Jessica, I found the differences you highlighted in your post between John Smart and Jack Ma’s leadership approach quite stark. You are right. You said that “John Smart took an analytical approach while in comparison Jack Ma took a relational approach” (Jessica, 2018). Though I hadn’t articulated it myself, I really noticed the difference while watching them. John was very system and data driven, but Jack was friendly and personable. It almost seemed like the money didn’t really matter to Jack – he was only interested in people development.
While John was sharing his models of ideation/innovation, forecasting/risk management/prediction, and vision/strategy/planning (Smart, 2015), Jack was talking about how to choose a good name that appeals to people, how to have social responsibility, build team equity. He talked about how competition could be fun and to follow one’s dreams. Even the hard work he discussed was framed with fun and enjoying the people around you (Ma, 2016).
Ma says that the final stage of one’s career should be to work for the young people, and invest in them (Ma, 2016). His ultimate goal is to get to a place where he can sit back and let the young people take over. Then he can focus on fully pouring into other people. This is a transformational leader. He is able to instill a vision in others, empowering them to work together for a common goal. He is able to build trust and collaboration and listen to others (Northouse, 2019). To see not only your business flourish, but also people flourish, is a reward of leadership.
References:
Laug-Sawatsky, J. (2018, November 25). Unit 9 Learning Activity 2. [web log comment]. Retrieved from: https://create.twu.ca/jessicalaugsawatzky/2018/11/25/unit-9-learning-activity-2/
Ma, Jack. [E-Learning]. (2016, June 23). Keys to Success from Jack Ma [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WjHZ5wLe6w.
Northouse, P. G. (2019). Leadership: Theory and practice. Eighth Edition. Thousand Oaks, CA. Sage Publications.
Smart, John. [JohnMSmart]. (2015, April 8). John Smart – Leadership of Tech Change – WFS 2013 [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhdWqLNUJns.