Leadership Style Comparison - Steve Jobs and Bill Gates

Introduction

"Leadership style is the process by which a person exerts influence over other people and inspires, motivates and directs their activities to help achieve e are lot kinds of leadership styles, we are going to learn and analyze them and understanding the advantages and disadvantages. We are going to analyze Bill Gates and Steve Jobs. William Bill H. Gates was the chairman of Microsoft Corporation. Steve Paul Jobs is a co-founder of Apple and CEO. After research and compare these two CEO's leadership styles, we are going to find out which is better in current business environment. Firstly we introduce Bill Gates transformational, participative and expert leadership style then we introduce Steve Jobs transactional, autocratic and coercive leadership style. Secondly we compare these two leaders' leadership style to understand and find out better one. After all we make a conclusion of it, which is transformational, participative and expert leadership style is better.

William Bill H. Gates was the chairman of Microsoft Corporation. He is the leader of computer software. He was born in 1955 with rich history in business, politics and community service (Mirick 1996). His parents recognized his intelligence so they supported him for his computer studying. Therefore Bill Gates could plunge into the work with a dreadful zest. He made computer program at age 13 (Microsoft News Center 2010) and he sold the program which he made at first time by the age of 17 (BBC NEWS 2004). Although he entered Harvard University, he dropped out when he formed Microsoft (Mirick 1996).

"Microsoft founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq "MSFT") is the worldwide leader in software, services, and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential." It has revenues of US$62.48 billion for the fiscal year ending 30th of June in 2010, and net income is $18.76 billion. Employs are 88,596 people in the world and there are 109 subsidiaries (Microsoft News Center 2010).

Firstly, Bill Gates is a transformational leader. 'A transformational leader is who makes subordinates aware of the importance of their jobs and perform to the organization, makes them aware of their own needs for personal growth, and motivates them to work for the good of the organization' (Waddell et al. 2007). Gates has many ways to influence his subordinates; one of them is his chah of the new Microsoft product, he can attract every audience to watch him. He knows his product and shows to audiences with confidence. Gates also influence his employees by intellectually stimulating subordinates. "Behavior a leader engages in to make followers aware of problems and encourage them to view these problems in new way, consistent with the leader's vision (Waddell et al. 2007)." He is also engaging in individual developmental consideration. "The leader makes an unwritten agreement with the followers, encouraging them to work not because of an exchange of value but for the love of their work (Daguia, 2010)." Gates encourages his followers to love their organization and value their own input. When managers transform subordinates in these ways, subordinates trust the manager, are highly motivated, and help the organization achieve its goals. A disadvantage is transformational leader can makembers in making decisions (McCrimmon 2007)." He participated and engaged in management and involves his subordinate in decision making. Because Bill Gates was explorer, invented a computer operating system that everybody needs as well as he was chief executive officer in Microsoft Corporation. He has c

Steve Jobs

Steven Jobs was born at February 24, 1955 in San Francisco. In 1976, Steve Jobs is a co-founder of Apple. They designed, developed and marketed one successful personal computer. He resigned in 1985 after losing a power struggle. Then he had very successfully led the Pixar animation studios. In 1997 Steve Jobs came back to the Apple to be the CEO.

Apple Corporation

Apple Company is an American multinational corporation that designs and markets consumer electronics, computer software and personal computers. The company's best-known hardware products include the Macintosh computers, the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad. From 2009, Apple had 35,000 full time employees and had