Executive Summary
This report outlines the goals and strategies that as a team leader, I intend to adopt at A1 Automotive to develop as well as maintain the effective working relationships with my team to assist in realizing my goals. In the introduction, the report outlines the importance of effective working relationships in this organization following the deteriorating relationship that has recently developed between my team and me. The next part of the report describes A1 automotive business including its services, products, and structure. Besides, this part discusses the function and role of my team.
The strategies and improvement section outlines my proposed strategies to adopt, which will involve the team members in accepting that there is a problem in our enterprise, proposing the strategies to solve this problem, and taking the ownership of this problem as well as the remedial strategies. The implementation section describes how I intend to implement the plan successfully.
The action plan section of the report presents my action plan in a table format. This includes all the relevant activities necessary to put the plan into action. Specifically, the table shows who, when, where, what, and how my intended strategies will be implemented. The evaluation part of the report describes how I will monitor as well as evaluate the success of my plan. The report ends with my recommendations based on the strategies as well as the implementation criteria.
Introduction
The importance of teamwork in any enterprise cannot be underestimated. It is worth mentioning that the performance of teamwork is determined by the quality of teamwork. Therefore, teamwork is a means of ensuring the success of any business. The quality of teamwork is determined by the working relationships in a business. Good working relationships among the employees result to a quality teamwork that is necessary for a business to achieve its goals. Teamwork provides the staff and an organization the ability to know one another and learn in what way to work together (Lencioni, 2002). A team, which works well collectively, understands the weaknesses and strengths of each member. This is important for the team leaders to determine which junior staff members can best achieve the job tasks. In addition, teams and work groups develop systems, which allow them to finish tasks quickly and efficiently.
However, this organization does not have a strong teamwork presently. I am sad to report that the incident that took place in my office a few days ago was due to the bad relationships developed between my team and me. I have realized that my initial approach as a team leader to raise the productivity of this business was essentially not the best was to go, and this is what has weakened our relationships. In this approach, I failed to consider my team views and perspectives regarding the path that our organization should follow to achieve its goals. For this reason, this report sets out my goals and strategies that I intend to adopt at this organization to develop as well as retain effective working relationships with my team to help in achieving my goals.
Organizational and team background
A1 Automotive is an Auto Service facility situated in Fort Wayne, Indiana. This organization was established in 1992 and deals with used and repairable vehicles. All the organization’s products are cleaned and tested before sale. The organization provides after sales services including installation. The highly skilled technicians at this organization provide comprehensive experience and knowledge (Abrahams, 1999). It is worth mentioning that these technicians are well trained and any customer can be sure that his/her vehicle will be handled with the modern diagnostics equipment. What’s more, these highly skilled technicians explain everything about the needs of a vehicle to a customer in a non-technical language.
The services offered by the organization include exhaust problems repair, heating and air conditioning repair, cooling system repair and maintenance, oil change, emission problem diagnostics as well as repair, check engine light, braking system and brake repair, and steer and suspension services. My team role and function in the organization is to provide all these services.
Organization and team goals
As a team leader, I intend to achieve a number organizational and team goals. One suitable organizational goal is to increase the productivity of our organization. I believe that this will be only possible with effective relationships with my team. My task will therefore be to establish good relationships with my team and encourage teamwork for A1 Automotive to produce greater results with fewer inputs. My other suitable organizational goal is to increase our market share. This will help to increase the profitability of the organization by above 10% after the first financial year (Bradford, Duncan, & Tarcy, 2000). My suitable team goal is to raise the performance of the team as well as its attitude goals. Teams are the most essential asset in any organization. As a team leader, I will encourage teamwork, which I believe will help to increase the performance of my team as well as its attitude goals. The importance of doing this is that, it will make it easy for the realization of the mentioned organizational goals. As the team leader, I will encourage the team to provide better services.
Strategies for improvement
A problem already exists in the organization and there is a need to involve the staff in accepting that this problem really exists. In addition, there is a necessity to involve them in proposing the strategies to solve this problem and taking the ownership of the problem as well as its remedial strategies. By doing this, the staff will feel that the management values their concerns, and this will be a step for the realization of the organization’s goals. For this reason, I will propose two strategies including improving the communication among us and sharing the vision of the organization.
I will work hard to improve our communication. I realized that lack of communication with my team was the cause of the current problem. Therefore, I will plan regular meetings with my team and the manager so that they will have an opportunity to present their views about the current problem, propose the strategies to solve this problem, and take ownership of this problem as well as the remedial strategies. Sharing the organization’s vision with the team will be another strategy (Middleton, 2003). By sharing the organization’s vision with them, they will see the current problem facing the organization, propose the strategies for solving this problem, and take the ownership of this problem.
Implementation
Lack of communication is one mistake that I will avoid to implement the plan successfully. To avoid this mistake, I will communicate my plan to all my team. The other mistake that I will try to avoid is losing sight. As a team leader, I expect be tied up in everyday operating problems, which might make me to lose the sight of my long-term plan goals (Mintzberg, Ahlstrand, & Lampel, 1998). Another mistake that I will avoid is wimping out. To achieve this, I will involve my team in making tough choices, which the plan might require. In addition, I will express what I want in the plan clearly, so that my team will understand what they are supposed to do to make the plan become successful. Besides, I will include the plan in my daily management of the organization.
The other thing I will do to ensure successful implementation of my plan will be measuring its progress on a regular basis. The key indicators that I will use to measure how well my plan implementation is progressing will include the number of new customers in our organization, gross sales, revenue among others. Together with my team, we will decide the measurements that will be applicable to the long-term objectives of the plan.
Action plan
Monitoring/Evaluating
Recommendations
References
Bradford, R., Duncan, J. P., & Tarcy, B. (2000). Simplified strategic planning: A no-nonsense guide for busy people who want results fast! Worcester, Mass: Chandler House Press.
Mintzberg, H., Ahlstrand, B. W., & Lampel, J. (1998). Strategy safari: A guided tour through the wilds of strategic management. New York: Free Press.
Lencioni, P. (2002). The five dysfunctions of a team: A leadership fable. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Middleton, J. (2003). The ultimate strategy library: The 50 most influential strategic ideas of all time. Oxford: Capstone.
Abrahams, J. (1999). The mission statement book: 301 corporate mission statements from America's top companies. Berkeley, Calif: Ten Speed Press.
