What Do People Do When They are Leading - Bob McDonald (Procter & Assignment

What Do People Do When They are Leading - Bob McDonald (Procter & Gamble) - Assignment Example He studied in the US Military Academy where he served in the 82nd Airborne Division for five years. When McDonald left the military, Procter & Gamble (P&G) asked him to join the company and served as the brand manager of one of its leading products. In 2009, the board appointed him as the CEO owing to his 29 years of service and substantial contribution to the international expansion of the company (Kane, 2012). At West Point, McDonald had learned much valuable insights on values-based leadership, which he imparted to his senior executives when he became the CEO at P&G. 2. Leadership Style and Philosophy Bob McDonald firmly believes in innovation, which is for him a driving force that can solve challenges for sustainability (Confino, 2012). The drive for innovation made P&G as one of the first companies to accentuate the importance of crowd sourcing and social media to generate new ideas and leverage change through networking with different groups of people. McDonald considers innova tion as the lifeblood of P&G given that it allocates about $2 billion annually on their research and development, which is approximately over 50% of its competitors combined (PwC 2010, as cited in Nagpal, 2013, p. 31). Considering the future of the company, McDonald also believes that leaders should build an innovative corporate culture, where a stream of ideas and innovation can be generated by more than 50,000 employees and millions of daily interaction with customers. Such approach, therefore, can facilitate the company in improving their processes, products, and customer experiences. McDonald’s leadership principles can also be attributed to his training at West Point, where he learned having a sense of purpose and character through, which he believed was the most significant trait or quality of a leader (Kane, 2012). 3. Personal and Organisational Values As the company’s CEO, Bob McDonald promotes a â€Å"value-based leadership† through which he advocates t he essential values of purpose and character (Hurley, 2012, p. 107). He defines purpose as the belief in the ethics and mission within an organisation while character, as he perceived, refers to an act carried out with personal responsibility and integrity. With his personal values-based leadership, McDonald is recognised both as an individual and global business leader anchored on his belief that outstanding companies and leaders should operate with consistent values and with a clear sense of purpose (Procter & Gamble, 2013a). With regard to organisational values, McDonald espouses a corporate innovation at P&G. Although he recognised the value of sales promotion that can boost the company’s growth, he believes that true innovation can provide a wide range of opportunities for the company to excel in their investments and strategic goals (Kuratko, 2012). Moreover, McDonald’s key points for leadership derived from his military experience can be characterised with stron g organisational and personal values in stimulating action in the workplace and promoting a sustainable competitive advantage (Yardley, Kakabadse, & Neal, 2012, p. 68). 4. How McDonald’s Values Influence Ethical Behaviour of the Organisation Ethical behaviour is the key ingredient of Procter & Gamble’s success, as noted by House and Rehbein (2004, p. 105). Its corporate values reflect their behaviour that influence the way they the company works and toward their business partners (Procter & Gamble, 2013b). In addition, employees at Procter & Gamble are obliged to act in the company’s best interests at all times and take prompt actions in resolving any conflicts of

Improving Performance through Learning, Coaching & Development Essay

Improving Performance through Learning, Coaching & Development - Essay Example Recruiting and retaining good performers in this industry is faced with much difficulty as the attrition rate is very high compared to other industries. So to retain and attract high performing employees, especially when there is high competition in this industry, it is important for the company to design and implement an effective training and development system which will help the company to support the employees growth and aspirations and also give the company a competitive advantage over the other players in the industry. Training and development plays a critical role in making a call center work successfully by ensuring a positive work environment and ensures the satisfaction of employees by supporting and guiding them and thereby providing them opportunities to grow. The report is being designed with the objective of improving the performance of the employees through an effective process of training and development in Endeavour, an outsourcing company operating in the UK and in India with approximately 5000 employees across the three sites maintained by the business. Identification of Training and Development needs The main drivers of a training and development program in an outsourcing business are new business opportunities, changes in customer requirements, management planning and changes in technology (Mayben, 1999, p.293). Taking up new business opportunities create the need for additional training and awareness. Often the launch of a new product or aiming at a new target group require proper training to be imparted to the call center agents. Industry issues arising newly also require additional training to review the processes and the work systems. Management planning is required in areas of resource management, specific technologies, queuing processes and real-time management. To support managers in these areas continuous training and development should be imparted so that the managers are aware of the new trends and developments in the industry. T he introduction of new technologies in the business often requires training to be given to the employees to make them skilled to operate new systems and use unique technologies like reporting systems, online desktop tools and specialized telephones (Holman, 2000, p. 69). Also the soft skills of pitching a product, selling through different media and customer service are taught to the employees through new training programs. The increase in the level of customer expectations may often lead to unsatisfied customers. Training should be given in these cases to redefine the processes and the systems. Political or regulatory changes often lead to customers asking questions and the agents are liable to answer. So, they must be trained to handle these concerns so as to save the company from any negative publicity or legal action (Solomon, 2001, p.17). The competition in this industry is high making it difficult to retain skilled employees. The need to retain talent within the organization i s another important driver for training systems. The key objectives of a call center training process include the alignment with the organizational objectives involving senior management guidance, improving quality and