Bill Gates

The co-founder of Microsoft, Bill Gates is said to be an autocrat. He used to micro manage to such an extent that he even used to sign the cheques for his right hand man Steve Ballmer. He is reported in hating the competition. James Wallace of Seattle Post-Intelligencer once said that Bill Gates not only wants to win, but also to kill the competition and bury the wounded. Inspite of his ambitious nature, Gates was constantly in trouble owing to the number of lawsuits filed against Microsoft.

Gates made it a point to regularly meet up with the top executives where he used to pinpoint any loopholes in the products and insult those who came up with ideas which were not aligned to his vision. He had his own vision of what the business needs to do in order to succeed, decided on the direction, and got people to implement it. This is referred to as level four leader, who use the policy, ‘first what, then who.

But at the same time, he gave attention to recruit and retain the best talent. He gave autonomy to his managers by delegating the authority to run their own kingdoms. He ensured that each employee’s office was individualized, so that they felt more relaxed, have high morale, and high productivity. He also implemented very few important but logical rules, so as make them easy to remember and followed by the employees.