Business Finance Homework Help

Chapter 2. Strategic Leadership: Managing the Strategy Process

Initial Postings: Read and reflect on the assigned readings for the week. Then post what you thought was the most important concept(s), method(s), term(s), and/or any other thing that you felt was worthy of your understanding in each assigned textbook chapter.Your initial post should be based upon the assigned reading for the week, so the textbook should be a source listed in your reference section and cited within the body of the text. Other sources are not required but feel free to use them if they aid in your discussion.

Also, provide  response to each of the following questions:

1. The “job to do” approach discussed with the Clayton Christensen milkshake example can be useful in a variety of settings. Even when we are the customers ourselves, sometimes we don’t look for better solutions because we get into routines and habits. Think about a situation you sometimes find frustrating in your own life or one you hear others complaining about frequently. Instead of focusing on the annoyance, can you take a step back and look for the real job that needed doing when the frustration occurred? What other options can be developed to “do the job” that may lead to less irritation in these situations?

post from Philomena:

Strategic Leadership: Managing the Strategy Process

Strategic leadership is exemplified by the actions of senior executives who develop a very clear vision, roadmaps, and strategies that lead the organization to achieve a competitive advantage. These executives direct the activities of employees in pursuing the organization’s goals through effective persuasion to influence the behavior of employees to do things that they would not do otherwise. Some of the persuasive strategies that executives use include oral communication where senior executives spend their time to interact with their employees by ways of cajoling, soothing, selling, listening, and nodding both internally and externally. Most CEOs consider face-to-face meetings as the most effective means to convey their message to the target audience. Some of the face-to-face forms of the meeting include presentations, speeches, one on ones, etc. Those forms of interactions enable senior executives to determine reactions from their target audience. They are able to pick up on nonverbal cues such as facial expressions, body language, and mood, that may not be exhibited clearly to them if they use e-mail or virtual meetings

According to Jim Collins, in his bestseller Good to Great, he presented consistent patterns that individuals with leadership qualities and potentials go through in order to reach the top. He projected this in a 5-level leadership pyramid. That means for an individual to get to the top of the leadership pyramid, they need to possess some skillsets and capabilities at each level to make it to the top. Once the first level of the required capabilities and skills is established, they naturally progress to each level as long as those individuals master the skillsets and qualities required at each level.

Below are the capabilities and skillset associated with each level:

• Level 1 – Individuals with high-level capabilities and potentials to makes productive contributions through motivation, talent, knowledge, and skills.

• Level 2 – Individuals that demonstrate effective team leadership and team player by working with team members to achieve a common goal. They combine level 1 and current level skillsets to deliver results.

• Level 3 – Individual who is an effective manager with the ability to mobilize resources necessary to accomplish the organization’s goals. They possess the first two levels of skillsets and capabilities.

• Level 4 – An individual that has earned the respect of his colleagues by always doing the right things in any given situation to pursue an organization’s strategy.

Level 5 – A highly skilled individual that combines all four prior levels at the top through willpower and humility. They work with lower-level employees to reach their full potentials whiles supporting the long-term growth and success of the organization.

1. The “job to do” approach discussed with the Clayton Christensen milkshake example can be useful in a variety of settings. Even when we are the customers ourselves, sometimes we don’t look for better solutions because we get into routines and habits. Think about a situation you sometimes find frustrating in your own life or one you hear others complaining about frequently. Instead of focusing on the annoyance, can you take a step back and look for the real job that needed doing when the frustration occurred? What other options can be developed to “do the job” that may lead to less irritation in these situations?

In my professional life, I sometimes find it very frustrating when my teammates don’t follow through in executing a plan within a specified timeframe that we have all agreed to. As much as I don’t complain, I find it very frustrating because there is always one team member who gives all sorts of reasons and excuses why they cannot complete their portion of the work and slowly drag the team behind. However, throughout my years of experience, I have realized that my teammates come from various ethnic and cultural backgrounds and have their style and pace of delivering work. We will not go in the same pace or go through the same direction of executing tasks, so in most cases, I divert my frustrations into positive energy and I try to work with that teammate by meeting them separately to determine how I can support and coach them to deliver their part of the work.

post from Manish:

The second chapter covers strategic leadership and how it manages the strategy process. Devil’s advocacy is one of the most engaging topics we discuss. Two methods that have shown effectiveness in improving strategic decision-making are Devil’s Advocacy and Data Inquiry. The devil’s advocacy framework requires one team to develop a detailed course of action, after which the opposing team has the option to put it into action. The second team challenges the proposal produced by the first team. Team 2 has scrutinized the proposal’s underpinnings and pointed out potential pitfalls of the proposal. Once team 1 listens to the opposing team’s devil’s advocate, they adjust their original proposal. The agreement is reached after two rounds of revisions. Higher-level executives or executive teams oversee the entire process. Amazon’s business strategy includes making complex choices while pretending to be the devil’s advocate. Contrasting with the Devil’s Advocate decision framework is dialectic inquiry, which is a technique. Two teams will come up with detailed courses of action that work together. In the first step, team 1 devises a clear plan, responding to team 1 by producing an alternative method. After the debate, the resolution was discussed and argued by senior-level executives. Lastly, the senior management team combines the two different ideas into a compromise action plan and decides whether to go with either proposal or forgo both (Rothaermel, 2020).

We get annoyed and frustrated over many things because of the lockdown and the pandemic as we cannot leave the house like we used to. We are quick to become annoyed about small, inconsequential things that, in the past, we would have taken in stride. It is best to focus on aspects of our lives that can be reasonably controlled to lessen the frustration. All we must do is learn to appreciate what is around us and available to us. It is essential to help ourselves feel less claustrophobic, recover mentally, and be more harmonious with our surroundings. For instance, a lockdown like the one we have been in recently limits our ability to leave the building. People get upset about everything because they hate almost everything, and minor incidents like dropping food in the kitchen drive them insane. Instead of being overwhelmed by how irritating it is, we should step back and consider why we are annoyed in the first place. Things like getting angry at things that we cannot control, such as sitting on the same couch, seeing only the walls of our house, and listening to our loud pets or family members, are things that we should not have to put up with as everybody is placed in lockdown, which kept them from being able to leave their quarters. That is why the “problem” happened. To deal with this, it is essential to accept that you are not the only one experiencing the problem and that the virus must be contained, and precautions and preventions must be followed.