People's Regard and Honor for Leaders
People's regard and honor for leaders are heavily influenced by their observations of their behavior and management style. An respectable leader has a distinguished personality and selflessly serves the organization (Kizil, 2017). Furthermore, an honorable and recognized leader focuses on his or her views and goals, tasks, policy implementation, employee engagement, and direction (Kizil, 2017). Warren Buffett, the CEO, Chairman, and largest shareholder of Berkshire Hathaway, a worldwide firm headquartered in Omaha, is one of the noble leaders I respect and admire. Buffett stands out as a respected leader across the world for his prudence and devotion to ethical principles on matters relating to successful business management (Allayannis, 2017). Buffet (the Oracle of Omaha) rose from a humble beginning to become one of the world's richest men through his keen sense of investing and sheer hard work. Buffett started investing when he was a teenager, and by the age of 20, he had saved about $10,000 (Allayannis, 2017). Besides, Buffett developed individual leadership and investment principles, which played a significant role in helping him acquire wealth. Warren Buffett is a notable philanthropist, who is dedicated to giving away a considerable part of his fortunes to charity (Buffett, 2009). This paper presents a case study of Warren Buffett, as one of the distinguished leaders whom I admire and respect.
Why Warren Buffett is an Honorable Leader
One of the qualities that make Buffett an honorable leader is that he is optimistic. Buffett has a robust, consistent, upbeat attitude in performing his managerial roles. Besides, Buffett can figure out how to remain optimistic, while at the same time, confronting reality, irrespective of the circumstances (Kahan, 2012). According to Buffett, even the much-lamented two percent annual growth of the American economy in the last few years can deliver amazing benefits just in one generation. Buffett estimates that the America's real per-capita GDP will grow by 34.4 percent within the next 25 years if the American population continues to rise at the current rate (Kahan, 2012).
Another thing that makes Buffett an honorable leader is that he always explains what he does for everyone to understand. It is always essential to trust leaders, and people usually feel more comfortable if they know what their leaders are doing and why they are doing various activities. Part of Buffett's admirable qualities has long been his transparency and ability to explain to others the financial workings of a multinational conglomerate in an understandable language. Buffett takes a significant part of his time just explaining how each Berkshire's leading businesses operate, as well as how each of them performs (Skeffington, 2015).
Warren Buffett is also considered an honorable leader because he admits his mistakes and does not make any attempt to protect them. Buffett is one of the world's few leaders who openly acknowledge their errors every year. Buffett's ability to admit managerial mistakes makes people build more confidence in him, as well as give him great respect. The role of any leader is to define reality and provide hope, and Buffett is best at doing that (Buffett, 2009).
Buffet's Characteristics and Achievements
One of the primary traits that define Buffett is humility. Warren Buffett is an amazingly humble leader, which reflects much of his success. He is opposed to the idea of dynastic wealth and believes in hard work (Chirkova, 2016). Besides, Buffett's humility is evident through his charitable giving. Buffett is also a patient leader, and he observes great patience when dealing with stocks. Besides, his patience is to thank significantly for his financial success. As a leader, Buffett believes in persevering through empowering his team and solving conflicts along the journey of success (Chirkova, 2016).
Warren Buffett has a long list of achievements tracing back to 1951 when he worked as an investment salesman at Buffett-Falk & Co., his father's company. Buffett opened an investment company in Omaha in 1956 after working with Benjamin Graham's partnership for two years (Buffett, 2009). Buffett then began operating many other associations, and he had seven partnerships by the end of the decade, which made him a millionaire (Buffett, 2009). Buffett later merged all the seven partnerships and invested in a textile manufacturing company called Berkshire Hathaway. In the late 1960s, Buffett shifted the textile business into insurance sector, and in 1987, he became the biggest shareholder of Salomon Inc after purchasing 12 percent of the company's stake (Kizil, 2017). In 1988, Buffett bought 7 percent of the Coca-Cola Company for $1.02 billion. Buffett became the world's richest person in 2008 with an estimated net worth of $62 billion (Kizil, 2017). In 2011, President Obama presented Buffett with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Currently, Warren Buffett is the CEO and chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, and one of the world's most successful investors of the twentieth century (Kizil, 2017).
Buffet's Approach to Leadership
One of Buffett's approaches to leadership is investing in the business as opposed to growing corporate staff. Besides, he ensures a healthy working relationship between the board members and the shareholders. Buffet's leadership style also involves splitting his chairmanship roles from those of the CEO (Skeffington, 2015). Additionally, Buffett considers character as a crucial element and believes that the management of Berkshire is primarily a task of capital allocation, as well as the identification and retention of high-performing managers. As a corporate leader, Buffet tries as much as possible to avoid the ABCs of business decay by fighting bureaucracy, arrogance, and complacency (Skeffington, 2015).
Also, Buffett always remembers the golden rule by trusting in his managers, which has made him achieve more within a short period. He also considers experience as the best teacher and the only one for effective and productive management (Chirkova, 2016). Besides, Buffett is one leader who stays humble and admits his mistakes, which makes his employees gain trust in him. Moreover, Buffett believes in motivating his employees through appreciating their work (Chirkova, 2016).
Buffet's Strengths and Weaknesses
One of Buffett's strengths is that he is a visionary leader who can revolutionize a given industry, thereby catering for the future markets. Besides, he is always ahead of his competitors and usually leads by example through empowering people (Kahan, 2012). Buffett also allows his employees to have creative freedom and style of approaching various tasks, which enhances innovativeness. Another Buffett's strength is the delegation of tasks, which results in better and efficient use of time. Moreover, Buffett is a more friendly and approachable leader who inspires people to work towards achieving goals (Kahan, 2012).
Despite such strengths, Buffett also has various weaknesses in his approach to leadership. One of such weaknesses is that he is always slow to make personal changes, which exhibits a lack of effective supervision (Allayannis, 2017). Also, since Buffett believes in achieving his goals in time, staff can easily get burn out when trying to keep pace. Another challenge is that Buffett's employees or team members must have high degrees of self-motivation to cope with his leadership style, which requires the accomplishment of tasks as scheduled (Allayannis, 2017).
Important Lessons Learned from Studying Warren Buffet
One of the lessons drawn from the study of Buffett's leadership style is that people should always do what they love, as well as know how to communicate effectively as a means of exploring their full potential. Buffett's leadership approach also informs people of the importance of choosing business associates wisely, hiring great talents, as well as planning for the future. Another important lesson learned from Buffett's case study is that transparency plays a pivotal role in the success of a leader and that patience is a critical virtue in management. According to Buffett, achieving success requires time, regardless of the greatness of one's efforts or talents. Additionally, from Buffett's case study, it is evident that wise time management is critical at any leadership position, and that people should always be prepared to take risks, as well as learn from their mistakes. Above all, Buffett's approach to leadership shows the importance of treating everyone equally without favoritism, which makes it easy to reach the competent, silent workers.
Conclusion
Warren Buffett stands as one of the World's wealthiest and most successful leaders and investors today, and it is essential for other leaders, as well as workers, to take lessons from his leadership style. Buffett stands out as a self-made billionaire due to his unique stock-picking and leadership skills, which makes him one of the world's most honored, admired, and respected leaders. In general, Buffett's leadership success is, broadly, as a result of his ability to believe in his managerial skills, as well as his commitment to the transformational leadership.
References
Allayannis, G. (2017). Warren E. Buffett, 2008. Darden Business Publishing Cases, 1(1), 1-9. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/case.darden.2016.000348
Buffett, W. (2009). Top 100 Eco-Barons. Scientific American, 19(2), 11-11. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/scientificamericanearth0609-11a
Chirkova, E. (2016). Why Is It that I am not Warren Buffett? SSRN Electronic Journal. http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2088786
Kahan, A. (2012). Max Weber and Warren Buffett: Looking for the Lost Charisma of Capitalism. Society, 49(2), 144-150. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12115-011-9518-4
Kizil, C. (2017). Book Review of "The Real Warren Buffett - Managing Capital, Leading People." EMAJ: Emerging Markets Journal, 6(2), 43-46. http://dx.doi.org/10.5195/emaj.2016.117
Skeffington, J. (2015). Warren Buffett: Oracle or orang-utan? Significance, 12(5), 8-11. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1740-9713.2015.00851.x
