Leadership and Communication Assignment: Analysis of Mark Parker
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Leadership and Communication Assignment: Analysis of Mark Parker
Part 1: Description of The Leader Through the Lens of Trait-Theory
The leader chosen for analysis and comparison in this assignment is Mark Parker, former Nike’s CEO and current executive chairman. During his tenure, Parker has made various achievements in the company. One of those contributing to the company’s rapid growth into a digital-first mindset organization and intensive product innovation (Safian, 2012). For instance, he marketed Nike’s brand through design sensibility while also successfully appealing to street-style generation through Nike’s Free Runs, Air Max, and Fly Knit product lines.
Two critical traits from Chapter 2 that Parker displays very well are self-confidence and authenticity. Parker exhibits self-confidence in Nike by using his position as a member of the design team to introduce new products to the market whose acceptability and appeal are uncertain. Specifically, Parker’s projects, such as Nike Free cushioning, Odyssey, Pegasus, Air Trainer 1, were a display of self-confidence on Parker’s part to provide innovative products (Brownlee, 2013). Additionally, Parker is always genuine and honest about his values and beliefs. For instance, as a member of three-person design collaboration, alongside Tinker Hatfield and Hiroshi Fujiwara, Parker always makes it clear that Nike has to develop a culture of innovation and creativity and cannot assume that putting a swoosh on something will make people buy it.
Two cognitive factors that Parker displays very often and which makes him unique are farsightedness and creativity. Parker always understands the long-term implications of actions and policies in the company. For instance, he always understands that Nike has to embrace innovation and prioritize design to continually be competitive in the fashion industry’s orbit (Brownlee, 2013). Parker sets policies on design sensibility and product functionality, which ensures the continuous profitability of Nike. His creativity is displayed through the innovative products he has introduced to Nike. For example, some of the best selling products in the company such as Free Runs, Air Max, and Fly Knit all emanate mostly from Parker’s creativity.
Part 2: Analysis of The Charisma and Transformational Qualities of My Leader
The two characteristics of charismatic leaders taken from Chapter 3 that Parker displays are visionary skills and masterful communication skills. Since joining Nike in 1979, Parker has always had a vision for the company, which he drives his followers to achieve. For instance, in 2020, his dream is to reach $50 billion in global sales. Parker always anticipates what people want and creates innovative products to meet such needs, hence displaying his visionary skills. However, Parker is also a masterful communicator and uses his soft-spoken voice to connect design with vision and mass appeal and take Nike to the next level (Safian, 2012). For instance, he has used his masterful communication skills to convince his fellow designers and the company’s shareholders of the need to launch limited edition shoes.
I would advise Parker to develop the two charismatic behaviors of being tactful in social situations and inspiring trust. Parker should learn how to sensitively and skillfully interact with other people and react better to social situations. The importance of being tactful is that he will interact well with others and maximize any opportunities in social situations. Also, being discreet and considering situations before acting will diffuse any tense social situations and become even more persuasive to followers (DuBrin, 2018). Also, inspiring trust by sharing a vision with followers will motivate workers to pay for confidence by producing quality products.
Parker is a transformational leader, as described in Chapter 3, because he has brought numerous positive changes in Nike and has always displayed charisma in his work. Since joining the company more than 40 years ago, Parker has transformed Nike from a company that offers a handful of fashion designs to a global company with various techniques. He has also revolutionized the fashion industry by introducing street-style generation products such as Nike’s Free Runs, Air Max, and Fly Knit product line (Childs & Jin, 2018). These aspects have positively transformed Nike into a global brand with an appeal across different generations of customers. Parker has also displayed charisma by inspiring and motivating his fellow designers in the Nike HTM, Tinker Hatfield, and Hiroshi Fujiwara, to work collaboratively in producing a legacy of products such as Odyssey, Pegasus, Air Trainer 1.
Part 3: Behaviors and Styles That My Leader Utilizes
The relationship-oriented behaviors that Parker always displays are creating inspiration and visibility and promoting principles and values. Parker is always inspiring his workers and providing a vision about where the company should be. For instance, in 2020, Parker has inspired his followers to arrive at a $50 billion sales despite the COVID-19 pandemic. Also, he has enthused his employees to always strive for better shoe designs to match the customers’ needs and tastes. Parker promotes principles and values by first being a person of integrity and instilling a culture of innovation and creativity (Safian, 2012). For instance, he uses a hands-on approach by collaborating with designers in the manufacture of new products.
The two task-oriented behaviors that Parker always displays are hands-on guidance and feedback and high-performance standards. Notably, Parker is a leader who gives instructions and is also involved in the execution of those instructions. For instance, as a member of Nike’s HTM, Parker is involved in sketching the shoes’ design and helping his fellow designers in the production of final quality products (Childs & Jin, 2018). Also, Parker is very demanding and has transferred such traits to his followers. For example, as an introverted CEO, in 2015, Parker doubled the company’s profits and pushed his employees towards the attainment of such a vision.
I would describe Parker as a participative leader because he always seeks ideas from his staff and does not believe in micromanaging. After eliciting ideas from employees, Parker encourages his followers to refine their propositions. He trusts his staff members to know what they do and puts them into the spotlight. For instance, in the case of Nike’s FlyKnit; a new technology for sewing shoes instead of cutting them from fabric, Parker was always asking his employees how the method would work (Childs & Jin, 2018). However, the idea became eventually successful despite having come from the members of staff in Nike. This aspect demonstrates that Parker is a participative leader who listens to his followers’ input before reaching the final decision.
Part 4: Situational Leadership
Influential leaders can be judged by their ability to change their behavior based on changes in situations. One of Parker’s decisions was to lay off more than 1,000 employees in 2017. Specifically, due to digital commerce, Nike sales were dwindling, and the company had to act contingent on the changing market situation (Garcia, 2017). Nike was beginning to focus on getting products to consumers faster and directly, and some employees had to be rendered redundant. Parker needed to decide which employees to lay off and the best way to do so without affecting the company’s smooth operations.
In the normative decision-making model, the steps in reaching the final decision to lay off the employees involved identifying decision significance (H), the importance of commitment (L), leader’s expertise (H), and group support (L). Parker had first to decide how the decision to lay off workers would affect the employees and the company. Additionally, he had to evaluate the importance of employees being a commitment to the final decision. It was also important for Parker to use his expertise to understand the best way to lay off the workers. According to the normative model, an autocratic decision-making style is the most appropriate because Parker had to rely on his expertise to determine whether or not to make the employees redundant.
I think that Parker’s leadership style is a contingent one because he changes depending on the situation. For instance, when Nike was struggling with reduced profits in 2017, Parker was ruthless and made tough decisions, such as laying off over 1,000 employees (Garcia, 2017). However, when the company had huge fortunes, he was warm and collaborative. For instance, he joins other product designers in sketching product designs while also demanding more from them (Blazek, 2016). These aspects demonstrate that Parker changes his style of leadership based on the situation in question.
References
Blazek, K. (2016). A participatory leadership style: NIKE’s CEO Mark Parker. TruScore. https://www.truscore.com/resources/leadership-style-nikes-ceo-mark-parker/
Brownlee, J. (2013). Nike’s 5 Lessons on Innovation by Design. Fast Company. https://www.fastcompany.com/3019090/nikes-5-lessons-on-innovation-by-design
Childs, M., & Jin, B. (2018). Nike: An Innovation Journey. In Product Innovation in the Global Fashion Industry (pp. 79-111). Palgrave Pivot, New York.
DuBrin, A. J. (2018). Leadership: Research findings, practice, and skills. Nelson Education.
Garcia, A. (2017). Nike is laying off more than 1,000 workers. CNN Business. https://money.cnn.com/2017/06/15/news/companies/nike-cutting-jobs/index.html?iid=EL
Safian, R. (2012). How CEO Mark Parker Runs Nike To Keep Pace with Rapid Change. Fast Company. https://www.fastcompany.com/3002642/how-ceo-mark-parker-runs-nike-keep-pace-rapid-change