In this paper I would like to analyze the leadership style of Giovanni Voltolini, emerged during his guest speech at the Free University of Bolzano in January 2016. Giovanni Voltolini is the manager of the Italian branch of Nixon, an American company specialized in watches and, more in general, accessories for both man and women. During his speech, he discussed many aspects of his personal view of leadership. What I found particularly interesting was that, as the director of the Italian subsidiary he is both leader of his employees but also a follower of the American CEOs of the company. In the first part of the paper, I will focus more on the “follower” side, whereas in the second part I will describe his leadership style when dealing with
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The democratic approach is the one in which the followers are involved in the decision-making process. The idea behind is that the employees know what to do because they are skilled and they have an inside view of the company. Therefore, during a negotiation process a better solution for a problem is more likely to be found together. The Laissez-faire approach, also known as guided freedom, instead, is the one in which the followers are free to choose their own way of working because the leader just set what and when to achieve but then it is up to the followers to choose the way to reach this objective. The leadership style at Nixon as I said is a mixture of the two approaches because on the one hand as Giovanni Voltolini said on a daily base the employee are free to work to achieve the goal without particular schedule or timetable because the company just wants to judge the final result. Therefore, flexibility is a key word in that company. On the other hand, in another part of the speech Mr. Voltolini underlined that it is rather difficult to convince the American manager to change their point of view regarding more deeply rooted aspects of the management process. He said that to bring about changes it requires …show more content…
Voltorini. The leadership profile that best fits his way of managing the branch is the one of a transformational leader. Transformational leadership can be saw as the advance step of transactional leadership. Transactional leadership is an approach that is based on the satisfaction of basic needs that the employees have. It is usually a reward-punishment approach and it is suitable usually for short-term projects or employees that are either not expert or motivated. Transformational leaders are instead the ones that go beyond the basic needs and try to inspire and motivate their employees. Key aspects of this leadership style are passion, creativity and being visionary. Passion represents for sure a cornerstone in Nixon’s environment. As he said, passion, combined with previous experiences, is the key to succeed and the main source of power in that company because, for example, his position is not due to a qualification, because the degree he has is completely different from the job he is doing. By being so passionate, he represents a source of inspiration for his followers. Another aspect that confirms the adoption of a transformational leadership approach in the company is the creativity he and his employees have. The example of selling their products also in boutiques confirms this point because he has the courage to change what it was a good situation, since they were making money
The democratic approach is the one in which the followers are involved in the decision-making process. The idea behind is that the employees know what to do because they are skilled and they have an inside view of the company. Therefore, during a negotiation process a better solution for a problem is more likely to be found together. The Laissez-faire approach, also known as guided freedom, instead, is the one in which the followers are free to choose their own way of working because the leader just set what and when to achieve but then it is up to the followers to choose the way to reach this objective. The leadership style at Nixon as I said is a mixture of the two approaches because on the one hand as Giovanni Voltolini said on a daily base the employee are free to work to achieve the goal without particular schedule or timetable because the company just wants to judge the final result. Therefore, flexibility is a key word in that company. On the other hand, in another part of the speech Mr. Voltolini underlined that it is rather difficult to convince the American manager to change their point of view regarding more deeply rooted aspects of the management process. He said that to bring about changes it requires …show more content…
Voltorini. The leadership profile that best fits his way of managing the branch is the one of a transformational leader. Transformational leadership can be saw as the advance step of transactional leadership. Transactional leadership is an approach that is based on the satisfaction of basic needs that the employees have. It is usually a reward-punishment approach and it is suitable usually for short-term projects or employees that are either not expert or motivated. Transformational leaders are instead the ones that go beyond the basic needs and try to inspire and motivate their employees. Key aspects of this leadership style are passion, creativity and being visionary. Passion represents for sure a cornerstone in Nixon’s environment. As he said, passion, combined with previous experiences, is the key to succeed and the main source of power in that company because, for example, his position is not due to a qualification, because the degree he has is completely different from the job he is doing. By being so passionate, he represents a source of inspiration for his followers. Another aspect that confirms the adoption of a transformational leadership approach in the company is the creativity he and his employees have. The example of selling their products also in boutiques confirms this point because he has the courage to change what it was a good situation, since they were making money