Kevin O’Leary is a Canadian businessman who is mostly known as one of the major investors on Shark Tank. Apart from that, he is an entrepreneur, mutual fund manager, venture capitalist, and media person. Kevin O’Leary is also a person who funded an investment fund company and is involved in many projects devoted to financial literacy and business leadership (About, n.d.). He is famous not only in Canada but in the US, the UK, and Australia as well, and his principles of managing a successful business are implemented into the working strategies of many companies worldwide.
O’Leary is the leader who manages the business relying on the principles of transformational leadership. His work is guided by honesty, directness, great value, and convenience (About, n.d.). Kevin O’Leary also relies on the principle of delegation in his work and encourages other businessmen to do it (Cox, 2017). In other words, the leader should let the workers take up more responsibilities when the company’s sales grow because it is impossible to keep up with the great amount of work alone. However, many business leaders do not pay attention to this principle, and, as a result, they either have emotional burnout or make mistakes, and the business collapses.
Kevin O’Leary’s success is a matter of his hard work in the past and carefully and wisely led management at present. One of the business-leading strategies that saved him from problems related to the companies he invested in and from bankruptcy, as well as his constant availability for his partners (Leadership wisdom from Mr. Wonderful, n.d.). O’Leary is always on the phone in case of an emergency, and he asks his colleagues to call him if something goes wrong. He says that this business strategy helped him avoid or minimize money losses and solve problems fast (Cox, 2017).
The pieces of advice mentioned above may be applied to both small and large businesses as well as to old and new ones.
However, Kevin O’Leary gave examples of some actions that may help entrepreneurs who only start to build their companies. Thus, the most significant skills businessmen should possess both at the beginning of their career and through the course of it should include three ones. They are the ability to explain the idea in ninety seconds or less, to prove that it is them who will perform the business or investment plan best, and to provide the company’s statistics (Gschwandtner, 2018; APB Speakers, n.d.). O’Leary refers to these strategies as the main ones that will lead to success both in the long and the short term. He also advises not to hide the truth because great leadership involves extreme honesty, and the leader should explain what is good and what is bad (NAIFA, 2020). Hence, being a leader is not easy as it may seem because being the leader in business means being the leader in life as well.
Kevin O’Leary’s example proves the thesis mentioned in the previous sentence as he possesses another quality a good leader should have. He transfers his business-leading strategies into a real-life situation, which means that he has the same values both in business and in daily life. Thus, he is used to staying focused even when he does not do anything related to management or solving problems, and it helps him not to distract and pay attention to his interlocutor (Block, 2018). In other words, Kevin O’Leary does not let anything unimportant capture his attention both in business and in life. It is a quality a good leader should possess because it characterizes him as a thoughtful person and helps avoid many mistakes.
References
About (n.d.). Kevin O’Leary. Web.
APB Speakers (n.d). The essence of leadership – Kevin O’Leary. [Video]. YouTube. Web.
Block, J. (2018). 3 leadership lessons I learned when I met Kevin O’Leary. Medium. Web.
Cox, C. (2017). Kevin O’Leary’s best investments are women-led businesses. Mendoza College of Business. Web.
Gschwandtner, LB. (2018). One savvy shark: The Kevin O’Leary success playbook. SellingPower. Web.
Leadership wisdom from Mr. Wonderful (n.d.). SB Partners. Web.
NAIFA (2020). ‘Mr. Wonderful offers insights on leadership and the markets for NAIFA nation impact week. NAIFA Advisor Today. Web.