UK, to produce London a hub of investment banks of true international repute. Of all of the investment bankers, only Barclays may make the best out from the opportunity and be a global giant. Credit for seizing the moment and applying the right situational leadership visits Bob Diamond.
A tough, competitive, and uncompromising professional, Bob Diamond believed in making their own luck instead of depend on government funds and other forms of support. He combined aggression with caution and took calculated risks. Diamond's approach paid off once the Barclays survived the finance crunch without having a government bailout, after which struck a coup of sorts if this took over the US assets in the bankrupt Lehman Brothers with none of the accompanying liabilities.
Southwest has earned track record of always putting the consumer first, it doesn't matter what the situation. Adopting this kind of approach, leader James Parker converted crises into opportunities many times.
The September 11, 2001 tragedy generated an unprecedented situation of forcing all airlines to shut down for the, and stranding passengers, flight attendants and pilots using their planes in the united states. While other airlines sat and waited, Southwest employees took the passengers bowling or to the movies to feed the time. The customer loyalty earned owing to this quick thinking, resourcefulness, and flexibility to generate the most out of a bad situation helped Southwest's popularity soar a lot. Parker also announced Southwest wouldn't only retain all of their employees but additionally start a profit sharing payment to employees just 72 hours after 9/11, when other airlines were contemplating a twenty percent cut in staffing. Southwest handled the crisis a lot better than any other airline.

At times, it pays to lead from the front. How Jim Lentz, the CEO of Toyota handled a potentially disastrous situation ranks being a sure inclusion within the list of top real-world leadership scenarios.
Toyota was required to recall 2.3 million vehicles for faulty breaks. Outrage ran high as well as the company faced lawsuits galore. Jim Lenz, as an alternative to ducking in the glare and letting the PR team handle a hopelessly lost cause appeared on Digg Dialog, a well known web community recognized for its hostility to corporate businesses. Consumers, past employees, activists while others submitted a huge number of questions about the recall, and Lentz answered as many as possible inside the given time. The openness and transparency minimized the injury to company's reputation in general.

Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft can be a household name, renowned for his participative type of leadership and empowering subordinates. The fact that Microsoft as well as the flagship brand Windows still holds its amidst serious competition stands as evidence of Gates' leadership skills.
Gates believed in the power of innovation, and empowered his subordinates to innovate in products, process, markets, or any other area. He positioned the company as a platform for folks to build on cancun airport their strengths.
Early on, understanding the power of empowerment, Gates established a powerful system that placed the correct information at the best hands, allowing people to understand what was going on, and earn plans accordingly. He also developed a digital landscape that connected people, process, and technology, making sharing ideas and work seamless and simple. These innovations allowed the business to respond on the changing markets effectively.
Gates goes over all the basis of his leadership style in his very own words: 'In marketing ebay, by time you realize you're in trouble, it's far too late to save yourself. Unless you're running scared all some time, you're gone."

While Bill Gates' participative empowerment allowed Microsoft to rebound and keep the top spot regardless in the challenge, Steve Jobs of Apple Inc tells another story. Jobs adopts a highly autocratic leadership style to the extent that Bill Gates could announce his retirement couple of years ahead with little if any impact to Microsoft, but the recent news of Steve Job's illness raised serious doubts about Apple's future.
Although Both Gates and Jobs understand and leverage the strength of innovation, unlike Gates, Jobs runs a tricky ship and quite often fires 'incompetent" staff. The result, although Apple Macintosh stood a head start over Microsoft Windows, Windows is today a family group product still the standard, whereas Apple Macintosh has faded into obsolesce. It is only the recent diversification for the yet to be unchallenged i-Phone and associated products which provides Apple the success it enjoys today.
While every one of the above five leaders adopted positive leadership processes for different situations, Steve Jobs' autocratic leadership style perhaps may serve as an antithesis to this type of approach. The major longer-term successes enjoyed by Coco Cola, Barclays, Southwest, Toyota, and Microsoft, compared to the perhaps limited success of Apple highlights the strength of positive strategies to deal with various situations.

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