Diagnosing Managerial Characteristics

Ouail Ennajar

Dr.Karimi MGT-585 Management Skills Development 7/19/2012

Abstract This case study is choosing by Dr.Karimi where he felt it will best describe all the skills in the book of developing management skills. The case is listed in the chapter of self-awareness. The case is about Diagnosing Managerial Characteristics of four leaders. These leaders are: Michael Dell, Patrick M. Byrne, Maurice Blanks, and Gordon Bethune. These leader have succeed in there carrier where some defined the odds and others blocked any source of disturbance. Skills such as self-awareness, team work, empowerment and delegation are shown in this case and help show a real life example of the implementation of these skills. The case will provide an overview of the four leaders. Also, a comparison between the leaders will be given where similarities and difference will be shown in the second part of the essay. Finally, a selection of the best leader will be giving in the last part with supporting argument that facilitate the selection.

Self-awareness or managerial self-awareness has become a crucial component of the career development process. Until now, relatively few studies have been done in understanding self-awareness in management. The importance of self-awareness in the managerial career development processes is examined and the relationship between self-awareness and managerial success is also considered. In order to understand more, a review of four leaders will be given in the following paragraph. These leaders share some common value and differ in others where we will see the pattern each one of them follows. The first leader is Michael Dell, who is the president of Dell cooperation. He is the kind of a person who work every day even thou he is Worth more than $13 billion. He is so deducted to his work where he can tear a computer apart and put it back together as reading a newspaper. Dell is the kind of person who can called friendly boss. Even thou his company is the typical lean-and-mean company, he doesnt play the role of the bad guy. Another example of his kindness was after receiving the award from the Austin, Texas, Chamber of Commerce where he gave everyone a chance to talk to him. Still, he is not the kind of a person who inclined toward public exaggeration. He is a low key person who put 100% of his focus in reaching his objectives. Finally, Michael is the kind of a person who never makes the same mistake twice. The second leader is Patrick M. Byrne; he is the chairman of the Foundation for Educational Choice, as well as the president, CEO, and chairman of the board of directors of Internet retailer Overstock.com. Studying philosophy made Patrick understand peoples thinking and be able to the heart of things. He is focused in his work and objective and never got bothered by obfuscation of media. He believes that when you have to stand for things, you have to be prepared to face criticism, mockery, and derision

The third leader is Maurice Blanks; he is architecture at Blu Dot. He faced the odds and become one of the best architectures in the market. He believes that with hard work and organization, a person can achieve the imposable. Maurice is the kind of a person who loves challenge. He sees joy in keeping track of thousands of information and making sure they are all covered in the design. Maurice also enjoy high level of communication where can translate ideas quickly and tailor information to the audience. The final leader is Gordon Bethune; he is a retired US airline executive and He was the CEO of Continental Airlines from 1994 until his retirement at the end of 2004. He currently serves on the boards of Honeywell, Sprint Nextel, Prudential Financial, and Willis Group Holdings. Gordon is the kind of a person who takes care of everything and everybody. He is known as superb motivator of people and a network builder. His web of friendship helped him to take over two bankrupt companies and turn them in to successful ones. Gordon builds his relations by attending the graduation ceremonies of every new class of flight attendants, handing out candy canes to employees during the Christmas season, showing up regularly at employee birthday parties, and holding a monthly open house in his office to encourage employee communication. On the other hand, Gordon is irreverent and strict. He demands precision and standardized levels of service in every place in the company. All the leaders share one main attribute of reaching there objective at any cost. Some of them use 100% focus and ignore the others. Other leaders use their web of relationship to help them reach there objectives. An example of Michael Dell show that he record every mistake so he never make it twice witch help him achieve success. Patrick M. Byrne ignores obfuscation and gives his 100% on reaching his goals. Maurice Blanks faces the odds and still make it the word of architecture. These leaders were all normal people; yet, the managed to understand their

own self-awareness. They were able to understand their sensitive line and their cognitive style. Also, they were able to increase their awareness of personal values and moral maturity level. Even thou all these leaders share some attribute, they differ in others. Their main difference comes in the way how they get to their goal. For example: Michael Dell is a shy and a friendly person whereas Gordon Bethune is people person and sometimes can be rude. From this example we can see that both of the leaders used a completely different method. Still, they were both able to reach their goals witch show that there is no wrong way. Another example of Patrick M. Byrne and Gordon Bethune; where the first leader doesnt care about what others say about him and the second leader carrying about everybody. This example proves more the exciting of difference among the leaders. In conclusions, I chose Gordon Bethune as the best leader. We both share many attributes such as building relationships. Moreover, we both are strict when it comes to work and sometimes can be rude towards people if they made any kind of a mistake around work. Gordon Bethune understood that relying on book knowledge is not always right. Life experience also is important when setting ways to reach objectives. I strongly agree with his point of view, due the fact of his ability to raise two companies from bankruptcy. Finally, Gordon Bethune is a man of reason, common sense and values witch are my three guidelines of life.