“Players Only”: Salesforce Week 7
Applying the knowledge from our Theories & Models course to my internship at Salesforce, I am always intrigued at the concept of the “players only” meetings. “Players only” refers to a formal meeting a team without management being present. What I find most fascinating about these meetings, are that they aren’t instigated by the members of the team but rather the managers. The meetings are evidence of the transformational leadership style and culture that trickles down from the company’s senior leadership, including from the CEO. These meetings in my experience have been particularly helpful for the team in transition periods when mangers are coming or going. Over the past few weeks I have had two of my managers leave the company and that has created a high degree of volatility and uncertainty amongst the teams. The “players only” meeting help to alleviate some of those issues by creating a forum that allows for these questions to be addressed and for concerns to be voiced. A central element of the “players only meeting” is that anything is fair game, meaning that nothing is off the table in terms of questions or concerns. I believe the encouragement of these types of meetings by management is transformational because despite the possibility of the meeting being uncomfortable for managers the existent of such forums allows for the stronger development of the team.
Okay – so I am a bit confused. You state that these meetings aren’t “instigated by the members of the team but rather the managers” – but prior to that you reference these meetings being without management. So is that a mistake, do you mean that the meetings are called/instigated by the members and NOT the managers? That would make more sense as you then talk about manager turn over, etc. So if you see this as evidence of transformational leadership, which of the factors do you think it illustrates (idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, individual consideration)? Again, as I said in my previous response – the more examples you can provide of actions/behaviors that illustrate/embody elements or factors of the theory you discuss, the better equipped you’ll be to complete the academic assignments this fall.