Hot Topic CEO Leadership, Essay Example

Hot Topic’s CEO Betsy McLaughlin’s strengths include leading by example. She claims early on that the key to the company’s success is that everyone is passionate about the work they do and everyone gets along really well. Betsy also makes sure to bring the same enthusiasm to her work and her follows could see that during their interaction with Betsy. Another strength of Betsy’s leadership is her communication skills and democratic leadership style. Everyone at Hot Topic is encouraged to be creative, contribute ideas, and personally interact with the management team should they have something to say. This open door policy improves employees’ morale as well as their motivation level.

Betsy also understands that employees do not only come to work for income but also have other needs. Betsy knows employees desire to be valued which is why the company provides several benefits and services to its employees such as healthcare, cell phone discounts, and health & fitness facility. These benefits help improve employees’ loyalty to the company and also results in economic benefits such as low employee turnover and higher productivity.

Betsy’s strength also includes efficient management of the company’s human capital. She emphasizes the importance of having the right people and giving them the room to do the job. She also makes sure everyone learns the company’s cultural values at orientation and has realistic expectations. Such measures reduce the probability of surprises and increase the probability that employees will feel at home within the company.

Betsy is also not afraid to delegate which shows that she trusts the potential of her subordinates and believes they can be relied upon to accomplish the tasks. This fosters entrepreneurial spirit among the company’s workers and encourages them to think outside-the-box to maintain competitive edge over the competition. To ensure that the employees do not hesitate to provide new ideas to the leadership, Betsy personally engages with them on a regular basis and seek their opinions.

Betsy also understands the importance of continuous learning as a leader and she doesn’t only learn from her subordinates but also customers. She doesn’t make the decisions in isolation but after taking into account the information and feedback she has obtained from various stakeholders of the company including employees and customers.

One of the advanced leadership skills exhibited by Betsy is being a visionary. Betsy sensed an opportunity and acted upon it by developing a second line of retail chain called Torrid which is aimed at plus size customers. By developing the new retail chain which would focus on a customer segment (plus size) being ignored by everyone else, Betsy demonstrated her ability to take risks and act on opportunities in a timely manner. A leader’s job is to carefully monitor the external environment for both threats and opportunities and act upon them before the competition and Betsy has proven herself to be a visionary and a bold leader.

Betsy has shown herself to be an effective leader who can motivate her followers to do the job without relying on formal powers because she personally inspires them through personal examples. She also constantly monitors the environment for opportunities and is not afraid to take bold measures as evident by the development of Torrid stores.