Aaron Hotchner

Aaron Hotchner is the star of the CBS television program, Criminal Minds. Hotchner plays the role of the unit chief of the Behavior Analysis Unit (BAU), a department of the FBI. In the show, Hotchner turns out to be a very successful and respectable leader. His style of leadership evolves as the show progresses and he shows many different traits that contributed to his success. In this paper, I will analyze Hotchner’s styles of leadership and how they contributed to his success as a leader. Aaron Hotchner shows the traits of a democratic leader. According to Daft, a democratic leader can be defined as “a leader who delegates authority to others, encourages participation, relies on subordinates’ knowledge of tasks, and depends on subordinate
According to Daft, “contingency means that one thing depends on other things, and for a leader to be effective there must be an appropriate fit between the leader’s behavior and style and the conditions in the situation.” A leadership style that works in one situation may not work effectively in another situation. In other words, a leader's effectiveness may depend on how well the leader’s style fits the context of the job. In Hotchner’s case, his various types of leadership styles lead him to be one of the best unit chiefs the BAU had ever seen and he saved many lives because of this. Hotchner had the ability to diagnose situations and “muster the flexibility to behave according to the appropriate style” (Daft). Hotchner was able to adapt and change his different leadership styles for each of his team members. Dr. Spencer Reid is the youngest and most intelligent member of Hotchner’s team and has three BAs, three PhDs and specializes in statistics and geographic profiling. Dr. Reid had always been the brains of the team and never would go out on the field because he could not pass the requirements to have a gun. However, Hotchner saw how great of an asset Reid could be out on the field and took the time to train him and teach him how to pass all of the field requirements. Hotchner applied a paternalistic type of leadership with Dr. Reid because he was young and knew he needed that type of loyalty and trust from him. Dr. Reid is the only one that Hotchner uses this type of leadership on. Hotchner applies the path-goal theory to his relationship with Penelope Garcia, the technical analyst of the BAU. Garcia starts to date Kevin, another technical analyst in the FBI and at first Hotchner would not allow Kevin in Garcia’s workspace because he thought that he interfered with her ability to work. However, he later learns that Garcia works better on certain cases when Kevin is present and helping her and uses this as a tool