Aaron Hotchner: A Leader so Good, It Ought to be Criminal

Aaron Hotchner is a fictional character from the television series Criminal Minds who plays the Unit Chief of the Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU). He is a former prosecutor who joined the FBI and was eventually promoted to Unit Chief after exemplary service. He is the charismatic, forceful leader of the specialized unit of the FBI, who leads largely by example but is not afraid to issue orders. Of the types of leaders, he is most like a democratic leader. He guides his subordinate agents by giving a general idea of what must be accomplished, but then allows them to come to their own conclusions. For instance, when the Behavioral Analysis Unit is investigating a criminal, Hotchner will assign his subordinate agents to specific tasks, but allows them to come to their own conclusions about the nature of the crime and the criminal based on their observations.

Hotchner's leadership power is mainly legitimate power, expert power, and referent power. His legitimate power stems from the responsibility the other agents feel towards coming to the correct conclusions about the criminal. His leadership style is such that the other agents are extremely loyal to him and would follow his model of solving crimes at risk of their own careers than to betray him. Since he is the unit chief, he is among the most knowledgeable about violent criminals and their psychopathy. However, the other agents all have their specializations and he often defers to them when discussing criminals specific to the other agents' knowledge bases. His referent power is evident since he acknowledges and rewards his subordinates' achievements in a way such that they feel the sense of accomplishment necessitated by referent power. Hotchner rarely exercises reward power or coercive power, since he leads by examples. Most of his subordinates respect hm that he rarely has to punish disobedient agents. He exercises reward power in that he recommends the other agents for promotions and salary raises, though he attempts to never remove a member of the “BAU family.”

My favorite characteristics of Hotchner as a leader is his loyalty to his subordinate agents and friends. He risked his career as a FBI agent on several occasions to follow the instincts of his agents. He is both politically savvy and conscientious. He rarely betrays confidences or his friends' loyalty, which makes him very protective of his agents and his team. However, he is also politically savvy, knowing when to appease his superiors in order to protect his subordinates. He often takes the blame for others' decisions to protect his agents from being reassigned or fired.

His one flaw is that, by leading by example, he often leads his agents to be as silent and non-communicative as he is. One agent commented that “[he] doesn't smile very often.” He does not often express his emotions, unless he is under extreme duress. He often chooses to bury his emotions under a stony facade to avoid letting his personal issues interfere with his work. His emotional resilience is a necessity for his job, given that he sees the most gruesome and violent crimes and has to attempt to understand the psychopathology of the most violent criminals in America. However, the same resilience which makes him a success at his job alienated him from his wife. His marriage fell apart and he realized that it was a casualty of his job. His flaws make him a successful Unit Chief of the Behavioral Analysis Unit, but make him a flawed person. As a leader, he is powerful and charismatic, but as a person, he is flawed, like any other.

Sources

http://www.cbs.com/primetime/criminal_minds/recaps/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Hotchner

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Criminal_Minds