Leadership Styles, Tony Hsieh, and the Managerial Grid
This paper examines leadership as a process of influencing others toward common goals, beginning with a personal definition of leadership grounded in knowledge, charisma, and influence. Using Tony Hsieh of Zappos.com as a case example, the paper analyzes his leadership through Blake and Mouton's Managerial Grid, highlighting his concern for both people and production. The paper then offers three concrete recommendations to improve Hsieh's effectiveness, including adopting team management, paternalistic leadership, and the style approach. Finally, it reflects on how the Managerial Grid and style approach can be applied in the writer's own leadership practice.
- Definition of Leadership: Leadership defined through influence and personal perspective
- Example of a Leader: Tony Hsieh and Zappos: Hsieh analyzed via Blake and Mouton's Managerial Grid
- Recommendations to the Leader: Three strategies to improve Hsieh's leadership effectiveness
- Leadership Styles and Personal Application: Applying the Managerial Grid and style approach personally
- Conclusion: Leadership as influence through adaptable approaches
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What makes this paper effective
- The paper grounds abstract leadership theory in a concrete, recognizable real-world example — Tony Hsieh and Zappos — making its analytical points immediately accessible and credible.
- It moves logically from definition to example to critique, giving the argument a clear forward momentum that is easy to follow.
- The recommendations section is specific and actionable, naming distinct strategies (team management, paternalistic style, style approach) rather than offering vague advice, which strengthens the analytical quality of the paper.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper effectively uses a named theoretical framework — Blake and Mouton's Managerial Grid — as a lens for analyzing a real leader's behavior. Rather than simply describing Hsieh's practices, the writer maps those practices onto the model's dimensions (concern for people vs. concern for production), demonstrating applied theoretical reasoning. This technique of anchoring observations to a formal model is a strong undergraduate-level skill.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens with a brief introduction establishing the importance of leadership, then defines the concept from both a general and personal perspective. It presents Tony Hsieh as a case study analyzed through the Managerial Grid framework, followed by a recommendations section proposing three improvements to his approach. A final section reflects on how the two featured leadership styles would apply to the writer's own leadership practice, before a brief conclusion synthesizes the paper's key points.
Definition of Leadership
Leaders play a crucial role in society and organizations, particularly in helping organizations achieve their objectives and purposes. These individuals use varying approaches to leadership that inform their practices in motivating organizational members toward the accomplishment of common objectives. Through their practices, leaders not only influence the behaviors of their followers or subordinates but also help shape organizational culture. The use of different leadership styles and philosophies is also attributed to differences in each leader's concept and practice. Moreover, leaders can improve their effectiveness by adopting strategies that address the weaknesses of their leadership approaches, since every leadership style has certain limitations.
Leadership is a concept that means different things to different people depending on the context in which it takes place. As a result, different people hold different definitions of leadership, which creates considerable difficulty in attempts to define it effectively. From a personal perspective, leadership is a means by which talented individuals influence others toward common objectives through sharing their knowledge and perspectives (Mielach, 2013). This is perhaps the most suitable definition given that the basis of leadership is to influence others, regardless of whether that influence is positive or negative. Leaders utilize their knowledge, perspectives, and charisma to influence people toward the achievement of certain goals, either through becoming more or doing more.
In essence, leadership has relatively little to do with position — though position matters in some cases — and is more strongly linked to the influence a leader exerts on followers or subordinates. Leaders are not evaluated based solely on the positions they hold in an organization or society, but on the influence that comes with those positions. Therefore, leadership is a process of influencing others to carry out certain actions they might not otherwise take, in order to realize specific objectives or goals. The evolving definitions of leadership reflect a growing recognition of the significance of influence in the leadership process. Leadership cannot exist without influence, and therefore any definition of leadership must incorporate it.
References
Fanning, B. (n.d.). Tony Hsieh and Zappos.com: Leadership and corporate culture. Retrieved December 16, 2014, from
Mielach, D. (2013, March 6). Defining leadership: 8 ways to be a great leader. Business News Daily. Retrieved December 16, 2014, from
Northouse, P. G. (2012). Leadership: Theory and practice (pp. 78–128). New York, NY: SAGE Publications.
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