BMA701 Leadership : About Experience of International Sales

Leadership styles are those set of behaviors that are chosen considering the situation. It is flexible by nature as it changes from situation to situation and from time to time. There is fact about a right leadership style but the effectiveness of a true leader lies when he can actually use the appropriate leadership style based on the needs of the situation. Among the various leadership styles, the popular ones for work environments are laissez-faire, autocratic, democratic, transactional and transformational (Miner, 2015). The qualities that a leader should have so that he/she can show greater leadership skills are honesty, trust on the team for the company’s vision, good communication skills, leader should be calm and confident, he needs to lead by example, must have a positive attitude, inspiring and easily approachable. This essay deals with the leadership style, the four elements of transformational leadership styles and the challenges faced by the chosen Australian leader Christine Holgate, CEO Blackmores.

Christine has above 26 years of experience of international sales and marketing in successful industries that includes telecommunications, finance, media and healthcare. The council at of Blackmores chose Christine for the role of Chief Executive Officer in November 2008. She was related with many board and senior management positions, appointed in Asia, the Americas and Australia. Christine’s main duties have been guiding teams through remarkable change, development and start out. Christine holds three postgraduate degrees of diplomas in Management, Marketing, and Purchasing and Supply; and has done Masters in Business Administration (MBA). Presently, Christine is also the council member of Ten Network Holdings Limited. The first International Executive Study Scholarship in 2011 by Chief Executive Women and the Women’s Leadership Institute Australia was awarded to Christine (funds Monash, 2012).

Christine is the first Chair of the Council of the Australia-ASEAN Council, facilitating the development of trade and cultural link between Australia and 10 associated countries of the ASEAN region. She also helps the Board of Collingwood Football Club and for five years, she was a Non-Executive Director of Ten Network Holdings Limited, retiring in December 2015. At that very year, the Australian Financial Review named her CEO of the Year by CEO Magazine/CEO Institute who honored Christine among the top 100 Women of power in Australia. She was placed as the top most performing CEO in Australia by the Daily Telegraph and was given the Australian Growth Company Award for Women in Leadership. In 2013, Christine was honored with the Rotary Paul Harris Award in appreciation for her charitable work.

Christine’s goal in Blackmores was to deliver commercial growth for its shareholders, help their Australian brand, reciprocate to their profitable growth by investing in Asia and bioceuticals and securing new revenue growth streams for the organization, and initiate product leadership and to manage operational efficacy. Under Christine’s leadership and her above clear objectives on which she puts emphasis, the group sales raised up to 36 percent and profits enlarged by double of this. The market capitalization of the company rose from 520 million to 1.5 billion. Blackmores acquired market leadership and the privilege of most reliable brand the main markets (Reid, 2014).

Christine opens door for Asia. In her initial days at Blackmores, she knew that the Asian market was the ideal target. However, She was correct huge sales in China helped Blackmores attain net profits for the 2015 December half to AU$48.3 million, in contrast with AU$18.62 million for the same time in the previous year. Among the rest of the contributions Christine had for Blackmores the above two are selected to show how visionary, risk taking and thoughtful thinker she is as a leader. Thus, it can be said that she belongs to the group of transformational leaders and follow transformational leadership approach (Graham & Englund, 2013).

Transformational leaders are different from other leadership styles in their potential to rapidly evaluate a company's present situation and construct a vision for development or advancement. They transfer their vision skillfully to the leaders of other companies and to all employees in their organization to get all on plank with their vision (Northouse, 2015). Thus, this advantage helps transformational leaders deal with the growing challenges company faces in this modern time. Transformational leadership style is found all over the organization in all levels. Leaders following this theory are talented, inspiring, bold, risk takers and thoughtful thinkers. These types of leaders are charming in their appeal. However, this charm alone is inadequate for altering the way an organization runs (Avolio & Yammarino, 2013). For causing utmost changes, transformational leaders must exhibit the following four elements of transformational leadership:-

• ‘Idealized influence’ because leaders are the role models for the team and is admired by the followers.
• ‘Inspirational motivation’ as transformational leaders has the skills for motivating and inspiring others to push themselves and try something going beyond their strengths.
• ‘Intellectual stimulation’ means transformational leaders are found challenging their team members and employees to be original and inventive.
• ‘Individualized Considerations’ means that transformational leaders reveal honest concern for the needs of the subordinates and thus this brings out the best efforts from the individuals (Onorato, 2013).

The biggest challenge faced by Christine Holgate was surviving in a corporate world being a woman. Holgate pointed out to the fact that there are many top women in well-known positions in politics, teaching, science, health, education and not for gaining profits but fewer women are in corporate world. She advocated some of these women should be brought into leading corporate positions to permit in variety of thoughts. However, the issue was more than complex and challenging. Christine being women secured this position through focus, innovation and thoughtful thinking. She had the degrees as she was focused from her college days. Focus is among the key skills a successful leader should have and Christine was found using this skill very well (Alvesson & Sveningsson, 2015).

Though Christine dealt with this challenge efficiently but still if one suggestion is to be given then she must have employed more women staff in the company to set an example where she will be opening the gates especially for women at Blackmores. She concentrated on herself more to excels in the Male dominated professional world, and has been inspiration for many women. It would have been more effective if she had made some strategies to attract more women in corporate society through Blackmores.

Another challenge was that Christine focused much on financial results and push Blackmores into the markets of Asia and along with new product lines (Hayes, 2014).Blackmores has a different culture that makes it distinct in the market, Christine uses this, and motivated the staffs to deliver the business strategy that actually helped in hike of profit for this organization. From entering, Christine targeted the financial results and she achieved it through her effective strategy but there will be more chances of flourishing if she would have targeted European countries as well at the same time (Alvesson, 2012).

As a leader the person must have the appreciation for her team and Christine has that and she always knew that behind her receiving an award there is this team of hers who has helped her and the company in achieving the profit. Thus, Christine Holgate gave the lesson that though there are extremely educated women stepping into the workforce, women at the top of corporate world in Australia were still the exception rather being the rule. Christine Holgate proved that the glass could be broken. Christine Holgate thus proved to be a powerful leader with the skills that a successful leader should have to take the organization toward its goals. Christine entered Blackmores and with her focus, innovations, inspirations and creative thinking took the organization much higher and achieved the award as a CEO. Her leadership skills and her connections with her staff actually make her way different. Her staffs know that she can be easily approachable when they need their leader in crisis. Her connections with her employees are strong which should be the important skill in a leader (Mohr, Young & Burgess, 2012). However, leadership is the activity of guiding a group or the organization. The ability of the leader involves a clear vision, sharing this vision with the employees, providing appropriate information and knowledge to work on the vision and to motivate and initiate the creative ideas of the employees at the time of crisis in the organization (Osland, Bird & Mendenhall, 2012).

To conclude this essay it can be said that leadership skills are not acquired but rather inborn. Amid the theories of leadership, transformational leadership is the one that seemed more appropriate for the CEO of Blackmores, Christine Holgate. Transformational leaders are those who are skilled with a clear vision, inspiration, motivation and creative thinking. The four elements of transformational leadership are individual influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation and individualized considerations. These types of leaders pushes the employees or teams beyond what they are usually capable of doing. Christine was found being focused and ruling the corporate world being a woman. She had some outstanding contributions for Blackmores. Her vision and risk-taking attitude actually helped Blackmores to overcome the financial crisis and made a huge profit. Highly qualified Christine Holgate was awarded with CEO of the year 2015 and while receiving this award she actually mentioned that her real strength lies in the hands of the employees or team who has equally worked hard. Thus like a true leader Christine was inspirational and motivational towards her employees and organization.

References

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