Leadership Assignment: Developing Action Plans for Aldi & Jerry’s Electrical

Question

Task 1: Contextualize your answers by providing examples to a specific organization in this task of leadership assignment (either your workplace, a workplace you have access to or a simulated workplace). In doing so, outline how you evaluated and identified any leadership challenges and specifies the recommendations to address those challenges. This includes developing a plan to effectively encourage the team to work together, share tasks, communicate and work positively to resolve specific workplace and leadership issues

This assessment must be presented in a professional manner and should be comprehensive. Present your report using the following suggested outline. Ensure that your assignment is well structured and that each section is explicitly analysed in relation to the literature and research.

1. Identify and describe the industry you work in (e.g. IT, retail, health care - nursing, mining, education etc.)
2. Identify and describe the current practices around the identification of leadership skills required and the strategies adopted to develop leadership capacity in staff. (You could consider consulting with your HR section.)
3. Reflect on your own leadership development and identify what processes and experiences have aided the development of your leadership capacity.
4. Conduct some informal research with colleagues to identify how they would like to develop their leadership capacity and report on your findings.
5. Relate your discussions to one or more of the Leadership frameworks you have studied.
6. Develop an action plan for the development of Leadership capacity within your staff.

TABLE FORMAT (Included in this action plan will be strategies adopted to engage staff and overcome obstacles.)

Task 2
Jerry's Electrical
Jerry's Electrical has been specialising in electrical engineering contracting work since it was established in 1986. The company distinguishes itself by offering high quality work rather than the cheapest service and maintains long-term relationships between their clients and staff. A strong feature of the company is its workforce which is highly skilled and motivated to deliver the best quality service to its clients.

Productivity challenge
The challenge faced by Jerry's Electrical is largely based on management and sustaining rapid expansion. This is accompanied by issues regarding recruitment and retention of skilled workers in a tight labour market, managing people effectively and increased compliance costs. Three barriers to increased productivity have also been identified- poor quality of workmanship and materials; wastage; and the availability and rising costs of goods and services. However, the biggest threat to profitability and productivity is the growing competition from other sub-contractors who undercut their tenders by using inferior components and employing cheaper labour.

Outline a leadership plan to address the productivity challenges faced by Jerry's Electrical.

Your Assessor will represent Jerry's Electrical for any consultations you require.
You should:
1. Identify and describe the industry.
2. Reflect on your own leadership development and identify what processes and experiences have aided the development of your leadership capacity and how these could be applied to Jerry's Electrical.
4. Conduct some informal research with colleagues to identify how they would like to develop Jerry's Electrical leadership capacity.
5. Relate your discussions to one or more of the Leadership frameworks.
6. Develop an action plan for the development of Leadership capacity within Jerry's Electrical.

Answer

Task 1
Description of the Industryselected in this context of leadership assignment
The retail sector consisted of various areas such as supermarkets, department stores, chain stores, variety stores and others. The retail sector in the global market has recorded sales of $24 trillion sales as of 2020. In the total sales, the physical retail stores accounted for sales of $22.13 trillion and online or e-commerce retail sales accounted for $4.1 trillion. This shows that retail sector has various branches and areas of deliver through which they operate (Statista, 2020). Retail is a vast and most growing sector worldwide with its wing spreading in various areas. With the complexities involved in the retail, it becomes important for the sector to take into consideration the leadership for effective management. I work in one of the known supermarkets named Aldi for the past two years in the sales department as a sales manager where I have look after the management of sales team and strategize the ways to improve sales.

The report on leadership assignment analyzes the current practices involved in my organization for identifying leadership skills and developing leadership capacity. Further, the report reflects on my leadership development over the time. Lastly, the report shares light in the ways my colleagues prefer to develop their leadership capacity and an action plan to support the development.

Current Practices for Identification of Leadership skills
Aldi as an organization has always adopted various practices to identify the leadership skills that are required in the retail teams. Moreover, it has adopted strategies or methods that can help develop leadership capacity among the staffs. It is stated herein leadership assignment that the organization I am involved in uses path-goal theoryor practice to identify the leadership skills that is required in the organization. This means that for the identification of appropriate leadership skills in Aldi largely depends on the goal that the team and the organization needs or want to achieve (Farhan, 2018). For example, when the task is related to developing long term organizational growth strategy that demands highly capable people, then it requires a participative leadership skill is required. Similarly, when the task is to deal with sales behavior or a simple goal then other leadership skills are required. This shows that the organization practices goal based theory or needs of people when identifying the effective leadership skills required.

In addition to this, people have always been the focus of Aldi’s management system and it has always developed strategies to develop the leadership capacity among their staffs. This means that the organization has made use of strategies to develop knowledge, skills and attitudes among the staffs that can make their capable of engaging in leadership (Leck&Wang, 2004). One of the strategies used by the organization I work in is collaborative techniques that help foster empowerment among its staffs. This means that through collaboration, the company is able to make staffs take decisions, shares their ideas. Ithelps develop partnership skills and reduce vulnerability and in turn develops collaborative leaders. Further, Aldi is highly committed to provide employees with personal development and training that allow developing the leadership capabilities among their staffs (Han-qin, 2012). The training in the organization covers various areas of management such as store operations, product trading, finance and logistics. Thus, the staffs are trained to be skillful in showing leadership behavior in these areas of business.

Reflection on Own Leadership Development
Leadership development has been the major part of my role in Aldi, while working for all these two years. Inthese years, I have grown my leadership capabilities and abilities to solve multiple problems and complex team scenarios. As an employee in Aldi’s sales team and then a sales manager, I have developed as a leader in various areas. Now I am capable of performing multiple leadership roles while handling sales team. Initially I used emotional leadership styles to deal with situation where I used affiliative and commanding emotions to manage my team. These two emotions were extreme and led to various conflicts and complexities in managing team successfully (San Lam & O'Higgins, 2013). However, slowly, I grew my knowledge on democratic leadership and used democratic leadership style to manage my team. This helped me take final decisions, however, after consulting my team in decision-making process.

Further, the readings used to prepare this leadership assignment illustrates that theleadership competency framework can be used to identify the development of my competencies and path of becoming a successful leader. There are four areas where I developed as a leader such as leading others, knowing the organization, delivers performance and leading self (Czabanowska et al., 2014).Various processes and experiences has led to my development as a leader and appropriate skills.

Figure 1- Leadership Competency Framework
Source- Czabanowska et al., 2014

Leads others-in thecompetency I was previously only able to listen to others effectively and communicate with the team members effectively. However, slowly I developed in this competency where now I am able to motivate others and develop the inner strength of my team members while leading them. The experience of working with my superiors allowed me to develop on the competency that worked as a positive role model for me that accelerated my development.

Knows the Organization-I also developed my skill as a leader to know the organization and build various strategies for organizational betterment. With effective training process over time on organizational processes helped me develop competencies in this area such as be a system thinker and influencer. I am now able to understand the way systems work in the organization. Moreover, slowly handling difficult people allowed me to influence others easily and handle them effectively. Delivers Performance-by experiencing problematic situation and facing conflict in the system I am able to develop my problem solving skill and helped me make a diligent worker that seeks result.

Leads Self-as seen from above I was able to identify my ability such as emotional intelligence to handle team and professionalism. This was due to my conflict experiences I faced in my team that allowed me to identify the emotions important to manage team along with leading them with efficient set of professional behavior.

Ways Others Want to Develop Leadership Capacity
I have collected information through informal research method in order to develop this leadership assignment where I engaged with my colleagues during lunch and team meetings. The information helped me gain knowledge on the preferred ways through which my colleagues prefer to develop their leadership capacity. There was no one way that could help in building leadership capability (Leck&Wang, 2004). Multiple processes and techniques play a role in this aspect and preferred by the employees. From the information collected, the most preferredmethod to develop their leadership capacity is through taking more projects and challenges during work. This is because they believe in learning through practice over time in the organization. According to them, it is the best way one can develop their leadership capability through engaging in challenges and finding ways to deal with it. This is because it will help in developing leadership skills like situational awareness, inspiring others, conflict management and become a discerning listener. This is because when taking up projects there will be various situations that they have to deal with over time such as differences in thinking of team members, lack of motivation and others. Thus, the staffs in Aldi that I engaged in preferred to learn through practice.

In addition to this, other managers or colleagues that I engaged with preferred training as the most effective method to develop their leadership capabilities. This is because they feel formal training is the most effective way to learn leadership skills. Leadership capabilities are formed of various skills such as vision oriented, self-leadership, motivating, empowering, collaborating and innovation. Systematic and well-planned training would help develop in all these areas effectively.

Action Pan
The action plan for the development of leadership capacity within my staff will focus on the ways in which strategies can help engage staffs and overcome obstacles. The strategies in the action plan will reduce the resistance among the staffs to grow their leadership capabilities and make them learn new things easily along with their job (Slater, 2008). The action plan basis the case scenario of leadership assignment is for the sales team staffs that would be potential leaders in future and be able to lead sales team efficiently.

Table 1- Action Plan
Source- Author’s creation

Task 2
Description of the Industry
Electrical sector has attained growth on the global sphere with the rising importance of electronics among the consumers. The demand for electronics is fueling over time and employees more than 18 million people for electrical engineering work. The industry has become highly competitive dynamic in nature. The electrical engineering and design market on the global sphere is valued at $233.65 billion as of 2019 (Globenewswire, 2020). The rising competitiveness of the sector has been high due to rising urbanization. Moreover, the growth of electrical engineering market has led to the rising demand for sustainable resources and use of quality resources. This has led to the rise of leadership in the electrical sector to manage the complexities of the operations. Jerry’s Electrical is facing productivity challenge due to lack of leadership capabilities, which led numerous problems such as difficulties in retaining workers, recruiting, managing people, compliance cost, poor quality workmanship and others. This is because lack of management activity in the organization created both operational and people management problem.

Reflection on Own Leadership Development and Application to Jerry’s Electrical
My own leadership development process has been effective and practical based rather than much training on leadership behaviors. I have learnt about various leadership theories and styles through my job roles in past years. I have developed from an emotional leader using emotional leadership style when dealing with issues to using democratic and transformational leadership style. Before I was highly emotional when leading my team and failed to think in a unique way to solve problems (Al Khajeh, 2018). However, with time in working with the team I have understood the importance of other leadership behaviors and skills. Initially with emotional leadership style, I was highly efficient in using leadership skills like honesty, relationship building and positivity. However, engaging in my managerial responsibilities and training I am able to develop my leadership skill development (Leck&Wang, 2004). This helped me to develop in various leadership skills area such as creativity, delegation, communication and inspiring motivation.

Various experiences and processes as discussed in this segment of leadership assignment that I went through in my professional space aid the development of my leadership. I faced conflict in my team and the conflict resolution process that I implemented helped me to develop as a leader with better communication and delegation. Moreover, as a part of decision making in professional projects and conflict situations I understood the importance of delegating the team along with developing collaborative relationship (Al Khajeh, 2018). This is because there were situation where delegating and leading the team with my own decisions were important to avoid conflicts. The team activities were also responsible for helping me learn ways to motivate others and bring creativity in my decisions. Together it was beneficial in helping me learn the democratic and transformational leadershipskill that believes in collaboration, innovation and delegation.

The leadership development that I acquired as a part of my professional experience and processes can be applied in Jerry’s Electrical in solving their productivity issue. The issue of managing the people and retaining the staffs would be solved with my ability to delegate the team and developing relationship building among them. Moreover, my transformational leadership style would allow me to form innovative ideas for the production team that could improve the level of workmanship in production and reduce wastage and rising cost. Building creativity and inspiring others is the best way a leader can reduce excess use of material and poor quality workmanship in teams. Thus, building capacity of leaders in Jerry’s Electrical is the best way to resolve productivity issues.

What are the ways others prefer to develop Jerry’s Electrical leadership capacity discussed in this leadership assignment?
After collaborating with the colleagues in professional areas, I came across various other ways by which they want to develop the leadership capacity of Jerry’s Electrical. Most of the responses were in favor of giving leadership training to the leaders in Jerry’s Electrical. This is because most of them believed that productivity problems in Jerry’s Electrical were huge and it cannot be solved with only practice or communication. The findings obtained in this section of leadership assignment signifies that this required training of leaders or managers in correct direction that could help them develop behaviors and skills to retain and recruit staffs, manage people and develop strategies to reduce barriers to productivity. Training would help giving close attention to the capabilities of leaders and guide them to improve their potential and readiness. While some of my colleagues believed that to develop leadership capacity in Jerry’s Electrical, it is important that the organization focus on recruiting and retaining right people. This is because recruiting staffs with leadership potential along with other skills will be the most cost effective way to solve productivity issue in the organization. A right person with leadership skill will have effective knowledge on managing conflict, be highly motivated and hold high planning and problem solving skills.

Action Plan for Jerry’s Electrical
The action plan developed in this leadership assignment will allow Jerry’s Electrical to improve their leadership capacity in their production environment by building on correct skills, attitudes and practices that a person should have to be well motivated in productivity team (Slater, 2008).

Table 2- Action Plan
Source- Author’s creation

References
Al Khajeh, E. H. (2018). Impact of leadership styles on organizational performance. Leadership assignmentJournal of Human Resources Management Research, 2018, 1-10.

Czabanowska, K., Smith, T., Könings, K. D., Sumskas, L., Otok, R., Bjegovic-Mikanovic, V., & Brand, H. (2014). In search for a public health leadership competency framework to support leadership curriculum–a consensus study. The European Journal of Public Health, 24(5), 850-856.

Farhan, B. Y. (2018). Application of path-goal leadership theory and learning theory in a learning organization. Journal of Applied Business Research (JABR), 34(1), 13-22.

Globenewswire. (2020). 2020 Electrical Engineering Services Market Report: Worldwide Industry Review and Forecast, 2015-2025. globenewswire. Retrieved 8 September 2020, from https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2020/02/03/1978852/0/en/2020-Electrical-Engineering-Services-Market-Report-Worldwide-Industry-Review-and-Forecast-2015-2025.html.

Han-qin, L. I. N. (2012). About the Management of Human Resources in the Chain Enterprises of Aldi. Journal of Anhui Vocational & Technical College, (4), 13.

Leck, K. M., & Wang, B. J. (2004). Five core ideas for developing leadership capacity to drive business results. Employment Relations Today, 31(1), 61.

San Lam, C., & O'Higgins, E. (2013).Emotional Intelligence and Leadership Styles in China. Asia Pacific Management Review, 18(4).

Slater, L. (2008). Pathways to building leadership capacity. Educational Management Administration & Leadership, 36(1), 55-69.

Statista.(2020). Retail market worldwide - Statistics & Facts.Leadership assignmentstatista.Retrieved 8 September 2020, from https://www.statista.com/topics/5922/retail-market-worldwide/.