Creating the Leadership Plan - Term Paper Example

I. Introduction and or Problem ment: This part provides the background for your leadership plan. It will contain information from the course that best describes the general situation or problem you will address, (professionally). Provide an analysis of your situation against the backdrop of leadership and management theories and practiced presented during the class. In essence you are developing a personal leadership philosophy. I am a recently hired manager in a company where the organization seems to suffer a crisis in leadership. The CEO specifically asked me to address this issue as it is already affecting the bottom-line and threatening the long-term prospect of the company. The apparent vacuum in leadership manifests in the employees poor performance and low productivity. The management seemed to have credibility issue as employees are resistant from any initiative that comes from the Management. Tardiness is also high and so is absenteeism while employee attrition rate is alarming and is costing the management time and resources in training new employees. There is also an apparent discord within the organization as petty quarrels are prevalent among the employee which prevents them to work as a cohesive team. Morale is also low. From what I can deduce from how I was oriented and my initial observation with few casual interviews from employees, there seemed to be a credibility issue with the leadership in the organization. This was validated when I did my initial background research on the issue on how the previous manager fared. I found out that the previous manager was fired due to professional ineptness and questionable professional ethical behaviour in the organization. I surmise that the current leadership credibility issue and low morale in the organization was the result of the previous manager’s professional deportment and leadership. As a new comer and unaware of the intricacy of the organization, I am treading a precarious path because the employees are not receptive to the initiative from the management. Much more from a new comer like whom I am anxious that I may not only be met with resistance but with hostility as well. II. Leadership Development Activities: Provide details of your plan and discuss how it relates to the theories and models presented. Take into consideration the role of the leader; leadership skills and strategies the leader will employ; relationship to others involved in the plan; resources needed to implement the plan; specific activities, etc. Leadership is important in an organization not only to get things done but also to set the direction of the organization. And because of this imperative, leadership has to be present in all aspects of organization as Quinn (1996) argues that leadership is a state of being that people can enter into irrespective of their formal role or position within an organization. . . it as a shared property of the group such that all members of the group, regardless of their formal role or position, participate in the leadership process (Carson, Tesluk, & Marrone, 2007; Morgeson, DeRue, & Karam, 2010; Pearce & Conger, 2003). My immediate plan when I assume office is to repair the broken relationship among the employees and its discord with the management. I also intend to open the communication line to address the seemingly low morale of the employees as attrition rate is alarmingly high. From what I surmised, the employees seem not to believe in what the management is telling them as it has a credibility issue. Such that I am in a precarious situation to implement remedial measure. Relationship is tough to mend for “ understanding and cooperation of superiors, peers, and subordinates, it takes time to build these relationships” (Kayser, 1973). My initial strategy as a manager is to come to the organization unobtrusively. As I assume office, I will first establish rapport with my employees. There will be initially nothing serious to be taken but just present myself to them as a human being who also feels just like them. Listen to them and introduce myself. I will subconsciously communicate to them that I will understand them and that I am sincere. My stratagem is to build confidence first. This can be done by a simple night out with the employees. A dinner with few drinks later with them and immerse myself in their lives at work so I understand the issue more. This is under the environment of fun and cordial atmosphere. Afterwhich, I will wait for an initiative from them to suggest for an employee activity whether it be an out of town trip or a company sports fest of which I will support. While this is a regular activity in any company, timing will be important to prove its efficacy. And this time, that element is much needed to address the issue. This will give them the impression that I am with them and for the interest management, for me to repair relationship and to mitigate any resistance from the employee by getting through them. This initiative will pave the way for any remedial measure that I will apply as a manager. In the later part, I know I will benefit from this confidence building measure as the employees will become more receptive to my leadership. This is doable as the activity can be integrated in the Human Resource department allocation for company outing. What it will cost me is just an extra effort and time and few personal resources when I initially go out with them. When the employee activity pushes through, I am aware that it will be inevitable that the employee issues will be discussed. This will give me a detailed enumeration of the problem that I have to address though I already have an idea from experience and academic training what kind of employee behaviour will result to a manager’s particular behaviour. In this case, the manager showed uncertainty in his leadership and competence and this will undermine employee confidence. He also played favorites among his employees and this resulted to professional jealousy. He also decides without involving his peers and employees and as such, his decision is not “grounded” and without support and often met with resistance. Taken together, this will naturally result to a workforce that has a low morale, management whose leadership is a suspect, internal discord and low productivity. This and all, I have to address as a new manager. When I already have the confidence of my peers and employees, I will introduce professionalism and true leadership among them to address the abovementioned issues. I will assert leadership by beginning with reconciling my “self”. As further elaborated, “it is necessary for a “leader, who possesses a clear self-concept through private self-consciousness, to be more likely to possess a strong purpose-in-life. Having a strong purpose involves consistency in self-identity (i.e., self-concept clarity) (Campbell, 1990; Frankl, 1992). The “possession of a clear self-concept through private self-consciousness enables an individual to recognize the gap between what he or she is (i.e., real self) and what he or she should become (i.e., ideal self). This recognition may enable a leader to develop a strong purpose-in-life by setting goals in order to narrow the gap between the real and ideal self (Frankl, 1992; Marcus & Wurf, 1987). This clarity and lucidness of self-concept is necessary not only to get things done but also to harmonize my inner sense of self to what my peers sees in me. This “self-concept of reality is again distinct from the contents of the self-structure and is instead the level of lucidity and certitude of one's own understanding of that content- how well the leader thinks they know themselves. This clear awareness of myself translates to a clearer sense of goal and purpose which will evolve to Self-Belief. Self-belief, which is the inner confidence that I will succeed and overcome any obstacle to achieve the best outcomes for service improvement. This will inspire my peers and subordinate and will eventually elevate the dampened moral of the employees which is the case for this paper. This Self-Belief attribute also will enable me to transcend myself. To be conscious how I see myself and how others sees me as well. As Abraham Maslow (1968) elaborates “He thinks that there is much more to us than what we mirror about the world around us, writing, "there is not only an orientation to the outer but also to the inner". This “mirroring as the reflections of self that a group member encounters in other group members, in the group leader, or in the group as a whole (Bion, 1961) harmonizes us within and eliminates discord beginning from perception of how I look myself through my peers. This type of mirroring can include the psychological mechanisms of denial, splitting, projection, introjection, indentification and projective and introjective indentification (Pisani, Colangeli, Giordani, & Popolla, 2006). On the other side of the mirror(s) lies the possibility of self-knowledge and true relationship. When group members can recognize and own their projections, when they can work with them carefully and honestly in group, when they can bear the reflection(s) of their full identities, they can know more about themselves. III. Assessment: Discuss how you plan to evaluate the success of your plan. How do you plan on evaluating your plan? What process and/or instrument will be used? Who will evaluate your plan? When I initially intended to immerse myself among the employees, my purpose was not only to inspire confidence but also to determine what causes the problem and for me to have a realistic evaluation of how effective my measures to address the issue. The Key Result Areas for my effectivity as a manager is relatively easy as the issues are obvious. Absenteeism is rampant and so is tardiness. This reflects the employee lack of interest in the organization and work. This will translate to low productivity and when not arrested, can prove to be fatal for the long-term prospect of the organization. So when attendance improves this will in effect partially address the low productivity of the employees and this is also a good indication that the internal discord among employees is mitigated as employees are beginning to show interest with work. I can monitor this by comparing attendance prior to my coming in the organization and after I implemented my stratagem. This however only scratches the surface and should also be accompanied by other managerial implements to really address the issue. I will also monitor employee participation during company meetings as this will give me an indication whether the management has already earned its credibility that will address the resistance among employees. This can be monitored and evaluated through attendance sheets and the quality of participation of the employees. This is important because this will indicate the level of employee engagement with the organization. A non-threatening Focused Group Discussion will also be an effective implement to clear the communication pathway between the management and the employees. The exercise is also good as it conveys to the employee that the management is taking effort to hear them. As a manager, I have to make sure that I will follow it through. That whatever suggestions and implements that came out with the discussion will be implemented. This mere act will also inspire confidence among the employees that the management is “reforming” itself. This requires personal commitment to monitor on my part. For the effectivity of my plan will have a direct impact whether I am effective as a new manager or not. The situation is already sensitive and precarious and as such, I must convey that I can be trusted that I mean what I intend to implement. And though not immediate, my performance will also be eventually evaluated and this personal monitoring will give me an indication of how well I fared before my actual evaluation. IV. Summary/Reflection: Discuss the overall feasibility of the study; what did you experience (personally, professionally, etc.) as you developed the plan; feelings regarding significance of the plan, etc. The plan is very feasible for it has an element of fun and personal involvement from the employees. The remedial measures are also not coercive. It merely asks the employee to get involve and open up. And eventually, to trust and to get involve which hopefully, will ultimately redound to increased productivity. My initial approach to the employees is just to immerse with them and hear out and to let them feel that I am a person who understands. That is non-threatening and almost always proven to be effective in listening to the pulse of the subordinates. When I already have their confidence, I will exercise true leadership to make them believe in me and to be able to restore their faith in the organization’s leadership. But it has to begin with me as I will be seen as a representative of the management. To go about inspiring leadership, I would be critical and sure of myself while also being sensitive to others on how they see me. I have to harmonize perceptions first before I will address the discord in the organization. When this is already achieved, reaching to my subordinates will relatively go easy. To elicit involvement from my subordinates, my decision making process should also be participatory. I will engage them not only in our shared vision but also in the process of arriving such vision and decision. In so doing, my subordinates and peers can claim ownership of the decision and vision and will naturally commit to realize it. The method and approach may be simple but this is critical to the over-all health and productivity of an organization. This addresses the fundamental issue of leadership, whom the subordinates must believe and act as a cohesive team which is very important in any organization if it wanted to remain competitive and viable in the long-term. The method also addresses employee motivation. It is a very basic element in leading people to make them get things done. As in this case, it is obvious that there is a breakdown in communication which is the channel of motivating people. To address attrition and increase productivity, the communication channel must be fixed which this strategy is trying to address. This may be a long-process. But little by little, the cobwebs in the channel will eventually be cleared. To nurture communication, it is also advisable that this should be practiced rather than deliberate. This can be reinforced by practicing a democratic leadership which does not only foster cohesion, but also galvanizes teamwork. The practice of this democratic leadership it “functions as a means of engendering compliance with dominant goals and values and harnessing staff commitment, ideas, expertise and experience to realizing these (Woods, 2004). Personally, the issue in this case is just about sensitivity to other people which the previous manager has been lacking. Other issues mentioned in the case like attrition, absenteeism, tardiness, low morale and productivity are just a result of a harrowing disconnect between the employees and management. Where the management isolated itself from its subordinate when it did not involve people in the decision making process. Such that any initiative coming from the management lacked support and commitment from its subordinate resulting to low productivity. This sensitivity stemmed from the managers clear sense of self and clarity of purpose resulting in the absence of self-belief or confidence which made leadership a suspect. I believe that the recommended remedial measure in this paper will address the issues besetting the organization in case. REFERENCES: Bion, W. (1961). Experiences in groups and other papers. London: Tavistock Campbell, J. D. (1990). Self-esteem and clarity of the self-concept. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, p. 59. Carson, J. B., Tesluk, P. E., & Marrone, J. A. 2007. Shared leadership in teams: An investigation of antecedent conditions and performance. Academy of Management Journal, 50: 1217–1234. Frank, V.E. (1992). Man's search for meaning: An introduction to logotherapy. (Fourth edition). Boston, MA: Beacon Press. Maslow, A. H. (1968). Toward a psychology of being (3rd ed.). New York: John Wiley & Sons Pisani, R, A., Colangeli, G., Giordani, A., & Popolla, P. (2006) the median group: Training and Supervision, Group Analysis, p. 39 Quinn, R. E. 1996. Deep change: Discovering the leader within. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. P. 627 Read More