Sun City Boards CEO Tom Wilson has been questioning his capabilities as a leader due to the poor performance in his company lately. He has asked you to review profiles of successful and unsuccessful leaders and identify common traits and any other key factors that he might cultivate to grow as a leader.

Your Task In the email you send to Tom, please state what trait you think is most important for a leader to possess. Which do you think is least important? Explain your choices.

You are also going to think about awful leaders such as Martin Winterkorn at Volkswagen and Carrie Tolstedt at Wells Fargo. Under these leaders, employees acted unethically, resulting in harm to customers as well as the business. Choose an example of poor leadership from your research and explain what you think the leader could have done differently. What role did the leaders situation play in his or her actions? What would you have done in a similar situation? Please do not use Martin Winterkorn at Volkswagen and Carrie Tolstedt at Wells Fargo--they have been mentioned too many times in case studies, textbooks, and company leadership training, etc. Please give other awful leaders a fair chance to be analyzed. You can also use a leader from your personal work experience.

Also, think of a person you consider to be a good leader. Does this person possess some of the traits of a good leader discussed in your reading? How would you describe his or her leadership style? Be specific, using terms from chapter 14, like Path-goal theory, Directive leadership, Supportive leadership, Participative leadership, Achievement-oriented leadership, visionary leadership, Ethical charismatics, Unethical charismatics, and transformational leadership.