Buffalo Zoo Case Study: Donna Fernandez Demonstrates Several Powerful Leadership Characters

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1) Donna Fernandez demonstrated several successful leadership traits. The Buffalo Zoo CEO possessed energy and determination for the Buffalo Zoo and her employees. Secondly, her followers viewed her as a dependable leader. Finally, Donna reveals she is a leader with integrity.
First, Donna is a leader with energy and determination. Lussier and Achua state that leaders with energy and determination “have high energy with a positive drive to work hard to achieve goals.” (p. 37) This is true for Donna. In the video, the zoo employees mentioned several times that their leader is a hard worker who is not afraid to get her hands dirty. Upon her arrival, the CEO did not hesitate to immerse herself at the lowest level of zoo operations. Donna also trained as a zookeeper in order to learn the frustrations of her employees. Alongside her employees, Donna got her hands dirty in the trenches, which some may consider non-CEO type work. Donna proved that she had the energy to do the hard work and that she possessed the determination to identify the employee’s issues so she could solve them.
Secondly, the Buffalo Zoo CEO was dependable. To complement her energy and determination, Donna’s employees raved about her dependability. “Highly dependable people get the job done and are …show more content…

Under the program, all employees would learn about all the Zoo’s different animals. During this rotation, each zookeeper educated the other zookeepers on his/her lane of expertise. This program empowered the employees to demonstrate their enthusiasm for their expertise, but also displayed, to all employees, how important each employee is to the Zoo’s operations. The CEO demonstrated the “Team Leader” style of leadership. (Lussier & Achua, p. 78) Donna understood the needs of her employees and implemented creative ways to meet their needs as well as improved the productivity of the Buffalo

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