Craig Jelinek's Authentic Leadership Style Analysis

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Costco CEO Craig Jelinek personifies the leadership style of authentic leadership. Craig is a low-key, organization first, employee dedicated leader who has taken Costco to international fame as a low cost, high ethics, retailer who does not follow the same trends as other large retailers. Craig Jelinek was CNNMoney Magazines top choice for CEO of the year in 20151. Other retailers had bad years competing against on-line retail giant Amazon in 2015, Costco quietly earned 15% profits under Jelinek’s control1. Other retailers were opening early on Thanksgiving to try to cash in early on “Black Friday” sales. Jelinek decided to keep Costco closed to allow its employees more family time on the Thanksgiving holiday.
Jelinek’s authentic style could
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Candidness, elevated personal principles, respect, and consideration are some of the key traits of authentic leadership. Authentic leaders tend to show more compassion and parental style caring for their followers than other leadership styles. Charismatic leaders may get more from their followers, but authentic leaders give more back. While much of their leadership comes from the heart, there is still plenty of leadership from the head. They make decisions for the greater good, with all concerned in mind, even if it may be against their own personal beliefs. The hypothesis of the Multi-level Investigation of Authentic Leadership as an Antecedent of Helping Behavior (Giles Hirst) said that authentic leaders tend to have genuine followers due to their concern of serving others3.
LEADERSHIP CHARACTERISTICS Craig has shown sincere modesty throughout his career. He has proven over and over that he values and respects his workers. Dan Blocker repeatedly brings examples of his leadership in “The Costco CEO Craig Jelinek leads the cheapest, happiest company in the world”4.
Craig didn’t start the pro-employee culture at Costco. Jim Sinegal founded Costco on those principles and it has been the organizational culture ever since. Craig has carried the Sinegal flame through his leadership at Costco. Simple principles and practices are mixed with industry spinning methods to create new business approaches. Craig is known for his humility. The story of the leadership of Costco is

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