BUSM4177 Leadership and Decision Making Assignment Sample

Word limit – 1500WC
Weighting – 30%

Assessment details

In this assessment, you will critically reflect on the guest industry speaker's experience, synthesise your assignment writing and apply it to the leadership qualities of your chosen leader. You will be challenged to research and apply leadership theories, models and concepts that you have so far learnt in this course.

By, analysing and applying leadership theories and models in this assessment, you will be building your knowledge and understanding to then be able to act on feedback that will enhance your leadership capabilities and act on opportunities for leadership development in Assessment.

This assessment for online assignment help has three stages:

1. Listen to the presentation provided by the Guest Industry Speaker. The Guest Industry Speaker will outline some of the difficulties that leaders face, and you will need to critically reflect on the qualities needed to be an effective leader, and the relevant models and theories. For more information about how to write and (and how itis different to a personal reflection), check out ‘RMIT Learning Lab: Writing an academic reflection’.

2. Using the knowledge gained from your assignment writing, select a person whom you consider to be a successful and effective leader. This person could be:

someone you work/ed with
anyone you judge to be a good leader
someone you interact/ed with in person
a public figure
someone you have read about.

3. Research and identify your chosen person's leadership traits, behaviours and use of power. Then answer the following questions:

Q1: What makes your chosen person a good leader?
Q2: How do you perceive this person's leadership traits and behaviours to be effective?
Q3: How does the person use power and influence to make that person an effective leader?

Solution

Introduction

This paper will shed light on the lectures on the global industry mindset on the current leadership by the guest industry speaker, Atish Gonsalves. The guest speaker's personal experiences will be evaluated through this paper in order to highlight the leadership qualities of Sundaram Pichai, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Alphabet Inc. and its subsidiary Google. The leadership models, theories as well as concepts demonstrated through this course also will also be shed light on in order to align those with the current leadership styles and models followed by the CEO of Alphabet Inc. Later the leadership qualities will be highlighted in order to evaluate how those are justifying the leadership qualities of the chosen industry leader. This paper will primarily answer three questions that will identify the reasons for choosing this particular industry leader. The effectiveness of the leadership traits and behaviors will also be evaluated by answering the next question. Finally, the third one will shed light on the leading powers and influence of the chosen leader that have made him successful in his leadership career.

Pichai Sundararajan was born in 1972 in Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India. He later took citizenship in the United States of America (USA) and he has been to IIT Kharagpur to pursue his B.Tech career. He went to Stanford University to do his master's and went to the University of Pennsylvania for his MBA degree. He started his career being a materials engineer and now he is the CEO of Google and Alphabet Inc. (Shepherd 2020).

Body

Q1: What makes your chosen person a good leader?

As stated by Gonsalves (2022), successful leaders are good storytellers who share and curate authentically. They focus on building a successful community by authentic storytelling and engaging with their own reputations. Thus, they become capable of building authority around their own experiences. As he has been highly involved with situational as well as social leadership for a noticeable period of time, the importance of raising awareness of whatever is happening around the industry has been stated to be one of the major factors for the leader to consider. Open-mindedness to support other leaders is another trait that a successful leader demonstrates throughout his career. Another trait of a successful leader is to make data-driven approaches in decision-making. Gonsalves (2022) also highlighted that trust plays a major role for a leader to direct the underworking teams in the very right direction. He also stated that always having a learning mindset enables a leader to stay aware of the industry he or she is leading and thus, appropriate decisions can be made. Ethical leadership is also another leadership model that determines successful leadership traits (Banks et al. 2020). Sundaram Pichai is certainly a good storyteller who often has been observed to share his own journey of becoming the CEO in order to encourage the workforce. He certainly is open-minded to helping other leaders as well (Tran 2017). Sundaram is always aware of whatever is happening around the industry and he makes data-driven approaches in most cases. The CEO also follows ethical leadership models to respect the workforce as well as encourage them to contribute in better and innovative ways. Hence, I have chosen Sundaram Pichai, the CEO of Google and Alphabet Inc. to be a good leader based on his leadership qualities and mentiality.

Q2: How do you perceive this person's leadership traits and behaviors to be effective?

Banks et al. (2020) have talked about ethical leadership and its importance in organisational decision-making. He has stated that where the workforce is not respected properly, the involved leaders can not be considered ethical leaders, rather they are not leaders at all. Asrar-ul-Haq & Anwar (2018) also said that an ethical leader can develop an adaptable mindset to introduce equality as well as diversity to the work environment. I have found Sundaram to follow ethical leadership in order to maintain effective communication with the team members and also gather crucial market data. The ethical standards also are followed by the Google leader which enables the team members better opportunities to develop both their personal and professional identities. I can assure that Sundaram possesses an adaptable mindset and thus, equality and diversity can be observed in both Google and Alphabet Inc. (Tran 2017). Furthermore, core sustainability and fairness are the universal principles of unity that need to be introduced within a work environment which would further contribute much to developing the society and making the environment more sustainable (McClean et al. 2019). I also have found the Google CEO to follow core sustainability and fairness principles in pursuing his major job roles at the company. The initiatives taken by him were intended to put positive impacts on society. As per the statement of Gonsalves (2022), successful leaders are those who are capable of inspiring the workforce in order to help them co-create better. Personal values and principles play major roles in determining the inspiring aspects of working individuals (Santos et al. 2021). I have found in several studies that Sundaram always encourages the employees to co-create better by following his personal principles and values. On the other hand, he is a good storyteller who has motivated the whole community through speech (Tran 2017). Thus, authenticities were built with effective storytelling which is further reflected through the updated values and principles of the workforce (Santos et al. 2021). Sundaram also has demonstrated the ability to co-create being a successful leader as it has developed the economies as well as the nature of the evolving work schedules. According to me, another trait of a successful leader is to demonstrate the vision and mission to the employees clearly and also motivate them to meet those within the desired time period. They also are capable of drawing principles depending on the vision and mission statements so that the employees can follow the right tracks to achieve both the short and long-term goals. I have found Sundaram to demonstrate clearly the mission and vision to the employees in order to develop effective principles for them to follow. Apart from this, for a successful leader, communication, honesty as well as integrity are some of the crucial traits. Communication allows the leaders to introduce effective collaboration among the underworking team members whereas honesty and integrity help them to send positive messages to the employees regarding following proper discipline and schedules in pursuing their daily job roles and responsibilities. The Google CEO has been found to possess effective communication, honesty, and integrity skills that eventually encouraged the team members to follow proper discipline in the workspace and thus it can be stated that he has been following the contingency leadership theory. Another leadership trait Sundaram has demonstrated is to empower other people in the work environment in order to ensure nobody makes mistakes, whereas all contribute equally to develop suitable solutions to a problem. Gonsalves (2022) also stated that the management only works within the boundary whereas a successful leader having effective leadership traits and behavior pushes outside the boundaries ethically. Sundaram follows strict rules all the time and blends in with the underworking teams in order to direct them in the very right way. Storytelling is another effective trait of a successful leader that Sundaram has used in some cases in order to encourage the underworking team members to contribute in a better way. He is often observed to focus on following the social leadership style which primarily intends to put positive impacts on society rather than gaining an organisational achievement. This particular trait of the CEO of Google and Alphabet Inc. has been confirmed to possess effective leadership traits and behaviour (Tran 2017). Furthermore, behavioural leadership theory is followed by the CEO of Google and Alphabet Inc. that has enabled him to support all the employees through providing performance rewards as well as timely salary hike. Thus, I have found him to be a perfect leader to show the effective leadership traits and behaviours.

Q3: How does the person use power and influence to make that person an effective leader?

Sundaram is known to focus on the continuous development of work structure and culture according to the needs and demands of its global client base. The CEO of Google always focuses on being an excellent teacher so that proper knowledge on development can efficiently be shared with the team members. He always is known to focus on the development of his own skill sets (Tran 2017). Sundaram always tries to encourage the teams to perform better and direct them on the right way to increase their efficiency. He uses his influential abilities to encourage the team members to generate interest in achieving success as well as well-being. He follows a data-driven approach to determine the success of the underworking team members and thus, his result-oriented approach fetches him the desired outcome every time. Furthermore, effective communication can be observed on behalf of the Google leader that has contributed much to encourage his team members and by listening to them properly, he managed to introduce positive changes to the work environment (Tran 2017). He also provides suitable learning opportunities to the employees and thus, they can develop both their professional and personal selves each time which further reflects in the overall productivity of the company. Having a clear vision and strategies is another trait of Sundaram that influences the teams to follow only the directed path. Such methods of using the leading powers have made him an effective leader.

Conclusion

It can be concluded that Sundaram follows almost all the positive leadership traits displayed in the transcription on the global industry mindset on current leadership stated by Mr. Gonsalves. It has been found that all the qualities of a successful leader can be found in the current CEO of Google which has made him one of the most successful leaders contemporarily.

Reference list

ENT201 Sales and Negotiation Strategies Assignment Sample

Assignment Brief

Individual/Group Individual
Length 2000 words (-/+ 10%)

Learning Outcomes

The Subject Learning Outcomes demonstrated by successful completion of the task below include:

a) Apply knowledge of consumer behaviour to communicate effectively in sales and negotiation processes.

b) Select and demonstrate the use of an appropriate sales and negotiation strategy to best serve a variety of business contexts.

c) Implement an ethical and sustainable approach to sales and negotiation.

d) Identify and reflect on personal challenges in sales and negotiation, and develop a strategy for your development as an entrepreneur.

Task Summary

Prepare, test and evaluate appropriate sales and negotiation strategies with your own venture or proposed venture. Please refer to the Task Instructions for details on how to complete this task.

Task Instructions:

To complete this assessment task, you must:

1. Select a sales and negotiation strategy from the strategies provide in the learning resources, for your current or proposed venture.

2. As an introduction, provide an overview of your task.

a. Include a brief background and overriding objectives for the project/venture.

• This will guide your testing and give important background to your Learning Facilitator.

b. Explain your choice of consumer, sales and negotiation strategies chosen, and methods to be used in the test and why these suit your venture.

3. Test your strategy using social media or direct face to face/phone/online contact with potential consumers.

a. Include all of the following activities in your project as you test:

i. Generating leads
ii. Making initial contact
iii. Qualifying the prospect
iv. Presenting your product or service
v. Overcoming objections
vi. Closing the sale or achieving a commitment to talk/meet again
vii. Asking for referrals to generate more leads

b. Appropriate social media might include:

i. Facebook discussions, polls, Facebook Live
ii. Instagram
iii. Whatsapp, Messenger or other messaging social media app

c. Face-to-face/phone or other methods may include:

i. Setting appointments and conducting presentations using PowerPoint
ii. Online live webinars using Zoom or other live video
iii. Networking events and Expos, demonstrations of product or service

4. Outline, explain and evaluate your test results in your project.

• Be mindful to protect the privacy of your consumers by deleting names and images, or obtaining permission to use images and video.

• Your explanation and evaluation should demonstrate your knowledge and understanding of all modules studied in this subject so far.

a. You should plan to include both the tests and the results from your testing and add these results to an appendix to your project. These may include:

i. Social media tests and analytics
ii. Feedback from potential customers
iii. Screen shots or other examples of your test discussions and comments
iv. Sales and negotiations scripts
v. Saved brief videos or audio recordings of webinars

Solution

Introduction

Negotiation is not the cup of tea, instead, this is a complex process in marketing in any company. This involves persuasion, reasoning, and psychology. There is a need for specific skills and mindset to make a successful negotiation. This is a social strategy that includes effective communication and strategic reasoning. An average human needs lots of experience to achieve this skill set. There is a need to focus on the strategic aspect, this is a sequence of the decision-making process.

Sales and negotiation are part of the marketing strategies for any organization. Selling is an important part to run any business whether this is a service sector or product sector. Communication is the key to negotiation. The negotiation may be between clients and company, between company and customer, between company and vendors, etc. the company strategies include understanding the customer behaviour and replying in such a way that, it could be a win-win position. The demonstration is the key to selling. A good demonstration of the product or services will increase sell of the company. Effective communication will lead to the success of the company in any department including sales and collaboration. There are various kinds of sales and negotiation strategies. This project will be based on the one negotiation strategy that can be used in sales and marketing. As earlier said there are various kinds of sales and marketing strategies available in the market. Out of many Sales and Negotiation Strategies, the telephonic Sales and Negotiation Strategy has been selected for this project. This task will explore the various factor of Sales and Negotiation Strategies in marketing. This task will consider ethical and personal challenges in this strategy for best assignment help. One going through this project will understand the importance of communication in Sales and Negotiation Strategies in various contexts.
 

Test strategy

To check the strategy, there is a need to conduct a live test over the phone with the parents on behalf of the company. There are a few factors that need to be considered here say lead generation, making initial contact with the customer, qualifying the prospect, presenting your product, over company problems during the sale, closing the sale, and asking for a referral. Let’s see them one by one

Activities

• Generating leads: Telephonic strategy is a good way to generate leads for sure. As earlier said this is a vaccine-making company and its target customer is kids. The company employee can talk to the local hospital for the leads or data. This will be very much beneficial in collecting data for the company. Another thing is that company can call the local authority for the data over call. A company employee will explain every detail that will include the benefits of the vaccine to the kids. If a sales employee is manipulative and good at communication, then the company will get access to the newborn baby in that area.

(Source: Author)

• Making initial contact: making initial contact with the kids born in a specific area will be a little bit difficult. Is that parents will not entertain the person who will speak over the phone initially. If the company employee is good at communication, he will explain all the benefits to the parents that they will kids have after having the vaccine. So initial communication is very much important here. Only an experienced person is supposed to talk with the parents and explain all the benefits of the vaccine, then, only parents will be convinced and they will allow visiting for a vaccine to the vaccine company(Pane, & Hermawan, 2022).

• Qualifying the prospect: Once leads are received, there is a need to filter the prospective. Not all leads are useful. Qualifying the prospect means figuring out the prospective leads. There is a need to find useful leads. There is a need to filter the leads that one will get over the telephone from the hospital or the authority. The sales team needs to figure out which kind of leads will be useful for the company. Those kids who had been born before two years will not be a useful lead as those kids have already taken medicine. So leads are filtered here (Bolander, & Richards, 2018).

• Presenting your product: Now there Is needed to present their product to the customer. A salesman of the company will reach out to the parents of those kids from the available data and they will explain the benefits of the vaccine to the parents. This needs to be effective, the way of communication needs to be in such a way that one will be convinced enough to allow them for the vaccine. A salesman must have full knowledge of the product then only they will be able to explain it to the customer.

Figure 3: Presenting product
(Source: Author)

• Overcoming objections: The next factor is that salesperson will have to face the objection. The person or customer will not be convinced easily, they will raise cross questions such as the effect of the vaccine, the cost of the vaccine, and various other things. The salesperson of the company will be ready to counter these questions then only the customer will be convinced. A salesperson will have to counter these questions with communication and intelligence along with data then only parents will be convinced. A good demonstration of the product or services will increase sell of the company. Effective communication will lead to the success of the company in any department including sales and collaboration. The effective communication over the phone is requried to convince the customer to buy the product.

• Closing the sales: The next step is closing the sales, once the parents are convinced of the product or vaccine here then he needs to close the sale over the telephone by taking the address or payment details. The solution needs to be pitched successfully and overcome the objection. The person needs to be helpful but not pushy, otherwise, things will be different. Negotiation strategy will be telephonic. Company will collect leads from the hospital and call them for the vaccine, if sales person is good enough in communication sales will be converted.

• Asking for the referral: Once the sales are closed, then there is a need to ask for the raffle from the customer. parents are customers here. So they will have a referral for sure as they were in the hospital. There might be contact with the other parents in the hospital. So asking for a reference is a good idea. This will increase the positive customer database for the company and ultimately this is the best way to execute a sale. Here it can be observed that from a vaccine-making company, a sale has been executed to the parents For the vaccine process of their kids in various steps.

Face-to-face/phone or other methods

Setting appointments and conducting presentations using PowerPoint: The appointment and the presentation system will work once Parents will entertain the call from the company. Once the call will be entertained by the parents (customer) and they will allow for an appointment then only this will be possible. If sales are pitched effectively then our appointment could be fixed. This would bring a big chance for the salesperson to execute his project to the parents. Once parents will understand the importance of that vaccine and then this lead will convert. so this is the way to deal with this option (Setiawan, & Hakim, 2022).

Online live webinars using Zoom or another live video: This is another way to deal with this project. Companies can arrange online webinars, they can address hundreds collectively. This will be good for the company. Zoom call is a good way to deal with the project, this stops wastage of time, and one can explain things over call or messages. Recognize the way to collectively explain things to multiple people. But before that, there is a need to approach those people. If they will be convinced then only they will join the meeting, so the initial invitation needs to be catchy. This will be beneficial for the company (Boyer, & Jap, 2022).

Networking events and Expos, demonstrations of product or service: Again this is a collective way to demonstrate the product. That could be done in networking events. All these ways will bring benefits to the company by converting more and more leads (Stock, et al, 2022). The negotiation strategy will be telephonic. The company will collect leads from the hospital and call them for the vaccine, if a salesperson is good enough in communication sales will be converted.

Outline, explain, and evaluate your test results in your project

After going through the various test results, it can be concluded that. The telephonic conversation has more lead conversion as compared to any other method. Telephonic conversation gives a direct impact on the customer. It gives time to expand the product Effectively. Communication has played a good role in finding out this result. One more thing that could be concluded here is that communication is the key to the success. Apart from communication, another thing is writing. In all kinds of marketing such as WhatsApp marketing or Facebook marketing writing plays an important role. The things that are going to be written need to be catchy then only one will be attracted to the post. Another thing that can be concluded here is that Facebook has a more customer base as compared to any other social media site. While choosing among demonstrations of the product, networking events, and online live webinars play an important role.

End of the sale feedback was taken from the various customers, and it was observed that most of the customers are happy. They found out that sales are not pushy, but helpful. Even in WhatsApp messages or webinars, things have been explained in a very effective manner and in small time. Overall, this brought a big, successful sales pitch for the company.

Conclusion

For this task, a telephonic Sales and Negotiation Strategy has been selected. Consider a product-based company that is willing to sell its product to the market. The company is chosen here as vaccine making company. The product is here vaccine and the customer is here newborn kids. The sales will be made over the telephone by the company employee. This suits the company as the telephonic way is more convincing as compared to email or any other strategy. Everybody is concerned about the health of the kid so convincing parents about the vaccination over the phone will be a good idea for sure.

References