Personal Leadership Development As a Strategic Manager

TASK 1

1.1 Analysis of strategic direction of company

GlaxoSmithKline is a UK based company that is operating in a pharmaceutical industry. Company consistently expands its business in several nations of the world. The vision of GlaxoSmithKline is to improve quality of human life by making available good quality of medicines. In order to achieve this vision its objective is to develop innovative products (GSK. 2014). Along with this its second main objective is to improve people access health care services across the globe. In order to achieve this objective it is steadily putting heavy stress on its research and development activities. Over past few years, it proliferate its research and development activities in its research and development cell. There are two kinds of strategies namely deliberate and emergent strategies. Mintzberg argued that strategy must be seen in wide perspective. According to him, deliberate strategies are those tactics that comes in existence due to intention of the management (Glaser and Strauss, 2009). These strategies are formulated by using mission, vision and objectives. Whereas, emergent strategies are those which does not comes due to any intention. This sort of strategy is characterized by order. This means that if any problems come in existence then management takes immediate action without considering numerous factors. Use of deliberate strategy seems good but it has some limitations. Deliberate strategy is preferred in corporate world because it is linked to company mission, vision and objectives. But sometimes situation get changed and it is very difficult to pursue mission of the company (Preacher and Hayes, 2008). In such a case if firm remain stick with deliberate strategy then it cannot make move in line to change in business environment. Hence, corporate can use any of these strategies but need to follow a cautious approach while selecting any of the mentioned alternatives. GlaxoSmithKline is following a deliberate strategy because it does not take strategic decisions overnight. It step by step decides the therapeutic area in which it intends to launch medicines. Then it prepares a plan for R&D activity and by implementing the same, it launches drugs in the market. Thus, gradually, it moves ahead on its plan and due to this reason, it can be said that firm is following a deliberate strategy in its business.

1.2 Strategic skills required by leader to achieve strategic ambitions

GlaxoSmithKline is operating its business worldwide. There are many strategic skills but there are two kinds of strategic skills that leaders of the mentioned firm require to develop among them. Company vision is to boost production of innovative medicines and in respect to this firm alone cannot make entire efforts due to time and money constraints. In case of GlaxoSmithKline it has been seen that company has small portfolio of API which is also known as active pharmaceutical ingredient. On other hand, most of research projects it carried at own level. This is a big limitation of GlaxoSmithKline. In order to achieve strategic ambition leaders of the mentioned firm is required to improve their strategic skills (Grime, 2006). They need to enter in to strategic alliance with other pharmacy companies like Teva pharmaceutical and other international companies based on India, China and Japan. If leaders of the mentioned firm decided to enter in to such alliance they will get intellectual supplement from other companies’ human resources. Moreover, risk of failure of the project will be reduced to large extent due to sharing of risk. Along with this, probability of completion of project on time will also increase. This will help GlaxoSmithKline in achieving its strategic ambition of developing innovative medicines (Marlatt and Donovan, 2005). Over, past few years’ company sold some of its product portfolio to the foreign companies like Sun pharmaceutical industries etc. This happens due to lack of proper strategic skills among its leaders. Hence, in order to enter in to strategic alliance leaders of GlaxoSmithKline is required to develop their communication and relationship management skills. By doing this, mentioned firm can carry strategic partnerships for long term.

GlaxoSmithKline size is huge and its leaders lack with some of the leadership skills. In order to achieve the strategic ambitions, some of the skills are required which are like communication and relationship management skills. However, managers of mentioned firm do not have proper relationship management skills and due to this reason, sometimes, supply of their goods become slow or get stopped. Due to lack of these skills, firm’s managers failed to maintain liaison with the suppliers and other stakeholders. Thus, it can be critically analyzed that it also affects the firm’s business interest. If relationship management skills of mentioned firm managers with other companies’ managers are compared then it can be critically assessed that they maintain a good relation with stakeholders. They time to time conduct meeting with the suppliers. However, in case of GlaxoSmithKline, such kind of meetings is not organized and all decisions are taken by the top management. Other companies’ managers on the basis of meeting receive valuable inputs and take strong business decisions. Due to lack of relationship management skills, GlaxoSmithKline failed to reap the advantages of such meetings and this is the reason due to which its growth is slow in relation to other peer firms. To some extent, communication skills of GlaxoSmithKline managers are also weak. Therefore, it can be said that there is not proper communication between top and lower level of management. Top managers take all decisions at their own level and due to this reason; they do not listen to the queries of lower level employees properly. Thus, it can be critically evaluated that proper understanding does not get developed among managers and labors. This acts as important factors in making communication ineffective. Other companies make a better communication with the employees because they are working at the ground level and are in position to give lots of suggestions to the management. These companies through their branch managers conduct meetings with supervisors time to time and handle their queries. This leads to good managers and employee relationship. GlaxoSmithKline is not doing so and due to this reason, its growth rate is slow. This is a big mistake that mentioned firm makes in its life and in order to have improved flow of communication, firm can initiate direct interaction between top managers and worker representatives. By doing so, communication gap can be removed between managers and employees. Suggestions can be received from the employees and by implementing the same, firm can achieve its strategic ambition.

1.3 Relationship between existing, required and future skills to achieve strategic ambitions

There is a great relationship between existing, requires and future skills. This is because on the basis of comparison of current performance and skill set required skill set can be identified. On the basis of this identification future skills that need to be developed can easily be determined. Strategic ambition of GlaxoSmithKline top management is promote innovation in medicines. Management of GlaxoSmithKline has good foresight power and they done well over past years. Company top manager have good analytic skill set and they are attempting to produce medicines whose demand is very huge (Harrell, 2013). They know that demand is huge and they are focusing on increasing their portfolio size. Hence, they are moving towards achievement of their strategic ambition. But this skill set is not sufficient because in international market many giant companies from India, China and USA are giving stiff competition to GlaxoSmithKline. In order to make this competition relent top managers’ needs to identify skills set they need to develop to achieve strategic ambition. Thus, top managers of GlaxoSmithKline needs to improve their analysis skills. Till the date company makes an attempt to do everything at its own level specially research and development activities. Top manager needs to develop its insights to the use of analytic tools. By using these tools firm can identify economies of scale that strategic alliance can generate for them is enter in to agreement with any India or China based firm. It is skill that top managers of GlaxoSmithKline needs to develop among them.  In future to become global leader company needs to focus on development of skills of research and development team members who are operating in R&D cells that are located in several nations of the world like China (Morse, et.al., 2008). By improving analytic skills manager of the mentioned firm can explore opportunities and by focusing on development of R&D team members skills in upcoming years GlaxoSmithKline can become leader in global marketplace. Hence, there is very strong relationship between existing, required and future skills to achieve strategic ambitions.

TASK 2

2.1 Discuss the opportunities to support leadership development

There are maples of opportunities for leadership development. In respect to this, an individual needs to identify areas where he needs to make improvement. In order to identify current leadership requirements an individual needs to assess own leadership skills. Then he needs to access current business conditions or performance. If manager feels that he is giving good leadership and organization is performing well. Then there is no problem. But if vice-verse happens then he need to look after his leadership skills. If leadership and performance are not align in terms of results then requirement for improvement in leadership comes in existence. After identification of gap an attempt will be made to identify the skills that need to be developed to give good leadership in an organization (Cross, 2008). In order to develop leadership skills plan will be required. In plan ways will be developed that will be used to develop leadership skills. In order to prepare a plan consultation will be done with the HR manager and other peer managers. They will provide useful inputs and after considering their suggestions plan will be prepared. In plan main focus will be on development of anticipation skills.  There are many ways that can be used to develop leadership skills like making anticipation, challenging ourselves and interpreting change in business environment. For making anticipation, managers will review lots of things. Along with this, managers by challenging themselves will follow a cautious approach and will utilize all available resources in proper manner. Managers will carefully take steps in order to win challenge. In this way, leadership skills will get developed among themselves (Schein, 2010). There are many learning models and Kolbe model is one of them. According to this model, there is a step through which an individual learn lots of things. As per Kolbe an individual takes an experience of many things. After experience he validates his experience by making further observation of lots of things.  On the basis of observation experience is validated and a concept gets formed in the brain of an individual. After that a person makes an experiment on concept he formed in previous step. In this way, an individual learn lots of things in his life (Kouzes and Posner, 2006). After gathering data, they will validate their experience by doing observation of current business scenario. By doing this they will learn lots of things and will form a concept. After preparation of concept then will experiment it for forecasting further change in business scenarios.

2.2 Construction of personal development plan to direct leadership development

Following is the process that can be followed for developing personal development plan.

Consider tasks and objectives- In order to give specific direction to the personal development plan it is necessary to develop tasks and objectives. In case of tasks it will be determined that which kind of activities needs to performs for developing leadership skills. This will help in identifying learning need. In case of objectives, outcome of entire personal development plan will be determined in terms of development of analytic skills among managers (Selznick, 2011). The second main objective of training program is improving strategy development skill of the managers. These objectives will be further used for determining success or failure of the training program.

Determining required resources- In this stage resources required for training will be determined. These resources may be equipment and knowledge etc. This step will help in ensuring that training will be given in proper manner.

Consider and select best alternative- At this stage various alternative plans will be devised and one of these plans will be used for giving training to the managers.

Writing a plan and its review- After selection of an alternative plan a statement will be prepared in which plan will be mentioned in detail (Bolden and Gosling, 2006). After writing a plan it will be reviewed in order to make sure that no mistake is made in writing a plan on paper.

Performance review- At the end date of performance review will be determined and personal SWOT will be prepared in comparison to SWOT that is determined in plan in terms of objectives

Personal development plan

Selection of candidates- This is the first step in personal development plan and under this, specific employees will be selected by the top managers of GlaxoSmithKline. This process will be started from 2nd March and comes to end on 3rd March 2016. During this stage, some of the employees will be identified that can do excellent job for the organization and have a good working experience. On the basis of these two parameters, employees will be selected at this stage.

Training by branch managers- This is the second stage of training and under this branch; managers will teach leadership qualities to the employees. This stage will start on 4th March and would come to end on 6th March 2016. During this time period, managers will provide information about the tactics they adopt to deal with different types of people in order to get the work done through subordinates. Hence, this is an important activity of training process.

Training by top managers- This is the third and last stage of training and under this, top managers through video conferencing will give lecture to the candidates that are selected at the first stage. This stage of training will commence on 7th March and comes to end on 9th March 2016. Top managers will provide information about formulation of a strategy and achieving results through support of branch managers. This training stage will help candidates in understanding the challenges that top managers faced and the way they handled the same.

Candidates’ leadership skills will be developed through both stages because the way of leadership and situation faced by top and middle level managers is different from each other. On the completion of training, candidates will derive a conclusion and will come to know about the way in which they need to react on specific situation. Hence, in this way, this training program will develop leadership skills in the selected candidates.

2.3 Implementation process for personal development plan

In order to implement a plan first of all it will be decided that training will be given by a person that works in an organization or expert will be hired from outside. After this both alternatives will be considered and one of them will be selected. After selection of alternatives; entire training will be divided into small parts. A way will be determined in which training must be given to the managers. After completion of training; specific topic evaluation will be done. In evaluation it will be identified that training was given as per predetermined guidelines or not (Wheatley, 2010). If not then necessary steps will be taken to make correction in training delivery methodology. Along with this if managers or trainer felt that anything needs to be added in the training program then modification can be done to the training program. Evaluation of training program will be done continuously in order to make sure that training is given in legitimate manner.

TASK 3

3.1 Assessment of outcome against objectives

After training, assessment of outcome is done but results are not in line to the expectations. This happens because there was lack of required understanding between managers and selected candidates. Those who were conducting training do not comprehend the trainer each and everything in detail. As a result of this, trainer misinterprets the communicated guidelines (Schein, 2006). Due to this reason, training program is not implemented in a proper manner and determined objectives were not achieved. In training program, employees’ face a lot of problems in understanding the lectures of managers and this happens because trainers were interpreting lectures in a different manner. Hence, it can be said that training objectives were not completely met.

Name and details of training activities and other training activities

Selection of candidates- This is the stage in which candidates are selected that will join training program.

Training by branch managers- This training will be given by the branch managers and they will try to create a broad understanding about the tactics they used in day to day life in order to get the work done through others.

Training by top managers- This will be the final stage and in this, top leaders will provide information about the way in which they achieve difficult objectives by receiving cooperation from middle level managers.

Other training activities

As a part of other training activities, some of the literature can be distributed among the training candidates. These books will be related to those leaders that are well known in the world. These books will create broad understanding of the leadership styles among employees and help them in identification of the best leadership style.

3.2 Review of leadership development plan

There was a big error in leadership development plan and it is necessary to add new things in the leadership development plan. By adding new things, errors in PDP can be removed and training program can be made effective. There was no provision for doubt clearing sessions and it was a big mistake done while preparing PDP. The leadership development plan failed to achieve its objective because there was communication gap between managers and candidates. In order to remove this loophole, it is necessary to add doubt clearing session in the training program (Wheatley, 2010). In this type of session, candidates will get an opportunity to clear their doubts from managers. Even there will be communication gap between managers and employees. Through doubt clearing sessions, employees will get an opportunity to clear their doubts. Hence, in this way, training will prove to be effective in the organization in terms of its increased productivity and profits.

3.3 Update leadership development plan

In order to prevent occurrence of these mistakes leadership development plan is updated. As per new plan coordinators will strictly keep their eye on the training program and they will make sure that everything is happening as per guidelines (Schein, 2006). On other hand, in every part of training there will be doubt clearing session at the end. As a result, immediately doubts of the managers will get cleared and chances of accomplishment of objectives will get increased. For updating a training program, separate teams will be made among the training candidates and full freedom will be given to them regarding implementation of those things that they learn in the training program. This training program will be for one month and after completion of one month, again meeting of candidates with top and branch managers will occur. In this meeting, candidates will receive feedback on their performance and will receive suggestions for making improvements in their leadership skills. If employees would have any doubt then full freedom will be given to them regarding asking questions to the managers regarding leadership skills. This update in the training program will remove all loopholes from the existing PDP and will help in implementing the training program effectively.

CONCLUSION

On the basis of above discussion, it is concluded that it is leadership that acts as pioneer for an organization. It paves a way of growth for an organization. Hence, leadership is a heart of an organization. Firms must make sure that employees are receiving good leadership in an organization. In respect to this 360 degree feedback can be taken from the employees. As per results of feedback training can be imparted to the employees at the workplace. Employee welfare activities give a lot of benefits to an organization. Hence, firms must time to time conduct such kind of activities at the workplace.

REFERENCES

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