Jacob Ortiz
Leadership and communication – Circuit City
Jacob Ortiz
There are many reasons why an effective team leader is valuable to a company. Many concepts can be found in the reading The Strategic Project Leader, by Kathleen Hass. When brainstorming over what criteria makes an effective team leader, the team can find ways in which the current Harrison-Keyes scenario lacks leaders who contain leadership skills to implement their own strategic plan. Qualities an effective team leader may contain are responsibility, dedication, and experience. They also should have more direction on collaboration, consensus, and leadership (Hass, 2005). Harrison-Keyes currently rests in a complicated dilemma. Profits are suffering. The plan to outsource the task of creating and launching an e-book computer system is failing to reach attainment checkpoints, and many members of the roster of authors are against having their work published in a downloadable online format. To assure success in the current scenario, Harrison-Keyes must find strong project leadership and develop more effective teamwork between employees as well as within the organization and its roster of authors.
Harison-Keyes must have an understanding of how teams work and the dynamics of the team development (Hass, 2005). Circuit City, the second-largest specialty consumer electronics chain behind Best Buy, has posted net losses every quarter in the past year (Gogoi, 2008). The losses are blamed on poor leadership. Since the CEO (Phillip Schoonover) came on board, bad business decisions have been made. The CEO discussed a turnover plan to improve customer service and revitalize those stores that were not performing. However, a few years later, the plan has not been carried out. In addition, Schoonover fired several sales executives without a plan in place. His job is on the line, as well as the 12-member board (Gogoi, 2008). Schoonover