Leadership is when an individual envisions a goal and motivates others to work with them towards that target. Managing a team in an organization can be a daunting task for any leader since they need to create strong leadership-followership relations and also meet the organizational objective. The followers can assist or hinder the manager in achieving the company’s objectives (Essa & Alattari, 2019). This paper will focus on Wells Fargo bank, which wants to maintain and increase its clientele. It will also show the various leadership styles, which include authoritarian, participative, and delegative. The success of a company is dependent on its leadership-followership relations.
Managers use various leadership styles to provide direction, implement plans, and motivate the employees. The level of involvement by the manager is classified using authoritarian or autocratic, delegative or laissez-faire, and participative or democratic (Essa & Alattari, 2019). In an authoritarian, the leader does not consider any meaningful input from the subordinate but expects their instructions to be carefully followed without deviations. This leadership model is not motivating and discourages creativity from the employees, but yields the highest productivity. In a democratic, the participative manager engages his team members in decision-making. The employees feel motivated, and their productivity improves since they are committed to the set goals. In laissez-faire, the employees make decisions while the leader offers minimal guidance. It is used by highly skilled employees who need no supervision while working (Essa & Alattari, 2019). Therefore, the managers should choose the most suitable leadership style depending on the task which needs to be accomplished.
Wells Fargo, one of the largest banks in America, struggles to increase its customer base and maintain its existing clientele. The leadership is training its workers on the importance of customer care to retain their customers. The employees should impress their clients by taking the shortest turn-around-time while serving them. The bank may lose its existing customers if the workers do not respectively adhere to the demands of their leaders.
To improve its leadership, Wells Fargo is meant to ensure that all its managers enroll in leadership development programs. They should also conduct workshops where their seniors mentor leaders. Besides, Wells Fargo’s supervisors should be trained in setting achievable sales quotas. Moreover, the employees’ key performance indicators should be realistic and rewarded accordingly (Lacerenza et al., 2017). Therefore, companies should endeavor to train their managers so that they clearly understand the organization’s goals and mission and steer their teams towards achieving the company’s objective.
Followers can influence the behavior of leaders by respecting them and adhering to their guidance. Workers can also inform their managers what they need to be effective in their work. When workers understand that their leaders are human beings, they cease to criticize their directives and instead seek to understand the reason behind the leader’s decision (Lacerenza et al., 2017). Employees can, therefore, simplify the work of their leaders by obeying them.
At the helm of every organization, leadership and followership should be imperative. Leaders should be able to positively influence their followers since the success of a company depends on how a manager organizes his team. Supervisors should, therefore, use the appropriate leadership style depending on their objectives. In the Wells Fargo example, workers should follow leaders’ directives of giving excellent customer service so that the bank can thrive.
References
Essa, E. B., & Alattari, A. (2019). The relationship between followership styles and leadership styles. Research in Educational Administration & Leadership, 4(2), 407-449.
Lacerenza, C. N., Reyes, D. L., Marlow, S. L., Joseph, D. L., & Salas, E. (2017). Leadership training design, delivery, and implementation: A meta-analysis. Journal of Applied Psychology, 102(12), 1686-1718. Web.
Teo, T., & Kimes, S. (2019). Wells Fargo bank: The fake accounts scandal. Sage Publications.