Area Director Leadership Style - Essay Example

?Executive Summary: This report analyses the leadership style of the Area Director of one of the leading retail banks of United Kingdom. His leadership style is being assessed through the use of different leadership theories. His leadership skills are being tested in one of the greatest quest of his banking career. Area Director was instructed to implement an enterprise system in his region, so that the headquarters can access the branch level data and use it to assess the liquidity position of the Bank. The task given to the Area Director had numerous intricacies; his job was made even tougher by the burden of failure. The margin of error was close to zero and thus demanded immaculate precision. Area Director was given complete autonomy to carry out the task but the situation was filled with tremendous amount of unknown variables. To counter these variables he wanted a team that would cooperate with him in giving shape to his vision. With no employee data to help him select a team, Area Director had to take special permission to induct outsiders in this project. To complete his team he sought help from the headquarters who came up with few options, from which Area Director selected two more members. In this way he completed his team and used it to get this magnanimous task done. His team-mates have a very high opinion regarding his leadership style, and their responses regarding his leadership help us to conclude that Area Director is amongst the small coterie of gifted leaders. Introduction: Leadership can be defined as the ability of a person to communicate a group in such a manner that his communicated words motivate and encourage every individual in the group to accomplish the tasks which they never thought of accomplishing (Vaill, 1989). Thus by undertaking this form of communication the presumed leader is inspiring a change in his group. He is motivating his group to embrace the change and work towards the accomplishment of a single vision (Palmer, Dunford, & Akin, 2008). The duty to articulate a unifying vision lies with the leader. Although, many people consider leadership as synonymous to management, which is unfortunately wrong. Similarly, a manager is also different from a leader in several ways. His job is to deal with complexities, implement the vision and strategies provided by the leader, undertake coordination and staffing activities and handle day to day operations of the enterprise. For organizations both these individuals are important to operate optimally (Zarmansky, Jessup, Terrance, 2011). Especially in today’s fast changing world organizations as well as countries require leaders who can communicate a shared vision, challenge the status quo, inspire his surrounding environment to undergo the laborious process of change, and last but not the least go on to accomplish the goals which the leader set out in his vision (Yammarino, 2003). To complement the role played by a leader, a manger is required who could formulate a detailed plan, create efficient organizational structure and oversee day-to-day operations (Wentz, 1999). People have long been in the hunt to discern traits which can distinguish a leader from a non-leader. In this regard people have focused on trait theories of leadership (John, and Folkman, 2002). Using these theories people has classified leaders as charismatic, enthusiastic and courageous. However researches conducted on trait theories have never succeeded in isolating leadership traits. In addition to these theories people have also search for factors like personality, social, physical, or intellectual attributes that would help in identifying a leader. After a tedious era of searching for leadership traits researchers finally came up with seven most like traits that distinguished a leader from a non-leader (Avolio, & Bass, 1987). These traits were: ambition and energy, the desire to lead, honesty and integrity, self-confidence, intelligence, high self-monitoring, job-relevant knowledge (Leader to Leader Institute, 2004). However, the failure of different trait theories led the researchers to explore different directions. Some started focusing on effective leaders’ behaviour and thus behavioural theory of leadership emerged, while trait theory continued to exist. But both these approaches were not that satisfactory and thus demanded another approach. In this regard the Big Five personality framework emerged and gave a much more satisfactory result. After these theories came the contingency theory that used situational factors to indentify an effective leader. This report will first gives the overview of the retail banking industry of United Kingdom and then it will present the personality of Area Director, who the leader is considered for this research study. The research would first describe the situation and then different theories particularly related to leadership would be applied and implemented to analyse how effective the area director has been. Structure: The report will be analysing the Area Director of one of the retail banks of United Kingdom. This analysis will be pertaining to a situation, which the Area Director had to influence. The individual would be analysed through the use of different leadership theories and matrices. After the analysis, specific leadership traits of this person will be discerned. The report will also shed light on the situation and how the Area Director influenced it and how effective he has been in making sure that his tasks are accomplished in the right manner and his objectives are achieved. Company and Industry overview: The organization under consideration is a High Street Retail bank and it is one of the leading banks of the country. The bank operates in the following business segments: Retail banking, Corporate banking, wholesale banking, Investment Banking, Wealth management etch. The bank is registered in England and is one of the top three High Street Banks. The Bank operates in a very competitive industry; the competitors of the bank have strong brand equity and have much larger international operations. In retail banking again the competition is very stiff with banks competing aggressively for customers. Situation: Since the arrival Basel, banks are made to report their daily deposits to the Central bank of England. This data would be used to assess the capital adequacy of banks. The whole exercise was conducted to meet the capital reserve requirements as instructed by Basel. For banks this requirement brought a tremendous amount of challenge. They had to implement a sort of Enterprise System to extract data from each branch on a daily basis. This was a magnanimous task which needed banks to utilize the talents of its workforce to oversee the complexities of the project. The cost of failure was immense as if a bank failed to implement such a system they would be subjected the central banks penalties. Not to mention the disruption the entire exercise would have cause to the normal working procedures. In order for a bank to implement this system it needed a special effort from its regional heads. Since, not only would they have to keep performing their day to day bank operations but also oversee the installation of this system in each and every branch. This called for a stretch in the working hours of every bank employee in the region. Each and every Area Director had their jobs cut out, not only do they had to act as a manager but also as a leader. The way they communicated the implications of this project carried tremendous amount of importance. Since, this would set the tone for the system’s implementation. Data Synchronization Project As mentioned earlier, as per the Central Bank of England’s new regulations, each bank had to have an enterprise system which gave them the capability to extract branch level data and use it to calculate the banks liquidity position. Data Synchronization Project was initiated by the bank. Area Managers in this project had to play a pivotal role in this projects success. They had to bridge the gap between individual branches and the head office. Area managers would be the ones who would actually oversee the installation of this system and report back to the headquarters the progress which was taking place. Each Area manager was allowed to build their own team that would help them in this endeavour. The role which each selected team member would play would also be decided by the Area manager. In short, Area managers were given a huge amount of responsibility and to handle it were given unlimited amount of powers. The project was to be completed in twelve weeks, keeping additional two weeks for systems check and trial run. Role played by the Area Director Area Director had a good understanding of enterprise systems. He knew the intricacies of its implementation and was well aware of the implications if anything went wrong. He had the knowledge base that would help him in making informed decisions. He was sure about one thing, he needed a team that would augment his knowledge base. This team should be having complementing skills and some previous experience in handling a project. To find such people in his region was very difficult because the region was very big and there was no central repository of data on employees who were working in this region. Absence of a central repository of data on a regional level made him to think out of the box to resolve this crisis. The area director of this retail bank was one of those men who were fond of lobbying; he loved to socialize and meet with new people. This habit of the director got him this job also, when he became friends with the country director of the bank in a fund raiser. Area Director was aware that the task given to him was magnanimous in importance and he was under a strict time line to go on a region level hunt for the best person to add to his team. So, after seeking the consent of the head office to hire externals people to help him in this project, he brought one of his friends in the team. His friend was a computer systems software specialist and was working in SAP solutions. The area director offered him a job at the retail bank which his friend accepted. Looking at the need to communicate effectively each and every process of the project to employees, the area director brought in another of his friends in the team. She was a public relations manager at another firm but from another industry. The area Director had place for two more people and in their selection he was caught up in a dilemma. He knew that his previous selections had no idea about the banks working methods and not only that they were a complete alien to the organization’s culture. So in order to complete his team he has to have someone who was not only from this organization but also was from his region. Thus he contacted the head office to help him in this regard. The head office recommended two names: a branch manager and a finance manager. Branch manager was considered as very proficient in banking operations, whereas the finance manager was considered analytically very strong. In this manner the area director was finally able to build his team for this project. Area Director knew the importance of the first two meeting with his team. He not only would have to communicate to them his vision for the project but also would have to communicate his expectations from each team member. Even though he was very easy going but he never tolerated complacency. He always had a mental image of what he wanted and then work accordingly. He loved to use all his resources and get his way in the end. Implementing Data Synchronization Project: The first two meetings went well for the Area Director; he was not only successful in communicating to his team his requirements and expectations but also was successful in hearing out their concerns about the project. In the third meeting the details of the tasks, roles and protocols to be followed were discussed. Coming out of this meet, each member was aware of what he has to do. The project was tedious but it had to be done. Area Director was very supportive to his teammates and kept communicating with them. He picked up where they had difficulties and never gave them more than what they can chew which is an important quality of a good leader. Area Director was well aware of the importance of keeping a healthy team atmosphere and this also made him a better leader. In this regard he organized after work dinners at his home, where no one was allowed to talk about work. He tried to create an environment in which everyone was comfortable with each other. Finally the twelve weeks ended and the desired system was installed in the region. All employees were communicated their jobs in the new system by one of the friends of Area Director who was previously the public relations manager. She effectively laid out the protocols for the new system and acquainted every branch managers with them. Two more weeks passed away and the system was made error free by the team. This system was merger with main system at the head office. Area Director celebrated the success of the project with his team members in one of the Hotels of UK. All the team members decided to contribute in the bill and not allow Area Director to pay the bill. They wanted to have this dinner in the honour of the efforts of Area Director as he has been an inspirational leader. This project marked a great victory in the career of Area Director, who added this accomplishment in his resume’, gladly! Analyzing Area Director as a Leader: Trait Theory of Leadership: Traits Displayed Through? Charismatic Gelled together individuals from different background Enthusiastic Kept helping his team members in their individual task. Courageous Took on the challenging task of installing a regional level system Good Communicator Communicated the task details to accomplish the project in the right manner Result: according to the trait theory of leadership, Area Director displays all the qualities of effective and efficient leaders. Behavioural Theories of Leadership: Ohio State Studies: According to the dimensions of this study, Area Director can be classified as high in both initiating structure and consideration. Area Director before the beginning of the project had a fair idea about his requirements, whether talking about the team members he wanted or the system that needed to be installed. Even after selecting his team he delegated the job assignments he wanted them to undertake, thus making him high on the dimension of initiating structure. Area Director kept on open channel of communication with his team members and frequently invited them for dinner. This reflects his desire to build rapport with each team member, which makes him high on the dimension of being considerate. University of Michigan Studies: The two dimensions that emerged from this study were employee-orientation and production-orientation. As mentioned earlier Area Director supported healthy interpersonal relationships, helped team members in their individual assignments and wanted to have a team that had diverse team members, each complementing one another. This made him high on employee-orientation. As mentioned earlier, even though Area Director is very easy going but he does not tolerate complacency in work. He wants work exactly as he wants it, thus making him production-oriented also. Managerial Grid: Results/ Interpretation: If Behavioural Theories of assess a leader are correct, than the Area Director will most likely be classified as an effective leader. He is found to be high in all four judging variables of the two studies which form the basis of Behavioural Theories. Contingency Theories: Fiedler Model: Leadership Style: Area Director was classified as a relationship oriented manager by his team members. The respondents of the least preferred coworker (LPC) maintained that they would like to maintain a relationship with Area Director, because of the way he interacted with. Working Situation: Leader-member relations: team members have confidence in Area Director’s leadership. They consider him to be trustworthy and therefore give him their full support and respect. Task Structure: The system to be installed in all branches of the region is highly sophisticated and requires the team to follow certain protocols. Even the tasks allotted to individual team members are high structured and require due diligence from the person carrying the task. Position Power: As mentioned above, the headquarters has given full liberty to Area Director in designing the working of the project. He is even given the liberty to add new people in the organization. So it can be inferred that Area Director has full autonomy. Results: Since the situation in which Area Director is operating it is moderately favourable and him being a relationship oriented manager, therefore he would do well in this kind of a situation. Cognitive Resource Theory: Since the situation under which the team is operating is pretty much stressful, the vast experience of Area Director and his relevant knowledge base will get him through difficult times. As mentioned earlier that the system has delicate intricacies, which can lead to a pretty messy situation for the team. However, the experience of Area Director will help him in diffusion the tension and keep the team together in tough phases. Hersey and Blanchard’s Situational Theory: Situational leadership Model: The leader-follower relationship is very strong in the case of Area Director and his team. The followers have confidence over Area Director’s judgment and therefore are ready to undertake the task allotted by him. Since the members are both able and willing, Area Director has his work cut out. He just has to be supportive to his team members. Since Area Director has picked the right people for the job he can effectively delegate responsibility to them and concentrate on his own tasks. Path-Goal Theory: Area Director can be classified as an achievement-oriented leader; since he keeps track on his team members’ progress on their own individual tasks and lend a helping hand when they get stuck somewhere. This shows that he is concerned about his members’ success in a task. This mode of leadership increases members’ expectancies that efforts will lead to high performance when an unstructured task like this one comes along. Members’ performance and satisfaction is going to be on the higher end of the scale when Area Director compensates for the thing s which members’ are unaware of. Thus according to this theory also Area Director comes out as an effective leader. Leader-Participation Model: Analyzing Area Director by using this theory would reveal that Area Director is very good in adapting to different situations. He is very flexible, focus, relaxed, cool-headed and knows how to handle pressure. Conclusive remarks on Area Director’s Leadership: Area Director can undoubtedly be called an effective leader. His style of managing his team in this project has been remarkable. He certainly knows how to influence a situation and how to get the work done from his team. His style of managing is remarkably suited for the situation and is one of the reasons for the successful completion of this gigantic task. He was from the very beginning very clear as to what he wanted for his team and not only that he effectively communicated this desire of his to each team member. Coming out from a project of this magnitude without having discontented team members is an accomplishment in itself. Area Director kept clinging on to his basics while dealing with his team members. Area Director gave his team members specific directions, specific goals and the impact of goal achievement, and provided them with frequent feed back with regards to their performances. His vision for the project was well articulated and concise; it was free from ambiguity and thus laid a perfect road map for the entire duration of the project. This entire analysis of Area Director’s leadership reveals that he is a visionary, who is very comfortable with change. He not only designs effectively the protocols for change management but also is a veteran in its implementation. His foresight as a leader can be seen in his decision to add a team member who was from the public relations field. Even though Area Director was a good communicator, he knew the importance of effectively communicating protocols and that’s why he brought in one of his friends who previously used to hold the position of public relations manager. Her addition made it easier for the team to communicate the systems procedures at the branch level. Not only the friend of Area Director but each and every team member found their utility in this project. Reference list and Bibliography Avolio, B. J., & Bass, B. M. (1987) “Transformational leadership, charisma and beyond” Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists Press Beitler, M. (2006), “Strategic Organisational Change”, Practitioner Press International, pp. 141-153 Bogue, E. 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