Analyzing the Leadership and Communication Style of the CEO

With the emergence of the new technological advancements, business practices, changes in the preferences of the customers and policies of the regulators, global competition, and other environmental factors; comes the need and opportunities for the change in the organisations. Moreover, it is crucial for the organisations to accept and manage the changes in an effective manner, or else the organisations would perish (Alvesson & Sveningsson, 2015). The changes in an organisation can take place in various forms and manners, such as migration of various resources, business processes, budget, and sometimes employees as well. However, the change initiatives in an organisations are not always welcomed. As mentioned above, the changes have a direct impact not only on the operations of an organisation, but on employees too. Thus, it is essential for the management to convey the changes to the members of the in a relevant manner, to implement the same in the organisation successfully.

The report evaluates the leadership and communication style of the CEO in light of the culture and the values of the company. The report is further aimed at analysing the way in which the change was communicated by Cheryl Hailstorm in the organisation Lakeland Wonders, evaluating it in the light of the various change management theories and making recommendations for improvement of the same. The report concludes that communication is an essential component of the various stages of the change management at organisations and the same should not be overlooked by the managers. 

Ms Cheryl Hailstrom is the CEO of Lakeland Wonders, which is engaged in the manufacturing of high-quality wooden toys. She is the first CEO to be from outside the Swensen family, who will be holding such a prestigious position in the company. Thus, the fact that she is not much aware of the company and the culture is evident. The reason for her to be chosen at the said position is her working style and the personality. The stakeholders believed that she would channelize the same energy and enthusiasm shepossess, in the company Lakeland Wonders too. As a CEO of the company, she is trying to lead by example and some of her noteworthy activities were, travelling to visit customers in midst of the tight schedules, setting aggressive deadlines for new projects, and proposal of a new bonus scheme to the union for improving the cycle times.

Being the CEO of the company, she visualizes a growth plan for the company in the mid market; however, as she discusses the same with the other senior managers and the departmental heads, the people seem to resist the change. Her growth strategies can no doubt benefit the company in terms of the market capturing and the revenues; however, the same are not going well with the internal well being and the operational structure of the entity.

Importance of Communication in Change Management

. The report critically analyses the underlying causes of the unsupportive behaviour from the managers and the communication and leadership style of Cheryl Hailstorm in the next segment.

Regardless of the change strategy devised by the top management of an entity, the goal is the same. The major goal of a change manager is to determine the thought process of the individuals, rules of engagement of working together and articulating the same in the processes, to achieve the desired change (Hayes, 2018). It is important for the top management of the company to understand the importance of change communication the same way, it is considered in the other management fields. As the communication is a two way process, the stakeholders of the organisation form an important loop of the change operations in an entity, and the same must be informed and engaged to bring about the change successfully (Doppelt, 2017). It has been pointed out in various researches that communication of the desired changes at the preliminary stage impacts the further course of action in the minimal ways (Hughes & Wearing, 2016). 

In order to successfully implement a change strategy, the communication must involve the following elements. Firstly, the message must be sent to the employees in a clear manner. The vision, strategy and the consequences must be genuinely presented to the employees as well as to the stakeholders. The recipients of the message must be encouraged to ask questions for clarifications and to suggest feedback for the same. The timing and the method of communication must be compatible with the respective circumstances of the management and the stakeholders. The message must be conveyed in a way that connects with the belief and thoughts of the stakeholders and the overall vision of the management of the company to achieve the goals and objectives of the organisation.

As a CEO of the company Lakeland Wonders, Cheryl Hailstorm is concerned with the growth targets that seem to be achievable as per the company’s capabilities. She analyses the market situation as the Bull’s-Eye Stores is looking for an exclusive line of wooden toys. According to her, the company can meet Bull’s-Eye Stores pricing requirements, by establishing manufacturing capabilities at an offshore site, i.e. outside the USA. She feels the company has a plenty of time to ship for the upcoming Holiday season. Being a successful leader in the past, she recognised the importance of tapping the growth opportunities in order to sustain in long run and gain the competitive advantage.

Challenges Faced Due to Cultural Differences in Organizations

However, as evident, she has been opposed by the top managers of the company. The company Lakeland Wonders is a 94 year old company. The same has been run by the family members till the appointment of Cheryl Hailstorm as the new CEO. The strong leadership as rendered by the family members of the company has inculcate the values of ownership, loyalty, trust and a culture of long lasting stability in the company.

The leadership style of Cheryl Hailstorm has earned her praise in past. However, the managers must evolve their style and strategies of leading depending upon the culture of a particular enterprise. As a result the working style of Cheryl Hailstorm does not go well with the culture of the Lakeland Wonders unlike the Kids & Company in past.

While the managers of the entity are habitual of the stable work culture, the CEO is inclined towards taking risks on the lines of the technological innovations in order to succeed. The mangers fear that the off shore unit will hamper with the sentiments of the consumers and the same may not be beneficial for the brand name at has been earned over the years. The managers also fear and are unsure of the new contractual agreements with the new parties and the trade negotiations with the union. According to them, the negotiation with the union is tricky and might result in slowdown or the strike of the work force and might prove to be disastrous for the operations of the company and the goodwill. Thus, there is a wide gap between the personalities of the CEO and her immediate subordinates.

Another major area of the gap which is causing a significance resistance is the discipline of loyalty. Loyalty of the employees has become a force of opposition. The managers are not willing to disturb the existing relationships. 

Thus, there lie a major gap between the culture of the company, the attitude of the employees and the leadership style of the CEO.

According to the transactional analysis (TA) developed by Eric Berne (1964), communication is regarded as a set of transactions (de Graaf & Rosseau, 2015). As stated by Eric Berne, in a TA, the persons present in the communication channel tend to develop a pattern of transactions. Berne, also prescribed the four basic life positions while evaluating the communication in change management. These positions are as follows.

• Both the parties are OK
• First party is OK, second party is not OK
• Second party is OK, First party is not OK; and
• Both the parties are not OK

The Kurt Lewin Model of Change Management

On analysis of the case study, it is found that as the CEO is OK, but the managers are resisting, the issue faced by the company belongs to the second life position. According to Berne, though the second position looks like a winning position, but it actually leads to the occurrence of the negative strokes and patterns.

CEO failed to develop a common vision towards the entity’s future and was focussed on getting her narratives right. She had failed to understand that every individual goes through his or her own personal narratives. The sudden announcements and changes may interfere with the ongoing personal narratives and thus might lead to negativity (Olins, 2017).

Another major gap that has been evident from the case study is that there is a lack of acceptance of feedback and the communication from CEO towards her seniors. She fails to acknowledge the insights given by Mark about the culture of the company, especially when she has worked with him in the past. Cheryl fails to further communicate her understanding of the goals and the future course of action with her employers i.e. Wally Swensen and other stakeholders.

In addition to this, she fails to communicate with the current team and thus, the lack of the relationship is clearly evident. As her relationship with the company has changed, she should have been communicating in her new capacity to understand the people and the framework of the operations better.

Thus, the CEO’s communication style seems to be aggressive as she is more concerned about sharing her vision and plans, instead of understanding from the point of view of the stakeholders.

According to the Kurt Lewin’s model of change, that involves three stages of the change management namely unfreeze, change, refreeze; a change manager must analyse, intervene and communicate in way that is productive (Hayes, 2018). There have been prescribed four practices to bring about and communicate the change. These are directing, coaching, stimulating and enabling.

According to the first practice, the managers of the entity must communicate to enhance the confidence of the employees, to bring about coordination and to resolve the conflicts (Bolman & Deal, 2017). The second practice, i.e. coaching involves a number of tasks such as instruct, demonstrate and guide in order to get the managers and the employees understand the elements of the change.  The third practice of stimulating deals with the communication to motivate and encourage the people on whom the changes would have the direct impact. The last practice is about allowing the people of the organisation to adjust with the changes. 

Recommendations for Effective Communication and Successful Change Management

According to the enquiry action framework, and by application of the principles of change as listed above, the CEO of the company Lakeland Wonders have been recommended to take the following course of action for the successful implementation of the change.

• The CEO must work towards understanding the culture of the enterprise before simply devising the strategy for the change (Binder, 2016).As the managers and the employees are habitual and bound by the cultural values of the company, the CEO can gain an insight about the mindsets by stories and narratives, employee socialization and sharing of the rituals. This will enable the CEO to build a reputation for herself and gain the trust of the stakeholders and the staff. The CEO must first diagnose the cultural values of the entity to gain clarity and and then introduce new cultural elements.
• The CEO is further recommended to slow down her pace of leadership style to match the same with the attitudes of the company members. In order to enact the change, the modifications to the organisational structure can be done (Rosenbaum, More & Steane, 2018). However, the same must be communicated to the seniors first. The CEO is suggested not only to discuss the plan with her manufacturing manager, but she must also into account her suggestions and feedback. This is because, every company is different. The same leadership and communication style is not applicable globally.
• The CEO is recommended to focus on team building and dynamic communication. This can be done by appreciating the managers for their respective concerns according the proposed plan for change (Jones & George, 2016). The second way is to involve the experienced managers and the staff members who have crucial insights into operations of the company Georgalis, et al., 2015).
• The strategy for the change must be crafted taking into account the needs and aspirations of all the stakeholders (Carnall, 2018). A stakeholder analysis must be conducted, to increase the collaboration. The same must be explained and communicated to everyone in the organisation. The feedbacks must be incorporated before the final blue print of the strategy is devised.
• The change must be implemented by leading and motivating the employees (Kiitam, McLay & Pilli, 2016). The problems must be solved through group discussions, meetings and workshops. Continuous updating of strategy must be done and feedback must be obtained from the stakeholders.

Conclusion

The discussions conducted in the previous parts enables to conclude that change, management and communication are critical for the success of the organisations in the ever changing global business world. The change can be successfully implemented, only when it is effectively communicated and efficiently managed by the top management of the company. The report highlights the importance of the communication in the change management. It further highlights the ways in which the effective communication can take place between the management and the stakeholders in event of changes.

As evident from the case study based on the communication and leadership style of CEO Cheryl Hailstorm of the company Lakeland wonders, the top management must focus towards understanding the culture of the entity first in order to manage the change. This will enable to effective management of change resistance. This can be done by effective communication and team building. The report further prescribes various models and practices which must be included by the managers in communication and the management of the change strategy. The top management must do the transactional analysis and the stakeholder analysis; accordingly the strategy must be designed. Further, the change must be communicated to the employees, their concerns and suggestions must be welcomed, along with that of the senior stakeholders. The final strategy must be designed and explained and a step by step implementation must be done. The managers must indulge in consistent communication, team building, and group discussions to make the change take place successfully. They must lead from the front, but also take everyone together. Thus, it can be said that the content and way of the change communication has a material significance in the implementation of the change. 

References

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