Blog Entry #1

Dear Visitors,

Welcome to my HOD 2700 blog on leadership! In particular, my blog deals with the subject area of finance. I chose this topic because in the future I want to work with finances and investments. Also, this subject area parallels with my two college majors: Human and Organizational Development (HOD) and Economics. Therefore, I will be able to use aspects from economics and apply them with HOD concepts and theories. Finally, I believe that finance has and will continue to be a major part of the business world. Many leaders have arisen from the financial field. Although their names may seem unfamiliar, they each display outstanding leadership abilities.
One individual that stands out in my mind as a prominent leader in the financial industry is Goldman Sachs' CEO, Lloyd Blankfein. Lloyd has been the CEO since May 31, 2006. He became CEO as a result of Hank Paulson, the previous CEO, being promoted to Secretary of the Treasury. Because of his knowledge and leadership skills, Blankfein is now the highest pain financial executive. In fact, his 2006 end of the year bonus was $53.4 million! Blankfein is different from other leaders who hold similar positions. Instead of just spending the majority of his day in his office, he often interacts with lower-level employees. He has a high attention to detail and likes to know what is going on in every sector of the company. In addition to his strong relations with other employees, Blankfein also has a vast amount of specialized knowledge about finance. As a result of his knowledge base, Blankfein represents the Economic leadership archetype. The Economic archetype is defined by the importance of purchasing power, trade, inventions, sanctions, and the development of markets. Blankfein has this type of leadership archetype as a result of the type of business in he works. Many elements of investment banking correlate with attributes of the Economics archetype. Therefore, Blankfein must possess knowledge of the archetype characteristics in order to be successful in his industry. Although he has not been CEO for a long time, he has a large amount of experience in the financial field. In addition, Blankfein embodies the integral leadership style. This leadership style is representative of the twenty-first century. It requires many different aspects of leadership such as charisma, anticipation, and valuing all members. However, this style of leadership is time and space dependent. Blankfein displays this style of leadership in many ways. First, he interacts with all employees, which shows his transformational leadership. Secondly, as a result of working in the financial industry, he anticipates change and understands the financial world around him. Lastly, because of his position, Blankfein sets goals and direction for Goldman Sachs. Overall, Blankfein's knowledge and leadership skills have helped Goldman Sachs become one of the world's largest, most successful investment banks.