Michael Bloomberg was born 14th February 1942. He is an American politician, businessman, author and philanthropist. As of march 2017, his net worth is around US$ 47.5 billion which ranked him 8th richest person in the United States & 10th in the whole world. He is the founder and CEO of Bloomberg L.P. He graduated from Johns Hopkins University with a Bachelor’s degree from Electrical Engineering. Then he finished his MBA from Harvard Business School. There is no other public figure in America like Michael Bloomberg. If we look at his successful life then we can notice that he is a successful leader both as a businessman & as a politician. He can easily be a role model for leadership in both areas. He has some strategies of his own which made him a successful leader in today’s business & political world.
Leadership Qualities and Type of Michael Bloomberg
Since he has both kinds of leadership qualities and skills, we will discuss his business leadership skills and qualities first.
One of his business leadership quality & skill is, he turned himself as a successful entrepreneur at the beginning stage of his career when he started to run Bloomberg L.P. Reflecting on his success as an entrepreneur, he stated that, “Entrepreneurship involves risk and hard work—and luck.” He also added that “If you believe in an idea and you’re willing to work like crazy and deal with all the frustrations and setbacks, go for it and don’t look back. You may not succeed, but you won’t regret it. And when you start your next journey, you’ll be stronger and smarter for it.”
His another quality is he is a hardworking leader. When he started his career he worked for 12 hours a day and six days per week. In order to find his customer, he always used to go to their office every morning and told them, “Hey, I bought you a coffee. Can I talk to you?”
To focus on execution is another special quality of his leadership. He is a result-oriented leader and he always thinks execution is the key to leadership. The criteria for becoming a successful leader are to know when to make a rightful decision.
Evaluation and adaptation are other skills and qualities that Bloomberg possesses. Since his coming back to his company, he changed company’s plans, shifted company’s strategies and looked deep into the organization to concern himself with the most minute policies and decisions.
Aiming high is another massive quality for Bloomberg. He always used to say, “Don’t be afraid to aim high. I tell all my commissioners: If you hit every goal, you’re not aiming high enough. It’s always important to push yourself to do what may seem impossible. Sometimes it will be. But risking failure is part of achieving success.”
When it comes to the qualities and skills as a business and political leader, Michael Bloomberg’s leadership style will be in the first row. He follows his own strategies when he works as a politician. His political leadership style, quality and skills are different from other politicians. He was the mayor of New York city for consecutive three times. And this only made him possible because of his leadership qualities and skills. Some of his qualities and skills have been discussed here.
His one of his leadership quality and style is to work more than your staff. When he was running his mayor campaign for the third time, he worked more hours than his staff. he worked a 16 hour day which is more than 70 hours per week. Bloomberg did not travel around Europe. Rather he walked around NYC. He always had constant meeting with his assistant Bradley Tusk.
His another popular quality and style is to show face to the public. According to him, it is very important to let people know, who they are working for. When the candidate is a well known public figure then it becomes more important to show candidate’s face in the public. This style of leadership will make one more high profile. As a mayor, Bloomberg was so busy with a daily lineup of events, press conferences and meetings. When his third-time campaign was going on, he used to come to his office even if it is for five minutes only just to ask how things were going, or hold a quick meeting for voters and volunteers in the community. He also encouraged his team members to work hard for the team by showing his brilliant leadership qualities and styles.
Celebrating small victories along the way is another unique style of leadership for Bloomberg. He was a pro at this style. It is seen that during his third campaign, a few months before the election took place, he arranged a massive party at the Chelsea piers on the West side of Manhattan, along with the Hudson River. The reason for that party was, he said his party was in the election game and his party had a small lead. He wanted his staff to feel appreciated and celebrated. He wanted to bring his constituents out to co-mingle with the people that were knocking on their doors. He wanted to show everyone that he could not and would not be bought. People actually loved this style of celebration. This style of play made him different kind of politician. He thanked his staff, supporters and future voters in the party. As a result, people wanted his success. After the feeling they got that night, everyone worked harder for next couple of months to get the feeling of actual victory.
He was such a successful political leader that he was the mayor of NYC for three consecutive times. His other lists of success include ordering a mandatory evacuation of low-lying areas of NYC when hurricane Irene attacked, dealing with the Occupy Wall Street movement, choosing Cornell University and Technion-Israel Institute of Technology to build a new $2 billion applied sciences and engineering campus on Roosevelt Island that would help New York City compete nationally for high-tech startups. Besides these success, his city was experiencing a progress in it’s quality of life measures.
Leadership Skills of Michael Bloomberg
One of the leadership skills that he possesses is a financial skill. In 2008, Michael Bloomberg was able to push himself to run as the mayor of New York for the third term with the help of his financial skills. This skill entitled him of remaining in his office even though some controversy was raised against him because of his third term. He secured his third four-year term in November 2009 after spending unprecedented money for his campaign. His financial skill helped him to serve New York City as an independent leader.
As a successful leader, Bloomberg has the skills of planning and delivery in order to make his company successful. If we look at his success, it is clear that his planning and delivery skills made him one of the great & successful leaders in the world. When he started his career at the reputable Wall Street firm Salomon Brothers, he planned to start his own company, Bloomberg L.P. Moreover, his business plan was based on willing to pay for high-quality business information, delivered as quickly as possible. The company became enormously successful and Bloomberg’s skill helped the company to deliver the plans in reality. Bloomberg L.P. branched into the media business with more than 100 offices worldwide, thanks to Michael Bloomberg’s planning and delivery skills.
Leaders who try to take on many tasks by themselves will end up doing nothing. Michael Bloomberg has turned himself into one of the successful leaders because of his team-building skill. He says he could have never done all these things alone if he wouldn’t build a successful team around him. He advises young people to eliminate two words if they want to achieve success. He quoted, “My advice is [to] get rid of the words, ‘I and me,’ and switch to, ‘we and us.” Moreover, he states that whatever you do has to be collaborative and you need to have people around you, and the way you get that is by helping them. As a result of his team-building skill, his company has become a successful one around the globe and the company’s large profits are a reflection of how he values this skill.
Bottom Line
So we can come up with the conclusion that leaders like Michael Bloomberg do not come time to time in our life time. He taught us how to become a successful leader not only in business world but also in other sides as well. “Bloomberg has been successful in every venture he has undertaken,” Horniman noted. “Very few people can lay claim to success in so many different endeavors.”
Related:
- Leadership Qualities, Skills, and Style of Larry Page
- Leadership Qualities and Skills of Mukesh Ambani
- Leadership Qualities and skills of Richard Branson
REFERENCES:
- eblingroup.com/blog/five-things-leaders-can-learn-from-mayor-bloomberg-about-crisis-communications/
- linkedin.com/pulse/leaders-business-world-michael-bloomberg-xinyi-liu
- success.com/article/2011-success-achiever-of-the-year-michael-bloomberg
- forbes.com/sites/brianrashid/2015/07/15/5-leadership-lessons-i-learned-working-for-mayor-bloomberg/#22f1ee3f2d47
- blogs.wsj.com/experts/2014/04/30/why-michael-bloomberg-is-my-executive-role-model/
- bloomberg.com/news/articles/2007-06-14/bloomberg-the-ceo-mayorbusinessweek-business-news-stock-market-and-financial-advice
- businessinsider.com/michael-bloomberg-achieved-massive-success-2015-1
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Bloomberg
Sadnan is one of the top contributors of The Strategy Watch, he has been actively contributing since 2017 as a Content Analyst; He has finished his graduation from North South University with a dual major in Accounting & Finance. As a contributor, he has written for different topics including Leadership Styles and Qualities, Finance, and Economics. He also has a strong interest in SWOT & PESTLE Analysis and Marketing Strategy.