Angela Ahrendts: What Makes A Good Leader

1200 Words3 Pages

When examining today’s climate and culture one tends to think of various directions that a leader can take us. However, one may pose questions as to what is a leader? And what makes a good leader? The textbook states “A leader is defined as being someone who can influence others and who has managerial authority. They oversee situations and businesses to help influence a group of people to achieve goals.” (Robbins, Coulter, 2017, pg.491). As for Angela Ahrendts, Apple’s senior vice president for retail and online operations, her ability to embrace various qualities and characteristics in leadership skills makes her one the most profound leaders in today’s business. One of Angela’s greatest traits is that she embodies a socioeconomic point …show more content…

By utilizing the face to face method, as well as downward and upward communication Angela helps create a better working system for how employees and overhead executives communicate. Going around to different stores and speaking with store representatives and employees Angela came up with two social apps that allowed for employees to gain information on her latest plans as well as helping her understand retail staffer’s perspectives. As stated in the article, “One of the first things Ahrendts did was institute a now-weekly video communication in which she lays out the game plan. The video is a combination pep rally and strategy session, with three key thoughts expressed in a few minutes.” (Reingold, 2017, para 21). Angela feels that “The more technologically advanced our society becomes, the more we need to go back to the basic fundamentals of human communication” (CBS, 2017, para 3). As a strength from creating the app, Apple employee’s attitudes and motivation increased which helped strengthen the communication between top managers and non-managerial …show more content…

Angela’s biggest mission when coming to Apple was making sure that she pushed the “Integration of Apple’s retail and online sales groups” (Reingold, 2015, para 30). Before taking on the task in shifting the way retail and online sales groups operated, she constructed a strategic plan. Apple who acquires great business intelligence, data that managers can use to make more effective strategic decisions, helped Angela in retrieving information to conduct her strategic plan. Using Apple’s digital tools such as their database systems and software helped Angela to “collect, visualize, understand, and analyze data” (Robbins, Coulter, 2017,

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