Leadership within an Organization - Essay Example

 Business environment is turbulent today and the challenge to survive has been intensified due to increased competition and shortened product life cycles (Sorenson, 2000). In such a situation the greatest threat to business is the failure to change. This heightens the importance of a right leader for any organization. A leader has to handle different situations such as change in market demands, employee relations, technology, meeting ever-changing customer needs, dealing with vendors and the like. A leader should be able to steer the company through the crisis or change. Leaders should be able to challenge the existing environment and create excitement and vision (Snashall, 2006). They usually achieve through empowerment. I too faced challenges as the Director of Sales and Marketing of Fairfield Resorts during one of the most turbulent times in my career. Leadership is a relationship through which one person influences the behaviour of others (Snashall, 2006). A leader is someone who “knows the way, goes the way and shows the way” (SD, 2005). To lead involves influencing others, where there are leaders, there are followers, leaders emerge during crisis, and finally leaders are individuals who have a clear idea what they want to achieve and why (Doyle & Smith, 1999). This is the traits theory which specifies the traits essential to be a leader - intelligence, self-confidence, integrity, sociability and determination and I feel I have been able to demonstrate these qualities in my assignment as the Director. Fairfield Resorts is the largest vacation ownership company in the world employing over 8,000 people. It specializes in the sales and marketing of innovative leisure and vacation products providing quality vacation experience all over the United States. In the spring of 2001, Fairfield Resorts was acquired by Cendant Corporation which provides consumer service in real restate and the travel sector. Apart from its own properties, Fairfield also has alliances and privileges with thousands of destinations worldwide through vacation exchange. We offered different vacation packages to suit individual time budget frames. I faced the most challenging period during 2000/2001 because this was the period when sales were all time low due to 911. I managed a $37 million budget during this period. Then in 2001 I led this site to be the most profitable sales center for the company. We had a budget of $23 million and achieved in excess of 37 million. This is my favorite accomplishment do to we were within 2 miles from the Pentagon. And this was the year our country was deeply affected by 911. Through these tough times, we were successful in keeping our sales teams focused and results-driven. During the period of 911 it was a mammoth task for me to keep the sales team motivated and results-driven. I had to balance building and developing of seven sales teams, and three marketing teams. I also had to send two sales teams to work at another site and I had to ensure that they understand the team dynamics. Merely having the traits is not sufficient to be a good leader. A leader must be able to change as the situation demands and this is the most effective type of leadership which means leadership has to be demonstrated as the situation demands. A leader has to behave in appropriate ways in different situations and this is the situational approach to leadership (Stansfield, 2006). In this form of leadership one may have to be autocratic at times of democratic depending upon the situation. I was the Director of Sales and Marketing but I clearly knew that a bureaucratic attitude at all times would not work. I would have to lead the team and not just motivate or manage the team because leadership creates new patterns of action and new belief systems whereas the function of management is to create stability (Alvesson & Sveningsson, 2003). Times were turbulent and I knew I needed to go beyond the functions of a manager. Leadership involves visions, cooperation, networking, teamwork, creativity and inspiration. Teams must learn to share to be effective (Katzenbach & Smith, 2005). There are four elements according to the authors —common commitment and purpose, performance goals, complementary skills, and mutual accountability—that make teams function. Teams recommend things, teams run things and teams do things. I know teams and good performance are inseparable. Being the Director I had to encourage listening and respond constructively to their views, provide them support, give them the benefit of doubt, show faith and confidence, and recognize their needs and interests. For instance, when I needed to send two sales teams to another site, I had to understand their financial needs to support their families during this time and hence I had to provide incentives for them. Although this was for a brief period of two months and the situation had been created due to marketing hurdles, but to overcome the situation, I needed people. This was a challenging task for me but I managed to convince the two teams into accepting to move to another site. I convinced them of a common commitment as a team and this provided them with a direction and momentum. I spent days together with each team individually convincing them of the purpose and specific goal of the team. This can drive performance, is what I had learned through experience. However, my efforts finally paid off. I used to urge every member of the team to communicate and inform about their area and thereby honed their interpersonal skills and problem-solving skills. Listening to the team helped me to understand that I needed to mobilize people to do adaptive work. This was possible by identifying the adaptive challenge (Heifetz & Laurie, 2003). Businesses face extinction if they do not adapt to the changed environment or respond to it fast enough. This required us to spot the challenge and identify its implications and this according to Carey, Patsalos-Fox and Useem (2009) provides a distinct advantage in implementing strategies and remaining ahead of the competitors. It requires courage for a leader to remain ahead of the curve and look at what the future might hold. We knew that 911 had affected the vacation market and people were apprehensive of air travel due to perpetual anthrax and other biological warnings being broadcasted. It was very difficult to get customers to leave their homes but I could get the sales and marketing teams to come up with creative solutions. They were able to grasp the "big picture" and since they knew they were appreciated and validated by the company they achieved fantastic results. We focused on the drive-to destinations for some time and our innovative family packages and our marketing efforts paid off. I had to get a feedback about the market and the customers and I knew I had to depend on the field sales people. I started devoting a lot of time to listening which helped me to understand the challenges that we faced. Besides, people should know that you are taking interest. Since ours is a service industry, I found that people found the adaptive challenges refreshing. As a leader I had to express a sense of urgency. I took stock of the market realities and identified the key areas where we could focus on (Kotter, 2007). I involved the entire team for this which reduced my task of convincing them of the market and competitive realities. I empowered others to act on the change and overcome the hurdles – the cognitive and the resource hurdles in particular. Motivating teams can be a daunting task especially when things do not go the right way. Merely communicating to the team that sales were down would not be sufficient. They have to realize how this would impact their earnings or as Kim and Mauborgne (2003) contend that managers must experience the organization’s problems. During such time resources are scarce and hence instead of fighting with the management for more resources, we learned to concentrate on the available resources and on areas that could provide us with immediate gains. This made us focus on drive-to locations and our team came up with attractive vacation offers. I picked up on the key influencers and motivated them who in turn motivated their team. However, it was a difficult task to drive them out of their comfort zones. Becoming an effective leader begins with self-awareness. It is extremely important that managers first understand themselves and only they would be able to understand and manage others. This is how I started introspection to know myself better. Knowing myself implies I know what my goals are and this helped me to chalk put the path towards achieving the goal. It is also important to know one’s weaknesses because then we know how to overcome them. We would also know whether we can take stress or work under pressure. This self-awareness helped me not to become paralyzed with the downside situation prevailing in the trade (Kotter, 2007). I was conscious that this situation demanded a change and an effective leader to cope with the situation. Communication is the essence of success amidst uncertainties and communication has to be transparent with the team (Carey, Patsalos-Fox & Useem, 2009). Openness builds respect, trust and solidarity all of which are important to keep the team focused on the challenges when uncertainty prevails. As a Director, it was my responsibility to boost morale and confidence among the team members. This was the time when the company was bought by Cendant Corporation. I also worked with the prospective buyers, as the sales organization I was responsible for was the closest property to Cendant's headquarters. Leadership is required even to deal with investors. It is important to spend a lot of time with investors and it requires transparency in all dealings. It is important to be honest with the investors and not project as if things are going fine. At the same time, we also had to show that we have a team that knows what we are doing. This implies the image that the investor should get is that the company is able o accept challenges and adapt to changes. We were successful in this attempt as we did not focus on shirt-term gains as normally is the tendency (Carey, Patsalos-Fox & Useem, 2009). We acknowledge the current difficulties but also emphasized that the long-term perspective was always the focus. Take-overs and acquisitions require a change of culture. To manage these requires patience and consistency, apart from the right allocation of resources (Bramante & Owen, 2009). Besides, the approach to change has to be systematic and aligned with the organizational goals. Changing the culture requires the right leadership. The involvement of the top management is essential along with employee empowerment. Fairfield has a culture which holds people together. We have an open communication policy which has seen us through most of the challenges. During and post-acquisition lack of top-down communication can give rise to rumour mills churning as employees remain occupied with their own careers and problems (Appelbaum, Gandell, Yortis, Proper & Jobin, 2000). This leads to distrust which becomes widespread unless communication is handled properly. Hence being truthful, open and forthright in communication is important during acquisitions. Through this approach we could convince Cendant Corporation of our culture and management. Managing employee resistance and support is the most difficult activity post-acquisition as resistance can arise due to cultural clashes, ineffective communication and spreading of rumors (Larsson, Driver, Holmqvist & Sweet, 2001). My role at Fairfield was limited to dealing with the buyers as far as the take-over was concerned and hence I did not have to involve too much in motivating the rest of the people apart from my own sales and marketing team. Listening and maintaining transparent communication is the essence of leadership. These helped me in different roles – when I was working with the prospective buyers and when dealing with the team members. I have realized that the essence of communication is to be a good listener. Through listening I could understand the problem in the right sense and arrive at a workable solution to the problem. Our creative team was entrusted with the responsibility of revamping the website and we run a new ad campaign with limited budget. However, I knew merely having an attractive website does not serve the purpose and we have to fix targets and goals. I demonstrated transformational leadership which has a long-term focus and inspires others to work. I inspired and empowered others to take responsibility whereas transactional leadership is more of coaching and task-centered (Working Futures, 2005). So, one of the first steps that I took was, to feed the sales force with leads. Based on the percentage of leads that actually converts into business, we determined how many enquiries we needed to generate. This responsibility was given to each team leader because they are the ones in direct contact with the market. This made our marketing planning more focused and in alignment with our goals. We ensured that every marketing activity should generate inquiries and leads. The sales force was also well trained to understand the customer needs and the buying process they undergo while they visit our website. At each step there was a communication flow. Besides, my experience has taught me that there is always confusion between the sales and the marketing team. This can result in all efforts being rendered a waste. Hence I decided to have cross-functional teams as this way I could get the best from my teams. Cross-functional teams can be very useful during downturns and is a way of responding to the dispersion of the employees (Malik, 2004). Each member brings with him his or her own expertise in the field and such teams respond creatively, quickly and flexibly to problems that may arise. Leaders usually fail because of five problematic behaviours - focusing too much on details, reacting negatively to criticism, intimidating others, jumping to conclusions, and micromanaging the people reporting to them (Van Buren & Safferstone, 2009). Fortunately I had something along these lines during my tenure as the Director. Since I was conscious I ensured that even the leaders reporting to me did not go into too much of finer details when dealing with their team members. One particular sales manager wanted to prove her worth quickly during this trying period and in the process tried to execute all the work herself instead of delegating responsibility or even involving the team members. As soon as this came to my notice I corrected her and ensured that the team spirit was always alive. As a leader, I feel I fulfilled my responsibilities towards the organization and the team. It is during crisis that the team leader's quality is evident and I feel I was able to steer the company out of that period. I could keep the team motivated and also encouraged others to become leaders. I had the integrity and the self-confidence in my own capabilities as a leader but I also know that it is the team performance that matters. An individual is not important in an organization but there ahs to be a leader to lead the people. Each member of the team must feel there is a common commitment and accountability towards the corporate goal. This requires dedication and motivation which I was able to achieve. It requires understanding the needs of the team members and they want to feel that they are cared for. This encouraged me to listen to them which helped me to understand them better. The first step that I took to be a successful leader is to engage in self-awareness and I feel that has really helped me grow and develop my self. I ensured that communication was open and transparent between and among teams and members. I also encouraged cross-functional teams wherever possible. My efforts resulted in my unit achieving much above the targets that we had set. A good leader is one who makes new leaders. References Alvesson, M & Sveningsson, S 2003, 'Managers doing leadership: The extra-ordinarization of the mundane', Human Relations, vol. 56, no. 12, pp. 1435-1459 Appelbaum, HS Gandell, J Yortis, H Proper, S & Jobin, F 2000, 'Anatomy of a merger: behavior of organizational factors and processes throughout the pre- during post- stages (part 1)', Management Decision, vol. 38, no. 9, pp. 649-661 Bramante, J & Owen, L 2009, 'Making Change Work', Leadership Excellence, vol. 26, no. 1, pp. 9 Carey, D Patsalos-Fox, M & Useem, M 2009, 'Leadership lessons for hard times', retrieved online 28 July 2009 from http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/PDFDownload.aspx?ar=2413 Doyle, ME & Smith, MK 2001, 'Classical leadership', retrieved online 28 July 2009 from http://www.infed.org/leadership/traditional_leadership.htm; Heifetz, RA & Laurie, DL 2003, 'The leader as teacher: creating the learning organization', Ivey Business Journal Online, London: Jan/Feb. 2003, pp.1 Katzenbach, JR & Smith DK 2005, 'The Discipline of Teams', Harvard Business Review, http://hbr.harvardbusiness.org/2005/07/the-discipline-of-teams/ar/pr Kim, WC & Mauborgne, R 2003,'Tipping Point Leadership', Harvard Business Review, Kotter, JP 2007, 'Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail', Harvard Business Review, http://hbr.harvardbusiness.org/2007/01/leading-change/ar/pr Larsson, R Driver, M Holmqvist, M & Sweet, P 2001, 'Career Dis-integration and Re-integration in Mergers and Acquisitions: Managing Competence and Motivational Intangibles', European Management Journal, vol. 19, no. 6, pp. 609–618 Malik, K 2004, 'Co-ordination of technological knowledge flow in firms', Journal of Knowledge Management, Vol. 8, No. 2, pp. 64-72 SD, 2005, 'Why Motorola could be poised for revival', Strategic Direction, vol. 21, no. 9, pp. 24-27 Snashall, T 2006, Leadership theories Achieving Competence Module. Sorenson, RL 2000, 'The Contribution of Leadership Style and Practices to Family and Business Success', FAMILY BUSINESS REVIEW, vol. 13, no. 3. Van Buren, M & Safferstone, T 2009, 'The Quick Wins Paradox', Harvard Business Review, http://hbr.harvardbusiness.org/2009/01/the-quick-wins-paradox/ar/pr Working Futures, 2005, 'Introduction to Excellence in management and leadership', retrieved online 28 July 2009 from http://www.marcbowles.com/sample_courses/frontline_v5/fma1/fma1c.htm Read More