Leadership Profile: Carla Todd - Assignment Example

Introduction Different people have different types of leadership styles because of their differences in intellectual level, character, attitudes, culture, social setups, hereditary and environmental factors. Some leaders adopt democratic styles in their approach whereas some others adopt autocratic styles. A third segment of leaders take a mixture of both. In any case, the ultimate aim of leadership is to guide the followers or subordinates effectively and efficiently towards the goal. Carla Todd, the manager of insurance claims in Safeco Insurance, is a person of great leadership skills. At present I am working under her and got many opportunities to see and experience her leadership qualities. She is a great manager because she interacts with the team, with support, leadership, and willingness to learn and lead. She is originally from a small town called Crossett, Arkansas born in 1966, January 20. She went to University of Arkansas and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Marketing. She is responsible assigning cases, managing cases, as well as making sure all proper documentation was included in all cases assigned. This paper analyses her leadership profile based on an interview with her conducted by me recently. Carla Todd: Leadership Profile Educational background, career path, career decisions & current responsibilities Carla Todd graduated from University of Arkansas with a bachelor’s degree in Marketing. Carla was interested in working in service sector because of her better communication skills. She has realized that her major asset is her communication skills. At the time of studying itself, her friends appreciated her abilities in convincing others with her arguments. Her presentation style was in such a way that of even boring topics will become interesting for her audience. Carla realized that it is possible her to better utilize her communication abilities if she joins a service sector. Immediately after the completion of her education she joined Safeco Insurance initially as an insurance advisor. She was succeeded in meeting the targets set by the company and in fact she exceeds the targets and the expectations of the company. Carla became an expert insurance advisor with six months from the date of joining the company. She was very much interested in her profession and her pleasant, soft, intelligent and diplomatic approaches towards customers, gave her a strong customer base. In fact customers started to believe her blindly attracted by her abilities and great advices and services provided to them by her. Safeco Insurance did not wait too long to recognize the abilities of Carla. They immediately realised that Carla was an asset to the company and her talents should be utilized more effectively. In order to give her a boost in her career, Safeco Insurance promoted her as the manager of claims within one year from the date of joining the organization. Currently Carla is handling the insurance claims of different customers. Five executives are at present working under her handling the insurance claims. The current job of Carla could be a tough one for other normal persons, but Carla with her immense abilities in communication and negotiation skills handles all the claims without giving any chances of complaints. She told me that current profession is a challenging one since the interests of her organization and the interests of her customers often contradict each other. Customers approach her with false claims and sometimes with fabricated claims. It is her duty to identify these bugs and handle each case on its merit. She told me that some customers are adamant Leadership according to Carla According to Carla, leadership is an art. It is impossible for all the people to become an artist. Same way, it is impossible for all the people to become effective leaders. Leadership requires patience, temperament, motivation, dedication, positive attitude, etc. Leaders are always leading from the front and it is impossible for a leader to ask the subordinates to do certain thing and stay behind the curtain. In Carla’s opinion, the task of the leader will be reduced to half if he/she would be able to motivate the subordinates properly for the task. Without motivation, it is difficult for the people to give 100% of their abilities in completing a task. The success of a leader lies in how well he/she was able to motivate the workforce. Carla has told me that the essential difference between a leader and others is in doing things. Normal people will do things without many thoughts put behind and often fell in trouble. Only after falling in trouble they will think in terms of solutions. A leader on the other hand, thinks twice before doing or asking others to do certain things. The task will be analysed from all the corners by the leader before he starts to make it in practical. Thus the leaders always eliminate the chances of problem before it actually occurs. Carla has told me that many people have the misconception that all the managers are leaders. In her opinion, such an argument is absolutely wrong. She told me that all the leaders can become managers, but it is impossible that all the managers may become leaders. She told me that a manager’s task is to do the things in the right manner whereas a leader always does right things. A Manager "does the thing right" and a Leader "does the right thing. A leader must lead by example whereas a manager uses direction and enforcement of policy and procedure to accomplish specific tasks. Of course, a manager must also be able to lead as well”. (Johnson) Managers can become leaders if they were able to do the things right always. She has cited an example to make her argument more clear. She told me that the present financial crisis has affected many countries including US and UK. Such countries are now taking every action to repair the damages caused by recession. On the other hand, she told me that India and China like countries escaped from the recession because of their precautionary measures taken before the recession occurred. In short, in her opinion, the administrators of US and U like recession hit countries are managers whereas the administrators of India and China like countries are leaders. A manager has subordinates whereas a leader has followers (Leadership vs. Management). American and UK administrators have many subordinates who obey the instructions of their managers whereas the Indian and Chinese leaders have followers to imitate their actions. The above statement may sometimes may seems like a little exaggerated, but it is a fact in the recent London G 20 summit, many world leaders gathered around Indian prime minister and renowned economist Dr. Man Mohan Singh to know how India succeeded in tackling the recent recession. Carla believes that a leader should have strong belief in ethics and morality. The leaders should have an integrated personality and he/she should treat all the people equally well without any prejudice or biases. Personal interests don’t have much place in Carla’s philosophy of leadership. Great leaders according to Carla Carla has cited Mahatma Gandhi and Abraham Lincoln as great leaders and her role models. She has pointed out that these leaders influence the followers not because of their power or authority, but because of their actions and charisma. Actions can communicate so many things to the subordinates than the verbal instructions. Gandhi and Lincoln have shown the right path to the followers through their life itself. In Carla’s opinion, a leader could be more influential if he/she was able to show the way through his/her life. Carla cited the example of Gandhi who has adopted the way of nonviolence to make India free from the colonial rules of Britain. Learning of leadership skills Carla has acquired many leadership skills even within this short period of her time as a manager. She has realized that it is impossible to manage all the people using same tactics. Carla has told me that she is learning a lot on each day of her work with Safeco Insurance. She told me that her tasks as a manager are varied on each day because of the differences in the needs of customers and the variety of customers she is handling at present. People have different attitudes and characteristics and in Carla’s opinion, before leading a team, it is better to learn more about the team members to formulate customized strategies for each of them. She has told me that her leadership style is a mixture of democratic and autocratic approaches. She has realized that situational leadership is important in managing a team effectively. It is impossible for a leader to 100% democratic or autocratic always. The leader should behave in accordance with the demands of the situation. The most difficult aspect of being a leader is the anxiety of fulfilling the needs of the subordinates. Subordinates rely heavily on the leadership qualities and intelligence of the leader in doing a task. They obey the instructions of the leader blindly. If anything wrongly happens, the entire project could be spoiled. Moreover such failure of the project will affect not only the organization, but the employees as well. So the leader should be extremely cautious before implementing a task. The success and failure of a task depend on the leader. Goals set by Carla and preparations for meeting the goals Carla always does homework for the next day. She told me that homework is essential to plan the projects successfully. Carla always set some goals for each day and takes all the necessary steps to achieve it. Finishing jobs in a timely and structured manner will help her to stop works accumulation. In her opinion, scheduling of tasks based on FIFO (First In First Out) basis helped her immensely in making all the customers happy. Leading a diverse workforce The needs of a diverse workforce will always be different. For example, a Muslim worker may require a 2 hour off on Friday noon period for performing his ritual. A Christian may not work on Sundays even if the urgency is there. Thus the needs of the diverse workforce are different. Carla always gives importance to the values and traditions and she always keen in listening the needs of the employees. She never segregated employees based on their culture, religion or gender and adopted a standard approach to all. Diverse workforce is always different with respect to their language, education, social setup, nonverbal communication etc and Carla knows it very well. She always tries to respect them and their needs as much as possible. Moreover she is taking every possible measure to ensure that all the employees are treated equally and their needs are considered sympathetically. Advice for future leaders Anybody can become a manager or leader. But it is difficult to become effective managers or leaders. Carla has quoted the words of Patty Inglish as an advice to future leaders; “An effective manager will have leadership qualities and "manager" will be only one facet of a "LEADER." A Leader possesses a natural set of talents that inspire people to follow, to be loyal, and to produce” (Inglish) Works Cited 1. Inglish, Patty. 2010. “The Difference Between a Manager and a Leader”. 2 May 2010. 2. Johnson, Rick. 2007. “The Difference Between a Leader and a Manager”. 2 May 2010. 3. “Leadership vs. Management”. 2010. 2 May 2010. Read More