Reflective Report: Developing Leadership and Change Management

This report reflects on experiences as a supervisor at Subway, focusing on critical incidents and their impact on developing leadership skills and change management abilities. It evaluates incidents such as employee conflicts and customer dissatisfaction through relevant theories, highlighting the challenges faced in implementing effective leadership styles and organizational changes. The report emphasizes the importance of adapting leadership approaches to different situations and the continuous learning required for professional growth. It concludes by summarizing key learnings and identifying areas for further improvement in leadership and change management practices, particularly in fostering better employee relations and enhancing customer satisfaction.

Leadership

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY ..................................................................................................................................2
Leadership skills..........................................................................................................................2
Change management...................................................................................................................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
Appendix.....................................................................................................................................7
References:.....................................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Skills are the ability to do something well. These skills can be the academic and the professional
skills. Academic skills are the skills that are developed by students to develop a range of
academic and employability opportunities including critical thinking. Professional skills are the
ability gained by the people for the workplace beneficial for jobs(Alvesson and Einola, 2019). In
this report, my experiences as a supervisor in the company 'Subway' as an intern was explained.
The critical incidents happened with me in the company were also made known in this report.
How those incidents effected me as a person and how those critical situations were important for
me to develop some very keen skills and qualities for my performance improvement were also
understood. In this report the incidents were evaluated in relation to two theories. These theories
will be explained below in detail including its meaning and definition and how it helped me. The
challenges I faced while gaining this development quality will also covered. Then the second
theory will also be learned in the same way and the need of those and the challenges I faced will
also be understood. Then the report conducted will be concluded by the facts of the learning
from these incidents and what are the areas I have to improve on. As a supervisor a I had to deal
with people and the take care of the responsibilities of those people and keep track of their
performances to make sure that the company is being productive because of them. My work was
to manage and supervise the restaurant franchise and its workforce. One of the critical incident
that occurred there was the fights between the employees which was consistent throughout my
presence in my beginning stages. These fights were initiated through small arguments and ended
up being a big fight which also involved the customers at some point. This type of critical
situation should not have happened under my watch as it ended up ruining the reputation of our
franchise and in turn our whole company. The company will be held responsible and the
management is likely to make me responsible for the nuisance that was created in the premises.
The reason of this incident to take place could be lack of leadership from mine and my peer's
sides. Also the lack of experience from my side could be the reason for the bad supervision. It
could also be possible that the structure of the working could not be beneficial for the employees
present there and there could be a requirement of change in the organisations culture that would
be able to make the employees less stressed and more enjoyable. Another critical situation that I
was in when present in the company 'Subway' as a supervisor is the lack of customer satisfaction
which was noticed only after observing the routines of the people for few weeks. I understood
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that it wasn't something that the employees were forcefully doing but was a doing of the culture
that the employees and the management were just dependent upon. I, as a supervisor, also felt
responsible for those things and felt that there was need for better leadership in the company and
there was a requirement for change implementation so that the company improves there
performance and the problem of customer satisfaction gets resolved soon. It is to be noticed that
the company performance is very dependant upon whether the employees are disciplined and
well coordinated with each other and if the customers are getting fully satisfied by the restaurant
itself. These critical incidents were also followed by many other challenges that were to be in
consideration for the better learning and improvement for me in the organisation and as a person.
The critical incidents were also a reason why our company 'Subway' was giving in less profits
since few time and the reputation among the people around our workplace were
decreasing(Diklic, 2018). Even some of the loyal customers were starting to try new places since
they were not happy with those situations that happened under my supervision. These things
were also a learning for me as a mode of analysis of my performance.
MAIN BODY
There has been few skills that I developed after being in the critical situations that I was in as a
supervisor. These also involved the academic and the professional skill development strategies
which I developed through my working. These skill development were necessary for me to
develop through time as these were required to be understood for my professional development.
The skills that I gained through these critical times were also important for me in my personal
life as these were almost necessary in daily lifestyle. One of the skill that is important for me and
have learned from the critical situation is the Leadership skill.
Leadership skills
Leadership is the action of leading people. These people could be a group of teams or an whole
organisation. A good leader is very needful to complete the proper teamwork and produce the
best outcome possible. Leadership skills are one of the most important skills needed if someone
wants to lead a group of people. These group could be an organisation or even a soccer team.
According to the author W.C.H Prentise, the Leadership is the accomplishment of a goal through
someone's direction which could be person's influence(Dzwigol, and et.al., 2019) . A good leader
may or may not even show power but still could be influential enough that the people he is
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leading are motivated and know the objectives that they have to complete. The biggest
achievement of a good leader could be that the people he is leading are well coordinated and well
behaved with each other. The skills to become a good leader can be from a person's aura itself.
There are people who are a good leaders from within, as they have a sense from inside which
pushes them to become a good leader. The skills required to be good leader could be the
motivation factor. Understanding human nature, critical problem solving and implementing
changes precisely. Also a good leader should be someone who thinks for the team and not the
individual self. As I was working as a supervisor in the company 'Subway' I felt and experienced
some critical situations which were important for the my improvement in gaining some skills.
The situations I faced were the fights between the employees which was due to the low
supervision by me. I feel responsible because I think that being a good leader should have made
me solve those issues instantly or may be never let these situations happen in the first place. I
have learned that a good leader should be dominating enough that the team he is leading is
disciplined enough(Sow, and Aborbie, 2018). And there should be specific rules and regulations
set which should have been important in making people know that they are doing wrong. Also
the incident I faced taught me that there was a lot to learn for me as a supervisor. It showed me
that there are challenges which I failed to tackle at an early stage as leader. It showed me that
how much I feel confident about my capabilities there is always some scope to learn when it
came to being a leader. Another incident that I faced was the situation where the customers were
not satisfied by the company's service(Galli, 2018). As a leader I felt responsible for that too as
the company had a culture which did not support the proper service of the customers. The leader
in me felt disheartened as I was not able to do much to change the whole company's culture. The
employees in the company were not doing enough and I felt that if I was dominating enough the
some decisions could have been made as the leader is only person who could identify the wrongs
and evaluate it in a proper way. Getting the customer's satisfaction was a challenge as it did
challenge the assumptions of my framework. The strategies I made were not enough to win the
customers heart and it was needed for me to do understand the customers better and the make my
employees do better for them. This is one quality which I have learned and it will influential in
my lifestyle throughout(Rosari, 2019).
There could be different leadership styles that could influence the employees performance. For
me it was also important to choose the right style before I could implement them at my team's
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disposal. These leadership styles could define how the whole group is working (Gardner, and
et.al., 2020). I as a leader could be very dominating which would make them a very disciplined
but could end up killing their confidence. I could also be a leader that will be open to suggestions
and make a group run according to their satisfaction. Another thing which I could also do is to
create a democratic presence in the group. As these type of leadership style could be helping the
people in having a fair voice in the matter of the whole team. According to the author, Fahad
Usman- “Leadership is about construction of relationships. A leader must ensure that the goal of
the leadership form is not confined to acquiring results.” This is exactly what the leadership style
should be manifesting through in their group. A leader has to make sure that he is truly focussing
on the right results and not always think just about the results but also the other situations since a
leaders decision matters the most to the performance of the team. Hence it can be noticed that
involving a proper leadership style is one big challenge in itself and it is not necessary that the
style which was right for one organisation would be effective for everyone. The styles has to
different as the leaders change and for me it took some time to understand that my style of the
leadership effective for the whole team was different than my assumptions(Zheng, Chen and
Shang, 2019).
The critical incidents I faced made me understand that I needed to be more informative about the
leadership skills that are the academic skills and the professional skills were not enough to be
just learned but also be applied to the handle the difficult situations well. Managing the
employees and the customers well is a big responsibility for the leader to complete their own
objectives. Leadership is something I have learned and will never hesitate to actively learn more
about it.
Change management
“Change is the only constant reality of life and is observed in both the personal and the
professional lives of people” (Gigliotti, and et.al., 2019) . This is the definition according to the
author Anastasia Belyh who wants to convey that change is necessary for staying relevant in the
market for the company. Change management theories and models are required for the
implementation of these things properly. It was noticed that the change management was another
feature that was able to be implemented. Other than that the leadership aspect the companies
incident which occurred there were able to give proper learning for the future scenarios. The
company's culture and the management thoughts were, according to me very responsible for the
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incidents that happened in the premises under my supervision. I should have been a good leader
and used my strategies to implement proper change management that would have helped resolve
the problems that took place. Under my supervision the employees quarrelled and mishap
occurred. I felt that the whole management was responsible for that mishap that took place. As
the discipline was not set up properly by the managers from the beginning it was very tough for
me to keep them in discipline and make sure that it was resolved in time. I as a supervisor was
unable to influence the people to stop doing what they were doing. After the incident I realised
that the change is necessary when it came to making proper rules for these situations. There was
change needed on how the operations in the company 'Subway' was happening as the fights
could have been stopped from occurring itself if the work was smoother than it ended up in. The
change implementation I felt I needed to execute in the company is divided workforce activities
and proper record of the leaves of the employees. I myself went on with the old culture of the
company where the documentation and the record-keeping was not done well. I proved my self
to not be a good leader yet as I was unable execute things properly. Another incident that took
place was the problem of not giving proper service to the people as that made the people who
were our customers unsatisfied on a consistent basis. The organisation culture was a problem
which worked as a traditional feature in the company but it actually required some changes to
totally cover up all the age groups. The subway staffs were not able to satisfy the people who
were teenagers because they were unable to understand them. The company needed some
strategies to be changed which would be able to satisfy the younger generations. The change is
mostly needed for the culture to keep it more open for the customers by implementing feedbacks
strategies so as to know what the real customers wants and satisfactions are. Also the company
need to introduce some new products that will be unique to the customers and will be very
important to them in keeping them busy with the new things. The changes are not easy to
implement though, and with my experience it was necessary for me to be able implement proper
strategies to make sure that the changes are facilitated well in the culture(Matthews, and et.al.,
2018).
According to the author, Ben Mulholland for a business to survive it needs to be evolved and to
evolve it needs to make changes(McCauley and Palus, 2021). There are few change management
models which are needed to properly implemented to facilitate changes. I myself took the help of
some of the renowned change management theories which helped me in understanding the basics
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of the change management procedures. It is also necessary to apply these theories well as
sometime the study and the application ends up being distant from each other. The change in an
organisational culture needs a lot of resources and cooperation from everyone. In a company like
Subway, it was as challenge to properly implementation the changes in its culture as it is
properly settled in its culture and changing something means risking your job for something
worth risking.
Also to retain the customers well it is needed to their feedback to cover up the missing part of the
loophole that is in the service of the company's employee. I, while dealing with the customers
satisfaction understood that the people's preferences will be always changing with time. Whether
how much settled they be from the business and the products they will someday get bored of it
and require change form the business and the management. The incidents proved to me that
change is always relevant to the world in what ever aspects possible. A good leader is only
someone who can successfully implement changes amongst the team or the group (Mwakisaghu,
2019). Leadership and the change management are two skills I have developed through the
incidents that have happened with me as a supervisor in the company 'Subway'(Ospina, and
et.al., 2020). These were not only important fro my professional lives but also for the personal
learning as well.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it can be concluded that skills and knowledge plays an important role to
be an efficient leader capable of handling team and guiding them to efficient achievement of
goals and targets. Lack of skills and leadership qualities can cause chaos within the team and
could lead to critical incidents as mentioned in the report above. It can also be considered that
professional learning is an essential part of an leader that he/she must continue in respect to
bringing efficiency within the organisation. Importance of change management can also be
concluded from the above report as change at workplaces are dynamic in nature and a leader
must have to be skilled and knowledgeable enough to handle such changes. Also, regular
changes at workplace whether in roles and responsibilities of employees or in positions of
employees created challenging working environment for employees so that they can be more
productive and find creative solutions for their assigned tasks and roles. Both efficient leadership
and application of change management culture brings positivity and creates healthy working
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environment at workplaces. It can also be concluded that a positive and efficient leader is
responsible for creating harmony among employees towards each other. Also, culture of empathy
within the organisation can be obtained by the efforts of prominent leadership styles. Such
culture creates happy workforce in organisation resulting in high retention rate of employees. As,
a result of above report, I learned more about leadership qualities that helped me in eliminating
chaos at workplace. Also, I managed to bring a change within the workplace that leaded to
positive customer feedback eventually generating higher revenue for the branch. I have been
learned to continuously gain skills and knowledge to handle teams in efficient way and to be
more productive as a result of above mentioned scenarios in the report.
Appendix
Critical Incident:
- Disputes between employees – It happened a month after my joining as a branch supervisor.
Random unplanned designation of roles and responsibilities created misunderstanding of
assigned tasks and responsibilities causing ruckus among employees.
- Unsatisfied customer feedback – Due to mismanagement as mentioned above, employees were
dis interested in their assigned roles and duties. Such attitude of employees hampered the
services need to be offered to customers. Also, delay in preparing customers orders caused
negative influence over the customer impacting revenue generation.
Further mentioned is the detailed brief about these critical incidents.
STARP Table Notes
S= situation the context/background to
where/when you had the experience.
- Such incident happened when I was
working as an intern at subway as branch
supervisor.
- Arguments between employees regarding
their tasks and responsibilities roused into
physical chaos at workplace.
- As a result, we got negative customer
feedback based on our services offered and
poor work culture because chaos at
workplace caused negativity at the work
place.
- Employees felt demotivated resulting in
disengagement or less engagement of
employees from their responsibilities.
T= task what was required of you in the
situation listed above
- I was required to efficiently handle the
employees under my supervision and
delegate their tasks and responsibilities
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clearly and precisely.
- I was required to demonstrate my
leadership and management qualities to
efficiently handle the staff.
- Absence of leadership qualities caused
chaos at workplace causing delay in
customer services leading to negative
feedback of customers
- As an outcome, customers retention rate
was decreased, less customers turn-up for
the orders at branch due to chaos and I felt
the need of change management in our
approaches.
A= action what you actually did given the
situation what was required of you
- After thorough planning the working
structure, I first and foremost planned clear
and concise roles and responsibilities
according to the skills and interests of
employees which enhanced my leadership
skills.
- Every individual was delegated with
specific roles to make working process
easier and free of hindrance.
- Though, such actions were required by me
from the first day I joined the company but I
was unable to figure out the change
management in the working environment at
first glance in the branch.
- If I would have implemented the same
leadership and management strategy from
my initial days, such incidents could have
been avoidable.
R= result how well did you do what did you
learn from doing it
- I was able to use my leadership qualities to
reduce the conflicts at workplace in the
branch and bring the harmony inside. As a
result of which happy and healthy work
culture started to prevailed within the
branch.
- I made few changes within kitchen area by
ensuring proper placement of employees
who assist each other in operations for
smooth functioning and timely completion
of customers orders.
- These changes as a part of my change
management ideology brought positive
customers feedback along with rise in
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customer retention rate.
P= plan what do you intend to do now to
improve or build upon
- Both the incidents at workplace have made
me understood the importance of leadership
and good leading abilities I must have to
lead a team efficiently.
- Further on in would like to build my
leadership qualities to ensure providing
proper guidelines to employees for smooth
working.
- I believe this will also eventually lead to
creation of harmony among the workforce
leading in bringing efficiency at the branch.
- Apart, I also realised the importance of
change at workplace after certain periods so
that employee feel rejuvenated and didn't get
bored in there tasks.
- Change management i.e. switching tasks
among employees or switching positions at
the same level to maintain employees
engagement with work resulted in
promoting healthy work culture.
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References:
Books and Journals
Alvesson, M. and Einola, K., 2019. Warning for excessive positivity: Authentic leadership and
other traps in leadership studies. The Leadership Quarterly, 30(4), pp.383-395.
Diklic, K., 2018. Introduction, change management and teacher attitudes. No. 22 Int'l J. Econ. &
L., 8, p.25.
Dzwigol, and et.al., 2019. Formation of strategic change management system at an
enterprise. Academy of Strategic Management Journal, 18, pp.1-8.
Galli, B.J., 2018. Change management models: A comparative analysis and concerns. IEEE
Engineering Management Review, 46(3), pp.124-132.
Gardner, and et.al., 2020. The leadership trilogy: A review of the third decade of the leadership
quarterly. The Leadership Quarterly, 31(1), p.101379.
Gigliotti, and et.al., 2019. The role of perceived organizational support in individual change
readiness. Journal of Change Management, 19(2), pp.86-100.
Matthews, and et.al., 2018. Building information modelling in construction: insights from
collaboration and change management perspectives. Production planning &
control, 29(3), pp.202-216.
McCauley, C.D. and Palus, C.J., 2021. Developing the theory and practice of leadership
development: A relational view. The Leadership Quarterly, 32(5), p.101456.
Mwakisaghu, J.K., 2019. Strategic management change. International Journal of Advanced
Research in Management and Social Sciences, 8(5), pp.8-22.
Ospina, and et.al., 2020. Collective dimensions of leadership: connecting theory and
method. Human Relations, 73(4), pp.441-463.
Rosari, R., 2019. LEADERSHIP DEFINITIONS APPLICATIONS FOR
LECTURERS’LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT. Journal of Leadership in
Organizations, 1(1).
Sow, M. and Aborbie, S., 2018. Impact of leadership on digital transformation. Business and
Economic Research, 8(3), pp.139-148.
Zheng, P., Chen, C.H. and Shang, S., 2019. Towards an automatic engineering change
management in smart product-service systems–A DSM-based learning
approach. Advanced engineering informatics, 39, pp.203-213.
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