Leadership and Organizational Communication Strategies at O & M - Research Paper Example

?Leadership and organizational communication strategies at O & M "Superior service to our depends on making the most of our people. Give themchallenging opportunities, recognition for achievement, job enrichment and the maximum responsibility. Treat them as grown-ups - and they will grow up. Help them in difficulty. Be affectionate and human." Ogilvy & Mather Executive summary: Globalization, technological advancements, and new and emerging economies during the past couple of decades have radically transformed the current corporate environment making it all the more turbulent and dynamic than ever before (Cheney et al 17). Effective leadership and novel and innovative organizational communication strategies aimed at integrating the efficiencies of a talented workforce with strong leadership are the only means available at the disposal of organizations today, to sustain their competitive positioning and market domination (Burke and Cooper 5; Driskill and Brenton 936). At Ogilvy & Mathers’ (O & M) special efforts are made by the leaders and managers to translate the corporate challenges encountered by them into success stories by encouraging a system of smooth uninterrupted communication and building an environment that honors and elevates the status of employees to that of highly competent and motivated individuals. Introduction: Ogilvy and Mather is a reputed international advertising firm headquartered in Manhattan, U.S.A founded in the year 1948 by David Ogilvy and spread in over 169 cities. Over the past 60 years the firm has managed to build a strong brand name and encouraged an impressive corporate culture that has helped build some of the most recognizable brands in the world namely American Express, Ford, Shell, Barbie, Sears, Dove, IBM, and Kodak among others (O & M). The overwhelming success achieved by the firm stems from its persistence and relentless pursuit of excellence which it managed to achieve by developing and implementing innovative workplace practices and strong leadership. Some such leadership and organizational communication strategies adopted and applied by O & M over the years that helped the brand in achieving unprecedented success, are discussed in the following sections. Leadership at O & M: According to Wrench (182) coaching strategy of leadership is one of the most significant strategies adopted by modern leaders which entails the use of one-on-one interactions by the leaders as a means of communicating with their followers and subordinates in a bid to enhance their performance. This strategy was successfully applied by David Ogilvy - the founder of O & M one of the most renowned international advertising firms. Ogilvy's leadership entailed an innovative coaching style which included long and deep conversations with the employees which were not limited to the problems and issues faced by them within the organization but extended beyond the boardroom into their personal space, where the employees were encouraged to discuss their personal beliefs, dreams, goals well as career related hopes (Wrench 183). Coaching style of leadership: This style of leadership was first introduced by Paul Hersey and Ken Blanchard in the late 1960s (Poole 104) and later popularized by Daniel Goleman (Cherniss and Goleman, 43). Wright (237) defines coaching leadership as leadership that "delegates responsibility for elements of the organization's strategy". One of the key traits of a leader as a coach is the ability to listen to their employees via a one-to-one communication method and establish rapport and mutual trust. Good leaders according to this leadership style are those that excel in the art of listening and guiding their employees to identify their strengths and weaknesses and contribute towards their productivity and performance by helping them to identify the resources required to enhance their outcome as well as ways to find the same (Wright 237). Ogilvy & Mather has always endorsed the ‘leader as a coach’ brand of leadership whereby the leaders are encouraged to communicate with their employees on a one-to-one basis with a view to form strong positive bonds with them. This trend was set by the founder himself, David Ogilvy. One of the classic and legendary cases whereby the theory was put in to practice is the case of the founder and one of his new recruits. It is known that the founder of O & M, would converse with his employees and enquire about their well-being, a conversation which transcended beyond the workplace. He once encountered a young new recruit who was eight months pregnant and working late. He stopped by to enquire about her health as she stayed back and worked at the office. He continued this practice every day without fail and stopped to check on her at exactly six at night. He continued to do so till the time she gave birth. In the process they became great friends, recounts the female employee. That employee was Shelly Lazarus, who went on to become the CEO of the company a few years later (Baldoni 63). Charismatic leadership: This concept of leadership is by far one of the most rapidly emerging concepts in recent times. It refers to an approach to leadership whereby the leaders aim to influence their followers through effective verbal and/or non-verbal communication and manage to gain approval and support of their followers in the process. Such leaders tend to display an exceptional ability to convince employees about the desired organizational goals and influence them to enhance their performance in order to achieve the said vision (Winkler 32). One of the most charismatic leaders at O & M, Charlotte Beers is known for her charismatic leadership style whereby she was able to convince and influence not only the employees but also the clients and business partners, in the most effective manner. She was known to adopt a strong approach that was reflected in her confident speeches and align herself with the follower sentiments, thus earning their trust and confidence in the process (Conger 71). She is known for ushering novel ideas and concepts such as the brand stewardship over products and win high-profile accounts by sheer focus and persuasion skills. Beers stated that conviction in one's thoughts and approaches is of crucial significance and goes a long way in instilling confidence among the employees (as well as the clients) in their leaders. According to Beers: "People can smell authenticity.. They may not like you, that's quite incidental, but if they believe you mean what you say, you're two-thirds of the way done. And then the third part of it is an unbridled passion. When I'm interested in something, I'm beyond intense" (Investor's Business Daily). At O & M, the organizational strategy is to gently coax the employees to perform better. The organization is strictly opposed to leadership by intimidation and believes in dealing with their employees with gentle manners and kindness along with maintaining a highly professional standard of work ethics. The employees and managers are given freedom to accomplish the given tasks and issuing orders is not part of the corporate makeup. The firm believes in the creation of an environment where employees are not being told what to do but rather are motivated to work in a manner that helps them achieve the organizational goals (O & M). Organizational communication strategies at O & M: The very concept of communication as a corporate strategy precludes an underlying assumption that it is inevitably perceived by the organization as a critical management function. It entails careful planning in a manner that enables the organization to operate smoothly and effortlessly despite the dynamic and highly volatile external environment. An effective and well planned communication strategy enables leaders to successfully achieve their organizational goals and objectives within the desired time frame and steer the organization towards success. It speed up the process of accomplishment of the firms goals and visions (Conrad and Poole 245; Downs and Adrian 3). The success or failure of an organization however largely depends on its communication competency. Communication competency: The communication competency refers to the ability of an organization to effectively transfer, understand and receive ideas, thoughts or feelings in diverse forms i.e. verbal or non-verbal, written or electronic. An effective communication competency in place enables the organization to nurture and develop other ancillary competencies across all its departments (Hellriegel and Slocum 8). The concept was described by the former CEO of O & M, Shelly Lazarus as: "When I have a meeting that's really tense, and when everyone in the office thinks the world is falling apart, I disarm the situation. I'll ask, "Just to be clear, is anyone going to die as a result of our action or inaction? Will Ogilvy go out of business? Will anyone lose a child? Because if that's true, let me know, and I'll get significantly more agitated" It just makes everyone laugh, and when we're done laughing, I tell them, "Now let’s really focus and get this problem sorted out" (Hellriegel and Slocum 9) Communication competency entails the ability to effectively convey the organizational goals, emotions, and ideas in a manner that is easily and appropriately interpreted by the receiver; ensuring and encouraging constructive feedback; engaging in active listening to the employees' woes and concerns faced by them; using various modes of communication including - verbal and non-verbal etc. Conclusion: The study of leadership and communication strategies at O & M helped in highlighting various critical aspects of organizational behavior. It also helps in understanding the impact of different styles of leadership styles on both - the employee performance as well as on the organizational success. The study helped in reaffirming the significance of an effective communication policy in motivating employees and resolving organizational conflicts. Bibliography: Baldoni, John: Great communication: Secrets of great leaders. NY: McGraw Hill Publication, 2004. Print. Burke, Ronald., Cooper, Cary: Building more effective organizations: HR Management and performance in practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008. Print. Cheney, George., Christensen, Lars., Theodore, Zorn., Ganesh, Shiv: Organisational communication in an Age of Globalisation – Issues, Reflections, Practices. IL: Waveland Press, 2011. Print. Cherniss, Cary., Goleman, Daniel: The emotionally intelligent workplace: How to select for, measure, and improve emotional intelligence in individuals, groups, and organizations. San Francisco, CA: John Wiley & Sons Publication, 2003. Print Conger, Jay: Charismatic leadership in organizations. London, UK: SAGE Publications, 1998. Print Conrad, Charles., Poole, Marshall: Strategic organizational communication in a global economy. NY: Wiley Blackwell Publications, 2012. Print. Downs, Cal., Adrian, Allyson: Assessing organizational communication: Strategic communication audits. New York, NY: Guilford Press, 2012. Print. Driskill, Gerald., Brenton, Angela: Organizational culture in action: A cultural analysis. Thousand Oaks, California: SAGE Publication, 2010. Print. Hellriegel, Don., Slocum, John: Organizational behavior. Thousand Oaks, California: Cengage Learning Publication, 2007. Print. Poole, Ed: Lessons from empowering leaders: Real life stories to inspire your organization toward greater success. Garden city, NY: Wordclay Publication, 2009. Print. Winkler, Ingo: Contemporary leadership theories. London: Springer Publication, 2009. Print. Wrench, Jason: Workplace communication for the 21st century: Tools and strategies that impact the bottom line. Santa Barbara, California: ABC CLIO Publication, 2013. Print. Wright, Marc: Gover handbook of internal communication. Surrey, England: Gower Publishing Ltd, 2009. Print. Ogilvy & Mather (2013). Corporate culture Web. 14 Apr. 2013 O & M (2013a). Our History Web. 14 Apr. 2013 Investor's Business Daily (2012). The Charlotte Beers brand is a marketing winner Web. 14 Apr. 2013 < http://news.investors.com/management-leaders-in-success/053012-613047-charlotte-beers-leadership-lessons-add-up.htm?p=full> Read More