Vida Sparks Leadership Analysis

The person who has had an impact on myself, and the music industry, is Vida Sparks. Today she is the manager of Flyte Tyme Studios and Productions, and also acts as the executive assistant to the Presidents and owners Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. I interned for Flyte Tyme my senior year of undergraduate to meet my business internship class requirements, and I loved it so much I went back the next year just to volunteer for fun! Vida Sparks demonstrates many characteristics that I believe make a successful and effective leader. Throughout our readings, the three styles that I thought best relate to Ms. Sparks are the skills approach, behavioral approach, and path-goal theory.

“In the skills approach we shift our thinking from a focus on personality characteristics, which usually are viewed as innate and largely fixed, to an emphasis on skills and abilities that can be learned and developed” (Northouse, 2016, p.43). Vida definitely possesses the abilities and skills of the skills approach that empower her to be the effective leader she is today. According to Robert Katz, the author of the classic article “Skills of an Effective Administrator,” which was published in the Harvard Business Review, there are three basic personal skills that every leader should have: technical, human, and conceptual.

“Technical skill is the knowledge

A participative leader consults with followers, obtains their ideas and opinions, and integrates their suggestions into the decisions about how the group or organization will proceed” (Northouse, 2016, p.118). As a participative leader, Vida often consults with her staff, obtains their ideas and opinions, and is open minded to their suggestions. For example letting us have flexible hours, because most of us were taking other classes, getting our ideas for recording sessions, and even choosing what snacks we wanted to have available at the