The Leadership Style and Personal Value of Reid Hoffman - Paper Example

Part A (Words = 614)

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Reid Hoffman was an American entrepreneur, author and venture capitalist born in August 1967. He was the chairman and co-founder of the business social network LinkedIn. He was a partner of the Greylock Partners a venture capital firm. Hoffman was ranked in Forbes 2016 with a net worth of US $2.4 billion. Hoffman was regarded the most successful investor. He was the motivator and role model in business ventures. Being a partner of the Greylock, he focused on services and consumer, the internet, payments and social networks. Hoffman reveals leadership skills in his life in that while in college he wanted to influence the state of the world, he was a member of the board of directors of Paypal where he later became chief operating officer. He also founded LinkedIn in 2002 where he became the CEO before becoming the president and chairman CITATION McD16 \l 1033 (McDermid, 2016).

Hoffman helped firms raise capital to finance operations of LinkedIn. He was an internalised and a working style. He is consummate networker that is he thinks of building networks and bringing groups of persons together. Hoffman was found to be unusually selfless however he was very generous about helping people to do something right by introducing them to the right individuals in life. He had an urge to help people be what they wanted to be or achieve what they hoped to be in life. Hoffman had unique abilities, he could think of how things would be in future, and he could forecast on how to invest with a view of making a profit from the vision. Hoffman did not bog down even in a recession CITATION McD16 \l 1033 (McDermid, 2016). Unlike other personalities, Hoffman thought around networks, products and economic activities. Based on this he started LinkedIn and invested in Facebook and Zynga among other entities.

Hoffman is a power player with huge net worth serving in top positions of companies apart from being a partner in them. He recognises everyones flaws and acknowledges their strengths. He does fall easily in seeing people in binary ways; he appreciates a broad spectrum of weaknesses and strengths. He offers people value in their attention. In his top positions, Hoffman was willing to accept mistakes, he moved, kept things simple and trusted his employees. He appreciated everyone even the low-profile people he met or those who were introduced to him CITATION Kom16 \l 1033 (Komives, 2016).

Hoffman invested in personality in his hiring practices, and he built a strong degree of trust in every employee. The best situation that analyses Hoffman is his time in LinkedIn. He is a successful businessman, famous and very innovative entrepreneur. He has received major awards and achievements such as received David Packard Medal and Distinguished Citizen Award. Despite being a failure and incompetent manager, he proved to be valuable in his learning experience. He promoted the idea of hiring flexibility, having a plan to getting customers from the outset and in moving fast CITATION Phi14 \l 1033 (Phipps, 2014).

Conclusively, Hoffman supported the values of conscious capitalism. He ventured into LinkedIn, and he is arguably the most successful and famous angel investor. Hoffman urged people to become investors, and he worked towards creating the value for customers. Hoffman urged people to become entrepreneurs of their lives and take the road less travelled by other people. Hoffman leadership skills are effective. He is people-oriented, and he is motivated by the success of lowly. He is determined in building one career and entrepreneurial life. In his career and personal life, Hoffman acted ethically in all situations. He recognised peoples flaws and acknowledged their strengths. He did not fall easily in seeing people in binary ways and appreciated a broad spectrum of weaknesses and strengths in them CITATION McD16 \l 1033 (McDermid, 2016).

Part B (Words = 319)

Being a servant leader in the situation of Hoffman, I would act almost the same as he acted. He revealed the greatest and the most influential leadership skills in his personal and career life. Despite the great personality and tactical leadership style exhibited by Hoffman, his situation and my own would be different in that he ventured and worked in a global business like Silicon Valley, Paypal and LinkedIn. Leadership cases in this companies call for conceptual skills that may not be applicable in my situation as a servant leader. In his situation, Hoffman sought to propel the businesses to global scale while in my situation this will call for efficient management of my behaviour and perception in the setting. This will be shown in how I manage situations that I come across. My power bases will be based on my position as a servant leader. This is determined by the fact that position gives power and authority to exercise over some things or followers. Based on my position in my circumstance it will determine nature of my power which I may use to influence or change people in a certain direction.

The leadership tactics I will utilise will be charisma and rewards. I will take the lead in every situation and encourage my followers to venture into unique fields not pursued by everyone. I will employ democratic/participative leadership style as revealed by Hoffman in the circumstances. Through this, my followers would realise the best of my leadership. They achieve their goals, realise their dreams and achievements in both career and life. I support the values and principles of conscious capitalism in that I promote entrepreneurship and investment for economic development. I seek to build entrepreneurial skills in my colleagues and people I come across regardless of their class in life. My personal values influence my leadership style which in turn affects the way I deal with my subjects.

Appendix: Philosophy Statement

Leaders are born, they are not made!

Based on the leadership style and personal value of Hoffman, it is evident that leaders are born and not made. At the age of only 12 years, Hoffman had started working and had dreams for the printing company he first worked. Effective leadership is built with people and is envisioned within people. The best leadership style is people-oriented. Hoffman believed in developing personality and not the skills in people. My values such as integrity, team player, equality, openness, customer service and honesty will influence my leadership skills. My beliefs in career and life would influence my leadership style. Great world leaders and entrepreneurs have influenced my development of values, for instance, Frek Hoffman, Mark Zuckerberg and Peter Thiel. As a leader, others would expect me to influence them towards attaining their goals and dreams. They would expect them to lead and direct them in every aspect of their lives. My leadership skills would be people-oriented, and I would seek to motivate all way through. The leadership tactics I will utilise will be charisma and rewards. I will take the lead in every situation and encourage my followers to venture into unique fields not pursued by everyone.

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY Komives, S. R. (2016). Leadership for a better world: Understanding the social change model of leadership development. John Wiley & Sons.

McDermid, R. (2016). LinkedIn's Reid Hoffman donates $20 million to Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative, will join the board . . Silicon Valley Business Journal", Retrieved November 11, 2016.

Phipps, S. T. (2014). Emotional Intelligence: Is it Necessary for Leader Development?. Journal of Leadership, Accountability and Ethics, 11(1), 73.