Leadership in the Workplace

Coca-Cola Company is an American largest multinational corporation that deals in beverage manufacturing, marketing and retailing. The company, founded in 1892, has it’s headquarter situated in Atlanta, Georgia in the United States of America. The objectives of the company are to be a globally known business that carries out its activities ethically while at the same time maximizing profits and enhancing sustainability. Through these objectives, the company can strive towards a goal by creating new brands every time and ensuring consistency and sustainability. The firm’s mission statement specifies that it aims at refreshing the world, inspiring moments of happiness and creating value while at the same time making a difference in the place in which we live. Some of the brand products of the company include Coca-Cola enterprise, minute maid and Fuze Beverages. The company has been undergoing rapid growth since its formation, opening up several branches in many other countries making it a global firm. 

There can be no alternative for strategic thinking and tireless execution without effective leadership. A company cannot have an alternative way to attract and retain more customers, keep employees happy while at the same time promoting innovation without having an effective leader. Coca-Cola Company has one of the best leaders with great skills globally. The CEO of the company has demonstrated the highest degree of leadership skills and practices, contributing to the current growth and development seen in the firm. First, the CEO of Coca-Cola practices a democratic leadership style. The CEO allows and promotes the participation of all employees and group members in making a decision and sharing their views. He encourages employees to be innovative, feels part of the organization and participates in decision and policy formation of the firm. This democratic leadership style improves employees’ creativity and innovation, making Coca-Cola one of the most innovative firms in the world. The CEO of Coca-Cola company communicates clearly with his juniors. Communication is an essential tool for effective management. If there is an issue that needs attention, he calls a meeting and discusses it with the entire team so that an understanding can be reached. Whenever the employees have an issue with the management, he is always available to communicate and give direction, easing the tension and making the employees happy and motivated. The next leadership practice demonstrated by the company leader is delegation. He always delegates duties and responsibilities to other junior employees. Delegation is a crucial aspect of empowering employees and improving their experience. Through delegation of duties, he allows employees to take part in the new challenging role, making them improve their skills. 

The culture of the organization has been build depending on the leadership practices in place. The culture is influenced by the kind of leadership in place. The leader communicates and leads by example. The team looks at the leader as a role model who communicates and displays the expectations of the firm during a change. He makes changes in the organization by leading in changing his actions. People always change towards the direction in which the leader takes them. The CEO of Coca-Cola company always act and communicate his action to the employees who in turn see him as a role model. He, therefore, influences the people to change towards the desired culture by leading with an example in his actions. The leader has also impacted on the culture of the organization by establishing a purpose to believe in. Members of the organization always believe in what the leader pays attention to. The leader of Coca-Cola has created a clear purpose for direction in which the organization is to follow. People always want communication for any likely culture change before they can adapt it. This has been done by the leader setting clear purpose to believe in and then communicate it to other members. The leader will thus influence the culture change in the organization through setting clear purpose to believe in. Holding people accountable is another way that the CEO of Coca-Cola has used to create the culture of accountability among the organization members. Holding people accountable makes them understand that they will be held responsible in all areas they are involved. Accountability starts with the leader himself. Employees will embrace the culture of accountability if the leader also adopts the same trait. The CEO of Coca-Cola is always responsible with clearly established measures aimed at satisfying customers. 

The rational and emotional connection is another way in which the leader has used to change the culture of the organization. If any change is introduced, the leader connects with the members both emotionally and rationally through direct communication and discussion. The CEO also came up with the policy that makes it an offense to discriminate any individual in the workplace. Setting policies on what is rewarded and what is punishable is another way used by leaders to change the culture of the organization. Since the formation of the policy, it became a culture, and all employees are aware that any form of discrimination in the workplace is an offense. The culture of free and open communication has been influenced by the leader’s stand for open and clear communication between the managers and the employees. Employees of Coca-Cola communicate and report any problem freely to their managers, a culture initiated by the CEO who himself openly communicates with team members on various issues affecting the firm. The employees of this company work with set expectations and goals to accomplish. This is a culture that was introduced by the CEO by outlining the goals of the organization and providing the necessary resources and skills required to meet these goals. Every employee works with a target. 

One of the major strengths of Coca-Cola Company is its largest market share. Due to globalization, the firm has been able to expand its market share by opening up branches in several parts of the world. It is the largest company in the beverage industry in the world. Known for its advanced technology in the manufacturing of beverages, the firm has expanded significantly, covering global market beyond its competitors reach. The use of technology in beverage processing and the urge to go global has given the company its vast market. The industry has very minimal competition with the firm having only Pepsi as its primary competitor. With over six hundred brands all over the world, the firm enjoys massive market base, a strength it has had for over decades now. The second strength that Coca-Cola Company possesses is the customer loyalty. With its reliable products, the company has a lot of customer loyalty. Customers trust in the products and feel cool using these brands thus find it hard to go for a substitute products. The company’s ethical standards have also helped it gain more customer trust. The products are cool, soft and of good taste. They are ethical and trustworthy in the fantastic marketing strategies they employ. This further wins more trust from customers, creating brand loyalty. Most customers who use Coca-Cola brands have a strong belief in the products as genuine and original and could not, therefore, go for any beverages other than that of Coca-Cola. The firm has a proper communication channel and policy with the employees. This promotes smooth coordination and problem solving within the firm. This act as a strength to the company. 

The major weaknesses that Coca-Cola Company faces are low product diversification and low presence in health drinks. Coca-Cola Company specializes in beverages only. This makes it lack diversification. The only source of income in which the firm relies on is beverages, and any fluctuation or change in the beverages demand will impact negatively on the firm. The firm can diversify on its technology to enable it to expand its product diversification. The company also struggles with the health issues associated with its products. Health issues such as obesity are some of the major weaknesses associated with Coca-Cola products, making some people avoid the drinks. Most of these brands contain sugar, which when consumed in the long run can cause problems such as obesity. This might affect the demand for its products as most people are considering to shift to alternatives. 

The company has certain opportunities which it can ban on to increase its market share and earn the trust of more customers. Firstly, the firm enjoys advanced technology and formulae in the beverage processing. It can take this opportunity to diversify its products using the same technology so that it increases its market base. Advanced technology can help a firm invent and produce new products in the industry. Technology is a significant opportunity in which a company can utilize and improve on its products or produce more other products to enable it to expand its market base. Given that hygiene is becoming a major issue when it comes to consumption and mainly water, Coca-Cola can utilize this opportunity to make and sell packaged drinking water in all its global markets. This will give it more product diversification and gain more market base through selling pure drinking water. Since the company is seen by most of its customers as being ethical, packaged water will quickly sell as it will win customers trust. When a firm is seen as being ethical in its products as well as recruitment practices, its reputation is built and as a result, gives it an edge over its competitors. 

Despite the massive market share and a large number of customers that Coca-Cola enjoys, it has specific threats that if not dealt with could hinder it from achieving some of its goals. Due to the nature of its products, the company uses water as one of its raw materials. This has been a challenge as water shortage seems to be a continuing problem into the future. As the climate changes, specific regions of the countries are experiencing water shortage, and it is expected that soon the shortfall may be worse to the extent that beverage companies might not operate. This could create a downfall in the revenue and the distribution capacity of the company if the situation is not dealt with early enough. Another threat that Coca-Cola faces is indirect competition from other soft drinks manufacturers. Some products such as Tropicana, Costa coffee as well as Red Bull are slowly gaining ground in the market. Although they don’t offer competition directly to Coca-Cola, they are slowly taking away some of the customers because they can be used as substitutes for the Coca-Cola products. 

The CEO of Coca-Cola company has particular strengths in his leadership practices. First, his traits and personality reflect the traits of a good leader. According to trait theory of leadership, it is the traits or qualities of a leader that determines whether that leader is effective or not. Trait theory helps in identifying the attributes of a good leader. According to the theory, certain traits such as integrity, accountability, ability to delegate, ability to motivate, empathy, assertiveness and ethical decision-making are some of the characteristics of a leader who is effective ( Dinh et al., 2014) . The essential characteristics of a good leader according to the trait theory of leadership include creativity, charisma, confidence, motivation and drive, honesty and integrity tenacity and decision making skills ( Antonakis & House, 2013 ). The theory is of the notion that leaders can be nurtured to become more effective in their leadership. The CEO of Coca-Cola company has demonstrated the highest degree of integrity as a leader. This is a strength he possesses that makes him an effective leader according to the trait leadership theory. The CEO has never been caught in any corruption or fraud in the firm. He is very strict when it comes to the issues of integrity. 

The second leadership strength that the Coca-Cola Company CEO possesses is his good decision-making skills. Before he makes any decision, he takes his time to analyze the situation and alternatives before arriving at the right decision. He has a good understanding of the business, a factor that gives him more decision-making skills. This is a trait supported by the trait theory of leadership. Thus it is a leadership strength. Good decision making helps in the formation of appropriate policies which is helpful for the future organizational growth. 

The third strength of the CEO of Coca-Cola company is his ability to motivate others. Workers require motivation to enable them to work with morale. The possession of this trait gives him an edge in influencing employees to perform effectively. He talks to employees frequently and inspires them on the need to work towards the goals of the firm. According to trait theory, motivation is a character of a successful leader. 

Despite the leadership strengths of the CEO, he has certain weaknesses. According to the trait theory of leadership, a good leader is judged by his traits ( Antonakis & House, 2013) . At the same time, an ineffective leader is seen from his qualities. An incompetent leader is one whose features are not supportive of the good leadership skills. Some of the traits of an ineffective leader according to the trait theory include being untrustworthy, needing to be liked and being right always. The CEO of the Coca-Cola has a weakness of not trusting his juniors. He always wants to monitor what they do to make him believe that they are doing the right thing. Such a trait makes workers demotivated and low spirited. Workers love to be trusted by their leaders. They get motivated when the leader has confidence in them. Trusting them gives them the confidence in what they do, but untrustworthiness makes them feel unqualified in their role and subsequently the performance is affected. In the trait theory view, untrustworthiness is a leadership weakness. 

The CEO also has the weakness of wanting to be liked by everyone. He tries to ensure that every employee is happy with him, which is something always difficult for a leader. An effective leader should do what is right, whether liked by people or not. Trying to please everyone could attempt a leader to do something wrong just to satisfy an individual. While others may argue that all workers need to be kept happy, previous research has shown that it is complicated for a leader to impress all employees. Trait theory of leadership advocates that an effective leader must be a good decision making and the decision must be influenced by what is rightful and not what will make workers like you ( Endrissat & von Arx, 2013). 

The third weakness of Coca-Cola CEO is that he wants to be right always. According to trait theory, a good leader should be willing to be corrected or advised on how to do certain issues. No one is entirely right or perfect in everything, all people including leaders should continue to learn even as they lead ( Jacobsen & B ø gh Andersen, 2015) . The CEO always wants to be right in what he says. Even though he allows for new ideas from workers, one he makes a decision, he always sticks to it and does not let anyone influence him to change even if the decision is seemingly not the right one. A good leader accepts correction. 

Leaders can always improve their future effectiveness and success using various methods. No leader is one hundred percent perfect, people learn from time to time and improvement is a continuous process. According to the trait theory of leadership, a leader can use various theory-based strategies to improve their future effectiveness and success. The first method that can be used to improve on areas of weaknesses is being willing to learn from failures and weaknesses. All leaders have certain weaknesses that limit their leadership efficiency. The CEO of Coca-Cola Company has a weakness of being unwilling to learn from others. According to the trait theory of leadership, this flaw can be corrected by changing the attitude and accepting to learn from others while at the same time being ready to admit mistakes. By developing this attitude, the leader will be able to improve future leadership effectiveness and subsequently become a successful leader. 

The next method that the leader can use to improve his future leadership skills and success is by learning to trust the employees and his junior. Employees’ trustworthiness is important in motivating the workers and improving their performance. Without trust, however, employees may feel demotivated, and the leader might lose the control of the employees. According to the trait theory of leadership, trustworthiness is a trait for effective leaders and any leader without this trait is not an effective leader ( Sharma & Jain, 2013). Trusting people can be learned. The leader can train himself on how to trust his juniors and empower them with challenging tasks if he is to engage and improve the performance of the employees. The CEO of Coca-Cola company can, therefore, train himself on how to start trusting his workers if he is to improve his future effectiveness. 

Also, the leader can develop the spirit of teamwork if he is to improve his future leadership skills. According to the trait theory of leadership, belief in teamwork is an essential trait for the success of a leader. Teamwork is useful in accomplishing tasks in the organization while at the same time motivating the team members to continue working together to achieve the organization goals ( Chemers, 2014). A good leader should strengthen team unity by doing activities to change daily routine and promote the team spirit within the organization. Unity provides strength that is required for the accomplishment of organizational tasks. 

In conclusion, effective leadership is the driving force towards the success of any organization. A good leader will drive the firm towards growth while ineffective leaders will drive the business away from the set goals. The productivity of employees, financial resources as well as equities are dependent on the kind of a leader in place. Effective leaders motivate, inspire, delegate and empower employees to become more productive. Ineffective leaders command, quarrel and even demotivate workers. A leader must utilize on the strengths by always remaining within the corporate culture of the firm while at the same time being guided by honesty, integrity, and moral values at all times. 

References 

Antonakis, J., & House, R. J. (2013). The full-range leadership theory: The way forward. In  Transformational and Charismatic Leadership: The Road Ahead 10th Anniversary Edition  (pp. 3-33). Emerald Group Publishing Limited. 

Chemers, M. (2014).    An integrative theory of leadership . Psychology Press. 

Dinh, J. E., Lord, R. G., Gardner, W. L., Meuser, J. D., Liden, R. C., & Hu, J. (2014). Leadership theory and research in the new millennium: Current theoretical trends and changing perspectives.  The Leadership Quarterly ,  25 (1), 36-62. 

Endrissat, N., & von Arx, W. (2013). Leadership practices and context: Two sides of the same coin.  Leadership ,  9 (2), 278-304. 

Jacobsen, C. B., & B øgh Andersen, L. (2015). Is leadership in the eye of the beholder? A study of intended and perceived leadership practices and organizational performance.  Public Administration Review ,  75 (6), 829-841. 

Sharma, M. K., & Jain, S. (2013). Leadership management: Principles, models and theories.  Global Journal of Management and Business Studies ,  3 (3), 309-318.