I have experienced ineffective leadership when working in an organization selling solar panels. Since the company deals with renewable energy, the manager boasted too much about how sales should constantly be high. Working as a salesperson, sometimes it was challenging to meet the set target; however, we worked best as a team to deliver close to, if not the expected number of sales. However, our manager did not see that and was aggressive, controlling, impolite and unfair. He would bully the employees who do not meet their sales target and threaten to fire them from the office. The leader would like to control the employees by micromanaging us whenever we miss sales targets by going with us to the field so that he can supervise each employee and ensure they are working effectively.
Working under such a manager, I always felt over-controlled and not valued in the company. The manager was suitable for the job because she had the relevant education and had a master’s degree in marketing. The manager’s actions made it clear that she focused more on performance than employee welfare. Thus, this tension and fear from the manager made us act with fear, and even some employees would fake sickness when we did not meet the targets to avoid the manager’s confrontations. This study will propose what the management can do to avoid such ineffective managers in the organization and recommendations to help the manager.
Factors That Caused That Leader to Be Ineffective
One of the main factors that cause the leader to be infective is taking problems too personally. Leaders who take a work problem as a personal responsibility are likely to get stressed when they do not achieve the set goals (Al-Habib, 2020). For instance, when we did not meet the sales target, the leader would get stressed because his seniors would question her about the sales target. When managers take problems personally, they may lack the point of solving them and resort to resolving their feelings. Thus, the manager would sometimes lose his temper, and instead of looking at underlying factors which made the sales go down, she would follow us in the field and watch us as we made the sales.
The other factor that led to this leader’s poor leadership was the inability to communicate with the employees. When managers communicate with employees, they will likely get essential details about their products and services (Musheke & Phiri, 2021). However, when the manager cannot effectively communicate with employees, it leads to problems and misunderstandings in the workplace. Through communication, the manager would have known the underlying cause of low sales, which might not be because of internal factors but sometimes may be due to external factors (Musheke & Phiri, 2021). For instance, one of our competitors had upgraded their power output from their solar panels which made them outdo our company in the sales. This shows that communication between the senior and junior staff is essential in the workplace to avoid misunderstanding.
Two Evidence-Based Recommendations
The top management can mitigate having such leaders in the workplace by ensuring that they employ leaders who can communicate with employees effectively. Effective organizational communication increases employee morale, engagement, and satisfaction (Musheke & Phiri, 2021). When there is open communication, there is openness which leads to efficiency wider participation, innovation, and collaboration. However, if not embraced, it leads to too much monitoring, unpredictability and pressure issues. When there is conscientiousness, employees are likely to be self-disciplined and orderly, while the disadvantages of lacking it lead to hypocrisy. Extroverts lead to more communication of ideas, increasing innovation in the workplace, while its downside is anxiety and depression in the workplace of not feeling comfortable. In addition, communication enhances agreeableness, which helps avoid conflicts and increases motivation. However, the downside of lacking agreeableness is a lack of delegation and increased conflict in the workplace. The leader needs to be neurotic because it improves employees’ mental health due to processing employees’ emotional depth. On the contrary, if not applied, it can lead to self-criticism and personalization of work performances. Therefore, the manager should ensure more communication between her and the employees to enhance transparency in the organization.
The other effective method would be encouraging them to remain focused on the goal and develop strategies to motivate employees. According to the expectant theory, employees are likely to perform in a specific way when there is an expected result (Al-Habib, 2020). When the organization has well-laid out strategies for improving employee performance, it becomes easier for the managers to manage their employees. For instance, the company can introduce a reward system for sales personnel whereby the best salespeople get to be rewarded to motivate them. This method can lead to better managerial outcomes when used in this organization.
Conclusion
Sometimes having ineffective managers in the workplace is inevitable. However, the correct use of organizational structure and culture can change leaders. Thus, for the management to avoid having ineffective leaders, they must emphasize the importance of communication in the workplace and encourage them to remain focused on the organizational goals. They should communicate effectively with employees to know their problems. In addition, leaders should stop having personal feelings at work.
References
Al-Habib, N. I. (2020). Leadership and organizational performance: Is it essential in healthcare systems improvement? A review of literature. Saudi Journal of Anaesthesia, 14(1), 69. Web.
Musheke, M. M., & Phiri, J. (2021). The effects of effective communication on organizational performance based on the Systems Theory.Open Journal of Business and Management, 09(02), 659–671. Web.