Benchmark Assignment - Capstone Presentation

Red Team Capstone: Week 7

Brianna Baldwin, Brittney Mendez, Catherine Thyben, Chelsea Slawson,

Christopher Mitchell, David Chavez, Gabriel Parra, Jill Peterson

Grand Canyon University: BUS-485

April 21, 2019

Running head: ASSIGNMENT TITLE HERE

12

Capstone: Week 7

Introduction

Multi-Fry-er is led by a talented CEO and three VP’s (marketing, finance, and productions) who maintain significant influence over the direction of the company. While many of the smaller day-to-day decisions are made by the staff in the truck, the decisions are influenced by the strategy decisions made by the corporate office. Corporate leadership maintains an excellent relationship with lower level management and the frontline staff and is actively engaged and responsive to what is happening on the ground. In addition, corporate leadership has developed a company culture of guided evolution where change is driven from the top down, but creative implementation is encouraged at the ground level (Enlarging your sphere of influence, 2014). This type of relationship fosters trust in leadership direction as well as encourages problem solving within the framework of leadership’s vision achieving successful implementation of the business plan.

Bias

There are many different aspects that can affect a business in negative ways, one of which is leadership bias. There can be times when someone in a leadership position can have a preconceived bias towards an employee, or a particular way of thinking towards running the business. This is a natural occurrence but can be a detriment to the team and/or business as a whole (Grayhill, 2017). There can be instances where this can be out front and easily remedied by the person, or it can be from the subconscious part of the brain and done without thought (Comaford, 2016). There should be little or no instances of this happening with the Multi-Fry-er. Their solid business plan leaves little room for error, and as long as it is adhered to every step of the way. The managers and employees will come together and form a consensus on any decisions that would need to be made. There could be a bias towards one of their suppliers. If one of the managers has a bias toward one particular farm or grower it could be problematic. This one producer may not have all the items they would need as the seasons change each year. They may be able to get some price breaks by using one grower for all of their needs, but the quality of the goods would suffer. This could cause the end product they are serving to decline in quality which could hurt the customer base, and in turn, the profits. As long as the decision makers can stay the course and devote time to making the Multi-Fry-er better, leadership bias can be minimal.

Hurdles Comment by User: You could improve by expanding on this section by supporting your points with in-text citations.

Multi-Fry-er has clearly identified several hurdles that could be detrimental to its success. The first hurdle is finding customers. While the Multi-Fry-er has put a lot of time into the development of its marketing strategy, the concern is not hitting the targeted customer in spite best efforts. This is significant because no matter how great the product and customer base may be, without a way to properly connect the two, the Multi-Fry-er will struggle. The second biggest hurdle the Multi-Fry-er face is keeping up with demand. The Multi-Fry-er anticipates a high volume of business eventually and has planned accordingly, but in the initial stages they could run into the issue of either under or over shooting inventory. If the business takes off quicker than anticipated, this could prove problematic as well. The third biggest hurdle the Mulit-Fry-er will have is scaling revenue. For the business to grow it will have to find ways to continuously increase revenue. This could prove difficult, only focusing on fries.

Style/Servant Leadership

Strategic leadership will be present in Multi-Fry-er’s framework when it comes to management. The leader needs to possess the characteristics of being able to envision, anticipate, empower, and support. The leadership styles incorporated in Multi-Fry-er’s organization are visionary, servant, pacesetter, and transactional (10 Common Leadership Styles, n.d.). The visionary leader will work on building a strong organizational structure in order to help the employees succeed in a quick, happy, and efficient way that will benefit both employees and the organization. The servant leader is an integral part of the team as he or she will seek to serve others needs as a management style (Mind Tools, n.d.). A servant leader not only seeks to serve the needs of others but in serving others sets an example for others to serve one another as well. This concept pours into the company and flows out from there, positively affecting team members and the customer. Because Multi-Fry-er values community, it is committed to helping non-profits and low-income areas by supporting the community and delivering a sense of fulfillment and contentment. Pacesetter is a key type of leadership for Multi-Fry-er in order to encourage the energy and face paced environment. Lastly, transactional could be incorporated as focus on financials needs to be a priority and there needs to be a manager in charge of that area. The transactional leadership would be applied mainly in the monthly meetings when reports and analysis have been conducted and are being shared. All of these leadership types will lead to Multi-Fry-er being focused on overall direction, organizational culture, ethics, balanced organizational controls, and sustaining resource relationships.

Strengths and Weaknesses

Leadership is both an innate and a practical skill that involves the capability of an individual to manage and provide guidance to other members of the organization. While different arguments will present different views of an effective leader, leaders help themselves and their team to do the right things. As far as Multi-Fry-er is concerned, this involves setting directions, building an inspiring vision and innovative practices. Accordingly, it involves mapping and implementing the strategic plan and it is dynamic, inspiring and exciting (Root, 2019). Although leaders are expected to set directions, their positions compel them to use their management skills to guide their teams in the right direction and in an effective and efficient way.

Organizational Leadership

Leadership can be used to mean different elements of organizational management. These includes inspiring institutional visions for the future, motivating and inspiring different teams involved to engage with the vision, managing the delivery of the vision and providing an enabling environment towards the achievements of organizational missions and goals (American Management Association, 2019). Some of the qualities of a good leader include integrity and honesty, confidence and effective communication skills, charismatic and ability to inspire others, commitment and passion for the attainment of organizational goals and objectives, accountable, empathetic, creative and innovative.

Strengths of a Leader

According to the arguments by Welch, Grossaint, Reid and Walker, the strengths of a good leader implies their abilities to practice the qualities of a good leader (2014). These include the capacity to connect, inspire and effect change. Probably one of the pressing challenges in any project is to compel other members of the organization to adopt change. In this regard, it calls for effective leaders who are able to inspire others throughout the change process. These leaders set examples in their teams and when things seem impossible, the employees will look up to their leaders and see the way to react to different situations.

Effective leaders are charismatic and assertive and are able to easily connect with the employees (DuBois, Koch, Hanlon, Nyatuga & Kerr, 2015). Through this, they are able to influence change. They will involve all the members of the organization in decision making processes. This will help bring different skills and expertise, make the whole team own the process and minimize any resistance to change. Similarly, good leaders are effective communicators (DuBois, Koch, Hanlon, Nyatuga & Kerr, 2015). Effective communication skills help connect with the members of the organization. As far a stakeholder mapping and engagement is involved, the different suppliers, customers and employees of the business need to be brought on board on the different news and events that concern them. As an effective communicator, the executive at Multi-Fry-er will clearly communicate the visions and mission of the organization to the entire team which will minimize the challenges in the achievement of the results. Leaders are not only empathetic but have passion and commitment. While implementing the McKinsey 7-S Model, the leaders will have to first believe in the process and support their respective teams to follow suit. When employees see their leaders getting involved in the process, it is likely that they will get involved too (Landis, Hill & Harvey, 2014). They are able to influence respect from the team which will help their management and feedback process.

Weaknesses of a Leader

Arguably, the weaknesses of a leader are seen when the people in charge are not able to practice effective leadership skills. According to the arguments by (Ghasabeh, Soosay & Reaiche, 2015) leadership position involve more than just management but being on the forefront to invite and implement the change processes. Pointedly, Steve jobs argued that innovation distinguishes leaders from followers (Ghasabeh, Soosay, & Reaiche, 2015). It is likely that leaders will face challenges in their various roles when they are not creative. Creative thinking involves developing new idea and helping the team to put the ideas and organizational goals to reality. In the fast-paced food industry, limited creativity will not only constrain the effectiveness of the leader but also lag the whole team which is likely to demotivate them. Pointedly, limited empathy is a weakness among the leaders (Landis, Hill, & Harvey, 2014). This follows that the leaders will use dictatorial style in managing the different organizational processes and fail to consider the desires and needs of their subjects. The outcome is that they lose the touch with their teams and are not able to achieve the goals and objectives of the organization.

As far as Multi-Fry-er is concerned, leaders are presented with different challenges including the development and implementation of organizational visions and missions. The different responsibilities highlight the different characteristics of leaders, their weaknesses and their strengths. The strengths include effective communication skills while the weaknesses include lack of empathy. These strengths help make an effective leader and attributed to the achievement (effective and efficient) of organizational goals and objectives. However, while the weaknesses presents challenges to the achievement of organizational goals and objectives, they can be used as motivating factors and points that need improvement.

Influencing Others

The leadership in Multi-Fry-er’s organization can impact and influence others easily due to the small amount of staff and space that the personnel work in. With the smaller scale of employees, direct attention and focus can be put onto each relationship encouraging an authentic and respectful workplace and team. If there are effective leadership styles in the plan, the results that are expected will be achieved simultaneously because the staff will be empowered to deliver the utmost customer service and product with pride and motivation. The leaders in place need to possess a quality of balance when it comes to the work culture and unity among employees to create and sustain a friendly work environment (Craig, 2018). They need to be supportive with everyone’s roles when it comes to training and responsibilities with tasks that are delegated, the leader needs to reinforce accountability which in return will have the employee feel a sense of ownership while working, and most importantly, communication skills need to be present and clear so that all staff including management are on the same page so that goals and objectives can be achieved and surpassed.

Conclusion

Leadership serves an important role within a company and the overall success and influence within the market. The direction the company goes is determined by the level of engagement of leadership and their commitment to company’s mission and vision (Scopus, 2019). Additionally, leadership’s direct influence and relationship with staff both establishes and maintains the businesses culture, or the shared values and beliefs held collectively by a group of individuals with a shared goal. Leadership’s impact on culture is vital to the delivery of high-quality services based upon staff satisfaction and desire to achieve higher performance and productivity standards. Leadership style and behavior is key to the success of a leader and their ability to establish their followership and is largely dependent upon the individual in a leadership roles strengths and weakness (Scopus, 2019). Leadership must continuously develop their skills and assure that they do not succumb to personal bias which can have negative consequences on the company’s development and growth, specifically related to business planning and employee support.

References

Enlarging your sphere of influence. (2014). Mind Tools. Retrieved from https://www.mindtools.com/blog/corporate/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/11/Sphere-Influence.pdf

Graybill, M. (2017) 4 Steps to Removing Leadership Bias. Retrieved From: https://aboutleaders.com/4-steps-to-removing-leadership-bias/#gs.6xw5vk Comment by User: You could improve by listing your references using APA style.

James, K. H. (2018). Small Business Owner Hurdles. Retrieved from

Servant Leadership Putting Your Team First, and Yourself Second. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/servant-leadership.htm

The 6 Skills for Managers and Leaders. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.amanet.org/training/promotions/six-skills-for-managers-and-

leaders.aspx

Welch, D., Grossaint, K., Reid, K., & Walker, C. (2014). Strengths-based leadership

development: Insights from expert coaches. Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice

Red Team - Thank you for your paper. Your TII percentage is low. You discussed the leader’s sphere of influence and impact on the implementation of your business plan, leadership bias and how could it impact the development or progress of your organization’s development, the hurdles you anticipate, the leadership style(s) the leader in your organization have to demonstrate, how could you incorporate Servant Leadership, the strengths and weaknesses as they relate to your business and how can leadership in your organization impact and influence others to deliver the results you expect. However, you could improve by expanding on the hurdles you anticipate by supporting your points with in-text citations. Your argument would be stronger if it was backed by information from your research. I suggest that you support your points from information from you research. There are paragraph transitions present, logical and maintain the flow throughout the paper. Overall, your paper is clear and easy to follow and the tone is appropriate for formal academic writing. The sentences are clear and concise. In general, your sentences are well-constructed. The assignment included a title page and reference page. There are a few APA errors. I suggest that you follow the APA Style Guide. Make sure to spend more time with the APA guidelines found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center, to polish APA skills with font color, in-text citations and listing references. APA Style uses headings to separate and classify paper sections. The assignment is laid out with effective use of headings. You have a few grammar and word choice errors throughout the paper. Thanks again for your paper. Best Regards, Ed Miller