Reflective thinking and writing
– me, myself and Matt Maday
During my summer seminar at
Kendall College I met a lot of entrepreneurs. One entrepreneur who impressed me
most is Matt Maday. I get in touch with Matt Maday at the entrepreneurship
event on July 16, 2014 at Kendall College. Matt Maday is CEO and CO-Founder of
the digital agency, Oncall Interactive. I was surprised about the clients his
company has. Here it is worth mentioning the clients: McDonalds, Chicago
Tribune, Nike, Microsoft, hp, TAG Heuer, Harley-Davidson and Toyota.[1]
Matt Maday invented a patent-pending sweepstakes deployment and analytics
platform and BRANDflex, a first-of-its-kind brand management platform to
support the companies mentioned above. These aspects show already the ability
of strategically thinking, invention and power of volition to me. The Oncall
value statement underlines the innovative way of thinking of Matt Maday:
I am of the opinion that the
participative leadership style matches Matt Maday best. On the one side he
offers guidance to his group members, but on the other side he also allows
insights from other members. This describes the behaviour of Matt Maday. He is
anxious to be effective, critical and efficient. The participative leadership
style is the most effective one and I am sure that he knows that fact. He as
CEO, appreciates the input of his employees, but it is important for him to
have the final say.
To arrange Matt Maday in the six different styles of
leadership from Daniel Goleman it is inalienable to know that Matt Maday
connects the characteristics visionary thinking, innovation, team work and
individual thinking. Because of this, it is difficult to put him into one
category of leadership styles. Nevertheless I think the visionary leadership
style fits Matt Maday best. His whole life Matt Maday pursuits one vision. His
aim is to launch his own business and have responsibility for people. He dreams
big and thinks big. He wants to develop something that improves the life of
businesses.
Exactly with this point Matt Maday impresses me. I love to follow
a combination of innovative and visional leadership. My aim is to launch my own
business and create value for others. In my opinion the best way to achieve
this is with team work. On the one hand I like to act energetically and
motivate others, but on the other hand I like to combine this with some rules
and expects others should observe. All in all, I want to attain from Matt Maday
the humbleness he transmits to others. Matt Maday achieved many things through
building up Oncall Interactive with innovative ideas. These are reasons why
Matt Maday impressed and inspired me.
A good leader should have wide
knowledge compared to his staff. Without that a leader cannot be accepted.
There are certain other qualities that make a good leader. The first thing for
me is honesty. Honest and ethical behaviour must be a key value. If you
implement this, your team will follow suit. A good leader has to communicate in
a clear and directive way. He should also has a sense of humour, be confidential
and creative. Another key element a good leader should contain is the ability
to inspire.[3]
Matt Maday did not change the
type of leader I inspire to be, but he adds more aspects I would like to think
about more. His ability of motivation and willingness to lunch his own business
give new input and also some kind of motivation to reach my own business to me.
To sum up, the meeting with a person like Matt Maday helped me in reinforcing
the type of leader I want to be in my further life.
[1] http://www.oncallinteractive.com/clients/
[2] http://www.oncallinteractive.com/culture/
[3] http://www.forbes.com/sites/tanyaprive/2012/12/19/top-10-qualities-that-make-a-great-leader/
Picture Matt Maday: http://cdn1.localjobnetwork.com/assets/images/authors/pic_Matthew_Maday.jpg
Picture Leader: http://www.youreffectiveleadership.com/images/picture.png
Video Matt Maday: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JO2Wu5iRqCM
Video Forbes Tips Leaders under 30: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LY6K4VaaXEw