Introduction
School Suppliers, Inc. (SSI) with 50 sales people located at 5 different regional office in the United States is the national distributor in elementary and secondary school supplies. Howard Larsen is aged twenty-eight was promoted to the sales manager at the Southeastern Region for leading a group of 7 sales people. He seems to be in doubt himself as an effective sales manager within 4 months of the promotion. He has been leading a diverse natured sales force with more younger peoples working. He has been very effective with the young sales force but seems to have a problem with his senior team members as he talks about this with his friend John who is a manager of a resort. John has suggested the way of leadership after listening to the points from Howard about his dilemma in his leadership quality.
Discussion
1. Comment on Howard’s leadership style. What kind of leader is he?
Howard seems to be a concerned type about his subordinate's satisfaction. He is concerned about if his subordinates accept his leadership or not. This can be evaluated from his questioning himself about his own capability as a sales manager within four months of his promotion.
With the nature of being very comfortable with the subordinates, Howard seems to be a "Supportive Leader". In supportive leadership, a leader not only assigns task and receive results but continuously mentor and support the subordinates until the completion of the task. The leader continuously works with his/her subordinates to empower the sales people with the required skills. Howard is concerned and supportive, friendly, and sensitive towards his sales people and their performance. He is in conversation with all his fellow members, and he can know about the employee's nature. He is always willing to help them or even ready to settle down the disputes as he has offered Fred to go out with him on recruiting trips.
2. Do you agree with John’s advice? Why or why not? Is John’s leadership style different from Howard’s? If so, how?
John's advice is very admirable that a leader should have self-confidence and a person could not have succeeded if he/she was not capable of that position. Leaders should be confident, make a decision under circumstances, and also they should be confident to admit if they are doing wrong. The leader needs to present themselves with full control over the situations to make the sales team follow him/her.
John's leadership style is different from Howard, John's interaction with Howard saying that the things should be done anyway and only to look at the company's profit means he is an "Achievement-oriented Leader". In achievement-oriented leadership, the main objectives are to achieve the goals with self-confidence. As John has been saying to Howard that his self-confidence will show the senior employees who are the boss in the team. Without have the confidence to rule the obstacles out, a leader cannot gain an advantage over the team to achieve the respective goals.
3. Should Howard take John’s advice? Why or why not?
Howard should not completely take all the advice from John. John's advice to become self-confidence is a good idea, the motivation he gave to Howard by telling that Howard was in that position due to his capabilities. Being a confident manager can handle any type of situations or any sort of people. The team members always follow a self-confident manager who is aggressive, hardworking, and impressive in his/her work.
The senior members of the team are there due to their experience and the knowledge they acquired during their career so senior members are always fruitful and directional if exist in the team. Its always better to fit in the situation to take advantage of it so rather being harsh and bossy to senior or arrogant members, a true leader act according to the situation. So situational leadership is the best application of leadership in difficult situations.
4. Should Howard change his leadership style in an attempt to be a more effective leader to Fred? To Warren? Why or why not?
Howard leadership style seems to work only for 5 out of 7 team members and not working with two members due to their seniority in the job. He seems to be an effective leader to the young people but not much effective to the senior members. Howard seems to be participative, supportive, directive, and all other qualities of a leader but he is lagging value-based behaviors in case of Fred and Warren.
Howard should change the way of presentation to Fred and Warren since Value-based leadership help himself and two of them to draw values for direction, inspiration, and motivation. These senior members are very much concerned about their personal values and have been in this field with the same values. So making feel Fred and Warren as one of the most valuable team members will help Howard to get control in them.
5. Would a transactional or transformational leadership style help Howard? Please
Explain
Howard needs to look for the effective long term perspective to deal with the situations he is currently facing so Transformational Leadership style will help him. With the transformational leadership, four characters come with which are inspiration, intellectual, stimulation, individualized consideration, and charismatic and visionary leadership. There is really need of individualized concerned for two senior members Fred and Warren for Howard to become a successful leader. He needs to treat them as superior to get the most valued thing experience from them. This style will help to encourage motivation and positive development to the members.
Conclusion
No leader is perfect but has to be effective in mobilizing his/her sales force. Howard needs to adjust his style of being supportive to act according to the situation. He needs to know the value of his team members and also need to make them feel valued. As an ego problem from his senior member, he should have treated them as the most valued persons and should have talked to them in advance before going to the team meetings. The knowledge gained by these senior members will help Howard to achieve a high level of success as he will have to face new obstacles as a young manager. Valuing senior member always helps a leader to get a suggestion to act accordingly to the situations.
References
Unknown. (Unknown). What is Supportive Leadership? Retrieved May 17, 2019, from
https://corporatefinanceinstitute.com/resources/careers/soft-skills/supportive-leadership/
White Sarah K. (2018, February 21). What is transformational leadership? A model for motivating innovation. Retrieved May 17, 2019, from
https://www.cio.com/article/3257184/what-is-transformational-leadership-a-model-for-motivating-innovation.html
