A DAY in the Life of Alex Sander: Driving in the Fast Lane at Landon Care Products

Group C1

Aabhaa I P

Ankit Thakrar

Gaurav Singh

Gururaj Nayak

Prashanthi Priyanka M P

Problem Statement:

The issue facing Sam Glass is to effectively channelize Alex's competencies and talents along

with improving his Leadership skills to ensure success of the company.

SWOT

Strengths

• Perfectionist

• Ability to work for long hours

• Self-driven

• Multi-tasker

• Quick learner

• Ability to grasp details quickly

• Ready to take initiative

• Has deep product knowledge

Weakness

• Narcissist

• Does not delegate work efficiently

• High Temper issues

• Does not praise others work

• Arrogant- tries to outperform everyone else

Opportunities

• Using the 360-degree feedback the higher management can groom Alex Sanders to

become a better leader.

• If not selected as a leader Alex could work in the field sales which is one of his areas

of interest

Threats

• Alex being arrogant could leave the company because of the 360 degrees evaluation

and start off his own venture. This would hit the company as they are kind of banking

on him for launch of ‘Nourish’ products in the US market.

• If Alex continues his current attitude at work then there is a possibility that his team

losses the patience and stops accepting him as their leader. This could lead to

inefficiency at work.

PEST-C

Political:

Landon Care Products provides a lot of autonomy at work. This was the reason why Alex

joined this company. There is no power mongering by the managers in this company. No

other political factors which have an implication on the case.

Economical: The compensation provided by the company is fair. Alex does not get

motivated by money as much as by his measure of success on the job. There has also been a

lot of money riding on the new product ‘Nourish’ which is to be launched early this year.

Social: Alex’s inability to treat his co-workers with respect has been a cause for concern in

the company. The feedback system also highlights this flaw in Alex’s leadership style. He is

seen as a Narcissist among his subordinates.

Technological: This is a cosmetics product company which has been recently acquired by

Avant-Garde, a multibillion-dollar European company. As such, there are no technological

implications in the case.

Cultural: It has been mentioned in the case that Alex does not want to include cultural

diversity in the teams. He does not seem to appreciate the differences arising out of cultural

contexts. It is mentioned in the feedback that Alex does not see the value in diversity of

approaches and attitudes.

Factors affecting the problem:

Acquisition of Landon by Avant-Garde

Stress of launching a new product

Leadership qualities of Alex

Alex’s character

Alex work/life balance

360 Performance review

Relationship management problem

Working management problem

Critical Factors

Leadership qualities of Alex

Alex is not a good motivator or a good leader. Alex believes that being pushy and

commanding is the only way to get the job done. He does not know how to get work done

through other people. He comes up with an answer without involving the team. To be a good

leader you must motivate your team to excel instead of doing everything to yourself. His

peers respect him but do not see him as a leader.

360 degree performance review

360 degree performance review has been implemented for the first time in the company and

as such it is still a learning process for the organisation as a whole. The process needs to be

fine-tuned and its results cannot be taken seriously as of now. Alex was given a

comprehensive feedback from all sides. Most of the feedback was known to him. The

feedback system could be improved to give Alex important insights into his own behaviour,

by revealing his bling spots and grey areas.

Relationship management problem

Alex embarrassed Garrison, a 20-year veteran of the company regarding the output of the

work allotted to her. Alex ruffles people’s feelings. He does not take others’ feelings into

consideration when making decisions and delegating assignments He does not know how to

treat people by giving them some respect. He gets ticked off easily and due to his short

temper people are getting frustrated. He considers that temper is an effective management

tool.

Working management problem

Alex shows a great commitment and dedication towards his work and he expects the same

from them. He allots the work to the team but does not trust them that they know how to

perform tasks they have been performing for a while and they do not need to be told every

single step.

Theory:

Alex is a very talented and competent employee for Landon Care Products. His boss Sam

Glass knew he would create waves when he joined the company but he did not have a plan of

action to deal with it. Even though he was very talented, Alex’s critical shortcoming was in

being a leader. As a Product manager, he was supposed to take the team along in his product

launch program but was unable to do so. He was unable to delegate work properly or trust his

team to do the job. He wants to control every minute detail of his subordinates work that it

makes them uncomfortable and hostile.

Organisational Behaviour points out a Leadership Theory to help understand Alex’s problem

and a possible solution for it.

As pointed out in the feedback, Alex is an efficient task master. He can get things done from

his subordinates by fear and putting stress on them. He needs to be more accommodating

towards his team and at the same time, not compromising on the productivity.

According to the Theory of Managerial Grid by Blake and Mouton, there are four quadrants

of a managerial grid. Alex is seen to be in the Task Management Grid as seen from the above

diagram. To be an able leader, he would need to move to the Team Management

Grid,wherein he would accomplish work through committed people.

Possible Courses of Action

1) Make a self-analysis test with psychologist

Pros:

Alex will do a self-analysis test himself so he will know the areas where he can improve.

Cons:

Alex may think that this self-Analysis is waste of time.

2) Use Alex talents as a regular team member

Pros:

Allot tasks to Alex as the regular team member is allotted and remove his leader position. He

does not need to divide the project work among others or motivate them. Now the employees

will not get frustrated, as Alex does not tell them what to do in every single step.

Cons:

Alex may feel unhappy with this kind of allocation and treating him as a regular team

member and may leave the company.

3) Leadership workshops

Pros:

Make Alex attend some leadership trainings workshops so that he will learn how to delegate

the work and motivate people, how to understand his team members feelings, how to give a

feedback without hurting them, how to treat other people etc.,

Cons:

Alex may refuse to take the leadership lectures as he thinks that being pushy and

commanding is the only way to get the job done.

Our Suggestion:

Alex Sandler is highly talented but difficult personality. He works tirelessly with great commitment and dedication to achieve goal. Problem is he overdoes his work and expects the

same standard to be followed. Sam cannot loose such individuals in organization. His personality shortcoming can be managed by arranging workshops on leadership and team management. This will not only help him to manage his soft skills and create positive work environment around him but will also open door for his promotion to leadership role. . The company’s success would also be assured in the long run with Alex being a leader.

References:

http://choo.fis.utoronto.ca/FIS/Courses/lis1230/ManagerialGrid.html