The concept of leadership primarily involves working with different people to do various actions that would not only help them improve their skills but also limit organizational risks. Moreover, it is not linked to authority but the ability to influence others to work together to achieve specific goals that would enhance development (Kerr, Morgan " Norgate, 2015). As a sales representative, my line manager had different leadership traits that discouraged productivity in the department and team spirit among members of that division.
The manager had poor communication and listening skills that limited his interactions with his juniors. In most cases, he only used notices as the only method of communication and fail to use the other different modes such as emails and text messages. Since the institution had numerous departments, it allowed the use of various methods of conveying messages to enable easy and faster communication. However, the sales manager restricted the techniques he used thus making it hard to pass any new information to the other employees.
The sales manager also valued experience over potential and did not initiate practices that could be used in improving the skills of new employees. Understandably, the potential of an employee without much experience can enable a firm to develop alternative ways of increasing productivity and innovativeness (Zaabi, 2017). Through failing to consider potential, the manager the manager discouraged new staffs from showing how best they can perform or how they understand the market.
Considering the effects these traits have on both the employees and the firm, developing alternative strategies would help me be a better leader than my manager. For instance, I would organize forums and training session to help employees understand the emerging trends and to develop alternative ways of approaching the market. I would also increase my communication with staffs to improve both communication and listening skills. Furthermore, I would emphasize on team spirit to help increase the interaction between experienced and new employees to help them exploit their potential.
References
Kerr, R., Morgan, S., " Norgate, C. (2015). Changing organizational leadership culture: focus on values changes culture. Future Hospital Journal, 2(3), 185-189.
Zaabi, H. H. J. A., Singh, S. K., " Ajmal, M. M. (2017). Role of organizational commitment, culture and leadership in managing innovation: a study. International Journal of Value Chain Management, 8(3), 270-284.
