Leadership Assessment According to Karren Brady

Knowledge, skills, and abilities and experience are important ingredients for the successful management of business organizations. The mentioned attributes enable managers to successfully perform their functions and shoulder the various responsibilities that are associated with management of enterprises in todays dynamic business environments. In this paper, I will demonstrate my knowledge, skills, and abilities regarding the various functions that would make an organization to be run smoothly and effectively. Notably, the paper will focus on the management of teams and solving of problems within the teams to ensure organization vision is realized. The analysis will focus on Karren Bradys problem-solving skills based and the tools, methods, and strategies she applies, and so as to identify those that can be emulated. Furthermore, the paper will share the skills and knowledge employed by Karren Brady in creating vision and design of organizational structure as well as conflict management strategies in management.

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Basis of the conclusions: Karren Brady

Karren Brady is one of the most accomplished persons in the UK with skills and experience ranging from business management, politics and broadcasting. Her humble beginning offers motivation and inspiration to many aspiring persons who want to succeed in life. The leadership style and the successes she has recorded in the corporate sector across the country offer several lessons that can be emulated to achieve success in the contemporary business environments. Some of the reasons that make Brady the point of reference include her ability to inspire the workforce, resolve to achieve ,people management skills, and abilities in choosing the attract and retain the right people into the organizations she has served.

Teams

Building teams in organizations is an important step towards creating an organizational culture for purposes of fostering an enabling environment for the realization of goals and objectives. Teams are composed of different individuals who the required synergies in business strategies because members have different skills and abilities. Team building involves a broad range of activities, designed to improve team performance (Tjosvold, 2015). Its aim is to bring the best out of teams through close partnerships and communication with the goal of developing the problem-solving and leadership skills of the members.

Karren Brady believes that for an organization to achieve meaningful success there must be a good team of employees. The staffing of employees is critical as it determines the various skills and contributions each employee would make towards attaining the company goals and objectives. She advises that although skills and talent are important, managers should select people with the right attitudes. This is because people with the right attitudes belief in themselves and likely to achieve more if they are equipped with the right skills. She did not get the rigorous college training but because of her determination and personal belief, she managed to excel in sales and marketing, an achievement that landed her a job with Birmingham Football Club. However, she concurs that skills and experience are an important component of a team to ensure right people are recruited depending on the job requirements ("Growth Business UK - for entrepreneurs interested in growing businesses," n.d.)

According to Karren Brady, recognizing the difference between leadership and management is essential for effective working relationships in the teams. When a leader embraces the differences of the two functions, she/he inspires confidence in the teams and motivates the individual members. The management should avail all the necessary resources to the teams that would enable them achieve the expectations of the organizations. She argues that she provided leadership to the teams at Birmingham Football Club through team building. This way, leaders emerged and came up with different ideas on how the club would be pulled out of dereliction. She acknowledges that as a manager, she sometimes got stuck as a result challenging operating environments. But because there emerged leaders within the teams, she managed to receive ideas on how to steer the club find forward amidst challenging circumstances. Brady further advises that it is not a good practice to manage with an iron fist as the overall head of the company. On many occasions the club was in uncharted territory she could not figure out what do next. But she managed to make decisions due to the ability to put all the hearts and minds of the employees on the same platform of the decision-making process. During these challenging times the skills and minds of the executive staff made her get a breakthrough.

Another aspect that is worth noting Bradys management style is the constitution of the executive team. She considered the skills and experiences of the executive team members in the hiring process because the teams are critical for the success of the organization. The executive team is responsible for monitoring the progress of each department in the structure of the organization and make correctional decisions where necessary. These are the individuals who communicate the culture of the organization to the rest of the employees. After her appointment at the Birmingham club, she had to institute a new culture so as to ensure every employee embraced the direction the club wanted to go. The s strategy focused on wining people's hearts by making them more interested thus creating passion and desire to support the club (Somerset.ac.uk, 2016). Instituting culture may not be easy but if the mindsets are changed and enthusiasm instilled in the teams, adoption of a new culture can be realized. As a result it becomes easier for the employees to embrace the desired direction of the organization. Also, she was able to instill the appropriate culture through leading by example. Leading by example instills confidence in executive team and the employees thereby embracing the vision of the company.

Organizational Vision

According to Cummings and Worley (2015), developing a compelling vision and formulating a strategy to achieve it, is among the primary functions of great leadership. Leaders can create a significant difference in the organization by mastering the skills of determining the vision for the organization and connecting with the future with strategic actions. These strategic actions require the leader to develop strategic plans for the organization. In spite of her youthfulness and inexperience in the football business, Karren Brady developed the vision to make Birmingham FC one of the successful clubs in the city. She made club profitable, enabling it attract good players who helped in securing promotion to the Premier League and also made it to have successful spells in the second tier of the elite leagues in the England.

The success Karren Brady achieved at Birmingham FC is attributed to her ability to come up with strategies to align the laid-down strategies with the vision she had developed for the club. Using her sports sales experience and the executive team, she was able to come with the right point of actions that changed the club and aligned it with the developed vision. Culture change is one of the strategies she used to ensure that there was a paradigm shift in the way things are done at the club. The change involved changing the attitudes and mindsets of the staff. The change of attitudes inspired confidence and instilled a new sense of desire to take the club to the next level as a team ((Somerset.ac.uk, 2016). The vision was communicated to the staff and activities and contributions of teams were outlined. According to Karren, communication of the vision to staff is important because they embrace the strategies that are meant to improve the organization. Communication also makes the employees to own the strategies and develop the passion to implement the strategic plans. At Birmingham City FC, Brady ensured that the employees were kept abreast with the company news. We put a lot of effort into ensuring that our staff members know everything before others. When we went public, we had to change the way we did this. Now we present our results to the City and then do consultations with staff and various departments, to highlight what needs to be done, she says. And as Brady sums up, attitude and a positive frame of mind is very important for one to succeed. Success is largely due to hanging on when everyone else has let go. (Growth Business, 2014).This strategy enabled the Birmingham fraternity to work as a unit for the sake of the club.

Another strategy that Brady employed was the acknowledgement of the significance of the supporters in generating revenue. She strategized to improve the state of the stadium and other dilapidated facilities so as to attract more supporters during matches. One of the initiatives she adopted included free tickets for kids and stands that were low-cost and therefore affordable to most families. The move was intended to woo the community to the club. She explains that encouraging more fans to attend developed the brand of the club and increased the match-day revenues. It was a decision also informed on the economic circumstances that were prevailing at the time. The country was undergoing through a recession and diversification was necessary. Later, she oversaw the floating of the club at the London Stock Exchange, generating additional revenues into the club (RBS-Business-Sense, 2016).The above-mentioned strategies maintained a stream of income to the club, making it more attractive to fans and players.

I would advise that Karren should have also used scenario planning in her strategic plans. Such a kind of planning enables the organization to lay out strategies that take into consideration of the possible future scenarios that offer opportunities or threats to the business organizations. Also, she should have also considered the broader aspect of society where some resources are allocated to alleviate various social and economic issues in our society. Such moves would further enhance the brand of the club thereby attracting more stakeholders into the club.

Organizational Culture

Karren Bradys positional, political and leadership background

Brady began her career as an advertising sales executive with LBC Radio after finishing her A-levels .She later kick started her leadership career at the age of 23, following her appointment as the overall manager at Birmingham City Football Club. The club was under receivership but Brady convinced her then employer to purchase it. She oversaw the listing of the club at the London Stock Exchange, a move that brought the club back to profitability in her first year at the helm. She served as the Managing Director of club for sixteen years ("Biography | Karren Brady," n.d.)

Currently, she is a vice chairperson at West Ham United where she is has played a significant role in building West Ham as strong brand before the world audience and also helping the club to move its current iconic Olympic Stadium. Her good leadership skills involve creating the vision for people and organizations, efficient organizational culture, organization of teams, training of staff to ensure that policy is followed and solving conflicts in teams to avoid the derailment of organizational mission. ("Biography | Karren Brady," n.d.) According to her website, Brady has also made some stints in the media industry through hosting of shows and casting in films. She featured in the BBC One series the Apprentice where casts as one of Lord Sugar aide. She has served as a non-executive director in the broadcasting industry as well. Championing the interests of women in business and leadership in organization is another area where Karren has made se...