The document analyzes the leadership style of Joe Rousseau, the general manager of the author's organization. It discusses that Rousseau displays an authoritative/influencer leadership style that focuses on motivating employees and supporting their success. He believes in setting goals for employees and listening to their suggestions to improve morale. The author believes Rousseau's high character and interpersonal skills have contributed to the organization's success. The author also observes that Rousseau's democratic and behavioral leadership styles of including employees in decision-making and serving as a role model support career development and commitment to the organization.

1. Leadership Styles Analysis
HRDV 4301 D01: Dr. Gena Jones
10/6/2015
Steve Weber

2. Leadership Style 1
Leadership is an extremely important part of a successful organization without
leadership the overall organization would have a very difficult time being successful in today’s
challenging economy. This paper will be pointing out some strong leadership skills and traits
that my leader has today and it will point out an area of study within the line of theories we as
a class have studied these past weeks. One believes that we all should have possible learned
from a leader in the past and as we all can become a leader with great practice and learning
ability. Finally one should follow before one leads and by watching my current manager/leader I
am also on the road to becoming a great leader for my future organization.
The leader that will be discussed in this paper this week will be my current general
manager that has over twenty five years of experience; Joe Rousseau is a proven leader within
our organization at Avis and although he could be between multiple different forms of
leadership styles the one that stands out above all of the rest is the authoritative/influencer
leadership style. This style believes in placing goals and visions before the organization but
more importantly he strongly believe in a people-oriented manager that supports his staff
members and believes that motivating and being an influencer is a great practice within our
organization. In our recent assessment conducted last week in our course, I believe Joe
Rousseau more than likely follow under the gold status as he has a lot of qualities listed.
My current manager is more of a leader has he believe that doing what is required to
ensure the staff members are confident, successfully, and most importantly happy within the
organization.

3. Leadership Style 2
My managerbelieves staff members need to have a proper vision, consideration, and to
have excellent guidance. One of the most important leadership styles that my manager has at
our organization is trust. A manager must be extremely trustworthy and stand by the
information and words spoken to his staff members and consumers at all times. If an
organization did not have any forms of trust then one would believe that there could be a full
list of possible backstabbing, fear, and uncertainly of what exactly is true out of the mouths of
our leaders. The extraordinary leader points out in text, “When leaders lose the trust of others,
it becomes difficult for them to succeed. People begin to lose trust when there are poor
decisions and they lose trust when promises are not kept.” (Zenger, J.H. & Folkman, J.R. 2009)
The 35th President of the United States John F. Kennedy once stated in an address,
“Courage- not complacency- is our need today- Leadership not salesmanship.” (Kennedy, J.F.
1960) Even our former President believes that leadership is an extremely important factor and
one must have the necessary courage to stand up and lead their team.
Joe Rousseau leads our team by ensuring to placing company listed goals before all
associates within the organization. He believes that placing goals before the team will give the
team something to strive for and having a potential reward at the end of the week or end of the
month. I believe goals should be reachable for starters and not too hard to obtain. Goals can be
a great motivational tool, provide clear expectations, drive performance, and support company
culture. These goals let the employee know that their success helps the organization and having
potential rewards is an extra step for everyone involved within the company.

4. Leadership Style 3
The third and final leadership style that Joe Rousseau has is a mixture of having high
character and having great interpersonal skills within the company. Could you imagine a leader
that has poor character or interpersonal skills? That certain leader would have a very difficult
time leading their team to be successful for themselves or more importantly for the
organization. Thankfully my manager has both skills working for him and it has led our
organization to being the top revenue maker among other challenging organizations in the auto
rental industry.
My manager has a great personality and is great to get along with during the great/good
times and even during the times that might be very challenging to others. Our text the
extraordinary leader points out that character is the, “center pole of every leader.” Joe
Rousseau always does what is necessary to make decisions based on organization paramount in
mind, keep commitments, practice self-development, and finally being approachable by
anyone, although is our manager/leader he sees himself just like everyone else-apart of the
team. He also communicates powerfully and prolifically, inspires others to be successful and
being open and receptive to feedback and/or suggestions which would fall under the
interpersonal skills that he has gained as our manager. Our text the extraordinary leader states,
“Character is at the heart of our model, and everything radiates out from it. It ties strongly to
interpersonal skills” (Zenger, J.H. & Folkman, J.R. 2009)
My manager would clearly be best at all the following qualities but if I had to only
choose one particular field then that field would be having high character.

5. Leadership Style 4
My manager is what I would like to call a “people person” has he has the ability to
interact with anyone regardless of the situation and he always treats everyone the same
regardless of position within the company. He believes that there should always be an open
door policy even during times during potential conference calls. He strives to motivate,
encourage, and places everyone on the same line within the organization-even himself as equal
parts of the team as no one person is one important than the other.
Although my manager Joe Rousseau has over twenty five years of experience of being a
manager at our location, the main thing is that he never leaves anyone out. I personally
suggested that he place a suggestion box outside of his office for any suggestions that
employees within the organization could simply drop in the box. He now brings up the
suggestion in our monthly employee meeting (epg meeting) and see how everyone feels about
the overall suggestion that could improve employee relations. Although he has the final
decision based on the suggestion such as monthly pot-lucks this small suggestion box implies
that he falls within the democratic leadership theory. In past studies we studies most important
theories by Raul Malos in which it points out, “group members are encouraged to share their
thoughts, democratic leadership can leader to better ideas and more creative solutions to
problems. Group members also feel more involved and committed to projects, making them
more likely to care about the end results.” (Malos, R. 2015)
Taking the time to listen to the employees and making them truly feel like they are a
part of the team will make the team work grow within the organization.

6. Leadership Style 5
A second theory that my current manager current has working for him that some
managers might not believe or does not have this strong quality is the behavior theory. This
theory points out people can learn to become leaders. As myself, I have the ability to learn a
great deal of knowledge by simply watching and listening to my manager who has been
successful as manager for over twenty five plus years. He must be doing something right if he
has employees that have a high level of retention within the organization. Raul Malos points
out, “Behavioral theories of leadership are based upon the belief that great leaders are made,
not born. Rooted in behaviorism, this leadership theory focuses on the actions of leaders not on
mental qualities or internal states. According to this theory, people can learn to become leaders
through teaching and observation.” (Malos, R. 2015)
The argument here is what if manager/leaders did not care or believed that listening to
employees suggestions were a waste of time? One of the biggest items that could occur is that
staff members would believe they were not a part of a team, which strongly could only harm
the overall value of the organization. Employees want their voices heard and want some of
their strong ideas placed within the organization. Overall conflicts with colleagues could arise
and overall attitudes and retention within the organization could suffer. I would always want to
have an open door policy and listen to my employees/staff as much as possible as my current
manager does on the job. Secondly, I believe that anyone of us can be a leader for our
organizations if we put in enough hard work as extraordinary leader points out there has been
over 10,000 articles published to help us. (Zenger, J.H. & Folkman, J.R. 2015)

7. Leadership Styles 6
The two takeaways that I plan to take with me when I start my own management
position are to always have either weekly or monthly goals placed before my team. My team
will have goals placed before them to have focus on the main issues at hand, it allows my team
to measure overall process on the situation at hand, keeps the team locked in and undistracted,
overcome any forms of procrastination, and finally goals will give my team motivation and drive
to reach that certain goal placed on an individual basis and an overall team basis will potential
rewards such as gift cards to local retailers and/or lunch provided by management.
Secondly, I want to be able to listen to my staff members such as listening to employee
suggestions or recommendations to improve our team. Regardless of the situation, there is no
one perfect and sometimes a manager/leader might miss a particular item that might improve
the team and that small item might come from the team members of the organization. Open up
to suggestions will improve overall morale and it will lead to a better team within my
organization.
In conclusion, my manager wants to be the best rental car industry and he believes for
that to happen he has to have his staff members believing that they apart of the overall
equation. He places a great deal of trust within staff members after ensuring that staff
members have been properly trained in all aspects of the job. My manager believes that placing
goals before the team is a great start to build the team to be successful as it also builds
confidence within each member of the team. He follows under the democratic and behavior
theories as each of these theories have proven to be successful for him and for the team.

8. References
Zenger, J.H. & Folkman, J.R. (2009) the Extraordinary Leader
Assessment retrieved from https://ttu.blackboard.com/bbcswebdav/pid-1473605-dt-content-
rid-6098728_1/courses/201627-HRDV-4301-D01/Week%206%20Power%20Point.pdf
Malos, R. (2015) The most important leadership theories retrieved from
https://ttu.blackboard.com/bbcswebdav/pid-1473610-dt-content-rid-
6098738_1/courses/201627-HRDV-4301-
D01/Week%202%20Reading%20Leadership%20Theories.pdf
Kennedy, J. F. quote retrieved from http://www.depts.ttu.edu/aged/leadership/leadchr.htm