Russia: The Leadership Qualities Of Vladimir Putin The Current President Of The Russian Federation

Introduction

This report will analyse the leadership qualities of Vladimir Putin the current President of the Russian Federation. Putin’s leadership traits, behavioural conduct, utilization of power & influence will be judged in relation to how he has effectively fulfilled his role as the paramount leader of Russia for the last twenty years. This discussion will then lead me to consider my own leadership qualities, where my advantages & flaws will be identified, in anticipation of my Leadership Development Plan which I will utilize in order to build upon my advantageous leadership qualities as well reducing my flaws within this area. Finally the plan will be reviewed by my chosen leader which will be my Father an employee within multinational company Ricoh, & the feedback received shall be integrated into my final plan.

Observation/Research

Vladimir Putin rose to power on 31st December 1999 as acting president following the resignation of his predecessor Boris Yeltsin previously having served as a member of the KGB, a minister of the Federal Security Service as well as Prime Minister of Russia. He went on to win the 2000 Russian Presidential Election to become the official president(Rutland, 2000). Putin’s rise to power was accompanied by the United Russia party, it was a political party designed to represent the interests of the president(Hale, 2004). Russia itself under Putin’s reign appears to resemble a managed democracy which on the surface appears to be free & democratic yet it contains many autocratic elements. For instance Putin’s Russia possesses a strong executive jurisdiction in conjunction with a consistency to curtail certain religions, political parties & NGOs that it deems a threat to its power or too dissimilar(Balzer, 2003).

Power & Influence

Leadership is the ability of a leader to influence a group of individuals to achieve a shared objective(Summerfield, 2014). Power can be utilized in order to help a leader influence individuals. French & Raven (1959) detailed the existence of five bases of power: reward, coercive, legitimate, referent & expert power. Putin derives his power from all five bases. As President of Russia Putin possesses a large degree of legitimate power which manifests itself in the abilities to issue binding decrees provided they do not contradict federal laws as well as veto laws in the federal assembly of Russia, the national legislature of the nation(Metcalf, 1996). The domination of the pro-Putin United Russia party within the national legislature further bolsters Putin’s legitimate power over Russia by effectively turning the federal assembly into a rubber-stamp for the presidency(Kuzio, 2006). Putin’s dominance in the legislative & executive spheres of government effectively grant him access to a high degree of both reward & coercive power which is illustrated by his act of promoting the interests of state owned companies at the cost of limiting the control that private oligarchs have over resources by attempting to imprison them or otherwise just remove them from the picture(Anderson, 2007). Putin’s popularity within his nation & United Russia has enabled him to utilize his referential power to transcend the limitations of his position as Prime Minister after he left the office of President in 2008. ‘Tandemocracy’ is a term within Russian politics that referred to the perceived joint leadership between President Dimitri Medvedev & Prime-Minister Vladimir Putin, of which many people perceived Vladimir Putin as still being the dominant figure within this relationship & by proxy the actual leader of the nation despite not being the president himself(Hale & Colton, 2010). Putin by the privilege of being the paramount leader of Russia from 1999-2019 provides him with considerable expertise in the areas of governance hence representing his notable expert power. Putin has been able to successfully utilize all of his sources of power in order to successfully influence both the people of Russia & his fellow members of government.

Leadership Traits

Kirk Patrick & Locke(1991) theorise that there are six core personality traits required for successful leadership in business: drive, leadership motivation, integrity, self-confidence, cognitive ability & knowledge of business. Traits such as charisma are less likely to be as important to leadership. Putin himself has utilized his KGB image to build a rigid or disciplined almost stoic persona which has formed the basis of his positive perception within Russia which still continues to be a sort of macho society in which this behaviour is looked upon very positively which indicates that in a Russian context he is a very charismatic individual(Anderson, 2007). Putin has been widely commended for his use of language which is said to command respect for him as it has been noted that he is the only Russian leader since Vladimir Lenin to speak with coherence, precision & eloquence shows that he is of a notable cognitive ability (Anderson, 2007). Putin as a result of his eloquence as a politician displays his self-confidence in addition to his assertiveness when he confronts journalists in interviews or meets with international partners at summits(Anderson, 2007). Putin possesses a notable drive to pursue power, more specifically the leadership of Russia which is shown by his role in ‘tandemocracy’ where he enthusiastically continued to stay in a key leadership position within the government despite the end of his presidential term which shows his high degree of leadership motivation(Hale & Colton, 2010). Putin by virtue of his background within the KGB as well as a former prime minister & current President within the last twenty years show that he likely would have a high degree of knowledge required to be the President. Putin in terms of sincerity is lacking severely as he once stated he had accomplished all of his goals despite the ongoing problem of corruption still largely existing almost increasing under his rule(Holmes, 2008). Despite his forthcomings regarding integrity, Putin has still managed to largely retain a good set of leadership traits which has enabled him to effectively conduct his activities as President of Russia.

Leadership Behaviour

Vladimir Putin himself is a member of the Siloviki who are politicians that have previously served within the security or military services especially the KGB whom Putin himself was a former member. It has been argued that the Siloviki share a sort of inclination to authoritarian outlooks(Turnbull, 2011). Additionally Putin’s dominant position within his ‘tandemocracy’ with Medvedev shows that he is more inclined to be the dominant individual within a relationship who is unwilling to let anyone else truly call the shots(Hale & Colton, 2010). Putin’s bares a huge concern with the idea of chaos, given his time in 1989 inside the collapsing East German state, therefore he has consistently acted in ways which re-establish state power(Parent & Benedict, 2018). While he has appeared to measured on many topics, the topic of terrorism does incite him to become increasingly brutal in terms of language(Parent & Benedict, 2018). Given Putin’s past behaviour he would most likely fit the persona of an autocratic leader due to his motivation to retain a large degree of authority for himself combined with his expectation that his words will go unchallenged in the federal assembly of Russia(Kuzio, 2006).

Leadership Development Plan

Self-Confidence

I scored 56 points on the self-confidence test out of 75(See Appendix A) which indicates that I possess a high level of self-confidence. Self-confidence is but one of the many important core leadership qualities detailed by Kirkpatrick & Locke(1991), who declare that the requirements of authority, insist that an individual must possess self-confidence as a necessary trait so that one has the capability to accomplish the required judgement & deeds, in addition to obtaining the certainty & admiration of others. Within the self-confidence assessment I found that I scored the lowest in areas involving my tendency to criticize others over little things followed by my perception of my self as a winner or loser & my comfortability when doing a presentation or being involved in a social event. Putin’s most recognisable behaviour that has advanced his agenda would be his assertiveness, which itself is derived from his ability to utilize his self-confidence to hold himself above the fray over his rivals & colleagues. Only a true assertive leader could of maintained both the public perception & handled the relationship with a colleague in a superior position in such a way that people see said leader as the true power behind the nation(Hale & Colton, 2010). In order to increase my own self-confidence as a leader, I will attempt to dial back my tendency to disparage others for minor things by regulating my emotions & thoughts. Additionally I will improve upon my sense of self, by setting out to accomplish personal goals of mine such as gaining part-time employment. I will also work on my discomfort with class presentations by researching techniques to make the experience easier for me & trying not to rush a presentation by speaking too fast.

Team Leadership

I scored 5 out of 15 for my team leadership skills assessment(Appendix B), in which a score of 12 or above suggests that an individual possesses a good perception of the elements that make up effective team leadership. My weaknesses within this area consisted of my weariness of cultural differences & perception of working in virtual teams. Authoritarian versus participative team leadership was shown to be one of my stronger areas.

Lewin, Lippit & White(cited in Bhatti, Maitlo, Shaikh, Hashimi, Shaik, 2012) outlined the existence of three styles of leadership democratic, autocratic & laissez-faire. Authoritarian leaders instruct their subordinates to complete a task in addition to outlining how & when the task should be completed. Democratic leaders urge their followers to take part in decision-making while giving counsel at the same time. Laissez-faire leaders entrust the power to make decisions to their followers while offering little guidance on the work that needs to be done. Putin’s leadership itself has been seen as autocratic since Putin tends to be very domineering over his peers, especially Dimitri Medvedev. Additionally Putin’s Russia has exhibited many autocratic moves to dispel dissent such as the various moves to curtail NGOs, religions & political parties that do not toe the line(Balzer, 2003). According to my own team leadership skills assessment, I fall under the category of being a democratic leader in contrast to Putin, which means that my form of leadership will encourage good morale, a steady level of work & be seen as a very effective style of leadership(Bhatti, Maitlo, Shaikh, Hashimi, Shaik, 2012).

As the level of technology within firms increases, organisations too will evolve accordingly as the necessity for virtual teams to operate. Virtual teams are groups of people who can work together for a common goal irrespective of any barriers to location, time-zones & organizational structures(Lipnack & Stamps, 1999). One of the problems of virtual teams is that of building cohesion & trust which is still usually done via face-face communications despite the virtual nature of some so-called virtual teams(Kerber & Buono, 2004). In order to tackle this flaw, I will have to get use to virtual methods of communication in my spare time & utilize it increasingly.

Since a lot of organizations are multicultural in contemporary times it will be necessary to learn the appropriate behaviour when interacting with diverse co-workers(Triandis, 2006). As a leader, I will need to adjust more to this reality by increasing my cultural intelligence via becoming accustomed to international students by accepting more of them into my work groups.

Emotional Intelligence

My score concerning Emotional Intelligence consisted of an 8 for self-awareness, 5 for self-management, 7 for social-awareness & 3 for relationship management out of 10 overall(Appendix C). While self-awareness appears to be my only advantage, my score concerning self-management & social-awareness is fairly moderate while my relationship management rating is a notably low which outlines that I need to improve upon these three skills. Emotional Intelligence refers to the mental capacity to accurately discern, utilize, comprehend & control emotions in oneself or other individuals(Peter, 2010). I will need to improve my self-management by disciplining myself better in terms of the completion of my work on time. Similarly for relationship management I will need to take the time to cultivate & maintain my already existing relationships with my colleagues.

Leadership Development Plan

The discussion concerning my advantages and flaws as a leader has allowed me to create a leadership development plan(Appendix C). After integrating feedback from my chosen leader, my father a worker in a multinational company, the plan was remade(Appendix D).

Feedback

By Integrating my leader’s feedback(Appendix F) into my leadership development plan various activities have been altered accordingly. I will evaluate most of my goals using the diagnostic tools outlined within the appendix after the deadlines for which have passed to see if I have actually improved my score in the relevant areas. The particular concern about the deadline of my rein emotions back goal has been addressed as I have moved the date back from one year to one month. I have also added a new assessment to the cultural intelligence improvement goal which is to work successfully in two groups containing international students.

Conclusion

Vladimir Putin’s approach to leadership can be seen as a success due to his well-suited behaviour to Russian politics. His leadership behaviour, traits & style of leadership can be seen as being of an assertive demeanour, which in turn has resulted in a low level of internal dissent within Putin’s government & Russia itself. Putin’s success can be outlined in terms of the power & influence he welds on a legitimate, reward, referent & expert level. In the aftermath of designating my advantages & flaws, a leadership development plan has been crafted loosely based on Putin’s own method of leadership & various sources of leadership research. Within this plan objectives in addition to their corresponding activities as well as deadlines were set up in order to improve upon my advantages while lessening any weaknesses I possessed as judged accordingly to the methods of assessment which included various tools of measurement such as the diagnostic tests shown I the Appendix. Feedback was gained from my chosen leader, my father & then integrated within my plan in order to enhance it, the plan itself will be utilized as a method of building upon my effectiveness as a leader & conduct over the next year.