(Team Case Assignment) A DAY IN THE LIFE OF ALEX SANDER: DRIVING IN THE FAST LANE AT LANDON CARE PRODUCTS.

What are the assumptions and judgments that drive Sander at work?

-Alex Sander is a self centered individual, who loves being entrepreneurial and taking charge of his own course. He is highly successful for his skills. This is clearly understood from his conversation with his neighbor. Alex assumes in his conversation " Id bet you my last dollar I know exactly what Sam will tell me" in this statement we can find out that he is confident, as he knows what people think about him, his style and temper. He judges his assumption by saying "I will hear the jazz about my style and my temper. Alex wants to coordinate with his team members in any work he has allotted them, Alex says "if someone isn't happy with the assignment I have given him, or I sense that he's not sure of himself. Here in his assumption we can find out that he always tries to find out what all difficulties his co-workers are facing during work and he judges his assumption saying "I will push him to find out what he is thinking. In his judgment we can find out he even tries to collect ideas from his team members. This statement clearly shows his leadership qualities such as 'involvement in decision making. Alex rather prefers to give direct and harsh feedback to weed out the non performer from his team than try and motivate the under performer to realize their full potential. We can figure this by his statement "being pushy and commanding is the only way to get the job done. And he judges his statement saying "to get two new products out in one year, then it's worth it to me. Even if I have to steamroll over someone's feelings, or ignore the way a colleague would like to handle a project. His statement clearly indicates that he is over committed and wants people to follow him as he says, he is over commanding but he is trying to save his commitment which drives him towards work. He finds this the only way to get his work done. Alex assumes that temper is the only way to get the work done; we can find this in the statement "After i really become angry, there are people whose output will jump for at least a couple of weeks. He judges his assumption saying "My temper is actually an effective management tool. So, here he thinks temper as his effective tool. By his assumptions and judgments we can find that he is dedicated towards his work. What behaviors by Sander have the greatest impact on the 360 degree feedback provided by coworkers? Which of these behaviors are positive and which are negative?

-Positive Behaviors that have greatest impact on the 360 degree feedback provided by the coworkers: Some of the positive behaviors of Alex which we feel has the greatest impact are: Aggressiveness/initiative, Entrepreneurship, and Market/product knowledge, Multitasking, Generosity, Creative and Inquisitive. These are the few important qualities which forms a person to a leader. These qualities of Alex can be considered as his strength behind his successful career and positive feedback from his co-workers. Firstly, as a mid level manager he is aggressive and takes initiative to launch products on time and on budget. Secondly, from the case it is clear enough that Alex has skills of an entrepreneur which are shown by him efficiently. Thirdly, as a product manager he has a very clear knowledge about product, product development and market status for the product; he always collects data from market researcher before team meetings. Alex has had to continuously multitask to launch two products at once. He always moves a pace faster than anyone else. He takes care of the product starting from launch to customer satisfaction. Generosity is the most important quality Alex has, he always appreciates his subordinates for works well done, such as dinner for late working people, tickets to sports events and sometimes with movie tickets, which acts as catalyst. Alex has good creative skills and lastly he is good in collecting ideas from in and around organization which makes his work even easier. -Negative Behaviors that have greatest impact on the 360 degree feedback provided by the coworkers: Some of the negative behaviors of Alex are: Impatient, Arrogance and Over commitment. These can be considered as the weakness of Sander. The reasons for choosing these as negative quality is because a leader should always be patient, polite, have a sense of belongingness and have a personal and professional growth and

should allow his subordinates for the same. He should keep himself in their shoes and think about the reason behind being late, but he was very impatient and arrogant type of person. He rather prefers to give direct and harsh feedback to weed out the non performer from his team than try and motivate the under performer to realize their full potential. Alex was over committed and expects everyone to work in the same manner as he wants them to work, he thinks temper as his effective management tool which may help him in short term success but it would be too difficult to gain a long-term success. Hence he should overcome these behaviors to become a good leader in future. Should Sander make any changes in leadership style considering the success so far? Why or why not?

-By analyzing on what we have learnt in the past sessions and the case studies and based on feedback we would suggest that Sander does need some changes in his leadership style which will enable him to grow as a leader with mass appeal. As we have seen in the feedback, the team members relate to him as far as his expectations. Alex expects his team to work with the same style and commitment as he does. But this might not be true for all members alike. He should try to develop values like emotional intelligence, self awareness to understand and recognize his own emotions and the effect it can have on that of others. He needs to channelize his own emotions in order to positively direct his behavior. For instance he should not have publicity and arrogance admonished Betsy Garson as that might reduce her confidence and interest in work. He had poor relationship management skills. Situations like this may create fear and vulnerability in the minds of the employees that reduce their productivity, ability to make informed decisions and also feeling of self doubt in their minds as seen in the Lisa Benton case. Sander should therefore ensure to provide constructive feedback in a way that is befitting to the employee, without demoralizing and demotivating him. Sander also does not seem invested about feedbacks provided to him which portrays him a stubborn and overconfident person. But sander should realize that it is these feedbacks that will help him improve on his leadership skills and establish better relations with the team. This reminds us about the video hats just the way I am. His comments on steamrolling over peoples feelings bring him forth as a rather inconsiderate leader who is not bothered about the emotions of his colleagues. As in evidence from his comments he believes in imposing self opinion and ignores those of his colleagues. He should develop the listening skills. He should realize that mutual respect within teams can go a long way in retaining their loyalty in the company. It is the responsibility of the leader to ensure that their self respect and individuality is retained. If you were hired by Sam Glass to coach Sander on how to be a more effective leader, what would be your most important coaching points? Why?

-As Im hired by the Sam Glass as a mentor for Alex Sander, I will got a brief idea about Alex by asking Sam. I will take help from the reviews that Sander got from his colleagues and higher authority of organization. By checking out these reviews I found that he is a good leader but he have to develop in few aspects to become an effective leader. This aggressive nature of Alex doesnt make him a good leader he will not be in a good relationship with his colleagues or subordinates. He is not caring the ideas of his team members, may be he is successful in the short term hence as a mentor I suggest him to be less aggressive and to obtain a common opinion from his team members. Alex is undaunted by any learning challenge. Alex exemplifies the principle of learning organization, continually identifying the gaps in personal knowledge this is purely a selfish attitude and should have a control over it. Alex is a good entrepreneur, unwilling to be daunted by any barrier also unwilling to take no from any one inside or outside the organization. This causes to lose relationships with his colleagues. Alex thinks ahead and sees the implications of decisions for ahead of his colleagues without giving any room for thinking. This causes a wide gap between his teammates. This leads to bad relation so I suggest him to be less assertive also in order to have collective decision as a team which can have wider prospects in long run. Alex is found to be too pushy in getting the things done and believes that it is only the way to achieve goal. We will ask him not to be too pushy and to take the confidence of his colleagues also. Alex is a confident guy still this is turning out to be over confidence in some issues. So I will suggest him to be little realistic and to review his decisions time to time to get better results. Alex works tirelessly handling two or more projects

simultaneously and expects all his team members to be up to his caliber. I will suggest him not to expect too much as everyone around him will not share same set of skills. So he should be somewhat generous in his outlook. Alex found to be too honest in critical assessments of others but still Alex should take broader percepts and in more mature view of the people around him. By overcoming these negative aspects Alex can turn from a good leader to an effective leader.

DATE: 08/07/2013 MYRA SCHOOL OF BUSINESS MYSORE

By-Team-8 AMARESH CH.PANDA H.VENKATA RAO VENKATA VINOD KUMAR SADHU NAKKA SANTOSH SRIKANTH LOY AYITHY