Leadership of Anne Mulcahy
CASE #1: Anne Mulcahy – Xerox CEO
David Rieker
Anne Mulcahy was an employee of Xerox for 24 years that she spent within Sales, Human Resources and served as the chief of staff for former CEO, Paul Allaire. At 47 years old, all of that changed when Mulcahy took over as the CEO of Xerox. She had an excellent reputation within the company but nobody, not even herself, had pinned her as the CEO type. Many companies still believe in the old adage, that the CEO has to be a strong willed male, who saw the big picture, distanced himself from the rest of the company and has particular “leadership” characteristics. Mulcahy did not exude any of these above-mentioned characteristics besides the fact that she was very strong willed. As mentioned in the Fortune article, she was very straightforward, hard working, and disciplined. She was completely loyal to Xerox, not only the company itself, but the brand and the people within it. During her reign at Xerox she has shown that she has incredible integrity and while she can be compassionate, she is able to be tough when necessary. After reading articles on Mulcahy, and the Leadership Experience text, I believe that she clearly fits within the High Task-High Relationship category on the Fieldler’s Contingency Model. She is able to be strong willed and eliminate departments that are not performing well, even though she had an integral role in creating that specific department. She was honest, compassionate, and tough at the exact same time, she was not afraid to give everyone the good news along with the bad news. The Fortune article showed that Mulcahy was willing to work shoulder to shoulder with all of her subordinates, this in turn gave her an unusual credibility and an ability to stimulate her team. She coaches her company toward achievement, while combing task and relationship behaviors. Mulcahy is clearly a relationship-oriented leader because her biggest concern is the people within Xerox. In the
David Rieker
Anne Mulcahy was an employee of Xerox for 24 years that she spent within Sales, Human Resources and served as the chief of staff for former CEO, Paul Allaire. At 47 years old, all of that changed when Mulcahy took over as the CEO of Xerox. She had an excellent reputation within the company but nobody, not even herself, had pinned her as the CEO type. Many companies still believe in the old adage, that the CEO has to be a strong willed male, who saw the big picture, distanced himself from the rest of the company and has particular “leadership” characteristics. Mulcahy did not exude any of these above-mentioned characteristics besides the fact that she was very strong willed. As mentioned in the Fortune article, she was very straightforward, hard working, and disciplined. She was completely loyal to Xerox, not only the company itself, but the brand and the people within it. During her reign at Xerox she has shown that she has incredible integrity and while she can be compassionate, she is able to be tough when necessary. After reading articles on Mulcahy, and the Leadership Experience text, I believe that she clearly fits within the High Task-High Relationship category on the Fieldler’s Contingency Model. She is able to be strong willed and eliminate departments that are not performing well, even though she had an integral role in creating that specific department. She was honest, compassionate, and tough at the exact same time, she was not afraid to give everyone the good news along with the bad news. The Fortune article showed that Mulcahy was willing to work shoulder to shoulder with all of her subordinates, this in turn gave her an unusual credibility and an ability to stimulate her team. She coaches her company toward achievement, while combing task and relationship behaviors. Mulcahy is clearly a relationship-oriented leader because her biggest concern is the people within Xerox. In the