Leadership Style and Challenges

This assignment presents an interview transcript with a branch manager (BM) who has achieved recognition within a logistics company. The interview delves into the BM's leadership style, experiences navigating career growth, the complexities of managing subordinates and stakeholders, and strategies for overcoming challenges. The conversation highlights the importance of adaptability in leadership, motivating teams during difficult periods, and balancing performance with employee well-being.

Running head: LEADERSHIP IN A LOGISTICS COMPANY
Leadership in a Logistics Company
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

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Table of Contents
Introduction:....................................................................................................................................2
First Stage:.......................................................................................................................................2
The chosen leader:...........................................................................................................................2
Influence process:........................................................................................................................3
Use of influence within the company:.....................................................................................3
Use of influence on the customers:..........................................................................................5
Use of power:...................................................................................................................................6
Position:.......................................................................................................................................6
Personal life:................................................................................................................................7
Second stage:...................................................................................................................................7
a. Timeline:..................................................................................................................................7
b. Hawthorne effect:....................................................................................................................7
c. A summary of the interview of Mrs..., the branch manager:...................................................8
Third stage: Self reflection and recommendations:.......................................................................10
Leadership styles and practices to be applied by me:................................................................10
Recommendations:....................................................................................................................11
Conclusion:....................................................................................................................................12
References:....................................................................................................................................13
Appendix:......................................................................................................................................15

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Introduction:
The aim of the assignment is to conduct critical analysis of a leader who is a role model
to improve my leadership qualities and effectiveness. The assignment is divided into three
stages. The first stage points out the qualities of a leader and ways she can use her leadership
skills. The paper takes into account the branch manager of the logistics company I am employed
as a junior manager. The first section is the observation section and discusses the leadership
styles of the branch manager. It then delves into how she uses influence and power to lead her
subordinates. The second stage contains the time line to describe this process of observing the
manager. This is followed an interview of her to gain deeper insight of her leadership styles. The
branch manager in the interview also reveals about the challenges she faces a leader and the
importance of power to hold one’s position in an organisation. The last stage contains self-
reflection of mine about the leadership styles I would apply when I gain promotion to a leader’s
position like the branch manager. It also contains a recommendation for the branch manager.
First Stage:
The chosen leader:
The branch manager of the logistic company I work in is an employee who is often
regarded as successful and effective leader. I report to her as a trainee manager and have the
opportunity to interact with her on regular basis. Regular observations of her style of working
and leading the branch reveals her leadership traits and behaviour. She influences her
subordinates and uses Hawthorne effect to lead and motivate them. The branch manager holds a
vintage of working for more than five years in the logistic company and has the experience of

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working in two other organisations. She currently holds the position of an assistant vice president
in the logistic company and holds positive professional relationship with several other top
officials. She uses her position and power to influence her subordinates (Vann, Coleman and
Simpson 2014).
Influence process:
The branch manager of the branch of the logistics company I am posted in uses influence
both within and outside the organisations to secure business. She has years of experience of
working in the logistics industry and knows how logistics industry works. She possess several
leadership qualities like focus, confidence, integrity, passion for her profession, analytical
power, decision making power, knowledge about the market and most importantly strong
communication skills(Clarke 2013). She has exercised and displayed these leadership qualities
of her on several occasion and has earned recognition from the apex management multiple times.
Use of influence within the company:
She uses her influences to make the employees including the junior work efficiently. She
at first holds a meeting every morning with her subordinates to decide the productivity
parameters she expects them to achieve for the day. The productivity parameters include the
number of new customers each employee should meet and number of follow up appointments the
employees should attend. Then she would ask her subordinates the estimated number of
appointments meetings and which are likely to earn new customers who would use the logistics
facility of the company. She would then analyse the business and the cash inflow these new
customers can earn for the company(Epitropaki and Martin 2013). The branch manager would
then ask the employees including the junior employees whether they have any difficulty in
convincing any particular customer. If the employee in question happens to be a junior

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employee, she would ensure that a senior employee accompanies the junior employee for the
appointment. If the employee happens to be a senior or if a customer is not agreeing to use the
logistics facility of the company even after several appointments, she personally accompanies the
employees on the next appointment. This support and concern for the employees and their
performances reveals her focus and passion for business generation as a branch manager(DuBrin
2015).
The branch manager has excellent communication and persuasive skills which she to
influence the behaviour of her subordinate employees. She would keep on reminding the
employees working under her that the apex management watches their performances and
behaviour. She on regular basis make the employees realise that their high performances would
bring about their own promotions, job satisfaction and career growth. She would hold personal
meetings with poorly performing employees and advice them how to improve their
performances(Northouse 2015). The branch manager keeps a watch over the performances of
every employee working under her and congratulates high performing employees with rewards
and recognition certificates. She would warn employees who show unprofessional and casual
attitude towards their work. These actions of her reveal several leadership qualities. They reveal
her concern for her followers and their performances. These actions of her reveal her motivation
and performance analysing power. It can be said that these qualities of her have great influences
on the employees at the branch(Daft 2014). Her continuous supervision encouraged employees
to achieve high level of performances by acquiring new customers, maintaining healthy
relationship with the existing customers. The outcome of her influence as a branch leader was
that the employees succeeded in acquiring a huge client base that used the logistics facilities of
the company which generated outstanding revenues for branch and the company as a whole. It is

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worth mentioning that some of the customers acquired and maintained under the leadership of
the branch manager are multinational companies who uses the logistics facilities of the company
and generates huge revenue on regular basis (Bernabé-Moreno et al. 2015).
Use of influence on the customers:
The branch manager uses her excellent influential leadership powers to win customers
from even bigger logistics companies. She first uses her tremendous communication and
persuasive skills to win customers. She addresses and treats the new customers as if they were
existing customers. She at first speaks to the customers, asks important questions and their
business requirements to analyse their nature of logistics requirements(Tanriverdi and Uysal
2015). For example, if the customer happened to be a leading soft drink selling company, she
would ask questions relating to the volume of inventory (bottles of soft drinks) they normally
deliver per lot and the locations they send the inventory to. She then analyses the business needs
of the customers based on their answers. She highlights before them the advantages of working
with the company and the facilities, which the company can provide its customers. She would
often compare between the facilities of the logistics companies to its competitors to highlight the
competitive advantage of the former. This aggressive influential process of acquiring clients of
hers often succeeds in wining new customers for the logistics company(Dagger and Danaher
2014). I on a previous occasion interviewed her assistant and he too said that the branch manager
uses her influence to win over customers to contribute to the company’s clientele and business
generation.

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Use of power:
Position:
The branch manager often uses her position to lead her subordinates to ensure steady
generation of business and continuous inflow of revenue. The logistics company has two broad
divisions, the operating offices which generate revenue and do all the back office operations and
the logistics department which maintains the warehouses and logistics vehicles. The operating
offices direct the logistics department to provide warehouses or logistics transport facilities to the
customers and ensures the clients get superior logistics facilities. The sales staffs of the branch
meet the clients at regular intervals to know about their complaints and new
requirements(Pennings et al. 2014). They intimate their branch heads and the logistics
department heads about the complaints and new requirements of the customers. Our branch
manager keeps a strict vigil on the requirements and the complaints of the customers. She
ensures that their requirements are met and the complaints are resolved, if possible. This
aggressive use of position to ensure customer satisfaction helps the company to maintain long
term business relationships with big customers and generate continue revenue by providing
logistics services to them(Gupta, Gautam and Khare 2015).
The branch manager as one of the vice presidents of the company uses her power to
ensure that the customers of the branch get prompt logistics services at best rates. She uses her
power to influence the human resource department and a few senior managers to approve
absorption of four competent outsource employees into the payroll of the company. The branch
uses her position to highlight the high performances of the employees at the branch before the
management. This ensures that the employee get recognitions and promotion to higher posts
which bring them job satisfaction and career(Treem and Leonardi 2013). This effective and

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supportive leadership of the branch manager motivate the subordinate employees to attain high
degree of business performance. It is this influence and power of hers that has made the branch
the highest revenue and business earner branch(Fleming and Spicer 2014).
Personal life:
Our branch uses her power of a vice president in her personal life to gain advantageous
deals at hotels and restaurants. She is married and her husband is a lawyer. She used her position
of a vice president to gain work life balance like availing herself paid vacations. She went to
exotic tourist locations and stayed at five star hotels. She used her power to get the accounts
department reimburse her all the personal expenses. She on one occasion used the company’s
logistics trucks to shift her home by paying minimum charges(Northouse 2015).
Second stage:
a. Timeline:
The timeline of observing, interviewing and reflecting regarding the branch manager’s
leadership skills spans over three years before the writing started. The observation spanned over
three years since I joined the organisation. The interview of her took place a month ago and
continued for two hours. It revealed the complexities of leadership roles and positions. The
interview and the observation laid me to think the leadership qualities she possesses that make
her a good leader.
3 years- Observation
1 month ago-Interview for two hours
Recording of the observation and interview to outline
her leadership qualities, use of power and use of

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influence.

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Figure 1. Timeline showing observation, interview and wrting of them
(Source: Author)
b. Hawthorne effect:
Hawthorne effect or the observer effect refers to the response of individuals when they
are under observation of senior employees. The theory gets its name of the place Hawthorne
where Elton Mayo, the proposer of the theory conducted researches on employees to study their
responses when they are under observation of superior employees. The theory tells that when
employees are subjected to supervision of senior employees and senior managers, they improve
their performances to get recognitions for the improvements in their
performances(McCambridge, Witton and Elbourne 2014). Hawthorne effect can be observed in
all organisations like logistics organisations where employees try to attain high levels of
performances to achieve promotions and appraisals, which lead to their career development. The
branch manager uses Hawthorne effect to ensure high performances among her employees. She
makes them realise that their performances are continuously being watched by the apex
management and the senior managers(Leurent et al. 2016). This emphasis on the need to
maintain continuous level of high performances makes employees eligible for promotions.
c. A summary of the interview of Mrs..., the branch manager:
I got an opportunity to interview the branch manager, Mrs.... during the ‘Know Your
Leader’ event. There she revealed several aspects of her leadership activities like her leadership
styles and challenges she faces as a leader. The branch manager told that according to her
leadership is about leading subordinates and motivating them even during tough situations. She
told the responsibilities of a leader to understand the position of her subordinate and see into the

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fact whether the subordinates requires any guidance or mentoring or not. She revealed that she
follows a combination of various leadership styles while leading her subordinates. She told that
when she holds the morning meeting, she encourages her subordinates to participate in the
decision making at the morning meeting. She at that time follows participative leadership style in
order to ensure that all the staff members contribute towards making strategies to generate
business. When she assesses our performances at the end of the day or a month, she assumes
autocratic leadership style and gives us commands. This revealed several qualities of the branch
manager as a leader. Her leadership qualities consist of decision-making power, analytical
power, motivational power and focus.
When asked about the complexities she faces as a leader, the branch manager replied that
leadership is a very complex process because it involves decision-making. She revealed that at
times she has to decide to expose the poor performances of the subordinates from the cluster
head or to hide those performances and get hit by the cluster head. She revealed that as a
leadership she thinks it important to motivate and provide mental support to her subordinates
even when they are performing badly. A leader in her position, according to her should know to
when to reprimand and when to support a subordinate.
The branch manager revealed that leaders have to face several challenges while execting
their duties and responsibilities as leaders. She told that there are several factors in the
organisations like politics, pressure from seniors and peer pressure leads to the challenges a
leader faces. The told that when she started her career as an executive, she had faced challenges
from her seniors who would try to demean her motivation. She however told that she has
received a lot of support from her peer employees and her immediate bosses. She told that an
employee in order to rise in her career should perform well and accept challenges as

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opportunities. The branch manager told that the employees should gain support from the superior
employees and the employees at the same level of hierarchy to achieve promotion and appraisal
at the initial stage. She further revealed that the employees in the later stages gain power and use
it to influence their colleagues. She revealed that use of power and influence in the later stage
help employees to gain promotions and other job facilities. She quipped that power and influence
are also instrumental in achieving career growth and stability. They help employees to counteract
the impact of the pressure created by other employees.
Third stage: Self reflection and recommendations:
I learnt several aspects of leadership by observing and feedback of my role model, the
branch manager. I can recommend that my own leadership quality can be improved by applying
her leadership styles. I have observed that the branch manager uses influence and power to
conduct her duties as a branch manager successfully. I have observed that she uses her influence
both within and outside the organisation. She uses her influence to make her subordinates
perform well. I can opine that her influential position encouraged all the employees of my branch
to work harder to generate business. She holds morning meetings to decide on the business to be
generated for a day and divide it among us, the employees working under her. Upon reflecting I
can point out that while leading us she combines various styles of leadership. She assigns our
daily targets individually without asking for our opinion in an authoritative manner. When she
asks for our feedback while forming the business generation strategy, she encourages us to
participate. Here I can point out she followed participative leadership style to lead us. I can also
point out from my observation that as a leader the branch manager has excellent understanding
about the needs of the customers, which she combines with her influential position to acquire
customers. She treats even new customers as existing customers, which helps in optimising their

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decision to work to the logistics company. Upon reflecting on my leadership skills, I feel that I
require improving my own leadership skills. I feel that I would combine several leadership
theories and practices to better by leadership effectiveness and qualities.
Leadership styles and practices to be applied by me:
I would follow democratic leadership style and encourage my subordinates to participate
in the decision making process. This would make them feel more responsible and encourage
them to perform highly. I would also use strategic leadership style and help the upper
management to communicate its expectation from subordinates more clearly. I would emphasis
on creating a positive environment in the organisation so that the employees feel more motivated
to perform higher. The next leadership style I would use is Hawthorne effect like the branch
manager. I would make the employees working under me realise that their performances are
being continuously watched by the senior managers and me. Upon evaluation of all the three
leadership styles I feel that the democratic style will help me to gain participation of the all the
employees in decision-making. Hence following this style will encourage the employees to
express their innovative selling techniques. Upon evaluating the necessity of strategic leadership
style I can point out that this style will instrumental in bringing about positive changes in the
attitudes of the employees which would ultimately transform into their high performances.
Hawthorne effect as per my evaluation would keep the employees alert about the continuous
supervision of the senior manager over them. It would help them to keep a track on their
individual performances. Thus in my opinion combining these three styles of leadership would
help me to gain their participation in business acquisition strategy making on one hand and make
them achieve their own performances. This would ultimately transform into the high
performance of the branch as a whole and help the branch employees to achieve promotions

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from the senior management. This would also help me to get promotion since high performances
of my subordinates would prove my effective leadership qualities before the upper management.
Recommendations:
The previous discussions about the use of power by the branch manager show that she
uses her power to make the accounts department pay her personal bills. It is my recommendation
to the branch manager that she should not use her power to have her personal bills paid because
it affects the financial resources available to the company.
Conclusion:
I have arrived at the conclusion that leadership qualities like focus and communication
skills help the leaders in the organisation to lead their subordinates. I have also learnt that use of
influence and power are inseparable components of leadership activities carried out by
employees holding high positions like that of a branch manager. I have also learnt that successful
leaders in their initial phases have to face lot of challenges in order to reach high position. I
would like to conclude by stating that successful leaders combine various leadership styles in
order to lead their followers.

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References:
Bernabé-Moreno, J., Tejeda-Lorente, A., Porcel, C., Fujita, H. and Herrera-Viedma, E., 2015.
CARESOME: a system to enrich marketing customers acquisition and retention campaigns using
social media information. Knowledge-Based Systems, 80, pp.163-179.
Clarke, S., 2013. Safety leadership: A meta‐analytic review of transformational and transactional
leadership styles as antecedents of safety behaviours. Journal of Occupational and
Organizational Psychology, 86(1), pp.22-49.
Daft, R.L., 2014. The leadership experience. Cengage Learning.
Dagger, T.S. and Danaher, P.J., 2014. Comparing the effect of store remodeling on new and
existing customers. Journal of Marketing, 78(3), pp.62-80.
DuBrin, A.J., 2015. Leadership: Research findings, practice, and skills. Nelson Education.
Epitropaki, O. and Martin, R., 2013. Transformational–transactional leadership and upward
influence: The role of relative leader–member exchanges (RLMX) and perceived organizational
support (POS). The Leadership Quarterly, 24(2), pp.299-315.
Fleming, P. and Spicer, A., 2014. Power in management and organization science. Academy of
Management Annals, 8(1), pp.237-298.
Gupta, R.K., Gautam, J.N. and Khare, V.P., 2015. Awareness and use of social media
applications among library staff of power sector organizations. Annals of Library and
Information Studies (ALIS), 61(4), pp.320-331.

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Leurent, B., Reyburn, H., Mbakilwa, H. and Schellenberg, D., 2016. Monitoring patient care
through health facility exit interviews: an assessment of the Hawthorne effect in a trial of
adherence to malaria treatment guidelines in Tanzania. BMC infectious diseases, 16(1), p.59.
McCambridge, J., Witton, J. and Elbourne, D.R., 2014. Systematic review of the Hawthorne
effect: new concepts are needed to study research participation effects. Journal of clinical
epidemiology, 67(3), pp.267-277.
Northouse, P.G., 2015. Leadership: Theory and practice. Sage publications.
Northouse, P.G., 2015. Leadership: Theory and practice. Sage publications.
Pennings, J.M., Hickson, D.J., Hinings, C.R., Lee, C.A. and Schneck, R.E., 2014. Uncertainty
and Power in Organizations. A Strategic Contingencies' Model of Sub-Unit Functioning. Mens
en maatschappij, 44(5), pp.418-433.
Tanriverdi, H. and Uysal, V.B., 2015. When IT capabilities are not scale-free in merger and
acquisition integrations: how do capital markets react to IT capability asymmetries between
acquirer and target?. European Journal of Information Systems, 24(2), pp.145-158.
Treem, J.W. and Leonardi, P.M., 2013. Social media use in organizations: Exploring the
affordances of visibility, editability, persistence, and association. Annals of the International
Communication Association, 36(1), pp.143-189.
Vann, B.A., Coleman, A.N. and Simpson, J.A., 2014. Development of the Vannsimpco
leadership survey: a delineation of hybrid leadership styles. Swiss Business School Journal of
Applied Business Research, 3, pp.28-38.

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Appendix:
Interview of Mrs ......, Branch Manager, branch, (Company name)......... limited:
Time of interview: January 5, 2017, 11.00 am
Venue of interview: Know your leaders event, conference room
It was the annual appraisal function at .... logistics company where I have been working for
three years under the leadership of Mrs ....., the branch manager. She is one of the most
recognised business leaders in the company and known for her experience and influential
prowess to make business happen. I got an opportunity to interview her about her leadership
style, experiences, personal life, complexities and challenges she faces as a leader. I learnt the lot
for her feedback about leadership and its importance. Following are the questions of a two hours
interview which Mrs ...., branch manager (BM) took in the evening on the day of the ‘Know your
leader’.
Question 1: Ma’am, I have been working under your leadership for three years. It has been
a great experience working under your leadership and I sincerely look up to you as a role
model. Finally I got an opportunity to interview you...
BM: Really...Go ahead(Smiles encouragingly)
Question 2: How long have you been with this organisation?
BM: Five years...
Question 3: Please tell me about your experiences as a BM and a vice president of such a
reputed logistics company.

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BM: (Thinks for a moment) Great experience. I joined the company as a manager and worked in
the position for two years. After that a senior manager and then a BM. I did not expect the
position of a vice president... but yes I am balancing the two positions...hope I doing it
successfully.
Question 4: One of the most influential and powerful persons in the organisations, several
awards and recognitions. How does it feel?
BM: It is feels great...to enjoy the position, power, influences..but with it comes more pressure,
responsibilities and expectations...It is tough to reach my position of a leaders I accept...but it is
tougher to shoulder the responsibilities and pressure of expectations of many people, seniors and
subordinates alike.(Smiles)
Question 5: What are the challenges you have faced in the course of ascent up the ladder?
BM: Yes...many challenges. The biggest challenges you face if you are a highly performing and
ambitious employee like me is from your own seniors. They will try to put you down and eat into
your spirits. It is finally up to you how you take it. I used those challenges as opportunities to
showcase my skills as a leader before my skip level seniors, over achieved my targets and what
not to reach here. There are two weapons which I feel an employee can use to rise professionally,
in the first stage it is usually a combination of performance and support from boss and peers. The
next weapon is a combination of influence and power to rise higher up the ladder and secure
your position.
Question 6: What are the complexities of leadership you face?

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BM: Leadership is all about handling complex situations after all..(Smiles). As a leaders you
should be always ready to tackle awkward situations like whether to save your juniors from your
boss or to show case their faults. Sometimes, it is normal for business to go down and your sales
people do not get good leads. After all there are so many competitors and it takes a lot time and
hard work to get good clients. I understand that all of you work hard but sometimes the hard
work takes time to show results. I during those times I have to get the hit and hide you from my
boss, the cluster head and give you time to perform. Leadership is not merely about achieving
targets; it’s more about motivating and having faith in your team and leading them through bad
days.
Question 7: Do you change your leadership style?
BM: Ya.. it depends on the situation. When I understand that the poor performance is due to you
faults I am autocratic. When I ask you for your opinion in the morning meeting, I am democratic.
It changes you..,.no one style fits all situations. Your experiences will teach what to do and
which style to adopt.

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