Coaching
The term coaching refers to a form of personal development in which an individual, the coach supports the learning of his or her client through the achievement of specific professional or personal goals. In leadership, it plays a detrimental role as senior leaders who either coach their followers or receive the same training from others are likely to improve their results (Goldsmith, Lyons, & McArthur, 2012). Therefore, developing an intervention to address coaching concerns within any organization is important for enhancing change processes.
Organizations are increasingly implementing business coaching as an intervention to boost their performance and productivity, especially in terms of senior leaders’ achievement (Grover & Furnham, 2016). The proposed intervention will consist of four important stages and can be applied to a company of any size or scope. The first step is concerned with raising awareness of the issues that take place in an organization. For instance, an executive team will meet up to express their opinions as well as explore change management issues from multiple perspectives. The intervention will target a Head Human Resource Manager in an organization as their role is associated with ensuring that each worker accomplishes the set organizational goals.
The second step of the intervention should imply the analysis of the current situation. The leader participating in the process can take several assessments, and other relevant stakeholders may also be interviewed (Bennett & Bush, 2011).
These assessments and interviews will be undertaken by the HR manager’s coach to develop a complete understanding of which things should change. After this, a meeting can take place during which expectations are set, target competencies for success are discussed, and results from the analysis and understood. One of the main goals that should be articulated during analysis is the identification of the chosen leader’s strengths, weaknesses, and needs for development.
The third stage is concerned with the implementation of the intervention itself. The leader will attend weekly sessions with a coach to develop knowledge and skills for personal improvement. It is expected that the will leader to try new behaviors, attempt new leadership skills, meet other stakeholders to get their input on the change management goals and plans. Since the coaching will target an HR manager, exercises during sessions will be concerned with the following:
- Becoming more effective in giving feedback and developing the skills of others;
- Spreading the coaching mindset throughout the organization as a whole so that others also have access to coaching;
- Refining the coaching and leadership skills of an HR manager;
- Creating the image of a professional who can handle challenges.
The last step is concerned with the achievement of new skills and leadership capabilities. The results of the coaching program will be evaluated with the help of a survey. For evaluating team effectiveness, the questionnaire will include questions regarding the effectiveness of the sessions as well as what the trainee has learned during them. A formal follow-up session will be implemented after the last coaching session is completed.
Teambuilding
Interventions that target teambuildingteambuilding in organizations are necessary for establishing an environment in which workers share their successes and failures together. Instead of benefiting from the failure of co-workers, teambuildingteambuilding exercises teach employees to be engaged in the success of their departments.
Key pitfalls associated with teamwork include the lack of trust among people, destructive conflicts occurring instead of constructive criticism, the absence of commitment to teamwork, the lack of accountability. It refers to the failure to accept responsibility for behaviors and assignments, as well as unsuccessful team results (McEwan, Ruissen, Eys, Zumbo, & Beauchamp, 2017). Thus, team building teambuilding interventions are necessary for organizations to address the mentioned pitfalls.
A sales department may benefit from teambuildingteambuilding interventions due to high competition and the lack of focus on collaboration and effectiveness. Interventions that target sales workers can address team effectiveness in the sense of boosting presentation skills, enhancing communication within the department, improving question-asking and listening skills, as well as teamwork. Morale enhancement is another important objective of teambuildingteambuilding exercises for sales workers because the orientation on specific number-based goals may be limiting to employees.
In terms of specific teambuildingteambuilding activities, moderate and aggressive sales teambuilding activities are expected to be the most beneficial. Moderate sales teambuilding exercises require increased interactions among members. Learning-based activities are recommended since education is considered a great way to grow as a team. Sales team leaders can initiate webinars on cutting-edge topics and encourage teams to generate new ideas and discuss them among themselves. Non-webinar exercises that encourage learning may include getting a Bonsai tree and having a class on how to take care of it in the office.
Physical exercises also help teambuildingteambuilding as they promote wellness and healthy behaviors in office settings. Activities held outside or in different sports environments can encourage workers to develop better teamwork skills and allow employees to engage with each other (Blackford, Jancey, Howat, Ledger, & Lee, 2013). Eating food in a group environment is another important recommendation for interventions for facilitating teamwork. An example is encouraging workers to cook and bring food to the office and have a large ‘communal’ lunch during which they can share experiences, communicate about their accomplishments, propose new ideas, and have fun.
In terms of aggressive teamwork interventions, they imply more dedication and time both from managers of sales departments and their subordinates. Activities such as quest rooms and volunteering are expected to bring workers together in an effort to collaborate and reach common objectives for the department. Among aggressive interventions, retreats have been shown to be effective. Such activities can be held either close to the office or far away and depend on the financial capabilities of the department.
It is advised to hold at least some type of retreat for the sales department because they offer memorable experiences to workers that will get inspired. The last part of the intervention is expected to be associated with the sales workers attending a conference. Conferences held for professional purposes are similar to field trips about which employees will get excited. At least one trip to a sales-related conference or convention is recommended for implementation of the intervention for a sales department.
The success of the intervention will be measured with the help of key performance indicators within the department. These indicators will be linked to the mentioned pitfalls of working in a sales team and will include the following:
- Increased levels of trust between team members;
- Lower rates of destructive conflicts;
- Increased commitment of workers;
- Enhanced accountability;
- The better accomplishment of assigned tasks and responsibilities.
When it comes to the evaluation of results, the department’s head will be responsible for measuring the above indicators before the intervention and after its completion. If four of the five indicators show some level of improvement, the intervention will be considered successful. Nevertheless, the implementation of any teamwork exercises at the sales department is expected to become a regular occurrence to ensure that employees understand the importance of working as a group.
Total Quality Management
The concept of Total Quality Management (TQM) refers to the method by which both managers and their subordinates can engage in the process of continuous improvement when offering goods and services to their customers. The method implies the combination of quality and management tools that target the increase of business volumes and the reduction of any losses associated with unproductive and wasteful practices (Jimoh, Oyewobi, Isa, & Waziri, 2018).
Companies like Motorola, Ford, Philips, and Toyota have all been successful in implementing TQM in their production and thus can be considered examples of how the method is used effectively (von Rosing, von Scheel, & Scheer, 2014).
If to propose a TQM intervention for a company, restaurants that offer food delivery can benefit from such a program. Domino’s Pizza is recommended to implement TQM for enhancing the quality of food products and services as well as reduce wasteful practices that limit the company’s success. The introduction of such a system is expected to yield cost-cutting measures and more efficient and effective management processes. In order to implement the intervention, several steps should be taken.
First, it is advised to evaluate the present state of quality management initiatives and cost reduction efforts that the company implements. Senior managers should evaluate whether the customers leave positive comments about the food and services they receive, whether the workers are satisfied with the settings in which they perform their daily activities. Also, it is necessary to know whether the existing structures, such as packaging or transportation, limit profitability.
Second, the training of members in quality improvement represents a crucial step for ensuring that the program is implemented successfully. Because TQM relies on the level of the program’s adoption by employees, training and re-training are important for introducing new processes and structures (Aziz & Hafez, 2013). It is expected that tasks such as the minimization of assembly line times will require the help of the best professionals in the field. Other tasks such as increased teamwork when making and delivering orders can be improved without the help of extra-organizational personnel. An important recommendation at this stage is the clear definition of the roles and duties of each stakeholder in order to reach maximum effectiveness levels during collaboration.
In terms of specific quality improvement projects, it is recommended to reduce the time it takes for workers to assemble and bake pizzas as well as reduce the times it takes delivery employees to get the pizzas to customers. Currently, Domino’s Pizza has relatively quick assembly lines; however, delivery can be quicker. According to Yelp (a website where customers leave reviews of services provided by companies) reviews, delivery times can be ninety or more minutes, which is much longer compared to what Domino’s states on the company’s website. In addition, the improvement in the quality of the final products is necessary.
Based on Yelp reviews that customers leave, the products can sometimes be of unsatisfactory quality: pizzas arriving damaged, the toppings not being what clients have ordered, as well as taste expectations not being met. Since Domino’s restaurants’ operations are franchise-based, a consistent standard of quality and time optimization is a great challenge.
Currently, the responsibility for delivery times and the quality of pizzas are placed on shift managers, which means that there is a lack of general accountability in terms of senior management. In the proposed TQM program, it is advised for Domino’s restaurants to hire quality managers who will be responsible for facilitating control as well as training employees on how they can become more effective. Quality control managers should also be responsible for conducting regular quality assessments and surveys among customers who order Domino’s Pizza (Kumar, 2018). In addition, general managers at each restaurant will be tasked with evaluating the cost-effectiveness of delivery and packaging options to ensure that costs go toward quality improvement instead of being wasted.
The success of the TQM initiative will be measured and rewarded in each restaurant separately. First, customer reviews will be assessed to determine whether any improvement occurred, which aligns with the customer satisfaction metric. Second, the wellness and engagement of workers will be evaluated with the help of anonymous surveys. Third, any changes in the cost-effectiveness of restaurants will be assessed to determine whether the TQM intervention was enough to reduce the wasting of resources (Sadikoglu & Olcay, 2014).
It is expected that the initiative improves the quality of pizzas and other dishes that customers purchase from Domino’s, as well as that the resources put into the business are worthwhile. The results of the program will be disseminated across franchises, with an emphasis placed on those restaurants that showed the greatest improvement to serve as examples for others. The most effective restaurants will be rewarded with yearly bonuses.
Overall, TQM is a method that can be implemented at Domino’s at multiple facets of the organization, including customer services, design, marketing, production, logistics, and many others. Customer satisfaction data will serve as the main tool for identifying the areas for improvement and implementing new projects accordingly. In addition, it may be a beneficial idea to incorporate TQM into the marketing efforts of Domino’s to catch the attention of potential customers as well as ensure that customers return.
Career Planning and Development
The well-being and satisfaction of employees play a significant role in ensuring that organizations succeed on both long- and short-term bases. However, there is an issue with some employers not understanding that their subordinates require attention in terms of career planning and development (Cummings & Worley, 2014). Plans for addressing this issue should be associated with catering to the needs of workers and assisting them with getting opportunities for growth. The importance of career planning and development plans is associated with giving workers the freedom to express themselves professionally with the help of resources that they have lacked previously.
To identify a worker that may require to complete a career planning and development plan, a general human resource (HR) manager can benefit from such a program. At the point of a worker being a general HR manager, an employee is responsible for recruiting and staffing, employee onboarding, policy development, community development, worker safety and wellness, charitable giving (Rudman, 2017). At this stage, there is a lack of leadership and management opportunities, which is why a career development plan is necessary.
Relevant career planning issues include the improvement of technical, social, attitude, aptitude, and leadership skills. Enhanced leadership is the main objective of the HR manager’s career development and improvement plan.
Challenging assignments focused on leadership skills represent the main focus of the proposed plan. The first intervention will imply the HR manager being assigned the role of a temporary senior manager and challenged to guide the work of his or her subordinates. Second, the manager will be responsible for formulating a personal vision statement and identifying what leader he or she wants to become, what achievements should be made, and what principles and values will guide the decisions. After a month of the general manager playing the role of senior manager, his or her subordinates will be surveyed on their perceptions of their new leader. Based on this assessment, the recommendation for the next month of career development will be made.
Third, during the program, the HR manager will attend weekly coaching sessions with an HR professional. These sessions are expected to give the trainee a better perspective on the leadership role and responsibilities as well as facilitate reflections on what they have done successfully. Fourth, the manager will be advised to share his or her experiences with colleagues as the proposed intervention. Fifth, the reading of literature regarding beneficial HR practices will be advised as the final intervention.
The effectiveness of the intervention will be evaluated on the basis of the abovementioned surveys of the manager’s subordinates. It is expected that as a result of the program, the HR manager will improve his or her leadership skills and develop a cohesive career plan to become a senior HR manager in the future. The formulation of specific steps targeted at the achievement of a long-term position is expected to bring positive results not only for HR managers individually but also for organizations as a whole. Having a motivated and engaged workforce is beneficial for the accomplishment of company goals and motivating enhanced leadership skills.
References
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Bennett, J., & Bush, M. (2011). High-impact coaching for organizational change. IJCO, 8(4), 114-123.
Blackford, K., Jancey, J., Howat, P., Ledger, M., & Lee, A. H. (2013). Office-based physical activity and nutrition intervention: Barriers, enablers, and preferred strategies for workplace obesity prevention, Perth, Western Australia, 2012. Preventing Chronic Disease, 10, 154.
Cummings, T., & Worley, C. (2014). Organization development and change (10th ed.). Stamford, CT: Cengage Learning.
Goldsmith, M., Lyons, L., & McArthur, S. (2012). Coaching for leadership: Writings on leadership from the world’s greatest coaches (3rd ed.). New York, NY: Pfeiffer.
Grover, S., & Furnham, A. (2016). Coaching is a developmental intervention in organizations: A systematic review of its effectiveness and the mechanisms underlying it. PLoS ONE, 11(7). Web.
Jimoh, R., Oyewobi, L., Isa, R., & Waziri, I. (2018). Total quality management practices and organizational performance: The mediating roles of strategies for continuous improvement. International Journal of Construction Management, 19(2), 162-177.
Kumar, R. (2018). A study of Domino’s Pizza with reference to marketing strategies and consumer behavior in Jammu. Web.
McEwan, D., Ruissen, G., Eys, M., Zumbo, B., & Beauchamp, M. (2017). The effectiveness of teamwork training on teamwork behaviors and team performance: A systematic review and meta-analysis of controlled interventions. PLoS ONE, 12(1). Web.
Rudman, R. (2017). HR manager: A New Zealand handbook. Auckland, NZ: Wolters Kluwer.
Sadikoglu, E., & Olcay, H. (2014). The effects of total quality management practices on performance and the reasons of and the barriers to TQM practices in Turkey. Advances in Decision Sciences, 2014, 1-17.
von Rosing, M., von Scheel, H., & Scheer, A-W. (2014). The complete business process handbook. Waltham, MA: Elsevier.