Bill Gates - Leadership and Communication Style in the Globalized Environment - Case Study Example

Bill Gates: Leadership and Communication Style in the Globalized Environment Student Name Course Code Institution Bill Gates: Leadership and Communication Style in the Globalized Environment Introduction Bill Gates was born to in an upper-middle class family on 28 October 1955 in Seattle, Washington United States. He attended the Lakeside school at the age of 13 where he worked with computers for the first time. Bill Gates is the leader of Microsoft Inc., which demands refined leadership skills for it to remain competitive to the rapidly changing software industry. The leadership style of Bill Gates is delegate, participating and autocratic, and this has enabled him to respond to the different situations in the global market. The software industry demands for a leader who has the ability to recruit and sustain the most gifted people. Bill gates has built loyalty and trust by taking into account the opinion of the employees. He has also created a competitive atmosphere in which the company solves its problems as efficiently as possible (Khan, 2015). Bill Gates demonstrates sociability, integrity, determination, competence, skill and intelligence in his leadership. He exercises task-oriented leadership by keeping the objectives of the company at the forefront. His competency and knowledge enable him to be an autocratic leader. At first, Bill Gates did not delegate because he did not want his decisions to influence his decisions and but he later hired the most talented employees and managers because he could not do all the work alone. He developed transformational leadership to motivate and support the employees (Khan, 2015). This paper will discuss the leadership and communication style of Bill Gates in detail, and the suitability of their approach to the globalized environment. Vision Bill Gates Bill Gates has said in his interviews that he was inspired in his vision to create the graphical interface from which the software of Microsoft originated. Bill Gates knew that it was possible to build more products. His recognition for the potential of growth and opportunity enabled him to climb the leadership ladder. The vision of Bill Gates goes beyond the development of software to the society in general. His philanthropic pursuits shows his ability to envision larger goals. For instance, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has saved many lives through the malaria project. He has had the potential to lay out a strategy to carry out the malaria project through his vision. Envisioning and strategizing attracts followers (Namin-Hedayati, n.d). Leaders have the task of giving the sense of direction in an organization. The vision of strong leaders must have a compelling and clear vision showing the direction of the organization. The leaders will then need to be able to communicate this vision eloquently to the organization in a motivating manner and articulate the vision consistently until it fits into the culture of the organization. Bill Gates is an example of a strong leader who with a vision that has enabled Microsoft to grow tremendously (Hill & Jones, 2008). For instance, in 1980, Bill Gates had the vision of a computer in every home and on all desks. At that time, Microsoft was not manufacturing computers and they were in little use due to low utility. Three decades later computers are commonplace and most people consider them essential at home and at work. Microsoft has contributed significantly to the usability of computers and come to be among the world’s most profitable, respected and successful companies (Goshert, 2006). Communication Effective communication is required for the vision to be shared within the organization. A good leader uses a language that the organization can relate to directly. Bill Gates works on improving his communication style despite his success. Bill Gates has never had a problem communicating with his partners. Bill Gates can talk to the Microsoft employees casually and they are at the same communication level. Bill Gates has improved his presentational skills for a long time. 1n 2009, some authors referred to him to as an example of effective presentational delivery. They noted his sincerity and relaxed style (Australian Business Solutions, 2012). Bill gates effectively communicated as the spokesperson of the company. He became a symbol of Microsoft that most people see whenever they think about the company. He was successful in communicating the goal of the company by involving himself will all aspects of the organization including the financial, marketing, distribution and production. His effective communication skills were evident when he assumed the role of a company negotiator. For instance, he negotiated a deal with the IBM and agreed with them to use Microsoft software exclusively in exchange for a customized software. He has also negotiated deals to supply Windows software with many computer manufacturers (Great leaders, n.d.). Motivation and Empowerment Bill Gates constantly encourages his employees to do their best in every undertaking every time. He greatly rewards those who are successful. He encourages them to work in teams. When he selects new talent, he develops them and encourages them to work in the team and communicate more. Bill Gates has had a huge impact on the international business due to his motivational skills. He introduced the working happy standards even before the establishment of the Silicon Valley. For example, Bill Gates established the compensation program for career development and investment programs for health care (Great leaders, n.d.). Learning and Growing Bill Gates has multi-tasking skills that have helped him keep up with the ever-advancing technology. He developed a speed-dating version involving techies to make the adaptation process more efficient. He assembled leading experts in different specialties and discussed with him various issues in intensive and rapid briefing. He coined the term “think weeks” to represent the saturated learning events. Another useful source of knowledge is his own mistakes. Bill Gates is fanatical about this form of learning. He says that he used to keep a memo where he recorded the mistakes of Microsoft. He made the mistakes stimulating enough for the people to start talking about the lessons learned and act appropriately to secure the company’s future. He says many of the mistakes that the company made was not entering some particular markets as early as it should have. He identified the constraint as being the number of people that the company could hire to deliver all their commitments for delivery while still running the management of everything (Australian Business Solutions, 2012). The ability and willingness of Bill Gates to learn shows his maturity. He does not develop pride that he knows everything despite his successes and being a billionaire. Bill Gates has been actively learning on how to improve his public speaking and communication skills. He often seeks advice from other people and this demonstrates his wisdom. Gates acknowledges that he has learned a lot from Warren Buffett, who is also a successful leader and billionaire. Gates says that Buffett looks at the world in his unique brilliant way. Gates learns from his mentor to improve his leadership skills (Namin-Hedayati, n.d). Values The values of a Microsoft are related to its leadership. Bill Gates has set brilliant guiding principles and values that can help one see his character. The most significant one is integrity and honesty. Microsoft endeavors to have a passion for technology, partners and customers. It is dedicated to being respectful and open to others and while seeking to improve them. The company is willing to take risks and challenges and make it through them. The performance is improved by being committed to self-improvement and personal excellence, questioning and being self-critical. The company is also accountable for results, commitments, and quality to the employees, partners, shareholders and customers. The guiding principles of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation of philanthropy also show the effectiveness of Bill Gates’ leadership. The principles declare that the Gates family runs the foundation for its interests and passions. They state that the role played by philanthropy is important but limited. The principles also provide the platform of showing the belief of Bill Gates that technology and science can improve lives globally. The foundation regards itself as a shaper and funder, which relies on others to implement and act. The principles of the organization highlights of its focus as being limited but clear and one that prioritizes the issues that are neglected. The Foundation identifies the appropriate points of action and acts on the theory of change. The Foundation further demonstrates the values by declaring that takes the risks, moves with urgency and makes big bets. It responsibly and vigorously advocates in the areas that it has focus on. It endeavors to be mindful and humble on its words and actions. The advice and council of other people is welcome. The foundation values the partners that grant the money, treating them with respect as well as the beneficiaries. Further, the foundation values delivering the resources received from the grantees and sharing the records of the results. The principles demand for ethical behavior of the organization. The players of the foundation regard each other as being valued colleagues. They express optimism by stating that they have room for change and growth. The organization also is committed to meeting its mission. It declares that to meet the mission, which is to provide equity and opportunity for the people in most need, the organization will require stewardship of the resources available (Meier, 2011). These principles guide the philanthropy activities of the organization. The establishment of the Foundations shows another great leadership quality of caring about other people. Caring about People The life of Bill Gates is closely associated with humanitarianism and philanthropy. Bill Gates and his wife Melinda along with Warren Buffet founded the giving pledge. This pledge was to be taken by some of the richest people in the world accepting to give a larger portion of their wealth to charitable organizations and philanthropic causes. He once said that people should reflect on what they do with their energy and talent. They should not judge themselves with how they have contributed to reducing the deepest inequities of the world and how they treat the people who have nothing a world away from them, and not just by their professional accomplishments. This kind of empathy and caring causes people to follow the leader more faithfully. He works to help people grow and not just to accomplish his own personal gains and goals (Namin-Hedayati, n.d). Bill Gates believes strongly that the value of all lives are equal. Those who cannot help themselves should be helped. Everybody should be given a chance to live his or her best life. Those who are downtrodden should be lifted up. Bill Gates regrets that he left Harvard with no knowledge of the inequities that afflict the world. There are severe disparities of opportunity, wealth and health that have driven millions of people to live in desperation. Bill gates recounts that the greatest advances in humanities are in how the learners can apply the discoveries in this field to reduce inequity (Meier, 2011). Recruitment Skills Bill Gates is recognized for his intelligence and Microsoft has very intelligent employees. The Fortune magazine has once noted him as a leader who is a genius himself and who has the ability to identify the genius in other people. Microsoft uses the term ‘high IQ’ people to denote its dedication to working with intelligent minds. Bill Gates advances his intellectual performance by hiring intelligent people and sharing the responsibility of driving the company forward with them. Gates gets personally involved in the process of recruitment when required. He can even call a particularly talented potential employee is they need more persuasion to work for the company. Gates says that recruiting people is the best decision he has ever made. His initial decisions of doing business with Paul Allen and hiring Steve Balmer, who is his friend, are on the top of the list according to him. This has set up strong primary business partners who have enormously contributed to the growth of Microsoft. Involving himself with visionary and intelligent people has enabled him to concentrate on the strategy of his business and that of his works of charity (Australian Business Solutions, 2012). The culture of the brightest and the smartest has provided Microsoft with a board with brilliant ideas on how to scale its business. The ideas get better when the perspectives and smarts are combined. The right people complement his strengths and fill the gaps left by his weaknesses (Meier, 2011). Self-Management Bill Gates has personality traits that enable him to be a great leader. He has confidence in his thoughts and beliefs. He demonstrated confidence when the United States Government took him to court to make him split the company into four. He vehemently objected the idea because he wanted to give his ideas only to the shareholders that he has won mutual trust. He has the ability to defend his rights. Gates has justified his leadership position at Microsoft several times. He has worked there for many years since he founded it and the shareholders have become confident in how and where he is leading the company. Gates nowadays gives his employees important tasks because they should understand that he should also trust them (Great leaders, n.d.). Gates understood that it takes time to achieve success. He has managed himself keenly since he was young. When he was 13 years of age, Bill Gates set up a group of programmers that they named “Lakeside Programmers”. He was still planning for his business future and was the mover of this group comprised of his school friends. Bill Gates says that he was the first person to suggest that they should try to sell a product in the real world. At the time when computers were of little use, Bill Gates worked for long hours on prototype personal computers while he was still a young student. In 1980, he chased for a deal to make an operating system for IBM that gave Microsoft the biggest boost ever. At this time, Bill Gates bid his mother goodbye and told her that he will be gone for six months. He then lived in the office working on this project. Bill Gates is hardworking and he achieved this through proper self-management. Leaders who manage themselves well must work hard to meet the needs of the competitive globalized world (Australian Business Solutions, 2012). Teamwork Bill Gates encourages building and maintaining working teams. After keenly selecting the most talented professionals, Bill gates develops them and integrates them into the existing working team (Great leaders, n.d.). Microsoft and Bill Gates have been successful because of the desire to work with as small and efficient teams as possible while growing the company as much as possible. Bill Gates encourages the teams to work with the excitement and energy that they would for a start-up business. In spite of Microsoft being a big company, Gates urges his team not to think of themselves as such because that would be detrimental to the company (Australian Business solutions, 2012). Microsoft continues to grow its team according to the market and professional requirements. The small team of programmers that started Microsoft had grown to 450 people by 1995. These people worked together to code for the approximately 11 million lines that made up the operating system Windows 95. The company divided the large projects into smaller programs assigned to smaller specialized teams. This created efficiency and reduced the size of the teams. The smaller teams comprised the development centers that represented a group of small companies that made up Microsoft. Effective management of teamwork is important for a team to be competitive with the increasing globalization. The global market for many products depend on effective teamwork for the production of competitive products. Effective management of a team structure requires a leader to have some overarching goals, empowerment and a high degree of autonomy (Australian Business solutions, 2012). Sources and Types of Power Bill Gates has position and legitimate power as the chair and chief executive officer (CEO) of Microsoft. This means that the organization has given him the legitimate influencing tactic. This enables the employees to comply with his authority when he is using the legitimate power to make then perform functions within their job environment. Bill Gate also uses rational persuasion legitimately when working with the top managers. He persuades then with factual evidence when convincing them to implement his recommendations. Bill Gates uses his reward power to influence the employees. He determines the promotions, raises and the rewards of the employees based on their performance. Microsoft is among the companies that offer its employees with large remuneration packages. He also has control over budget funds, allocating expenses and other resources. Many people have identified Bill Gates as an autocratic leader but he has never used his coercive power to manipulate people and make rush threats for his personal gain. Bill Gates also has personal power including charisma, loyalty, friendship and expertise. His expert power is derived from his knowledge and skills. This makes his followers dependent on him. The expert power earns him respect from his employees. The expertise of Bill Gates is never questioned because he is master in is knowledge and expertise. Bill Gates exercises autocratic leadership and therefore is not dependent on referent power. This type of leadership is associated with positive long-term results and it therefore desirable in the globalized economy (Kumar, n.d.). Transformational Leadership, Innovation and Change The leadership of Bill Gates has always encouraged change, innovation and transformation. These attributes are evident in the executive summary of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The establishment of the foundation is based on transformation, innovation and change through giving equal opportunities to those in most need (Cohan, 2015). In the executive summary, Bill Gates recognizes the importance of resolving the global economic crisis. He says there is need to solve the current crisis while still making smart investments for improved living conditions and growth in the long term (Gates, 2011). Bill Gates recounts on the advances that the innovations in technology, science and business has made in strengthening the global economy. The benefits of innovation have enabled the world economy to grow for more than 500 times since 1960 and the countries that were marginal are now the major drivers of the global economy. Bill Gates further says that innovation benefits both the rich and the poor. Innovation reduces poverty and is therefore in line with the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) that were developed in 2000 with the world leaders. Bill Gates encourages innovation in all disciples and not just in the software industry. He says that the advances in agriculture have saved 1 billion lives since 1960. The advances in health care have reduced the under-5 child mortality from 20 million in 1960 to less than 8 million in 2010. Bill Gates links this success to innovations and generosity. The countries are able to contribute to the resources available for development are now more and richer. More people now can stimulate, lead and realize the dreams of innovation. Bill Gates encourages the nations to embrace key innovations such as vaccines and new seeds, and the most efficient ways of distributing the resources. The capacity for innovation in the growing countries is a new resource that can be used to achieve development and increase equity (Gates, 2011). The global economy calls for transformative leaders like Bill Gates who will steer innovation and consequently leverage the speed of growth. Conclusion This paper has demonstrated that the leadership style has many desirable qualities and they explain the outstanding performance of Microsoft Corporation. These leadership qualities are valuable in the modern globalized economy. The establishment of Microsoft started with Bill Gates’ vision to build more products from the graphical interface that he had developed. Gates is a strong leader who has always had a compelling and clear vision that shows the direction of the organization. He uses his effective communication skills to influence the employees and partners of the company to work towards this shared vision. His effective communication skills made him a symbol of Microsoft. He is particularly effective at communicating with the employees because he actively participates in the processes of the company. Gates achieved great communication skills through his continued desire to learn and grow. Bill Gates Believes that change and growth comes through learning from the experts and from one’s own mistakes. This learning has increased his integrity, which is desirable in leaders. His integrity and honesty are reflected in the principles of the company, which are to have a passion for technology, partners and customers. The values of Bill Gates gave him the desire to set up the charitable organization, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and this shows that he honestly cares about others. Optimizes performance by recruiting particularly talented professionals only. He has employed keen self-management principles since he was young, understanding that he has to work hard and be patient to achieve success. He maintains small and highly efficient teams to increase charisma and performance. He uses his personal, position and legitimate power to influence the actions of the organization. All leaders throughout the world should emulate the leadership and communication style of Bill Gates because it is through change, innovation and transformation that we can most effectively improve the globalized environment of today. References Australian Business Solutions, (2012). Business the Bill Gates way: Secrets from the world’s richest business leader. Retrieved from . Cohan, P. (2015). 8 Leadership insights From Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer. Inc. retrieved from . Gates, B. (2011). Innovation with impact. Executive Summary report to G20 leaders, Gannes Summit. Retrieved from . Goshert, T. (2006). The power of a clear, concise vision. Reliable Plant. Retrieved from . Great leaders, (n.d.). Two outstanding leaders from two totally different fields. Retrieved from . Hill, C. & Jones, G., (2008). Essentials of strategic management. Cengage Learning. Kahan, S., (2015). What makes bill gates a great leader. The Youth impact. Retrieved from . Kumar, D., (n.d.). Report on the leadership style of Bill Gates. Scribid. Retrieved from . Meier, J. D., (2011). Lessons learned from Bill Gates. Sources of Insight. Retrieved from . Namin-Hedayati, F., (n.d.). Leadership qualities of Bill Gates. Center for Work Life. Retrieved from . Read More