Being Aware of Effective Leadership Research Paper

Being Aware of Effective Leadership - Research Paper Example However, even those theorists have not come up with conclusive evidence as to who is an effective leader. For example, trait theorists cannot explain how individuals with similar traits perform differently in different situations or an agreed set of traits that make up great leaders. This paper will try to discuss effective leadership using one of the great leaders in history; Bill Gates. The Microsoft Corporation was founded in 1975 by two young individuals Bill Gates and Paul Allen and has grown to be a giant in the industry. William H. Gates III was born in October 28, 1955 in Seattle Washington. He was the only son of William Gates II a well known and accomplished attorney. Since his early childhood gates was very intelligent and astonished with computers. His parents wanted him to pursue a law career but that was never to be as he was more interested in computers. He was enrolled in a public school but was later transferred to lakeside school since his parents wanted him to have a more challenging environment which matched his exceptional abilities. It was while there that Bill began his journey as an inventor and a great entrepreneur. He and his friend Paul Allen took time to study computer programming by themselves and began writing computer programs (Wallace, 1992). Gates was enrolled in Harvard University in 1973 where he continued pursuing his interest in computer programming. When an opportunity arose, he quit college to pursue his career. This came about through a cover story on popular electronics magazine which carried a cover story on a microcomputer, the Altair, made by the MITS firm in New Mexico. He and his colleague Allen offered to develop an interpreter for the program; Microsoft BASIC interpreter. In 1975 they founded the Microsoft Company which is now the largest personal computer software company (Gates, 1996). He became the chief executive officer, chief software architect, chairman and the largest individual shareholder until the year 2000 when he stepped down as the CEO but retained the chairmanship of the Board. He was recognized by the times magazine as one of the 100 people who most influenced the 20th century and one of the 100 most influential people of 2004, 2005 and 2006 (Wallace, 1992). In 1994, he was recognized as the CEO of the year by CEO magazine and in 2011, he was the fifth most powerful person in the world (Forbes, 2012). This is in addition to the numerous honorary degrees he has received from various universities for his exemplary work. Bill Gates has played a great role in driving Microsoft Corporation to where it is today. First, through his efforts and that of Allen they founded the company from scratch with their skills. He was involved in designing software which was the key task in the newly formed company. They started by developing the BASIC interpreter for MITS which allowed individuals to play games among other functions. He also began the idea of charging for the use of software. Tho ugh his idea was unpopular, he persisted and later it became the norm for software developers (Gates, 1996). Gates also developed the Microsoft Disk Operating System (MS-DOS) for IBM one of the computer giant companies but retained the right to license other manufacturers. Soon the operating system became the universal standard for personal computers. He was also involved in