How to Be an Effective Leader

Introduction 

Leadership is the act of leading a particular individual or a certain group of individual in an organization or leading the organization itself. Owing to its wide range of definition to befitting different contexts and theories of leadership, leaders can be described as fundamental bridges that link individuals to the future. Leaders incorporate other individual’s visions in their own thereby building partnerships and essential alliances based on shared aspirations. In addition, true leadership conjures a sense of trust subsequently resulting in shared realities. As such, for this paper, a selected individual leader will be put in the spotlight and a detailed discourse provided regarding his leadership styles and communication in relation to the various existent leadership models and theories. To this end, the selected leader is Brian Krzanich, the CEO of Intel Corporation.

Analysis Based on Charles Handy's Six Methods of Influence 

Charles Handy’s six methods of influence include physical and resource influence, rules and procedures, exchange, persuasion, ecology, and magnetism, (Miranda, 2014). The first method of influence (power and resources) involves threats to make others do what the leader wants. As such, despite his preference of being engaged in almost every significant activity of the company and decision making as an engineer, he occasionally replaces engineers who fail to meet deadlines and targets. As expected, every organization and leader is expected to maintain orderliness in the organization by enforcing and implementing rules and procedures. To this end, Krzanich implements this second method of influence adequately. For instance, Krzanich has implemented strict rules governing employee performance in that employees especially engineers who fail to meet their deadlines and targets tend to get replaced. His decision of implementing procedures regarding laying off several employees to increase annual profits is strictly procedural.

Additionally, Krzanich communicates his ideas and decisions to his subordinates such as to produce chips for other companies and subsequently expects results from his employees regarding making the contract a success. When he communicated his decision to move away from producing PCs to venturing into cloud computing and other technologies, he expected his employees to do their best to make the move happen of which they did. Similarly, in his position as the CEO, he had to do a lot of persuasions to convince investors and his subordinates about the move to adopt emerging trends such as cloud computing. The job cuts, early succession planning, smaller product lines, involving subordinates in decision making, adopting new market trends, the technologically advanced warehouses, and factories, and advanced computer systems are all his way of utilizing ecology as a method of influence. Owing to his quiet but engaging style, Krzanich exhumes an aura of magnetism that inspires respect and trust from his subordinates and employees.

Leadership Theories and Styles 

Brian Krzanich’s quiet, humble, and engaging leadership models him under the transformational leadership theory and style. Krzanich is self-aware at all times and never enjoys the media spectacle which elaborates on his humility. Also, he fits the transactional leadership theory in the sense that he punishes his employees. After defining and allocating tasks to his engineers, he demotes any one of them that does not meet the preset deadlines or targets. Krzanich as well utilizes the democratic leadership style. In essence, he communicates his thoughts and ideas regarding deeper job cuts by consulting and outsourcing a professional (Murthy Renduchintala from Qualcomm) to carry out an analysis report of the company (Pressman, 2016). However, when quick decisions are required such as opening up to new technologies, Krzanich makes use of autocratic leadership style. This is elaborated when he communicates that CEOs need not take long or delay their decision making but instead, they should learn to dive head-first into problems (Palmer, 2017).

Goleman’s Six Leadership Styles 

Goleman’s visionary leadership style involves communicating ideas to the subordinates and partners regarding where the leader’s vision is headed. This style is most effective when the organization needs a drastic turn-around regarding new direction and vision. Furthermore, it is effective when coupled with democratic leadership. As such, Brian Krzanich best fits in this style based on his decision to change the company’s direction and vision to adopting new technologies such as cloud computing. His application of democratic leadership style makes him a more competent visionary leader as well.

Tannenbaum-Schmidt Leadership Continuum 

On Tannenbaum-Schmidt leadership continuum (Manage Train Learn, 2013), Brian Krzanich occupies the fourth position. This concept is especially true deducing from the fact that Krzanich consulted an outsider (Murthy Renduchintala) regarding his decision about 12, 000 job cuts as well as slashing of several production lines. Also, this is observed when he says “We are always paranoid,” (Pressman, 2017).

Analysis Based on Blake and Mouton Managerial Grid 

Due to his autocratic leadership and his phenomenon of demoting engineers who fail to meet deadlines and targets in light of his vision for the company, Brian Krzanich falls under the Produce-or-Perish portion of the Blake and Mouton Managerial Grid. In effect, this is true because he values high results through the employees who to him are a means to an end. In elaboration, this is observed when he decides to cut 12, 000 jobs and slash production lines all to realize a 1.4-billion-dollar annual savings. Moreover, his autocratic leadership style plays a huge role in his placement on the grid (MindTools, 2013). In effect, Brian Krzanich should be more democratic and empathetic to his employees to move from Produce-or-Perish which eventually harms progressiveness to Team Management portion of the grid where performance and results are heightened.

Communication Analysis Based on Hersey and Blanchard's Situational Leadership Theory 

Deducing from Hersey and Blanchard’s situational leadership theory, Brian Krzanich’s communication is more directive in that he tells his engineers what to do as well as what he expects regarding targets and deadlines. He is more concerned with the completion of tasks rather than the relationship between him and the employees. In elaboration, he is more focused on moving the company forward headfirst but willing to modify the company’s decisions as the company moves forward. In fact, he is ready to lay off 12, 000 employees as well as shrink production lines just to realize huge savings. To this end, he directed an outside contractor to analyze the company to decide which product lines to slash and which jobs to lay off. However, to realize better performance, motivate employees, and move from directive leadership to selling or coaching kind of leadership, Krzanich needs to listen more to his employees and empathize with them (MindTools, 2013).

Communication Based on French and Raven's Description of Five Leadership Power Types 

French and Raven’s five leadership types of power include Legitimate, Reward, Expert, Referent, and Coercive. With regards to Brian Krzanich, his position as a CEO earns him legitimate powers which allow him to communicate his ideas and directives authoritatively. Based on the fact that Krzanich started his career as an engineer and later on COO, his communication of ideas, suggestions, and directives is backed by expert powers. As such, when he suggests the company to take a different direction such as adopting cloud computing technology, the subordinates as well as other employees listen, trust, and respect his vision. Finally, Krzanich communicates with a coercive power in the sense that he gives targets and deadlines to the engineers and subsequently replaces those who fail to meet the deadlines or achieve the objectives.

Conclusion 

Leadership is an important factor of any organization, and as such, leaders need to identify and apply the right leadership styles and theories to achieve optimal results for the organization. In this accord, Brian Krzanich is an all-around leader who utilizes several leadership styles, theories, and models to steer Intel Corporation into its success. Despite his shortcomings such as being result oriented rather than balancing results and relationships, Krzanich has been termed as a great leader, and the continued success of the company is the proof of this fact.

References

ChangingMinds. (2016). Hersey and Blanchard's approach. Retrieved from http://changingminds.org/disciplines/leadership/styles/situational_leadership_hersey_blanchard.htm 

Manage Train Learn. (2013). Tannenbaum and Schmidt's continuum. Retrieved from http://www.managetrainlearn.com/page/tannenbaum-and-schmidt 

MindTools. (2013). The Blake Mouton managerial grid. Retrieved from http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newLDR_73.htm 

Miranda, J. (2014). On Power and Influence. InfoQ. Retrieved from https://www.infoq.com/news/2014/06/on-power-and-influence 

Palmer, A. (2017). Intel CEO Brian Krzanich Reveals Some of His Best Leadership Tips. TheStreet. Retrieved from https://www.thestreet.com/story/14258099/1/intel-ceo-brian-krzanich-s-top-leadership-tips.html 

Pressman, A. (2016). Intel CEO Krzanich Stays Paranoid with Big Job Cuts. Fortune. Retrieved from http://fortune.com/2016/04/19/intel-ceo-krzanich-paranoid-job-cuts/