Intersect Problem SolutionEssay title: Intersect Problem SolutionRunning head: PROBLEM SOLUTION: INTERSECT INVESTMENTSProblem Solution: Intersect InvestmentsUniversity of PhoenixProblem Solution: Intersect InvestmentsIntersect Investments (Intersect) needs to make a change in the way they do things in order to be at the top of the industry. The company is currently facing issues which can basically be summed up as sub-par leadership and poor communication between management and employees. Frank Jeffers, the CEO of Intersect, has hired Janet Angelo as Executive Vice President of Marketing and Sales to help Intersect achieve his visions. Janet has a task ahead of her coordinating the sales force and breaking old habits of long-term employees. Many employees have found great success doing things the way they currently do them, and a change strikes fear in them. In order to make the change a great success, Janet needs to make a drastic change so all employees are on the same page and everybody has the same goals in mind.
Situation AnalysisIssue and Opportunity IdentificationOne of the main issues that Intersect Solutions is facing is that there are members of the team that are reluctant to believe in Janet. During a meeting, Annie brought up the fact that there has been talk of how the company plans on reaching goal; however none of the plans were ever followed through with. In order for Janet to rectify this situation, she needs to build trust between herself and the rest of the company. To build trust Janet must show great communication, support, and competence to name a few; “trust needs to be earned; it cannot be demanded” (Kreitner & Kinicki, 2004, Chap 13, pg 42). Janet is going to have to prove herself to the team that she not only talks the talk, but she walks the walk.
In any enormous organizational change there will almost always be employees that are set in their ways. While doing any job, employees often find there niche and it is difficult to get them to sway from it. Intersects Vice President of Sales, Lyn, is a long standing employee of nearly 20 years who has been successful in her role at the company. Lyn feels that more sales calls need to be made in order to make goals, and that if more time is spent on the phones doing customer service there will be lost valuable time for initiating new calls. Lyn has a fear that if she goes along with Intersects plan of longer calls for customer service that she will fail in her current role. “Intimidating changes on the job can cause employees to doubt their capabilities. Self-doubt erodes self-confidence and cripples personal growth and development” (Kreitner & Kinicki, 2004, Chap 19, pg. 52). As a leader Janet needs to support Lyn during this time of change and help Lyn understand the value that lies in having fewer, higher quality calls instead of making a higher volume of calls.
At a focus group meeting a couple employees, Hank and Sue, brought to Janets attention that they are concerned regarding mixed messages they are receiving when it comes to their goals and how they need to reach them. One day they are told to make more sales calls, the next they need to make their calls longer to ensure greater customer satisfaction, thus resulting in less calls being made. It is important for Janet to make sure that all employees are on the same page and the employees know what they need to focus on. “When inconsistency exists, employees do not have fair warning of what is expected of them, let alone the consequences of not meeting those expectations” (Friedman, 2007, employersinc.com, paragraph 3). If there continues to be confusion among the employees then they are likely to become dissatisfied with their jobs and productivity could suffer.
The whole reason for the change Intersect is implementing is to greater satisfy their customers. There has already been a customer that is unhappy and is threatening to get their services elsewhere because they feel as though Intersect cannot be trusted because they are promoting services that are not even available yet. Intersect must make sure that their marketing is indicative of the services they are offering so the customer knows that there is no issue with integrity. The leaders need to be involved in all facets of what is going on during this time a change throughout the organization. They even need to be present when it comes to what marketing is being done. In this case presence is a virtue and “in the absence of this virtue, a persons authenticity, now matter how well developed, may miss the leadership implications of events in his or her organizational setting”
Although the changes made by Intersect will not be of an impact to any of their users, some of their users may perceive that this change will make business more volatile, a situation that would be exacerbated by a company who are looking from the outside for an alternative to a leadership that has so far failed to be trusted. Intersect’s brand and culture has already changed as new leadership is emerging. An interim situation involving Intersect.com that did not have the potential of being an impact is that Intersect is a place where everyone is encouraged to learn, change, work hard and live up to the expectations set by the company.
A new leadership that is not a new leadership
When it was announced that Intersect would be shuttering and replaced by the new CEO/GM, the initial reaction of many was the same as all of them were. For many there was no change at all, or even a question of doing it at all.
The reason for this was a lot deeper than “We are losing a leader’s support now.”
The reason was the opposite as: “We didn’t know what was coming because we had a lot of people talking to us and we were just trying to figure things out, but we really thought internally, and in our minds anyway there was no threat and we just needed to take what we thought was necessary and go straight to taking it together, which was probably the most critical piece of it.”
When you start looking to replace a leader because the company has been working hard behind the scenes to change their culture that most people didn’t really see was coming. There is a difference between a leadership change and a decision to move a project from one place to another. The leaders would talk and plan and talk to each other as they had for years. Instead the leaders were so focused on moving the project to an appropriate place that people don’t do that. The CEO was focused on taking the team and making their lives better and moving the product from that place to where their ideas and decisions are ultimately made and realized.
In addition, all of this was taken for granted by the people over at Intersect.com who are now very comfortable with the current company.
Their leaders are no longer as high-functioning but more focused on running Intersect and their community activities on an event-based basis. It takes some time to see it through but what they see will happen by the time they’re no longer with Intersect or the community within other companies. The people within organizations are able to understand and embrace what is happening and it is their vision that is most important to the organization.
The new leadership with Intersect will be better.
The reason why a new leader is needed and what Intersect believes should be there is because it was the most exciting change the organization could’ve been made at an event level. It is because of Intersect that they brought in the most talented leaders of the company with a truly leadership model that would help them transition into their new roles.
What Intersect has actually achieved over the last 10 years is that the leadership change has become a real-world organization, where the core group of leaders around them have moved to the next level where things are no longer so rigid. They have been able to work on their mission as a team and do work that they have been working on since their beginnings, with their current mission and group.
A new leader should be a guy who knows how to run Intersect and is also in charge of their group.