Personal Effectiveness Assignment Sample
Executive Summary
In this fast paced world of technology and development, great leaders are always sought after as they have what it takes to thrust a company to victorious heights. Sundar Pichai, a boy born to a middle class family in Chennai, India, has become one of the most iconic CEOs of Google only through his calm demeanor and resilient nature. It can be seen from the success story of Sundar Pichai that one does not need to bother with office politics to reach great heights but stay focused on one’s work and career path.
Introduction
In this fast paced era of development, good leaders are always sought after to guide the common herd and make important large scale decisions that keep the world moving forward. Qualities like ‘communication’, ‘integrity’, ‘influence’, ‘ability to delegate’, respect’, ‘empathy’, ‘learning agility’, ‘courage’, ‘sets a great leader apart from other leaders. In the following report this set of qualities and behaviors of Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google, that made him a successful leader, will be discussed.
Skills and behavior of Sundar Pichai that made him a successful leader
Google, with consumer numbers crossing 2 billion, needed an adept problem solver and calm person to head its operations. Sundar Pichai, often described as a thoughtful person by his colleagues, was the correct man for the job. Currently he is the CEO of Google and Alphabet and has boosted the company’s financial and expansion base to new heights. As per Whittington et al. (2020), his ability to lead and work with others and his cool, calm demeanor has made him the most popular and innovative CEO of Google. The fundamental qualities of a great leader all reside in Sundar Pichai and he has made good use of them. The interpersonal skill set that sets Sundar Pichai apart from other leaders’ are-
- Communication: Sundar Pichai is excellent in communication and makes sure that his team understands its mission. As mentioned by Lenka et al. (2017), such aspects have proved to be one of the most amazinag assets of this man with which he has reached another level entirely.
- Inclusive leadership: Sundar Pichai does not believe in the hierarchy of power in higher echelons, rather he believes in empowering those who are working for or with him.
- Simplicity: Sundar Pichai has a calm demeanor and always seems at ease with his leadership role. He avoids confronting his opponents and usually waits out the storm. His simplistic lifestyle has gained the confidence and respect of all throughout Google.
- Team Player: Sundar Pichai once mentioned that his responsibility is to support his colleagues and to help them reach their personal goals by eliminating any barriers in their way. He made his company successful by encouraging personal development of his team members.
- Resilience: Despite much internal conflict and clear rejection of the then CEO Eric Schmidt, Sundar Pichai launched ‘Google Chrome’ to pit against ‘Internet Explorer’, with just 10 developers behind him. Now Google Chrome holds 68% of market shares whereas Internet Explorer only has 7%. His belief in his product and the courage to not give up made Chrome such a success and landed Sundar Pichai in the post of CEO.
| Strength
● Confident and resilient ● Team worker ● Tech savvy ● Simplistic lifestyle |
Weakness
● Known to walk out of meetings when deep in thoughts
● Doesn’t bother with internal factors of office |
| Opportunity
● Designed and launched Google Chrome with only 10 developers behind him ● Heads Alphabet along with Google |
Threat
● Avoid office politics and drama and therefore unknowing of his employees discontent ● Considers teams success before the company
|
Table 1: SWOT of Sundar Pichai
(Source: Created by Learner)
Positive elements of Sundar Pichai and their impact
In the world of Entrepreneur, the story of Sundar Pichai stands out as a legend; a young man coming from Chennai, Indian subcontinent reaches the top of the chain through sheer hard work and simple team player approach. As stated by Fidan et al. (2017), most young entrepreneurs look up to Sundar Pichai for his resilient yet calm persona. He has shown that to rise above everyone one doesn’t need office politics or drama, one just needs hard work and complete focus on your career building. As mentioned by Coskun et al. (2018), during one of his speeches he also stated how many of the young entrepreneurs are failing due to their lack of will. According to Mr. Pichai, only dreaming and not doing anything sincere for it is the easiest way to lose your dreams. The only way to success is to give in all your might and never lose hope on your dreams.
Negative elements of Sundar Pichai and their impact
As a tech savvy and crude business analyst, it’s no doubt that Sundar Pichai is the best choice as CEO of the biggest technological industry, Google. However, the soft spoken nature of the leader may render the ones following him directionless. As per Halevy et al. (2020), It also escalates to vulnerability in negotiations as the calm nature does not show shrewdness. As stated by Özbağ et al. (2016), as Sundar Pichai generally avoids office politics, his knowledge of employee’s dissatisfaction and internal coup is negligible. Therefore, he is ill equipped to handle future discontent among his workers.
Theoretical Discussion
Figure 1: Trait theory of leadership
(Source: Sanchez et al. 2018)
Out of the many theories on leadership, perhaps no other theory simplifies things as ‘The Trait Theory’. As stated by Kalish et al. (2020), Trait theory compares a potential leader with attributes of the previous leaders, both successful and unsuccessful. Based on birth, educational attributes and other contributing factors the data of previous leaders is used as an index to measure the probability of success of the potential leader.
Sundar Pichai was born in a middle class Indian family in Tamil Nadu. He had great prowess in dealing with numbers from a very small age. As mentioned by Sanchez et al. (2018), when all the great and successful leaders around the world throughout the ages are seen as an index, certain skills pop out much more prominently than others. Such qualities like calm nature, confidence, learning agility, resilience are all seen in Sundar Pichai. Therefore, it is safe to assume that he would do just as good as the previous great leader of the world.
Conclusion
From the above discussion it can be concluded that the calm and resilient nature of Sundar Pichai is the fundamental reason behind his successfulness as a leader. Though it is often thought that to get to the top of the chain of command one needs to follow the office politics and the chain of command. However, Sundar Pichai proved these all to be false as he get to the position of CEO through sheer hard work and vision for the future. It has been found out that a good leader can run a company smoothly; a great leader however, takes the company to new heights of glory that it previously never achieved.
Reference
Halevy, N., Jun, S. and Chou, E.Y., 2020. Intergroup conflict is our business: CEOs’ ethical intergroup leadership fuels stakeholder support for corporate intergroup responsibility. Journal of Business Ethics, 162(1), pp.229-246.
Coskun, O., Ulutas, I., Budakoglu, I.I., Ugurlu, M. and Ustu, Y., 2018. Emotional intelligence and leadership traits among family physicians. Postgraduate Medicine, 130(7), pp.644-649.
Fidan, T. and Balcı, A., 2017. Managing schools as complex adaptive systems: A strategic perspective. International electronic journal of elementary education, 10(1), pp.11-26.
Gupta, M. and Lenka, U., Employer Branding: A Talent Retention Strategy Using Social Media. Pragyaan: Journal of Mass Communication, p.21.
Kalish, Y. and Luria, G., 2020. Traits and time in leadership emergence: A longitudinal study. The Leadership Quarterly, p.101443.
Özbağ, G.K., 2016. The role of personality in leadership: five factor personality traits and ethical leadership. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 235(Supplement C), pp.235-242.
Sanchez, C.M. and Dalmia, S., 2018. Why Aren’t There More Women Leaders? A Look Inside One West Michigan Organization. Seidman Business Review, 24(1), p.9.
Whittington, R. and Yakis-Douglas, B., 2020. The Grand Challenge of Corporate Control: Opening strategy to the normative pressures of networked professionals. Organization Theory, 1(4), p.2631787720969697.
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