1. What makes these individuals effective leaders ? Be sure to incorporate the theories discussed in class.
Bill Gates was and still is an effective leader for many different reasons. First of all, He was an effective leader because of his personality. Bill Gates’ personality traits exhibit leader personality type. People with leader personality type are often critical, objective and logical. They like to challenge others. Such personality types are decisive in nature. They are born leaders and can be described as strategic visionaries. Bill Gates has all these qualities, whether you talk about his effective planning for the future needs of the company and society, or you talk about his innovative plans as a leader that always stayed one step ahead in the competitive world or you talk about his clarity in vision regarding how he wanted things to be. In fact, he has always been confident. When he was in school, he used to brag a lot to his teachers that he would become a billionaire at 30 and he was a billionaire by when he was 31 years old. He is a confident person since he is a kid and it can explain a part of his success and why he is an effective leader. As we saw in class, a leader needs to be inspirational to be a good leader. Bill Gates was inspirational for his employees thanks to his confidence. He inspired people to believe in themselves and to always know who they are and what they want and it maybe allow them to work better and harder for him.
Moreover, he is intelligent, skillful and competent. At the age of 13, he developed his first computer program which consisted in a tic-tac-toe game. He graduated from Lakeside School in 1973. He scored 1590 out of 1600 on the Scholastic Aptitude Tests and went to Harvard College after that. Being, competent is a crucial leadership trait and Bill Gates is without a doubt extremely competent. Thanks to it, he could use his expert power very efficiently. Gates is a master of his subject and his knowledge and expertise is never questioned. We can use it to explain how he was an effective leader because it motivates his employees to have the same skills and nobody questioned why Gates was at the top.
Besides, he always took risks and he didn’t abide by rules which illustrate another important leadership trait that is courage. He left Harvard before graduating because he wanted to start his own business and it was a huge risk for him at that time. Then, in 1975, he was arrested for driving without a valid driving licence. Then in 1977, he was arrested in New Mexico for a traffic violation. In the initial years of Microsoft, he had so many speeding tickets that he had to hire the best traffic attorney in Washington to avoid trouble. And in the 1980s, he along with Paul Allen got late to catch up the flight and as they missed the plane, Bill Gates rushed to the control Panel and began pressing buttons. Paul thought he would be arrested but instead, somebody called the plane back for both of them. He also took many risks in company decisions that sometimes failed and that mostly succeeded because he had a vision and he was a smart worker.
Then, Bill Gates is task-oriented and a very competitive person. Even though Microsoft grew and he hired a lot of professionals under him but even after that reviewed and rewrote the codes the company used to release. His result and quality oriented behavior made him pay heed to the minute details and this led the company to produce quality software. Furthermore, his competitivity is highly developed. At one time, he and Steve Jobs were good friends and Bill Gates helped Jobs during hard times and they even shared the same girlfriend at one time. When Apple became successful, Gates stop talking to Jobs and asked his family to not use Apple products. These traits can explain why Gates became an effective leader because he was always focusing on the right things and he always wanted to have better results, he always wanted to improve quality and productivity and it helped to the success of Microsoft.
Finally, Bill Gates is known for being sociable and high in integrity. Thanks to that, he used his reward power and his referent power very well. In fact, Microsoft is famous for giving huge remuneration packages and bonus to its employees. As we learned, fairness is essential to be an efficient leader and Gates was fair by rewarding his employees. His referent power was based on influencing tactics based on loyalty and friendship. Because he was sociable and honest with his employees, he built friendship with some of them he helped them building relationship with each other and it provide a safety and healthy work environment in Microsoft which is very important for a company to be efficient.
Nelson Mandela was an efficient leader for many different reasons too. Like Bill Gates, Nelson Mandela was a great leader thanks to his personality, thanks to who he was. To begin with, one of his major quality was of course his courage which is undeniable. He sacrificed himself for liberty. He spend 27 years of his life in jail on Robben Island. During this period, he lived in a tiny room with only a bed for him. In 1985, when he was offered freedom, he refused because he couldn’t and wouldn’t free until his people were not free. His freedom and their freedom couldn’t be separated he said. As we learned in class, courage is an essential trait a leader must have to be a great leader. We can easily understand that Mandela’s courage helped him becoming the leader and the hero he is today for millions of people. His courage gave hope to his people but also to every person persecuted in the world and made him very inspirational because they knew that the fight would continue until his last breath.
Moreover, Mandela was an efficient leader because he had a vision. He looked at the bigger picture, and worked towards unification of people and national reconciliation, as he knew that was more important than anything else. Even after 27 years in jail, after millions of black people killed in South Africa, he never forgot his main goal which was making South Africa a peaceful country where anybody from any ethnicity could live without fear and with equity of rights. This is maybe the main reason why he reached that goal, why he left his country in a stable and “peaceful” situation. He never gave up and always believed in his thoughts.
Besides, he was a unifier, when Mandela took power in 1994, he made everything he could to unified whites, blacks and others while some expected him to favor blacks.. He united people thanks to his strong charisma. He used his referent power perfectly. He could motivate people by his behaviors and had the ability to stir crowds. He had a strong personality which helped him having more and more followers. He could inspirate people with his deeds, with his words but also only with his presence and it explains why he was a tremendous leader.
Then, Nelson Mandela personality was based on two pillars : honesty and fairness. Honesty and fairness are crucial for a leader because without honesty, people begin to lie to each other and stop trusting you and following you and without fairness, people lose motivation and faith in you. Mandela was a person of great integrity. He was known to be an honest man, who was successfully able to move the country to fair and free elections. These traits of his personality explain why Mandela was a great leader to fight against the Apartheid but also to lead the most powerful country in Africa.
Finally, Nelson Mandela was competent. He wasn’t just a charismatic hero who knew how to use words to motivate people, he was also an intelligent man with a huge knowledge of people. During his time in prison, he continued to read books to learn things, he continued his legal education and often gave advices to prisoners and wardens. He was a strategic leader who knew the importance of continuous learning. He was able to adjust strategy and execution amidst complex and dynamic political, legal and economic forces. He kept his popularity and stayed the same even as a president. Becoming president and succeeded as a president by spreading his thoughts based on peace, unity and equity proved that he was a competent man that had the knowledge and the guts not to lead only his people but to lead an entire country. If you are not competent as a leader, people will question your place and asked why you are the leader and not somebody else. Nelson Mandela, without the shadow of a doubt, was competent to be a leader, was born to be a leader and it is why he became one of the greatest leader of the 20th century.
2) Describe how the two different executives lead their company. Which leadership style do they use?
Leadership is defined as the ability to influence a group of people towards the achievement of goals. On the other hand, management relates primarily to maintaining order and consistency. Bill Gates’ leadership style is a mixture of autocratic, participative and delegate; he applies each style to the most suitable situation. It is very important to recruit and keep the best gifted people in the software industry. He built trust and loyalty partly by taking his employees’ opinion into account. A competitive atmosphere allowed for the best outcome for problems.
Gates is more likely task-oriented leader who wants performance from his subordinate/follower and work must be done to achieve the goal/objective of the company. There are three types of leader: democratic, autocratic and laissez-faire. Autocratic leadership style works well if the leader is competent and knowledgeable enough to decide about each and everything. Bill Gates adopted autocratic leadership style. At first, was not a participative leader. He had high technical skills but did not feel comfortable giving others influence on decisions. Then he learned that he could not do everything on his own. Only way he was able to delegate was hiring the most talented employees and giving autonomy to his managers. He has always had more technical skills than interpersonal skills. When he first created Microsoft, he only knew how to look at behavior, such as rewarding good work and punishing poor performance (Transactional) Later on, becoming more of a transformational by trying to appeal to employee’s emotions through tactics such as motivation and support. He still has some aspects of a transformational leader.
Good leaders such as Nelson Mandela established his leadership style with a vision and inspired the others to follow his direction in order to achieve goals. Besides that, Mandela, the great South African president, adopted the democratic leadership style. Mandela had a vision where he saw an Africa with apartheid being eliminated and man are being free and equalized. It was this vision that pushed him to do what he was supposed to do, and it was also this vision that made him believe that he still has hope through the darkest days in prison. Nelson Mandela’s perseverance made him believe that one day he could succeed in freeing the people from the prejudiced past. He never gave up even though he was imprisoned for twenty-seven years before being elected to be the first president of South Africa. There are eight lessons of Mandela leadership:
Courage is not the absence of fear – it inspires others to overcome.
Head from the front – but never leave your base in the back.
Head from behind – let yourself be convinced that they are at the forefront
Know your enemy and know his favorite sport. (learn to speak one’s tongue)
Keep your friends close to you – and your rivals even closer.
Look after yourself – and do not forget to smile.
Nothing is black or white.
Leaving is also directing
Nelson Mandela not only gave us lessons, but he also gave us the values and principles that made him the man we all admire today: humility, management of anger, and willingness of steel to invent the future.
Instead of talking about him and his accomplishments, Madiba put the others forward and especially the work done with the ANC (African National Congress).
On this subject he said, “I think it’s a mistake to use the term ‘Mandela years’: it’s the era of the liberation forces.” When Mandela was elected, he even gave up the presidential residence for his co-president (and former rival) Frederik de Klerk.
“Humility is not about being passive or submissive by shrugging your shoulders, bowing your head or lowering your eyes. It is rather to be educated. To live your life in a crescendo, with your head held high and your shoulders straight, to become the best person possible and then help others to do the same.
Humility is the hub of the wheel, the central virtue between self-control and leadership. ”
– Kevin Hall
2) Management of anger:
How did Mandela keep neither hatred nor anger despite the torture and flagrant injustice during his 27 years in prison?
He acknowledged that there was a lot of cruelty about himself and his colleagues. But he found common ground with his jailers:
You must also understand that the guards who have worked with us are themselves workers, are themselves human beings, also have problems, they are also exploited, and victims of the system. And one of our goals was to improve the relationship between us and these guards, and help them with their problems.
And in this way, you forget everything that is negative, like hate. ”
3) Willingness of steel to invent the future:
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, Mandela was “opportunity-oriented”, without ever falling into victimization. Instead of giving up, Mandela used his years of prison to learn and grow with his fellow prisoners (law, medicine, etc.).
During this time of isolation, he developed a will of steel. Upon his release, Mandela came out with a clear vision of what was needed to end apartheid and build a modern democracy in South Africa.
4. Challenges faced by Nelson Mandela and Bill Gates
Bill Gates
Success isn’t easy, everybody who has achieved something in life had faced the hardships and struggled to be on the position they are. Everyone who is a winner now, must have been a loser who tried many times.
The Entrepreneur and businessman Bill Gates, counted in top richest man in the world, faced many challenges throughout his path to success. His greatest challenge in life was to overcome his fear of failure. He started his first company along with the partner Paul Allen at age 17 called Traf-O-Data in which they analyzed traffic data for Washington state roads department. The company was a failure but they both learned programming kills from that experience to create Microsoft. The challenges faced by him in early career helped him to get success for Microsoft. “It’s fine to celebrate success, but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure.”; this powerful quotes by Bill Gates showed about his learning from the failure.
When started Microsoft, he didn’t want to expand his business. He was focused on the cost of production and the ability of his customers to pay him which affected the way he started the company. (Mejia, 2018). At Microsoft, he faced many failures but ultimately got success. During the Questions and answers at Harvard University, he said to students: “Things are risky. You better not miss a turn in the road.” (Gates, 2018).
The first fear that he faced was watching the big companies such as Digital Equipment (DEC) and Wang whom he considered as the best ones and his idol in the market, going bankrupt. Wang declared bankruptcy before DEC. The both companies were not more in the market. It was such a big fear for him to step in the market where the other companies have failed and declared bankruptcy. His second fear was to be unable to pay his employees. His employees were senior in age than him and had kids. He was worried for them; what if he couldn’t pay them. Another challenge was his delegation of power. He used to every coding by himself. When he hired new employees to do this work for him, he still couldn’t resist himself to review their work before using it (Mejia, 2018). He kept checking the line codes for the first 5 years of Microsoft but then he accepted it and trusted his employees. He took incharge of the company and became responsible for all the aspects of the business.
He learned from his mistakes, and did better the next time. His failure from his first company was behind the success of Microsoft. There is a very popular quote said by Gates: “Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning. You’ve got to want to be in this incredible feedback loop where you get the world-class people to tell you what you’re doing wrong.” (Gates).
Nelson Mandela
The first black president of South Africa, Nelson Mandela, didn’t get to that very easily. He stood up against apartheid, a system in which four different racial categories were governed by restrictive laws. Non-white South Africans had restricted access to education, health services and other facilities. He fought against this system and was joined by many South Africans. He got arrested many times during his fight for the freedom. He was strongly following Gandhi’s non-violent concept, but he gave it up when the white community killed 69 black protestors in Sharpeville. He was considered a powerful leader that white community considered him as threat to the state. The longest time that he was imprisoned was for 27 years in 1962 against the charge of overthrowing the South-African government. (“8 ways Mandela changed the world”). He didn’t stop his fight. Along with his fight against racism, he was also fighting for the freedom and dignity of everyone. During his time in prison, the rallies against the apartheid method grew up along with spreading awareness among people about this protest against the racism. The apartheid ended after a sequence of negotiations between National party, African National Congress, and another political organisation.
While Mandela was in prison, he had meetings with the government to form a multi-racial democracy. His imprisonment attracted the world’s attention and opinion against apartheid. When he became the president, he set up a committee for Truth and Reconciliation for crime investigation investigate in the period when the apartheid system was prevailing. He introduced various programs to improve the living standards of the black population in South Africa. His new agenda focused on to improve the relations between whites and the blacks and structuring a new image of the South Africa. He stated the country as “rainbow nation at peace with itself and the world”. (“Nelson Mandela”). He made a difference to the lives of people providing with the education that they needed and eradicating the poverty.
He had a vision of South Africa without any racism or apartheid, where everyone would be free and everybody has equal rights. This kept him determined towards his goal even in the prison. He fought for this vision and brought the anti-apartheid laws in South Africa. Here is a quote from Mandela about overcoming the fear: “I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.” (Mandela, 1995).
What do these individuals have in common? In what ways are these individuals distinct?
In the earlier days, colored people were not allowed anywhere near the white people. They did not have the same rights as the white people, because they were treated and considered slaves. This also caused the leaders in South Africa to allow thousands of people to die through HIV and AIDS. Nelson Mandela was angry about this, therefore he tried keeping the peace in society and going against what the president of South Africa was saying.
This resulted in Mandela being sentenced to life in prison. After being released, people finally realized that this is what society needed. Therefore, in 1994 Mandela was elected and became the first South African black president who was an anti-apartheid activist, politician and philanthropist. This made him an incredible leader.
As for Bill Gates, he was an entrepreneur and a businessperson that founded and built Microsoft Software, the world’s largest software business. He was a leader in his business because his style of leadership was to include everyone in the decision-making and have everyone involved. This then created good trusting and loyal employees within the business.
Trait of Vision
Therefore, as both Mandela and Gates were good leaders, they also shared their trait of vision. They both possessed great vision in being able to create something and being able to see the future for what it could be. Mandela’s vision represented the concept of freedom and fulfilment in the African people. Their imagination and wisdom took the best of them. Nelson’s vision was to have every black, white and other minority to come together and wanted diversity in society. Bill Gates’ was a visionary leader as well and loved to think big. His vision was to create a graphical interface that became Microsoft software.
Task-Oriented
These two individuals were both task-oriented leaders. They both were very hands-on and liked to participate in every project. Bill Gates wanted his employees to have good performance, as he wanted to achieve his goal for the company. On the other hand, Mandela’s goal was to help and provide strength to the people that did not have a voice under the current regime.
Caring for Others
Mandela and Gates really cared for others and tried helping them. Nelson Mandela taught the word forgiveness and the importance in treating everyone equally and with kindness. He dedicated his life to help the African people that were struggling. Nelson fought against many things including white domination on behalf of the black people. He wanted equality between everyone and make him or her have equal opportunities so that everyone can live in harmony. Nelson struggled throughout this process, which then caused him to end up in prison due to his passion and staying firm for what he believed in. He wanted the struggle for the African people to be over so that they can have their right to live. Nelson was a great president that showed us great freedom and equality, and with his contribution to the world, his journey will live on forever.
Whereas Bill Gates was also helping society, he was going about it in a different way. As the richest person in the world, he gave away a lot of money to charities. He stated that everyone with a lot of money should have that basic responsibility of giving back. “Once you’ve taken care of yourself and your children the best use of extra wealth is to give it back to society”. This shows that Bill Gates was a kind, caring and giving person.
Effect on Society
Both Nelson and Bill changed the way we view society today. With the help of his business, Bill Gates changed the way we viewed technology. Within today’s technology, we all operate the Window System throughout our computers, which was created by Microsoft. As Bill made a huge impact, his innovation affected communities, companies and individuals.
The effect that Nelson Mandela had on society was that he changed and inspired many people’s lives. As being a symbol of power, he showed us that everyone could make a difference. Considering the negative circumstances that he faced, he never refused to give up his cause. He was determined to fight for what he believed in. While Mandela was in prison, he was told that if he stopped his acts of violence he would be set free. However, because he was so dedicated to his ideology, he refused to do so. He set an example of courage, dedication and sacrifices as he cared and fought for people’s freedom.
In what way are these individuals different?
Education
Nelson and Bill were both educated individuals. However, they went about it in a different way. Bill discovered the love of computers when he was in school and pursued his interest. He felt that it influenced him, which eventually resulted in the creation of Microsoft.
Nelson on the other hand, organized a strike against rules dictated by the white people at the college he attended. This resulted in him being kicked out of school. He only obtained a degree in law while he was in prison through the University of South Africa.
Nobel peace prize
Between Nelson and Bill, Nelson Mandela was the only one that won a Nobel peace prize. On December 10, 1993 “for his work for the peaceful termination of the apartheid regime, and for laying the foundation for a new democratic South Africa”, Alfred Nobel awarded Nelson Mandela with a Nobel peace prize.