Jeff Bezos What makes a good Leader?

Truly effective leaders are also distinguished by a high degree of emotional intelligence, which includes self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skill. Cole Man, What Makes a Good Leader (2004), Harvard Business Review. Emotional Intelligence: He was able to understand his emotions and the emotions of others around him (especially his customers which benefited him in the long run). Self-Awareness: He has a strong sense of self-awareness he was not overly critically or unrealistically hopeful. He had a good understanding of his own values and knew where he was going from the start with Amazon, during the period of unprofitable trading, where he was said to be burning money. He kept stead-fast and confident as he knew where he was heading with Amazon in the long-term.

Sense making/ giving (practice 2)

Leaders need to be in touch with the dynamic world of today, sense making allows them to map out and navigate how to get from point A to point B. Work by Chakravorti (2010 Finding Competitive Advantage in Adversity) says that adversity creates a difficult environment for leaders. But adversity is also a way of separating the best from the rest. A good leader should be able to turn adversity into a competitive advantage which Jeff Bezos did with Amazon.

- Amazon was unprofitable for 6 years, during that time Amazon focused on customer service, Jeff Bezos had a customer service obsession which in the long run paid off. - Amazon was the envy of retailers during the brutal 2008 retail Christmas season. Jeff Bezos customer obsession culture has been majorly accredited for the online retails giant success. "If you think about the long term then you can really make good life decisions that you wont regret later." Jeff Bezos In organisations managing change has become a priority for managers as firms are constantly engaging in some form of change. Managers/ leaders need various mind-sets to help them deal with the challenges that face them on a day to day basis (Gosling, J. & Mintzberg, H. 2003 The Five Minds of a Manager). Effective leaders should be able to integrate all five mind- sets into one (the reflective, analytical, worldly, action and collaborative mind set).

- Jeff Bezos had an analytical mind set and action mind set. He was able to look at situations in different prespectives and he was great at managing change and using it to his advantage. There are leaders who create change and those who manage it. Jeff Bezos did both. "What is dangerous is not to evolve." Jeff Bezos - He changed the world of publishing through online book retailing.

Leaders as Architects (practice 3) :

The impact of leaders on organisational content through their roles as architects of an organisation Munchi N (2005, Leadership for Innovation. Summary Report) One of an entrepreneurs main role is to have vision for their company. They set out the structure of the company like architects. Jeff Bezos model created success for Amazon by coddling their customers but not their employees. This is a very important corporate culture which is emphasised as the empty chair. Which is an empty seat left in meetings by Bezos and is said to be the customers presence.

Transformational Vs Transactional Leadership

Transactional leadership is likely to be effective in stable, predictable environments, while transformational leadership is likely to seek new ways of working, seek opportunities in the face of risk, prefer effective answers to efficient answers, and (is) less likely to support the status quo (Lowe, Kroek and Sivasubramaniam, 1996). Transformational leadership encourages and motivates, while transactional focuses on supervisions and management of the group. It can be argued that Jeff Bezos leadership was mainly transactional but also a sense of transformational leadership. He was a transformational leader as he was good at motivating people, through this influencing his sub-ordinates to make major changes. He had a profound effect on their followers beliefs regarding where the organization is going and what it should become. But he was a micro-manager, he not only directed the company but he managed it to the extent of micro managing. Jeff Bezos "makes ordinary control freaks look like stoned hippies" according to a former employee (Steve Yeggle).