Change Leadership Journey: Commonwealth Bank of Australia Case

This essay delves into a personal leadership journey within the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, focusing on observations, analysis, and the process of change. The author reflects on their initial role in retail banking, subsequent promotion to sales manager, and the challenges faced in boosting credit card sales. The implementation of a situational leadership model, emphasizing self-awareness, social awareness, and relationship management, is discussed as a key driver of change. The essay also explores the reasons behind the need for change, the learning experiences gained, and a fishbone analysis to identify the root causes of issues affecting leadership effectiveness and financial revenue. Ultimately, the essay concludes that effective leadership plays a crucial role in enhancing organizational performance, highlighting the importance of understanding team members' strengths and fostering a supportive environment. The Commonwealth Bank of Australia experience underscores the value of proactive problem-solving and strategic adaptation in achieving desired outcomes.

Running head: Leadership Journey And Changes
LEADERSHIP JOURNEY AND CHANGE

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Observations and analysis......................................................................................................3
Process of change and success factors...................................................................................4
Reasons of the change............................................................................................................5
Learning experiences.............................................................................................................6
Fishbone Analysis......................................................................................................................6
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................8
References..................................................................................................................................9

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Introduction
The paper below will discuss about my journey in Commonwealth Bank of Australia.
Commonwealth Bank of Australia is the largest multinational bank in the country providing
financial services such as retail, banking and insurance across US, UK and even Asia region.
The study shows deep impressions of the various factors of my journey, the process of
change in leadership style and the physical and mental strategies implemented to earn the
success. To clarify more, the observation is elaborated with a fishbone diagram where they
remaining reasons are being highlighted.
Observations and analysis
This essay is based on all my experiences and observations that I have got from the
Commonwealth Bank of Australia. As it is known, the Commonwealth Bank is one of the
largest faces in the Australian Business who is actually dealing with various other regions in
the world. Initially, I was posted in the retail banking section where I have to edit and store
data based on the daily financial transactions of the bank with other branches and business
partners (Liu, 2017). Later on I was promoted as the sales manager of the Sydney regions
and appointed with a team dealing with the Credit cards sales in the entire region of Sydney. I
was appointed with a hard working team who are technically strong and have the ability to
increase revenue for the bank. I observed that the Bank was not achieving the desire goal and
there is a significant numbers of losing client deals with the Banks Credit cards transactons.
A meeting regarding the issue was conducted to identify the key points of failure and
to exercise proper strategies which can resolve the issues in the Commonwealth Bank of
Australia. Credit card transactions are one of the most used solutions in today’s generation as
everyone are now aware of the benefits of online transactions. Credit cards allow us to

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actively shop and use as required without the requirement of any emergency cash for the
dealings (Willcocks & Reynolds, 2015). Thus, holding a credit will definitely help our
planning, shopping and other desires which will be provided from the bank itself and later
need to be paid by the customers. I found that for an effective sales representation I will have
to show my ability to increase the Bank revenues on the cards. I develop various abilities
inside me to access the Credit cards promotion all throughout the Bank’s businesses and
retained maximum customers to stick with the Commonwealth Bank Credit card deals.
Process of change and success factors
As a sales team coordinator, my first point of interest will be to collaborate and encourage
my team members to achieve the desired results. Sales are all related to earning profit in a
business and preparation of customer handling in any organisation. Leadership is not only a
positions it is a way of understanding the perspectives, identifying the ideas and moving on
with a clear approach towards a common objective. In an organization, here the
Commonwealth Bank is highlighted, a leader may be a manager, CEO or the sale team leader
like me will carry the responsibility to undertake several important decisions towards the
objective (Campbell, 2016). The change that I developed in the organisations helps me to
understand my strength and the opportunities that I can create on focusing with the leadership
change process. The process follows several steps:
 Self Awareness – The most effective steps for any change is recognising our
needs and estimating the future plan according to it. Credit cards sales of the
Commonwealth Bank of Australia is sure to be one of the highest rated sales of
credit card in the entire region as they deals with the countries of Europe and Asia
as well. This makes me understand the value of my positions and the future
prospects of the change as well.

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 Social Awareness – This ability helps me to realize and respond to the requests of
others mainly the client and the customers. Not only this, it shows improvement in
my social skills and earns the admiration of others in the organization or outside
the bank. Understanding and resolving other people's opinions and feelings is
essential to grow our emotional intelligence. Thus getting it wrong will left the
people seems uncaring and numb in the solutions (Liu, Cutcher & Grant, 2015).
 Relationship Management – Managing the customers and dealing effectively is
always an objective for any sales or marketing oriented organizations. My
prospect in the commonwealth bank of Australia shows the same humour to create
effective bonding with the client and customers for better reach of the
organization’s business. My post as a sales team leader in the Banks focuses on
constructing a firm affinity between the Commonwealth Bank of Australia’s
business and its potential clients and customers (Fallon & Emanuel, 2019). The
communication process will engross important statistics and sales breakdown and
seeks to keep up the customer's attention in the bank and its credit cards
department. Being a Customer Relationship Manager the marketing ideas and
post-sale support information helps to grow the business.
Reasons of the change
The change that was developed inside me was due to the ability to understand my
flaws and regenerating the tactics to gain the ultimate position in the organization. As
appointed as the sales manager, I have to make sure that The Commonwealth Bank will
certainly have maximum benefits in financial dealings and marketing their Credit Cards to
the citizens of Australia (Davies, 2018). There are several leadership models implemented in
an organization but the one I implemented is the situational leadership model. This model is

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very effective to broadcast the experiences of the customers handling process and the
resolving methods to solve the issues of customers.
Learning experiences
Various lessons that are recognized from journey of my leadership are:
1. Be patient and calm towards any effects for gaining best solution of it.
2. Understanding the process and identifying the efforts required to be more effective
(Jonker, 2016).
3. Self awareness and motivations is a tremendous solution to achieve a better mental
state when you are taking steps to develop.
The job was to be self-oriented tasks where I have to sit around to gather data and manipulate
it in various excel sheets for further operation. The effect of the change came when I was
mentally distorted and was not satisfied with my job role and post.

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Fishbone Analysis
Problem s and analysis of
leadership change
Improper arrangement of
the organisation and lack
of encouragement
Lack of training
programs
Ineffective approach towards
the objective
Lack of interests in
outcomes
Losing focus from the
current tasks
Loss in total financial revenue of the
bank and losing customers
Effects
Causes

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(Source: Self-Made)
(Figure: Fishbone analysis
Fishbone diagram is proposed by Ishikawa for identifying the root cause of any issue
and what consequences it has with the current scenario. It helps me to evade solutions that
simply deal with the symptoms of a bigger threat (Makinde, Munyai & Ramatsetse, 2017,
December). The above diagram is an analysis of the possible causes and effects of the
leadership change journey in my organization. The bones of the diagram are attached with the
causes and the effects based on my experiences in the Commonwealth Bank of Australia. It
shows the main reasons which are continuously affecting to be an efficient leader and also a
way to solve the problems naturally by nullifying every aspects of threats. The analysis
shows that improper management leads to ineffective solutions and strategies towards any
issues (McIlroy, 2018). Thus without a proper functioning management team in the bank, it is
not possible to run an object oriented team. In my journey I found that encouragement from
your side and also from the whole management will definitely increase the credit card sales
number and the customers will get the trust to transact more with the same.
To be a successful leader, one must know the value of his/her team members and the
ability of each member to deliver for any tasks. I was generally looking to examine every
members with their strong points based on the performances that they have shown to the bank
in last few days. The diagram shows that there is lack of engagement of employees towards
the Credit card sales growth which gradually diminishing the chances of further investments.
When you are not aware of the outcomes of a given task, you will definitely lose the focus
from the task resulting in more numbers of problems in the organization (Sheehan & Kinley,
2018). I found that the bank’s employee was merely showing any interest to my plans and
methods. Thus, by changing the process and strategies, I have initiated the interests of the

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employees as well as the customers of the Banks to invest and market more in the Bank. A
in-house training program was recommendable at that stage, and I found it to be more
effective when dealing with the root causes. The program includes proper communication
learning, convincing and polite speaking knowledge, presentable characteristics and time
management solutions.
Conclusion
It can be concluded that leadership in any sector plays an effective role to increase the
business of the organisation. The study was based on my personal experience working in
Commonwealth Bank of Australia and the shortcomings of my journey to a better leader. The
fishbone analysis is very effective in identifying and manipulating the problems related to the
leadership changes. Therefore, the above discussion can be adopted in any organisations for
obtaining better team performance by any leader.

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References
Campbell, I. (2016). Towards customer leadership: Building a Sales Force in Telecom
Australia in the 1980's. Australian Journal of Telecommunications and the Digital
Economy, 4(4), 133.
Davies, J. (2018). The inner journey of leadership: Preparing leaders for a Vuca
world. Independence, 43(1), 14.
Fallon, K. A., & Emanuel, D. C. (2019). Journey of Change: A Summative Assessment
Transformation. Teaching and Learning in Communication Sciences &
Disorders, 3(1), 1.
Jonker, N. (2016). Regulating interchange fees for card payments. In Transforming Payment
Systems in Europe (pp. 149-181). Palgrave Macmillan, London.
Liu, H. (2017). The masculinisation of ethical leadership dis/embodiment. Journal of
Business Ethics, 144(2), 263-278.
Liu, H., Cutcher, L., & Grant, D. (2015). Doing authenticity: The gendered construction of
authentic leadership. Gender, Work & Organization, 22(3), 237-255.
Makinde, O. A., Munyai, T., & Ramatsetse, B. I. (2017, December). Establishing suitable
process improvement methodologies for optimizing servicing operations in the
banking industries. In 2017 IEEE International Conference on Industrial Engineering
and Engineering Management (IEEM)(pp. 860-864). IEEE.
McIlroy, J. (2018). Bank scandals fuel calls for completely new system: Why we should
nationalise the big four under democratic control. Green Left Weekly, (1178), 8.

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Sheehan, K., & Kinley, D. (2018). Community Expectations: Putting People Before Profit
Means Taking Human Rights Seriously. Sydney Law School Research Paper, (18/73).
Willcocks, L., & Reynolds, P. (2015). The Commonwealth Bank of Australia–strategizing
from outsourcing to the cloud part 1: perennial challenges amidst turbulent
technology. Journal of Information Technology Teaching Cases, 4(2), 86-98.