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Where Charlie Moore Goes Wrong in the Chattanooga Ice Cream Division Hbr Case Analysis

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Charlie’s Leadership Style
In assessing where Charlie Moore goes wrong, it’s important to look at his leadership style. According to the DiSC style, Charlie is a “Steady (S) Leader.” Specifically, this means Charlie operates at a methodical pace and likes leading in an orderly environment. He may readily view leading in a “fast-paced” environment as intimidating or stressful. His leadership style is collaborative in nature and he values group efforts. Charlie is a cautious leader that seldom leads by authority as he is comfortable working behind the consensus of the group as he doesn’t like making decisions alone. He is demotivated by competitive environments and changing direction abruptly. He enjoys leading in a harmonic environment …show more content…

Charlie repeatedly steps in and breaks up this flow of ideas by saying that the teams needs to break and reconvene when discussions appear heated. Charlie goes wrong as a leader since he does not realize that the open exchange of ideas and perspectives is a natural part of the team’s building and development process of “storming” (Week2, Lecture1).
Charlie also goes wrong as a leader because he does not build relationships of “trust with candor” (Jack Welch, Winning, p.63) among the team members nor individually with his subordinates. Charlie allows the team to vent about each other privately. He chooses not to address this dysfunctional team behavior, for he “feigned a deaf ear to it” (Sloane, The Chattanooga Ice Cream Division, p. 2.) Charlie also does not foster relationship building on his team, for he expects the team to build relationships with each other almost by simply working together as a group. Charlie also goes wrong by not building trust with each individual direct report by providing coaching and feedback. For example, Charlie mentally goes through the strengths and weakness of each of his department heads, yet he does not provide this feedback to them. As a leader he must continually “upgrade” (Jack Welch, Winning, Rule#1) his team through feedback on every opportunity.

Charlie does not empower his team to inspire team commitment and risk-taking
Another important part of Charlie setting the tone for change as a leader is his

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