Case Application What Makes a Good Leader? What makes a good leader? Many companies have been looking for the answer to this question for some time. While some companies have their own leadership development programs, others may look for good leaders from outside their organization. The Asia Pacific regional office of a multinational corporation in Hong Kong, which manufactures chemical products, combines both approaches. Christopher Yim, as the general manager for the Asia Pacific regional office, manages over 1,000 staff in the region. Yim is a demanding person and always sets challenging goals. Once he has made decisions, he communicates with his staff immediately and expects them to work hard to get the job done. He perceives himself to be a highly capable person and has the same perception of his staff. Therefore, he is confident that his staff will deliver the results he expects. Once he has communicated his decisions clearly to the staff, he delegates the tasks to them and provides little guidance. The company has a series of leadership development programs, catering to the needs of different levels of staff. Some programs provide soft skills training for junior levels of management. Senior management from different regional offices around the world attend a Global Leadership Programme, in which the vision and mission of the company are articulated, and experiences of how management drive their staff to achieve them are shared. The trainer then identifies the common traits that are demonstrated by the most successful senior managers and develops the profile of an effective leader. Yim was identified as one of the most successful leaders after the training. Discussion Questions 1. What are the preferred leadership traits for this company? 2. Which leadership styles does Yim adopt? 3. Analyze the employees’ trust toward Yim by applying the relevant dimensions that make up the concept of trust. 4. If you were Yim, how would you improve your leadership style?