Warren Bennis IS371 WEEK 7 Debate Preview A little Leadership Exercise

Warren Bennis A little exercise... You have just become the manager of the help desk. it is your first managerial position. Your background has been as a lead analyst on the enterprise suite that is used by 90% of the firm (only one location has not gone online). There are 12 people in the help desk group. Based on the Flamholtz framework, what would you first want to know about the staff? Why? Should you ask others about the staff before you meet them? Pros and cons? What leadership style would you use when you first meet with the group? Why?

Warren Bennis Another little exercise... Your friend, Billy was recently promoted to Supervisor. Billy tells you that he is having problems and he hopes you can help. Billy gives you three examples. Use the Flamholtz model to analyze each of the three examples. Example 1. I hired a new staff assistant, Elaine, but she made a lot of mistakes and it didn’t work out. Elaine was fresh out of high school and didn’t have any experience or training as an administrative assistant, but she really wanted the job and I needed someone right away. Administrative Assistant is a clerical job and is very structured. When Elaine started I went over the general goals of the job but I didn’t see any reason to go into a lot of details. What leadership style is Billy using? What leadership style should Billy use?

Warren Bennis Example 2. Murray, the technology planner, has been doing this complex and unstructured job for 6 years. Murray is very thorough and does an excellent job. Technology planning is pretty important so I asked Murray to give me daily reports on his activities and to check with me before making any decisions. This seemed to really upset him. What leadership style is Billy using? What leadership style should Billy use?

Warren Bennis Example 3. Twice a month we need someone to come to work on Saturday and Sunday to process data from our overseas office. Scheduling this responsibility among the staff can be a very complex process and we need to be very careful to treat people fairly. Natalie, the previous department manager, always let the staff prepare the weekend schedule by themselves. This approach worked very well, but I wanted to be sure that there wouldn’t be any problems. I worked for two weeks and made up a detailed weekend schedule for the next six months. I thought the staff would like the schedule and thank me for my work, but they were very upset. What leadership style is Billy using? What leadership style should Billy use?

Warren Bennis Warren Bennis has devoted most of his life to the study of leaders of every description. He's been an adviser to four presidents of the United States, including both Kennedy and Reagan, has written more than twenty books on the topic of leadership and lectured and consulted all over the world. Who is Warren Bennis? A CLASSIC