How Has Brad Green Leadership Style Changed over the Years - Assignment Example

University name: Course title: Management assignment: Management Student Name: Date: Lecturer: Q1.How has Brad Green leadership style changed over the years? Brad Green leadership style has changed from being the one in control of Pronto Mortgages to employing professionals to run his company. In a way, he has to delegate roles of the company that he involves himself in everyday decision making to allowing others to contribute in the day to day operations of the company. At first, he was reluctant to letting go of his leadership since he believed that the success of the company was greatly attributed to his personal involvement in the business operation. Brad also used the charismatic leadership style in running PRONTO Mortgages business. He was mainly involved in every aspect of the business, for instance, by attending weekly meetings and offering advice to his staff members. Charismatic leaders such as Brad believe that their leadership style is the most effective style to lead where the workers are involved and stimulated in a captivating approach that leads to results achievement (Biviano 2000). Though the business was still growing at a rate of 5% annually, the company overhead costs were increasing and the staff lacked up-to-date mortgage processing skills leading to customer dissatisfaction. With time, the profits fell by 30% and there were internal management problems in terms of communication and lack of managerial skills. An additional problem was increased competition from the banks as they gained a greater market share. This eventually led to the rethinking of the leadership style that he had used all along. Brad changed to a decentralised structure when it came to decision making in the organisation by giving the middle levels managers and team leaders the opportunity to make the decisions on their own. During meeting, he only offered the introductory comments and gave opportunities to the managers to showcase the new and innovative ideas that had proved to be successful within the company. Despite this, he did not disengage himself entirely from the business since he used email address, feedback surveys and discussion board to get information from the staff. Brad's leadership style also makes use of the autocratic leadership style that is also termed as the authoritarian leadership style. This kind of leaders has individual control over all the decisions that are made in the organisation, and there is usually a low level of input from the managers and other employees. The leader makes the decisions by virtue of their job responsibilities and position in the company (Petrie 2014). These kinds of leaders not only control the team’s efforts, but they also monitor them closely to ensure completion. Though this type of leadership style may be fitted for some industries it may not be suitable for others. Brad depicts this leadership style in the case study since he is said to have a personal involvement in all the business operations, and he totally believed that his initial success was due to his involvement. He acted as the strategist, chief figurehead, operations and promoter-manager of PRONTO Mortgages. After the expansion and failure of the business in terms of reduced levels of profits and managerial problems Brad changed his leadership style since he attributed the sudden business failure to the leadership style that he had applied all along in managing the company. The company was now large in size and had other new locations and had a broad range of product offering to the customers. He changed and adopted a democratic leadership style (Foster 2002). Based on this leadership style Brad shared the company leadership with team leaders and middle-level managers. They helped him in making decisions in the company. Is Brad approach reflective of current leadership trends? To a great extent, I firmly believe that Brad’s approach is reflective of the current leadership trends in modern day organisations. Modern-day organisations are experiencing a lot of changes. This is due to the advancement of technology and presence of younger employees in the organisation. Thus, if leaders apply the same old leadership styles, they are bound to fail. Therefore, leaders operating in the current labour market need to adapt and change their leadership styles for them to be successful. Based on the case study, at first Brad applied the charismatic leadership style but later adopted the democratic leadership style. This shows that Brad was open to the idea of letting the middle-level managers, the team leaders and the employees get involved in decision-making (Foster 2002). A significant number of employees feel more comfortable while working in organisations where they are involved in decision making and where they are offered the chance to air out their opinions on certain issues in the organisation. This seems to be the latter case in PRONTO Mortgages Company where the workers are allowed to participate in decision-making and in managing the company. Brad changed the management system by employing highly experienced managers who are given the role to manage the company under less supervision. Brad new approach is intuitive to the current leadership trends where shareholders give the managers the mandate to control and regulate the industry on their behalf. In return, the shareholders enjoy the profit that is accumulated in the firm. Besides, leadership is now developed in the new era of technology and Brad has embraced technology in his company. This has led to the transformation of the organisation and management of a company in the current leadership (Petrie 2014). Brad also integrated technology in the company through the creation of email address and discussion boards where the staff members can air out their grievances. This shows us that PRONTO Mortgages Company under the new modernised leadership is reflective of the current leadership trends. A common leadership style that is mainly applied in the modern world is democratic leadership style where, all the individuals in the firm are involved in decision-making rather than the manager being the only decision maker (Foster 2002). Q2.Challenges One of the most challenging and demanding aspect of effective change in an organization is communication as evidenced in the case study. Introducing successful change relies heavily on the participants involved in the change process and how they view it. In the case study, workers are not ready to embrace the change imposed on them. This is clearly seen when the employees perceive Brad as having abandoned them because he is not directly involved in the decision making process of the company. In regard to one of the many change management theories, that is; the Lewin’s three step Change Theory, there are 3 steps that are necessary for the change to take place. They include; unwinding the status quo in the company (Kristsonis 2005), for instance, relieving Brad of his role in making every decision in the company. This is followed by behaviour change in the employees as the second step in the change process, where the employees have to come to terms with the change process and start accepting the changes that are happening in an organization or are being introduced in the organization. This is followed by the refreezing stage whereby the employees have to get accustomed to the changes in the organization (Kristsonis 2005). For instance, the changes have to be stuck to so that the employees do not go back to their old ways prior to the implementation of the changes. Analysing the case study where the employees feel that Brad has abandoned them, it can be said that they are still in the changing process whereby, if the three steps according to Lewin can be followed, the change process would be an effective one. Brad has to continue decentralizing decision making even though the employees feel abandoned so that the process can stick to the employee’s routine. If Brad is to interfere with the decision making process even after the changes, the employees will reverse to their old ways of consulting him and hence a problem to the change process (Burrett 2012). In most cases, restructuring a business takes time to be embraced. Staffs in PRONTO Montages complained of insufficient supervision. After the restructuring, the employees had no confidence in embracing the new managerial system. They believed only Brad could make appropriate decisions thus, taking theirs as an inappropriate and inapplicable within the company. Moreover, the staffs could have taken the opportunity to work towards their individual goals rather than company’s objectives (Saltman, Bankauskaite & Vrangbaek 2007). Benefits By allowing workers to take part in decision making, they are motivated (Joseph 2015). This morale enables them to act under no supervision that is, they are self-driven. Self-pride is also noted. Moreover, the environment is made conducive where they feel safe to be and work in. Employees get the chance to freely make use of their skills and ideas. More time and effort is dedicated to work leading to targeted goal achievement. Resources are one of the main tools in a company. Business will probably end up making a loss if these resources are misused. Businesses also need skills in operating the resources available. By Brad introducing the human resource managers and accountants, the available resources in PRONTO Mortgages are well and effectively utilized (Zadeh, Saderi & Gilani 2012). In addition, the company is advised on how to calculate output and come up with the best financial results that will favour Brad’s business in terms of keeping the best accounts as per the performance and inputs used. By restructuring, the overall company management is made easier. Brad, who used to be consulted by workers, is now off-loaded that task. He now can dedicate time on other activities that are beneficial to the company. Every member of the company works under his/ her own supervision aiming the chief business goals. Communication has also contributed greatly on the management. This is because the information is easily passed between the workers and the manager facilitating any problem to be detected easily and possible solutions implemented before it develops into a bigger problem (Dean 2009). PRONTO Mortgages has realized annual increment in profits. The changes made for instance, decentralizing decision making has led to the company operating from a different angle that is, convenient in terms of participation to all. Brad’s business gets efficient, effective and readily available not only to its customers but also to others who wish to get services from them. This is important as more cash is collected from it operations leading to increase of profit every year which in turn motivates the company on obtaining its objectives. Q3. Mark Zuckerberg is the founder of Facebook, a social platform that enables people to connect worldwide. His leadership style is that of a charismatic leader in that, he is a leader who loves to motivate his employees towards achieving the goals of the organization. As a young talented leader, he has grown his organization to success with the help of his employees who he shares the visions and goals of Facebook by collaboratively working with them as is with charismatic leaders. Charismatic leaders are known for the abilities that they possess which make them admirable by others preferably their employees. Mark Zuckerberg is a naturally born leader where his traits can easily be illustrated by the level of intelligence, confidence, social and maturity level. He exhibits his traits towards his fellow peers and workers. Ashkan (2010) asserts that, one of the traits of a charismatic leader is to come up with visions that are solution oriented and makes them to be identified easily. Mark has the ability to check others feelings and emotions, to distinguish among them and be able to use the information in guiding him to come up with ideas that solve certain predicaments in people’s lives. People tend to associate with a person who motivates them with vision and passion. Mark strong-will allows him to hold on his vision and stay focused throughout (Waldman, Bass, & Yammarino 1990). Mark is also wise in choosing the correct time and location to launch his project. This portrays him as a charismatic leader. Charismatic leaders are known to have high level of intelligence and wisdom which helps them to make wise decisions at critical moments. He first launched his project in Harvard to his fellow students before taking it to California. At the same time, he also turned down an offer from Viacom and Yahoo and instead, choose to work along with Microsoft which eventually turned to be a good offer which bore fruits. Richard Branson is the CEO and founder of Virgin group companies. He empowers by giving his employees freedom to be more creative. This helps his company to grow and improve services which it offers to its customers (Dearlove 2007). He tries to show a good impression towards his workers which is among the traits of a charismatic leader. He is a very friendly person with his workers. Richard has formed good working rapport with his staff whom he respects and treats like his own family. Sometimes, he always organizes parties for them at his home. These traits show how close he is with his staff and how much he treasures and respects them. Richard believes in his ability that helps him create confidence among his workers to believe what they are doing is right and eventually, they are going to succeed in whatever project or new innovation they try to implement. Charismatic leaders have a way of communicating words of inspiration and motivate their followers to have self confidence in their work (Conger, Kanungo, & Menon 2000). Richard is an adventurous and a curious leader who discovers that he cannot accept everything he is told by his employees. He asserts how tough it is to say no to his employees without dismissing their creativity. Later, he realized that a good leader must exercise some level of authority. Steve Job was an experimenter who always tried to find new approaches and methods to do new things. He always tested various products that did not meet his level of satisfaction. He was a perfectionist who discarded many projects that did not meet his level of fulfilment (WBS News 2014). Steve was a good persuader who tried to convince his workers and customers by using stories to illustrate his ideas .He was a good story teller and these qualities helped him to capture people’s attention whenever he had a presentation to discuss. He further extended his illustrations by giving dramatic drawing in his story telling presentations. He was also a member of creative networks group which was mainly made up of people with similar interest, goals and visions as that of his own. He also provided each one of the group members with knowledge, psychological and emotional support. This attribute is associated with charismatic leaders who always want to associate with people adding value to their lives and career wise (WBS News 2014). He had exhibitions on figurative skills which helped him to have many followers who believed in his Apple Company and products. His traits enabled the Apple Company to be recognized and accepted globally. He was a persuasive speaker who attracted many people to believe and follow what he had to say. He was a brilliant leader who knew how to use persuasive style collectively with other skills like theatrical skills which brought out the best in him at all times. These traits portray him as a person who was a defender of his company (Ashkan 2010). Q4. Decentralizing decision making and involving staffs is a good formula approach for long-term business success for PRONTO Mortgages. This is because the company is able to solve the problems it is experiencing before the restructuring. Faster decisions are made without consulting from the higher level of management.which in turn, leads to business success (Montana & Charnov 1993). This means, decisions made by the staff are implemented on time leading to PRONTO Mortgages improving in terms of productivity. Another long-term success is obtained by taking risks. Brad was ready to take the risk of decentralising decision making. By this, he is able to motivate the employees who now enjoy working in the company under no pressure nor getting consultations from Brad. He has also built the connections and a good relationship with other networks, human resource managers and accountants who have greatly helped him to improve the professional skills among the employees. The relationship between the workers and himself has greatly improved. To gain success in the business, he has not closed the opportunity to meet people who can assist (Mackay 2014). Brad ensured the management target is implemented in the organisation and cultivated a performance oriented climate by involving the highly skilled managers in day to day decision making. The strategic management that Brad used is the key direction to the PRONTO Mortgages revamping to its former glory. He specified the organisational objectives, developing policies and plans design and allocating the resources to implement the plans that would led to achievement of business success (Anderson 2004). Decentralized structure helps the company to lessen the burden of work from one person .There is distribution of work that helps the employees to be more efficient in their work which eventually increases productivity. In decentralized approaches, employees get more exposure and empowerment when they are given some form of freedom to exercise their duties without much interference and control to come up with new ideas. This makes employees feel like they own the company hence, increase in productivity. The more entrepreneur spirit Brad initiates to the business, the better it harnesses on growth and increases the momentum in achieving day to day operations objectives of the business. This corresponds to flexibly of the success of the business. He also ensures that, the right incentive is embedded in PRONTO mortgages. This is done through widespread responsibility where, employees and teams are easily motivated thus enhancing growth. Brad is also able to gain trust on the managers who he offered the mandate to run the business. The trust is built through the vision of top managers where, they are persuasive enough and mobilize communication strategies and goals. Entrepreneur approaches can be of benefit to the employee if the organization is going to motivate and encourage it’s staffs to be more innovative hence PRONTO Mortgages should ensure the company sets aside policies that are more flexible and more attractive for their employees in order to remain dedicated to working for the company even after gaining experience (McGrath and MacMillan 2000). (Word count: 2807) References Anderson, T 2004, ‘Integrating Decentralized Strategy Making and Strategic Planning in Dynamic Environment’, Journal of Management Studies, Vol.41, pp. 1271-1299. Ashkan, K. 2012, Mark Zuckerberg’s Six Ingredients for Success, , TechCrunch Daily, viewed 17 Aug. 2015, . Biviano, A 2000, Charismatic Leadership. An Effective Instrument for Cultural Transformation, School of Management, Melbourne. Burrett,C 2012, ‘Leading complex change with post-conventional consciousness’, journal of Organisational Change Management,Vol.25, pp. 560-575. Conger, J. A, Kanungo, R. 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