Prominent Leader

Prominent Leader
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Prominent Leader
To become a good and prominent leader it takes personality and character. Many people are currently and have been in leadership positions in the past but not everyone who have been able to make a mark and be celebrated after his or her tenure. From the religion perspective, especially Biblically, leadership is believed to be God given. This supports the argument that even if anyone can lead, not everybody can make a good leader. Regardless it is in business or politics, leadership is one of the challenging positions where an individual must meet his or her expectations. One of the prominent leaders living in the current world that I highly admire is Tim Cook. This is the Guy that who has been entrusted the leadership of Apple Company, one of the leading companies across the globe (Apple, Inc., 2015). Right from his early days in Apple, Tim Cook was faced by a series of challenges. One of the main issueswas how to maintain a company with a well-built profile across the word by the previous Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs.
Unlike the previous Apple Inc. leader Steve Jobs who was a transformational leader, Tim Cook happens to be a transactional one. A leader who is transformational is the one who despite managing and strategizing for the company he or she goes ahead and embarks on building a good work team and bringing together different organization employees. These leaders mostly set goal and targets that aid in improving the performance level and contributing to employees’ personal growth. On the other hand, transactional leadership is a kind of management that mostly minds about ensuring that organization operations are going on well as expected. These leaders expect the highest level of discipline among the workers and constantly use inducements to encourage employees(Kanungo, 2001). This method of leadership embraced by Tim Cook happens to be one of the many factors that have contributed to the continued success of this company and making it one of the best. For instance, when he first took the leadership of the Apple Inc. there was a principle named ‘time based competition’ that was developed by consultant and author George Stock. This principal emphasized much on time as the main determinant in designing, marketing and even manufacturing of the products. In simpler terms, a company should undertake quick production and their products get into the market faster. Tim Cook made sure that this principal was implemented in the Apple Inc. and indeed it happens to be one of the factors attributing to the success of this company since his tenure(Gregory, Russell & Patterson, 2004)
Some of the main leadership characteristics of this guy include transparency in any company dealings. After joining a company that had been highly criticized especially on the matters relating to standard of the people who worked for it globally, Cook used transparency to silence the doubters. He made it clear to the world and anyone who was willing to learn how this company operated. As a result he ended up creating Apple Inc. goodwill and more importantly set standard for this industry. Cook once reinstated that the Apple Company was dedicated to meet supply responsibilities as much as they maintain those of the products (Browning, Russolillo & Vascellaro, 2012). The other main leadership characteristic of Tim Cook is upholding the diversification in leadership. As the saying goes, no one owns the monopoly of ideas. Some people have ensured that they are the only source of ideas in any management and everything must be done in their ways. Cook as a leader has acknowledged that different people and workers are very resourceful in management and propelling of any organization ahead. Cook unequivocally recognizes and makes a difference between people opinions and facts a factor that has ensured that the most appropriate ideas are implemented. Moreover, he encourages his employees to be themselves and offer the best they can to the company. Furthermore, he advocates for honest and truth in any dealing and more importantly acceptance whenever someone makes a mistake.
Tim Cook happens to be one of the currently living servant leaders. Servant leadership is kind of leadership where the utilized philosophy encourages interaction between the management and the employees the main aim being gaining authority as opposed to power(Gregory, Russell & Patterson, 2004). As discussed earlier, Tim Cook has been able to encourage and respect individual opinions as a major tool for propelling the Apple Company ahead. Another characteristic of a servant leader is that he or she always plans for the future. Apple Inc. under the leadership Cook has been able to strategize and plan for future. After releasing a given gadget, another is in the process of manufacturing to succeed the released one. Moreover, a servant leader is a humble one. Cook despite being the top most guys in the Apple Company has displayed the virtue of being humble by even walking around the shops to read customer emails and at least see their opinions.
To sum up, Tim Cook is one of the prominent leaders whose management skills have led to the growth of the Apple Company and thus gaining a lot of admiration not only from the ambitious future managers but also by Apple Inc. competitors.
References
Apple, Inc. (2015). Retrieved from https://www.apple.com/
Browning, E. S., Russolillo, S., &Vascellaro, J. (2012). Apple Now Biggest-Ever US Company. Wall Street Journal. Retrieved from http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10000872396390443855804577601773524745182
Gregory Stone, A., Russell, R. F., & Patterson, K. (2004). Transformational versus servant leadership: A difference in leader focus. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 25(4), 349-361.
Kanungo, R. N. (2001). Ethical values of transactional and transformational leaders. Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences/Revue Canadienne des Sciences de l’Administration, 18(4), 257-265.