Driven to Deliver

In this blog, I will reflect myself on the CIPD behavior of ‘Driven to deliver’ (CIPD 2013). Being a Completer/Finisher and Implementer in Belbin’s team roles (Belbin 2015), I believe I have demonstrated it in several occasions.

Firstly, from the beginning of the term, I had a strong desire to complete a successful term and deliver all course works on time. To do this, I created a personal timetable for the whole 10 weeks of Term 2, and actively searched for course work deadlines on my university’s system to highlight on my timetable. Later on, when smaller pieces of work are informed by my teachers, I added them immediately to my calendar. This helped me a lot in identifying the level of workload I would face in the whole term 2, thus making sure I allocate time and effort reasonably to complete all the tasks on time.

In addition, even stronger than my desire to meet deadlines is my commitment to deliver the highest quality work that I can. Therefore, I collected all the assignment briefs and marking rubrics as soon as they were published, printed them out and analysed carefully and well in advance. When there were unclear or complicated details, I prepared a list of questions and asked my teachers to clarify. By doing this, I ensure all of my works satisfy the requirements, are delivered with high quality. So far, most of my grades this term are of Distinction level.

Besides individual work, I also demonstrated the same behavior in team works. For example, in my ‘Leading in a Changing world’ class, I once led my group to make a presentation about an ethical leader by answering a set of questions. The evening after receiving the task, I wrote a detail email to my members, in which I stated the task’s requirements, proposed a list of three famous ethical business leaders based on my own research, asked everyone to add more options if they had any so that we could vote and choose one leader. Then, I let each one voluntarily choose a question to tackle, set deadlines and kept reminding and encouraging my members to complete their parts on time. To ensure the quality and coherence of the whole presentation, I researched all the questions to review others’ work and organised a rehearsal. As a result, our tutor was very satisfied with our presentation.

However, as determined to deliver as I am, I was not good at time management. Sometimes I lost sense of priority for my work and let myself over-relax or focused on less important and less urgent tasks. Consequently, I had to pay off by staying up all night before the due date because I wasted so much time earlier, which negatively affected the quality of my work. In the end, it is not what driven-to-deliver is all about.

Therefore, to prepare myself as a future HR professional who is truly driven to deliver work with high quality for my people and organisation, I need to seriously work on my weakness of bad time management. I plan to be more self-disciplined and stick to my study plan in Term 3 at CULC – the busiest term of our program with lots of demanding tasks, from which my time management skills will definitely improve.

References

 Belbin (2015) Belbin Team Roles [online] available from <http://www.belbin.com/about/belbin-team-roles/ [28 June 2016]

CIPD (2013) Driven to deliver [online] available from <http://www.cipd.co.uk/binaries/Driven%20to%20Deliver.pdf> [28 June 2016]

Decisive thinker

This blog will show how I demonstrated the CIPD behaviour of ‘Decisive thinker’ (CIPD 2016) as a second-term MBA student at CULC.

Firstly, it is about the ability to make prompt yet sound decisions in urgent situations based on the information given as well as common sense (CIPD 2013). For example, in an Employability & Consulting Skills (ECS) class, the teacher introduced briefly about consulting, then gave us a project and 1 hour to prepare for the first client meeting. We focused so much on the content of the project that when the meeting time came, we had not prepared how to conduct the meeting. Because none of us had consultancy experience, we did not know how to conduct it properly. However, as the group leader, I quickly decided that our group should use formal language, shake hands with the client when greeting, introduce our group as a famous consultancy firm with many achievements, and ask the client to introduce his company before moving to the main content of the meeting. This decision was totally based on my general business experience and common sense, but it turned out to be successful.

Additionally, being a decisive thinker is not all about speed. More importantly, the decisions must be reasonable as well (CIPD 2013). For instance, continue with the ECS consulting project, we were given a list of questions to prepare for the second client meeting. The questions turned out to be about consulting research skills which none of us knew much about. That affected our division of tasks because normally we let each member choose the part they prefer to tackle, but this time all the questions were equally new to us. Anyways, we still had to decide quickly, so I asked my team if random assignment was fine. Once they agreed, I allocated two questions to each person in the way that each question was tackled by two people. Because we were not confident about our randomly assigned questions, comparing and combining with another person’s answer would ensure higher quality.

Finally, a decisive thinker also follows up with his decision and supports in delivering it (CIPD 2013). I demonstrated this ability when I was a member of a group presentation in ‘Leading in a changing world’ module. My group had a rehearsal two hours before the actual presentation, and when the whole slides were displayed, I noticed some incorrect information in another part tackled by another member. At first, I asked the person in charge of that part to explain his idea, and double-checked by looking back at the theories. After being sure that the information was incorrect, I quickly decided to report that to my leader, asked him to remove it and offered to help correct it. Within the next ten minutes, I managed to provide the person-in-charge with the correct information, explain why, and suggest how he should present that information. After all, we received great feedback from our tutor, and especially the part I helped change was correct.

In short, I believe the above examples prove how decisive I am in my study at CULC. Because this behaviour is definitely important for my future career as an HR professional as well, I plan to keep it up by always staying conscious of CIPD’s guideline to apply into my daily decision-making.

References

1. CIPD (2013) Decisive thinker [online] available from http://www.cipd.co.uk/binaries/Decisive%20Thinker.pdf [28 June 2016]
2. CIPD (2016) CIPD profession map [online] available from http://www.cipd.co.uk/cipd-hr-profession/cipd-hr-profession-map/default.html [28 June 2016]

Skilled influencer

This blog will demonstrate how much of a skilled influencer I have been the second term of my MBA program at Coventry University London Campus (CULC) based on CIPD’s Skilled Influencer behavior (CIPD 2016).

The first thing a skilled influencer needs to understand is the culture of the organisations in which he wants to influence (CIPD 2013). As for me, I am in a university’s environment which can be considered safe, open, friendly and non-political. Being aware of that, I choose to also be open and friendly in my approach, trying not to be reserved or over serious. Moreover, I also take into account the fact that CULC is a very multicultural environment with students having different religions and beliefs. Therefore, I always try to be respectful and careful with my words no matter how casual the context is in order not to offend anyone. This helps create a firm foundation on which I can then actually influence others.

Secondly, a skilled influencer must be able to back his own proposal with logical reasons and persuasive evidence (CIPD 2013). Especially when facing alternative proposals, a good influencer needs to compare and highlight the advantages and disadvantages of each option to point out how his proposal is better. I demonstrated this ability when my group in Employability & Consulting Skills module discussed about which industry we should analyse. After voting from a list, Oil & Gas and Aviation industries were most and equally supported. Because we had to interview three people from the industry, I proposed to choose the one that is easier for us to get permission from three experienced interviewees. I pointed out that if we chose Oil & Gas, we could ask Oil & Gas MBA students in CULC for interviews, but very few of them had much work experience in the field. Meanwhile, one of our classmates has six-year work experience in Aviation industry, and two of my teammates have close friends working in their national airlines back home. Although for Aviation we would have to conduct two online interviews, all three interviewees had deep understanding of the industry. Considering everything, I suggested Aviation, and my teammates all agreed.

In addition, I think I have good influencing skills because I am can tailor my message to persuade different people with different styles and interests. For instance, in week 9 of my Leadership module, I was the leader and had to make sure my members read a case study and answer given questions before coming to class. Understanding that it was a very busy week and three of my teammates from Fashion Management program showed little interest in Leadership study, I sent them an email with detail instructions, useful tips to read fast, and emphasized on the effect of this task on their grades. As a result, all of them promised to and actually did prepare for the case study.

In conclusion, I believe that I have been a skilled influencer during my study at CULC. However, I still need to further develop this behavior to prepare for my future career as an HR professional. To be specific, I plan to learn more about emotional intelligence and psychology to understand people more and know how to influence them more effectively.

References

1. CIPD (2013) Skilled Influencer [online] available from http://www.cipd.co.uk/binaries/Skilled%20Influencer.pdf [27 June 2016]
2. CIPD (2016) CIPD profession map [online] available from http://www.cipd.co.uk/cipd-hr-profession/cipd-hr-profession-map/default.html [27 June 2016]

Thoughts on leadership (part 5): My leadership

So far, many important contemporary aspects of leadership have been explored in my blogs including ethics, diversity management, leading styles, and change management. Now, I believe it’s time to reflect on my own leadership: what type of leader I want to become, what my leadership looks like at present, the gap between reality and my vision; and figure out how to develop my leadership to realise my vision and become a great leader in the FMCG industry.

My leadership vision

Firstly, in terms of leading style, I want to be able to use different styles in different situations with different people as suggested by Goleman (Pham 2016: blog 3). This is due to my career goal of becoming a Human Resource Director (HRD) in a global FMCG company where constant change creates various situations and people are of various ages, nationalities and skills. For example, I will be affiliative in building new teams to create harmony first; democratic when setting team’s common goals; authoritative to mobilise my people towards new goals; and coaching when a subordinate needs help to improve performance.

Secondly, of all the five sources of power to influence others as suggested by French and Raven (Yukl 2013), I want to have a combination of all 5 with majority belonging to expert power.

(Adapted by 5dConsulting 2014)

Expert power – when people are influenced by my deep task-relevant knowledge – is of high importance to me because to become an HRD of a huge FMCG company, I should be an expert in as many HRM practices as possible. Others may argue that leaders only need to do the right things instead of doing things right; but I believe HRM expertise will gain me self-confidence and trust from others, and allow me to support, manage and influence them effectively. For example, as a skilled coder, Mark Zuckerberg managed to create Facebook and continue his deep involvement in the technical development of this popular social network (Tobak 2015), which inspires me a lot. This power is suitable in Vietnam because most Vietnamese highly value education (Worldvision 2010), so a knowledgeable leader often gains respect and trust more easily.

Finally, if I could only use ONE word to describe my visionary leadership, that word must be ETHICAL, because all the expertise and effective leading styles would become destructive when the leader is unethical. Looking at Paul Polman – CEO of Unilever, I truly believe that by following 5 principles of respect, honesty, service, justice, and especially community I will definitely make positive long-term impacts on my people, my organisation, and my consumers (Pham 2016: blog 1). And unlike styles, ethics will never be compromised in any context.

Reflection on my leadership

Being a 23-year-old MBA student, I generate most of my significant leadership experiences from recent group course works.

Once in my Leadership module, I led a group of 7 people to make a presentation about an ethical leader as response to a set of given questions. At first, I asked everyone to vote and choose one leader, then let them choose their preferred questions to tackle, settled some overlapped choices, and set deadlines. I researched on all the questions to be able to comment on others’ work and make sure our presentation is coherent; and organised a rehearsal to ensure a smooth actual presentation within given timeframe. From that experience, I recognise my good organising skills, my democratic leading style, and a tendency of becoming an ‘expert’ to ensure the whole work’s quality, all of which matched perfectly with my members’ feedback for me.

However, I still have many weaknesses regarding leadership. In another group work in Employability module, I hesitated to take the leader’s role despite knowing that I could do it, showing my lack of readiness to lead. In addition, I got a feedback that I seemed to be too afraid of hurting people’s feelings that I dared not to treat them strictly, which may be a side effect of being too democratic and affiliative. Moreover, in a Finance coursework when I tried to be an expert and control the quality of others’ work, I made them feel distrusted and myself exhausted.

As compared to my vision, I have not mastered the use of each and every leading style to fit different situations, and my expert power has not been used properly. In terms of ethical leadership, I am honest, respectful and fair, but have not shown clear evidence of serving others and community.

My leadership development plan

Having recognised the gap, I am determined to improve my leadership to become a great HRD in FMCG industry with the following plan:

To use different leadership styles flexibly and effectively, I will follow Goleman’s suggestions of understanding and applying necessary emotional intelligence competencies underlying each style.

About expert power, I will fully obtain HRM knowledge from my MBA course and gradually take different specialised roles in HRM after graduation to learn each role in detail, possibly starting with recruitment and then moving to training. More importantly, I should be more emotionally intelligent and rational to avoid offending others and making myself exhausted.

Last but not least, I will take more leadership roles in the rest of my MBA course as well as outside and after the course, especially voluntary projects for more leadership experience, opportunities to improve, and sense of community to become a more ethical leader.

 

References

Goleman, D., (2000) Leadership That Gets Results [online] available from <http://www.springbusinessmanagement.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Leadership-That-Gets-Results-Goleman.pdf [25 June 2016]

Pham, L. (2016) Thoughts on Leadership (part 1): Ethical leadership [online] available from <https://wordpress.com/posts/culcphamkhap.wordpress.com [25 June 2016]

Pham, L. (2016) Thoughts on leadership (part 3): Leadership styles [online] available from <https://wordpress.com/posts/culcphamkhap.wordpress.com [25 June 2016]

Tobak, S. (2015) To Be Successful, Do Only What You Do Best [online] available from <https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/244176> [25 June 2016]

Worldvision (2010) Country profile: Vietnam [online] available from <https://www.worldvision.com.au/docs/default-source/global-one/country-profile-vietnam.pdf> [25 June 2016]

Yukl, G., (2013) Leadership in Organisations. Harlow: Pearson Education

 

 

Thoughts on leadership (part 4): Leadership and Change

“Change is nothing new and a simple fact of life. Some people actively thrive on new challenges and constant change, while others prefer the comfort of the status quo and strongly resist any change. It is all down to the personality of the individual and there is little management can do about resistance to change” (Mullins 2010: 753).

 In this fourth blog, I will discuss the interesting and seemingly controversial statement of Mullins quoted above by introducing the issue of change in business, exploring people’s attitudes to change, the managers’ roles in managing changes, and analysing change management theories with real-life examples of FMCG leaders as recommendations for all of us.

Change in business

Firstly, I totally agree that change is a fact in life of all times. As early as 500 BCE, Heraclitus – a great Greek philosopher- claimed, “no man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man” (Tuddenham 2014), indicating that both the environment and individuals change constantly. Organisations as a special type of ‘individuals’ are also changing their strategies, structures, boundaries, system and people mainly because of changes in macro-environment and industries (Cameron and Green 2012).

People’s attitudes to change

Mullins (2010) states that due to different personalities, while some people are willing to change proactively, others strongly resist changes. Additionally, Cameron and Green (2012) also find out people with different MBTI (Myers-Briggs Type Indicator) react differently to change. Meanwhile, Cunningham (2005) argues that people only resist changes when they see potential losses, which is a matter of perception.

While Palmer (2004) thinks that resistance leads to unsuccessful change efforts and needs to be anticipated, Stickland (1998) points out constructive side of resistance when it signalises unnecessary or wrong changes, making organisations think of alternatives.

Management and resistance to change

Because of potential benefits of resistance, I believe leaders should manage people’s resistance in a way that is beneficial to the change process. Considering resistance is down to personality, Mullins (2010) believes that management can hardly do anything about employees’ resistance to change. However, I myself think resistance comes from not only personality but also perception, and perceptions can be influenced and managed. In other words, managers can cope with employees’ resistance by making them think that change is necessary and worthy. To do this, some useful change management models will be introduced bellows.

Change management models

One famous model is Lewin’s three-stage process, suggesting firstly managers need to unfreeze the current state by making employees recognise the need for change, then actually implement the planned change, and finally refreeze or stabilise the desired state after change (Yukl 2013).

The model successfully provides basic steps to make change happen in organisations, but is criticised for being too mechanistic when applying to organisations that change continuously and open-endedly (Burnes 2004).

Viewing change as an ongoing process, Kotter created a cycle for leading change including eight steps as bellow:

One interesting step is generating short-term wins because it keeps employees motivated along the way (Kotter International 2015). Nevertheless, Kotter’s model is criticised for being rigid when assuming the eight steps must be conducted in the exact sequence (Appelbaum et al 2012) 

Managing change in the FMCG Industry

The FMCG industry is not an exception to change because FMCG companies have to address the ever-growing demand of consumers to succeed. Specifically, 11 potential changes in demand, supply and indirect forces affecting their business until 2020 are listed by McKinsey as follow:

There are leaders who have actually succeeded in changing their FMCG organisations to address the above trends, providing great examples and recommendations for other leaders. Recognising the rising concerns of consumers about wellness and environment, Paul Polman launched Unilever Sustainable Living Plan in 2010 after 1 year planning with highlights of decoupling the carbon, water and waste footprints of its products by 2020 (Finch 2010). He stated:

“Consumers want more. They see food shortages, malnutrition and climate change, and governments are not addressing those problems. Companies that do this will get a competitive advantage. Those that do not will put themselves at risk.” (Finch 2010)

To deal with resistance to change, Polman makes sure Unilever engages with its stakeholders in decision-making, building our partnership and delivering the goals. The company also releases annual report of this plan to inform and celebrate with stakeholders the short-term wins (Unilever 2016), and as I mentioned in the previous blog, they have been making really good progress.

In addition, Peter Brabeck – Chairman of the world’s biggest food company Nestle – have some interesting viewpoints on change that you may want to note down and bear in mind. He embraces the slow, steady changes and believes that big changes must be thoroughly considered, because:

“Big, dramatic change is fine for a crisis… But not every company in the world is in crisis all the time… Why should we manufacture dramatic change? Just for change’s sake? To follow some sort of fad without logical thinking behind it? …You cannot underestimate the traumatic impact of abrupt change, the distraction it causes in running the business, the fear it provokes in people, the demands it makes on management’s time.” (Brabreck 2001:114)

In conclusion, change is a simple fact of life, of the business world, and of the FMCG industry in particular. People may resist change due to their personalities or perceptions of change, but I believe it can be managed. Instead of passively reacting to change that happened, managers can choose to proactively change their organisations, using Lewin’s three-stage model and Kotter’s eight –step model to assist in planning, dealing with resistance, and deliver desired outcomes. Most importantly, managers should always stay rational about change and never promote change just for the sake of it.

 

References

Appelbaum, S., Habashy, S., Malo, J. and Shafiq, H. (2012) ‘Back to the future: revisiting Kotter’s 1996 change model’, Journal of Management Development, 31(8), 764-782

Brabeck, P 2001, ‘The business against case revolution. An interview with Nestlé’s Peter Brabeck. Interview by Sue Wetlaufer’, Harvard Business Review, 79(2), 112-119.

Burnes, B. (2004) ‘Kurt Lewin and the Planned Approach to Change: A Re-appraisal’ Journal of Management Studies, 41(6), 977-1002.

Burns, B., (2014) Managing Change. 6^th edn. Harlow: Pearson Education

Cameron, E., Green, M. (2012), Making Sense of Change Management : A Complete Guide to the Models Tools and Techniques of Organizational Change.  Kogan Page

Cunningham, I. ‘Influencing People’s Attitudes to Change’, Professional Manager, 14 (3), 37.

Dent, E. and Goldberg, S. (1999) ‘Challenging resistance to change’. Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 35(1), 25-41.

Finch, J. (2010) Unilever unveils ambitious long term sustainability programme [online] available from <https://www.theguardian.com/business/2010/nov/15/unilever-sustainable-living-plan [23 June 2016]

Kotter International (2015) 8 steps to accelerate change in 2015 [online] available from <http://www.kotterinternational.com/ebook/eBook-Final-Copyright-2015.pdf [23 June 2016]

Mullins, L., (2010) Management and Organisational Behaviour, 9^th Edn. Harlow: Pearson

Palmer, B. (2004) Making change work: Practice tools for overcoming human resistance to change. ASQ Quality Press: Milwaukee, WI.

Stickland, F. (1998) The dynamics of change: Insights into organisational transition from the natural world. Routledge: London.

Tuddenham, E. (2014) ‘Far away and long ago’. Journal of Thrombosis and Haemostasis. 12(1), 34-35.

Unilever (2016) Engaging with stakeholders [online] available from <https://www.unilever.com/sustainable-living/the-sustainable-living-plan/our-approach-to-reporting/engaging-with-stakeholders/ [23 June 2016]

Yukl, G., (2013) Leadership in Organisations. Harlow: Pearson Education

 

Thoughts on leadership (part 3): Leadership styles

This blog focuses on leadership itself, including a comparison between leadership and management, followed by an introduction to different leadership styles and a debate on whether there is one best style to manage the work of subordinates.

Leadership versus Management

Leadership and management are two major terms in business and organisation studies, creating a continuing controversy about their similarities and differences. Let’s take a look at one of the most widely recognised definitions for each term:

Management “involves getting work done second-hand – that is, through the effort of other people.” (Mullins 2016: 356)

“Leadership is the process of influencing others to understand and agree about what needs to be done and how to do it, and the process of facilitating individual and collective efforts to accomplish shared objectives.” (Yukl 2013: 23)

Some similarities between leadership and management that I draw from the above definitions are that:

• Both involve interactions with other individuals,
• so that they contribute their efforts
• to complete some task.

On the other hand, there are noticeable differences between them. Firstly, the objectives to be achieved under leadership are ‘shared’ between the leader and his subordinates, which may not be the case with management. Secondly, while management seems to focus more on work, leadership puts people first, shown by the sequence in which work is mentioned compared to people in the definitions.

However, Mintzberg is against the any effort to distinguish the two terms, believing that they are inseparable in practice (Mullins 2016).

“Frankly, I don’t understand what this distinction means in the everyday life of organizations. Sure, we can separate leading and managing conceptually. But can we separate them in practice? Or, more to the point, should we even try?” (quoted in Mullins 2016: 313)

Therefore, the focus of this blog will now shift to leadership styles and what is the ‘best way to lead’ to maximise results.

Leadership styles

There are many alternative models about leadership styles, one of which classifying different styles as either ‘autocratic’ where power is totally focused on the manager; ‘democratic’ where power is shared within the team; or ‘laissez-faire’ where the leader consciously passes power to his subordinates (Mullins 2016). However, this classification is quite simple and based mainly on different focuses of power.

Meanwhile, Goleman (2000) has a different approach that ‘leaders with the best results do not rely on one leadership style’, and develops a model of six styles with suggestion of when each style works best to address the importance of context to leadership.

For example, the coercive style of leadership, representing by the phrase ‘Do what I tell you’, is about control and command, which can be suitable when in a crisis. Authoritative leadership, however, is when leaders ask subordinates to ‘come with me’ toward a vision, and proves to be the best style when managing changes (Goleman 2000).

Goleman’s model is highly valued for its involvement of context when considering different styles of leadership; but is also viewed as too sophisticated to identify which style to follow in which case, and has not taken into account the characteristics of the leader and his subordinates.

The best style?

Goleman’s research also pointed out that authoritative leadership has the most positive impact on working climate, which indicates that this may be the most effective approach.

In contrast, the below statement by the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) shows a different viewpoint which I personally share:

“Which personal style should managers adopt to ensure success? What is the most effective approach to managing the work of subordinates? These questions have been extensively researched and debated since the 1950’s, and while the general consensus has moved away from ‘command and control’ styles of management and leadership towards more consultative and participative approaches. However there is no single ideal, as the best approach may vary according to circumstances and individual characteristics.” (CIM 2013)

Firstly, I totally agree that nowadays the ‘command and control’ leadership has ceased to be effective because this style considers workers as interchangeable drones while they are not (Pearce 2007). Secondly, I also think that the best approach should fit the leader’s personalities so that he feels comfortable and appears authentic; and depends on subordinates’ and team’s characteristics, especially in diverse teams where differences in background can lead to different preferred leading styles. Moreover, I partly agree that there is no ideal style for every circumstances because as Mintzberg argues, ‘style matters and context matters, but mostly they matter together.’ (quoted in CMI 2013: 1)

However, I also believe no matter what style or situation it is, one principle of leadership must always be maintained which is ETHICS, considering the positive impacts of ethical leadership as discussed in my previous blog.

My own preference

As a team member, I have some preferred styles to be led by, considering the fast changing and highly innovative environment of the FMCG industry. First, I would like to have an authoritative leader like Paul Polman of Unilever who created the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan and made his people come with him. In fact, Unilever under Polman’s vision managed to reach 60% of agricultural raw materials sourced sustainably (Unilever 2016) while keeping the bottom line positive, as well as being one of the best companies to work for.

Additionally, I also want to be led by a democratic leader like Muhtar Kent – CEO at Coca-Cola who is famous for seeking others’ opinions on important decisions and commitment to workplace diversity. His style make his people feel valued and motivated to contribute (Gill 2016).

Muhtar Kent – second from the right

In conclusion, as modern business managers, instead of trying to differentiate leadership from management, we should be aware of different leadership styles and their applications in different circumstances with different people, while maintaining authenticity and some unwavering principles.

References:

Chartered Management Institute (2013) Understanding Management Styles Checklist 236 [online] available from <https://www.managers.org.uk/~/media/Files/Campus%20CMI/Checklists%20First%20Management%20Role/Understanding%20management%20styles.ashx [18 June 2016]

Gill, E. (2016) What is Democratic/Participative Leadership? How Collaboration Can Boost Morale [online] available from <http://online.stu.edu/democratic-participative-leadership/> [18 June 2016]

Goleman, D., (2000) Leadership That Gets Results [online] available from <http://www.springbusinessmanagement.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Leadership-That-Gets-Results-Goleman.pdf [18 June 2016]

Mullins, L., (2016) Management and Organizational Behavior, 11^thedn., Harlow: Pearson.

Pearce (2007) ‘The future of leadership development’. Human Resource Management Review, 17(4), 355-359.

Unilever (2016) Unilever Sustainable Living Plan, Mobilising Collective Action: Summary of progress 2015 [online] available from <https://www.unilever.com/Images/uslp-mobilising-collective-action-summary-of-progress-2015_tcm244-424809_en.pdf> [18 June 2016]

Yukl, G., (2013) Leadership in Organisations. Harlow: Pearson Education

 

 

Thoughts on Leadership (part 2): Managing diverse teams

“Research has shown that diverse teams produce better results, provided they are well led. The ability to bring together people from different backgrounds, disciplines, cultures and generations and leverage all they have to offer, therefore, is a must-have for leaders”. (Ibarra and Hansen 2011:71)

The ongoing globalisation has created teams with members having different backgrounds, cultures, locations, languages, and so on (CIPD 2015). This blog will respond to the above statement of Ibarra and Hansen by introducing useful team building and leading models, analysing the advantages and challenges of managing team diversity, examining the importance of this skill to FMCG leaders, and give recommendations on how to get better results by diverse teams.

Team building and leading models

Firstly, several models have been developed to assist managers in building diverse teams, one of which is the Belbin’s Team Roles. Dr Meredith Belbin first introduced this model as a study of teams at Henley Business School, suggesting that to build a perfect team with consistent success, there must be various members taking nine roles as classified, because one member can hardly excel in all nine (Mullins 2016).

Applications of Belbin’s Team Roles include self-awareness for individuals, guidance for effective teamwork, solutions to conflicts at work, and making recruitment decisions. Because both  individual’s self-perception and how their colleagues see them are taken into account, the results are harder to cheat and more valuable than many other tests (Belbin 2015).

Secondly, on team leadership, Mullins (2016) suggests that team leaders facilitate their teams in building trust, communicating clearly, participating fully, and self-managing. Moreover, they should act as role models for members to behave accordingly (Gratton 2004), because:

” A team rarely demonstrates more passion or behaves more positively than its leader. Similarly, cynical leaders produce, and therefore deserve, cynical teams. Innovative, creative and developmental leaders help to produce creative, innovative and developed followers. A team that is enthusiastic, energetic and innovative will have at its heart a leader who is correspondingly so.” (Powell 2007: 41)

In addition, Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions, originally carried out for IBM from 1967 to 1973 to find out value differences across its subsidiaries worldwide (Hofstede 2001), is particularly useful for leading teams of different nationalities (Chiocchio, Kelloway & Hobbs, 2015) because it helps managers understand and predict differences in individuals’ behaviours to facilitate effective teamwork. Despite being criticised of outdated data, limited scope of IBM employees, and over-generalising (Piepenburg, 2011), Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions is still one of the most reliable research to date with the largest sample of about 116,000 people in 76 countries (Geert Hofstede 2016).

Six Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions

Additionally, in Solomon’s study (2010) on leading virtual teams – the case when members are geographically based in different locations, implications for leaders include establishing individual goals based on project’s goals, strictly following meeting agendas, timely following‐up, and creating free flow of information.

Advantages of diverse teams

CIPD  (2013) stated that a diverse workforce can result in increased creativity and innovation. Ibarra and Hansen (2011) also agree that having people of different backgrounds increases the chance for new ideas, especially in creative industries where collaborations of those who have never worked together before turn out to be most successful. Furthermore, a diverse team can also reach a wider customer base (Mullins 2016).

Steve Reinemund when being CEO of Pepsico – a global FMCG giant – made diversity a key factor in the company’s performance, resulting in increase of 53% increase in net income and 61% in earnings per share after 5 years (Thomas and Creary 2009). I believe this is the result of a successfully managed diverse workforce leading to high innovation and creativity.

Jean-Paul Agon, Chairman and CEO at L’Oréal, also considers team diversity as a success factor of the company. Under his leadership, L’Oréal fosters multiculturalism and respect for differences with an ambition to become a world’s leader in the managing diversity (L’Oréal 2016). This has contributed to the company’s ranking at number 11 in the ‘Global 50 FMCG Giants’ by sales volume in 2015 (Consultancy.uk 2016).

“A diversified workforce in every function and on all levels strengthens our creativity and our understanding of consumers and it enables us to develop and market products that are relevant.” said Jean-Paul Agon (L’Oréal 2016)

Challenges to managing diverse teams

As promising as it can be, managing diverse teams is a big challenge, classified into four main categories according to Brett, Behfar and Kern (2006). Problems may arise when Westerners with direct communication style work with those who often imply deeper meanings in their messages; when some members lack of fluency in the team’s language and get underestimated; when some prefer flat structure while those who are used to hierachies think that it is disrespectful; or when people in some cultures need more time and analysis before making decision than others.

(Computerworld 2006) 

 

Managing diversity in FMCG industry

Innovation has constantly been the success factor to the FMCG industry since 1985 (McKinsey 2010). With the proven ability of diversity to increase innovation as discussed earlier, it is important and beneficial for FMCG managers to build strong diverse teams and lead them effectively.

Moreover, McKinsey (2010) also predicts that there will be one billion new consumers of this industry in emerging markets by 2020, which means global FMCG companies will have to open new branches to acquire the new customer base. As a results, new  teams with both home-country and host-country members will be created, demanding good diversity managing skills.

In conclusion, diverse teams benefits organizations, especially FMCG companies, through increasing their creativity, innovation and customer base. However, managing team diversity can also be very challenging due to differences in communication styles, levels of language fluency, attitudes to hierachy, and norms in decision making. In order to overcome these challenges, it is recommended to build teams based on Belbin’s Team Roles, predict and resolve cultural conflicts by Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions, and learn from the practices of successful companies such as Pepsico and L’Oréal.

 

References

Belbin (2015) Using Belbin [online] available from <http://www.belbin.com/about/using-belbin/ [18 June 2016]

Chiocchio, F., Kelloway, E.K., Hobbs, B. (2015) The Psychology and Management of Project Teams, New York: Oxford University Press

Computerworld (2006) ‘Managing MULTICULTURAL Teams’ Computerworld, 40(47).

Consultancy.uk (2015) 50 largest Consumer Goods / FMCG firms of the globe [online] available from <http://www.consultancy.uk/news/2453/50-largest-consumer-goods-fmcg-firms-of-the-globe [18 June 2016]

Geert Hofstede (2016) Research [online] available from <https://geert-hofstede.com/research.html [18 June 2016]

Hofstede, G. (2001) Culture’s Consequences: Comparing Values, Behaviors, Institutions, and Organizations Across Nations. 2^nd edn. Thousand Oaks CA: Sage Publications

Ibarra, H, & Hansen, M (2011), ‘Are You a Collaborative Leader?’ Harvard Business Review, 89, 7/8, pp. 68-74

L’Oréal (2016) Diversity [online] available from <http://www.loreal.com/group/diversity [18 June 2016]

McKinsey (2010) The decade ahead: Trends that will shape the consumer goods industry [online] available from <https://www.google.co.uk/#q=mckinsey+trends+that+will+shape+the+consumer+goods+industry [18 June 2016]

Mullins, L. (2016) Management and Organizational Behavior, 11^th edn., Harlow: Pearson.

Piepenburg, K. (2011) Critical analysis of Hofstede’s model of cultural dimensions: To what extent are his findings reliable, valid and applicable to organisations in the 21^st century. Published Master thesis. Oxford Brookes University: Grin

Solomon, C. (2010) ‘The Challenges of Working in Virtual Teams – Virtual Team Survey Report 2010’ RW3 Culture Wizard. New York: RW3 Culture Wizard

Thomas, D. A., & Creary, S. J. (2009). Meeting the diversity challenge at PepsiCo: The steve reinemund era. Harvard Business School