Introduction
Contemporary leadership refers to the organization’s ability to evolve to the needs of the organization. A contemporary leader focuses on employees’ goals with those of her own by focusing on what is important for the organization as opposed to the interests of the leader. A contemporary leader is usually charismatic and utilizes inspirational motivation and intellectual stimulation as well as individualized consideration as the essential qualities of their leadership. The purpose of the essay is to provide an analysis of the contemporary leadership skills of the Camp Bow Wow CEO Heidi Ganahl by evaluating ways in which he is charismatic and visionary and categorizing her leadership according to the available leadership grid.
Qualities of Heidi Associated With Contemporary Leadership
Camp Bow Wow CEO Heidi Ganahl can be categorized as a fierce leader following her fierce resolve to achieve her goals and achieve what is best for the company. In the evaluation of her qualities as a contemporary leader, Heidi has portrayed various skills associated with contemporary leaders in the course of fulfilling her duties. Contemporary leaders are characterized by the ability to make mistakes and find solutions for them. In Heidi Ganahl case her mistakes were her initial startups of two business she had before the opening of camp bow wow. (Eng & Ganahl, 2015). As a contemporary leader, she was able to analyze the reasons for her failure and the reasons why the business did not succeed. Mainly she cites lack of passion and inability to have complete devotion to the firms as the primary cause of the failures.
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A contemporary leader has written goals that involve growth and expansion of the business (Samson et al., 2017). Heidi Ganahl concentrated on the growth of her business which was successful resulting in franchising. After opening her first camp bow wow the single location has grown into an affluent franchise system with over 130 locations in the US and Canada (Eng & Ganahl, 2015). The brand has also been recognized as the largest, comfortable and suitable pet care franchise system in North America. The achievements can be associated with her passion in her work and perseverance through failures and setbacks. Her growth and expansion goal was based on the improvement of the traditional kennels to incorporate modern technology providing comfort and flexibility as the significant characteristics sought by pet owners. Camp bow wow is now responsible with over 200 business having achieved significant characteristics that influence such industry such as replication and duplication of the company distributed over the continent (Pix, n.d.).
As a contemporary leader whose focus is on maintenance of consistency of the brand (Samson et al., 2017). Heidi continues to source her ideas and feedback about her organization. She adopted the open door policy to her team familiar with contemporary businesses with the aim of offering an opportunities and chance to express their ideas and offer their meaningful suggestions that can be useful for the companies through improvement of the current system. Heidi has considered the human culture that values consistency and expectations of receiving similar excellent services regardless of the franchise location. She has therefore maintained a duplication and replication policy in the franchises despite having different owners (Eng & Ganahl, 2015). She has also enabled her teams to set pursue and attain the different goals they set.
Examples of charismatic and visionary leadership
Charismatic and visionary leadership is valuable for growth and progress. Visionary leadership provides direction for the members of the company through motivation planning and setting of goals. Visionary leaders motivate employees and other leaders to progress by outlining their goals and vision for the future and the process and steps the companies should procure to achieve their goals (Samson et al., 2017). In camp bow leadership analysis Heidi provides visionary leadership by offering clear and precise guidelines in on her expectation of the company achievements now and in the future. She has a specific and clear-cut vision on commitment, follow up and execution of the vision to the final detail (Eng & Ganahl, 2015). Heidi has proved her visionary nature through the provision of planning and motivation to the team members. She lays down the milestones to be covered through the creation of precise and clear expectations for the company.
Heidi can also be termed as a charismatic leader as she possesses a strong confident and dynamic personality that attracts followers and leads to the formation of strong bonds and relationships. For example, in the video, a franchise owner Sue describes Heidi as a friend and leader who have strong leadership skills and a professional approach to business (Pix, n.d.). She describes her as equipped with exciting and passionate qualities that motivate her to do well in her business. Through her charisma, Heidi has driven her team to commit to the company and work hard for the success of the business. Charismatic leaders are open to suggestions and willing to engage with others to achieve their goals (Eng & Ganahl, 2015).
In her charismatic nature, Heidi has instilled the open door policy to let the team offer suggestions and communicate their ideas on the best care policies. However, she has made it clear that the procedures set for the business come first. Her charismatic nature can be seen through the example given by sue the franchise owner. She describes Heidi as a strong businesswoman and terms her approach to business as personal and effective (Pix, n.d.). Charisma and vision have enabled Heidi to build a supportive and committed team that accepts her leadership and vision by believing in her ability to progress the business.
Relationship to Leadership Styles on the Grid
The leadership grid provided in the chapter contains five different leadership styles namely country club management, middle of the road management, impoverished management, team management and authority compliance management. The styles have been ranked according to their focus on the concerns for people and the business. Heidi in her management of camp bow wow falls in the middle of the road leadership style portrayed in the grid. The style offers a balanced and focused concern for the people and the business (Samson et al., 2017). An analysis of the method reveals the need for balance where people remain motivated and they get committed to doing the work. The style requires commitment from the leader to ensure the balance which involves the maintenance of high productivity and at the same time keeping people happy and satisfied (Pix, n.d.).
Middle of the road styles outlines a tricky balance in ensuring that the leader has a reasonable concern to maintain productivity within the company and show concern for the people. For Heidi, she mentioned that in the business has a lot of friends and family and hence utilizes the style to maintain concern for the company and the people (Eng & Ganahl, 2015). In adopting the style, it is clear that she has an understanding that for a successful business several policies and regulations must be put in place as not all employees friends or family possess the same commitment as she does.
Conclusion
Therefore her leadership role combines contemporary leadership, charisma, vision and the middle of the road leadership skills that suits her business. Her position as a leader provides an avenue to guide everyone whether friend family or employee towards the achievement of success in business and relationship. Her strict maintenance of the policies and regulations will continue to steer her business and keep friends, families and team satisfied and committed.
References
Eng, D., & Ganahl, H. (2015). Finding Her'Wow'in Camp Bow Wow. Routledge.
Pix, T. (n.d.). 15 Camp Bow Wow - Leadership [Video file]. Retrieved from: https://vimeo.com/25513303
Samson, D., Daft, R. L., & Donnet, T. (2017). Fundamentals of Management with Student Resource Access 12 Months . Cengage AU.
