Implementing_Leadership_Action

I. Smith & Falmouth Overview Irene Seagraves, CEO of Smith & Falmouth (S&F) is looking to consolidate operations. In an effort to increase the companies online services she has hired Ms. Gwen Philips as the new Chief Operating Officer. Smith & Falmouth, a tele-shopping and mail order network company is trying to increase their Online Sales Channel. The appointment of the new COO should help to make S&F Online a profitable Strategic Business Unit. Ms. Philips has until the end of the year, nine months, to accomplish this goal.  II.    Current Culture While observing the group, Ms. Phillips has noticed that there is a set understanding how things have worked in the past. While change is hard, the teams have been resistant to adapting to the vision that Ms. Phillips has for the company. In order fot her reach her goals, she must identify the key employees in the company and get their buy in to her ideas. S&F has been operating under the management of three team leader’s, Project Manager: James William Argyle, Logistics Manager: Brian Kervor and Marketing Manger: Adam Searle and their teams for some time. As she forms a task group, she can accomplish the target goal that was set by Irene, by learning how the organizational structures and cultures work and find ways in which to make the overall goal a reality. III.    S&F’s Organizational Culture Once the organizational chart is put into place, Ms. Phillips begins to meet with each department head and then small teams: web developers and then logistics team. Ms. Philips has decided to create an Organizational Culture Profile (OCP) in order to find out what the employees value versus what the organization values (Judge & Robbins). She has to find a way to integrate herself into the current structure. Key Players 1.    James William Argyle: Project Manager His ability to build relationships has helped make long lasting lucrative business relationships with other teams within the company and outside sources that have contracts for the web site. Ms. Philips’ action plan for James and his team: •    Identify employee competencies and gaps, •    Establish measures comparable with industry figures, •    Call a team meeting to take in input on achieving goals, and •    Establish a common goal for the teams. 2.    Brian Kervor: Logistics Manager Brian is a hands-on kind of person, however he is intimidated by the action plan that was put in place 3.    Adam Searle: Marketing Manager Adam builds relationships easily as he genuinely values and respects people. IV.    Empowering Employees There are some principles that Ms. Philips will use to empower the employees at S&F: 1.    Sharing the Leadership Vision: Communicate and place on the corporate intranet and around the company what the new vision/direction for the company. This will help make the employees feel that they are a part of the big picture, something bigger than their individual job 2.    Share Goals and Directions: As employees are doing their performance management plans, they should tie into the organizations goals. A shared picture of a positive outcome with all responsible for accomplishing the results. 3.    Feedback: By meeting with the key players and establishing what is working and what can be tweaked and then constantly revisiting will begin the proper feedback channel. Also, when a problem occurs, Ms. Philips needs to make sure to ask what went wrong within the system that caused the people to fail, not what is wrong with the people. This will help to relieve tension at critical times within the process. 4.    Communication: Ms. Philips has decided to guide by asking questions rather than telling people what they need to be doing. This will allow employees to grow throughout the process. This also involves employees in the decision making process and allows everyone to feel that they are in the know. 5.    Rewards and Recognition: The goals should be team oriented, not individual. Having a reward system in place and team recognition is a major step to bridging the gap between the new COO and the rest of the company. V.    The Future of S&F-Results of Simulation Ms. Philips’s approach to her new position at S&F has proved to be successful. The action plan that was put in place accomplished three small goals that have lead to the over all success of the main goal put in place by Irene. Those three goals were: 1.    Identify employee competencies and gaps, offer training to fill gaps, and redesign job roles to augment skills. 2.    Establish productivity measures comparable with industry figures and 3.    Call for a team meeting, take inputs on achieving goals set by Irene, and establish a common goal for the team. By aligning with James, the Project Manager, Ms. Philips was successful in influencing the web development team, logistics team and functional heads of S&F of the organizations ability to accomplish the goal. As a result of this S&F increased its productivity by 100% last quarter, making the goal a reality. REFERENCE Robbins, S. P., & Judge, T. A. (2007). Organizational behavior (12th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education. Yukl, G. (2006). Leadership in organizations (6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.