Question

At this point in the meeting, Adam asks, "Sharon, how long have your four employees been with the zoo?" Sharon answers, "Well, if you don’t count our intern, each of my employees has worked for us for more than five years." Then Adam asks, "And does your team get along pretty well as a group?" Sharon thinks about this, then answers, "Yes, I think so. I know that they go out to Louie’s Bar every Friday night after work, and that if one of them encounters a problem, the others will go out of their way to help fix it." Adam turns to you and asks, "What impact does Sharon’s situation have on the style of leadership she should use?"

Answer 1

If we look at the rest of the document, we see that Sharon describes her style of leadership in the following way:

“I’m pretty focused on getting the work around here done, and making sure that all the employees do what is best for the animals. I give my staff specific instructions on what to do every day, and then I check to be sure that they’ve followed those instructions exactly. I don’t tolerate mistakes.”

Therefore, based on this, we can see that Sharon's leadership style and the situation she faces do not match. Sharon does not seem to recognize that her team has been on the job for a while, and that this gives the team expertise. Therefore, she does not need to give her staff such specific instructions. Moreover, the team is cohesive, so Sharon should be focusing on developing relationship with the people on her team and taking advantage of such unity.