Bill Clinton's Two Major Leadership Styles - Case Study Example

Running Head: Leadership Case Study Leadership Case Study Name Institution Professor Course Date Basic information American politician 42nd President of the united states (1993 to 2001) Governor of Arkansas (1979 to 1981 and 1983 to 1992) Attorney general in Arkansas (1977 to 1979) and A member of the Democratic Party. 1. Abstract Bill Clinton was born on 19th August 1946. His political career started when he was elected the attorney general of Arkansas and subsequently rose to being the governor and later the President. Clinton was involved in a number of CSR activities even after he exited politics and he can be seen to be more of a charismatic and transformational leader of his time. Leaders can engage in a number of actions so as to enhance social responsibility for instance by community involvement and engagement. Since the theory stipulates that there should be parameters in place to measure success of the CSR projects implemented the success of most of Bill Clintons initiatives can be measured on how they have been able to improve the global health, alleviate poverty, strengthen the countries’ economies and at the same time protect the environment. Some of the major lessons learned are that leaders need to be outgoing, listening, caring and persistence to their followers (Hackman & Johnson, 2009). As a leader I will always make use of the technical and interpersonal are of leadership in developing your skills and capabilities of leadership. 2. Background Bill Clinton was born on 19th August 1946, in a small town called Hope in Arkansas by his parents William Jefferson Blythe and Virginia Cassidy Blythe. Clinton grandparents’ played an essential role in her upbringing as her mother moved to New Orleans to study a two year nursing course. Clinton got married to Hillary Rodham in 1975, the subsequent year. He became the Attorney general of Arkansas and in the year 1978 he won the seat of the governor and was termed as the youngest governor in the country in forty years. In the year 1992, Clinton was elected president and in 1998 he was impeached by the House of Representatives for what they termed as perjury as well as the obstruction of justice based on the Lewinsky affair but in 1999 he was acquitted of all charges by the senate. After his presidency, he still remained active in the global stage, for example, through the William J. Clinton foundation. Clinton climate initiative, Clinton global initiative and the Clinton Foundation Haiti fund which mission was to improve the global health, alleviate poverty, strengthen the countries’ economies and at the same time protect the environment and this was achieved through the fostering of partnerships among businesses, governments, private citizens and the non-governmental organizations (Clinton Foundation 2016a). 3. Theoretical discussion Among the available alternative the chosen research questions relates to the actions that leaders take so as to enhance social responsibility. More regularly, leaders in organizations have viewed social responsibility as just another fad or a source of pressure for them. But in contrast the employees, customers, suppliers as well as the society places a lot of importance on CSR and in respect to these leaders have started to look at CSR as a creative opportunity that they can make use to fundamentally strengthen their businesses or endeavors while contributing to the betterment of the society in one way or another (DuBrin, 2015). Based on these the leaders view CSR as essential to the overall strategies in that they help them to address key issues that they may be facing on a creative manner (Shen & Benson, 2014). There exists a wide range of actions that leaders can undertake so as to enhance social responsibility. One of such actions is been greatly concerned about the community. Based on these actions, leaders need to ensure that they have a positive relationship with the community and also make the organization involved in the community engagement and development (Aguinis & Glavas, 2012). At the same time leaders and their organizations need to partner with a number of charities and at the same time help in worthy causes for the betterment of the community that the company is operating in. Another action is concentrating on the CSR efforts. Resources and management time seems to be limited (DuBrin, 2015), thus the greatest opportunities that leaders can take up on will eventually come from the areas where the business tend to interact more with the society and thus have the greatest impact on the society. Additionally, leaders need to build and have a clear understanding of the benefits in relation to CSR. Even after a selection has been made of the best opportunity, arriving at the potential for value creation seems to be a hard task. Thus, to enhance CSR there should be symmetry of the two side as and also trying to underhand the issues from a societal and business perspective (McWilliams & Siegel, 2011). Leaders can also enhance social responsibility by partnering with the right partners. Based on these leaders need o choose those partners that benefit from the core business capabilities and activities (Vroom & Sternberg, 2002). In most instances, partnering seems to be a tasking task but in instances when both parties view a win-win situation they are motivated to realize the significant benefits. In respect to these, the chosen projects should have a king term commitment. For projects to have a long impact on the various societal issues such as the living standards they need to have a long-term commitment (Dierendonck, 2011). Therefore, leaders in need of partnership need to have a long term mindset which should be backed up by measurable actions and commitments and at the same time backed up with solid promises (DuBrin, 2015). The initiative need to demonstrate that there are some added value to both the stakeholders and the shareholders with time to gain their support in future projects. This idea are supported by the notion that CSR is more related to the aspect of doing business in the most ethically way and at the same time addressing the major issues facing the society and the business (Mohr, Webb & Harris, 2001). When leaders applies the above discussed above they are likely to attain greater rewards. 4. Analysis of leadership Bill Clinton demonstrates two major leadership styles in his career as a politician and also in endeavors after exciting the political arena and they include being a charismatic leader and transformational leaders. Charismatic leadership is a modern leadership style and leaders who apply this leadership style tend to make use of charm so as to get the admiration from their followers. They also tend to show a great level of concern for their people and always look out to meet their needs. They create and nurture a friendly and comfortable environment for their followers and they achieve these by making the followers feel valued and that they have a voice when it comes to decision making (Griffin & Ebert, 2010). Clinton learned about the importance of listening to the followers and responding to their needs early in his political career. This is evident when he backed up a law that increased the fees on the driver’s licenses and his constituents were not pleased and filed to reelect him. Additionally, he demonstrates this leadership style during his term as the president in that he developed a habit of talking jogging and at the same time talking to people. Clinton can also be viewed as a transformational leader (Griffin & Ebert, 2010). In his 1992, presidency campaign shows the manner in which leaders tend to have a great reliance of trying to be transformational leaders so as to gain office. Clinton accomplished some of the basics of being a transformational leaders in that he was intellectually stimulating, had a vision that inspired and offered a lot of consideration to individuals and he depicted this by trying to reach out opt the voters (Kendall 1995). Bill Clinton is termed as the godfather on CSR (Adams 2010). In another article, Clinton seemed to be more concerned with the popularity that CSR is receiving since it has over time proved its qualities to the financial bottom line for the business and for social good. He further stated that the perception that is widely held on the fact that businesses need to choose between improving the communities in which they operate on and in turning a profit seems to be outdated. Based on these, he noted that the success that have been achieved by the Clinton Global initiative since it has commitments valued at around $46 billion and a great number of the commitments coming from some of the world leading companies. Through these the companies demonstrates that investments on the environmental and social programs in the local communities are of benefit to the society in which the businesses are operating in (Armstrong & Green, 2013). Bill Clinton is a leader who lead by example and others can follow and also seeks to fulfill the needs of the community in which they operate in. as a matter of fact a great number of largest companies spend a small amount of their money on social responsibility in sectors such as education (Silvera, 2015). Based on the research that was commissioned by the Business Backs Education campaign, the global fortune 500 companies spent a total of $2.6 billion which is equivalent to 13% of their CSR budgets on activities that are connected to education. Additionally, less than half of the companies in the fortune 500 offered any money to be used in education related CSR. Bill Clinton is seen as a firm advocate for CSR activities in that he supported the Business Backs Education campaign requests that the businesses spend at least 20% of their CSR on education (Silvera, 2015). By doing this, Clinton seems to be concerned with the immediate needs that are facing the people in that lack of education is a major issue and mostly for those students seeking to further their education. Additionally, the initiatives started by Bill Clinton are in line with the theory that states that leaders in need of partnership need to have a long term mindset which should be backed up by measurable actions and commitments and at the same time backed up with solid promises. In this regard, the initiatives such as climate initiative, Clinton global initiative and the Clinton Foundation Haiti fund had some measurable actions as well as commitments and they were also backed up by solid promises. The success of such initiatives can be measured on how they have been able to improve the global health, alleviate poverty, strengthen the countries’ economies and at the same time protect the environment (Clinton Foundation 2016a). Additionally, in CSR initiatives Clinton have partnered with the right kind of partners. For instance, in the Clinton foundation they have engaged in purposeful partnerships in that they have tried to assemble governments, businesses, individuals and NGOs with the aim of improving the global health as well as wellness, enlarge the opportunities for women and girls, create room for economic growth and opportunity, reduce the levels of childhood obesity and assist the communities in addressing issues that are affecting them directly such as the climate change issue (Clinton Foundation 2016a). Another similar initiative is the Clinton climate Initiative. Bill Clinton has had a longstanding commitment on matters related to the environment. The Clinton Climate Initiative comes up with projects that are well suited to the local conditions and at the same time serving as the innovative models that can be used to tackle the global climate change. Through such an approach, there are real life demonstrations on ways of cutting emissions while at the same time compressing the time in delivering the actual progress (Clinton Foundation 2016b). 5. Reflection Based on the above discussion, I have learned that leaders irrespective of the position they hold and business that they are in, for example, a politician or a manager have an essential role to play in the enhancement of the society that they are in. Based on these, I can make use of such information in my leadership by ensuring that I go beyond the allocated task to enhance and provide a better life for others. These relates to CSR activities and mostly dealing with issues that affect the community adversely (Hopkins, 2007). In the future I will focus on the most pressing issues that are affecting the community, for example, in areas that there is shortage of water I will ensure that I address this issue by providing them with water and this will be a way of meeting the community’s need. Another lesson learnt is that of being persistence in everything that one does. Clinton’s persistence over the years can be termed as incredible and his persistence is well demonstrated in the 1991/92 campaign during the Monica Lewinsky scandal and also when she supported her wife Hillary to run or presidency on 2008. Through this I have learned that even leader’s makes mistakes and if they notice them they should just accept their mistakes, ask for forgiveness. I will make use of this information in my leadership experience to be come and better leader and be persistence so as to attain the goals set in the most effective manner (Ingrid, 2006). I have also learned that leaders need to be outgoing, listening, be caring towards people and at the same time emphasize with them (Van Vugt & Ahuja, 2011). For instance, based on the discussion there was a time when Bill Clinton failed to be reelected since he failed to listen to the concerns of the people of his constituents on matters related to driver’s license fees. Thus, as a leader I will always engage my followers in the decision making to ensure that the decision made attains the required support from them. By doing these, I will ensure the success of any decision and projects since as a leader I will be working closely with the followers to assist me in attaining the targeted goal in a timely manner (Smith & Roebuck, 2010). By being outgoing, listening and us caring about people, the people feel valued and thus they feel free to point out issues that should be addressed and this contributes greatly to the success of the leaders at a personal and business level. 6. Action plan In developing my skills and capabilities as leaders I will make use of the technical and interpersonal area of leadership. This is based on the idea that individuals who have developed strong technical and interpersonal skills tend to be success on their personal and professional lives. The interpersonal area of leadership that I will tend to place more emphasis on is the verbal communication (Northouse, 2013). I will make use of these skill and capability to pass along information and persuade people on the idea I wish to pass along. I will also consider the technical leadership skills in developing my skill as well as capabilities of leadership. This will be achieved my making use of available opportunities to bring about positive change in the business or in the industry. In this regard I will make all the necessary efforts to make improvements kin processes, projects, teams and services that seem to be critical to the organization (Northouse, 2013). 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