Leadership Style of Sartoru Iwata

Leadership; as described by DuBrin (2016, p.2), is the art of achieving organizational goals by using social influence to motivate and inspire others necessary to ensure success. To be a successful leader, one needs to possess the traits, motives, and characteristics to be able to inspire and influence people. Satoru Iwata; the fourth President and CEO of Nintendo (Wong 2013) is one such leader. Iwata inspired not only myself, but legions of fans and employees through not only his personality and behaviour; as evident from his media appearances, but also his leadership style whilst alive. This essay will firstly identify elements of effective and authentic leadership and relate these back to the traits, motive and characteristics of Satoru Iwata. It will then compare different leadership theories; such as transformational, and servant leadership, in relation to Satoru Iwata’s leadership style, and finally it will evaluate the different challenges Satoru Iwata saw, and how he was able to overcome them due to his leadership style.

To demonstrate effective and authentic leadership, leaders must display elements of passion, vision, creativity, and integrity; whilst also demonstrating a level of emotional intelligence (Batool 2013, pp. 84-85). Goleman, (2000, p. 6) defines emotional intelligence as leaders effectively managing relationships using self-awareness, self-management, social awareness and social skills. Goleman, Boyatzis & McKee (2013, p. 44) further enforce this theory by explaining that leaders with high levels of emotional intelligence have been shown to be more effective and show more authentic leadership.

Satoru Iwata demonstrated high levels of emotional intelligence as evidenced by his exhibition of self-awareness and self-management by holding himself accountable for his own performance, resulting in him imposing salary cuts on himself whenever Nintendo was not performing well (Mochari 2015). He also showed high levels of social awareness and social skills by regularly interacting with both the public and employees through the Iwata Asks series though Nintendo (Epstein et al. 2013, p. 365). Wang et al. (2014, pp. 5-7) would also agree Satoru Iwata shows a high level of emotional intelligence and effective and authentic leadership, as his actions show he lead by example, showed transparency, had an openness and clarity in his behaviour and promoted feelings of self-worth, loyalty and positiveness amongst employees.

To further understand the basis of leadership effectiveness and authenticity, DuBrin (2016, pp. 20-22) describes a general framework for leadership effectiveness. It shows that the greatest influence over leadership effectiveness is the traits, motives and characteristics of the leader; with the characteristics of the group members, and the environment in which the leader operates also needing to be taken into consideration. For a leader to display effective and authentic leadership, the traits, motives and characteristics of a good leader must be considered.

DuBrin (2016, p. 37) theorises that there are indicators that effective leaders all carry certain personality traits and operate due to set motives. The personality traits can be broadly divided into two main groups: general personality traits; including humility, authenticity and a sense of humour, and task-related traits; including passion, courage and a proactive personality. Furthermore, effective leaders are also motivated by power, tenacity, strong work ethic, or drive and achievement.

Satoru Iwata showed great humility and authenticity by not only never forgetting his past; as he famously said “On my business card, I am a corporate president. In my mind, I am a game developer. But in my heart, I am a gamer" (Wong 2013) and being willing to do the same programming work as employees to meet deadlines (Wong 2013), but by also being able to admit when he was wrong. This was evidenced by partnering with a mobile gaming giant after saying that smartphone games would never be popular (Millward 2015). He also showed not only his humility, but also sense of humor by joking that he was living on a programmer’s diet whilst helping employees meet their deadlines (Wong 2013). Furthermore, Iwata showed his passion, courage and proactive personality by being a hands-on leader who not only helped programmer’s when needed, but also continued to develop new and upcoming games (Millward 2015). Through these traits, Iwata was also able to show his leadership motivations.

Satoru Iwata was motivated by an intensely strong work ethic, drive, and tenacity; power did not appear to be a major source of his motivation as his desire was to lead his team, not seek out power for himself (Kirkpatrick & Locke 1991, p.48). This was evidenced by him being able increase Nintendo’s finances by 41% in the first year he was President, contributing to code development to ensure game releases and working alongside employees to ensure success (Wong 2013).  DuBrin (2016, p. 53) supports the idea that Satoru Iwata shared several motivations with those of effective leaders whilst Epstein et al. (2013, p.365) would agree power was not a motivator for Iwata as he was known to publicly give credit to his team for ensuring a successful launch whilst refusing to take credit for himself.

Zaccaro (2007, pp. 6-7) agrees that these traits and motives are examples of effective leaders and further suggests that not only are these unique to individuals who represent leaders, but they are also potentially passed down through generations. This theory is also accepted by Judge et al. (2002, p. 765), who also argue that these traits and motives are essential to predict the effectiveness of a leader. One caution Zaccaro (2007, p. 14) has is that leader traits and motives should not be relied upon on their own; the leadership style that arises from these also needs to be taken into consideration.

The two most common leadership theories that have arisen from the different traits and motives leaders show are transformational and transactional leadership; although servant leadership is slowly being recognised as an alternative to transformational leadership (Latham 2014, p. 13). Batool (2013, pp. 84-85) confirms these leadership theories, stating that transformational leadership is more effective and shows a leader with a higher level of emotional intelligence. From examining the traits, motives and characteristics of Satoru Iwata, he has the most leadership attributes in common with servant leadership. Though similar to transformational leadership, the main difference is the focus of the leader, with servant leaders being more focussed on their follows rather than the company (Stone, Russell & Patterson 2004, p. 354), a characteristic demonstrated by Iwata. Many leaders are uncomfortable with the term servant; however, they fail to realise that by using a more horizontal hierarchical leadership style; where the leader is on the same level as the employees (Stone, Russell & Patterson 2004, p. 354), they are generally more effective and authentic and therefore more successful.