Question: Which traits, skills, and behaviors associated with successful leaders does Grace possess? Are there characteristics she could enhance to improve her leadership ability? Closing CaseThe New Supervisorrace Reed had been working at the CountyMedical Society Answering Service for 18months when she received a promotion toshift supervisor. Grace was quite excited.She had worked very hard to develop thetechnical skills for answering calls and the interpersonalskills for communicating with patients and their doctors.Also, she had demonstrated her desire for the promo-tion by volunteering for overtime and holiday work.Finally, she had been promoted.However, now Grace faced problems she had notanticipated. How would she be able to convince herfriends to take her seriously in her new role as theirboss? How was she going to maintain her friendshipsand still maintain the discipline needed in this work-place?The Medical Society's physicians were extremelydisappointed with former county answering servicecompanies, which handled not only physicians' calls butbusiness and private accounts as well. Thus, the doctorshad decided to start their own answering service. Theircall handlers would handle only medical calls, would bebetter trained to recognize urgent and emergency calls,would receive better benefits, and would be paid morethan the competing answering service companies paidtheir call handlers. The doctors believed this would allowthem to attract and retain the best-possible workers.To oversee the day-to-day operations of the service,the physicians hired a professional manager, and eachshift had a supervisor whose responsibilities includedscheduling workers; handling complaints from doctors,hospitals, pharmacies, and patients concerning howtheir calls were handled; learning how to operate newequipment, and train their call handlers to do the same;and maintaining the high level of service required by thephysicians. These duties were in addition to the supervi-sor working her or his own eight-hour shift.Grace was the fourth call handler hired by the or-ganization and the first promoted from the ranks. Whenshe was first hired, she was lucky to train with a veryexperienced, competent call handler. She modeled herown skills on those of her trainer and worked diligentlyto handle the most calls with the fewest mistakes andeven fewer complaints. Whereas the other call handlersworked only 60 to 70 individual incoming lines, Graceroutinely handled 100 to 120 lines, including some ofthose with the highest call volumes. She not only clearedher own calls but frequently assisted other call handlersin clearing their backlogged messages. When extremelydifficult calls came in, such as suicide calls or nuisancecalls from patients to whom even the doctors did notwant to talk, often Grace was asked to handle them.She rapidly developed excellent relationships with all of"her" doctors, their staffs, and even their families.During her first year, she was named call handler of themonth five times. In her second year, she learned how toschedule workers and received other advanced opera-tions training.Although the work was extremely fast-paced and re-quired concentration, there was always time to talk withother employees, joke, and have fun. Strong friendshipsdeveloped among the workers, who frequently socializedafter hours and on their days off. Moreover, the high lev-els of training and pay led to extremely low turnoverrates, giving workers a sense that they were a "family" ofsorts. There were always waiting lists of applicants for thepositions. If a call handler wished to leave, he or she hadno problem finding work at hospitals or for the phonecompany. Morale was generally high.Grace's friends at the answering service threw aparty for her when she received her promotion.Everyone who wasn't working attended. They werehappy for her and sincerely wished her well. After all, itwas proof that any one of them could be promotedfrom the ranks! Grace was anxious to assume her newresponsibilities and even try some new procedures shehad been devising.Within a month, Grace wasn't nearly as happy withher promotion as she had thought she would be. Herfriends, who were now her subordinates as well, didn'tseem to pay attention to her suggestions concerningtheir job performance. They ignored her instructions andfrequently treated them as a joke. She worked manyhours planning schedules only to have the call handlersswitch shifts, leave early, or arrive late, saying they weresure she wouldn't mind because she understood all theirpersonal complications with their romantic relationships.She was their friend, after all; they knew she would cutthem some slack. And her best friends seemed to besome of the worst offenders.Grace soon realized that her new position was missingone thing-authority to go with her new responsibilities.She had no authority to sanction any of her subordinates:she couldn't dock their pay, make them work overtime,or cut back on their hours. She couldn't shorten theirlunch breaks or eliminate their coffee breaks. Only theoverall company manager could impose sanctions ofthat sort. The problem was that if she tried to insist thata call handler use a new procedure or work certainhours and the call handler balked, she had no recourse.If she complained to the manager about her situa-tion, she would be viewed as unable to do her job. Shecouldn't complain to her friends because they were partof the problem.

Question

Question: Which traits, skills, and behaviors associated with successful leaders does Grace possess? Are there characteristics she could enhance to improve her leadership ability? Closing CaseThe New Supervisorrace Reed had been working at the CountyMedical Society Answering Service for 18months when she received a promotion toshift supervisor. Grace was quite excited.She had worked very hard to develop thetechnical skills for answering calls and the interpersonalskills for communicating with patients and their doctors.Also, she had demonstrated her desire for the promo-tion by volunteering for overtime and holiday work.Finally, she had been promoted.However, now Grace faced problems she had notanticipated. How would she be able to convince herfriends to take her seriously in her new role as theirboss? How was she going to maintain her friendshipsand still maintain the discipline needed in this work-place?The Medical Society's physicians were extremelydisappointed with former county answering servicecompanies, which handled not only physicians' calls butbusiness and private accounts as well. Thus, the doctorshad decided to start their own answering service. Theircall handlers would handle only medical calls, would bebetter trained to recognize urgent and emergency calls,would receive better benefits, and would be paid morethan the competing answering service companies paidtheir call handlers. The doctors believed this would allowthem to attract and retain the best-possible workers.To oversee the day-to-day operations of the service,the physicians hired a professional manager, and eachshift had a supervisor whose responsibilities includedscheduling workers; handling complaints from doctors,hospitals, pharmacies, and patients concerning howtheir calls were handled; learning how to operate newequipment, and train their call handlers to do the same;and maintaining the high level of service required by thephysicians. These duties were in addition to the supervi-sor working her or his own eight-hour shift.Grace was the fourth call handler hired by the or-ganization and the first promoted from the ranks. Whenshe was first hired, she was lucky to train with a veryexperienced, competent call handler. She modeled herown skills on those of her trainer and worked diligentlyto handle the most calls with the fewest mistakes andeven fewer complaints. Whereas the other call handlersworked only 60 to 70 individual incoming lines, Graceroutinely handled 100 to 120 lines, including some ofthose with the highest call volumes. She not only clearedher own calls but frequently assisted other call handlersin clearing their backlogged messages. When extremelydifficult calls came in, such as suicide calls or nuisancecalls from patients to whom even the doctors did notwant to talk, often Grace was asked to handle them.She rapidly developed excellent relationships with all of&#34;her&#34; doctors, their staffs, and even their families.During her first year, she was named call handler of themonth five times. In her second year, she learned how toschedule workers and received other advanced opera-tions training.Although the work was extremely fast-paced and re-quired concentration, there was always time to talk withother employees, joke, and have fun. Strong friendshipsdeveloped among the workers, who frequently socializedafter hours and on their days off. Moreover, the high lev-els of training and pay led to extremely low turnoverrates, giving workers a sense that they were a &#34;family&#34; ofsorts. There were always waiting lists of applicants for thepositions. If a call handler wished to leave, he or she hadno problem finding work at hospitals or for the phonecompany. Morale was generally high.Grace's friends at the answering service threw aparty for her when she received her promotion.Everyone who wasn't working attended. They werehappy for her and sincerely wished her well. After all, itwas proof that any one of them could be promotedfrom the ranks! Grace was anxious to assume her newresponsibilities and even try some new procedures shehad been devising.Within a month, Grace wasn't nearly as happy withher promotion as she had thought she would be. Herfriends, who were now her subordinates as well, didn'tseem to pay attention to her suggestions concerningtheir job performance. They ignored her instructions andfrequently treated them as a joke. She worked manyhours planning schedules only to have the call handlersswitch shifts, leave early, or arrive late, saying they weresure she wouldn't mind because she understood all theirpersonal complications with their romantic relationships.She was their friend, after all; they knew she would cutthem some slack. And her best friends seemed to besome of the worst offenders.Grace soon realized that her new position was missingone thing-authority to go with her new responsibilities.She had no authority to sanction any of her subordinates:she couldn't dock their pay, make them work overtime,or cut back on their hours. She couldn't shorten theirlunch breaks or eliminate their coffee breaks. Only theoverall company manager could impose sanctions ofthat sort. The problem was that if she tried to insist thata call handler use a new procedure or work certainhours and the call handler balked, she had no recourse.If she complained to the manager about her situa-tion, she would be viewed as unable to do her job. Shecouldn't complain to her friends because they were partof the problem.

Accepted Answer

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