Project
The purpose of the Final Project is to apply the concepts and techniques of the module to the analysis of
real-world situations or problems. Students are expected to use diverse sources of information and to
carry out an original analysis rather than summarise or rehash existing work. Students are encouraged to
use situations and data from their own experience where possible.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Please follow the following instructions exactly one by one as each point is very
important. And please don�t deviate from these points.
1) You are required to complete a course project that provides an investigation of outstanding examples
of leadership, providing an analysis of the leaders� styles and effectiveness.
2)In Week 5, you needed to choose two leaders (living or deceased) that you will research with regards to
their leadership traits, styles, ability to inspire change, etc.( the file for week 5 is attached)
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3)The analysis and evaluation of these leadership examples must be based on the concepts you have
acquired throughout the module.
4)You should then provide an analysis and evaluation of the information and insights from your journal
entries against the research you conducted on the two exemplary leaders.
5)The goal is to connect what you have learned through research to your everyday and professional life.
The Final Project is due this week and should follow the given outline:
1.Analysis and evaluation of Leader #1 Sir Richard Branson, CEO of the Virgin Group
2.Analysis and evaluation of Leader #2 Sir Akbar Al Baker CEO of Qatar Airways.
Introduction
Leaders have different personalities and leadership philosophies that they use to drive
growth. The leadership attributes from different leaders relate to certain theories in each and
every phenomenon. The Freud’s Tripartite theory uses the id, the ego, and the superego to define
the overall personality of an individual with the visible traits of an individual. Eyencks
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personality theory on the other hand uses the extroverted and introverted theories as a means of
categorizing the various possible ways a leader behaves. The other theory that useful in
analyzing the leadership traits is the Allport’s trait theory and it analyses an individual with
respect to in-born traits that an individual represents. This paper uses three theories to analyze
the leadership of Sir Richard Branson and Sir Akbar Al Baker.
Analysis of Sir Richard Branson
The CEO of the Virgin Group had outstanding leadership style at have made him a hero
even up to date. The personalities of this leader are well explained in the Allport’s Trait Theory
that brings out three components evident in the life of the CEO (Wang, 2012). The theory’s
components are inclusive of the ego, superego and the id all developed at different rates. Despite
having all these characteristics in his leadership, Richard had an outstanding personality of its
kind. Challenges were part of his leadership life, but he never gave up, he kept trying and doing
his best from time to time (Burns, 2010). He is known to have a health Psyche and on top of this,
he made a record of using the balloon and the boat. A good leader will have to take risks in his
leadership life like in the case of Sir Richard, who took life threatening risks that yielded to high
returns at the end. When the Virgin shop Ran out of cash, this failure led to the success of the
CEO despite him being charged in the courts of law for the crime of evading the paying of taxes.
When he was in school, he was charged with the mistake of launching a student magazine, an act
deemed illegal by the management whereby, a good lawyer saved him. He had a dirty name but
he successfully cleaned his name and started a new life that was extroverted and introverted
(Lang & Rybnikova, 2012). He used the venture capitalism business strategy, which enabled him
to control many business without risking money; since he was so smart in his strategy that led to
the creation of his empire.
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Richard is well known to have employed the transformational leadership style in his reign
by identifying the changes needed and created a clear vision of how it ought to have been
implemented for the success of the organization. Richard was more concerned at improving the
performance of every individual in his organization to their full potential of doing the best. He
ensured that all committed themselves wholly in their work and identified all that was needed
from them by the organization to makes things work out in accordance to set plans. Richard is a
person who can adapt with a harsh business climate and very flexible in dealing with his
employees who may show dissatisfaction at some point. He has given his employees a reason to
be happy working under his leadership by ensuring that all their needs are well catered for and
they have the opportunity to air their views in decision making process (Malcolm, 2002). This is
to mean that, he really encouraged team work, where all people put their efforts together leading
to encouragement to one another about the goal ahead. Whenever there is team leadership,
leaders are in a better position of overcoming some weakness that might be evident in
transformational leadership. Richard ensured that the task that was ahead of him was achieved,
and that his team was well maintained
Analysis of Sir Akbar Baker
Sir Akbar Baker the current CEO of Qatar Airways is a leader who like Richard has
shown tremendous outstanding personalities that have made him a strong leader to date. His
leadership styles are well explained by the use of Freud’s Tripartite Theory of Personality that
explains his ability to be detailed in all his actions. The CEO has the mandate of ensuring all
work is well done, including inspection of all the planes leaving the airport at all given time of
the year. He is one type of a leader who believes in doing the job himself instead of delegating it
to other people to do it. The CEO has many significant qualities such that even the Eysenck’s
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personality theory explains how he does not let himself be held accountable for any damage done
thus, ensures the job is well done. This is a man who is zealous about airline to an extent some
people have related his life with the airline. The high passion of the airline is the reason for the
success of the Qatar Airway under his leadership (Mital & Dorfman, 2012).
Comparison of the leaders
Richard and Akbar have similar characteristic because they are authoritative leaders who
want to ensure that their juniors have done their required duties without fail. To ensure people
attain a self-direction, Akbar ensures that people are very hardworking on making this happen.
These two leaders are well determined to transform their organizations by launching aggressive
strategies that guides their operations. This is because they are visionary and capable of steering
growth in their organizations during the times of problems. Unlike Baker, Sir Branson is more
controversial in his operations. He has a series of controversies that stems from childhood to the
time he leads his organizations. In addition, Branson also seems more tough concerning the way
he handled his employees are he wants them to performs diligently in the organization. On the
other hand, Baker is a soft leader since he tends to incorporate his subordinates in making
decisions regarding the management of his organization.
Summary of journal entries
Leadership has a broad perspective, whereby, good leaders are in a better position of
succeeding as to poor leaders. In order the organization to move forward, the leader ought to
have vision that will nature the organization. There is need of the organization to provide the
leaders with the best leadership skills that are needed for success of the company. To meet the set
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goal of any given organization, the leader ought to work in close range with the people to
achieve his goal by ensuring that he serves the interest of others not his own interest. The skills
possessed by a leader with the style of approach will yield to good leadership characteristics that
are highly needed in the leadership skills. A leader must be creative and innovative to better his
leadership skills that are helpful in making him humble in understanding the direction he want
the organization to take (Samnani, & Singh, 2013). Good decision making skills where they give
other people opportunity of airing their views is as well very important. Others must participate
in decision making to ensure they feel part and parcel of the organization. The contingency
model is useful in the identification of the best applicable style of leadership in a certain
situation. This model will be best suitable in identifying how a leader can be exhibit weakness
ahead of him by use of leader-member relation. There are several styles employed by good
leaders in their leadership to ensure they achieve the set organizational goals and ensure
everyone benefits. A good leader will portray charismatic characteristics of leadership that will
be of great benefit to him and the organization that he leads. A charismatic leader is the type of a
leader who compels or draws other people to do what is right through use of their outstanding
leadership qualities that impress their followers. A charismatic leader will be very smart in
controlling the pressure that come as result of leadership through the use of his inborn
intelligence. Such leaders make good use of their personal charms and their convincing power to
make things work for the good of others not their own interest (Matthews, 2014).
Through the communication of the standard vision they have about the organization to
their followers, they draw them closer and increase their capability to work hard toward
achieving one goal. On the other side, transformational leaders as well have a smart strategy that
they use to influence change in different groups of people they are in a better position of
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influencing organization to follow their vision, which they deem it most important than any other
for that matter. The goals and the vision of transformations leaders are meant to work for the
good of everyone (Hofstede Center, 2015). Good leaders will entice team work that is very
useful in helping them and overcome some weakness that mighty be evident in their leadership.
When people put all their efforts together they can be in a better position of going far than they
even thought. Despite all these, some major acts ought to be performed to ensure effectiveness in
their leadership is attained (Pasmore, 2014). The team leaders is a person who is good in the
coordination of the team activities and smart in motivating all to give their contributions to the
team. An authentic leader gives his followers a chance to exploit their potential so that they
become more productive and self-independent in their work. Ethics must be employed for use by
good leaders as this gives out good results. Leaders are required to understand the culture of
people from different to make their interaction works much easier.
Analysis and evaluation of journal entries to the leaders
Richard had the characteristic traits of influencing change in groups of people of his
organization whereby, he encouraged them to work hard towards achieving the organization
goal. He had a good vision of taking his organization to higher levels and he did things to ensure
he achieves the good of all in the whole organization. Richard played in facilitating of good
pressure whereby, his outstanding qualities drew people new to him (Northouse, 2014).
Sir Akbar is an authentic leader because he gives his followers a good opportunity of
exploiting their potential to become more productive and self-independent. Sir Akbar, trained his
followers to an extent they work so well without his supervision in the running of their daily
routine. Sir Akbar used to encourage his employees to participate in decision making process, a
factor that made them to feel acknowledge as part of the company. Akbar has focused more on
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the servant leadership style that focuses on bettering the relationship between the leader and his
followers. He is an ethical leader who employs the use of vital mechanisms that contribute
positively to his organization. He encourages his follower to be honest in their duty to ensure that
there is no complain from their customers whatsoever. When people are honest, they are in a
better position of doing the right things to their customers and to other people (Bass, 2009). The
target of the organization is well determined by the standards of ethic employed in the
organization. All workers have to comply with the airline set ethics because this help in the
building of the company’s reputation in globally. This is the reason as to why inspection of all
planes has to be done to increase the accuracy of the flights taking off from Qatar Airline.
Conclusion
Leaders have different personalities and leadership philosophies that they use to drive
growth. The leadership attributes from different leaders relate to certain theories in each and
every phenomenon. The Freud’s Tripartite theory uses the id, the ego, and the superego to define
the overall personality of an individual with the visible traits of an individual. Eyencks
personality theory on the other hand uses the extroverted and introverted theories as a means of
categorizing the various possible ways a leader behaves. The other theory that useful in
analyzing the leadership traits is the Allport’s trait theory and it analyses an individual with
respect to in-born traits that an individual represent. Both Baker and Branson have similarities
and differences regarding the nature of their leadership styles.
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References
Bass, B. M (2009), From Transactional to Transformational Leadership. Albany, NY: Free
Press
Burns, J. M (2010), Leadership. New York City, NY: Harper & Row.
Lang, R, & Rybnikova, I. (2012). Leadership is Going Global. McGraw-Hill
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Malcolm, G. (2002). The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference. Boston:
Back Bay Books
Matthews, J, (2014). Eight Elements of an Ethical Organization.
