Andrea Jung
Introduction
Andrea Jung is one of the effective managers and leaders renown globally for her effective leadership, in management and advocacy for issues affecting women globally, a fight she took on boldly and posted positive outcomes. This paper will look into her personal and professional background, her style of management and skills, while pointing out how truly effective she is as a leader and manager.
Personal Background
Andrea Jung was born in 1959 in Toronto, Ontario. As a child, she grew up and became raised in Massachusetts. She spend her early life studying piano in Mandarin. In her family, Jung’s father practiced architect. He was born in Hong Kong but he retired later from this profession. He was also a tutor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her mother was born in Shanghai. She shared similar traits with her daughter when she played the piano.
Jung speaks fluent Mandarin Language. She graduated from Princeton University. Her brother Mark Jungalso graduated from the same campus. He became the co-founder and CEO of IGN. Michael Gould was Jung’s ex-husband. They had two children, a daughter and a son.
Professional Background
Andrea Jung is a Canadian American who served as a non- profit and executive leader. She is prominent in handling issues that affect women. She became the CEO and the president of Grameen America in April, 2014. This is a non-profit microfinance firm that was found by Mohammad Yunus, the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. Through her leadership, this firm offered huge amounts of microfinance loans to small enterprises and individuals.
Jung served as the first female CEO whereby she represented Avon Products Inc. as the chairwoman. This is a multilevel marketing organization that she served as the head from 1999 to 2012. She was also a pioneer woman to lead Toiletry and Fragrance Association. It was at this point whereby she was in charge of cosmetics. Furthermore, Jung functioned as the chairman of Direct Selling Associations under the World Federation. In 2010, she received Clinton Global Citizen Award.
This prize was to motivate her in her leadership at Avon Foundation. This is because in her profession, she represented women and various private and public partnership. Furthermore, Jung advocated for end of violence which affected individuals of the female gender. She was also in charge of campaign that fought against breast cancer epidemic. It is through her leadership that Avon foundation for women became a leading firm that articulated on challenges that faced women across the globe (Jung, 2010).
For instance, in her leadership career, Jung managed to raise approximately one billion to support empowerment and health sectors among women. Later in 2012, she resigned as the CEO in Avon. She still maintained the top position at Avon when she represented the board of directors. At the end of 2012, Jung served as a senior advisor at Avon’s board until April 2014.
Management Style and Skills
Jung had excellent management style that enabled her to take charge of a huge direct sales firm in the world. She took twelve years to participate and work as the CEO of Avon. Due to her good management skills, she led others by incorporating core leadership values. For instance, Jung gave her support to people who confided their trust in her. Her desire was to foster development among people through her effective skills in delegating responsibilities. Based on her management style, it was easy to work with her. Through her actions and words, Jung portrayed herself as a transparent individual. Besides her success, she still embraced humility when she respected her rivals and employees.
Additionally, the management style of this leader was apparent via her communication skills. For instance, she made her intentions without being aggressive towards others. Evidently, Jung was the type of a manager or a leader who valued diversity. Reflecting on her long tenure with Avon, she embraced perspectives from different people. She applied these skills in management. It further assisted her to adopt the different ideas that she received to enhance development at Avon. Additionally, Jung was a talented leader who was capable of understanding numerous perceptions to build the business.
She was also effective in management when she enhanced a strong vision. At the same time, she valued the input of other individuals towards growth of the company, a virtue echoed by Ayub, Manaf, &Hamzah,who pointed out that leaders must be able to ensure that the subordinates are treated as members of the organization in addition to providing sound leadership since they are key pointers to employee motivation and performance (Ayub, Manaf, &Hamzah, 2014). Furthermore, her commitment indicated that she was a leader who had a strong vision to cater for the current and future vision of Avon. These skills in management made Jung to be successful in her corporate profession.
Andrea Jung is an effective leader or manager because she perceive business as a way of empowering others. According to Jung, the purpose of Avon business was not only to sell beauty products, but to boost the life style of women. Clearly, she was a good leader because she advocated for millions of women to progress by being part of the business. Furthermore, Jung was an effective leader because she cared and believed in welfare of the people.
In this regard, she gave individuals advice on ways to become successful in their own professions. Serving as an effective leader, Jung reveals that operating a firm was about having a good relationship by relating with the right team of followers. According to Hao & Rashad (2015), leadership is when the leader guides their employees towards the organizational goals, all the while trying to communicate and motivate their employees in order to make sure their employees are in the right position to use their talents and commit to their jobs.Her good leadership skills were evident when she embraced new perspectives and ideas to become successful. Jung had a passion in what she engaged in. As a leader, she always gave advice to people to follow suit and be passionate about their work. Accordingly, the major reasons that lead to change are system dynamics, structure-focused change, person-focused change, and profitability issues with poor communication, force of habit, confusion and frustration, lack of support among others pointing towards resistance to change (Kansal&Chandani, 2014).
Jung offered her services to people based on the affection she had towards her profession. She performed her duties by inspiring and motivating other people. A good example is evident when she encouraged all women to aim higher in what they did. Jung is a good leader when she encouraged individuals to support each other as they pursued their careers. This was a vital step to aid them to accomplish their goals in life. Additionally, she is the kind of a leader who advised people to maintain their top position. For instance, if they were first, they should ensure that they did not drop.
Her effectiveness was apparent when she chose to embrace positive values while running Avon organization. Jung was trustworthy, transparent and an easier person to relate with. As a result, employees confided in her whenever they encountered issues. She motivated others to climb on top of the ladder in leadership. This attitude made a lot of women to join the management team whereby their number increased by 85 percent. Evidently, she was a good leader because she believed in the future. Jung had a vision that there would be an exponential change that would increase the number of women to occupy top leadership positions across the globe.
References
Andrea Jung. (2010). Detroit, Mich: Gale.
Ayub, S. H., Manaf, N. A., &Hamzah, M. R. (2014). Leadership: Communicating strategically in the 21st century. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 155, 502-506.
Hao, J., & Rashad Yazdanifard, M. (2015). How Effective Leadership Can Facilitate Change in Organizations through Improvement and Innovation. Global Journal of Management and Business Research, 15(9).
Kansal, S., &Chandani, A. (2014). Effective management of change during merger and acquisition. Procedia Economics and Finance, 11, 208-217.
Kushal, K. B. (2010). Perspectives for effective management. Mumbai [India: Himalaya Pub. House.