A day in the life of Alex Sander: Driving the fast lane at Landon Care Products

According to the evidence found in the case, Alex Sander is a very hard working and goal-oriented person. However he is lacking the ability of working together with other people as a team. Sam Glass, his boss has to face a crucial situation, and has to make a decision regarding on how to convince Alex that his leadership skills have to change dramatically. If Alex realizes his leadership issues, and he modifies his behavior and attitude towards co-workers and colleagues, the company and he will benefit enormously.

For that reason Sam should use all the evidence that he received from the feedbacks given by the people related to Alex, and make him take in consideration what needs to be done in order to asses the company’s future projects. In other words, Alex needs to get involved with people and start working with them proficiently, other than ignore or humiliate them. Environmental Analysis Avant-Garde has acquired Landon Care Products and has given Alex the opportunity to shine. The new French company has allocated $25 Million on a new skin care product to be marketed in Europe and the United States.

After Alex’s previous success on rebranding two other skin care products, it seems like Alex will be a key player on leading the product team in the development of the big marketing and sales strategy of the new product. One of the issues was that Alex showed off every time he could and took all the credit on the great results obtained before. I assume that this was a big project directed by him, but with the effort and hard work of other people working at Landon at the time. Unfortunately, Alex was convinced that the result was only because of his competence, ignoring the rest. The rest of the staff felt underestimated by Alex, and the atmosphere at the office was negative because (in some way) nobody wanted to work with Alex.

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There is no doubt that Alex has the ability to overcome any obstacle (up until now), he is very smart and self-confident, but his arrogance hasn’t let him be a people’s person. Although Sam realizes that this happening everyday and yet he received the feedback from some employees about Alex, the case does not show any evidence of Sam doing something about it.

For instance a department meeting or a quality circle, where everybody needs to contribute with some arguments about the situation. It seems to me like Sam is only having this conversation with Alex because he needs to perform the 360o evaluation. With that said I could conclude that Sam is also part of the problem, because he hasn’t done anything in order to maintain the team bonding. Furthermore they are not focusing completely in their job, but in the conflicts that they are dealing with everyday.

Sam Glass has the challenge on his hands in turning this situation around so that the company can succeed in the new project. Also he needs to try to save the office atmosphere and make his star player (Alex) become a team player. Sam has to turn into a sports coach, where he has to manage the weaknesses and strengths of his team. Sam is facing that the rest of the team is rejecting the star player, and now he has to find the way in convincing all the participants in being part of the solution instead of part of the problem. Objectives

The three objectives that I will propose in order to give a solution to the problem must match accordingly to the organization’s goals. In my opinion, prioritizing the order of the objectives should be: First Objective: the new project consists in launching a new skin care product (Nourish) needs the whole team’s attention. This product will be marketed in Europe and the United States. The company has invested $25 Million and there are high expectations on good results. I believe that today this new project is the most important thing for the company, and a big opportunity for Alex.

Second objective: In order to maintain people’s motivation and willingness to do their best effort to accomplish the organization’s goals, improvement in the working environment is urged. Even if that means that they would have to either move Alex to another position or fire him. There will be more projects and it is essential to have the right people for the right reason. Third Objective: If the organization sees Alex as a long-term Asset, they would really like him to realize that change in his relationship with other people is needed.

There is a direct correlation between his attitude and the company’s results. Sam sees him as his star player on his team, so Sam needs to take into consideration to work as a mentor and guide him towards the improvement of his behavior. Alternatives There are three alternatives that I am proposing in order to find a solution to this problem, which has to take into consideration, that the effort should come from Alex, even though I believe that he won’t be able to overcome this weakness by himself, but with the support of Sam and his co-workers.

In other words, team effort is the key success factor in this matter. First alternative: I am a 100% confident that the organization is not willing to fire Alex because of his talent and competence in the division. If Alex does not want to change his attitude, the organization might need to consider in moving him to a different position where the interaction with other people is scarce. Second alternative: Sam needs to take the “steering wheel” of the situation and needs to get his department closer.

In order to do that he will need to schedule weekly or biweekly meetings with his team. This way he will be very well informed of what I going on between its members and if it seems to be a problem, address it and solve it right away. There is no need to wait until the last minute. Make people aware that if they change, Alex can change. Third alternative: Sam should invest part of the department’s budget to hire a Leadership specialist (some sort of team motivator) in order to get Alex to become what the team needs him to become, not what he thinks he needs to do.

This might have a negative reaction with Alex but I think is worth trying. Decision The final decision that I will make after the weighed evaluation on the consistency matrix would be the second alternative: Scheduled team workshops and quality circles. Action Plan Sam needs to get involved in getting to know people better in order to be able to guide his team in achieving common goals rather than just personal. He becomes the key player and motivator. Probably he can get HR involved to be part of his team’s meetings to get a different perspective.

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