Solving Problems/Improving Leadership
After working at this company for a significant time period, I have begun to see some of the weaknesses in the organization. Although these are not good for the company, they really help me see how I will run my company differently after college. I have mentioned this in a previous post, but the decentralized work model of the company I believe hinders its ability to push employees, limits collaboration and reduces general productiveness. This is because it is impossible to supervise the employees when they are scattered across the globe. The only way this model works is if there is an extreme sense of motivation and personal commitment to the company, which most employees don’t have, especially because a majority are unpaid. This differs from the sales associates, as they have a commission based pay structure, but still, the problem is evident. One way around this would be give every one equity in the company, so their work would directly benefit the amount of pay they receive. But, I still think the best way to run the company would be to have a centralized location.
As things progress, it becomes extremely evident who the true workhorses of the company are. The people who are truly driven to make the company succeed. These are the people who really push everyone to do their best, and push results.
Because this is a small closely knit company, with my education in leadership studies, I can easily suggest changes within the organization. One concept of theories and models that comes to mind is transforming leadership. The only way to succeed is to raise everyone’s morale and motivation to succeed. However powerful, this is a hard thing to accomplish and takes incredible leadership ability.
Before I address your reflection, let me remind you that you have to choose a category for each post. I can tell this is a solving problems/improving leadership reflection, but as you did not categorize it, it doesn’t automatically populate in the blog. PLEASE go back to your posts and edit them, selecting a category, so that they populate not the blog. Having said this again, let me respond to your reflection. You’ve identified a real challenge it seems and equity in the company or a centralized location might definitely help. Seems also the use of a work flow system, which documents what everyone is working on, their progress, etc. might also enable the company to better monitor engagement and contributions virtually, which would then provide documentation if someone was not completing their work and action needed to be taken. I’m glad you feel that you will be able to provide recommendations, that’s wonderful. As for employing transformational leadership, it would be good to provide concrete examples of how the company might provide intellectual stimulation, inspirational motivation, individualized consideration, and idealized influence. The more specificity you include – the more concrete examples from your site that illustrate (or do not illustrate) concepts and theories from LDST – the better equipped you’ll be to complete the academic assignments in the fall.