Management and Leadership for Development - myassignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about the Management and Leadership for Sustainable Development. Answer: Introduction Paulus Gerardus Josephus Maria Polman is a Dutch Businessman. In 2006, he joined Nestle after a prolonged tenure with Procter and Gamble. He worked at Procter and Gamble for a prolonged period of 27 years. He is the Chief Executive Officer of the Unilever company which is a British-Dutch consumer good Organization (Caldwell, 2012). Being an effective leader of the above-mentioned organization, Paul Polman has received several awards for business leadership associated with sustainable development. Discussion Image of Paul Polman Every good-to-great company had level 5 leadership during the pivotal transition years. Unilever Company, for the first time in 123 years, appointed an outsider as the Chief Executive officer of the company who was Paul Polman. The chief reason behind this decision of the company was that Unilever was losing track in the share market and urgently needed guidance of an effective leader to bring back the company on track. The mentioned leader took the lead of the company during the aftermath of the financial crisis and that was the pivotal moment of the organizational evolution. As was expected, Polman turned around the fortune of Unilever during his four years at the helm. Under his leadership, the mentioned company experienced a better than expected revenue on 2010 (Lewis, Andriopoulos Smith, 2014). One of the effective strategies that were implemented by Polman to promote Unilever was active promotion of its products like Axe and Dove. Personal humility and Professional will of Paul Polman One of the chief transitions from level 4 to level 5 leadership is selecting personal humility over personal glory. Personal humility involves recognition of weaknesses along with seeking the talents and inputs of others. Professional will, on the other hand, includes the creation of superb result along with enhancement in the transition from good to great. Paul Polman is globally considered to be the leading light of the Unilever Company. His thoughts are not concentrated only to the organization, but he is also concerned about the social challenges faced by the increasingly interdependent world. Like several other CEOs of the World, Paul Polman is reflective and it seems that his convictions have appeared from Personal humility and self-doubt. For instance, he stated that no company or governmental organization will be able to cope up global issues like water and food scarcity. Hence, he made his company, Unilever, to take part in campaigns associated with global issues (Smith, Lew is Tushman, 2016). When it comes to professional will, Polman stated that strong alignment of the business with societal interest along with long-term planning can be considered as the two effective ways of sustained success of the Unilever Company. Under his leadership, the company is aiming to decouple its revenue and enhance its positive social impact with the help of the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan. The modesty of Paul Polman Being a level five leader, Polman displays a compelling modesty and realistic approach towards his employees. According to him, celebrations of small victories are good but dwelling in it can be harmful to the organization. When Unilever exceeds its target by 2010, Polman stated that the company needs to work harder to achieve the long-term goal. Sustainable results created by Paul Polman Being the CEO of Unilever Company, Paul Polman has led the company with a sustainability-first agenda, driven by ethical and moral principles. Under his guidance, the organization has become one of the front-runners in various polls. Consumers now relate the name of Unilever as one of the most ethical companies which in turn can be considered a highly sustainable result of Polmans effort (Confino, 2013). On his way to implement and maintain sustainable result for the company, Paul Polman has faced numerous challenges. Being an efficient leader, instead of backing off, he has taken several risks and has put the benefit of the company above his own benefit in order to achieve long-term sustainable results. The self-blaming attitude of Paul Polman Being a leader of level 5, Paul Polman has always emphasized on creating an n excuse free company. In order to achieve this goal, he has always implemented a self-blaming strategy along with identifying the exact issues of the organization that need to be resolved to achieve a better tomorrow. This perception of self-actualization reflects on his various interviews where he clearly voices about the situational complexity and role of self-actualizing attitude to overcome those dilemmas (Browne Nuttall, 2013). Conclusion From the above discussion, it can be concluded that effective leadership of Paul Polman is one of the chief reasons behind the huge market value of Unilever Company. His ideology of to concentrate on greater good instead of just making a profit not only motivates his fellow employees but also impose a positive impact on the global consumers of the company. Reference List Browne, J., Nuttall, R. (2013). Beyond corporate social responsibility: Integrated external engagement.The McKinsey Quarterly, (April), 1-11. Caldwell, C., Dixon, R. D., Floyd, L. A., Chaudoin, J., Post, J., Cheokas, G. (2012). Transformative leadership: Achieving unparalleled excellence.Journal of Business Ethics,109(2), 175-187. Confino, J. (2013). Interview: Unilevers Paul Polman on diversity, purpose and profits.The Guardian,4 Lewis, M. W., Andriopoulos, C., Smith, W. K. (2014). Paradoxical leadership to enable strategic agility.California Management Review,56(3), 58-77. Smith, W. K., Lewis, M. W., Tushman, M. L. (2016). Both/and leadership.Harvard Business Review,94(5), 62-70.