Real The Wolf of Wall Street: Jordan Belfort

Introduction

During the 1990s, Jordan Belfort manufactured one of the most unique and effective sales organizations in Wall Street history. During that time, he took off to the most elevated money-related statures, acquiring over $50 million per year, an accomplishment that instituted him the name 'The Wolf of Wall Street”.

Belfort owned the stockbroker company, Stratton Oakmont, founded in 1989. He employed over 1000 brokers and over time, he propelled the company to an estimated net worth of $400 million USD. He has performed as a consultant in over fifty public organizations and has been critiqued in seemingly each and every major media outlet, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, The London Times, The Herald Tribune, Le Monde, Corriere della Serra, Forbes, Business Week, Paris Match and Rolling Stone. Throughout his journey in business leadership, he surrendered to a portion of the snares of the high-flying Wall Street way of life. Taking invaluable exercises from the errors he made and the mistakes he's made, he has reappeared as an all-around perceived strong power behind extravagant business achievements.

Today, his Straight-Line System enables him to take any individual or organization, paying little heed to age, race, sex, instructive foundation or societal position, and enable them to accumulate, wealth, and enterprising achievement, without giving up integrity or morals. Belfort's two worldwide smash hit diaries, The Wolf of Wall Street and Catching the Wolf of Wall Street, have been distributed in more than forty nations and converted into eighteen languages. His biography has been turned into a significant film featuring Leonardo DiCaprio and coordinated by Martin Scorsese.

Self-Leadership

Individuals who intend to be successful leaders must first acquire the talent of leading themselves. This entails a high sense of self-control, time management, and prioritizing tasks. The five core competencies that guide individuals to self-leadership are: personal accountability, self-management, goal achievement, resiliency, and flexibility.

At the beginning of Jordan Belfort’s career, he has a firm grasp on self-control, time management, and his priorities. Working at L.F Rothschild & Company, he was a family man, was a clean-cut individual, and motivated to provide. When Jordan branched off and started his own company, Stratton Oakmont, many of his leadership qualities and values were twisted by envy, materialism, and greed.

Public Perception

The public perception of Jordan Belfort has changed over the course of his career. Before Stratton Oakmont, he was just another individual trying to get by. He did not get any publicity or recognition until his company took off. Many criticized his leadership and management capabilities and practices, some even called it barbaric.

Jordan went down the wrong path with Stratton Oakmont which landed him in jail. In 1999 he plead guilty to fraud and similar crimes in connection with stock market manipulation. He spent twenty-two months locked away in prison under the conditions he was to testify against numerous individuals he use to work with and lead.

Many still view Jordan as a conniving businessman but his personal progression has been tremendous after his time spent in jail. Currently, he lives in Los Angeles, is married, and has two kids. He manages and runs his own company which provides training in sales and markets his Straight-Line training program directed at gaining wealth and success.

Leading Others

Belfort’s practices of leading others have developed and matured over the course of his career. His leadership style has shifted for the better as he has gotten older and wiser.

During his time with Stratton Oakmont, Belfort clearly had chosen the achievement-focused style of leadership based on many of his team members’ external locus of control; gluttony, materialism, and expectations of success. He is very directive, feared, and venerated. During this time, it is easily seen that Jordan Belfort follows the path-goal leadership theory. Originally created in the early 70s, the path-goal leadership style creates a high level of job satisfaction through rewards based on performance. This leadership theory has successfully enhanced the performance of many individuals in the business world. Jordan would offer employees material goods to enable his team to perform at an optimal standard. Jordan developed a high sense of selfishness and egotistical attributes as Stratton Oakmont grew. He would portray his lavish lifestyle to his team and he would boast about how they can become just like him with hard work theory.

After his time spent in prison, Jordan has developed a sense of contingency, transformational, and situational leadership theories. He learned many valuable leadership lessons from his first business venture and the consequences he had to face as a result.

The contingency theory specializes on certain variables related to the surroundings of the leader that may determine which certain leadership style is most appropriate for the situation. With his new business venture, Jordan has adopted this leadership style. He understands that different individuals require different types of leadership and motivation.

The transformational leadership theory heavily focuses on the unique connections formed between the leader and each of their followers. These leaders inspire and motivate their team by helping and encouraging members to see the higher good and importance of the task at hand. With Jordan’s new company, he is developing better connections and bonds than when he led Stratton Oakmont. He is focusing on bettering his team, he has acquired a sense of selflessness.

The situational leadership theory believes the chosen course of action is dependent on situational variables. Leaders may act differently when dealing with different personality types, environments, or cultures. Jordan has applied this theory to his leadership style within his new company as he is dealing with many different individuals, personality types, goals, and environments.

Personally, I believe Jordan abused the achievement-oriented style of leadership. This leadership style is of great power, and with great power comes great responsibility. Jordan lacked the talents needed to responsibly perfect this leadership style. It is a shame because I really enjoy this style of leadership and it works well with me and others around me. Stratton Oakmont had the potential to be a storybook tale to encourage and motivate young business entrepreneurs. Many are still touched by this story and motivated, but Jordan did not lead in a professional or mature manor with this venture. He had made tremendous developments with his personality, lifestyle, and leadership qualities after his time spent in prison. Some individuals need hard realizations to regain traction and direction in their lives. Jordan is defiantly one of these individuals.

Conclusion

I aspire to be an achievement-oriented, situational leader. Achievement-oriented has always interested me and I personally believe individuals will perform at higher levels when offered rewards above the minimum legal requirements (minimum wage). I have worked in companies who have these incentives and it pushes me to work harder and be the best employee I can be. It creates a healthy sense of organizational/employee competition which can be very beneficial if executed in a proper manor.

I also firmly believe a leader must be open-minded and adjust their actions and leadership styles gave different situational variables. An individual who refuses change given certain circumstances will not be an effective leader. Leaders must adapt to whatever environment they are in, in order to achieve success. I have had certain bosses who have the ideology that it is their way or the highway and this causes a great ordeal of resentment and employee turnover.

A young Mr. Belfort and I are similar to an extent in our pursuit of an achievement-oriented leadership style. Jordan let his greed impact his leadership style, which ultimately leads to the demise of Stratton Oakmont and him ending up in jail. With Stratton Oakmont, he was known to treat his employees like animals, making them do absurd tasks in order for reward. I believe this twisted form of achievement-oriented leadership style has no place in a business environment. On a base level, we both believe achievement-oriented leadership can be a massive success.

An older and wiser Mr. Belfort and I are similar on our belief on situational leadership. This is a leadership quality that he developed after his time spent in jail. He now understands the concept of adjusting your style and actions based on certain situations and environments. This is very beneficial for not only you as a leader but for your followers.

Jordan and I both have the drive to be wealthy and relevant, however, Jordan was willing to do anything and almost anything to get that, regardless if it was moral or followed the law. We differ in that sense. One day I aspire to be a wealthy individual who has made a name for myself, but I will not throw away my morals and ethics to achieve that as Jordan did.

There are certain aspects of Jordan that I would like to emulate one day such as his wealth, intelligence, and drive. Leadership is a key aspect to achieving these goals one day. To further develop my leadership skills to hopefully one day achieve my goals, I will need to continue the study of leadership, personality types, and people in general. Being a quality leader takes an enormous amount of intelligence on society and the functions included.