Drew Beaulieu

LD101

Mid-Term Exam

2/23/20

Q1: Effective Leaders are team-oriented ("What Makes a Leader Effective").  Discuss at least

two important factors to creating an effective team.

Floor front presence is a key aspect for success in a team. Having the presence of a leader

on the floor front can help diminish common leadership intimidation issues in the work place.

This will also increase communication between subordinates and superiors, making your team

more efficient. The goal of the team can be easily managed and tweaked to meet the vision of the

team. Leadership can also use this time on the floor to make evaluations and analysis’ on

strengths and weaknesses to their team. In addition to floor front presence, a key to building a

great team is cohesiveness. The ability to work with everyone properly and productively makes

the team work to their fullest potential. With cohesiveness comes great communication. Making

sure everyone is on the same page helps keep all goals and visions together within the whole

company. With great communication in the team, the team can stay in sync without their leader

who can then focus on larger issues at hand while your team can help dissolve the issues that are

most pressing. In class we discussed the actions in Band of Brothers. The major issue for the

scene was a lack of communication, which lead to the death of troops. Captain Winters made

orders to move forward into the village, while his subordinate had other plans. Knowing the plan
and freezing up on the battlefield, the subordinate went into a panic and called out an order to

fall back. While falling back he lost even more troops.

Q2: What is the relationship of followership to leadership?

In order to be a great leader, you must have good aspects in followership. Knowing what

it’s like to be a subordinate in the workplace can greatly impact your decision making for a team.

For example, Norwich Faculty has been clocking in at staggered times due to parking issues on

campus. The staff would like more options for parking to ensure they have enough time every

day to arrive on campus at make it to Jackman on time for work. President Schneider can use

funding for a new employee parking lot, but instead decides not to because he has his own

parking spot and the change would have no effect on his day to day life. This would be a good

example of bad leadership made from a decision without the consideration of followers. In

addition to understanding your subordinates, you must maintain constant communication about

performance and objectives. Jack Welch maintained a great job of doing this with his employees.

He made sure everyone knew their role and wasn’t afraid to tell someone when they were in the

bottom of the barrel of company standings. Building off of Jack Welch’s theory, these “bottom

of the barrel” workers tend to leave on their own accord. If a worker is late on their reports every

month by a few days, a leader can make the company more efficient by either reminding a

subordinate of their position in the company, which in turn would motivate the worker to work

more diligently. On the other hand, the worker could find this discouraging and move on from

the company. Both results lead to higher efficiency.

Q3: How do leaders establish trust within an organization?

 Leaders establish trust by not doing one, but a combination of things. Leaders establish a

sense of trust when present and communicative in the workplace. Being able to know who your

boss is and how he interacts with his subordinates will paint an image in the mind of his

subordinates of how they treat and conduct their work. Another way to build trust with your

subordinates is to lead by example. That could be anything from being the top performer in the

office, never being late or replacing the paper in the copy machine, when clearly, it’s the role of

someone else to fulfill. These small acts will spread across the workplace, encouraging others

and create an environment where no one thinks they’re too good to fulfill small tasks, increasing

efficiency in the workplace. Once subordinates see and notice the small tasks being

accomplished by their leader, they begin to pick upon the same habits and start doing these

habits by themselves. Lastly, a leader can ensure a sense of trust by being open with his

subordinates. An open door policy can really make the subordinates feel a sense of connection to

the leader. Having something such as an open door policy makes subordinates think that they are

available for help with problems or questions, instead of tucked away behind a closed door.