Paul's Reasons for Failure as a Leader - Case Study Example

Name: Professor: Institution: Course: Table Contents 1.0 Introduction ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3 2.0 Main Body ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3 2.1 Reasons for Failure as a Leader ------------------------------------------- 3 2.2 Sources of Power ----------------------------------------------------------- 5 2.3 Traits, skills and behaviours associated with successful leaders ------ 8 2.4 How to improve leadership effectiveness ------------------------------- 10 3.0 Conclusion --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 12 1. Introduction The word leader has been defined by several scholars but all of them narrow to the simple meaning of a person who can influence other people to follow him, by doing whatever he says. Leadership is defined is thus the ability to influence other people to willingly follow you. Today in every organization, a leader is required to head the organization to achieve objectives and goals set forth by the stakeholders. Several studies have been carried out to distinguish whether a leader is born or made but science has continued to be challenged because both theories have not yet been proven to be conclusive because both still apply, that a leader can either be born or made. Researchers still continue to conduct several studies in this area which has proved to be a challenge. Nevertheless leaders can be nurtured to become leaders with the same character traits as those identified in a leader. A leader is described as somebody who has a clear continence of exactly what his goals are, with a clear picture of where he is going. Paul smith had a clear mind of where he was going because prior to his promotion he had worked very hard by working overtime and volunteering to work overtime as well as during the holidays. But by just having a vision it is not enough as cited by (Murray, 2011) 2.0 Main Body 2.1 Reasons for Failure as a Leader Leaders need to share the vision and act upon it which we find that following the promotion of Smith he didn’t share his problems of how he was going to face his friends in order for them to take him seriously. Former GE CEO (2009) Jack Welch stated “Good business leaders create a vision, articulate the vision, passionately own the vision and relentlessly drive it to completion.” Paul smith was lucky to have promoted in the capacity as a team leader because of the skills he had acquired which were good communication and interpersonal skills. From the case study we identify failure by Smith in communicating passionately and clearly to his employees which is a key success in the leadership role after his promotion. Paul Smith seems to have suffered “Analysis paralysis” after his friends refused to talk to him and listen to his opinion but a leader should maintain his pursuit of his vision by inspiring others to follow him. Lee (2001) cited that Leaders moreover come in all shapes and characters with different forms of leadership styles. Another cause of Paul Smiths problem was lack of being courageous and broadminded to handle the poor discipline being portrayed by his friends. As a team leader he ought to have created a hedge between friendship and business by being straight forward to his friends that if they would face disciplinary measures incase if gross misconduct. He should have further been courageous enough to accomplish his objectives in spite of the obstacles that he was currently nursing. In every organization there are code of conducts which the employees are required to follow and policies guiding them such as any stray from the terms and conditions of the firm result to disciplinary measures. ISP seems to be operating in an environment which had too much freedom and no boundaries and Paul the leader seems to have lost the grasp of leadership as a result of not taking disciplinary measures against his friends. This behavior is of course downloaded to the rest of the staff who have no respect to their team leader since he does not apprehend his friends or peers. Though Paul was optimistic that he was going to get promoted and had screened for opportunity in becoming a leader, he failed to maintain his position as a leader because of lack of high internal locus of control. 2.2 Sources of Power Power is defined as the force of authority or influence. How leaders use power is purely on their judgment and it differs as a result of their characters and traits. As a leader power to influence others comes from within or external which is the under the duties and responsibilities bestowed on the leader. French & Raven, (2009) in their researcher cited five sources of power that are found in an Organization forty years ago which were reward, expert, legitimate, referent and coercive. While other researchers have studied this five sources and derived other sources in their study. For instance the power derived by an Individual based on the authority given to him in his or her Organization. Paul was given a whole lot of responsibility and authority to carry out his duties such that he would freely recommend and invest in training the employees. Charles (2009) has written that legitimate power is the kind of power whereby members of the same organisation can request others to perform certain duties or behave as authorized by their superiors. This type of behavior generally emanates from the job description of the employees who feel they have the right of control and power to delegate duties to their juniors. Majority of the upper management or corporate level managers have this legitimate power to command other employees based on the Company’s code of conduct. Though Paul was an Executive leader he did not use legitimate source of power to influence the employees. He was always very good in building strong relationships with his employees to the extent of sharing time together after hours. Most likely his friends could not differentiate his promotion as a team leader because nothing changed about his behavior. Since Paul could not even make his friends and other fellow staff to work overtime then the staffs were not ready to abide to his authority which indicates lack of legitimate power. As a good team leader it is possible for him or her to make the employee work overtime through influence only. Moreover with the current trend of majority of the blue collar Company’s restructuring their Organizations, more of the lower level and middle level employees are involved in decision making and policy making. Hence they tend to grow becoming less tolerant to being ordered around by their bosses. As the boss Paul should be deciding who does what and who goes where in the Organization. Using legitimate power alone is likely to cause conflicts and its recommended to use in conjunction with other source of power. It is mostly effective when the accountabilities of a manager are in serious urgency and when a task needs to be done quickly and there is no time for explanation as demonstrated by Paul Hersey et.,al,( 2009). It should however not be used when the Manager or leader has entered a new post like Smith, as a result of personal reasons or when the leader is purely frustrated. Smith seems to be enjoying the power of reward because the employees felt they were getting more pay compared to other employees in other Organizations. They also felt that if they worked hard they would be easily promoted. In most firms we find managers have the power to reward in terms of promotions, time off, increase in pay and holidays. It is very possible for a leader to influence the worker through give and take. For instance, Paul should have devised a way of getting his goals accomplished before rewarding the employees with high wages. This is also referred to as the carrot stick method. Marios (2011) suggested that Reward power should be used when the motivation team needs to be boosted, when competition is very high and when the leader wants his staff to work overtime. It should not be used where resources are scarce and where the leader is unsure of whether he can afford to reward the staffs. Paul would have drawn the coercive power by applying punishment to those who failed to observe the Company policies. Managers or team leaders have the power to reprimand the employees who do follow instructions or are generally performing poorly in the Company. They also have the authority to fire and demote staff as a result of gross misconduct but this only happens after the investigations have been conducted because the law protects employees. Labor unions protect employees from unfair dismissal and they at times use coercive power to negotiate a collective agreement with the management. Perhaps Paul might even have applied sanctions, such as sarcasm to make his juniors conform to his demands. Smith had tried to use harsh language and threats which didn’t work and this should have been an eye opener for him to start reprimanding his friends. With every new position comes new responsibilities and Paul should have the standards for his new position in regard to how he expected his peers to conduct themselves while at work. The new employees did not also have the slight respect for Paul because the copied the bad behavior from Paul’s friends. In south Bend Indiana, Eaton Corp’s forge plant believe that there are no bosses within the Company, but if one fails to adhere to the rules and norms, that’s when you will find a boss pretty fast cited in Marios, (2011). Thus Coercive power is practiced by many managers. Marions, (2011) has written that Legitimate, reward and coercive power all come as a result of the position of the individual in total contrast to expert power which is found within an individual. Expert power tends to be misused where only one individual possess skills or knowledge that the rest do not have and therefore he or she can easily manipulate the others to do what he says. For instance the Canadian Forces bases rotate their military personnel such that they depend entirely on the civilians for expertise in carrying out their duties. The society is slowly being transformed from an industry to a well knowledge based economy which enables the employees gain expert power. The shortage of skills is evident in Canada whereby the firms willing to expand and grow have halted their growth prospects because of the high level of technology which the workers are yet to adopt. Without qualified skilled employees then it’s not possible to achieve corporate objectives. Once the employees have acquired expert knowledge they are in a position to demand high salaries or wages because they possess expert power. Thus Paul with his expert knowledge and training that he had acquired as a technician, he would have used his expert power to ensure that his juniors learn new techniques everyday and how to handle customers effectively. It is even possible in other situations to find that the followers have more knowledge than their leader. Expert power is recommended when you have access to resources which others don’t have or when expertise in a project is genuine but it should never be used when unsure of the competence. Just as expert power, referent power comes from within a person though it is developed slowly. It is part of the interpersonal skills and is related with charismatic leadership. Charisma refers to how people view and respect you as an individual and they trust in the individual charismatically as suggested by Davidson, (2009). 2.3 Traits, skills and behaviours associated with successful leaders Leaders are believed to be dynamic and when we refer to the characteristics of a leader we expect to find followers of the team leader. For instance, Hitler did not posses good values that individuals could copy and follow but he had an inspiration that could actually ignite a whole nation. In our daily activities and duties we interact with leaders and majority of them often have portrayed good leadership skills that have stood out from the rest and become apparent. Such leaders are reserved and quiet and at the same time they have a way of getting each and every individual buying or selling what they preach. Thus the skills and traits of a good leader are often the actions that we have focused on from the said leader. It actually takes time to develop these skills just like a project takes time to be accomplished. The Santa Clara University and the Tom Peters Group (2009) research highlighted some of the characteristics’ of a leader to be competent such that decisions are not made from child like feelings. A leader should be honest because deceiving people is unethical and will not accomplish trust from followers. Integrity will hence be displayed once a leader is observed to be honest about what he says. Confidence is yet another good character trait that is observed in leaders in all that they do. Shom, (2011) stated that by being physically and mentally enduring others will follow the steps of the leader to scale to higher heights because they are inspired by the leader. Intelligence is also important in a leader such that he constantly seeks to study and read challenging assignments. A leader should also be broad minded and fair minded treating all people equally. He or she should be empathetic by being sensitive to the feelings and interests of his followers as well as their well being. All staff should own the vision of the Company through the help of the leader who is forward looking. Without good judgment in making decisions a Company is imminent to collapse and hence the leader should make sound and good decisions at the right time. The leader should also be in a position to be imaginative by showing creativity by thinking about solutions to problems as they arise. Finally a leader should show courage by being patient enough to preserver any huddles that he or she may encounter while trying to accomplish the set objectives and goals. Truly saying all the above stated characteristics are what we encounter and see daily with our leaders. For instance from the case study we find that Paul had a vision of becoming promoted and had good ideas which he wanted to apply to the Company. He was very diligent in handling his job as a manager and had formed strong relationships with his workers. In his first years he was able to convince his juniors to work diligently and when times were extremely difficult for him he was courageous enough to become hostile and harsh to his leaders though it didn’t bear much fruit. Paul was fair-minded because he treated all the employees equally as well as intelligent through the training that he underwent in the Company for him to become a better technician. He was determined to become competent in all areas and had devised new procedures which he was willing to apply in the Company. Though Paul had not reached the point at which leading executives refer to as emotional intelligence whereby the leader inspires all the workers to accomplish an extra mile thus scaling to greater heights, we can say he was inspiring to many of his staff who admired his potential and capability of being recognized in his first year as the technician of the month. His ability of handling ninety or more jobs while his fellow technicians handled fifty jobs shows that he was very intelligent. As leader you are in that position to make the Company accomplish goals and they are there to make you look good. Pride and ambitions should be set aside completely. While looking for a potential leader some of the traits to look out for are initiative, trustworthy, desire to learn, demonstrate integrity, good communicating skills, good time management, and loyalty and is a team player as demonstrated by Shom, (2011). 2.4 How to improve leadership effectiveness To improve and become effective in his role as a team leader Paul should identify whom among the workers he can trust as good workers that portray leadership abilities and create a leadership development program. This will strengthen the skills that they have to become more competent employees. He should also aim at mentoring the subordinates one by one for them to grow and apply the leadership lessons that they would have learnt. By creating a leadership environment and leaving room for the staff to improve their performance through delegating responsibilities will motivate the workers to perform to greater scale. Effectiveness can only be developed over time and they can compare their behavior with the situational leadership model theory which was developed by Paul Hersey and Kenneth Blanchard (2009). Leaders are also encouraged to conduct a self assessment test to identify how flexible and effective they are. Following the assessment they become resilient leaders, get better results, reduce stress and manage their time wisely. Kendra, 2011 argued that the term great man is a theory that often is associated with leaders who are heroic and whom can rise to greater heights. Thus she set forth that great leaders are born and not made. The contingency theory describes that not all leadership styles are suited for any firm and thus the environment in which the style is applied is the determining factor. Smith can apply the situational theory to become more effective by choosing the best cause of action based on the situational variables and hence the style of leadership used can only apply for certain types of decision making. Alternatively the behavioral theory is based upon the fact that great leaders are made and not born. Focus of this theory is based on the mental quality of leaders and their actions and thus we can relate to Paul situation that he should learn to become a leader through teaching and observation. The participative theory is already present at ISP because Paul is seen as being participative by working just as his other workers thus they feel more relevant. Management theory can also apply at ISP since the theory is based on reward and punishment such that once the targets are set for employees and they achieve them they are rewarded but failure leads to punishment. Finally the relationship theory focuses on the relationships between the leaders and followers such that the leader has the ability to motivate and inspire the followers to see how important they are as a group as written by Davidson, (2009). Through application of this theory Paul will gain ethical and moral standards. Paul can apply the theory of democratic leadership as described by Kurt Lewin in 1930 he argued that democratic leaders are essential in team agreement though it is quite crucial when the team members have got different opinions and perspectives but the effort used by the leaders matters in respect of one leader to the other. Paul can apply University of Michigan studies which stated that leaders who were oriented on the employees were more concerned with the interpersonal approach while the leaders concerned on production were geared towards the technical capability of the employees. Paul should adopt the former approach. Through this approach he can build a strong relationship with his team members. Paul can also apply Ohio State Studies conducted in 1940 which concentrated on how leaders worked with group needs. They established that the most identifiable aspects concerning leadership were consideration and the initiation of structure. Paul should have initiated a structure which would have established the hierarchy of the Organisation in his bid to improve leadership effectiveness. 3.0 Conclusion In conclusion, we can derive the characteristics of a good leader as being the core of the success of any Company. The skills and traits of a good team leader should be natured because it takes time to develop an emotional intelligence leader. Paul Smith in general has the opportunity to apply the above theories and change the Company to scale to greater heights because it is only through experience that we learn and develop on how to become better and more qualified professionals. References The Santa Clara University and the Tom Peters Group; Characteristics of a good leader-demonstrating skills: Available at: http://coach4growth.com/leadership-skills/the-characteristics-of-a-leader-demonstrating-good-leadership-skills [Accessed on 17th August] The top ten leadership qualities: Available at: http://www.focus.com/briefs/top-10-leadership-qualities. [Accessed on 17th August] Leadership effectiveness: Available at: [Accessed on 17th August] Building team leaders: developing leadership effectiveness. Available at: [Accessed on 17th August] Marios Alexandrou. Sources of Power: Available at: [Accessed on 17th August] Legacee., Available at: [Accessed on 17th August] Shom Kostyra., The top seven skills of a successful Leader. Available at: from Source: [Accessed on 17th August] Kendra cherry : Leadership theories. Available at: [Accessed on 17th August] Lee, Don & Tsang, Eric (2010). The effects of entrepreneurial personality background and network activities on Venture Growth, Journal of Managerial Studies, 38 (4): 583-602. Davidson, P. Simon, A. Woods, P & Griffin, R.W. 2009, Management: Core concepts and applications, 2nd edition, Wiley, Brisbane. Paul Hersey and Ken Blanchard( 2009): Situational Leadership: Available at: [Accessed on 17th August] Charles H. Zatrow , 2009 a source of information in French and Raven 2009: Social Work with groups. Publisher- Cengage learning Inc. U.S. Paul Hersey and Kenneth Blanchard ( 2009): Organizational Change through effective Leadership. Publisher Prentice Hall, University of Michigan Read More