Theories in Action: Week 6 Salesforce
Entering Week 6 of my internship I have observed the relationships between leaders and members in great detail. Relating back to class, The Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) is dyadic relationship between the leader and follower. In its real world application, it has been fascinating as it pertains to real life interactions in the work place, particularly between BDRs and their managers / directors. A major component of Salesforce’s core values is innovation, something the company has been doing since its inception. While innovation is a goal of the company, it is also something employees are encouraged to do in their own ways to improve process, which in a way embraces failing in the sprit of greater learning. Why I find this interesting is because in such a numbers driven company where the relationship between leaders-members is often dictated by performance metrics it is also not only accepted but encourage to fail, and fail fast.
Furthermore, during my time so far at Salesforce it has been very interesting to observe how the dynamics of change when managers rotate or leave the company. Every February at the start of the fiscal year the ENTIRE company realigns, meaning a lot of changes happen in regard to whom people report to. This effect can be seen in the Leader-Member Exchange Theory directly in the output of members under new versus old managers. While all managers and quotas across roles and segments are the same or comparable the strategies managers utilize to generate activity from the members have a palpable effect. Examples of these manager techniques include assigning time blocks, being physically present, and digital presence.
When applying theory to your experience at your site (now or in the fall assignments) – providing specific examples of behaviors/actions that illustrate or embody the theory is essential. So you mention some different strategies/techniques at the end – explore that a bit more; how do each of these (or some of these) play out, what effect (if any) do they have? With LMX there is much discussion about the quality of the relationship; are some relationships at Salesforce more substantial than others? Have you witnessed/experienced the out-group (and how does that factor into the dynamic overall)? Would be interesting to unpack fail and fail fast; what does that mean – provide an example – what does it look like. You’ve used some theoretical phrases and language here, you’ll need to make more connections and bring it to life.