People Management Case Study

The SITUATION the Ben Brooks dilemma Ben Brook, 43 days old, a solid lord with 20 eld of experience at Livingst iodin Corp. , is passing disappointed for non having been promoted chief operating officer of his company. For the first period in his invigoration, he is reflecting just near his individual(prenominal)ised and superior history and choices, trying to get whatsoever lessons for the future. He considers deliverting his company for a CEO job in some other one. The FACTS Ben Brooks someoneal and professional life Our bestir oneselfing point pass on be to understand (through a 3 pages letter) who Ben is as a soul, and as a professional.We can deduce several signalise personality clues, establish on the circumstances in the letter ? An achiever born in 1935, graduate with honors, joins Livingstone at the age of 23, promoted to an important position after only 4 years in the company, promoted youngest ever Executive VP (35 years old) after 12 years in the comp any. ?Loyal to the company and proud of it entire occupational group at Livingstone (20 years) ? Work-aholic at the expense of his family regularly spend evenings and weekends in the office. Forgets about fetching vacation.Immersed by work, leaves all energies in the office and fails in sacred some to his wife and kids. One anecdote after divorce, lives in a NYC hotel close to the office. ?Self-confident believes others ordain nonice and reward him for his testify professional skills. ?Small (or none) circle of friends having written this letter, at this point in conviction, to a professor he has neither seen nor talked to in the past 20 years seems like a strong sign that he had nobody adpressed with whom share his dilemma. The ANALYSIS Ben Brooks profile 1. Psychological TypeWith the limited teaching available in the letter, we can guess Ben is an NT TYPE (Intuitive sagacious) Ben is fascinated by power, he is very ambitious and believes he forget progress and be recogni zed / rewarded by others as a resolving of his own personal competences. As we said, he is a work-aholic, his competence seems never enough to him and he lives permanently with the fear to fail (ie. to non getting as high as he believes he deserves). He is a visionary and permanently challenges the status-quo a good example is the direct represent model Ben developed and implemented at Livingstone only 2 years after having joined the company.In his professional relationships with others, NT typecasts are arrogant in that grit that they assume a small contri only whenion from his peers and team since, ultimately, they are non as good as I am. At the self homogeneous(prenominal) cartridge holder, as contradictory as it may seem, he can be as highly demanding with others as he is with himself. The NT types could go as removed as hurting others feelings without even nonicing it. Worth noting there is nevertheless one component in Bens personality which could stir led us to c lassify him rather as an SJ type.Ben is committed to deliver on his promises and objectives and, in that respect, he values duty above all and dedicates all of his clock and push button to his work. That said, an SJ type is withal very sensitive to others, to bringing congruity to the relationships and his duty disposition goes beyond work to also his family. This is clearly not the case for Ben. ? To further complete this picture, Ben seems to be much of an INTROVERTED type difficult to say through the letter but he does not seem like a very social or externally- counseled person.He does not seem to be sourcing his energy from others, but rather from himself and his work. He by all odds prefers communicating in written, even to a professor he has not seen for the past 20 years ( ) which clearly shows how little genuine interestingness he has in knowing how others (the professor) are doing he dedicates 3 pages to talk of the town exclusively about himself and his dilemma. O n the 4th axe, Ben seems more like a JUDGEMENT type he enjoys planning is work and is excited about reaching objectives. That said, we do not have much more selective nurture about this topic. 2.Motivational profile Reading through his letter, we can sense Ben has systematically been moved by aroundly INTRINSIC MOTIVATIONS, with some component of extraneous MOTIVATIONS but a total absence of TRANSCENDENT MOTIVATIONS. Lets elaborate slightly more Most important motivation for Ben seems to have been his own self-fulfillment at work, the satisfaction of being a skilled professional facing challenges and delivering results (INTRINSIC MOTIVATION) with the objective of being rewarded by the company with increasingly important jobs, power and status (EXTRINSIC MOTIVATION).Economic compensation, although also important (as for most of us), seems to act upon a secondary role for Ben. In his letter, he explains his jobs and some key business achievements yet never mentions other people , his teams, the role they played on his success or the feign he, as a manager, had on their knowledge (lack of TRANSCENDENT MOTIVATIONS). This analysis is coherent with the conclusion we can drive from his (lack of) personal life Ben acknowledges he failed in dedicating prison term and energy to his family and was not confusion when his wife left him.He talks about this personal drama in a very dispassionate manner, as a logical fact another indication of the little relevancy of TRANSCENDENT MOTIVATIONS. How does this affect his attractions ABILITY? Nobody, no matter how good of a manager he/she is, could be perceived as a original leader by his/her organization, if he/she does not display a minimum of TRANSCENDENT MOTIVATION, ie. a unique interest and empathy about others and about doing what is better for others well-being. This motivation is a must in order to be able to generate determine in the organization.Ben supposition his personal needs would be fulfilled with s ubstantial and PROFESSIONAL components. He disregarded AFFECTIVE needs or, equally worrying, he thought it was other peoples role (his wife) to provide him unilaterally with some affection. 3. Leadership Style and Competencies Ben appears as an EXECUTIVE LEADER, a mover. He has vision for the business and the skills to get there. He relentlessly focus on results, on delivering on objectives and is highly involved and committed to do so.This single-minded focus leaves little room for other people he is egocentric and lacks genuine interest in others. He is a brusk listener and could end up manipulating others (even unconsciously) in his will to get results at any cost. Ben is ambitious about his public life and concerned about his own success above all. Through his 20 years of successful career progression, Ben has certainly demonstrated twain BUSINESS and MANAGING COMPETENCIES (otherwise he would credibly not have become Executive VP).As previously said, Ben has a vision for the business, knows how to care people and resources in order to be effective in delivering results. On the contrary, lacking of Transcendent Motivations, Ben has been unable of bringing a SENSE OF relegation to his leadership. Further, he has probably even been unconscious and unaware of the importance of this sense of mission. Ben has lacked the critical PERSONAL COMPETENCIES required to lead others can a viridity vision, a higher level commitment than merely objectives or tasks.With strong Business and Managing competencies, Ben has been able through his career to deliver results and to activate his teams on the short-term by merely leveraging on their extraneous and intrinsic motivations (LIDERANCA TRANSFORMADORA). Nevertheless, as it is, Ben would be unable to motivate an organization backside a higher-end, longer-term mission (LIDERANCA TRANSCENDENTE), and this is certainly what Livingstone top management has identified as a gap for Ben to become the company CEO.In the wor ds of another leadership specialist, Ben is certainly a COMPETENT MANAGER, he organizes people and resources to reach objectives. He is probably an EFFECTIVE LEADER, with a vision to engage others towards the pursuit of stretchiness goals. But he is not at the top leadership level, the aim 5 EXECUTIVE, who builds solid organizations and preaches with his own example and humility, rallying the organization behind a common mission, one which transcends extrinsic and intrinsic motivations to truly list an impact on peoples well-being and, ultimately, on the society.Advice I would give to Ben Brooks Throughout the above analysis, the advice I would give to Ben is to fool quality time and start a well-thought process of personal change. whatever personal change process requires -First, to acknowledge the need for a personal and a professional change Ben has done so already, at least(prenominal) on the professional side, as we can see in his letter. He does not yet seem concerned ab out the importance of a well-balanced personal and emotional life and its plus impact on his leadership ability. Second, the willingness to change Ben is starting to realize this as he says he will certainly behave differently if he joins a naked company. -Third, to act, to plan the change and to execute it, as an iterative process. For a mid-aged person like Ben, with 20 years of professional experience in the same company (hence, already with a personal risk-aversion profile), changing profoundly anchored habits will be a very difficult exercise.Further, Ben is currently frustrated and waste about his top management decision and he will probably lack the necessary objectivity in analyzing his own case and the aline reasons why they believe he is not ready to be the CEO the company needs. I would hence advice Ben to reach out to a professional coach who, same as psychiatrics do, will help him dissect the information and drive conclusions and who will design, with him, the steps needed for the change.I would advise him to start by complementing his own in-depth reflection with the feedback he could get from several peers, subordinates and friends/family about who is Ben, how does he behaves, how is he perceived. This will be the starting point, the raw material to start the work with the coach. Also importantly, this process will take significant time and effort, yet it is crucial if he wants to become not only a better rounded senior leader for an organization, but also a happier person. I would suggest that he puts aside, for the moment, his prospection for new jobs.Ideally, if this is financially possible, he would quit his job and dedicate some time (some months) entirely to himself and his change process. belike 20 years of experience do buy you the right to do so and the personal win will be worth the time and the salary. Ultimately, I believe Ben will be better off go forth his company he has accumulated significant frustration that will impact hi m in his daily work and, as he says, he will probably not make it to CEO there in the mid-term. That said, I believe he should also think whether becoming CEO is his true objective.The title per se does not say much. He should be more factual in writing down the must have and the on the table elements of the ideal job he wants and, with the help of his coach, identify the type of jobs and, as importantly, the type of companies where he could find it. In my opinion, these are the lessons Ben Brooks should memorize for the future Driven by his own professional ambition, Ben has failed in taking a helicopter view to evaluate his personal and professional life on a permanent mode.He has failed in growing as a leader and as a person to go beyond efficaciousness (delivering on results), to leave a positive mark on those border him and to make his beloved ones happier and his collaborators more profoundly committed about a mission. A leader is not a top level leader if he does not -Fir st, knows himself (Self-Awareness), his motivations, his style, his strengths and weaknesses, the impact he makes on others, -Leverages his own emotions and skills to be more effective and empathic in working with others, to get the most out of them (Emotional Intelligence) -Has a genuine interest for other people, Behaves as a change agent, an influential leader well beyond a performer delivering business results -Knows how to manage his own career and his personal time and, ultimately, balances both (Work Life Balance) to be an example as a professional but also as a human being. Ben invested all his time and energy on his own effectiveness as a manager and thought this would be enough to take him where he wanted to be.He invested all the time in his company, his projects and results and failed to dedicate time and energy to his beloved ones but also to himself. The best investment one can make, at any time in life, is the investment made to become a better person and a better le ader, more genuine and more engaged to outstrip not only in results, but also in the positive impact we have on others. Ben is still on time to do so and excel in this new professional adventure, whatever makes him happier, with or without the CEO title in the business card.