Page 15 - Management 19 (2024), številka 1

Jakob Wieland et al. | An Exploration of Traditional Approaches to Leadership

to give more to the community, [...] to give more interviewee underscored the transformation in
opportunities.’2 In the NGO there are at least 18 motivation when transitioning from an employ-
volunteers. LDA Europe provides a variety of pro- ee to a leader and owner. As a leader, every goal
grammes, trainings, workshops and conferences achieved brings the individual closer to their vi-
to develop young people and give them work op- sion, serving as a self-rewarding mechanism. The
portunities. After founding the NGO, he moved drive to work hard was emphasized, portraying
to the USA, working for Open Government Part- the leader’s commitment to realizing their goals
nership. Based on this experience he founded his and creating a meaningful impact.
own business, the consultancy LDA Digital Solu- Next, we asked about leadership behaviours.
tions. There are five employees in the firm, which According to the answers, we found it is difficult
crafts customer relationship management (CRM) to change behaviour as a leader. For instance, ac-
transformations and supports the implementa- cording to the interviewee, different behaviours
tion of Salesforce technologies. are expected from the leader of an NGO than
from the leader of a private company. The inter-
Interview Observations and Findings viewee described how when he opened his private
First, we discussed traits and personality. On the company, he adopted the same leadership style
questions of traits, the interviewee stressed the (openness) as in the NGO. This did not work very
importance of vision, empathy, and inclusiveness well because when he behaved similarly to how he
in effective leadership. A visionary approach that did in the NGO, it was taken as a weakness by the
includes the team’s ideas is crucial for success. employees. This shows the connection between
In his view, empathy and inclusiveness contrib- behaviour and contingency approaches, namely,
ute to a positive work environment, considering that context (contingency approaches) informs
team members’ needs and fostering creativity. effective leadership behaviours, as described in
Charisma and creativity were also noted as es- the literature.
sential, creating motivation and a dynamic work- Another relevant case the interviewee pre-
place culture. sented to us was the importance of networking in
When asked about personal aspirations to- his business and NGO because that is the way to
wards leadership, the interviewee shared an an- get new ideas, opportunities, and a chance to cre-
ecdote. As a young person, the interviewee had ate cooperative relationships, personal growth,
dreamt of becoming an astronaut or a president or growing confidence. This example shows that
and making impactful changes in the world. This some behaviours, notably networking, are effec-
anecdote supports the theory that dominance, or tive in both the firm and non-profit working en-
the assertiveness of a person, is a relevant trait in vironments.
predicting someone becoming a leader (Lips and To ensure that the work is accomplished in
Keener 2007). the organization the interviewee drew attention
In terms of personality, the interviewee admit- to such aspects as defining tasks, using SMART
ted that his inclination towards being easy-going (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and
and sociable changed over time. While working Time-Bound) goals, and properly dedicating the
in the USA, a more extroverted persona devel- tasks to the right person based on their qualifica-
oped through constant engagement with differ- tions or even their interests. These descriptions
ent people and networks, and under the influ- broadly meet the commonly discussed behav-
ence of the American culture. Despite not being iours in the literature as described in the theo-
a born extrovert, the interviewee acknowledged retical section.
the value of networking in professional growth, When it comes to supporting and developing
expressing a wish to have embraced it earlier. people, the interviewee mentioned that the most
Based on this answer we can conclude that traits important thing is to communicate effectively.
(e.g. extroversion) and behaviours (e.g. network- Furthermore, he suggested creating a bond with
ing) are connected as postulated in leadership employees and organizing social activities to in-
approaches. crease collaboration.
The discussion then delved into the impor- Additionally, our interviewee described pay-
tance of hard work and accomplishments. The ing a lot of attention to the motivation of his
employees, which we did not include in the in-
2 Interview with Marilo Meta, Koper, 9 November, terview questionnaire. He presented the differ-
2023. ence between motivating employees in a private

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