OLEAD 410: Leadership in a Global Context

Cultural Leadership blog

When Two is Better than One

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So, let me tell you about a story from some time ago. It was back in the day, back when I didn’t understand the importance of a team or teamwork. I didn’t understand personalities, and I thought it was my way or the highway. Thankfully that has changed! However, this is a story I like to tell often (I know I have briefly touched on this- but it’s too good not to tell.

It all started the day when I began work at a new dealership. My company had taken over this new dealership and we were there to help build the business back up. There had been a large scandal that had gone on with the prior management and most of the people had been let go (or were sent to jail). Many of the people remaining, didn’t have the best attitude and were extremely hesitant about a new group of management coming in. Can you blame them?
When my boss asked me what I thought we should do, I told him that we should fire the rest of the people remaining and start on a clean slate. Long story short, he told me to slow my roll and taught me to start understanding the dynamics of a team. This lesson taught me a lot, but one of the biggest things I learned was how important it was to find the right people for a team. When you have the right people on a team, it ignites a spark and synergy begins to happen.

I spent the next couple weeks observing how the different teams worked together and paid close attention to the type of work that the teams were producing. I studied the different types of personalities that made up the teams and began to think about where those personalities would work best in order to help bring out the best ability of everyone. What I learned over those next couple weeks was a very valuable lesson. I learned the importance of finding the best person for each team by discovering the talents of each individual. I also learned that removing one person from a team who maybe doesn’t belong, can suddenly remove the negative and turn it into positive synergy. We have all worked with that one person who has been toxic to a team, so we know that introducing the wrong person can have an overall devastating result. However, this doesn’t always mean that there isn’t a spot for this person in the company, sometimes it just means they need a different team to work within, a team that better suits and compliments the talents of that individual.

Lack of synergy is created when there is ineffective communication, poor leadership, bad habits, and egos amongst many other things. All these behaviors were something that we saw with the teams that were in place when we came into the dealership. There had been such poor leadership in the past, no wonder the place was in shambles and people weren’t working well together!

The goal my manager made, was to take the individuals that were left, and form teams that were able to cultivate positive ideas, increase work performance and then let those teams shine. Good leadership is a fundamental piece of team synergy. We learned in our lesson that, “In general, a leader who wants to successfully prevent conflict from harming the organization will create a process that encourages teamwork, provides resources to encourage strong communication, and allows for open discussion of ideas” (PSU, 2018, Lesson 6). My manager was able to successfully create teams where synergy could manifest by knowing the people that were within his organization, teaching them teamwork, understanding their talents and regularly checking in on them to see what was working and what was not.

 

 

 

 

It is imperative for a leader to know the people who are on the team. The leader should know what their team members excel at and how they work well individually. By being aware of the people that are on their team and their abilities, a leader can successfully put them in a team where they are able to create the most synergy.

When you take an individual, who is good at what they do and then add them to a team that makes them even stronger, synergy begins to happen. But a leader needs to know their staff for that to occur. According to our reading, “Synergy is taking the talents of each individual in the organization and combing them into something greater” (PSU, 2018 Lesson 6). Workplace synergy isn’t just going to occur because the organization has the best of the best technology, it isn’t going to happen because it has all the necessary tools necessary (though it does help). The real reason synergy happens, is because you take the talents of individuals and add them to a team where those talents work well and compliment that styles of the other team members.

 

What I learned from my time at that dealership was how important it was to find the right teams for individuals to work in. It was about getting to know my team and knowing what each person was best at and finding a place to put them where the real collaboration can happen.

References:
Penn State University. (2018). Lesson 06: Cultural synergy. Retrieved from https://psu.instructure.com/courses/1942644/modules/items/24935399.

Like this! Not LIKE THIS.

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We all know that communication is pretty much everything in our day to day lives. We need to have clear communication in order to be successful, especially in business. Without communication, we don’t have anything. It is important, especially as a leader that we are conscious of who we are working with and in the context in which we are working (PSU, 2018). In order to effectively communicate, it is important that we are actively listening whether that be face to face or behind a screen because “listening is at the heart of all successful communications” (Moran, Abramson & Moran, 2014, p.39).

In my company we have a big communication issue, especially when it pertains to email. There have been several discussions over the course of the last year about how people are communicating via email. Throughout email communication, we must pay close attention to what we are writing because we need to make sure that people are going to fully understand the message that is being relayed. You want to keep it short and sweet but also to the point in a way that is professional. For example, today I was working on a project and when my installation manager came back with an install price for me, it was twenty-nine thousand dollars over budget. So, in the email I replied, “Hey, the budget is three hundred thousand, is there any way that we can get the price down?” He replied with “get a bigger grant.” There was nothing other than that statement. No further detail. No further explanation. When I first read it, I was ready to get mad. Was he joking? Was he trying to be funny? Was he being a jerk? Who knows, because a statement like that leaves room for interpretation and this is where communication gets lost. Our commentary says that “the sender, for instance, might not encode enough meaning into the idea being conveyed” (PSU,2018). In this example, my installation manager used few too many words and it left room for error in communication.

When you are in a face to face conversation you have the ability to help read body language and you are able to access what the other person may be feeling based on their facial expressions and the body language, they are giving to you. When you are behind a screen it is hard to gather the tone of someone’s voice or how they are trying to convey a message. Therefore, when writing emails it is so important to write them in a professional way with a good word choice, correct punctuation, and use of capitalization in the proper way. NOT LIKE THIS. These things which may seem small, can be so easily misinterpreted and often times, because we are not in front of the person we can’t tell that whether or not the person on the receiving end has misunderstood the message. Errors in communication can happen so easily, it is important for all of us to do our part and maintain professionalism through email even when we think it isn’t needed.

Like we read in our commentary, there is no one size fit all solution for tackling communication globally.  It is important for us to not only be conscious of what we are saying to our peers via email but it is especially important when we are working globally. As a leader, we need to be conscious of who we are working with and in the context in which we are working (PSU, 2018). Leaders need to have an understanding of  how to communicate with people globally via email and because of the lack of being able to pick up on verbal cues it becomes especially important to be clear, concise and professional when communicating electronically.

References

Moran, R. T., Abramson, N. R., & Moran, S. V. (2014). Managing Cultural Differences (9th ed.). Oxford: Routledge.

Pennsylvania State University (2018). Introduction to Leadership in a Global Context. Errors in Communication. Retrieved from https://psu.instructure.com/courses/1942644/modules/items/24935382

 

 

Change Ahead, This Way!

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Without making too many assumptions right now, I am sure that we can all agree that change can be a little bit scary and at one point or another we have avoided change. Change can create a fear of the unknown and what that change may do to our lives. Although we may not agree with the change that is happening and we may want to fight it we have to remember that change is inevitable, and it is the one constant that will not be leaving anytime soon.

Typically, when change is occurring in the work place it is implemented because there is a need for things to change such as improving customer service or increasing the bottom line. A few years back, I was working with a company that went through some major changes. A competitor had opened nearby and business was starting to struggle and our company wanted to go through some planned change within the organization. The change that was made was to create an environment that fostered the idea that by treating the customer right, the money will follow. They shifted our pay scales to have more of a focus on customer satisfaction rather than numbers. This change affected our pay in the way that bonuses were taken away on numbers and bonuses were added for hitting certain levels of customer satisfaction based on a survey system. If we were above the customer satisfaction index average for our region we would get an additional bonus. The change shifted our focus to making sure we were spending time with each of our customers and not rushing to get to the next to hit more numbers and ultimately make more money. The steps we went through during that time mirrored Schein’s theory of planned change and we worked through the process of unfreezing, changing and then refreezing.

According to our commentary, “A leader must motivate the people in the organization to change” (PSU,2018). What happened next was the most important part of the process. Our leader got the group together and talked about the changes that were going to be occurring. He explained to us the reason why the change needed to occur and how we as a group were going to do it. This was the unfreezing process of the planned change. He helped us to understand why our old behaviors were unacceptable and he created a sense of enthusiasm around how the change was going to benefit us. He asked if anyone had any concerns and asked for anyone to voice opinions they had about the change. The discussion allowed for him to answer any questions we had and made it so that no on feared the change and the potential of taking a pay decrease.

Over the next couple months, we worked on the change process. In the second step of Schein’s (1980) planned change model, there is focus on the change itself, specifically what he calls the first mechanism, identification (PSU, 2018). In this step, you connect yourself with a respected person who is helping to teach the new behaviors that you as an individual can learn from and look up to. Our leader was a mentor for all of us, so we were able to easily follow along with his lead to adapt to these new changes (PSU, 2018). During the change process, we had meetings to discuss where we were at with the changes and how we were feeling. We had open discussion about the changes as well as had feedback from our leader in how he thought we were doing with the change and what we needed to adjust. During this step, the numbers and surveys were speaking for themselves. We were seeing changes in the numbers and they were steadily rising higher than they were before the change was made.

In last stage of Schein’s (1980) planned change model, the process of freezing the new behaviors into everyday standard behavior occurs. One of the methods in part of this step is what is known as the fit to self-concept mechanism. When using this mechanism, the individuals working with the change can test out the new behaviors in a safe environment to see how well the new behaviors fit with each person (PSU,2018). This is the primary mechanism we focused on during this change and it closely relates with my boss’s leadership style. Throughout the changing process, he had created an environment that allowed us to make mistakes without repercussions and allowed for open dialogue. He created an environment that had support that way If we were struggling with a customer he was always there to step in and help us.

The need to change was apparent and the change that occurred was for the best. Had we not made the changes we did, we may not have kept the customers we did, and we would have fallen behind our competition. They were always known for having great deals but not the best customer service. We took the opposite approach, and the changes helped us to keep a competitive edge and made us stand out from our competitor. We focused on perfecting the art of customer service. The most important part of the process was having a leader who was strong and motivated us to want the changes as well. The changes that were made weren’t changes that were imposed on us to make us feel like we had no say. There was a lot of open discussion and a learning curve that took place. The change created a synergy within the ground that allowed us to follow in our leaders’ footsteps and collaborate successfully to make the changes necessary to be successful.

Penn State University. (2018). Lesson 05: Learning and change in a global setting. Retrieved from https://psu.instructure.com/courses/1942644/modules/items/24935389

 

This is the Service Department, not the Nail Salon!

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I will never forget the day the guy drove into the service department and walked up to my desk and for a second blankly stared at me and said, “yanno, that’s like seeing a man behind the desk at a nail salon, it is just not right.” He looked me in the eye and told me that he wasn’t going to be able to work with me because he didn’t trust my knowledge of cars. My boss who was standing nearby overheard the conversation and got upset. “Excuse me, sir,” he said. “You can either trust that she likely knows more about cars than most guys in this place and work with her or you can take your business somewhere else.” I stood there a little embarrassed and a little upset not knowing what to say, besides that, “I do not want to work with this ass.” Of course, as much as I wanted to say that out loud, I kept it to myself. The guy ended up working with me and everything was just fine. However, moral of the story, diversity is necessary in the workplace whether or not everyone likes it.

This should be no surprise, but your business as a whole is going to struggle to grow if you aren’t able to understand your customer. I know in the automotive world a lot of things have changed since the days of Henry Ford and his original model T assembly line. The consumer population is constantly changing and you see more and more woman involved in the buying and servicing process. Teams that are diverse tend to more approachable. Everyone is different and certain personalities, race, or sex, may work better with some versus others. I have had several customers personally tell me that they feel more comfortable working with a female when they come into the dealership. However, on the other hand, I am sure there are others who prefer to work with only men. Everyone has a preference. The challenge is to make sure you have a team that is diverse enough to handle any situation. I have had several situations where there has been people who have come in to get their cars serviced and they can only speak Spanish. Additionally, I’ve also had a customer come in who was unable to hear. It is a good thing my boss always thought about these scenarios and always hired a diverse team. We never had to worry about these situations because we always had someone that was able to communicate whether that was with a different language or having to sign. It is important that you have a diverse staff that is able to serve the customer base the area caters to, especially when you are working in an area like Manhattan. You need to be able to work with all the different types of people that enter the building. The more diverse your staff is the better you will be able to communicate with the customers you see and the better your customer service will be. We always wanted to be known as the dealership that can communicate with everyone!

In an article written by Omer Keilaf (2018), he discusses the unfortunate statistic that women only make up around one-quarter of the automotive workforce and when it comes to management and engineering that number is even lower. Randy Miller of automotive news says that “Every business leader is in a position to act now to make gender parity a reality – faster (2017).” He also says that the men who are leaders in the automotive industry need to become a sponsor of the woman and make their team more inclusive. As the automotive industry continues to take steps towards equality in the workplace as well as achieve diversity in leadership, we are beginning to see more opportunities arise such as dealerships creating newer departments allowing for additional staff to be hired.

Let’s face it, there is an old school way of thinking that surrounds women working in the automotive industry. Now, I am not saying that there aren’t women altogether, but there is definitely a stigma that the automotive industry is considered a “mans job.” When I first moved to the Midwest, my boss told me that I was the first female service writer that he had ever hired. Back on the East coast, we had tons of females working in the business. However, it is important that no matter where you are in the country that you are adaptable to change, the future of any business is going to depend on it. If you aren’t changing with the times and other competitors, then your company will be left behind and someone else will hire a female to run their service department!

Overall, as with any business, diversity is extremely important in the automotive industry. Teams that are diverse tend to be more innovative. By having a team made up of different genders, different ethnicities, different personalities and different ways of thinking the better chances there will be to come up with greater solutions. It has always been hard being a female working in a male-dominated industry. But, I grew up around cars and have had the passion for working for Toyota since I was a little girl. I have spent countless years working in the dealership learning the ins and the outs of the business and I am proud to have the knowledge that I do. I was lucky to have a boss that knew how important it was to have females in the service drive as well as a Dad who ran his business like that as well. As I learned first hand by working in Manhattan, diversity is necessary in the workplace, especially in the automotive world.

References

Keilaf, Omer. (March 8, 2018). Why Diversity is Crucial to Innovation in the Automotive Industry. Retrieved from https://www.sensorsmag.com/components/why-diversity-crucial-to-innovation-automotive-industry

Miller, Randy. (March 20, 2017). Leadership Diversity is vital for Innovation. Automotive News. Retrieved from http://www.autonews.com/article/20170320/OEM02/303209988/leadership-diversity-is-vital-for-innovation

Molly Summerton

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Hi! My name is Molly Summerton and I am coming to you from Columbus, Ohio! Currently, I work as a full-time playground designer. I know, I know.. Is that even a job!? That’s what I thought at first. But, YES it is! Let me give you a little insight… my bonus of the job is that I get to consider myself the person who creates the fun and not the one who soaks it up!! =)

So a little background– Funny story.. Believe it or not, my job sort of just happened by chance. Let me give you a little background here. I am a girl- obsessed with all things Toyota and Lexus. My dad has run a Lexus dealership my entire life and I grew up going there with him every Saturday. Eventually, when I was old enough to work  I started working there getting my hands on everything I could.  When I was in the third grade, I told my dad I wanted to be like Andrea (his District service and parts manager). Who would have thought that at the age of 29 I would still be working towards that?  When I was 20, I got an amazing opportunity to open dealerships with my current company in New York City. I took the position, but unfortunately, it meant that my senior year of college at Quinnipiac University was going to come to a quick end.  I decided to put my degree on hold and began to pursue my career working with our Toyota stores.

Let’s flash forward a few years.. I find myself in Columbus, Ohio working at a Toyota dealership  when a customer of mine approachs me and says “I have a friend who needs someone to work for his company who has a personality just like you.” So I asked him about it and he told me I would be designing playgrounds. I said, WHAT!? Is that even a job!? Well, guess what!? It is.. and it has been amazing. It allows me to go to school and take the time to have a life. I work from home and virtually can work from anywhere in the country. Life is good.

Let’s flash forward again. Life in the now.  I am here, back in school finishing my degree. Good news, I am here because I got through nine interviews with Toyota corporate last year making my lifelong dream a reality! (I am not discrediting the importance of education- it has just been on the backburner for me for a while because I was so concerned with pursuing my automotive dream– THAT I NEEDED AN EDUCATION FOR …corporate wise anyways.) Well, towards the end of the interview process they told me that they didn’t want to put me in a position that didn’t make sense because I didn’t have a degree and to get me where I wanted, I needed my degree. So as per their advice, I am here working to finish my degree so I can march my butt right back there when I am done.

I am no longer in a leadership role and I am thankful for that. I was put in a leadership role way before I should have been. I was immature, unprepared and quite frankly in way over my head. However, I did figure it out, grew up, and fished myself out of the ocean to breath again. But, it was an everyday struggle. Right now, I am working only for myself besides a team of wonderful people. We design, create, laugh, work hard and have fun while doing it. When the time is right, I hope to get back into a leadership position.

PHEW! Now that my whole life story is over – let me give you some MORE information! I am super super into horses. I can’t live without them! They are my cure all for anything stressful! My soon to be husband ( OCTOBER 13th, people!!!!) and I live with our three dogs in our cute little house in a tiny close-knit community. We love it. Midwest living is simple. However, we hope to take over my parents farm next year back on the east coast. During our wedding this year we are planting a tree in their yard to help plant our roots there!   We will see where life’s next adventures take us!

Can’t wait to learn aside you guys this semester!

Molly

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