Dorset College Dublin

Strong Woman, Ambition, grit and a Great Pair of Heels by:

Karren Brady

Emiliana Luzia do Amaral -

Strategic Management -

Paul Maher

26th June 2023

Table of Content

1 - Abstract ................................................................................................................................ 3
2 - Leader traits, behaviours and leadership approach ............................................................ 4
2.1 - Passion and hard work ...................................................................................................... 4
2.2 – Resilience.......................................................................................................................... 6
2.3 - Confidence, ambition and determination ......................................................................... 7
2.4 - Leadership ......................................................................................................................... 8
3 - Critical analysis ................................................................................................................... 10
4 – Bibliography....................................................................................................................... 12

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1 - Abstract
The book Strong Woman, Ambition, Grit and a great pair of heels from Karren Brady
which was launched in 2012, tells us her story since her early career and the trajectory
to be a successful business woman, or a working mother as she entitles herself. In the
beginning she tells us about her childhood, her family and the environment she was
brought up in. She was highly influenced by her grandmother and her father. Either her
father and grandmother are restless workers.

She had these examples on how to reach dreams, moreover, she developed resilience
when she went to high school that was very strict, so she felt unpleasant to be there and
to be told everything to do or not to do. She has had a sense of freedom and
independence since early ages, even in her childhood. For example, there was once
when she was three years old, she decided to try drinks from the cabinet because the
bottles were nice and colourful. Obviously, she got drunk, as her grandfather could not
stop her.

She has ever been able to stand for herself and pursue her desires. When she left school,
her decision was not going to university. She was eager to work in order to have money
and independence, moreover, making decisions on her own. At that time, she was in her
twenties and she mentions that did not have any special talent to rely on, but she
strongly believed in her core values and in her hard work.

She sold advertisements for a newspaper, also for a radio station in the UK. Once she
had a challenging target to be reached, so she went to see an important business man,
David Sullivan and show him an unusual opportunity to advertise on radio, which he
refused firstly, but she has a talent to be convincing, so he challenged him saying that in
case the company sales do not increase, she would pay for the that first slot. In the end,
not only sales increased, but also, they became business partners.

In 1993 David Sullivan, advised by Karren Brady, bought Birmingham City Football Club
then they started to run the club. She was in charge of the business part. She was the
first woman working in football. At that time she was 23 years old. The club was going
through many problems: financial, structure of build, culture of work and so on. She

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started to make changes in many areas in the club, she created many campaigns to bring
the public to matches. Karren engaged the Birmingham lovers very closely. There was
an adjustment of the jerseys colour and they went up in sales. By the time new products
were brought to the market. Those moves were totally new on the football field. It was
like a disruption.

2 - Leader traits, behaviours and leadership approach

Through the time Karren has worked in different businesses as counsellor, exec director,
adviser in business shows on TV, writer for important magazines. Moreover, Karren has
run another football’s club, West Ham. Karren Brady is a remarkable business leader for
many reasons. Some might be mentioned for instance, she was the first woman to run
a football club in the nineties, however, she was only 23, was able to persevere on the
path and build trustworthiness and reach business success. Also, Karren was the first
CEO that created a strategy to build a loved brand totally connected to that community
in Birmingham. As she states (Brady p. 42) “And I do love brands. I love the idea of
building loyalty and building a concept, and I could see the potential with a football
club.”

2.1 - Passion and hard work

One of the interesting traits of Karren’s leadership is the enthusiasm and excitement to
see every change completed or project working properly and its results. She has always
had a positive attitude even before so many hurdles, as Karren mentions:

“...when I started working I threw myself into every aspect of life at the
company. And I was happy to do so. It amazes me that people spend tens
of thousands of pounds on working hard at university but when they’re
being paid tens of thousands of pounds by an employer they begrudge
the hard work and dedication it takes to get what you want.
(Brady p. 42)

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Karren seems to enjoy working in a team, and leads people to succeed. She seeks hiring
people that are passionate for the business as well so that they can be helped to achieve
their aims, she relies on staff’ skills. By being empathetic she shows care towards those
in her team. (Brady p. 154) “...as a leader you have to ensure that people are in a
workplace that helps them, listens and cares - as well as rewarding them.”

Karren also entitled herself as a straightforward leader since she explains to each staff
member what exactly she expects from them in terms of individual performance,
achievement of company’s goals, moreover the bonuses and rewarding. On the other
hand, Karren is aware of staff ambitions, aims and dreams, so that, when things are
going wrong it is not difficult to fix it and put it back on track, so she can help them to
improve themselves. Whenever there is a crisis in the company, she counts on her team
to contribute with suggestions, different skills in order to get the best outcome possible.
In the book she says:

“There is never anything whishy-whashy about my instructions: I’m

always straight-talking and direct. Everyone who works for me knows
exactly what their contribution is to the company and how they fit into
the overall structure. (Brady p. 48)”

“Everyone should know in which direction they are going, who is doing
what and why.” (Brady p. 49)”

According to (Ellevate) “All the knowledge in the world can’t make a good leader: it’s
the care for the work and the people who collaborate with you that makes the
difference.” It might be agreed that Karen has been an inspiration for those who love
working in the business field, leading people to succeed, also adding value to those
businesses she runs.

Karren successfully built the Club’s brand and from the first year the Birmingham
Football Club turned to be profitable business and after 16 years running the club, it was

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sold under the value of 82 billion pounds. Karren and the board created value to the
business, shareholders, for the city, for the players and many charities in the city.

Through the time Karren has worked in different businesses as counsellor, exec director,
adviser in business shows on TV, writer for important magazines. Moreover, Karren has
run another football’s club, West Ham. Her passion for businesses, moreover her hard
work, made Karren be respected as a serious business woman.

2.2 – Resilience

According to the author’s article (Prentice), “A great leader is one who can do so day
after day, and year after year, in a wide variety of circumstances.” It might be called
resilience, as this term is well known nowadays. In the book, Karren's trait of resilience
is found many times through her career, also personal life. It is found that Karren was
strongly criticized for meaningless issues, also for working many hours a day, therefore
not always being at home with her two kids. The press was ruthless to Karren, always
depicting unpopular decisions she made for the good of the club and its stakeholders
and shareholders.

There were several times Karren had to deal with resistance from that male dominated
world of the football and make herself heard, for instance, the first time she attended a
board meeting the receptionist treated her as if she were a manager’s wife and said that
did not know what to do with Karren, because women were not allowed in the board
meeting until that time.

In the personal aspect, she showed resilience specially by three facts. First, she moved
to Birmingham on her own, however, she had never been there before. So, she had to
adapt herself to the new challenging job either new house, city, friends etc. Secondly
when she gave birth, she did not have maternity leave, therefore, she was back to the
club only three days after having a baby. The third one is related to when she suddenly
discovered an aneurism in her brain and had to submit herself to a very invasive and

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risky surgery. It was the first time she felt lost and did not know how to conduct things,
make tough decisions, it was a hard time for Karren and her family.

2.3 - Confidence, ambition and determination

This trait, according to the author, confidence is one of most important to any business
leader, arguably the most important for women. And Karren has shown this personal
characteristic many times since she started her career. She started to manage a football
club at age of 23 having no previous experience in this field, but she was determined to
win. From her early ages she developed such a mindset to win, self-confidence and the
ability to stand up for herself and say what she thought about anything in any situation.
In the book

Karren relates several situations that clearly demonstrate those traits of determination
and confidence, for instance, when she was 18 years old and worked in Saatchi’s, there
was a tennis tournament in Mr Saatchis’s house so having a player got sick, Karren
volunteered to play tennis, however, she was not a sporty person and did not use to
play tennis. And Karren explains: (Brady p. 43) “I grasped every opportunity to get my
face known in that organization, matching my ambition with an outward presence. It
gave them confidence in me. and my age was irrelevant.” In her opinion, confidence is
such a key thing to be heard, to be trusted, even in a crisis, when as a leader you do not
know many answers and you have to be able to communicate confidently in order to
give confidence to your team as well and as a team, by using everyone skills, your team
and you will certainly make the best decision as possible for that moment and sort out
that major problem.

Another interesting point in Karren’s book is how she refers to ambition as an important
trait to lead people to succeed. Ambition might be a fuel to a professional to deal with
either minor and major issues on a daily basis without losing motivation or energy to
work. It is going to help us to move forward with the company's strategy in order to

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reach the expected result, therefore you will be able to engage and empower staff
members to give their best at work.

However, it is important to mention that being ambitious does not mean you being nasty
to people around you. You should not take advantage of others, or be unethical or
ruthless to your team. People can be ambitious and kind at the same time, as she writes.
(Brady p. 43) “I think ambitious people are just ones who have an inner pride. A spark
that sets them apart. They don’t accept their lot.”

2.4 - Leadership

Leadership is a broad field and its concepts have been updated through centuries.
Currently there are some different theories about this subject, however, some
behaviours and traits are key elements regardless of the theory itself. Personal traits
have a huge impact on leadership and important technical skills can be learned and
trained. A leader is a person who possesses a group of abilities and behaviours that
might be used to motivate, inspire and direct their team in order to reach either their
own aims and company goals. Gerry Johnson and a group of authors state the
following:

“Leadership is the process of influencing an organisation (or group within

an organisation) in its efforts towards achieving an aim or goal. Without
effective leadership the risk is that people in an organisation are unclear
about its purpose or lack motivation to deliver the strategy to achieve it.”
(Johnson et al. p. 470)

As the authors say, there is a risk for the business if people are not guided within an
organization. The company’s goal can be compromised just because people get lost in
their duties, sometimes they have to redo things without understanding the reason for
that and it turns into a stressful job, people lose motivation then aims and goals are not
reached, financial losses etc. That’s why effective leadership is highly important in the
business field. However, there are multiple levels of leadership within an organization

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(following the hierarchical structure), this ability can be found in any level within a
company. The ability of leading people is not exclusive for those in high positions.

Karren Brady writes about great leader she has met and the traits all of them possess:

“They are able to communicate a long-term strategy, as well as short-

term goals. They believe in life-long learning, can listen to others and
show integrity. And crucially, they have the ability to take people’s hearts
on a journey.”
(Brady p. 133)

According to (Johnson et al), there are three key roles for top managers, especially when
leading strategic change, which is Karren’s position in the market.

✓ Envisioning future strategy: Top managers need to make sure that exist a clear
and meaningful vision of the future, moreover, they have to communicate it to
stakeholders and shareholders
✓ Aligning the organization to deliver that strategy: This is a role which requires a
certain level of leadership since managers need to bring around people to
commit themselves to the company’s strategy, moreover, keep them motivated
and empowered, so people will be able to deliver the expected results or conduct
changes in the company’s strategy.
✓ Embodying change: The leader should be seen as a trustworthy person for both
inside the company and outside the company as (Johnson et al. p. 470) say: “A
strategic leader is, then, symbolically highly significant in the change process and
needs to be a role model for future strategy”

The literature also brings concepts of leadership styles related to the approach chosen
by the leader to guide and influence their team. The authors (Johnson et al. p. 471) give
us two broad styles of leadership, they are:

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 • Transformational (or charismatic) leaders - It is related to ones that emphasize
and spread the vision, values and beliefs of the company among teams. Those
leaders seek to spend time with their team personally, therefore, they are aware
of staff personal and professional aims and are able to guide them. They get
truly involved with people. As a result, the staff commitment is increased.

“Evidence suggests that this approach to leadership has beneficial impact

on people’s motivation and job performance, and is particularly positive
for wider business performance when organisations face uncertainty”
(Johnson et al. p. 471)

• Transactional leaders - This approach is related to leaders highly focused on

company’s numbers and performance. They set targets, change structure, create
financial incentives and control both company and people performance very
closely. There is no interest to involve staff in the business, neither in people's
awareness, nor people's issues.

However, in real life, leaders use the combination of these two styles, finding a balance
according to the company’s needs. (Johnson et al. p. 471) “Leaders typically combine
elements of the two styles, rather than identifying exclusively with one”.

There is also a third style known as Situational leadership. Specialists in the leadership
field state that leading people is not about picking one style and applying it. Instead,
they need to adjust the style according to context and needs for that moment.

3 - Critical analysis

Whether we compare leadership’s theory to Karren’s style it might be seen that she uses
a mix of styles, however the most evident style is the Transformational since her most
remarkable work is that on Birmingham Football club where she created and enhanced
the vision, values and beliefs of the club among staff minds, moreover through the
neighbour communities, consequently, more followers started to support the team

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financially, then she brought even more beneficial changes for stakeholders and
shareholders. As we can read in the book:

“You need to give people a sense of purpose, the confidence that there
is a role for them. And then you have to monitor them and give them
useful feedback.”

“The best thing you can give your workers when you’re a business leader
is your time.”
(Brady p. 133)

But, on the other hand, she had to make tough decisions, letting nice people go, in order
to hire the right skills for the team, create processes to monitor very closely the financial
performance, cut privileges of managers and many other changes that were not popular,
and the media tended to communicate those unpopular decisions rather than the
benefits she brought to the business. It’s important to remember that in the first year
Karren ran the club it turned into a profitable business.

Yet, I would love to work with Karren. I find her a great leader, not only from the business
perspective, but also how she is respectful and cares for her workers. She seems to be
demanding, but I would not be afraid of that. I much appreciate straightforward people.
I like dealing with people, challenges motivate me, moreover I am glad to learn new
things, so that this opportunity of working and learning with Karren would be a great
achievement in my career. The book itself taught me important things about leadership,
building a brand with creativity and engagement from stakeholders.

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4 – Bibliography

Brady, K. (2012). Strong woman: ambition, grit and a great pair of heels. 1st ed.
London: Collins.

Center for Creative Leadership (2023). The 10 Characteristics of a Good Leader.

[online] CCL. Available at: https://www.ccl.org/articles/leading-effectively-
articles/characteristics-good-leader/#:~:text=A%20good%20leader%20should%20have
[Accessed 10 Jun. 2023].

Chiavenato, I. (2014). Gestão de pessoas : o novo papel dos recursos humanos nas
organizações. 4th ed. Barueri - SP: Editora Manole Ltda.

Ellevate (2015). The Art of Passionate Leadership. [online] Forbes. Available at:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/ellevate/2015/07/08/the-art-of-passionate-leadership/
[Accessed 20 Jun. 2023].

Johnson, G., Scholes, K., Angwin, D., Regnér, P. and Whittington, R. (2017). Exploring
Strategy. 11th ed. Harlow: Pearson.

Journal of Applied Psychology. (2019). Who Is a Leader? Trait Approaches to

Leadership. [online] Available at: https://saylordotorg.github.io/text_organizational-
behavior-v1.1/s16-02-who-is-a-leader-trait-approach.html.

Prentice, W.C.H. (2004). Understanding Leadership. [online] Harvard Business Review.

Available at: https://hbr.org/2004/01/understanding-leadership.

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