Recommendation to Improve the Quality of Leadership

I had just transitioned to a new role as part of the telephony services team after the merger between TCI and AT&T back in 1999. I was on the development team tasked with developing new processes and procedures for the first ever voice over internet protocol service. On my first day I met with my team members many of whom I had known for years while working at TCI and our new manager who transferred over from AT&T’s long distance department. My first impression of my new manager was that of someone who was friendly, sociable, and easy going. I left work that day feeling good and excited about my new position and the opportunity it presented. My feelings would soon be short lived, as I would soon learn first impressions aren’t always everything.

After about a month of working on the development team I realized that my first impression of my manager was anything but accurate. Our new manager was extremely impatient and wanted everything completed in a timeline that was unrealistic. He was verbally abusive to the team and made remarks about individual’s performance in front of the team. Many team members began to slack off, arrive late to work, and not complete assignments on time. “According to social identity theory, unfair treatment from superiors may arouse negative identification, which in turn leads to employees’ negative behaviors in organizations” (Jinyun, Wing, & Jian, 2010, para 1). This unfair treatment of employees had an effect on the team and many team members began to demonstrate the same behavior which they had never previously displayed. He had become a micro manager that had little trust for his team and constantly called into question team members decisions. He would say in meetings that he led with an ir...

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...as the rest of the team.

Works Cited

Clark, D. R., (2004). The Art and Science of Leadership. Retrieved from http://nwlink.com/~donclark/leader/leader.html

Flora, C. (2004). The First Impression. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200405/the-first-impression?page=2

Jinyun, D., Wing, L., Ziguang, C., & Jian An, Z. (2010). Leadership Justice, Negative Organizational Behaviors, and the Mediating Effect of Affective Commitment. Social Behavior & Personality: An International Journal, 38(9), 1287-1296. doi:10.2224/sbp.2010.38.9.1287

Leadership and Human Behavior. (1997). Retrieved from http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/leader/questions.html

Toth, M. (2010). Leadership Through Effective Interpersonal Communication Skills. Retrieved from http://ezinearticles.com/?Leadership-¬Through-¬Effective-¬Interpersonal--Communication-¬Skills&id=4052980