Leadership and Change: Critical Analysis and Development Report

This report presents a critical analysis of a leadership scenario encountered during an internship at a multinational company, focusing on a team's struggle to meet customer demands due to language barriers. The analysis highlights the implementation of a strategic plan involving subgroup division and transactional leadership styles to improve customer handling and streamline operations. The report examines the importance of mentoring skills, behavioral approaches, and assessment briefing sessions in managing diverse teams and enhancing communication. It also includes a leadership development plan, emphasizing the importance of self-assessment, feedback, training, and embracing challenging experiences to improve leadership capabilities. The report concludes by emphasizing how the adoption of leadership theories and practical applications can enhance skills and improve the ability to handle workplace pressures. The report also references several academic sources to support its findings and recommendations.

LEADING AND CHANGE

Table of Contents
1. Introduction............................................................................................................................3
2. Critical Analysis.....................................................................................................................3
3. Leadership Development Plan...............................................................................................5
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................5
References and Bibliography.....................................................................................................6

1. Introduction
I am reflecting a scenario that I had faced while working in a multinational company, during
my internship in the course. I recalled my experiences when I led my team in the business
and management workshop in my school. There was a situation when our team was in a
dilemma of choosing the strategy that would have helped our team to meet the customer
demands. My team consisted of 10 students of my section, including me. Our objective was
to deal with the customers and handling their queries. As it was an MNC, people of different
languages began communicating with me. As we were not competent with the languages of
different areas, it was a huge problem to meet the desired objectives. This led to the
significant in the loss of the customers and the increase in the work pressure. This was one of
the most challenging and difficult situations that brought me to several conclusions.
2. Critical Analysis
In the above situation, I decided to have a different approach in handling the customers, as
the basic principle of management and development was the innovation of the newer skills
and strategies. As the newer skills were not easy to be developed within a short period of
time, therefore, the plan was made according to the prevailing situation. It was necessary as
the time was limited and the objectives were huge, as we had been given the responsibility to
handle at least 100 customers daily. Moreover, it was impossible to learn the different
languages very rapidly.
I made a strategic plan of dividing the group into different subgroups. Due to my stay in
three different areas of the country, I along with two of my team members was competent of
handling several linguistic customers. This brought me to conclude that four of us will be a
member of the customer handling and the rest of the others will be engaged in customer
query processing. This provided the instantaneous division of the workgroup. However, it
was very difficult to complete the handling of 100 customers regularly, though it was finally
analysed that we had been able to provide efficient services to 87 customers on the first day
of implementing the plan. It was initially difficult to cooperatively discuss the plan and at the
same time, some of the members disagreed with the plan. However, few had the doubt of the
performance they were intended to deliver. It was provided through a personal basic training
of handling the customers and understanding the formal language that the customers were
speaking at the start of the conversation. This allowed them to connect the line according to
the competent members. Further, a major disadvantage in the leadership was that I felt
problems in communicating according to the cultures of my team members. The use of
behavioural approach was deemed to be apt regarding this situation since handling customers

requires assessment of consumer behaviour. Different members had different outlooks and it
was difficult in meeting the beliefs and cultures of the individual team members. Therefore, I
had to improve my mentoring skills by including the monitoring skills. Assessment of the
behaviours of different team members helped me in realising their preferences and skills that
they are adept in. This assisted me in devising plans as per their potential. The behaviour
pattern that I monitored for each employee helped in devising change of training modules to
make them skilful in their tasks and be more interactive.
In this case, I have been able to provide the Transactional Leadership styles, in the
management of the team. Transactional Leadership is based on the theory that the leader of
the team provides the useful strategies to the other team members at the times of different
problematic situations (Clarke, 2013, p.42). A static chain of command is established in this
leadership style. It reciprocates the skills of the leader, as the leader is able to portray the
clear structures of operation at the specific situations to yield a productive result, within a
short period of time, by adhering to the legislations and the principles (Chege et al. 2015,
p.595). The decisions and the plans of the other members of the team are widely discussed in
the presence of the leader. Further, the decision making process was boosted with the use
assessment briefing sessions that helped in carefully segmenting and distributing knowledge
about execution of plans and modules. Delivering the information accurately to employees
and briefing them about the various demands of the work helped me to interact the plans
more easily and gather valuable inputs. These briefing sessions allowed me to analyse
performance data of employees along with their payroll data so that I could evaluate
performance indicators for all employees to measure productivity. It also benefitted in
understanding whether an employee is being paid as per their performance levels.
From the above experiences, I have learnt the management and the academic theories about
leaderships and management are easier to learn, however, the practical applications are
important to understanding the true essence of the leadership (Eagly et al. 2003, p.569). The
utilisation of behaviour approach and effective assessment briefing sessions helped in in
delivering ideas easily and gathering feedback from employees. A number of skills had to be
developed by me, to effectively manage the teams and exhibit efficient leadership qualities.
These improvements include the implementation of self-evaluation practices, accepting the
regular feedbacks, adopting monitoring skills, conducting briefing sessions, accepting
different challenges at different situations and undergoing training sessions to increase my
skills and capabilities.

3. Leadership Development Plan
Implementing Self Assessments: It will allow me to increase my personal skills and have
the evaluation of my personal merits and demerits while working in an organisation (Sosik
and Godshalk, 2000, p.368). Moreover, it will enable me to increase my power of evaluation
and decision making, because of the self-reflection that I have been able to perform.
Feedback: I must have the attitude of accepting the feedbacks from the different persons that
I have been acquainted with in my workplace (Egri and Herman, 2000, p.602). It will enable
to have the better understanding of my skills and my ability to perform. It proves me the
framework to understand my strengths and my shortcomings according to the viewpoint of
the others.
Training: I must undergo training to increase my abilities and this will provide me with the
opportunity to learn newer skills and develop the existing skills (Leban and Zulauf, 2004,
p.557). Eventually, I will be accustomed to the developments around me, and it will provide
me with the ability to communicate and have a prosperous career at the workplace.
Accepting Challenging Experiences: Accepting the challenges and working confidently in
the challenging situations will provide me with the efficiency to deal with the complex
situations in the teams (Du et al. 2013, p.162). Therefore, I will be able to provide a stable
leadership even at the times of emergency and competitions.
Conclusion
Finally, it may be concluded that adopting leadership theories such as behaviour approach
and assessment briefing sessions improved my knowledge and skills as well. Moreover, the
leadership improvement plan will allow me to have the increased skills of handling the work
pressures at the workplace.

References and Bibliography
Chege, A.N., Wachira, A. and Mwenda, L., (2015). Effects of Leadership Styles on
Implementation of Organization Strategic Plans in Small and Medium Enterprises in
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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.
Du, S., Swaen, V., Lindgreen, A. and Sen, S., (2013). The roles of leadership styles in
corporate social responsibility. Journal of business ethics, 114(1), pp.155-169.
Eagly, A.H., Johannesen-Schmidt, M.C. and Van Engen, M.L., (2003). Transformational,
transactional, and laissez-faire leadership styles: a meta-analysis comparing women and
men. Psychological bulletin, 129(4), p.569.
Egri, C.P. and Herman, S., (2000). Leadership in the North American environmental sector:
Values, leadership styles, and contexts of environmental leaders and their
organizations. Academy of Management journal, 43(4), pp.571-604.
Leban, W. and Zulauf, C., (2004). Linking emotional intelligence abilities and
transformational leadership styles. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 25(7),
pp.554-564.
Mls, K. and Otĉenáŝková, T., (2013). Analysis of complex decisional situations in companies
with the support of AHP extension of vroom-yetton contingency model. IFAC Proceedings
Volumes, 46(9), pp.549-554.
Sosik, J.J. and Godshalk, V.M., (2000). Leadership styles, mentoring functions received, and
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behavior, 21(4), pp.365-390.
van Knippenberg, D., (2013). Leadership and decision making: Defining a field. Judgment
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Vroom, V., Yetton, P. and Jago, A., (2015). Normative Decision Process
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