21 May COULD THE OUTCOME BE THE SAME AND STILL BENEFIT THE COMPANY?
John Kotter in his article “What Leaders Really Do”
makes the following statement ” Managers promote stability while Leaders
press for change, and only organizations that embrace both sides of the
contradiction can thrive in turbulent times.” Juan Para must make a
decision about hiring June Jacob. Determine his solution if he uses the
leader’s perspective and then if he uses the manager’s perspective. Do you see
a difference? If so why? If not why not? Could the outcome be the same and
still benefit the company?
Protection Insurance Stays Alive
At 7:30 a.m., Juan Para hit the snooze alarm for the third
time, but he knew he could never go back to sleep. Rubbing his eyes and shaking
off a headache, Para first checked his IPHONE and read an urgent message from
his boss, explaining that Jack Nixon, chief security analyst, had resigned last
night and needed to be replaced immediately. Frustrated, Para lumbered toward
the shower, hoping it would energize him to face another day. After last
night’s management meeting, which had ended after midnight, he was reeling from
the news that his employer, Protection Insurance, was spiraling toward a
financial meltdown.
Para scratched his head and wondered, “How could one of the
world’s largest insurance companies plummet from being the gold standard in the
industry to one struggling for survival?” At the end of 2007, Protection had
$100 billion in annual revenues, 65 million customers, and 96,000 employees in
130 countries. One year later and staggered by losses stemming from the credit
crisis, Protection teetered on the brink of failure and was in need of
emergency government assistance. Protection had been a victim of the meltdown
in the credit markets. The collapse of this respected financial institution
sent shock waves throughout the world’s economy.
Within Protection’s Manhattan office, Para and his coworkers
felt growing pressure to respond to this crisis quickly and ethically. But
morale was sagging and decision making was stalled. New projects were on hold,
revenues weren’t coming in fast enough, and job cuts were imminent.
Finger-pointing and resignations of key managers had become commonplace. Strong
leadership was needed to guide employees to stay the course. Para knew his
first priority was to replace Jack Nixon. When leaving the meeting last night,
his boss had told him, “It’s critical that we keep key managers in place as we
weather this storm. If we lose any, be sure you replace them with ones who can
handle the stress and can make tough, maybe even unpopular, decisions.”
Working up a sweat as he rushed into his office, Para began
sorting through the day’s priorities. His first task would be to consider internal
candidates to replace Nixon. He pondered the characteristics required of a
chief securities analyst and scribbled them on a notepad: experienced in
security and regulatory issues; strong decision-making skills; high ethical
standards; able to make job cuts; comfortable slashing budgets; and respected
for calm leadership. Para immediately thought of June Jacob, a senior analyst
who had been vocal about her desire to move up and had recently shown steady
leadership as the organization started to crumble.
Jacob had worked her way up through the organization,
becoming a respected expert in her field. She had developed a strong team of
loyal employees and made training and job development a priority. She was
likable, sensitive to her employees, and a consensus builder. While many
managers within Protection had made questionable business decisions, June had
held herself to a high ethical standard and created a culture of integrity.
Jacob was focused on the future—a go-getter who knew how to get results.
With the future of the company at stake, however, Para
wondered if Jacob could handle the tough challenges ahead. Although he valued
her team-building skills, she could be soft when it came to holding employees
accountable. A large part of her motivation was to have people like her. When
she reported a shortfall in earnings in the last company meeting and came under
fire, she’d become defensive and didn’t want to point fingers at employees who
were to blame. In fact, Para recalled another instance when Jacob recoiled at
the thought of firing an employee who had developed a pattern of poor
attendance while caring for her sick husband. She confessed a hesitation to
confront poor performers and employees struggling to balance home and work
life.
Para stirred his morning coffee and wondered aloud, “Is June
Jacob capable of balancing kindness and toughness during a crisis? Can I count
on her to be decisive and focused on top- and bottom-line results? Is she too
much of a people pleaser? Will it impact her ability to lead successfully?”
Week 2 discussion
Week 2 Learning Activities
Theme #1: There are
various types of leadership roles in an organization. They extend from the
executive leadership role to the project leader.
Each has different sets of responsibilities to the organization
and each leadership role utilizes skill sets which require influencing people
to move the business towards the vision.
This week’s theme focuses on those levels which are most
visible to the students either because they are seen from afar as being on the
top or because they seek to become involved personally: executive, managerial,
and team leaders.
We will examine the role of each and the skill sets
associated with them.
Executive Leader: Is the leader that many of our students
see from afar. They are the people at the top.
Their role is to design the vision, mission, structure and culture of
the organization. It is their ideas that provide the framework upon which the
manager builds.
The job of the executive leader is to be the social
architect. An executive leaders create the vision, mission, structure and
culture and are change agents.
Managerial Leadership: Leaders create followers through
influence while managers lead people and manage things (overlap is the skills
needed to lead people to do things)
Leading Teams: Many
of our students may have this type of leadership job already. They may be team
leaders with some leadership tools necessary.
LA 1
Using this diagram explain why levels 1-3 are leaders? Then
compare and contrast levels 4 and 5 leaders with the leadership found in levels
1-3.
Theme #2: Leading
from where you are. It doesn’t depend on where you are in an organization you
can lead in any position. The job of the executive leader is to encourage this
role for everyone through empowerment, the manager through motivation, and the
team leader or supervisor through mentoring, listening, and encouragement.
LA2
Leading from where you are means being a leader in any job.
Have you ever lead from where you are? Using your experience in the workplace
give an example of something you have done that would be considering leading
from where you are and something you would do now that would show leadership. Remember
leadership in this context means an action which is not expected of you in your
job description.
Week 3
WEEK THREE: The Grand Design Continues
Week 3 Learning Activities
Theme one: How does
the organizational culture fit the organizational structure?
Theme two: How to
create, change and align culture to the structure and vision?
Organizational Structure
Preface:
A leader’s job is to create the direction for the company to
move forward. The leader does this in steps. Here are the steps of the process:
First, the leader designs the vision and mission for the
company and
Second, the leader must establish an organizational
structure which promotes the vision, mission and empowers the employees to keep
the forward movement in the organization.
In creating the structure various factors must be
considered.
First and foremost is the purpose of the company or
organization. What type of structure will best accomplish that goal? Certainly
a company like UPS needs a somewhat rigid structure that is set up to focus on
procedure and time sensitivity. Since UPS has as its goal to get the correct
parcels to the right customers in the fastest way possible, variance in
procedures or ways of accomplishing the tasks would never work. A tight
delineated structure is imperative.
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