Leadership of Steve Arnold: A Report on Effectiveness

This report assesses the leadership qualities of Steve Arnold, a production manager at Acne Manufacturing Company, based on a provided case study. The analysis identifies shortcomings in Steve's discipline, communication, punctuality, and organizational skills. The report details specific instances where Steve's actions led to inefficiencies and missed opportunities, such as lateness, poor time management, and inadequate preparation for meetings. Furthermore, it explores strategies for improvement, including the importance of clear communication, setting goals, prioritizing tasks, and undergoing management training. The conclusion emphasizes the need for Steve to address his weaknesses to become a more effective leader and improve his overall performance. The report references several academic sources to support its findings and recommendations.

Leadership
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Table of Contents
Wrong Situations and Fixations 3
Effective Leadership 3
Conclusion 4
References 4

Introduction
The aim of this report is to assess the leadership quality of Steve Arnold, a production manager at
Acne Manufacturing Company in New Jersey. According to the case study, Steve is facing troubles regarding
his discipline, communication and punctuality. The first part of this report is to analyse the things that Steve
did wrong and what should have been done. The second part identifies the strategies that Steve could do to be
more effective as a manager.
Wrong Situations and Fixations
According to Manning and Roberts (2015), it is required that a good leader should be disciplined.
Although Steve was already 35 minutes late for work, he spent extra 20 minutes chatting with his friend
George Summers while entering work. Hence, Steve should have kept the conversation really short and
precise to avoid further delay. He also forgot about the staff meeting at 9.30 with his boss as he never got a
chance to look at the memo that he had received which announced the meeting. Steve should have kept the
memo on his dashboard to avoid missing the meeting timings and agenda (Buble, Juras and Matić 2014).
Steve was then late for his pre-scheduled appointment with Mr. Ferris which he claimed to have not found on
in his calendar. He then was not prepared with any technical answers to the question asked to him by Mr.
Ferris. Clearly, it was required that Steve should have kept the appointments organized and have held some
extra room for emergency conversations. Such emergency conversations included incidents where Steve’s
co-associate Paul had to discuss some emergency problem in the production schedule by a major equipment
breakdown (Răducan and Răducan 2014).
Moreover, Steve should have kept the lunch meeting shorter as he was expecting an emergency call
from his colleague Lucy who was on a strict timeline in training. Steve wasn’t able to present quality figures
given to him last week for assembling by his boss as he thought that it was important to finish the monthly
production data. Here, Steve should have realized that meeting deadlines is an important key factor for an
effective leader and hence, he should have worked on his boss’s assignment prior to doing anything else. He
then got late for his meeting of the plant safety committee and missed a call from Lucy again. Steve is
severely suffering from time-management issues and needs to grow discipline in personal and professional
life by stepping out of his comfort zone to become a better leader (McCleskey 2014).
Effective Leadership
Becoming an effective leader is important so that one can manage their employees. In the given case
study, Steve lacks discipline, punctuality, organization, co-ordination and communication. He needs to
overcome these issues to become an effective leader. Steve must communicate properly when relaying
instructions, recapping meetings and doling out company updates. Steve must set goals for every department

and shall give them a unified focus and inspire them to be together. It is important to meet deadlines and act
within the proper time. The achievable goals must be set and Steve must set deadlines accordingly so that
none is missed. Being late hurts relationships, sales, organizational culture and growth of the organization.
As a leader, people count on Steve and are dependent on him. Steve can undergo manager training that could
teach him the skills of communication, organization and co-ordination (Antonakis 2017). Coaching and
mentoring is necessary for building skills and getting feedback. Steve needs to stop multi-tasking where he
can focus on one thing at a time. He must delegate responsibilities to different people that shall make him
less stressed and focus on being more productive. A list of things to do must be made by setting reminders on
phone and computer. Work can be prioritized accordingly. Self-discipline must be practiced by Steve as it
shall help him in gaining self-confidence. Clarity, accuracy and thoroughness are the best way to avoid
miscommunication and keep your team on the same page (Men 2014).
Conclusion
Conclusively, in the case study, Steve is seen to be experiencing issues like discipline, time
management and communication. Steve must communicate properly when relaying instructions, recapping
meetings and doling out company updates. Steve can undergo manager training that could teach him the
skills of communication, organization and co-ordination. Steve needs to keep his conversations precise to
avoid delay. He must delegate responsibilities to different people that shall make him less stressed and focus
on being more productive.

References
Antonakis, J., 2017. The nature of leadership. NSW: Sage publications.
Buble, M., Juras, A. and Matić, I., 2014. The relationship between managers’ leadership styles and
motivation. Management: journal of contemporary management issues, 19(1), pp.161-193.
McCleskey, J.A., 2014. Situational, transformational, and transactional leadership and leadership
development. Journal of Business Studies Quarterly, 5(4), p.117.
McCleskey, J.A., 2014. Situational, transformational, and transactional leadership and leadership
development. Journal of Business Studies Quarterly, 5(4), p.117.
Men, L.R., 2014. Strategic internal communication: Transformational leadership, communication channels,
and employee satisfaction. Management Communication Quarterly, 28(2), pp.264-284.
Răducan, R. and Răducan, R., 2014. Leadership and management. Procedia-Social and Behavioral
Sciences, 149, pp.808-812.