BUS 520 Professional Development Program Proposal

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BUS 520: Leadership and Organizational Behavior

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Executive Summary

Certain factors are critical in improving the performance of the United Services Automobile Association (USAA) bank. These factors include Emotional intelligence and motivation, emotional intelligence and social skills and decision making, the building of effective teams, and coming up with an effective reward system.

Emotional intelligence building blocks that enhance motivation should be incorporated in both the management and the employees. These attributes are necessary to improve the quality of work of both the management and the employees. A motivated workforce is essential for any company. The organization should look into ways to instill these qualities in their workers or employ workers with these attributes. The attributes in the subject line include self-perception, leadership, emotional self-awareness, self-regard, and self-actualization.

Emotional intelligence and social skills and decision making is an essential factor for managers. The managers have to build up their social skills in emotional intelligence to influence better decision making. It is also important that they enhance their social skills to impact the workers in the organization positively. The organization should look to build management that possesses these qualities. These social skills should include; persuasion and influencing skills, communication skills, rapport skills, conflict management skills, and team-working skills.

Effective teams are also significant for the excellent performance of any company. The United Services Automobile Association (USAA) bank should look to build effective teams. All effective teams should contain appropriate trustworthy leaders and specialized team members. These members have a different set of skills which when combined, they form a solid team. Other building blocks of effective teams include balanced responsibilities, effective communication, cooperation, and individual development in the organization.

The United Services Automobile Association (USAA) bank should also come up with a reliable and effective reward system. Reward systems help to motivate workers. As a result, the performance of the employees and hence the organization also improves. Primary examples of reward systems use stock and financial rewards. Stock rewards are most appropriate for management while financial rewards work best for employees. The company can structure its reward systems based on its policies and its financial capabilities.

Emotional Intelligence and Motivation

Emotional building blocks are the necessary emotional skills of an individual that build up his/her emotional intelligence capability. Emotional building blocks are fundamental to any management's ability to enhance the performance of its employees and also to improve job satisfaction. The most important building blocks that enhance employee performance and job satisfaction are self-perception and leadership, emotional self-awareness, self-regard and self-actualization (Steven, 2018).

Self-actualization is the ability of an individual to improve themselves and awareness to pursue essential goals and objectives. Self-regard is the ability of an individual to accept one's strengths and weaknesses. Emotional self-awareness is the ability of an individual to be aware of and to understand their feelings and impact. Self-perception and leadership are the ability of an individual to understand their self-image and their leadership capabilities. All these emotional building blocks are fundamental to the management, to the employees and the organization in general.

Positive reinforcement as a motivation tool is the reward for doing something well (Seethi, 2014). This tool of motivation can be utilized when an individual excellently performs beyond their expectations. The management can also utilize positive reinforcement when tasks are allocated to a group of employees, and the management is seeking to promote competition among the group of employees. An example of positive reinforcement is when employees are given bonuses for completing specific tasks in the workplace.

Contrary reinforces as a motivation tool is a penalty for not doing something or doing something poorly (Seethi, 2014). The management can utilize this tool of motivation when the employees are performing poorly in their duties. The management can also utilize negative reinforcement when the employees are reluctant to carry out necessary duties in the workplace. The negative reinforcement can also be used when employees break the company's policies and procedures. An example is when employees are penalized for coming late to work.

Emotional Intelligence and Social Skills and Decision Making

In emotional intelligence, social skills refer to skills that are required to handle and even to influence other people's emotions effectively. Therefore, the core concepts of emotional intelligence could be used to enhance social skills of the management. The core concepts of emotional intelligence could also be used to increase the decision-making efficacy of the administration. These are very important for the control and even for the employees and the organization in its entirety as it improves its performance. The social skills necessary for any leader and the management include; persuasion and influencing skills, communication skills, rapport skills, conflict management skills, and team-working skills.

Persuasion and influencing skills are critical in getting things done. Management may use this skill to persuade other managers or directors to take up investments and other strategies that may benefit the organization. This skill can also be used to influence the employees to perform tasks diligently and excellently.

Communication skills are also essential for managers. Communication is crucial for any management when passing information to employees. It is essential for the management to effectively communicate so that the employees can perform well and not get anything mixed up when carrying out their duties.

The management also needs to build rapport skills. That is necessary since the management needs to build bonds and relations with the employees to ensure high performance in the organization.

The management also requires conflict management skills. That required to resolve any issues in the company that may cause conflict and leads to poor performance in the organization in both the management and the employees.

Team-working skills are necessary for management to work effectively with other managers and employees in the organization. Teamwork is essential since it boosts the performance of both the employees, management and hence the organization.

Effective Teams

A capable team is not that easy to accomplish. That is because an effective team requires some building blocks to be put in place. A capable team also needs some team dynamics to be beneficial to the organization. The building blocks and team dynamics required to come up with a capable team include clear objectives, appropriate leadership, equal responsibilities, effective communication, cooperation, and individual development within the team. All these aspects are very significant when coming up with a capable team.

In the aspect of clear objectives, these objectives for the team must be agreed upon mutually for all the team members and the team leader. In addition to this, the entire team must thoroughly understand the objectives of the team. The team members must have ideas as to how to positively contribute to achieving the goals of the team.

An appropriate leadership is very crucial for any team to perform effectively. The leaders of the team must possess leadership attributes that instill confidence in them and the entire team. The team members must feel that the leaders are competent to perform their obligations. The leaders must be trusted by the team. Also, the team members must feel that the team is being led well by its leaders.

Balanced responsibilities also positively contribute to the team's effectiveness. In every team, each member has a unique set of skills that enable them to perform better in specific roles compared to other team members. Therefore, this aspect should be tapped such that each team member is given tasks that they can perform excellently. That is like in the case of specialization where duties are allocated according to skills. Responsibilities should also be balanced in a manner that no employee feels either overworked or left out.

Just like in any organization, effective teams require effective communication. Communication should be productive and effective in both up and down the team's ranking and among the team members themselves. In case of any meetings and task allocations, communication should be transparent to make the meetings and task allocations productive.

Cooperation and individual growth are also essential for any effective teams. Not only should the team members grow as a team but also as individuals. That increases the strengths and effectiveness of the team as the individuals, and the entire team is empowered and is growing.

Strategies should be put in place so that these attributes are enhanced in every team. The management should choose team leaders who are capable and competent. These leaders will, in turn, identify the strengths of the teams and work to making them even stronger. The leaders should also recognize the weaknesses of the team and come up with mechanisms to make improvements. The management should also create teams based on the team members having different capabilities to improve the performance of both the individuals and the team. Picking team members with different skills also ensure that no one feels overshadowed by another individual.

Reward Systems

An effective reward system is a critical piece of a performing organization. An effective reward system serves to motivate the team members and in turn promotes the effectiveness of the employees and the organization (Study.com, 2018). A motivated labor force is a significant asset for any organization.

A reward system should incorporate both positive and negative reinforcement (Sethi, 2014). However, a company should focus on positive reinforcement since this does not make employees feel like they are being compelled to perform. Instead, it makes employees feel appreciated and vital in the organization. Reward systems also incorporate intrinsic and extrinsic rewards. Intrinsic rewards are rewards that are rewards that one offers themselves and is driven by personal interests in the work that an employee does. On the other hand, extrinsic rewards are the rewards that are tangible and are administered based on another person feeling that an individual has done an excellent job.

Most organizations consider extrinsic rewards since they are easy to administer, and they cut across various duties and various skills possessed by employees in the company. The most basic and most efficient reward systems are the end of year bonus rewards and the gold star systems. USAA can use any two of these systems or even combine them based on their financial capabilities.

In the gold star system, employees are awarded stars each time they accomplish a responsibility excellently. Each star has a specific monetary value. At the end of the financial year, or when the employees are receiving their salaries, they can cash out their stars into real money. Rules should be put in place that governs what instances require the employees to be awarded and also what is considered an "excellent performance."

At the end of year bonuses, the employees are awarded bonuses that are a share of the company's net income. A particular portion of the net income is dedicated to the employees and is divided among them based on their achievement of the critical performance indices as per their employment contracts. In this system also, the company can also reward the employees with company stock based on their achievement of key performance indices. That is especially applicable to the management.

References

Seethi, M., (2014). Positive vs. negative reinforcement: Which is more effective? Retrieved from the website: https://pavlok.com/blog/positive-vs-negative-reinforcement-which-is-more-effective/.

Steven, J., (2018). The building blocks of emotional intelligence. Retrieved from the Safari website: https://www.safaribooksonline.com/library/view/the-eq-leader/9781119349006/

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Study.com. (2018). Reward systems & employee behavior: Intrinsic & Extrinsic Rewards. Retrieved from the study.com website: http://study.com/academy/lesson/reward-systems-employee-behavior-intrinsic-extrinsic-rewards.html.

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