Paper Example on Leadership: Dave Ramsey

Introduction

Dave Ramsey is an American Multimillion investor who has profound interests in money and business. Ramsey was born on 3rd September 1960 in Tennessee in a middle-income family. He was therefore much supported by his parents in education up to university level where he graduated from the University of Tennessee with a degree in business. He went for further learning and graduated later with a degree in real estate and finance. Ramsey is current an articulate American voice that airs solutions in making money and creating as well as improving businesses and is depended on by millions of individuals across the United States for his inspirational leadership.

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Ramsey's interests in business and moneymaking can be dated before he was 26 years of age. At 26, Ramsey had established a $4millon real estate portfolio whereby he offered solutions to people who had interests in real estate. He was also part of the project and led by example (Daveramsey.com, 2018). His project did not, however, progress to completion, and the business mogul lost the portfolio for years later. He nevertheless did not give up since he believed that his future in business would not end by the occurrence.

In 1992, Ramsey founded the Lampo group Inc. which provided financial counseling towards proper financial management. Two decades later, he headed a company which he renamed Ramsey Solutions. His organization currently employs more than one thousand individuals (Daveramsey.com, 2018). Additionally, he founded a show famously known as The Dave Ramsey Show. Its primary aim is to provide real life and financial counseling to its audiences. Ramsey is also a prolific writer who has written scores of books with the aim of encouraging his audience on matters of entrepreneurship as well as in general life. Ramsey is, therefore, a leader worth analysis for his efforts that have transformed thousands of lives not only in America but also globally.

Leadership Traits

Social Boldness

One of the most evident traits that Ramsey displays is social boldness. It is a trait that enables a leader to understand that they are public figures. Social boldness allows a leader to face up the society with a bold personality such that they instill confidence in the public in the case of leading them (Northouse, 2018). The trait is evident in Dave Ramsey since he displays it in myriad ways. One of these ways that he displays social boldness is being able to face his audience on TV shows in a manner that they can believe that the leader they are looking upon is an individual they can trust. Additionally, his trait of social boldness is the chief reason that his shows are followed by thousands of individuals and the cause of his ability to scoop a huge share of the market in financial counseling.

Enthusiasm

Enthusiasm is a leadership trait that leads one to focus on goals in such an instrumental manner until they are realized. Dave Ramsey is one of the few acknowledged enthusiastic entrepreneurs of the 21st century. His enthusiasm is well displayed in multiple instances where he states that against all the odds, the future of his company is bright. Oftentimes, enthusiasm may turn an individual into an obnoxious character that is overzealous with every encounter they undertake (Puccio, Mance & Murdock, 2010). Ramsey's enthusiasm is however of a different kind. This is because it allows him to rise against the odds of the market by making him persistent even when his company record losses. It is also his enthusiastic spirit that led him to establish his company merely two decades after his pioneer company failed.

Emotional Stability

Good leaders are not the people who get emotional and act in a certain manner out of emotions. They are the people who should be able to handle frustration, abuses, and stress in a manner that is worth being followed by an enlightened populace (Northouse, 2018). Good leaders will always hide their emotions while in the public domain even when it hurts them from within themselves. Ramsey is one of those leaders whose emotions are stable even when he approaches the media and while facing clients who seek to unearth his emotional side. In multiple instances where people believed that his business was being overtaken by other upcoming competitors, Ramsey was questioned about the same on the media and his polite replies were something to trust with regard to his psychological maturity.

Leadership Skills

Communication

One of Ramsey's strengths is having an ability to communicate effectively with everybody that comes around him. Communication is one of the essential skills of a good leader as they have to communicate with various stakeholders for their organizations to remain successful (Northouse, 2018). According to Puccio, Mance, and Murdock (2010), a good leader should have the mastery of all forms of communication. They should be able to write emails and hold phone conversations with clients, employees and even government officials with a view that all of them are stakeholders that should be held with equal regard for the organization to be successful. Ramsey is a good listener and communicator to clients and all other stakeholders (Sheppard, 2016). His communication skills are also well displayed in his books, for instance, The Legacy Journey. This skill has allowed him to build a superior brand of the company that most people who are looking for financial advice prefer.

Motivation

It is normal for workers to be demotivated and bored at the workplace. This may occur where workers hold their workplace with little esteem particularly when they do not acknowledge the job as theirs. Therefore, good leaders must comprehend this natural occurrence and work against it. Good leaders should understand that their workers do not need only a good pay, they require to feel like they are part of the organization (Puccio, Mance & Murdock, 2010). They also want to feel respected and held in high esteem. Ramsey creates the much-needed motivation in a number of ways. He always asks managers to allow employee autonomy. He also creates mentoring sessions for his workers, avails rewards to them and strives to create a conducive work environment for all employees. The reason that his company and shows have stood the test of time is basically that the employees are motivated.

Delegating

A good leader understands that even when they have to ensure the success of their firms, the final success of the firm cannot be assured by holding the whole management on themselves. Rather, by delegating tasks, the job is easier and more convenient (Northouse, 2018). Ramsey is one individual who believes in delegating tasks to juniors. His managers are always at his disposal whenever he assigns them duties. By delegating tasks to them, Ramsey creates trust. He also identifies the possibility of the outcome and defines expectations to the managers before he assigns them the job. A delegation of tasks is the reason as to why all projects are complete in time in all instances where he has hefty and simple projects.

Theory and Ethics

By simply observing his skills, and traits Ramsey is an understanding individual whose ethics are barely questionable. He is transformative and believes that the future of his firm stands on the sidelines of his integrity. Ramsey makes instrumental use of the transformative leadership while making business decisions since it is the approach that makes employees themselves inspired in a revived way (Northouse, 2018). Honesty is a virtue that he has adopted and could lead his firm to greater success. In multiple instances, Ramsey has been sought to solve critical issues associated with his company. His articulate transformative thinking which has made him solve various business issues amicably leaving little regret from the type of decisions he makes (Sheppard, 2016). One of the instance, where he used transformative thinking, was when his firm was associated with privacy right neglect by following up on emails sent and received by its employees. To solve the issue, Ramsey created different emails for the firm which could only be used for assignments in the firm and accessed remotely.

Summary and Conclusion

It is evident from the analysis of contemporary leadership analysis on Ramsey that he is a famous transformative leader of the 21st century. I have learned that his effectiveness as a leader did not merely depend on him but on the manner in which he utilized human factor in his firm. He is amicably addressing this human factors and made them a component of his growth. Additionally, his effectiveness is also highly dependent on the articulate way he handles his clients and employees by application of adequate traits and mastery of the appropriate skills. His effectiveness is therefore unmatched seeing that he has built a company that has a legacy in effective financial counseling amidst having failed in the very onset.

This learning matters to me as it teaches me instrumental pillars of leadership. It also educates me that leaders are not merely people in top positions, but people who are tasked with a heavy duty of guiding their followers and firms. Their actions define the future of their firms. Therefore, this learning gives me an observation of Ramsey and provides significant insight that by applying the skills and traits of leadership, a leader can make a multimillion empire singlehandedly. I will use this experience in the future when I scoop a leadership position. Of all, I will also be an active delegator who will always motivate his followers and ensure active communication just Like Ramsey does in his organization.

References

Daveramsey.com. (2018). About Dave Ramsey. [online] Available at: https://www.daveramsey.com/pr/about-dave-ramsey [Accessed 4 Aug. 2018].

Northouse, P. G. (2018). Leadership: Theory and practice. Sage publicationsPuccio, G. J., Mance, M., & Murdock, M. C. (2010). Creative leadership: Skills that drive change. Sage Publications.

Ramsey, D. (2013). The Total Money Makeover: Classic Edition: A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness. Thomas Nelson.

Sheppard, A. (2016). Financial Peace, Spiritual Peace, or Falling to Pieces: The Church, Dave Ramsey, and Financial Literacy.