Entrepreneurial Leadership Style of Successful Entrepreneurs: Jack Ma, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Richard Branson & Donald Trump

Leaders are one of the most essential factors in an organization's success or failure, and leadership style and qualities must be considered during corporate operations. The following are the several sorts of leadership styles: Democratic Leadership Style, Autocratic leadership, Transformation/Inspirational Leadership Style, Authoritarian, Laissez Faire Leadership style. In addition, the three entrepreneurial leadership style follows by action behavior and culture within the organization are of Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson and Donald Trump. Firstly, Jeff Bezos follows affiliative leadership style that believes on connection and individual However, Richard Branson follow Laissez Faire leadership style and transformational leadership style that his challenge acceptance leadership qualities makes him different from others. In last, Donald Trump Autocratic leadership style were discussed that most of the decision are taken by himself and he focus on result oriented approach.

Jeffery Bezos

According to Harappa (2021), Affiliative leadership is a style that centers totally on individuals and connections. It connects with the demonstration of framing social and enthusiastic bonds with every individual from a group. Taking on a human first methodology can help in establishing and supporting a quiet work environment. However, Individuals start things out in an affiliative leadership style, which centers on making a serene working air and shaping passionate ties. Affiliative leadership requires an elevated degree of sympathy as well as the ability to foster connections utilizing an assortment of correspondence techniques. In addition, democratic leadership initiative is that style wherein representatives can likewise take an interest and take choices. Conversely, the focal point of Bezos is additionally to enlist the best individual from the market and permit them to concoct thoughts that upgrade business (Cherry 2020). According to Di Franza (2019), Collaborative leadership is an administration practice in which individuals from initiative collaboration together across areas to simply decide and keep their association flourishing. A global illustration of affiliative pioneers is Jeff Bezos; He is one of the most popular affiliative forerunners on the planet. He centers on the prosperity of his group of money experts and trusts them to imaginatively do systems to create returns (Harappa, 2021). Moreover, Jeff Bezos is the CEO and founder of Amazon.com and he is most influential personality and American entrepreneur, known for his transformational leadership style. However, as per Renko (2017, p. 21), Jeff Bezos is a charming CEO who radiates energy and satisfaction, guaranteeing that clients are happy with inventive contributions. Bezos' high-risk-taking capacities give valuable open doors to Amazon; however they likewise disturb the area, permitting them to develop into a business titan. Jeff Bezos is also a charismatic leader and has solid public speaking skills and can influence mass audience that impact and motivate others. A portion of history's most eminent pioneers are considered to have ascended to unmistakable quality generally due to this trait (Gilchrist, 2018). According to Financhill, Bezos is noted for his task-oriented leadership style, in which he generally plans and conveys through innovativeness, with the drawn out objective of remembering people in general and addressing their necessities and needs. In addition, Amazon's leadership style follows affiliative promoting where their primary goal is to fulfill their significant clients. Bezos is a visionary head of the business who by and large expects the long stretch and their vision turn around offering the best help to their clients regardless, he moreover acknowledge that trailblazer ought to get the market and perceive the opening then, come up watching out (Financhill). In last, as per Cook (2017), the characteristics that stand Jeff Bezos as one of the most influential personalities are as follows:

  • Always comes up with new and innovative idea and consider as unbelievable thinker.
  • Demands excellence and high standard.
  • He is also quite deliberate in his strategic patience and tactical impatience.
  • Focus on learning and implementing new strategies

 Richard Branson

Second leadership style that will be explained in the essay is related to transformational leadership style. According to Futcher (2019), Transformational leadership is the style where trailblazer and gathering laud the somewhat long vision and work together to achieve those goals no matter what the quantity of weaknesses they face; they make vision through inspiration, execute the course of action and change at whatever point required. However, Richard Branson is totally transformational leader where he continually puts forth elevated objectives for his organizations. He does, all things considered, own Virgin Galactic, an organization that attempts to make flights quicker by leaving the environment (Financhill). Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson, a British Billionaire entrepreneur who founded Virgin Group and today their businesses expanded across borders with almost 400 companies that are run under the umbrella of Virgin Group (London Evening Standard, 2019). In addition, according to Financhill, he also found that Richard Branson follows Laissez-Faire leadership style as well that he allow people to work on their own and it doesn’t matter if mistakes are happened while he could define a task's objective and deal his group direction, he anticipates that they should accomplish the work expected to arrive. He shares what he knows, yet he additionally comprehends that individuals advance best from activity. Moreover, Mr. Branson rewards individuals for dominating, however he likewise urges individuals to transform their missteps into learning valuable open doors. At the point when somebody works really hard, he lauds them openly to persuade others. He is also a risk take because this businesses are so diversified that he is consider as an inspirational leader for the entrepreneurs that higher the risk the result will definitely be higher that leads him to become the 10th most influential personality of the world. Although he doesn’t have operational experience related to the businesses but his ideas are so visionary that people from different industries are attracted towards him. According to Financhill, Richard Branson quoted that “a passionate belied in personal objectives and business might make the differences between failure and success. Therefore you should be proud on yourself because if you will not proud on yourself then who else will be”. Mr. Branson has different leadership approach that he enjoys to take risk and put him into the challenging situation and also encourage people to do and feel the same way according to his perception he believes that people will fail when they try new things that is the first step towards success and innovation. Furthermore, Richard Branson also works with their employees and uplifts their moral by supporting and help them when they face problem. This also encourages employees to communicate openly within the firm and they also consider that management considers us as important part of the Virgin Group. As per Financhill, some of the important characteristics of Richard Branson are as follows:

  • Manager and supervisors were encouraged by the Virgin Group and Richard himself.
  • Learn and bring innovation
  • Communicate with the team members and resolve queries as early as it should be.
  • Richard Branson also encourage to create a balance between work and fin life
  • He encourage and motivate employees to think with open mind

Donald Trump

Autocratic leadership is an administration style wherein one individual controls every one of the choices and takes almost no contributions from other gathering individuals. Autocratic leaders decide or choices in view of their own convictions and don't include others for their idea or guidance (The Economic Times). In addition autocratic leaders are those where only one person is responsible to take the decision of all that includes organization or country in large. This type of leaders applied in such places where nature of decision making is fast and accurate and it requires full passionate individual on whom the entire country on company depends on. Moreover, as per the Economic Times, some experts suggest that because this leadership style resembles that of a dictator, it can be harmful rather than beneficial in the long run. Employee morale suffers as a result, which can lead to turnover in many circumstances. Moreover, according to Simonsen (2000, p.377), Putin also follow authoritarian leadership style that can create problems for the political system in Russia and other countries whereas, this may also leads to ethnocentrism. Moreover, The leadership style of Donald Trump, the founder of Trump Organization and the Ex- President of USA also follow autocratic leadership style because within the organization most of the decision making comes from Mr. trump where he never depend the decision making of organization on someone else within the firm (Fata, 2019). Although, Mr. Trump is demanding and result oriented leader who can fire any of his employee of targets are not achieved. When a company is faced with constant change or a crisis, autocratic leadership will be beneficial. Because of its simplified organizational structure and quick decision-making capacity, it will be able to react to situations more quickly than other leadership styles (The Economic Times). As per Fata (2019) in his US President Job, Trump has needed to treat specific parts of his autocratic tendencies, dependent as the position is on split the difference with the nation's overseeing houses. This is verification in itself that various conditions and various conditions expect you to be adaptable in your leadership approach, and that for the individuals who can adjust rapidly, there is a lot of achievement to be found.

Description

Donald Trump

Richard Branson

Elon Musk

Action

The predominant personality patterns discovered in Trump were Ambitious/self-serving (bordering on exploitative), Dominant/controlling (bordering on aggressive), and Outgoing/gregarious (bordering on impulsive), with subsidiary aspects of the Dauntless/dissenting pattern.

Richard Branson and his 400+ companies already creates and impression that high the risk higher will be the return

Elon Musk was energetic and committed with his image (Tesla) and furthermore angle something very similar with their workers

Behavior

Most of the decision in Trump organization are usually take by Mr. Trump himself and he is devoted and risk taker when it comes to business.

Richard Branson is humble and a visionary leader who challenge himself for particular task therefore because of his vision he attract best employees from the industry and encourage them to work for Virgin Group

His behavior was like he uses to work day and night almost 90 hours per week. Elon Musk also said that he doesn’t have his chair and office in Tesla. He sit where he find out the problem

Key Leadership Style

Authoritarian Leadership Style, Autocratic Leadership, Result Oriented Leader

Laissez Faire Leadership style, Transformational, Positive mindset, challenging and  Visionary mindset

Visionary Leader, Inspirational and Passionate, Authoritarian Leadership style

Organizational Culture

Strict formal Rules to be followed within the Trump organization Mr. Trump demands results and if objectives are not achieved than he fire employee on the spot.

The Virgin Group's culture reflects Branson's laid-back personality, his disdain for hierarchy and formal authority, his dedication to staff and customers, and his belief in hard work and responsibility (Grant, 2008)

Result Oriented Culture, Motivate and encourage employees to come up with new idea and don’t be afraid of failures, Innovation, Formal Culture

Table 1: Action, Behavior, Leadership style followed by Donald Trump, Richard Branson and Elon Musk

Elon Musk

According to the Oxford Review, Authoritarian Leadership style is that type of leadership style in which leader holds the complete control on the business and only he is entitled to carry forward his vision and decision making however other needs to follow his ideas and Vision. In Contrast, South African born American Business tycoon, entrepreneur and the founder X.com that become PayPal, Space X and very famous brand that completely revolutionized the automotive industry Tesla (Gregerson). While running a business there are lots of uncertainties and the most important capability of an entrepreneur is that he sticks to his vision and inspire others also to follow him because he knows his strength therefore, Tesla was successful due to Musk’s Visionary long term approach. According to Murphy (2019), Elon Musk want to enter in automobile industry that’s why he launched Tesla in 2006 where his focus was to think outside the box and bring innovation into this market therefore in the start his vision was to launch Electric Cars and after that he because of his vision Tesla launched driverless car in to the market due to his vision and authoritarian leadership style Forbes in 2019, ranked Tesla as the world 30th best company in the world. Moreover, in a public gathering Musk quoted that “I always move my desk whenever I want, I do not really have a desk in the office, and I move myself where ever I find out the biggest mistakes or problems faced by Tesla”. This statement clearly reflects his participative authoritarian styles that prosper the Tesla’s culture (Marsh, 2019). Elon Musk mind set was diversified and risk taking therefore, Musk enters into different industries that include automobile, Space, energy and telecommunication industries. The focus of Elon Musk was on cognitive learning abilities that he encourages their employees to learn and resolve all the queries that affect the business. For authoritarian leadership style the working and dedication should be inspirational for the employees so that they could be inspired from the leaders act, as per Musk he use to work 90 hours per week in order to achieve his vision (James, 2019). According to Brooks (2018), the vision of Elon Musk was important for Tesla’s success as a result the business reflects effectiveness, efficiency, and also follows sustainable environment. However, according to Marsh (2019), he believes that this type of leadership style also brings too many dark sights that is attached with it; too much workaholic traits in the end leads to unhealthy traits of leadership that include anger, bi-polar problems, fatigues and distraction from the vision. But Tesla owner believe on his leadership style that one must have to sacrifice so it’s him who sacrifice for the business whereas employees only need to follow his road map that he directed. Elon Musk also follows task oriented perish leadership style that believes on working on productivity and this shouldn’t be any compromise on the performance therefore, in Tesla employees are always scared of losing their jobs (Umoh, 2018). As a result in 2019, the employee turnover in Tesla was around 44% with first 9 months that is a huge number. Employee turnover was experienced on all hierarchies such as top middle and low line management as well. Musk was passionate with his brand where he believes that if you want society to love your brand than it’s the responsibility of Leader as well to work with dedication and leads the business towards success. Therefore, day and night is equal for the leader who follows workaholic trait. Moreover, according to Sattar, in a Ted’s Talk Musk quoted that “by pouring heart into the work and inviting people to participate his vision, you can attract swarms of dazzled fans willing to show you their respect and love”. To, conclude, Musk leadership style was authoritarian where he use to work hard and also demands learning and dedication with their employees moreover, his characteristics and traits encourages other to follow his Long term visionary mindset.

Jack Ma Yun

Secondly, another leadership style is transformational leadership style according to Futcher (2019), Transformational leadership is the style where pioneer and group glorify the drawn out vision and work together to accomplish those objectives regardless of the number of vulnerabilities they face; they make vision through motivation, execute the arrangement and change whenever required. There are unique transformational styles which are as per the following inspirational motivation, idealized influence and in last individual consideration. In contrast, one of the most influential young people’s role model; influential Philanthropist, investor and Chinese business tycoon Mr. Jack Ma Yun who is the founder of Alibaba.com and Taobao.com which is a website market place and shopping site respectively. Jack Maa is also the head of FTEC (Foreign trade economic cooperation). However, Jack Maa follow transformation inspirational leadership style that his life is filled with failures and as per Bezos statement that failures give birth to innovation where Jack Maa is the practical example of Bezos statement. In addition, as per Sattar, Jack Maa generally urges his workers to think of thoughts that show the majority rule initiative styles nonetheless; Ma likewise follows change administration styles that spur and enable representatives to make progress. He likewise presents visionary and magnetic initiative style. Moreover, Jack Maa has overabundance information and a solid feeling of character that encourage him to fabricated energy, steadfastness and strong base on which his business Alibaba made progress and he additionally say that we don't just need to surrender our funny bone since we are on the top most corporate seat. That mirrors that Jack Maa was a real chief. Additionally, the focal point of Maa was to recruit and channel the best representatives from the market and attempt to utilize their psyche and gather thoughts and apply into the genuine market and make progress. Moreover, Jack Maa was intriguing illustration of fruitful and visionary leader when he change the idea of web and Alibaba works with and urge individuals to exchange China and past its limits in any case; his vision likewise urge SME's business visionaries to lay out their business. In this way, Asian Award in 2015 prize him The Entrepreneur of the Year and Fortune likewise added Jack Maa in the rundown of 50 most persuasive and extraordinary pioneers list (Sattar). Jack Maa generally accepts that a leader should have clear vision and tirelessness that leads him towards progress. In this way, Maa additionally trusts how to pursue down his vision that will rouse individuals around him. Jack Maa likewise accepts that disappointment is the point at which you surrender; he said that "Surrendering is the greatest disappointment and assuming you go out and make an honest effort and in the event that you neglect to accomplish your objectives however see it however, attempt again till you get achievement". Moreover, Jack Maa has what it takes to gauge and change the board abilities to coordinate the business towards triumph (Sattar). Mr. Jack Maa identifies strengths and weaknesses of the business therefore he converted business to consumer business to consumer to consumer oriented business with the help of transformational leadership. The culture of the company Alibaba was essentially democratic, in which the company's current openness to criticism is accompanied by a flattened hierarchy. Even the firm's highest-ranking executives were given nicknames. However, organizational cultures were casual, and employees performed their jobs as if they were a person in the family (Shao, 2014). To conclude, Jack Maa is a transformational and inspirational personality for the young entrepreneurs/individuals who can think outside the box and come up with innovation if you focus on the dreams 

 

To conclude, Leadership style profoundly influences business and his gathering. There has been an association between Leadership of an affiliation and its lifestyle. Regardless, trailblazers really should stir their gathering so they should similarly work in an organization vivaciously. Even if your company ventures are a success, you should take time to reflect on how you might improve as a leader. There is always room for progress, and no owner should be beyond self-improvement, regardless of the leadership style they have selected. Clearly, while considering the above models, the tyrant strategy unquestionably has its portion of examples of overcoming adversity. In any case, since it's anything but an ideal fit for each worker or climate, you should think about your general organization objectives, as well as the personality and viewpoint of your representatives.

 References

Brooks, R. 2018, Workplace Spotlight: The Challenge Of Maintaining Tesla's Mission-Driven Culture. [online]. Peakon, Available at: <https://peakon.com/blog/workplace-culture/tesla-company-culture/>[Accessed 15 March 2022].

Financhill, n.d. Jeff Bezos Leadership Style. [online]. Financhill. Available at < https://financhill.com/blog/investing/jeff-bezos-leadership-style#:~:text=Bezos%20is%20known%20to%20be,and%20delivering%20results%20through%20creativity.> [Accessed 13 March 2022].

Futcher, C 2019. Transformational Leadership Examples: How to Succeed Like the Best in the Business. [online] Cavendish wood. 8th April, Available at <https://info.cavendishwood.com/blog/transformational-leadership-examples#:~:text=Transformational%20Leader%20%231%3A%20Steve%20Jobs.&text=Long%20before%20anyone%20else%20fully,influence%20people%20across%20the%20world.> [Accessed 13 March 2022].

Gregerson, E n.d. Leadership Qualities, Skills and Style of Jack Ma Yun. [online]. The Strategy Watch., Available at < https://www.thestrategywatch.com/leadership-qualities-skills-styles-jack-ma/> [Accessed 15 March 2022].

James, G.2019 Elon Musk aren’t All That Great At Motivating Employeesceos who Conflate Working Long Hours With Employee Happiness Damage Their Firms' Productivity. [online] Available at: <https://www.inc.com/geoffrey-james/elon-musk-ant-all-that-great-at-motivating-employees.html>[Accessed 17 March 2022].

Marsh, A. 2019, 4 Things Elon Musk can Teach us About Effective Leadership. [online]. T-Three., 21st March Available at: < https://www.t-three.com/soak/insights/4-things-elon-musk-can-teach-us-about-effective-leadership> [Accessed 17 March 2022].

Murphy, A. 2019, The World’s best Regarded Companies. [online]. Forbes., Available at: <https://www.forbes.com/lists/best-regarded-companies/#1736f821124d> [Accessed 14 March 2022].

Renko, M 2017. Entrepreneurial Leadership. [online] The Nature of Leadership., 3rd edn. 31st May, SAGE Publication, Available at: <https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2977744> [Accessed 13 March 2022].

Sattar, SB n.d. Leadership Qualities, Skills, and Style of Jeff Bezos. [online] The strategy Watch, Available at: <https://www.thestrategywatch.com/leadership-qualities-skills-style-jeff-bezos/> [Accessed 13 March 2022].

Shao, H, 2014. A Peek Inside Alibaba's Corporate Culture. [online] Forbes., Available at <https://www.forbes.com/sites/hengshao/2014/05/13/a-peek-inside-alibabas-corporate-culture/?sh=1f7231564efc> [Accessed 13 March 2022].

The Oxford Review,. n.d. Authoritarian leadership: Definition and explanation. [online] Oxfor-review., Available at <https://www.oxford-review.com/oxford-review-encyclopaedia-terms/authoritarian-leadership/> [Accessed 15 March 2022].

Umoh, R., 2018. Saying this to Elon Musk could get you fired off your projects at SpaceX. [online]. CNBC., Available at <https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/18/saying-this-to-elon-musk-could-get-you-fired-off-your-projects-at-spacex.html> [Accessed 16 March 2022].

Shaz Jahanzaib

Attended White rose

3 周

Wow excellent comparison

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Really very helpful

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Basit Soomro

Student at Kiwi.com

3 周

Very informative and amazing explanation of leadership styles.

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This was very informative, quite interesting approach for an entrepreneur.?

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Aksha Nihchlani

IOBM’26 | Human Resources | xiTecknologi group of companies

3 周

Amazing explanation of leadership styles

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