Scenario 2: ChemoCorp

The Sales Manager joined ChemoCorp Group four months ago and has taken control of a Sales Department within one Division.  His sales department is sub-divided into three units:

• Key Account Management I, managed by Peter Böhme (major customers in the plastics-processing industry)
• Key Account Management II, which the new Sales Manager manages (major customers in the photographic industry and lubricant industry)
• Account Management III, managed by Cynthia Grabert (minor customers in the plastics, photographic and lubricants industries)

Last week, the sales Manager was also assigned the task of coordinating the new Group-wide Optimal Selling Strategy Project (OSS) and ensuring its implementation within ChemoCorp.  The aim of the Project is to ensure that sales prices to major customers are standardised worldwide.  This is hoped to produce major saving potential and higher sales volumes as a result of a selling strategy that is more effectively focussed on the customer.  OSS is also aimed at overcoming the annoyance of many customers concerning differing prices within Europe and the risk of re-imports.  

In order to achieve this target, it is absolutely essential that the Sales Manager has the assistance of his staff, particularly that of Peter Böhme, since price harmonisation is relevant to his customers.  In addition, it is imperative that Peter Böhme brings his expert knowledge to bear in this project.  

This OSS Project now provides the Sales Manager with a welcome opportunity to hold a first detailed employee discussion with Peter Böhme after four months.  During the meeting, the Sales Manager aims to raise the following subjects:
• The Project OSS.
• Feedback on Mr Böhme’s achievements and input.
His aim is to motivate Peter for the OSS project and to show Peter how he wants to support the whole team and makes it more effective.

The sales Manager's current assessment of his three staff members is as follows, which will be relevant to this discussion:

Mr Peter Böhme, who is responsible for Key Accounts I has been with the company for over 10 years and has learnt his sphere of activity starting at the bottom.  Along with his main duties, Mr Böhme also represents the company or the Sales Department in various associations, bodies and study groups.  In the German Sales and Marketing Association he is the deputy chairman, which on the one hand is useful, but on the other restricts his availability at the workplace.  He also represents the division within the Association of Plastic Manufacturers in Europe (APME).  He is an excellent specialist in his field, who is also said to display excellent team spirit.  In general, Mr Böhme is a calm and level-headed employee whom nothing upsets very readily.  In his performance assessments, emphasis has always been placed on Mr Böhme’s great commitment and his readiness to assist.  He implemented faultlessly and on time the changeover to the new DP system, which controls all sales activities “online”.

However, it is the Sales Manager's early opinion that Peter Böhme spends too much time on association activity, as evidenced by his frequent absences and markedly increased expense account levels by comparison with the previous year.  Moreover, he seems to have lost his readiness for action and the high level of commitment for which he was famed in the past.  He currently conveys a somewhat unenthusiastic impression and appears to be happy when he can go home at 17.00 hours.  Within the team, he appears to get on well with Dorothy Fehr, the Secretary, but ignores Cynthia Grabert.  The Sales Manager believes it is important to have a good departmental climate where everyone is compatible and helps one another.

Cynthia Grabert, who manages Account Management III,  joined the firm one year ago, after completing her business management course at the Mannheim vocational training college.  Mrs Grabert’s training essentially consisted of sitting in for 3-month spells in all units, in a similar manner to a trainee, without assuming major responsibility.  For 3 months she has now managed the unit Account Management III on her own.  Since she lacks management experience and also still possesses little experience in the sales sector, the manager has undertaken to “coach” her and provide her with the necessary skills.  In difficult negotiations in particular, in which the supply prices are a crucial factor, the manager considers it essential to accompany and assist her.  In spite of her lack of experience, she does not lack self-confidence and occasionally tends towards brashness.

Dorothy Fehr is the department secretary.  She processes all correspondence and types the contracts for all units.  Furthermore, she organises dates, meetings and business trips for all Sales staff.  In addition, she undertakes the duties of a clerk, such as processing purchase orders, checking payments received and looking after the files.  Mrs Fehr has been with the firm for 12 years and has been in Sales for 8 years.  She works very much on her own initiative and conscientiously.  She is particularly useful by virtue of her good overall view and many years’ knowledge of all matters, even fairly old ones.  She has become the “pivot” of the department, not only by virtue of her function but also because of her friendly and helpful manner.

Leadership Style Alternatives

There are four possible ways the Sales Manager could lead the meeting with Peter Böhme:
    
a) Use a Directive approach - having questioned Peter about the current situation, decide on how to implement Project OSS and tell Peter exactly what he needs to do.  

b) Use a Consultative approach - having discussed the current situation with Peter, the Sales Manager could get Peter's ideas and suggestions about Project OSS, then use these to tell Peter exactly what he needs to do.  

c) Use a Consensual approach - having discussed the current situation with Peter, the Sales Manager and Peter could collaboratively generate and evaluate alternatives and attempt to reach agreement about how to implement Project OSS.

d) Use a Delegative approach - having questioned Peter about the current situation, the Sales Manager could provide Peter with clear parameters and objectives and give him the responsibility to implement Project OSS.

Before viewing the videos where the Sales Manager attempts to implement each of these approaches, rank order the four styles in terms of their feasibility:

1. Using the model above, name the style that is the 'best bet' - the most feasible style, with greatest merit, given the information available to you.  This will be ranked first.

2. Using the model above, state which of the two adjacent styles is the next most appropriate.  In this way, you will be able to determine the most feasible orientation (i.e. control, empowerment, task or involvement).  This is ranked second.

3. Using the model to assist, which style is diagonally opposite the most feasible style?  This will be the most infeasible style that has least merit of all, so will be ranked fourth.

4. Name the remaining style, which also has little merit, and note its orientation.  This style is ranked third in terms of its merit.

Leadership Judgment Questions

Next, attempt to answer 'Yes' or 'No' to each of these 'judgment questions' as if you were the Sales Manager.  These can be used to help establish which style has the 'best bet' chance of working:

ABOUT THE TASK -
Is this a really important decision?
Do you feel there is time urgency?
Do you know enough to generate a solution on your own?
Does this need the views of both Peter and yourself?
Have you worked successfully on this type of problem before?
ABOUT THE PEOPLE -
Is this a good opportunity to develop Peter?
Will Peter readily follow your decision?
Could Peter sort this out on his own?
Can you trust Peter to do what's best?
Is there going to be quite a lot of disagreement about this?

Next Steps

If possible, discuss your 1-4 rankings and pattern of 'Yes' / 'No' responses with a colleague before viewing the four videos and critically evaluating the efficacy of each style in this particular situation.  

Bear in mind that:

  • No one leadership style is universally applicable to all decision making situations
  • No one leadership style is inherently better than any other
  • Effective leaders gear their style to the nature of the task and the characteristics of the people involved
  • Each decision-making situation can be methodically assessed to determine the most appropriate leadership style
  • Effective leadership involves a preparedness to adopt different styles of decision making

Take Hogrefe's Leadership Judgment Indicator, in one of its three forms:

  • The Leadership Judgment Indicator 2 (LJI-2) - the original test that will benchmark your wisdom in leadership against a broad population of leaders.  See an example report here.
  • The Global Leadership Judgment Indicator (G-LJI) - this will benchmark you against people working at more senior levels in multi-national organisations.  See an example report here.
  • The Sales Leadership Judgment Indicator (S-LJI) - this will compare your judgment against a large population of sales directors and managers.  See an example report here.

To obtain a quotation for completing one of these tests, please email Andrea Charlesworth.