MEMO
Date: March 31, 2014
From:
To: John Doe
Cc:
Re: Leadership Approach for Success

Thank you for the opportunity to lead a new team to execute the organization’s strategic plan. I will make every effort to lead the team to achieve its goals. To effectively manage the team and ensure everyone work cohesively, I need to understand his or her values, motivations, needs, and interests. To uncover the personality differences, my team and I have taken the personality assessment to get a better understanding of our personality type. My leadership approach will depend on the dynamics of personality types within the team. Learning more about my personality traits can help me understand my strengths and weaknesses, and how I can effectively interact with my team members. Learning about my team members' personalities can help me develop the ability to view situations from their perspectives and improve my management skills. The assessment shows that my personality type is an ESTJ. I am an extrovert who finds my energy by being around others. I am quite realistic, logical, decisive, and like to run a business in an organized manner. The first team member personality type is an ENTJ. She is also an extrovert. Her personality type appears to be argumentative, has some tolerance for incompetence, and often seen as a natural leader. The second team member personality type is an INTP. This personality type is socially cautious, likes problem solving, and highly conceptual. The first team member and I have similar personality types. We tend to collect information in an orderly way and solve problems in a systematic manner. We use logic and reasoning in dialogue with others. We are decisive and like to lead the process or a group (Reinhold Development - Marketing & Internet Development for Small Business, 2011). We are different in a way that I tend to tend to focus on the present. I also call on previous experience to guide future action. I am practical and realistic. On the other hand, the first team member leans toward her intuition. According to Reinhold Development – Marketing & Internet Development for Small Business, (2011), she would look at the “big picture” and “links past and present to forecast the future” (How does Intuition work; how is it experienced?). In contrast, the second team member is more reserved. She has an aptitude for breaking down complex issues and turns them to practical ones. This team member typically likes to work independently and does not like to lead or control people.

Diversity in culture, background, age, ethnicity, and personalities are important for high performing teams. All teams are made up of a diverse range of personalities, but the leader must apply the appropriate leadership approach to leverage strengths and manage weaknesses for the team to achieve its common goal. With one team member who shares my similar personality type and another team member who is on the opposite end of the spectrum, it is essential for me to apply the most appropriate leadership approach to ensure the team is performing at a high level. With that said, I intend to use several leadership approaches. As we enter into the forming stage, it will be crucial to have a team meeting for a proper introduction. I will need to clarify our team's goals, outline roles and responsibilities, and set clear expectations for performance. It is necessary to establish trust among team members with open communication and offer support to ensure their success. Conflicts may occur as the team continues to work together. As a leader, I will serve as a mediator and be an active listener to understand the issue from all team members. Recognizing that team member two is more reserved, I will pause during the meeting to allow her to voice her opinion. Once everyone has a chance to participate and the root cause(s) of the problem is identified, I will refocus the team to find plausible solutions. My goal is to direct the team to a win-win approach when dealing with conflicts. Since we will enter into a new market segment, we have to do extensive market research to prepare for successful entrance. Some of the key action items we need to tackle are: gathering information about the target market segment, uncovering the needs from customers and the current gaps, and identifying the market size and how much market share we can gain. We also need to determine our pricing structure and set targets for gross margin. It imperative for us to understand the regulatory ramification regarding the market segment and perform competitive analysis (Hunt & Arnett, 2004). To accomplish these tasks, I will need to divide the work among team members. I will apply situational leadership approach when assigning tasks. Initially, I will use selling leadership style. This means I will give direction and set clear expectations for team members to carry out the tasks. I will also serve as a supporting role to provide further development and clear any hurdles along the way. To leverage each team member’s strengths based on the personality type, I plan to assign research activities such as gathering information, discovering gaps, and identifying the market size and potential market to team member one. Tasks requiring more complex analysis and concepts such as competitive analysis, pricing structure, and regulatory ramification will be assigned to team member two. Since team member two is more reserved by nature and prefers to work independently, I will give her some space and time to work on her tasks. On the other hand, team member one works best in a systematic and organized manner, I will provide tools and technical means such as software application to help organize her thoughts. As the team continues to perform at higher levels, I will adjust my leadership style to participating and delegating. Team members will participate in making decisions and require less support. I will hold regular team meetings to have team members report out their progress on the tasks. We will also use these opportunities to celebrate achievements when milestones are reached. There can be great energy harnessed from team members’ different personality traits if managed properly. By applying situational leadership approach, I will utilize personality differences to build a strong team and reach high performance levels to achieve strategic goals.

References
Hunt, S. D., Arnett, D.B., (2004). Market Segmentation Strategy, Competitive

Advantage, and Public Policy: Grounding Segmentation Strategy in Resource-

Advantage Theory. Retrieved from

http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.apollolibrary.com/docview/199330650/D369

D8A5ACE44C4BPQ/1?accountid=35812

Reinhold Development - Marketing & Internet Development for Small

Business. (2011). Personality Pathways. Retrieved from

http://www.personalitypathways.com/16-personality-types2.html