Guide to AT3 Sales Management Sem.1, 2018 Dr. Rowan Kennedy Guide to Assessment Task 3: Leading the Sales Team % of overall assessment Word count (approx.) 30% 2500 Learning outcomes addressed LO1 Due date Thursday Week 12 – Thursday Week 14 Leadership is all about managing relationships in order to achieve certain results. Great sales managers have a complex web of relationships among not only their sales team members, but including stakeholders in the business (peers, superiors, clients) and a host of others in both their professional and private lives. How successfully they manage this web determines their success as a leader. Current research suggests there is no single best way to lead a sales team, no ‘best style’ to use; therefore a successful sales manager will have at their disposal a ‘portfolio’ of behaviours, skills and abilities in order to negotiate the many different relationships that will evolve with team members to elicit best performance and outcomes. The repertoire of behaviours and responses will reflect the context within which the team operates (macro and micro); the nature of the individuals in the team, and the experience and personal characteristics of the sales manager. Choosing from a range of the ‘new’ leadership theories (e.g. transformational/transformational, charismatic, visionary, servant leadership, inspirational, authentic) describe and justify the nature of your leadership interaction with each of the three individuals in your sales team within the context of your organisation’s culture. Your Task Details of your team are on Moodle. In exploring sales leadership and creating your Leadership Plan I would like you to address the following three sections: 1. Explain the distinctions between supervision, management and leadership in the sales context. (approx. 250 words) 2. Discuss the factors that may influence a sales manager’s choice of leadership styles. (approx. 500 words) 3. Your job as a sales manager is to positively influence the behaviour and performance of your sales team. With this in mind, describe your plan for leading each team member to top performance using the contents of your leadership portfolio. (approx. 1800 words) Try to think outside the square – INSPIRE YOUR TE AM 1 Guide to AT3 Sales Management Sem.1, 2018 Dr. Rowan Kennedy Your frame and structure The structure of your paper and its sub-headings will include the following: Title Page Executive Summary Table of Contents 1.0 Introduction 2.0 Leadership, management, supervision discussion 3.0 Factors influencing a sales manager’s leadership style 4.0 Leadership Plan 4.1 4.2 4.3 5.0 Conclusion Reference List Appendix (if appropriate/required) Your team should be an outside team with their own territories and performance targets. Use all three team members from your motivational plan. Here’s how to go about it Your organisation can be fictional or it can be the one you’re familiar with. The members of your (theoretical) sales team are already detailed for you in terms of their demographics and some psychographics on the Moodle site. Just use your team from your motivation plan. 1.0 Introduction (about 100 words) The first point introduces the paper and the organisation: Introduce company, team and plan (reason, timeframe). What business are you in? Where are you headquartered? How long have you been in business? Just briefly, in one or two sentences, what is your product mix? Following your brief Introduction (where you give me the basics of your organisation) begin your plan with a discussion of leadership per se: 2 Guide to AT3 Sales Management Sem.1, 2018 2.0 Leadership Discussion Dr. Rowan Kennedy (approx. 250 words) In order to understand the full nature of leadership, you need to have a strong and clear understanding of how supervision and management fit into the leadership landscape. In this section I want you to discuss these distinctions and relationships. This is where your secondary research begins. 3.0 Factors influencing a sales manager’s leadership style (approx. 500 words) We talked about this in class in Week 10, so you may want to check your class notes and see what I was saying about these factors in that lecture. The slides and the textbook will also be of help here. 4.0 Leadership Plan (approx.1800-2000 words) On page one I said " a successful sales manager will have at their disposal a 'portfolio' of behaviours, skills and abilities in order to negotiate the many different relationships that will evolve with team members." Now we’re coming to the portfolio I'm referring to. What's in your ‘bag of tricks’ in terms of behaviours, skills, experience and abilities that you can call on in leading your team? In responding to that, you will find yourself referring to the leadership styles I've mentioned in paragraph 4 (e.g. including transformational/transactional, charismatic, visionary, servant leadership, authentic and so on. This list is not exhaustive and I encourage you to uncover other styles in your research). Consider each of your team members as individuals who need you to view them in terms of their personal circumstances as you interact with them. Like a motivation plan, a leadership plan is cannot be a one-size-fits-all affair: you’ll need to apply a range of styles and behaviours across your team (imagine if your team was 15-20 salespeople ). Start this section with a short discussion of why it’s necessary to plan leadership activities, and what comprises your own leadership portfolio and where it came from. 4.1 Your preferred (or natural) style of leadership, skills abilities What’s in your portfolio of skills? How has this come about – experience? Personality? Circumstances? 3 Guide to AT3 Sales Management Sem.1, 2018 Dr. Rowan Kennedy 4.2 Person 1 4.2.1 Theory – discussion of the type of leadership style that would get the best results from this person. 4.2.2 Why? personality, demographics, circumstances, background 4.2.3 How? how will you operationalise this on a day-by-day basis? 4.3 Person 2 4.3.1 Theory – discussion of the type of leadership style that would get the best results from this person. 4.3.2 Why? personality, demographics, circumstances, background 4.3.3 How? how will you operationalise this on a day-byday basis? 4.4 Person 3 4.4.1 Theory – discussion of the type of leadership style that would get the best results from this person 4.4.2 Why? personality, demographics, circumstances, background 4.4.3 How? how will you operationalise this on a day-by-day basis? Leadership Plan Person 1 Person 2 Person 3 Transformational/Transactional Charismatic Visionary Servant Authentic Inspirational WHY? HOW? 5.0 Conclusion Just a few words to bring your discussion together and make a few final points about leadership in the sales context. What’s next? This signals the end of your assessment task and is followed by the Reference List where I’m expecting to see at least 10 sources cited in APA style. 4 Guide to AT3 Sales Management Sem.1, 2018 Dr. Rowan Kennedy Reference List Use the document I placed earlier on Moodle to show you how to construct a Reference List (and cite a source in-text) using APA style referencing. You must use these instructions if you are not familiar or experienced with this style. If you’re stuck at all, just contact me and I’ll sort you out. Do not underestimate how pedantic I am about this. I have placed around 40 journal articles under Assignment Resources (in the Assessment box) for you to use as source material. Please don’t let me see any Wikipedia, LinkedIn or other business websites that do not have any academic rigour in your papers. Start reading early and begin to form your thoughts about the different leadership styles. Submission of the paper All papers must be emailed to me any time between Thursday Week 12 and Thursday Week 14. I am willing to read one draft of your paper to help you to elevate your mark; so make sure you have your paper at a stage where it is almost ready to submit before you ask me to read it. Please don’t email me asking where or when to submit the paper. Please – just follow instructions… I promise you, it’s easy  If you need any more help, don’t forget I’m only a call or email away. Drop in to my office anytime I’m not teaching and I’ll be happy to help you. Kind regards, Rowan rowan@squ.edu.om Here’s where the marks are: LEADERSHIP PLAN Executive Summary 5% Introduction & Conclusion 5% Leadership/management/supervision discussion Factors influencing a SM’s style Team Leadership Plan Referencing Presentation (numbering system, 1.5 spacing, tables, figures) TOTAL 15% 15% 50% 5% 5% 100% 5