EFFECTIVE LEADERASHIP
ASSIGNMENT # 3 CASE NO.3 LEADERSHIP AND MOTIVATIONGROWING MANAGERS: MOVING FROM TEAM MEMBER TO TEAM LEADER
Submitted to: Ma’am Saima Naseer Submitted by: Munazzah Iqbal Wajeeha Razzaq Samar Iqbal Hira Maria MBA-10
Case Summary Growing Managers: Moving From Team Member to Team Leader, describes a fictional scenario about a company called ColorTech Greenhouses Inc. The case describes the company, originally located in Phoenix, as a high-tech color supplier that quickly became the largest and most global grower in the western hemisphere. The status of the declining sales from the Phoenix division, which once bragged of their highest production levels, was examined through the eyes of Melissa Richardson, a recently hired sales manager for ColorTech corporate headquarters. This case discusses the reasons for the difficulties currently confronting ColorTech. ColorTech Greenhouses, Inc. ColorTech was a privately held supplier of annual and perennial flowers to big-boss stores. Along with the rest of the color industry, ColorTech was facing increased price competition as well as a steady declination in sales. At this time, the market was experiencing a very low demand for the flower industry. ColorTech particularly was constantly receiving pricey customized orders, and being insisted upon for demands for lower prices. Issues of ColorTech Sales are Falling In an attempt to grow revenue, ColorTech was expanding rapidly through the use of vertical integration and diversification. They operated largely in southern North America, with a few greenhouses in the northeast and Mexico for the seasonal flowers those regions offered. ColorTech had plans to expand into Ecuador to enter the long-stemmed rose market. They also purchased a Columbian company that specialized in cut flowers to incorporate themselves into the florist industry. Management was a vast majority of the issues that arose from ColorTech’s Phoenix division. Richardson settled into her new sales management position feeling unsure of her ability to lead teams due to the few management issues she had ever been exposed to in real life. The courses and classroom instruction Richardson attended offered little benefit when she was left with vague expectations from her regional sales manager, Beth Campbell. Furthermore, the lack of communication was chaos. From Campbell, a middle manager, to Richardson, a first-line manager, there were no guidelines for Richardson to consult. With this as an initial language barrier, it was inevitable that Richardson’s first interaction with her team would be unclear without a strategy and plans to follow. As a result of miscommunication, and lack-there-of, one of the greenhouses stationed in Columbia was infected with a fungus that resulted in weeks of delay, loss customers, and ultimately potential profits for the company. Lastly, Richardson’s unassertiveness contributed largely to the issues derived from the Phoenix division. She felt attitude from certain employees and allowed tardiness and texting through meetings, etc.
Q.1) According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory and David McClelland’s acquired needs theory identify and justify which needs dominate the 5 team members and the team leader (Melissa Richardson). Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Theory:
Dominated Need Level
Team Leader
Team Members
Melissa Alex Gregorio Sarah Chelsea Nick Richardson Hoffman Torres Vega Peterson Ruiz
Physiological Needs
_
_
_
Safety Needs
_
_
_
Social Needs
High
_
Self-esteem Needs
_ Moderate
Self-actualization Needs
High
_
_
_
High
_
Moderate
_
_
Moderate
High
Moderate
_
_
Moderate
High
_
_
_
High
JUSTIFICATIONS: Melissa Richardson
Richardson was highly dominated by social needs. In belongingness she preferred friendly environment and her acceptance in team and affection as well. For example she kept thinking of pizza lunches and ice cream in Friday afternoons after achieving sale targets. She also preferred to build good communication with her team. When she came at Phoenix she was expecting a protocol from her group members and her boss Campbell. She was so social and friendly that Ruiz did easily convince her to take his resume for higher designation through his good skill of communication or while conversing friendly with her. She was moderate in self-actualization because she was putting her potential to cope with her job. She had a goal too to achieve, she wanted to make phoenix one of the best sales offices but somehow she distracted from her goal and instead fulfilling the requirement of this seat she was trying to accomplish her goal in other means like building good relations with others.
Alex Hoffman
Hoffman was high at self-esteem because he was so confident about what he was doing to get maximum sales. And he refused so clearly to Richardson about contacting with every little mom-and-pop florist as well. He had also a dismissive attitude about others and he was also egoistic and status conscious because he do not like to tell any kind of information unless asked from him.
He was high at self-actualization because he was using his full potential to achieve his targets. Being self-actualizer he was self-directed and was independent and resourceful, and he also enjoys his own company and feels comfortable being alone.
Gregorio Torres
Torres is moderate in social need. He always talk nicely with Richardson and quite ready to help her. For example, in June when nobody doing his paper works so she asked Torres to do some of his colleague’s reports for them in order to meet their deadline. Richardson also asked him to meet her and a new big buyer to fulfill demands of this customer. He also had good relations in team and he kept converse them in their Spanish language. He is moderate at self-esteem needs because he was not status conscious and egoist person but he wanted recognition through getting accomplishments by trying new ideas and was willing to change the old ways to grape customer’s attentions. He was confident about his new idea for website to manage customer’s services.
Sarah Vega
She was high in physiological need. Because she was so unconcerned with her work, she often came late and left soon, kept on texting on mobile. She was so careless that her work was piled on her table but she did not bother to do that. She went on leaves for different reasons. Her sales were so uneven. So she just concerned with her basic needs which were fulfilled from her recent designation and she did not need something more than that.
Chelsea Peterson
She was high in safety needs as she was insecure about her job. She was nervous all the time. She was unable to build good relation with her immediate boss and to build her good impression. She criticized others in spite of having look on herself as being unskilled and inexperienced and still thought herself to be eligible for promotion to sales position. As she was openly hostile to Richardson in her first meeting.
Nick Ruiz
He was moderate at social needs. He kept interacting people in other departments and asking about their jobs. He also knew about the product from his conversations with customers. He also built good relation with Richardson and convinced her to take her resume for sales post. He was moderate at self-esteem because he wanted to get recognized through his ability of having lots of knowledge. He was confident about his knowledge which he took from workers while visiting greenhouse in his free times. He was also had self-confidence. Nick was high at self-actualization because he was ready to put each and every effort to get sales position no matter whatever it took. His attitude proved refreshing to Richardson. He was ready to use his full potential in work and in return seek growth, achievement and advancement in his career.
McClelland’s acquired needs theory: Team Leader
Team Members
Dominated Need Melissa Alex Gregorio Sarah Richardson Hoffman Torres Vega
Chelsea Nick Peterson Ruiz
Needs f or Achievement
High
High
Moderate
Low
Low
High
Needs for Power
Low
High
Low
Low
High
Low
Needs for Affiliation
High
Low
Low
Moderate
Moderate Moderate
JUSTIFICATIONS: Melissa Richardson
She was high in needs of achievement reflecting especially when she studied Spanish prior to her start day. She had a goal to make phoenix one of the best sales offices. But she was a little misdirected towards others aspects like building good relationships with team members. She lacked to focus on the requirements of her new designation and through other ways she wanted to achieve her goal. She was so low in needs of power. She never thought of herself being an authoritative person. As a good leader she must be moderate in needs of power instead of no need of power. The use of power also needed to reshape and remold the team into her terms. She was highly dominated by affiliation needs. She preferred friendly environment and her acceptance in team and affection as well. Richardson made efforts to get everyone together that Saturday morning to correct the pots themselves, a potential opportunity for team building. For example she kept thinking of pizza lunches and ice cream in Friday afternoons after achieving sale targets.
Alex Hoffman
He was high in need of achievement. Instead of being social and friendly he was hard working and put in effort to achieve his goals. He was the top sales man in the company and he had earned every reward and perk ColorTech offered. He achieved his sales goals in any case even he had to make phone sales outside his area. Being high in need for power, he was so confident about what he was doing to get maximum sales He did not like to tell any kind of information to others because he liked himself being authoritative person. Even he refused to follow the Richardson’s terms to make high sales and asked her to deal himself in his own ways. He was very low in needs of affiliation. He was not social and liked being alone.
Gregorio Torres
His needs of achievement were moderate because he wanted to perform well but the communication method with customers was going on in the office did not suit him. He wanted to achieve sales through his own idea of website. He did not want power but he wanted to be distinctive from others so he could be powerful in a different way and had privileged than others. So his needs of power were low because he was just had an idea and no practical work was going on. He was moderate in need for affiliation. He always talk nicely with Richardson and quite ready to help her. He also had good relations in team and he kept converse them in their Spanish language.
Sarah Vega
She was low in needs of achievement. She was not interested to put special effort to do her work even her work was compiling on her table and she did not bother to complete that. She did not have some kind of goal related to her job. She was so low in power too. As she did not want growth so no needs of power were existed in her. She was moderate in needs of affiliation in the office with boss and her colleagues. She was not concerned more what is going on in the office or with the office work.
Chelsea Peterson
She was low at needs of achievement too because he was not putting effort in her work to achieve something she was just criticizing others. She did not have some goals to achieve. Her needs of power were high because these kinds of personalities want to be in power so that they can feel secure. Same case was with Peterson that she got insecure under Richardson and she wanted to get promoted so that she could be more secured and have control on others too. She also felt more insecure when she heard about the promotion of his colleague from the same designation as she had. She was so low at needs of affiliation because she was not interested in building good relations with others. And in her very first meeting with her new boss she was so argumentative in her behavior.
Nick Ruiz
Nick had high needs of achievement. He was ready to put each and every effort to get sales position. He was ready to use his full potential in work and in return seek growth, achievement and advancement in his career. He was so focused and ingenious in order to achieve his goals. He was low in needs of power because he did not want to command on others. He was moderate in needs of affiliation. He liked to meet new people. He also built good relation with Richardson. He kept interacting people in other departments and asking about their jobs.
Q.2) Considering Hertzberg’s two factor theory and identify and justify which factors (extrinsic or intrinsic) motivate each of the 5 team members and the team leader (Melissa Richardson). Melissa Richardson As Richardson preferred friendly environment and her acceptance in team and affection as well. And she also preferred to build good communication with her team. She had a goal too to achieve, she wanted to make phoenix one of the best sales offices but somehow she distracted from her goal and instead fulfilling the requirement of this seat she was trying to accomplish her goal in other means like building good relations with others. So she will be motivated with both maintenance and motivator factors by having good relations with her team and regional manger. She will also prefer proper job design and job analysis of her team to accomplish her goals. Alex Hoffman As he is the top sales person in the company and has always achieved his sales targets he should be motivated by motivating factors like giving him praise for his work recognition, promotion, and increased status offers challenge, or bonuses. Gregorio Torres As he was innovative and has so many creative ideas Richardson should motivate him with intrinsic motivators for that by giving him praise and appreciating him, encouraging him, accepting his idea and creativity. Sarah Vega As she was totally non-serious about her work and used to come late and take leaves more often. Richardson can motivate her with maintenance factors by informing her company policies about her job. Having strong rules about the work timings can make the employees to come in time. Telling her if she completes her targets and work overtime within the five days of the week then she can get a day off. Chelsea Peterson Although she has a low performance and lacked the skills and experience she can be motivated with maintenance factors. By taking training courses to gain skills and improve the performance that will also increase her relationship with team members and continuous motivation and encouragement by the manager to work hard can make her perform well. Nick Ruiz He was a merchandiser who is a capable person, enthusiastic and knowledgeable his performance was good, based on the performance Richardson can motivate him with job motivator by giving him growth opportunity for sales position or rewarding him on his performance through bonuses etc.
Q.3) Explain and justify how can Melissa Richardson use the Victor Vroom’s expectancy theory to improve her team’s performance, lead them effectively and motivate them? Expectancy theory purposes that people are motivated when they believe they can accomplish the task, they will get the reward, and the rewards for doing so are worth the effort.
•Will my Effort leads to high perfromance?
Efforts
Performance •Will performance leads to outcomes?
•Do i find the outcomes desireables?
Goals •Desired goals leads to Motivation
Rewards
Melissa Richardson had a great attitude as a manager for the Phoenix division of ColorTech. Unfortunately due to hasty decisions, lack of communication, and deficient training, ColorTech’s sales quickly began to fall. Applying victor Vroom’s expectancy theory to improve her team member’s performance Richardson had the potential to be a committed and successful manager. Alex Hoffman Hoffman was account representative and top salesperson in the company, and he had earned every award & received every perk ColorTech offered. As a top seller Alex show dismissive attitude and resistance to sell new stem products. So Melissa Richardson should clearly define him objectives and the performance necessary to achieve them and also tie performance to rewards. That way, a job design and job analysis would have been very easy to assess based on her team’s skill level. Gregorio Torres Gregorio is account representative; he seems uninterested in discussing his sales performance. But he has much creative ideas about customer service website. He also understands product and customer services, so Melissa Richardson can use Pygmalion effect to motivate and increase expectations for his performance. Sarah Vega Sarah Vega is an account representative and was new to sales. She had uneven performance and often late or absent from the office. Sarah Vega is unfocused and distracted by events outside of the work. So Melissa should persuade her to get training to improve her job performance and also making her responsible and motivating her by praising. Richardson should have implemented control systems to monitor and evaluate how effective the organization’s structure is and offer feedback systems, surveying the success of the strategies.
Chelsea Peterson Chelsea is a store merchandiser and has hostile relationship with her boss Melissa. She is more interested in sales position when opened, but have no experience & skills. However Melissa can motivate Peterson by telling her that hardworking, capable and a good performer will lead to sales position. So giving her training and helping her would be best for her. Nick Ruiz Nick is also a store merchandiser. He is very enthusiastic & knowledgeable person. Ruiz had apparently expressed interest in joining the sales team and he is ready for sales position when open. Melissa can motivate him by making him believe that whatever she says she will do. Richardson should have introduced her business level plan and business level strategy during the initial meeting. Doing this would have revealed her tactics, and how she intended to implement them to compete against rival color companies. It would have been beneficial for Richardson to perform a needs assessment of her team. Q.4) Using the Reinforcement theory of motivation explain and justify which reinforcement technique(s) Melissa Richardson should use to motivate each of the 5 team members. What might be the pros and cons of using a particular reinforcement technique for each team member? Alex Hoffman Reinforcement Techniques
Positive reinforcement
Avoidance Reinforcement
Steps to Motivate
Pros
Cons
As he is the top sales person in the he should be motivated by giving him praise, promotion, increased status which offers challenge, or bonuses
It’s the best motivator that would increase his productivity & performance.
It does not encourage employees to strive beyond the minimum levels required
Due to his dismissive attitude Richardson can do so by setting strong routine rules, warning him that his negative behavior will be documented in his reviews.
It may generate and improve his work performance & behavior.
Creates a stressful environment for the employee.
Gregorio Torres Reinforcement Techniques
Steps to Motivate
Pros
Cons
It will build his confidence. Appreciating him would drive him more towards the success and will increase the employee morale.
Appreciating him just on his ideas can make him not achieve his sales target.
Positive reinforcement
As he was innovative and has so many creative ideas Richardson should motivate him for that by giving him praise and appreciating him, encouraging him, accepting his idea and creativity.
Steps to Motivate
Pros
Cons
Sarah Vega Reinforcement Techniques
Avoidance Reinforcement
As she was totally non-serious about her work Richardson can motivate her by warning her and telling her to come on time and get serious about the work. Having strong rules about the work timings can make the employees to come in time.
She will come on time She will tend to exert and will improve her the minimum effort job performance. necessary to keep herself out of trouble.
Chelsea Peterson Reinforcement Techniques
Positive reinforcement
Avoidance Reinforcement
Steps to Motivate
Pros
Cons
Although she has a low performance and lacked the skills and experience she can be motivated by taking training courses to gain skills and improve the performance, and continuous motivation by the manager to work hard can make her perform well.
Performance can increase and also employee morale will increase.
she might only do the work just too attain a reward or perk and when anything is not given to her then she won’t pay attention to work
She is a pessimistic person hostile in behavior. So Richardson can motivate her by reprimanding her to change her behavior and be cooperative with the team.
She might change her hostile behavior to avoid more severe consequences and punishment.
It does not encourage employees to strive beyond the minimum levels required.
Pros
Cons
Nick Ruiz Reinforcement Techniques
Positive reinforcement
Steps to Motivate He was a enthusiastic and knowledgeable person and his performance was good. Richardson can motivate him by giving him a sales position or rewarding him on his performance through bonuses etc.
It would increase his confidence, productivity, morale & performance.
Giving him a sales position can arise conflicts among the team members on the basis of seniority and tenure issues.
Q.5) What does Melissa Richardson think makes a good sales manager? What is the difference between an account/sales representative and a sales manager? As Melissa Richardson was a sales person at Greenhouse and was promoted to sales manager on the basis of her brilliant performance as sales representative, but at the same time she was transferred to a different place that she wasn’t even much familiar with its language. So she made mistakes unintentionally and tried to make them correct as well but at the end she was fail in this. Being a manager she realized her role is now as a sales leader. This means shifting her focus to leveraging the strengths of the sales team and each individual salesperson. Now she was supposed to increase her team member’s performance more than her own. She was at the stage where she needs to think strategically and strive to understand each person on the team. She knew if she want to be great sales manager she have to know each person on their team is different, therefore, she have to manage them accordingly to their unique needs and opportunities. But she couldn’t handle them so well. As a sales representative she only had to focus on her performance to make strategies for her own or follow her boss’s instructions but being a sales manager she had to learn to listen the role of sales managers has changed. It was no longer about being taskmaster; it was about enablement and support. She believed on having empathy, remembering what it was like when she sold. She tried to use that empathy to see things through her team’s eyes. She found that there are several big challenges in the transition from salesperson to sales manager, but the hardest may be changing her perspective on her time. She couldn’t present the reports on time. Q.6) What did Melissa Richardson do right when she started her new job? What mistakes did she make? What might have helped Melissa Richardson get off to a better start? Richardson’s right things: When she reached the Phoenix office she took stock of her office and the supplies she would need, and made a few notes of them. The next that was Saturday she returned to the office to order everything in her office so that when she will be on work at Monday she could officially start the office. On the Friday when she was near to leave the office, Richardson took a quick tour of the area where her salespeople worked. On the Saturday when she was arranging her office for the Monday Richardson assembled some basic information on her team that could be helpful for her to better understand her team
Then she arranged one on one talk with her each team member for better communication and after that she made some more notes on her team members about their personalities and interests. Richardson’s mistakes: As on her first day she got to know that her team need some changes in their behavior but she didn’t took any steps to change their behaviors. She arranged a meeting at the very first day without informing in advance. She did not give them a detail speech or instructions. Another mistake she did was that she had not noticed the product ready for the customers was placed in wrong pots. This mistake would mean the team would be charged for emergency repotting costs as well as discounts offered as compensation for delayed delivery if they did not act quickly. She did not get any kind of knowledge about paper work and management issues which was required for this sales manager’s seat. She did not decide the means to achieve goal in three month time period. She was not prepared for such kind of situation in which there is no communication did not have some kind of preparation for contingency situations. Recommendations:
She should have taken some steps in the start to reshape the team member’s behavior
She should take sum steps to remove the communication gap.
She could save herself and her team members from extra costs that was charged from repotting in emergency and discounts offered as compensation for delayed delivery. Because each big-box customers received plants in plastic pots that showed its unique bar codes for price scanning and inventory management.
If she want to kept focused on her goals she should assign duty everyone in a more leadership style that definitely help her towards a better start towards success.
If she already understood her job requirements like paper work, management issues and process covered in the classes then she would be able to better handle paper work assigned from her regional manager.
If she would have an authoritative and leadership attitude with her team members then she could be able to move to betterment in achieving goals and for her job too.
Q.7) Critique Melissa Richardson’s first meeting. How could she have made a stronger impact on her team that first day? Recommend some ways which will help Melissa Richardson build her team effectively? As Richardson’s first meeting wasn’t effective at all firstly her team members were informed of the meeting just an hour before. She should have informed them early or in advance like when she visited her office on Friday she could have told the receptionist to inform every one of the meeting that would held on Monday morning. Because as Campbell wasn’t there to introduce her to the staff. She should have come more prepared with a more detailed speech instead of short speech that would have made a stronger impact on the members. But due to her short unproductive speech no one was interested whatever she was saying and she felt a tension in the air. She should have taken an orientation or should have asked for it. Recommendations:
Melissa Richardson needed to recognize the strewn rapid expansion when she began her management position in order to help the company expand with an objective. The management difficulties that arose could have been avoided very simply. Foremost, a management information system should have been previously in place by the middle and top managers. That way, Richardson would have been able to enter the Phoenix division and access important information regarding each employee’s role and how to property execute them. Another colossal concern was that Richardson had never been exposed to management issues, paperwork, and processes working as a salesperson in Chicago. Had Richardson practiced on-the-job training, she would have experienced the setting and expectations prior to her first day. Miscommunication was the second largest issue in this case. ColorTech needed to implement group norms per division. There was a clear lack of direction when Richardson’s team openly acted and performed as they wished. Lack of authority from Richardson played a significant role in the turmoil of ColorTech’s Phoenix division. Richardson should have introduced her business level plan and business level strategy during the initial meeting. Doing this would have revealed her tactics, and how she intended to implement them to compete against rival color companies. It would have been beneficial for Richardson to perform a needs assessment of her team. That way, a job design and job analysis would have been very easy to assess based on her employees’ skill level. Finally, Richardson should have implemented control systems to monitor and evaluate how effective the organization’s structure is and offer feedback systems, surveying the success of the strategies.
As a manager, Richardson is to make her group more productive than it would have been without her. Focusing her energy from the first day on the things that only she, as a manager, can do. She is the leader. She is responsible for training and developing her people and for building them into a team. To build her team effectively and have a positive impact on the team it only takes insight into three key areas: Alignment, Motivation, and Performance.
Q.8) In your opinion who is at fault for Melissa Richardson’s poor performance as a Sales manager and Team Leader? The sales manager is the person responsible for leading and guiding a team of salespeople. A sales manager's tasks often include assigning sales territories, setting quotas, mentoring the members of her sales team, assigning sales training, building a sales plan, and hiring and firing salespeople. Because a sales manager's compensation is tied to how many sales her team makes, she's highly motivated to get her salespeople producing. The team leaders are those who can lead and direct without misuse of their power. They must be able to inspire others in a direction or greater good. They must be strong enough to stand firm in decision making and leading others without an egotistical attitude. A great team leader will encourage others to brain storm and contribute to the whole. They also lead by example and intelligently. However, with reference to case study Melissa Richardson is not a good team leader as she did not know how to lead, direct or inspire her team members. For example the behavior of Alex Hoffman is very rude towards her but she did not take any action. Some as the one of other team member Sarah Vega who did not pay full attention towards her work and much busy with her cell phone. She also comes late on work but Melissa didn’t do anything for her this type of behavior. As a sales person, Richardson had not been exposed to many of the management issues, paperwork, and processes covered in the classes of the manager training course. Legal issues related to human resource had been stressed repeatedly, but Richardson had little confidence in her understanding of the risks and requirements. One of the other reason of her poor performance as a sales manager is that her regional manager didn’t give her information about the duties and responsibilities of her new job. Due to all above issues she shows a poor performance as sales managers.
