The Advice to Sam - Case Study Example

Title: Sam’s Decision Name: Class: Unit: Advice to Sam Context is public sector, hands-on and communication Sam must take charge and act as a leader in the team. As a new manager, chances of encountering difficult teams are always high and hence the need for one to have the ability to handle them (Holpp, 1999). He must be able to identify and address any disruptive behaviour, understand the team dynamics and address arising issues with honesty and tact. It seems that Sam lacks adequate awareness of his strengths and weaknesses. He is unsure of his abilities and lets his past where he was bullied affect his role as a leader. Sam has to work to gain respect from the rest of team as their leader (Gabarro, 1992). It is advisable for Sam to remain positive and avoid being swept by negativity. The situation he is in should be well managed by being rational. Sam has to believe in himself as a manager. He should assess himself in order to determine how others view him. He may need to have a self-assessment using tools such as 360 degree feedback. This will make it possible for Sam to know how others view him and where to improve and develop his career as a manager. The honest feedback will help him to see himself from others perspective and accept criticism in a better way. There is need for Sam to use a management approach that is different from current laidback approach. He is a hands-on manager where he is not detached from the employees’ activities but lacks the required charisma. He is poor in communication which is a major setback. It is therefore advisable for Sam to be more charismatic and have open communication. Communication is integral to team performance and this is an area where he has to improve on (Gabarro, 1992). In this situation where he has time constraints, it is advisable for Sam to adopt leadership based on autocratic and charismatic. This is the best approach due to limited time but he may later have to change the approach to transformational and charismatic after the project to enhance long term relationship with the employees. Moreover, he has to have confidence in forming teams and assigning them roles while at the same time dealing with resistance. How to know if the advice to Sam is good The advice can only be good if it can help Sam address his weaknesses. Moreover, the advice should help Sam manage the difficult team for it to be considered good. It is expected to help Sam realise that he has the potential to manage the team. The advice should help Sam address his feeling of inadequacy and enhance his communication with the team members. He can use the advice to become an effective hands-on manager through taking active part and providing his teammates with regular feedback (Fulop, Lilley & Linstead, 2004). He will be able to tailor the employee development to entire success of the project. The advice ineffectiveness will also be seen through a success in Sam’s management. It is important to note that there is no best way to manage since it depends with the context. Based on Sam’s context, the best way to manage is having the ability to work with this group. At the moment, it seems that he is incapable of managing the team as he claims that the group was the hardest to work with. His people management skills are poor and an improvement in his management through this advice is an indication of the advice being good. The effectiveness of the advice will also be seen through Sam ability to develop strong team. The advice should help Sam take self-evaluation using techniques such as 360 degrees feedback. Feedback is a critical component of team development (Chappelow, 2004). Feedback helps the team members to become more accountable and share knowledge which is a feature lacking in Sam’s organisation. It will be possible to see an improvement in team communication. The success of the advice will also be seen through Sam’s improvement in human skills. Sam lacks the human skills which are required to work with other people (Fulop, Maréchal & Rifkin, 2009). Gabarro (1992) assert that human skills are vital in fostering cooperation and enhancing performance. Success will also be seen through an improvement of the organisation culture. Through taking the advice, it is expected that he will be able to help the organisation have a strong culture and symbolic leaders. These are leaders capable of using symbols to come up with a desired organisation culture (Zaccaro, Rittman & Marks, 2002). My advice to Sam in comparison to a group member’s response My advice to Sam is similar in many ways to Rosalie advice. This is despite the differences in scenarios where Rosalie scenario is based on Multinational Company, a Micro-manager and Poor Motivation while my scenario is based on public sector, hands-on and communication. As indicated by Rosalie, Sam has to understand his strengths and weaknesses. He needs to be a leader that he was chosen to be. He seems to have a feeling of inadequacy and reluctance which affects his ability to make hard decisions. Based on Rosalie response, it seems that she sees Sam management as Laissez-faire which has been affected by his insecurities which have given the team members ability to dictate the environment. My advice to Sam is to believe in his abilities and himself in line with Rosalie advice. As indicated by Rosalie, a manager is supposed to have confidence and believe in themselves. The manager is expected to have a better understanding of their abilities and how others view them. This is just like my advice to Sam where I recommend him to carry out 360 degree feedback. I concur with Rosalie that this will allow him to plan his own development, and also helps to gain an understanding on how others views one and where to improve. Chappelow (2004) assert that honest feedback helps one to see themselves in other people’s perspectives. My advice also agrees with fact that a manager who is mature to accept criticism is able to grow in their management abilities to become good leaders (Zaccaro, Rittman & Marks, 2002). I agree with Rosalie that Sam has knowledge of his team but fails to implement any managerial practice or a procedure which is Sam greatest weakness. I agree with her that there is need for Sam to adopt a better leadership and management style. Despite this, I feel that Sam should adopt autocratic and charismatic and later change the approach to transformational. This is unlike her advice where she advocates for transactional and authoritative. I agree this is a short time solution and there is need for him to adopt a better approach such as transformational to ensure building relationship with team members (Politis, 2001). Her advice is same to adopt transformative or participative leadership to help in building team bonds which I fully agree. According to Rosalie advice, she feels that the staffs need to be more formalised. She recommends using the formalised performance management process which I full agree with. I feel that this would help the team members he is facing to have a better understanding of their roles. It will also be possible for Sam to gain a better understanding of the team, staff needs and issues. I agree that this procedure would help Sam as a manager in coming up with strategies to cultivate an environment that fosters respect and gain his position as a leader with authority. This is also a way in which Sam can enhance team spirit and ensure there is organisation loyalty and development. I agree that with a high team spirit, it is possible to have project being done by all in a collaborative environment. I also concur with Rosalie assertion that Sam will be able to attain a rise in tem spirit through taking her advice. Also, it will be possible to have a positive impact on team performance. This is a statement that I fully concur with in my advice to Sam. I concur with her that there is need to have a well-run performance management process which is vital in creating a working team. Despite the fact that I have not mentioned it in my advice, I agree that it is difficult for manager to place expectations in a team that does not understand the expectations, how to measure them and the consequences (Holpp, 1999). My viewpoints are very similar to Rosaline advice despite few deviations. I agree that Sam has to believe in himself and know that he was chosen due to his abilities to lead. The senior management had seen a potential in him before appointing him to be a manager. He needs to stop using his past to hold him back in attaining his aspirations where he constantly thinks of his bullying at school (Fulop, Maréchal & Rifkin, 2009). I agree with her that for Sam to be at the top of things in his workplace, he has to start believing in himself and take action to address his weaknesses. References Chappelow, C. T. (2004). 360-degree feedback. The Center for Creative Leadership handbook of leadership development, 2, 58-84. Fulop, L. Maréchal, G. and Rifkin, W. (2009) in Linstead, S., Fulop, L. and Lilley, S. (Eds), Management & Organization, London, England: Palgrave Macmillan. Fulop, L., Lilley, S., & Linstead, S. (2004). Management and organization. Houndsmills, UK: Palgrave Mcmillan. Gabarro, J. J. (1992). Managing people and organizations. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Press. Holpp, L. (1999). Managing teams. New York, USA: McGraw Hill Professional. Politis, J. D. (2001). The relationship of various leadership styles to knowledge management. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 22(8), 354-364. Zaccaro, S. J., Rittman, A. L., & Marks, M. A. (2002). Team leadership. The Leadership Quarterly, 12(4), 451-483. Read More