Karen Stocks – Biography and Leadership Style
Question:
Discuss about the Karen Stocks David Rohrsheim and Naomi Simson.
Leadership is a quality through which a person can lead his followers and team towards great successes. This is an attribute which is present in some persons by birth while some of the individuals develop it by their qualifications and experiences in different phases of their life (Goetsch and Davis, 2014). There are many instances in which it is found that the leaders use their talent and skills for achieving success for the organisation. As per the present report, three leaders have been chosen so as to discuss their leadership roles and styles in managing their companies. A critical discussion over these leaders will help in analysing their individual roles in managing the organisations (Efferin, Efferin, Hartono and Hartono, 2015). The report will discuss about the biographies of these leaders and success they achieved in their career. Besides this, there will be a compare and contrast between various leaders and their management styles so that a learning can be developed from their attributes.
Biography
Karen Stocks, former managing director of Twitter Australia. Karen grew up in coast of New South Wales and moved to Coffs Harbour at the age of seven. She stayed here for completing her university studies. She again moved to Sydney with her husband so as to build career. While studying in University, she had a plan to work for either Google or Vodafone (Pruzan, Pruzan-Mikkelsen, Miller and Miller, 2017). At that time, Twitter did not exit and then she joined Vodafone at first. After several years of service she was at Google as well and at that time, Twitter was at its inception stage. She admits that while working in Google, she had no idea about the Twitter thing and how it is potential for changing the style of communication (Klaus and Fernando, 2016). Karen is responsible for handling all the operations of Twitter in Australia along with its advertisement, vision development and business performance (Karen Stocks has gone from Twitter. 2016). With the help of her adaptive nature she always welcomed changes in business environment and made developments in the firm. This passionate attitude of Karen helped her in being one of the most influential women in media industry.
Role of a leader
Karen has managed Twitter Australia in an efficient manner with the help of her leadership ideas and skills. She is very passionate to her work and dedicates herself completely towards work. She is the lady who always likes to embrace changes in the trends and business environment (Shin, Sung, Choi and Kim, 2015). She has very high energy to do work and perform efficiently to increase the productivity of the business. She is open minded with broad and clear vision for the enterprise because of which she always try to stimulate her employees to be creative (Former Twitter Australia managing director Karen Stocks returns to Google, 2016). She keeps herself open to various new ideas from anyone as she believes that diverse minds can help in getting better ideas. As a leader, she has always believed in taking advantage of new opportunities. She keeps on learning new things and encourages her employees and staff as well for this.
David Rohrsheim – Biography and Leadership Style
Success in her role
Karen, with the help of her professional and encouraging attitude managed Twitter efficiently as the company is reaching at its heights. As a managing Director at twitter she also performs the role of marketing and HR professional by drawing the various theories of both disciplines. She has led the company towards changing the phase of communication style as per the modern trend (Syed, Bandara, French and Stewart, 2016). She admits that Twitter is a useful medium that offers its users by balancing a line which can help in promotion of free speech and giving enough space to a number of people for sharing their ideas. She has a wide vision for the development of company as she admits that Twitter will change the technology of communication in a modern style. She has always favoured the women leadership to a great extent. With the help of her true management and leadership, she has managed to increase the features of Twitter and its related users in past years (Renko, El Tarabishy, Carsrud and Brännback, 2015). Thus, she has proved herself as a great leader bringing a great change in the world of technology and communication.
Biography
David Rohrsheim is the general manager of Uber in Australia and New Zealand where he leads a team of more than 200 people. He was born on 29th August, 1981 in Sydney and has the degree of B.eng from Adelaide University and also an MBA from Stanford University (David Rohrsheim, General Manager, Uber Australia & New Zealand, 2016). When David use to live in San Francisco, he came in the contact of founders of Uber company. In conversation, he also agreed that Australia is in the need of a good transportation facility that can help in getting around. After the launch of Uber in Australia, He assisted in expanding the services of Uber in various cities of Australia and New Zealand. Before joining Uber, he worked for DFJ which is a venture capital firm that made investments in various famous organisations like Hotmail, Tesla, Skype and many more. Through his efficient leadership skills, he made this company a successful giant in the transportation sector of Australia and New Zealand.
Role of leader
It is evident that Uber is a fast progressing company in the present era which has started its business several years ago on the basis of an innovative concept to order a ride through a simplified app (Desai, Berger and Higgs, 2016). This innovative idea was a great success in many cities and towns and continuously providing its service of on demand rides. David is responsible for enhancing the experience of Uber in cities of Australia and New Zealand by convincing CEO of Uber to make use of the potential in bringing Uber to great success. David has all the responsibiolities of Uber in Australia, where he looks after supply and demand of the company as well as managing customer relationships. He has an innovative and inspiring mind through which he lead his team towards cooperated operations and team work (Galloway, Kapasi and Sang, 2015). Through his potential and attribute of inspirational speaking, he has managed his team at the time of adversity as well.
Naomi Simson – Biography and Leadership Style
Success in his role
Uber has expanded its operations at global level by expanding the networks in entire part of world. In context of Australia and New Zealand, David Rohrsheim led the organisation in an innovative and successful way that very soon, the firm became able eo expand its operations in different cities of Australia. David is responsible for the faster growth and expanding partnerships with various companies because of his great communication skill (Parker and McKinney, 2015). David is an able entrepreneur who is always ready to take risks and gain greater success. He has the ability to understand the customers’ minds appropriately because of which he has succeeded in offering the best of services to people. He believes in applying innovative ideas that has the ability to change entire way of thinking. With the help of his great attitude, regarding the positivity and risk taking, he has led the mentioned company towards great achievements.
Biography
Naomi Simson is an Australian business person and an entrepreneur who has founded Red Balloon Company which is an online based gift retailer organisation. Naomi was born in 1964 and like to write books as well. Initially, she started her career in corporate marketing with various reputed firms like KPMG, IBM and Ansett Australia. She started the Red balloon enterprise with her personal investment at small level and managed to make it one of the most innovative firms with the help of her innovative ideas and leadership abilities (Fris and Lazaridou, 2017). She completed her graduation from the University of Melbourne in 1984. Following to the success of Red Balloon, she launched another small company named Redii in 2016. She is a philanthropist and also joined a council which supports for animal protection.
Role as a leader
As a leader, she has been a role model and inspiration for many women as she possesses a great innovative mind through which she managed her company. She accepts that for being a good leader, it is essential that a person possess great vision and communication skill to make people aware about your dreams and mission (Jian and Fairhurst, 2016). She is very much passionate towards her work and believes in working with cooperation and team management. She is believes that passion and dedication towards work is a key element to achieve success for every person. Besides this, a focussed learning and sharing of knowledge helps an individual to become creative and open minded. This helps in developing career in the creative field.
Compare and Contrast of Leadership Styles
Success in her role
Naomi presents herself as a great leader and an entrepreneur with her great achievements in various phases of life. She is a winner of various awards and achievements which she gained as a result of her efforts made towards her founded company. She believes in managing team with innovative experience rather than through commands and strict supervision, Because of her skills and talent as a leader, her company attained a tremendous and notable success within a very short period (Harrison, Leitch and McAdam, 2015). She believes in continuous learning approach which helps in overall development within a person. Besides this, as a leader, she understands the importance of customers and their value in business for achieving success. On the basis if this ability, she has been able to create good strategies for business and leading the entity towards great success.
At present, the performance of mentioned organisation is quite impressive, yet one issue is there related to its expansion. The stated venture is working within very limited level with most of its operations constraint to Australia. As per the success achieved by Naomi with her start-up, she must make some measures to expand the services of enterprise at a wider level towards other countries as well.
The leadership style and the qualities use to differ in each person according to which, they apply their skills for leading a team. In the above section, biography and roles as a leader has been mentioned for three major personalities which are Karen stocks, David Rohrshiem and Naomi Simson. All three leaders have made a great success story in their life with the help of their skill set and leadership quality. Besides this, it is evident that all three of them have their individual styles of leading their teams and companies. According to Evans, et.al., (2015) the leadership style of a person depends upon a person’s way of thinking, attitude and vision for themselves. As per this, the three leaders have their own way of managing the teams and applying their leadership skills.
There are different approaches to the leadership according to which various leaders have made their marks in the history. In the present report, three major approaches have been discussed which are adopted by the mentioned leaders. The first leadership style is based on situational approach in which a leader does not stick to a particular style. Instead of this, he makes decision as per the current situation which can suit in best way for handling a particular condition (Abbasiyannejad and Silong, 2015). Thus, this type of leadership offers great provision of flexibility in the style of leadership on the basis of which a leader can lead his team. Another style discussed in present report is transformational leadership. The transformational style of leadership suggests leading a team by simultaneously working with subordinates so as to develop a vision among them and continuously motivate them for achieving that vision. This type of leadership is very useful at present time so as to develop morale and productivity of the team members. The last approach discussed in the present report is related with Participative style of leadership (Huber, 2017). As per this approach, a leader adopts the open minded attitude and always involves the subordinates and team members in significant decision making which may have an impact on them. This helps them in facing less number of oppositions towards change and towards a particular decision. Besides this, it motivates the team members and aids in realising them their importance within enterprise. Thus, all three approaches have their own merits or advantages for the organisation.
Conclusion
As per the present study and current business environment, the significance of Situational leadership is immense Smyth, (2016) state that the Situational leadership gives enough of flexibility regarding decision making and leading approaches. The situational leadership style is based on making decisions as per the situations so that a correct decision can be made over a specific condition. As per this, a leader has the enough flexibility to change his ideas and decisions without sticking to a particular thought. In case of present study, David Rohrsheim favours this situational leadership approach for leading his business organisation. The current environment of transportation sector is highly dynamic and full of competitions. In such situations, it is essential that the companies take relevant decisions as per the current condition (De Vita and Case, 2016). In addition to this, he makes decisions on the basis of his intellectual skills and applies his potential to manipulate the adverse circumstances into positive opportunities.
Aizikovitsh-Udi and Cheng, (2015) argue that participative leadership style is a key to develop a business organisation into a successful venture. As per this approach, Naomi Simson is the supporter of this leadership style. She uses to involve her small team into every phase of decision making so as to welcome diverse minds in finding a solution to a specific problem. Besides this, she likes to increase the team cooperation with the help of group efforts for each kind of small to big works which is a key to transform the way of working. On other hand, Karen Stocks basically adopts the transformational leadership style for leading her organisation (Ghanizadeh, 2017). She develops the broad vision for her enterprise and works simultaneously with her subordinates to lead the required change within enterprise. Further, she guides the changes within her entity by inspiring her followers to become adaptive in nature so as to change themselves as per the situations. Thus, all three leaders use to follow their individual styles of leadership for guiding the behaviour of their team.
As per Shek, Sun and Liu, (2015) different styles of leadership makes a difference between various leaders as it guides the behaviour and attitude of an individual. David Rohrshiem has a strong leadership attitude and use to lead his team accordingly. He believes in quick action against various situations persisting within competitive environment so that opportunities cannot be missed out. With the help of his strong leadership he always puts his points strongly which can have an impact on minds of people. This attitude has helped him in putting his place strongly in the industry. His ideas are sharp and strong that has the ability to impact decisions of listener. Thus, he manages and inspires his team efficiently by boosting their morale.
Similarly, Karen Stocks has the attitude of positivity and far sightedness which makes her different from any leader. She believes in inspiring the team by giving them a chance to step forward (Marques, 2015). These help them in being creative and take part in each and every stage of the development so as to see every situation as an opportunity without caring for the results. On other hand, Naomi has the attitude of risk taking so as to transform the challenges into opportunities for development. Apart from this, she also encourages her team to develop this attitude so as to be creative and innovative in their work.
Watson, (2016) contradicted that, skills sets and its application in a situation is a major point which differentiates a leader from other. As per the present analysis, David adopts the situational leadership style according to which he uses the skill of referring various resources, external relationships maintained, group management and balancing organisational culture so as to reflect the better approach towards a particular situation. On other hand, it is evident that transformational leadership style adopted by Karen stocks is useful as she utilise her skills of developing long term visions which can help in inspiring the team towards development of their working attitude. In addition to this, she does not believe in sticking towards the organisational culture for attainment of a task (Bell and Loon, 2015). Naomi Simson, who strongly believes in participative style of leadership uses her innovative skill for involving with her team mates. In addition to this, she applies the cooperative attitude for the development of team members so that they can have diverse minds in execution of a task.
Apart from above stated differences among three of the mentioned leaders, all of them have some of the similarities. These similarities are based on their skills and attitude as it is the universal requirement for being an efficient leader in present time. In the views of ….., a broad vision, acceptance for change and risk taking attitude are the basic requirements which must be there in a leader. David is a great supporter of adaptive attitude as per the present situation. He believes that a company who does not have the ability to accept changes occurring in the business environment may cease to exist in the competition. Besides this, it is apparent that Karen stocks also favour the requirement to accept changes within environment so as to develop a company in the competitive world. She thinks that without accepting changes happening in the business, an organisation cannot respond appropriately towards expectations of customers. Apart from this, Naomi Simson also thinks that occurrence of changes is necessary in present time for development process. Without changes, an enterprise cannot build up a better product or service.
Jian and Fairhurst, (2016) has the different view towards the skills and qualities of a leader as they think that adopting a particular approach of leadership can help appropriately in development of an organisation. David, Naomi and Karen strongly believe in having a strong and clear vision for getting success and achievements in the career. Without having a specific vision, a company cannot move towards right direction. Naomi admits that having a particular vision helps in making right strategies and plans for the development of business. Similarly, David states that setting of vision helps as a guiding principle for him and his entire team as all of them strive to attain it by their efforts (Galloway, Kapasi and Sang, 2015). Besides this, Naomi firmly believes that having a broad vision helps her team to move forward to achieve a particular goal with more efficiency. This also helps them in thinking more innovatively and creatively.
All these leaders have the similar trait of risk taking as they believe that success cannot be achieved without taking risk. As per this, it is essential to take risks which can help in getting new success and great advantages in the form of large customer base and big profit margins. With the help of risk adopting attitude, these leaders have made an impression on their respective areas. Moreover, mentioned leaders have also used the available opportunities in a great way which helped them in a positive way for achieving success. While, they have the ability to transform the negatives into great avenues as well because of which they expanded their names and success at a global level.
As per the above mentioned issue related to Naomi Simson’s company expansion, it has been attributed that she has not been able to make expected expansion of her company in various parts of country. One basic reason for this can be the trend and culture which is not so famous and in tradition of many countries. Therefore, Simson requires to develop her organisation and its services as per the other countries suitability. Thus, she is recommended for adopting diversification strategy so that she can enter into various new markets. She has the potential to make her company successful with the help of her innovative and creative attitude. Therefore, diversifying in the new market with new product will definitely help in expanding the success of her organisation. She can adopt for online services related to delivery of desired type of decorations and stuffs that can be used for various auspicious events at home, office or any other location. This can be done by entering various new cities and countries which are still not captured by the entity.
Conclusion
The above report is abed on critically analysing the leadership and its approaches in the present time. For this purpose, three different leaders have been chosen who adopt various approaches of the leadership. The three leaders that have been selected for this purpose are David Rohrsheim, Naomi Simson and Karen stocks. All of them adopt situational style of leadership, participative style and transformational approach of leadership respectively. The report concludes that all three leaders have their own way of managing and leading the team which has made their companies successful in the industry. One issue has been identified related to expansion of company led by Naomi Simson for which recommendations have been made.
References
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