Michael Pope is the director of the sales department in an airline that was launched three years ago. He has been tasked to lead the company’s marketing team in meeting the defined targets, converting prospective customers quickly, and keeping the approval rankings high. Michael has been instrumental in facilitating robust relationships and interactions among the sales team. When the company was being launched, he illuminated the department’s objectives and ensured that all members of the groups were individually and collectively connected to the aspirations. Pope also expressed the department’s high expectations and illustrated how the team’s efforts have been integral in ensuring the organization’s profitability despite being a new entity operating in a highly competitive industry. He encouraged the members to continuously suggest and share ways through which the department can support the sales function. For instance, Michael revealed that the organization was about to launch a loyalty program as a strategy of reaching new audiences and converting them into customers.
Due to his insights, innovative suggestions, and extensive knowledge of the airline industry, Michael earned respect and admiration of his team. Considering the rapidly rising competition in the industry, he underscores the indispensability of continuous organization renewal during the monthly departmental meetings. Consequently, Pope has encouraged the team to be creative, take risks, experiment, and solve problems innovatively to ensure that no potential customer is lost to the competitors. For instance, Michael narrated how he influenced a customer’s flying decision by empowering them with accurate information about the airline, onboard, and auxiliary services. Michael reiterated the essence of innovativeness in the industry, disclosing that he was promoted to his current position after suggesting the need to develop and integrate social media payment solutions on the airline’s platforms. The new payment option grew rapidly and became one of the customers’ favorite due to its convenience and ease of use. While the sales department has clearly defined objectives, the departmental head has provided sufficient autonomy to staff to determine the best way to perform their duties and deliver the desired outcomes.
Description of the Leader’s Personality
Michael Pope articulately envisioned the future of the organization and communicated an achievable vision and mission of the department to the employees. He continuously engaged with the departmental staff to identify their needs and worked collaboratively to address such issues. During their departmental meetings, Pope demonstrated his openness to new thinking and innovative ideas by asking the employees to continuously explore opportunities for performing their jobs differently. In this regard, he shifted the views of the employees, broadened their vision, and persuaded them to explore new horizons beyond their comfort zones. Moreover, he illustrated his tolerance for intelligent risks and underscored that, as the industry became intensely competitive, the only organizations that would survive were those whose employees took risks in approaching issues unconventionally.
Additionally, Michael was willing to accept responsibility for all the outcomes emanating from the employees’ venturing into areas previously unexplored in the airline industry. Michael recognized that this was an indispensable component in inspiring confidence and encouraged the team to develop and shape new ideas in executing their jobs and promoting sales. From this perspective, he established an expectation that everyone in the team, including the departmental head, would generate new ideas and that such thoughts would be recognized even when they are not paradigm-shifting.
Developing the Character Traits
Michael Pope developed his leadership traits by recognizing his role as a driver of positive change by inspiring people. To achieve this, he kept his ego under control and put the best interests of the team and organization before such personal attributes as his status in the company. Additionally, he nurtured self-management and recognized that to be successful in their undertakings, they should be self-motivated and energized. In his career, Michael also learned to overcome risk-taking fears after evaluating them regarding their reward, potential obstacles, and how they would contribute to the realization of the organization’s objectives. In this regard, he became increasingly aware of how complacency and self-satisfaction stifle progress and growth.
Further, Michael has progressively fostered his ability to make difficult decisions, particularly in departing away from the conventional and tried-and-true approaches adopted by the organization. Consequently, he reckoned that some resolutions could cannibalize the existing business and potentially disrupt operations. Conversely, Michael recognized that in a highly competitive industry, the failure to depart from the status quo would not spur organizational growth. To achieve this, he had to nurture openness to new ideas and inspire the generation of unconventional insights. This led the departmental head to become more willing to undergo changes and easily embraced ideas which sought to adjust the current situation. Moreover, he learned to articulate the collective consciousness of the airline and noted the essence of a shared vision for the growth of the business and the employees. As a result, he recognized that to lead effectively, he had to set an inspiring, realistic, and achievable vision and take proactive approaches to develop innovative solutions.
Three Traits and their Significance in Successful Management
Among the significant trait possessed by the manager is charisma through which he establishes social authority. Notably, the leader relies on charisma as a persuasive charm to empower, influence, and motivate the people around him. He leverages this vital attribute to inspire the department towards the realization of organizational objectives by fostering the unity of purpose, engagement in the company, and stimulating actions and thoughts that depart from the tradition. Moreover, the leader uses this attribute to build interactions with the workforce and deepen relationships as an approach to inspire team commitment. According to Khan et al. (2020), charisma is an integral component in leadership as it arouses distinctive credibility, authority, and loyalty. Consequently, the manager utilizes this trait to unify the team towards a collective vision and bolster their devotion to the defined objectives. Therefore, this attribute also enables the manager to articulate the vision of the organization efficiently and purposely empower and develop the team to ensure they contribute meaningfully towards the attainment of the company goals.
Additionally, the manager possesses effective communication abilities through which he articulates the organization’s vision authentically, consistently, and in an inspiring manner. This trait allows the manager to obtain the attention of the team members, stimulate intellectual engagement, and foster confidence between the staff and the departmental head. Further, this skill facilitates the easy transfer and interchange of thoughts and knowledge. Bucata and Rizescu (2017) contend that a leader cannot be effective in the absence of persuasive communication abilities through which they can foster responsibility, commitment, premeditated association, provide support, and motivate the team. In this regard, effective communication enables the manager to express ideas and share information clearly and articulately.
Further, the manager practices active listening through which he obtains deep insights and perspectives from the team. Consequently, they create transparent and trustworthy relationships, which breed loyalty. For instance, the manager demonstrates genuine interest in the insights, opinions, and ideas shared by the employees through active listening, which fosters the generation of suggestions. Moreover, active listening encourages robust, meaningful, and purposeful communication between the departmental head and the employees. According to Jonsdottir and Kristinsson (2020) and Longweni and Kroon (2018) argue that effective listening ability is essential in nurturing rapport and team interconnectedness, which are critical precursors for organizational performance. In this regard, listening actively strengthens working relationships, bolsters teamwork bonds, and enhances workers’ comfort in voicing their opinions and ideas. For instance, in a highly competitive airline industry, the management should encourage employees to generate innovative suggestions that could help the organization obtain a competitive advantage over its rivals. However, workers cannot voice such proposals if the managers do not demonstrate regard or concern over the shared views. Therefore, active listening is a critical trait that enhances the effectiveness of a manager, thereby fostering improved organizational performance.
Developing the Managerial Traits
Developing active listening, effective communication, and charisma is critical to successfully lead in the modern, highly competitive business environment. The trait of active listening will be nurtured and developed through practice and experience whenever I interact and engage with other people. This will entail directing my whole focus on the speaker to facilitate total concentration on what is being said rather than passive hearing. Effective communication will be achieved through training in the local university over three months. Within the first month of training, I aspire to have mastered the basics of assertive and persuasive communication. In the subsequent sessions, I intend to enhance my public speaking abilities across different audiences before arranging for a presentation in the class. These considerations are critical in clarifying the objective, focusing the efforts, utilizing time and other resources productively, and increasing the potential for success. The trait of charisma will be developed through experience and practice with distinctive focus on exuding confidence, conveying genuine passion, being assertive, and nurturing self-conviction.
Possible Disadvantages of Possessing the Traits
Although effective communication, active listening, and charisma are integral in both personal and professional relationships, they have their distinctive drawbacks. For instance, the former is viewed as persuasion and manipulation. Consequently, it potentially influences people to make decisions they would not have been made. Additionally, leaders who utilize effective communication are often seen as weak, which may result in negative consequences, including insubordination, diminished authority, and declining performance (Arendt et al., 2019). Similarly, charisma may result in overconfidence, narcissism, extreme persuasiveness, and manipulative tendencies. Moreover, being overly enthusiastic and entertaining may lead to the emergence and development of attention-seeking habits. These occurrences adversely affect the effectiveness of a leader and impede the realization of organizational goals. Further, active listening is significantly involving and may trigger discomfort, eroding the level of openness and transparency (Kourmousi et al., 2017). Therefore, employees may feel intimidated by a manager who is listening to them with full attention and concentration, causing them to withhold information.
Utilization of the Traits in Real Life
Active listening, effective communication, and charisma have been widely across numerous facets of life. Charisma has been widely deployed in political circles by politicians to influence support and voting patterns through their persuasiveness. For instance, the former President Barrack Obama utilized his charismatic abilities to mobilize extensive funding for his campaigns and led to many people devoting themselves to his ideologies. Similarly, Obama had effective communication abilities through which he articulated his vision for America, which gave him a competitive advantage over his opponents. In this regard, he relied on his ability to clearly illustrate his thoughts and ideas as the greatest tool for gaining political support and surviving a relatively hostile political terrain. On active listening, I have observed its utilization in counseling sessions where the therapist devotes full concentration and focus on the speaker to demonstrate concern and obtain as much insights from the discussion.
Marketing the Traits
Active Listening
- Facing the speaker and maintain eye contact.
- Listen without interruptions.
- Sustain full focus and concentration by eliminating or minimizing distracting activities like scrolling the phone.
- Acknowledge the message by nodding or making appropriate indication.
- Provide feedback.
Effective Communication
- Articulate issues clearly, concretely, and concisely.
- Ensure you fully understood the subject you intend to speak about.
- Synchronize the body language with the verbal or spoken words.
- Maintain relaxation, manage emotions, and keep engaging your audience.
- Occasionally smile and nod at the members of the audience and sustain an open and inviting posture.
Charisma
- Acknowledge other people and their significance in your endeavor.
- Manifest positive energy and demonstrate genuine interest in everyone.
- Cultivate a sense of humor.
- Exhibit self-confidence and seek persuasiveness and assertiveness.
- Build respect and trust with others.
Relating with the Fictional Character
I positively relate with the character as he exudes transformational leadership attributes, which are critical in the modern business environment. For instance, fostering creativity, empowering employees, and encouraging meaningful collaboration between workers and managers is essential in enhancing organizational performance and productivity. In this regard, I would be managed by him considering his approach to management and leadership, focus on improvement, and minimal emphasis on his status and position in then organization. Additionally, he is inspiring, empowering, and illustrates the possibility of employees climbing the organization hierarchy to play leadership roles.
References
Arendt, J., Pircher Verdorfer, A., & Kugler, K. (2019). Mindfulness and leadership: Communication as a behavioral correlate of leader mindfulness and its effect on follower satisfaction. Frontiers in Psychology, 10, 1-16.
Bucata, G., & Rizescu, A. (2017). The role of communication in enhancing work effectiveness of an organization. Land Forces Academy Review, 22(1), 49-57.
Jonsdottir, I., & Kristinsson, K. (2020). Supervisors’ active-empathetic listening as an important antecedent of work engagement. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(21), 1-11.
Khan, H., Rehmat, M., Butt, T., Farooqi, S., & Asim, J. (2020). Impact of transformational leadership on work performance, burnout and social loafing: A mediation model. Future Business Journal, 6(40), 1-13.
Kourmousi, N., Amanaki, E., Tzavara, C., & Koutras, V. (2017). Active listening attitude scale (ALAS): Reliability and validity in a nationwide sample of Greek educators. Social Sciences, 6(1), 1-14.
Longweni, M., & Kroon, J. (2018). Manager’s listening skills, feedback skills, and ability to deal with interference: A subordinate perspective. Acta Commercii, 18(1), 1-12.