Leader Profile Essay Sample

Executive Summary of Essay About Leader Profile

This is a report detailing the profile of Jessica May, an Australian citizen. May is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Enabled Employment, an online company offering flexible job opportunities for the people with disability. The report discusses the concepts of transformational leadership, ethos, emotional intelligence and rhetoric analysis that are essential features of a good manager with the focus on Jessica May. Jessica May is a great transformational leader who has changed the lives of many disabled people possessing great ethos, emotional intelligence, and rhetoric.

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Introduction

The profile of an effective leader possesses key features. First, the leader must possess transformational leadership traits that focus on bringing change to his or her subordinates. Second, a good leader has a positive ethos that demonstrates his or her ethical behavior rather than his or her emotions and thoughts. The third characteristic of an effective leader is sufficient emotional intelligence, which is important in understanding the stakeholders of the business, particularly, his or her subordinates. Finally, a good leader articulates ideas and decisions fluently to ensure that the subordinates understand them comprehensively. Jessica May is a leader in the Australian e-commerce industry, and this paper seeks to determine if her leader profile fits that of an effective leader.

Purpose

This report is aimed at creating a profile of Jessica May, the founder of Enabled Employment, a company based in Australia. May is an icon and epitome of exceptional leadership for the future leaders in the business world. Her leadership prowess is captivating and inspiring. Therefore, this report will focus on the communication abilities exhibited by May and how they reinforce her transformational leadership style. The paper presents an analysis and critique of leadership communication according to theoretical concepts backed up by relevant current literature, and application of the concepts concerning Jessica May.

Background

Ms. Jessica May is a famous woman who is the founder and the CEO of Enabled Employment, a web-based company that supports disabled individuals to work flexibly from the comfort of their houses. She holds a Diploma in Software Development, Diploma in Project Management and Graduate Diploma in Public Sector Management. May started the company out of necessity after developing a disability. Having worked as an executive with the government serving the disabled, she gained much experience and categorically empathized with people with disability. Notably, this made her think outside the box and come up with an organization that would bring on board many disabled people.

Outline

The report will focus on critical sections that demonstrate key characteristics of Jessica May. These parts include her transformational leadership performance, how she processes positive ethos, her demonstration of emotional intelligence, and rhetoric analysis.

Transformational Leadership Performance

Transformational leadership theory acknowledges the elements of pro-action, values, and ethics, communication, empowerment, and vision (Middleton, Harvey & Esaki, 2015). Transformational leaders demonstrate autonomy, inspiration, vision, and innovation (Smith, 2015). May establish Enabled Employment as a platform where the disabled work at their convenience and ability, to earn their livelihood. This innovative venture has changed the lives of many people who would otherwise be struggling in a mire of poverty thus; it is an aspect of transformational leadership. Such platforms exist in Australia and other developing countries as more leaders strive to end poverty. Mainly, most initiatives focus on women. The impact of leaders on their followers is a measure of the effectiveness of transformational leadership (Smith, 2015). Transformational leadership is leadership that is concerned mainly with influencing subordinates in the various aspects of their lives: developing leadership skills, developing their talents and gifts, and empowering them financially. May aids the disabled society in Australia to develop their talents and gifts by fostering entrepreneurship based on their interests. These businesses earn income for the disabled, which gives them financial freedom. Additionally, when May encourages entrepreneurship among the disabled, she helps them develop leadership skills within their small-scale businesses as they manage their employees.

Transformational leadership is subordinate-conscious hence concerned about raising followers to produce desirable outcomes and achieve results (McCleskey, 2014). May is not just a CEO of Employment Enabled, enjoying the executive powers and prestige, but her authority manifests in the transformation leadership that is evident in the lives of her staff and stakeholders in the company. Since every worker can earn as much as he or she can online, then the beneficiaries are more in control of their achievements than their leader is. May applies strategies aimed at taking the small-scale organizations to higher levels and not just maintaining the current status quo. Taking the business online is a strategy that every manager should apply to take the business to another level by creating high-speed global networks and increasing efficiency (Rentz& Lentz, 2013), a chance May gives to the disabled society in Australia. Notably, a determined manager will set strategies that will add value to the organization (Walker, 2015). May has great determination to recruit many individuals with disabilities to alleviate their suffering because of unemployment.

Besides creating job opportunities, May also solicits potential employers to offer online work to her staff. For the sole reason of venturing into the new and vital field of entrepreneurship, May has achieved recognition nationally and received several awards, which include the Optus Your Shark Tank award and the 2015 Telstra Australian Business Women’s Startup Award. She also utilizes her award fortune to develop her company for the sake of the many disabled people rather than for her self-advancement (May, 2015). This selfless attitude is the hallmark of a transformational leader. The subordinates benefit most as the personal interests of the manager come last. Transformational leaders are also unprecedented and display five qualities, namely, risk-taking, curiosity, courage, creativity and strategic business perspective (Graham-Leviss, 2016). Apparently, May took the risk to start an online business. Her curiosity and courage motivated her to focus on a different population, the disabled, and their interest. Similarly, she exhibited a strategic business perspective as she focused on capitalizing on the talents and gifts of the disabled society.

Possessing Positive Ethos

Ethos refers to an appeal to ethics. Mainly, it is a mode of convincing an individual of the character of the persuader. Similarly, as a persuasive discourse, it depends on the nature of the speaker rather than his or her thought. The oratory skills and charisma of the speaker persuade the audience on the subject matter of the speech as well as winning favor with them. Ethos is a vital component of communication in management (Mersham, & Theunissen, 2009). Moreover, it is part of the organizational ethics (Johnson, 2012). May demonstrates positive ethos.

A case study on Jessica May is an interview with a news anchor at the Sky News television studio after winning the ‘Optus Your Shark Tank Competition Award (May, 2015). The interview is about how the company started, the CEO’s vision, and how it has reached out to the disabled. May looks presentable and in the right appearance before the media as well as ready to answer questions. Her appearance is the first ethos that May uses to convince the audience of her moral standing. Particularly, her choice of dressing is presentable.

In the interview, May states that she left her job in the government when she became disabled. Notably, her current situation then lowered her performance, which affected her employer negatively. Therefore, May demonstrated ethical behavior by resigning for the sake of the fulfillment of the company. On her endeavor to seek an alternative way to earn her living, she started Enabled Employment Company to help many people with disabilities. Her findings show that in Australia 20% of the population consist of the disabled, 80% of whom are unemployed hence high dependency. Clearly, her act of helping others in the course of creating her business is a demonstration of positive ethos. May cares about others in the society, and her actions and character support it.

On the expenditure of the award money, she says she will plough back the cash into marketing strategies aimed at changing the attitude of the disabled and give them an option out of the desperation. Notably, this ethos convinces the audience of May’s intention to influence her society positively. An evaluation of her entire response to the interview questions proves to the viewer that she is a woman of impact in the community. Excellent communication and interpersonal skills are evident in the show. An effective leader has good communication skills to transact with the staff and the clients (Barret, 2013).

Emotional Intelligence Ability

Emotional intelligence is the ability to exercise one’s emotions appropriately about self and others. It determines the conduct of an individual, which expresses how they feel towards themselves and how people perceive them. Emotional intelligence encompasses the ability to view, utilize, understand and manage emotions (Salovey & Grewal, 2005). Self-control, esteem and interpersonal relations show the emotional intelligence of a person. May expresses a high degree of emotional intelligence through five key features: self-awareness, motivation, self-control, empathy and social skills. Self-awareness is the ability of a person to understand his or her emotions, moods, interests and responsibilities. May accepted her status and explored her interests in information technology and management with the confidence of achieving. Integrating this with a self-drive to reach out to other disabled people May set up the Enabled Employment company. May’s motivation is evident in the pursuit of her studies in software development and the subsequent diplomas in management. Her impetus went beyond merely earning a salary to attaining higher goals. May exercises self-control because she did not let disruptive impulses and negative emotions sabotage her progress and excellence. The opinions of other people towards her did not dictate who she became in life.

Empathy is the impetus that drove May to develop the online job platform for the disabled. She identified with the feelings and sufferings of the disabled who miss out in the job market hence live miserably and in self-pity. She also collaborated particularly with the disabled in developing the company to ensure that they benefit maximally. The hallmark of her considerate trait is that the disabled workers have the option of working within their limits in terms of time and location as long as they own computers. Social skills play a great role in communication (O’Rourke, 2015). May has excellent social skills as seen in how she manages relationships and builds networks that are significant to the lives of many beneficiaries. She is persuasive in words and actions hence driving change in the world of the disabled who are otherwise at the disposition of the unwilling society. May has commendable social expertise in establishing and leading teams to make a difference.

Rhetoric Analysis

Rhetoric is the art of persuasion in spoken discourse (Kennedy, 2015). Rhetoric is the strategic use of language and structure of communication to move the audience. It is the art of persuasive speech involving linguistic and paralinguistic features which spice up the discourse. Communication skills ease interaction between the management and the staff (Sligo, 2005). The scope of rhetoric is great touching on spoken, written and visual language; and how it constructs meaning (What is Rhetoric?). Jessica May is an excellent communicator from whom individuals can learn a lot. This analysis involves her particular speech in a YouTube Video entitled “2015 Telstra Australian Business Women’s Startup Award Winner Jessica May” ( May, 2015). The audience includes 80 executives in Australia. The purpose of the speech is to respond to her winning of the competitive state award. May confidently but humbly steps forward as the audience cheer when the master of ceremony calls her name, expressing joy in her countenance. She is brief and goes straight to the point, appreciating the award as a surprise to her and giving the details of her company. She confidently faces her audience and appeals to their emotions in her two-minute speech for example when she says she will do a sales pitch and they clap. She persuasively presents logical reasons why employers should pick on Enabled Employment to deliver the online services that they offer: “If you don’t increase your diversity you don’t increase your earnings, and you don’t become world leaders.” May is evident in her words and concise in her description of the company- that it is Enabled Employment offers opportunities for disabled people who provide online services to all prospective employers.

A manager makes a wide selection of words that match the occasion of discourse (Page & Zorn, 2007). May’s diction is simple and appropriate for the occasion for example ‘pitch’. She starts in the passive voice: “This is very unexpected…” then proceeds the speech in the active voice. She interchangeably uses straightforward and complex sentences as well as short and long sentences, for example, “So, when you are looking to employ someone, think about our candidates and us, for most of the time …” May also applies non-verbal cues automatically. She maintains eye contact with the audience, puts on attractive facial expression, stands in the correct posture and employs proper body movement and gestures with her hands to emphasize her words. Music plays as she takes over the podium and this prepares both May and the audience for the speech. Her volume is moderate, and the articulation of words is precise. May applies intonation except for the long pauses that she is not keen to observe. Her tone is emphatic and persuasive to the listeners, and she is composed.

Conclusion

Conclusively, transformational leadership is active for change in society from the mindset of employment to entrepreneurship. Moreover, it leads to the creation of viable work and flexible work environments like Jessica May makes it possible for disabled people to work in the comfort of their homes. Ethos is a necessary feature that enables a manager to communicate efficiently. A good leader should possess a high level of emotional intelligence to exploit his or her full potential. Similarly, rhetoric is paramount for any manager to communicate fluently within the organization. 

References

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