Growing Managers: Moving from Team Member to Team Leader

Thomas Ruby & Lauren Sendelbeck 4/5/16 Case #2 Case Summary This case describes a company called ColorTech Greenhouses Inc. The company, headquartered in Phoenix, as a high-tech color supplier that eventually became one of the largest flower companies. The case describes the declining sales from Phoenix, which once had the highest sales of any division. Melissa Richardson is tasked with dealing with the difficulties confronting ColorTech. ColorTech is a privately held supplier of flowers to big-box stores. Along with the rest of the color industry, ColorTech faces increased price competition and a steady decline in sales. Currently, the market is experiencing a very low demand for the flower industry. In an attempt to increase revenue, ColorTech decided to expand through the use of vertical integration and diversification. They operated largely in southern North America, with a few greenhouses in the northeast and Mexico, along with plans to expand into Ecuador to enter the long-stemmed rose market. They also purchased a Columbian company that specialized in cut flowers to incorporate themselves into the florist industry. Management presents the biggest issues facing ColorTech’s Phoenix division. Richardson settled into her new sales management position feeling unsure of her ability to lead teams due to the few management issues she had ever been exposed to in real life. The courses and classroom instruction Richardson received prior to coming to Phoenix were little help when faced with the complex management challenges of the Phoenix division. Furthermore, the lack of communication from Campbell, a middle manager, to Richardson, a first-line manager, left Richardson with no help. There were no guidelines for Richardson to consult, and she received little to no feedback or advice from Campbell. In addition, Richardson faced a language barrier, because a large portion of the organization spoke Spanish due to the nature of their labor force and the location of some of their facilities in Latin America. As a result of these challenges, one of the greenhouses stationed in Columbia was infected with a fungus that resulted in weeks of delay, loss of customers, and ultimately lost potential profits for the company. Ultimately, Richardson’s lack of management experience, improper training from Campbell, and a dysfunctional staff led the Phoenix division to a state of chaos.

Dominated Needs

Needs for Competency

Team Leader

Team Members

Melissa Richard son

Alex Hoffm an

Gregor io Torres

Sarah Vega

High

High

Modera te

Low

Chelse a Peters on Modera te

Nick Ruiz High

Needs for Moderate High High Low Modera Low Autonomy te Needs for High Low High High Low Modera Relatedness te Assessment of Needs According to Social Development Theory

Melissa Richardson 

She was high in needs of competency, which was reflected especially when she studied Spanish prior to her start day. She also displayed this need in her goal to make Phoenix one of the best sales offices.



She was moderate in needs of autonomy. She wants to collaborate with her sales teams and wants guidance from Campbell.



She was high in needs of relatedness. Richardson made efforts to get everyone together that Saturday morning to correct the pots themselves, a potential opportunity for team building. For example, she kept thinking of pizza lunches and ice cream on Friday afternoons after achieving sale targets.

Alex Hoffman



He was high in needs of competency. Instead of being social and friendly, he was hard-working and put in effort to achieve his goals. He was the top salesman in the company, and he had earned every reward and perk ColorTech offered. He achieved his sales goals in any case, even though he had to make phone sales outside his area.



High in needs for autonomy, he does not want to be managed, even going so far as to refuse to follow Richardson’s terms by saying, “So you’re asking me to call on every little mom-and-pop florist shop to sell them, what, a couple thousand a month in stems? You’ve got to be kidding! Why don’t you just let me deal with the real customers?”



He has very low needs of relatedness. He is not social and likes being alone, prefering to focus on his own personal sales.

Gregorio Torres 

His needs of competency are moderate because he wants to perform well but does not take steps to proactively get better.



He is high in need for autonomy. He is easily distracted from his primary goal of increasing sales by his own personal pet projects that he is interested in, like his website ideas.



He is high in need for relatedness. He always talks nicely with Richardson and is quite ready to help her. He also had good relations in team and he kept converse them in their Spanish language.

Sarah Vega 

She is low in needs of competency. She is not interested in putting special effort to do her work. Even when her work was piling on her table, she did not bother to complete it. She did not have any kind of goal related to her job.



She is low in autonomy, because she takes no initiative on her own and seems disinterested in her work



She is high in needs of relatedness. She is very social and always on her phone. Also, she missed work to take care of a family member’s baby, which further demonstrates her need of relatedness.

Chelsea Peterson 

She is moderate at needs of competency, because she has the desire to move up to a sales position



Her need of autonomy is moderate, which is displayed by her desire to move up in the company.

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She is so low at needs of relatedness, because she is not interested in building good relations with others. She demonstrated this trait in her very first meeting with her new boss when she was very argumentative in her behavior.

Nick Ruiz 

Nick has high needs of competency. He is ready to put each and every effort to get sales position. He was ready to use his full potential in work and, in return, seeks growth, achievement and advancement in his career



He is low in needs of autonomy, because he always pesters Melissa and consistently needs guidance.

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He is moderate in needs of relatedness. He likes to meet new people. He also built a strong relationship with Richardson. He kept interacting people in other departments and asking them about their jobs.

Analysis of Employees Alex Hoffman As Hoffman is the top sales person in the company and has always achieved his sales targets, he should be motivated by motivating factors like giving him praise for his work, recognition, promotion and increased status, offering challenges, and bonuses. This also aligns with his social development needs. Hoffman is intrinsically motivated to be successful autonomously. Richardson needs to take advantage of this information and interact with Hoffman in a way that highlights these strengths. She should also convey to Hoffman that she also shares these values and gets fulfillment from being successful and independent. If this fails to produce results, then Hoffman likely needs to be motivated by the “stick.” Richardson would then need to make clear that if his negative attitude continues, then he will be punished via increased supervision and a decrease in his monetary compensation. Finally, one concrete way to intrinsically motivate him would be to relieve him of the cut flower business and instead allow him to focus on the accounts he cares about. Then, the cut flower business could be transferred to Gregorio Torres, who seems relatively interested in the cut-

flower market and could take over these sales. This would be a good alternative, since the cut-flower market is worth relatively less than the warehouse sales, allowing for a good learning experience for the new representative while not costing the company a lot of sales while they are still learning. Gregorio Torres As Torres was innovative and has so many creative ideas, Richardson should motivate him with intrinsic motivators for that by giving him praise and appreciating him, encouraging him, accepting his ideas and creativity. Richardson should have Torres transfer all his traditional color business to Hoffman who could likely reap more benefits from those accounts. Instead he should be given the responsibility of handling all the cut flower business. Torres is high on the need for autonomy, therefore Richardson can intrinsically motivate him by giving him the authority to handle the cut flower business alone. In addition, Richardson should appeal to his need for relatedness by giving him praise for his efforts and explaining to him how his handling of the cut flower business frees up the rest of the team and leads to overall better performance. As a reward, if Torres handles the cut flower accounts well, Richardson can reward him by giving him leeway to pursue his computer system. This further takes advantage of his need for autonomy. Sarah Vega Sara Vega is a loose cannon, coming in late and not paying attention, so Richardson should consider termination if the situation does not improve and instead promote Ruiz who want a sales representative position. Her attendance problem is the primary concern. However, given her need for relatedness, there may be a solution to the problem. Richardson should sit her down and fill in the gaps in her sales training, bonding with her in the process, and convey to her that the office will succeed or fail based on their performance as a team. Then, she should take the time to discuss with Vega her family situation and convey to her that Richardson cares about her personal issues. The Richardson can offer Vega a somewhat extrinsic reward. If Vega meets her sales goal Richardson can offer her family leave. For example, if she completes her targets and works overtime within the five days of the week, then she can get a day off.

Chelsea Peterson First and foremost, the legal issues need to be dealt with. Richardson should consult with their legal team immediately and take steps to protect

the company. Once the legal issues are sorted out, Peterson should be fired. Her behavior is unacceptable and she is clearly opposed to reform. Her immediate use of legal repercussion is also not acceptable. Firing her also sends a clear message to the rest of the team. It lets everyone know that Richardson is serious as a manager, and she can also spin it in a way that lets everyone know that Peterson was fired because she was not a team player. Peterson has very little institutional knowledge and would be very easy to replace. Therefore, it makes more sense to hire someone else who is willing to take direction and be civil. Nick Ruiz Is promising and motivated to be promoted to the sales department, and he could be a great addition to the team. He is very enthusiastic about the possibility of a job promotion into the sales department. If things with Vega don’t work out, Gregorio decides to pursue the website, or they budget for another sales representative, Ruiz could be a loyal new salesperson Richardson could depend on and train. He has a low need for autonomy, which might bother Richardson occasionally; however, in the long term it will allow her to train him into a salesman that meets her expectations. Combined with Ruiz’s high need for competency, it is likely he will work hard and embrace Richardson’s training. Analysis of Richardson Richardson did a few things right immediately when she started. First, it was a good idea to brush up on her Spanish in the car. Second, it was a good idea to prep the weekend before by preparing supplies and touring the facilities so that she could start on Monday having everything prepared. It was also a good idea to assemble basic information about her team members, track her progress with them, and meet them one on one. However, there are a number of things Richardson should have handled differently. Her biggest mistake was the way that she failed to manage her manager. When Campbell asked her if everything was alright, she should have expressed her opinion of how she doesn’t know how to do certain reports and would like some sort of training in this position if it is available. She should have insisted on a meeting with Campbell to insure that she knows the jobs that are expected of her (like what she should do in situations that are out of her control, i.e. the fungus issue in the greenhouse) and to get a quick rundown of how to accurately complete the paperwork that is now expected of her. If this doesn’t work, she should contact the VP of HR, which she was given his card with the intention “when in doubt, give us a shout,” and should ask what training programs are available to someone in

her position to handle and assess the different risks and requirements the job needs. Richardson should get the whole group together when there is plenty of time to talk and explain the issues that are present and ask for their opinions on what to do (where applicable) and attempt to get a line of communication open with the staff about things that are occurring in the business (get information for paperwork to fill out and maybe new ideas for how to do things more efficiently). This is in contrast to how she held her first meeting that she scheduled without proper notice, which ended up undermining the team dynamic and her authority. Next, Richardson should make sure that all of the staff knows that she wants them to succeed within the company and that she is available to discuss whatever is needed to make things clear with them. However, in return, she expects commitment to the team and respect for her as a leader. When her team fails to show that commitment, like the non-showers for the day of repotting, Richardson needs to take a different course of action. They need to be immediately confronted and Richardson should address the behavior, likely needing to rely on extrinsic motivators. She should be aware of the different atmospheres between her offices. She should not hold her new people accountable right away to the standards that she is used to in the Chicago office, but she should clearly voice her expectations (like she wanted from her boss – if she wanted the same thing from her boss it could be reasonable to assume that her staff wants the same thing) as soon as possible to get people accustomed. She should understand that this is a difficult business they are in (due to extreme price competition and the changing demand of customers from high intensity products to low intensity products in which the greenhouse needs three months notice for changes in products), and that sales cannot be perfect all the time. Future Goals Upon further reflection of the issues of this case, there are some future long-term goals that ColorTech should look into. Finding a resolution of the current issues allows for quick and easy resolution for issues in the future that are similar in nature. To start, when Melissa accepted this job offer, she felt unprepared for the tasks she would be performing. It is vital that future employees of the company, at all levels, are given a reasonable job preview to prepare them for the tasks they will be doing. An example of ColorTech failing to provide itsr employees with reasonable expectations of the job is that Melissa was unaware of the vast amount of paperwork that is required to complete her new job. In regards to this paperwork, Melissa is unaware of the proper ways to complete the forms necessary for monthly and quarterly

paperwork. As a result, there should be either written or physical instruction on how to adequately complete the paperwork. Overall, there should be training relevant to those at the management level. Some possible techniques for training new managers could be an orientation into the roles of management or shadowing current managers to see what typical situations one might face. This is essential to new managers in order to feel prepared that they can accomplish their goals and not get lost in the paperwork. Another future goal that should be of concern to ColorTech is devising a backup plan for greenhouse issues. The fungus infestation in the greenhouse was a major setback for the cut-flower division. This could not have come at a worse time for ColorTech, because of the infancy of its relationship with customers in that market. They could lose the little market share that they have as a result. Finding a backup supplier or using multiple greenhouse facilities to grow flowers for that market would be a good way to reduce the risk of losing customers due to inadequate flower stock. In order to stay competitive in a highly price sensitive market with a decreasing level of sales volume, such as the color or cut-flower division, is necessary to conduct a continuous evaluation of the processes that make up the core operations of the company. Continuous improvement should be of the utmost importance to ColorTech in the current economy. Finding new ways to motivate employees to look for the inefficiencies and create efficient solutions should be a long-term goal for management, but the most important goal of management currently is to maintain and grow the customer base they have in order to compete in the market.