Mgt506 Ca-1 Classical Leadership Styles; Microsoft

Trident University International

MGT506

Strategic Leadership – Classical Leadership Styles

Microsoft Analysis

Coordinating Professor:

Classical leadership styles

"I believe that good leaders will ... adapt themselves to whatever the situation is that they face," (Knowledge@Wharton) says Steve Ballmer, “adding that there is no single blueprint for leadership. Leadership requires a heavy degree of personalization. A lot of lessons are valuable, but what's probably more valuable is hearing people talk about their experiences and then developing your own model, he says. The one characteristic, however, that he believes is universally applicable to anybody who wants to be a leader is passion. You've got to love what you are doing.” (Knowledge@Wharton)

The above excerpt from “Steve Ballmer Speaks Passionately about Microsoft, Leadership ... and Passion” gives us an insight into the type of leader and the type of leadership style Steve Balmer implements at Microsoft. Ballmer will readily admit that when he joined Microsoft he was not a computer expert so he lacked the lessons of firsthand knowledge but he did develop a passion about Bill Gates' vision to put a computer on every desk and in every home. Moreover, he developed a passion for the company that he now tries to spread to its employees.

“The company ‘spoke to this notion [that] most people [want] to have some kind of grander purpose about what they are doing,’ Ballmer says. ‘And, yes, it's about a career and, yes, it's about taking care of family, and, yes, it's about winning.... But, generally, people want to know that there is some bigger, more important thing out there [worth] really striving for. Leaders must set the tone about what the real purpose of any organization is. If you really want to inspire people and inspire their passions, you have to appeal to them in some way that is a little less generic than, 'Hey, it's good for the company. The company can earn a lot of money.'"...