Betty Powell, a manager of reputable company (American Financial Corporation), has found herself in a conflict with her subordinate. The issue is about the incomplete report required by Vice President on Wednesday. Although Betty knew the strengths and weaknesses of Don, she still blames him for the failure of missing to meet the deadline of the report. During their discussion, it was discovered that both parties contributed to the problem. For example, Betty was called, but she never picked her phone and even never replied to the text sent by Don. On the other hand, Don failed to utilise the given time by delegating some activities. To this end, this essay seeks to discover some the mistakes Betty did prior and during the meeting and what could have been done. It also discusses what Don could have done to be more effective.
The purpose of this paper is to discuss some of the challenges that employees face during their daily operations. It allows the readers to understand the main aim of planning ahead and working within stipulated time (Wirtz, 2011). Finally, it teaches the readers about the benefits of effective communication, efficiency and effectiveness in an organization. Broadly, this paper focuses on the conflict that ensued after Betty and Don failed to meet the deadline of the report. It discusses the reason Betty found herself on a wrong side of the effective management and how Don’s weaknesses acted as a barrier to efficient service delivery (Haselhuhn, Wong & Ormiston, 2017) . Moreover, it provides the reasons as to why it is critical as manager to lead by example by avoiding the blame games during critical times.
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Prior to the Meeting
Before the meeting, Betty had information that Don had in the past failed to finish tasks and meet deadlines. In this case, she should have come back before two weeks to the deadline for report submission. By conducting the meeting in two weeks before the deadline, she would have managed to check the assigned tasks and set goals immediately (O'Hair, Friedrich & Dixon, 2007). Secondly, while she was on the West Coast for the management training workshop, she failed to call Don just to find out the progress of the report (Greene & Smith, 2016) . This made Don think that deadline was insignificant hence working at his pace. Lastly, Betty as manager failed to lead by example. She left everything to her subordinate who did not have a clue of a delegation of power to save time (Smith & Fingar, 2003).
One thing that Betty could have done differently to avoid missing the deadline would have been to keep constant contact with Don. This would have allowed her to establish the progress of the report (Devita, 2000). As such, she would have changed tactics of report analysis depending on the available information. It would also have allowed her to call the Vice President and ask for an extension within earliest time possible if need be. In the end, she could have been able to match the remaining time with the remaining information and schedule some changes immediately (Anderson, Narus & Narayandas, 2009).
Additionally, she could have been proactive. In other words, she could have gathered information about the delays and create a tight schedule within the time frame. Generally, had Betty remained in touch with Don while the report was being prepared, she could have noticed his struggling nature and assigned her an assistant to help him complete the tasks on time (Lynch & De Chernatony, 2004).
Instead of wasting a lot of time interrogating and throwing blames on Don, she should have focused on delegating and supervising the remaining parts of the report (Crowley, 2017). The managers are trained to work under pressure, and this is the appropriate time Betty had to demonstrate effective management and leadership.
During the Meeting
While in the meeting, Betty appeared to be a great start. However, as the meeting went on, a change of tone was evidence as Betty continued to speak. Betty started panicking and was more frustrated. After being informed that the report was incomplete, she started to pinpoint the previous blunders as excuses. At some point, she became annoyed and made some comments that were demeaning and belittling to Don.
On the other hand, Betty could also have admitted that indeed she understands Don’s strength and weaknesses. In this case, she could have accepted some of the mistakes she made. For example, when Don says that he tried to let Betty know last week about the challenges he was undergoing, Betty was on the West Coast for a management training workshop. Despite receiving a missed call from Don, Betty did not bother to call back even after Don left her a message. Instead of admitting that, she continues with her blame game by accusing Don.
The meeting would have been more efficient if and only if Betty had avoided using old accusations and incidents to question the current matter. Instead, she should have listened to Don keenly about the challenges that came up during the process of Report formulation and work towards an appropriate solution (Ober, 2009). She should have expressed her feelings and criticism in a more constructive way than she did. This would have brought forth a much less protective attitude from Don. He could have even realized his mistakes in the first place and admit he made errors while trying to provide quality and meticulous report (Loughran & Kulick, 2004). As such, Don would have come up with positive strategies for enhancing his future behaviors. Lastly, Betty should have accepted that she was part of the problem because she was not reachable at the time of the need (Chang, 2016).
Don should do these to be more Effective
So as to be more effective, Don must have informed Betty about the delays, intricacy, tribulations, omitted records, as well as the lack of clerical resources in the beginning. This would have allowed Betty to cater for them given the significance nature of the report.
Don was supposed to contact Betty regularly concerning the progress of the report. Alternatively, he should have made frequent visits directly to Betty when he discovered that he was going to have problems with meeting the deadline (Hasanli & Jamali, 2016). Don need to learn some self-management skills as this will help him to become more effective and functional. He similarly needs to take an initiative of building up his problem-solving skills (Brocke & Rosemann, 2014). This will place him in a better position of solving challenges as they arise.
Conclusion and Lesson learnt
In summary, before the meeting, Betty had information that Don had in the past failed to finish tasks on time. In this case, she should have reported back two weeks before the deadline for report submission. So as to avoid missing the deadline, Betty would have kept continuous contact with Don to find out the progress of the report (Dale, 2015). In the meeting, Betty could also have admitted that indeed she understands Don’s strength and weaknesses. Therefore, she should have accepted some of the mistakes she made. For Don to be more effective, he must perfect the art of effective communication and self-management skills. Some of the lessons learnt from this assignment include:
Effective Communication and feedback plays a significant role in company operations.
Efficiency and effectives are some of the ingredients that we should embrace in our daily lives.
Self-management skill is key to the success of activities.
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