Question

Lola majored in business administration with a concentration in marketing, and she is delighted with her career progress. She joined the frozen-food division of a large company ten years ago as a product specialist for frozen Indian food. Lola says with a smile, “I was torn between Asian studies and marketing. My first job was therefore a perfect fit for my interests.”

Lola now holds the position of general manager of frozen foods, with a team of 6 people directly reporting to her, and 350 total employees. Lola has learned that a leader does not have all the answers, so he or she should ask lots of questions. She also believes that the right questions will get people thinking.

During a recent meeting with her sales manager, Marvin, Lola asked her, “What’s to prevent consumers from serving mostly inexpensive fresh food instead of purchasing our expensive products?” Marvin responded, “Let me think about that one. It never occurred to me that our industry was in jeopardy.”

The next day Lola sent a text message to Quinn, a new product development specialist, that asked, “How have you justified your pay this month?” Quinn sent a message back, “I’ve been working forty-five hours a week. Isn’t that enough?”

The following day, Lola dropped by the cubicle of Brooklyn, the department administrative assistant, and asked her, “How can I improve my communication with you?” Brooklyn responded, “I thought that our communication was pretty good.”

While having lunch with Geoff, the director of human resources, Lola asked, “Can you please explain to me how your group is increasing our revenue, improving our products or saving us money?” Geoff replied, “With all due respect Lola, you need more information about what HR does for an organization.”

The following week during a staff meeting, Lola asked her team, “What should I be doing to help make our group the best frozen-food division in the industry?” Margot, the director of supply chain management, responded: “I’m going to need time to think about this one.”

Question: 3 parts

-How effective does Lola appear to be in her approach of asking tough questions as a leadership technique?

-What suggestion can you offer Lola to make her questioning technique more effective?

-Which style of leadership does Lola appear to be demonstrating when she asks her team, "What should I be doing to help make our division the best pet-food division in the industry?"

Answer 1

answer-

How effective does Lola appear to be in her approach of asking tough questions as a leadership technique?

The approach of Lola of having a leadership style by asking questions to others is very ineffective because she is asking the wrong questions to wrong people like in the case, she asked Geoff, the director of human resources,"Can you please explain to me how your group is increasing our revenue, improving our products or saving us money?”

This questions is not related to the job of an HR instead this question should be asked to  Quinn, a new product development specialist.so, the approach of Lola is like all over the place and it can create a doubt in others that she is not a good leader and confused that is why she asked too many questions.

What suggestion can you offer Lola to make her questioning technique more effective?

If Lola think that asking questions is a good leadership technique then she have to change some aspects of it to make it more effective like First she has to written down questions in advance and asked those questions who are responsible for them.

for example- she should ask the Geoff, the director of human resources," how are employees in our company are performing and who are non-performers?"

Second, she should ask question in polite and professional manner so other think that she is evaluating others not interrogating them.

Which style of leadership does Lola appear to be demonstrating when she asks her team, "What should I be doing to help make our division the best pet-food division in the industry?

Democratic or employee oriented leadership style because she is involving the employees in discussions and taking their advice so that she can evaluate their ideas and views and make the final decision.