This article will examine the leadership style of Pearl Whtiman, owner of the Longhorn restaurant. Whitman's leadership and management styles were closely related and were both consistently distant and ineffective. Whitman's small business employed about 15 people ranging in age from 15 to 70. This company's employees were often left to fend for themselves when it came to crisis management, maintenance, repair, and employee relations. After nearly 25 years in business and years of increasing withdrawal on Whitman's part, the small restaurant was forced to close and enter bankruptcy. The first aspect of leadership that Whitman lacked was communication. Communication is the human connection necessary to build relationships both between employees and between staff and customers. This connection is especially important in such a heavily service-based industry. Whitman's approach to business communication was to let someone else handle it. He would often send word of dismissal to one employee through another's service, and if a problem with a credit account came to light, he would often delegate responsibility for fixing it to a housemaid or cook. Whitman also failed to appropriately communicate job task expectations. Many times employees had no idea what their job entailed until they were told they were doing something wrong or not performing a required task. According to Adubato (2009) this confusion about what each employee is responsible for creates even more communication problems and can lead to hostile feelings in the workplace. In the case of the Longhorn restaurant, hostile feelings only served to create further problems to which Whitman found no answer. The lac...... middle of the document ......ch.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=f5h&AN=44113346&site=ehost-liveAllman, S. (2009). The work that never ends. Successful Meetings, 58(5), 29. Retrieved September 3, 2011, from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=f5h&AN=41019292&site=ehost-liveClark, D. R. (1997). Leadership and leadership. Retrieved September 3, 2011, from http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/leader/leadled.htmlRichardson, D. (2009). Leadership communication in chaotic times. Of Counsel, 28(8), 10-13. Retrieved September 3, 2011, from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=43428562&site=ehost-liveStrauss, S. D. (2004). Vision is the crucial ingredient for a great business. Business Press: Serving Southern Nevada, 21(47), 18. Retrieved September 3, 2011, from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=f5h&AN=15493232&site=ehost-live