Instruction:

Case Study: Manager Eduardo

This gives you an opportunity to apply the concepts and lessons you have learned so far.  To be successful in this case study, you will need to reference course material including leadership competencies in the leadership circle, leading verses managing, balancing between task and relationship, and scaling leadership capabilities by identifying growth opportunities.  It is necessary to cite your credible sources in APA format.  You will be graded based on your ability to apply the concepts you have learned so far.  Your writing should speak the leadership language and terminology.  As a guide, utilize TWO or more credible sources.  These sources can include the course text, the articles in the resources tab, or any relevant articles from the school library or any other credible source.  Internet blogs and random internet sites do not count as credible sources.  Learn to support your writing with high quality credible sources adding value and credibility to your arguments.

Submit a Word document using double spacing, 12-point Times New Roman font, and one-inch margins. This assignment must be 2 pages in length and include references cited in APA format.

Case: President Edwardo
Edwardo is the president of an organization. As you read the comment below, see if you can identify the towering strengths that helped him get promoted into his current position but have become Non-Differentiating. Also, see if you can spot the liabilities that Edwardo possesses as a leader.

Edwardo is extremely intelligent and typically gets to the solution before everyone else. This is often his downfall as he moves quickly to implementing a solution when in fact the organization is two steps behind him. This creates a disconnect with the team. In his role as president, he should be teaching people how to fish. Unfortunately, Edwardo gets frustrated with the lack of responsiveness from the organization and, as a result, hands over the fish. This can create insecurity and frustration, with people feeling they cannot live up to his expectations.

Edwardo does not leverage his team to create the desired vision. Because he is intelligent and gets to answers faster than most, he loses patience and decides to do all the work himself. By doing so, he misses out on the input of others and fails to garner support for the vision. When he becomes quickly entrenched in his position, he often ignores valid input and alternative points of view.

Edwardo thinks he knows best (he does not listen to others), and he does not inspire confidence in his team. As a result, his professional arrogance creates more of a dictatorial leadership style, which in turn produces adversarial relationships internally (Edwardo versus everyone). Over time, this outcome will also spread to external partners. In the end, we will continue to lose talent, which will eventually impact business performance.

Like many leaders we meet and work with worldwide, Edwardo is a classic example of a brilliant man reaching the limits of his development. He is facing his development gap. We suspect his leadership effectiveness has capped out or is steadily decreasing as a result.

While this comment does not provide us with Edwardos business context, we can assume he is in over his head, under stress, and defaulting to reactivity, which undermines his effectiveness. The combination of Non-Differentiating Strengths (however towering) and the Reactive default behaviors that show up under pressure puts Edwardo at his limits to scale. Too much depends on him, and his working more, harder, and faster will make things worse.

Edwardo is not merely challenged to develop additional competencies, he has reached the limits of Reactive leadership and is challenged to evolve into a Creative leader, the first condition for scaling leadership.