Biography
An example of a Positive leader I choose for my assignment is Melinda French Gates. Melinda Gates is the co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to improving global health and education (Gatesfoundation, n.d.). Melinda Gates began her career at Microsoft Corporation in 1987 and subsequently co-founded the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. She began her career as a product manager, specializing in the development of multimedia and interactive products. Melinda worked her way up to general manager of information products at Microsoft during the course of her nine years there. Expedia, the interactive movie guide Cinemania, and the multimedia digital encyclopedia Encarta were among the things on which she worked (Gatesfoundation, n.d.).. She revamped the organization in 2006, dividing it into three departments: global health, global development, and community and education in the United States. One of the foundation’s key global health goals has been to create HIV/AIDS, malaria, and TB preventive measures, vaccines, and therapies (MSN, 2022). She contributed $560 million to help women in developing nations have access to contraceptives (MSN, 2022).
As part of their commitment to fostering a family-friendly workplace, Melinda and Bill announced in 2015 that foundation staff will be eligible for up to a year of paid leave after the birth or adoption of a child. The following year, President Barack Obama awarded them the Presidential Medal of Freedom in recognition of their humanitarian efforts. With the help of prominent pharmaceutical firms, Melinda and her husband invested their foundation’s significant resources on the development of a vaccine to combat the spread of Covid 19(Gatesfoundation, n.d.).
Positive Attributes Shown by the Leader
To be a good leader, you need to demonstrate a set of behaviors that will inspire and grow the people around you. This may be done via methods such as empowerment, involvement, and collaborative assignment to meaningful task. As vital as profit, accomplishment and victory in competitive conditions, like markets and contract award, happiness, well-being and mindfulness are promoted by positive leadership style (Djourova et al., 2019). Melinda Gates possesses the attributes positive leaders. A positive leader shows integrity in her work. Melinda has shown integrity in her work by working her way up to her current position as the co-chair of the foundation. She has become a role model for women in the corporate world by breaking the glass ceiling and becoming one of the most respected women globally.
Good leadership, according to political philosophy, the study of leaders, and the study of organizations, motivates people to do things they wouldn’t otherwise do. Leaders have evolved throughout time, from those who led troops into combat to those who led workers through the Industrial Revolution into monotonous, productive work, and lastly to those who now lead workers toward productivity via self-awareness (Djourova et al., 2019). Unlike the Industrial Revolution, where leaders were primarily concerned with using their workers as a means to an end, today’s leaders and managers are more concerned with using their employees as a means to create an ecosystem of positive influences that encourages each individual to actively participate in a productive community. Over the years, Melinda has molded the Microsoft Corporation into a positive working environment by treating employees in a humane manner. A good example was the changes she brought to the organization that allowed mothers of newborns and those who got children through adoption to take time ample off work to care for the young ones. Maternity leave has always been one of the most controversial issues in the corporate world with some organizations allowing as little as 3 months of maternity leave.
How This Leader Models Positive, Ethical Leadership Behavior for Others
Being proactive as opposed to passive and reacting is a hallmark of successful leadership. Positivity in leadership involves leaders taking a proactive role in bringing about change at all levels of the company. Leaders’ efforts to improve the abilities of their subordinates, as well as their own self-referential work on balance, flow, and leadership as learning, would constitute positive leadership (Djourova et al., 2019). The second difference is that although positive leadership conduct keeps the typical leadership traits of power and influence, it does so in the service of empowering or promoting the quality, strengths, and virtues of the business and its employees. The good leader does this by emphasizing the importance of empowering others around them. While negative leadership relies on rhetorical tactics and threats to persuade others, good leaders use active debate and discussion to achieve their goals (Șerban et al., 2021).Melinda Gates has showed over time that she is a proactive leaders due to her numerous efforts to make the world better through healthcare funding and ensuring children stay in school. She has worked in different low income areas across the world with numerous projects in Africa and Asia which has seen millions benefit from free healthcare, medications, contraception and education. As a leader in Microsoft, she created a positive environment especially for women working in corporate sector and became a voice for the weak by pushing for policy changes that would benefit the less privileged in society (Șerban et al., 2021).
The concept of “empowerment management” is one that has been proposed by proponents of good leadership behavior. By encouraging a belief in one’s own abilities to come up with innovative ideas, empowerment management aims to spread the burden of coming up with fresh concepts, products, and services from the top down to the rest of the company. Through Melinda’s leadership, employees are encouraged to “become part in activities and behave confidently when they perceive themselves capable of managing circumstances that might otherwise be scary” under an empowerment management model. Self-efficacy is improved through empowerment management practices such as fostering lifelong learning in both technical and social areas, fostering collaborative cultures with high performance standards and clear support structures, dismantling discriminatory patterns, and providing constructive feedback that invokes formal and informal mechanisms of assessment (Bracht et al., 2021 (Bracht et al., 2021). Melinda has shown through her work that self-efficacy can be translated through empowering others to be better and to live a better life by using her position to influence change in society.
Important Qualities A Leader Who Models Positive, Ethical Leadership Behavior
Leadership is built on the foundation of self-confidence. These and other leadership skills, such as being an effective problem solver and a better communicator, may be taught and honed. However, if the leader does not believe in themselves first, then genuine leadership will simply exist as a position (Bracht et al., 2021). If a leader is technically competent but lacks self-efficacy, he or she will be unable to inspire others.
Resilience is a person’s ability to deal with adversity, failures, and trauma, and then recover from them in order to live a complete life. Resilient leaders are able to maintain a high level of energy in the face of adversity and change. They’re resilient in the face of adversity. Furthermore, they’re able to go through challenging situations without resorting to dysfunctional conduct or causing damage to anybody else. It is essential for leaders to be able to bounce back from adversity. To progress and prosper, leaders must foster this quality within themselves. In addition, they are tasked with assisting to preserve the vitality of the individuals who make up their groups (Djourova et al., 2019). Leadership can only last as long as its members and teams can maintain high levels of energy on a regular basis.
Lastly, one of the most important aspects of being a successful and engaging leader in today’s corporate world is giving your employees the tools they need to achieve greater personal and professional success. It involves giving your employees greater responsibility and autonomy, allowing them to play a more active part in corporate decisions, and boosting their individual and business value. As a leader, you may use empowerment to improve your own leadership abilities and, in turn, your company’s overall effectiveness. Empowering your team may improve communication and allow you to be a more personable leader, making you more accessible to your employees. When your employees are empowered, they are better able to see how they fit into the larger picture of your company’s success. The success of your leadership and company will be greatly influenced by these unique and personal advantages. Decisions may be made more effectively if team members have a greater level of self-confidence and are able to communicate effectively.
References
Bizwatchnigeria. (2020, December 10). Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to support COVID-19 research with $250 million. BizWatchNigeria.Ng. https://bizwatchnigeria.ng/bill-and-melinda-gates-foundation-to-support-covid-19-research-with-250-million/
Bracht, E. M., Keng-Highberger, F. T., Avolio, B. J., & Huang, Y. (2021). Take a “Selfie”: Examining how leaders emerge from leader self-awareness, self-leadership, and self-efficacy. Frontiers in Psychology, 12. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.635085
Djourova, N. P., Rodríguez Molina, I., Tordera Santamatilde, N., & Abate, G. (2019). Self-efficacy and resilience: Mediating mechanisms in the relationship between the transformational leadership dimensions and well-being. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 27(3), 256-270. https://doi.org/10.1177/1548051819849002
Gatesfoundation. (n.d.). We are a nonprofit fighting poverty, disease, and inequity around the world. Bing. https://www.bing.com/ck/a?!&&p=0b625afe18a86629446ec2f98c1cb22975650c341c9583ad405cda751fb9f464JmltdHM9MTY0ODgwNDMwNyZpZ3VpZD1mODI2MWY4OS0yNTM2LTQwNGQtYWJkMy1jOGQ4MDJkN2UwOTEmaW5zaWQ9NTIyNQ&ptn=3&fclid=c18d0721-b19b-11ec-902a-0a45513a177a&u=a1aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ2F0ZXNmb3VuZGF0aW9uLm9yZy8_bXNjbGtpZD1jMThkMDcyMWIxOWIxMWVjOTAyYTBhNDU1MTNhMTc3YQ&ntb=1
MSN. (2022, March 29). Primary focus of Gates Foundation on “sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia”, CEO says. https://www.msn.com/en-xl/africa/other/primary-focus-of-gates-foundation-on-sub-saharan-africa-and-south-asia-ceo-says/ar-AAVAtkp?ocid=BingNewsSearch
Șerban, C., Bichel, A., Vasiliu, C., & Tachiciu, L. (2021). Ethical leadership: Concept contextualization for PostPandemic sustainability. New Trends in Sustainable Business and Consumption, 353-361. https://doi.org/10.24818/basiq/2021/07/045
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