Summary
Prison X may be regarded as a facility whose performance is substantially affected by inappropriate business strategies that lead to employee dissatisfaction. While multiple changes are required, one of them is the change of the warden’s leadership style, which may cause mass resignation of managers. This paper aims to assess John Trevor’s leadership skills, identify gaps in them, and suggest a professional development learning plan to address them.
Leadership Gap Analysis
While Prison X faces the threat of mass resignation of management-level staff due to its members’ dissatisfaction, according to them, the prison warden’s leadership style is the main factor that caused this situation. John Trevor, the prison warden, is described as apathetic, uninvolved, distant, and cold. In reality, Trevor is a pleasant man who is unaware of his subordinates’ attitudes to his personality and performance. In turn, he strongly appreciates his management team members and their professional skills and contribution to goal achievement, expressing deep concerns in relation to their potential leave that will impact the safety of other employees and the prison in general.
On the basis of team members’ description of John’s leadership style and the man’s individual perceptions, it is possible to assume that the warden executes absentee leadership. This type is characterized by the absence of positive leadership behaviors and involvement with subordinates in particular. In other words, an absentee leader lacks communication with his subordinates. Being psychologically distant from them, he does not articulate corporate missions and goals, does not inspire and motivate them by serving as a role model, and does not provide his feedback on the basis of their results to ensure improvement. Moreover, an absentee leader does not take responsibility for decision-making when a considerable job-related issue arises.
There are two main factors that determine the occurrence of absentee leadership. On the one hand, a person may be psychologically absent from the role of a leader. Being promoted into management that presupposes the use of management skills, this individual enjoys related rewards and privileges, however, he is not ready to take on a leader’s responsibilities, especially in challenging situations, relying on team members’ skills, competencies, and experience. On the other hand, although a person may have a strong desire to be a leader, particular leadership skills require improvement.
While John is a leader who appreciates his subordinates, it is possible to conclude that he has the potential of a leader, however, there are particular gaps in his performance that impact the efficiency of his leadership. The main barrier is a lack of the warden’s emotional intelligence, which may be regarded as a person’s ability to assess his own emotions for its control and the feelings of others for better understanding and efficient interaction and conflict management (Serrat, 2017). Moreover, the inability of John to perceive the feelings of his team members determines the communication gap. In turn, as the warden cannot interact and collaborate with his subordinates in an appropriate way, he cannot make decisions in relation to organizational processes efficiently – thus, he prefers not to involve in them. However, being aware of his role, John aims to demonstrate self-confidence and control over other activities, which is perceived as skepticism that erodes trust. As a result, neither the leader nor his subordinates understand each other. Thus, John’s leadership skills that require substantial improvement include emotional intelligence, communication skills, responsibility, and decision-making to perceive and address his team members’ demands and be involved in organizational processes.
Professional Development Learning Plan
In order to avoid absenteeism and improve the warden’s leadership style to contribute to employees’ satisfaction and ensure staff retention that impact the safety of the facility, particular Leadership Intervention Strategies (LIS) should be applied. The objectives of this intervention may be regarded as the following:
- Enhancement of emotional intelligence to assess the feelings of employees for responsive measures;
- Enhancement of emotional intelligence for personal emotions’ control in order to avoid the misrepresentation of an individual image among team managers;
- Acquisition of communication skills for the articulation of corporate missions and goals, interaction with team members, motivation, and providing feedback;
- Improvement of self-esteem for efficient decision-making and involvement in organizational processes as a competent leader;
- Overcoming the resistance to change in order to successfully apply new leadership skills in practice.
In this case, it is suggested to introduce a six-month LIS program in which John will be involved. During this period, the warden will attend twelve interactive workshops that will be followed by twelve individualized coaching sessions conducted by two mentors. Interactive workshops will presuppose the delivery of theoretical information, while coaching sessions will include practical tasks for the implementation of newly acquired skills. The content of workshops will initially include the theory of leadership, various leadership styles, their advantages and weaknesses, and the assessment of the significance of appropriate leadership for a facility’s performance. As the objectives of the warden’s development refer to the enhancement of emotional intelligence and communication skills, workshops will focus on the major concepts of emotional intelligence, such as empathy, self-assessment, self-regulation, social skills, and motivation, and the essential techniques of its improvement (Serrat, 2017). Subsequently, training will be dedicated to the basic features of successful communication, psychological assessment of people’s types for efficient interaction, and conflict management. Finally, workshops will provide mindful practices that will allow to boost the leader’s self-esteem.
As previously mentioned, workshops will be followed by individualized coaching sessions; these sessions will aim to train the application of leadership skills in practice. In particular, during them, the warden will be suggested to solve particular performance-related issues or provide the most appropriate activities using emotional intelligence, communication skills, and involvement in the organizational process. Along with workshops and sessions, John will have an opportunity to apply his knowledge working with managers and practice the techniques for the improvement of self-esteem during non-office hours.
It goes without saying that operating in a particular manner for a long period of time inevitably leads to the formation of a habit, and changes may initiate a person’s strong resistance to them. Although its occurrence strongly depends on an individual’s character and may be expressed insignificantly, there are several strategies that may help overcome it. First of all, they imply the assessment of the significance and considerable benefits of changes. In the case of John, the development of emotional intelligence, communication skills, and self-esteem will allow him to make his leadership style more efficient and improve his relationship with subordinates. As a result, these changes will prevent mass resignation and contribute to the prison’s safety and security. Moreover, changes may be implemented in small steps in order to minimize the impact of potential resistance. Finally, the leader may ask his employees to help him overcome resistance with their support; it will allow him to demonstrate sincere emotions and strengthen trust.
All in all, the implementation of this LIS plan may be justified by its multiple positive effects on John, his subordinates, and the facility in general. First of all, John will realize the importance of his emotions and the emotions of other people. He will learn to control his expressions in order to demonstrate his openness and friendliness to subordinates. Next, he will learn to communicate with them and listen to them to assess their feelings, needs, and demands – in this case, managers will feel that they are valued. In addition, by being aware of the features of efficient leadership and having improved self-esteem that presupposes self-efficacy, the warden will not be afraid to take responsibility, make decisions, and be involved in work processes controlling them. In this case, his subordinates will not feel overworked and abandoned by their leaders. As a result, after a LIS program, John will have new leadership skills that will allow him to ensure employee retention and substantially improve their relationships.
Leadership Intervention Plan Assessment
The six-month LIS program will be organized in Prison X, where John works while mentors will be invited. Every month, the warden will visit two workshops and two coach sessions, once in two weeks. The program’s efficiency will be evaluated on the basis of three criteria, including employees’ satisfaction level, a facility’s performance, and employees’ retention level. Employees’ satisfaction that will be assessed through corporate surveys and interviews may be regarded as the most important metric as the improvement of leadership skills aims to improve the relationships between the leader and them. In addition, as the LIS program should increase John’s involvement in working processes, it should improve the facility’s performance. In this case, the number of tasks that were substantially completed after the program will be evaluated.
Finally, as the improvement of the leader’s skills should prevent mass resignation, workers’ retention levels will be assessed as well through the number of employees who leave the facility after the program’s implementation. Although there are individual factors that may impact a person’s intention to leave, a prevalent number of managers who decided to stay may indicate the plan’s effectiveness. In addition, the program presupposes particular expenditures, and its ROI should be evaluated as well. Taking into consideration that employee turnover is cost-inefficient as well, it is possible to compare the cost of a program with the cost of turnover for the same period of the last year.
Value of Theoretical Applications
At the same time, the improvement of the leader’s skills may be regarded as an aspect of performance’s general improvement, however, there are other management – and human resources-related changes that should occur. In this case, employees’ resistance to changes may arise, and John’s leadership skills will be efficient to minimize it and foster appreciation and organizational support as well. In general, emotional intelligence may help a leader facilitate the transition and manage others’ emotions involved in it. In particular, it will allow to assess people’s feelings in relation to new conditions. In combination with the evaluation of their individual characteristics, the warden may elaborate the strategies of his subordinates’ persuasion in order to address their concerns and change their opinions in the most efficient way. Moreover, as emotional intelligence helps a leader to control his own emotions, he may impact others’ concerns through his expressions as well. For instance, if John expresses calmness in relation to upcoming changes and confidence in their expediency, his subordinates will have more desire to accept them too.
Moreover, for the efficient minimization of changes, a competent leader should clearly articulate the necessity of these activities. Due to the program, John will be aware of leadership theory, effective leadership styles, and the duties of a competent leader. In addition, his self-esteem will be substantially improved, and he will realize his responsibility. In this case, the warden will undertake all efforts to explain to his team members that changes are inevitable and they will positively contribute to the prison’s performance, safety, and security.
Leadership Intervention Summary
The six-month leadership intervention program for John Trevor, the prison warden, will consist of a series of workshops that will imply the provision of theoretical information related to leadership styles, emotional intelligence, communication, and mindful techniques, and individual coaching sessions that will be organized by invited mentors to practice new skills. On the basis of the analysis of John’s leadership styles, he executes absentee leadership that has a highly negative impact on his subordinates. Thus, due to the program, it is expected that the warden will improve his emotional intelligence, communication skills, and self-esteem, which will help him build solid relationships with his employees on the basis of mutual trust and respect and be involved in organizational processes.
The efficiency of the program is justified by the fact that John will be provided with all necessary theoretical basis that will be immediately applied to practice to ensure effective results. At the same time, the potential challenges of the plan’s implementation may be John’s inability to perceive information in a time-sensitive manner, non-readiness for another leadership style, and resistance to changes if he feels that the facility’s challenges are not caused by his performance. In this case, it is recommended to clearly articulate the significance of changes to John during workshops. In addition, the warden may be suggested to implement changes gradually and ask his subordinates for support explaining to them that he has concerns even if changes are inevitable.
Reference
Serrat, O. (2017). Understanding and developing emotional intelligence. In O. Serrat (Ed.), Knowledge solutions: Tools, methods, and approaches to drive organizational performance (pp. 329-339). Springer.