Personalities of two internationally known leaders
PERSONALITIES OF TWO INTERNATIONALLY KNOWN LEADERS 2
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)Prepare an annotated outline of your Final Project, briefly indicating :
2)The content you plan to include in each section of the report.
3)The concepts and techniques you plan to apply for analyzing any data and developing your argument.
4)The outline should not include detailed sections of the Final Project. Instead, it should be a specific and
crisp overview of the contents that will comprise the final report, which will provide a detailed account of
the six tasks listed below. In the other words, Ideally you should base your outline on the basis of the six
tasks listed below:
1.Analysis and evaluation of Leader #1
2.Analysis and evaluation of Leader #2
3.Comparison of the leaders
4.Summary of significant findings and perspectives from journal entries
5.Analysis and evaluation of journal entries to chosen leaders
6.Conclusion
Sir Richard Branson, CEO of the Virgin Group and Sir Akbar Al Baker who is the
current CEO of Qatar Airways has outstanding personalities that have propelled them to higher
grounds throughout their entire careers. Their personalities can be explained based on various
theories, which include Allport’s Trait Theory, Eysenck’s Personality Theory and Freud’s
Tripartite Theory of Personality (Bass, 2009, p. 5). This annotated outline of my final project,
therefore, tries to analyze and evaluate the personality of these two outstanding international
leaders using these theories.
The personality of Sir Richard Branson can be assessed based on Freud’s Tripartite
theory of personality into three main components namely the id, the ego and thirdly the
superego. This is because these traits develop at different rates, and an individual’s overall
PERSONALITIES OF TWO INTERNATIONALLY KNOWN LEADERS 3
personality can be defined as one of these depending on the most visible aspect of the person
(Brain, 2002, p. 203).
Sir Richard Branson has a Healthy Psyche. Despite the fact that he faced so many
challenges in life, he never gave up on his struggle for success. Throughout his career life, he is
well known for having taken so many risks like setting a record using the balloon and the boat,
he encountered so many challenges did not stop him from pursuing his goal in life. In fact, he
took his challenges as stepping stones in his career. As a result, his failures led to his success. In
some instances, the Virgin shop ran out of cash. He used tricks to evade paying taxes that
eventually resulted in his arrest and faced criminal charges. While at school, he was arrested for
violating laws after launching a student magazine. Luckily, he managed to get a good lawyer
who secured his release. Despite his criminal record, Branson decided to reform and came up
with a very successful airline.
In addition, his personality is explained by Eysenck’s personality theory. This theory
adopts two dimensions namely extroverted and introverted as a means of categorizing the
various possible personalities that an individual may present. Despite his dirty background, he
came up with a new business new business strategy that he called branded venture capitalism.
This enabled him to have control over so many businesses without having to risk his money. As
a result, the Virgin Group is a well-established and fast growing company with so many
shareholders (Beycioglu & Pashiardis, 2015, p. 300).
Furthermore, Allport’s Trait Theory analyzes individuals subjectively based on their in-
born traits combined with the environmental dynamics that they have been exposed to as they
were developing. Sir Richard Branson exhibited patience and creativity in order to ensure
PERSONALITIES OF TWO INTERNATIONALLY KNOWN LEADERS 4
success. This is mainly associated with his family that cultivated in him the character of hard
work and independence. This is specifically what he adopted in his business management hence
success (Thomas & Segal, 2006, p. 120).
Sir Akbar Al Baker, who is the current CEO of Qatar Airways personality, is well
explained based on Freud’s Tripartite Theory of Personality the man is so detailed about
everything that he does. He ensures that all the activities that take place in the company are
inspected including every plane that leaves the airport. In spite of being the boss and could
delegate such duty, he does the job. In addition, his personality is explained by Eysenck’s
personality theory. He does not believe in holding himself accountable to anything. However, he
is very strict and keeps every person to the highest standards of accountability. He is a very
straight man and always comments on everything the way he sees it. This has actually helped in
growing the business to these heights (Malcolm, 2002, p. 9).
According to Allport’s Trait Theory, Sir Akbar Al Baker subjectively based on their in-
born traits combined with the environmental dynamics that they have been exposed to as they
were developing. This is simply because he is proud and enthusiastic beyond words. This is
shown with the passion with which he loves Qatar Airways. Some people relate this airline to his
life. The man is zealousness about the airline. This passion has therefore translated to his success
in the company (Lang, & Rybnikova, 2012, p. 11).
There are significant similarities between the two leaders. The leaders exhibit
authoritative style of leadership. This is seen especially in how they bring together their people
towards achieving the set down goals. The authoritative style of leadership yields good results
especially when the institution is after having a new vision especially when things have changed
PERSONALITIES OF TWO INTERNATIONALLY KNOWN LEADERS 5
completely. Both leaders inspire business-working condition in the workers leading to vibrant
enthusiasm for a particular goal (Marx, 2013, p. 4).
In addition, the leaders are affiliative since they work with the intention of uniting all the
workers in the institution. Thus, the leaders value their subjects first before anything else. This
form of leadership enhances healing and bonding especially when under stress. However, the
leaders vary in their leadership style to some extent with Sir Richard Branson having the will to
coach his subjects. This style of leadership empowers the subjects by ensuring that they are
confident in everything that they do. This is unlike Sir Akbar Al Baker, who is the current CEO
of Qatar Airways who is a pacesetter. He mostly concentrates on ensuring that people work very
hard to achieve self-direction. This form of leadership is therefore very essential when the team
being led is well experienced with the necessary skills and motivated (Pasmore, 2014, p. 6). In
conclusion, a good leader ought to possess more than one trait in terms of leadership
competencies. This is because there is more that leadership demands than just understanding the
technicalities of sound leadership on how to manage people. Sound leadership therefore entails
someone who is determined to deliver, a person who is very innovative by coming up with new
ideas, focused on everything that they do and confident about it besides being trustworthy to both
the workers and the clients. Furthermore, good leaders should be able to communicate well both
orally and in written form.
PERSONALITIES OF TWO INTERNATIONALLY KNOWN LEADERS 6
Reference
Bass, BM 2009, From Transactional To Transformational Leadership. Albany, NY, Free Press.
Beycioglu, K., & Pashiardis, P 2015. Multidimensional Perspectives On Principal Leadership
Effectiveness. Available from:
<http://Search.Ebscohost.Com/Login.Aspx?Direct=True&Scope=Site&Db=Nlebk&Db=
Nlabk&AN=937773> [16 February 2015]
Brain, C 2002. Advanced Psychology: Applications, Issues And Perspectives. Cheltenham,
Nelson Thornes.
PERSONALITIES OF TWO INTERNATIONALLY KNOWN LEADERS 7
Lang, R, & Rybnikova, I 2012 Leadership is Going Global, in The Encyclopedia of Human
Resource Management: Thematic Essays (eds W. J. Rothwell and G. M. (Bud).
Benscoter), Pfeiffer, A Wiley Imprint, San Francisco, CA.
Malcolm, G 2002. The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make A Big Difference. Boston,
Back Bay Books.
Marx, T 2013, ‘Teaching Leadership And Strategy’, Business Education Innovation Journal,
Vol. 5 No. 2, Pp. 12-19.
Pasmore, W 2014. Developing A Leadership Strategy: A Critical Ingredient For Organizational
Success. White Paper, Centre For Creative Leadership
Thomas, J. C., & Segal, DL 2006. Comprehensive Handbook Of Personality And
Psychopathology Volume 1. Hoboken, John Wiley & Sons.
