MGT 380 Final Paper

The Final Paper

MGT 380: Leadership for Organizations

The Final Paper

Introduction: Herbalife and the Leader

As indicated in an interview, Kanani (2012), “Leadership is about vision and responsibility, not power.” – Seth Berkley, GAVI Alliance CEO. Leaders are vital in every organization around the world. Leaders set aside their personal agenda to pursue the common goal and vision of the organization and community. Leaders need to be aware of everything and anything that might or might not affect its employees and the community. Leaders instill an environment of creativity, positivity, motivation to everyone that is under their command. In doing so, employees are affluence to follow in their stead and do what is right and needed to get the mission done. Leadership is having one or more people to accomplish a task by providing purpose, motivation, and direction. As we all know that leadership comes in many forms. No one type of leadership is fitted to a person’s interpretation and beliefs. This paper will examine the key concepts and styles of leadership within a social organization that has leadership concepts, and I choose a social organization known or called as Herbalife, and we would call the leader in this paper

Herbalife and Contingency Theory Applied

“The Contingency Theory of Leadership states that a leader’s effectiveness is contingent upon how his or her leadership style matches the situation” (Leadership Theories, n.d). This theory expects that the structure of the organization depends on the different countenance of the environment. If there are any changes in the structure, this is because of a change in the strategy. For instance, the disclaimer that Herbalife puts at the bottom of an individual’s weight loss before and after picture is “Consumers who use Herbalife Formula 1 twice per day as part of a healthy lifestyle can generally expect to lose around 0.5 to 1 pound per week” (Herbalife Distributor Business Practice & Compliance, 2014, p.2). But consumers who use Herbalife Formula 1 once a day can maintain their current weight depending on if they don’t eat any fast food and greasy foods as their other meals. Most likely, they would gain weight if they don’t change their lifestyle. Dominique is a distributor and one of the leaders that portray such qualities within Herbalife. Dominique took a massive step in saying yes to a business that she never understood and started making an impact within the El Paso community. Dominique was one of the first ones to open up a Herbalife nutrition spot in El Paso. She does have a partner in the business as well, but we will focus on Dominique within this paper.

Effect of Power and Influence Leaders Have on Followers

“Good leaders can assess the needs of their followers, take stock of the situation, and then adjust their behaviors accordingly” (Cherry & Morin, 2019). Followers are attracted to leaders who display empathy, consideration, motivation, are goal-oriented. Power is a person’s ability to control the activities of other individuals. As mentioned in our text, section 1.1, “Influence refers to a person’s ability to affect or to change the actions, behaviors, and opinions of others, and sometimes of industries and even societies” (Weiss, 2015, para.2). Dominique has a positive effect on power and influence on her followers. She treats everyone equally, whether you’ve known her for a long time or it is your first time meeting her, she makes you feel warm and welcome. Also, if you don’t join the Herbalife business as a distributor or a member, she understands that there is always a time and place for everything. She instead, you come to her when you are ready rather than continuously push Herbalife on to you, and you end up not coming around anymore. At a Herbalife nutrition club, there’s a wall that has every individual photo that has taken the Herbalife products either for weight loss or weight gain before and after’s and their amazing transformations, these photos influence other people to want to start taking the Herbalife products especially if they have a leader who is understanding of how their body is and what they want to accomplish. Dominique instills empowerment in everyone that she meets, and those people want to make a change not only within themselves but to the community as well. Leaders need followers to achieve goals within the organization. Followers need leaders to set an example. With Herbalife, anyone and everybody can be a leader. But is that one individual that stands out that makes it worth it and makes you push more so that one day you can be on that stage speaking out to a room full of individuals who want to make an impact on themselves and their community. The followers are receptive because many of them use the products to lose weight or to gain weight. Followers are receptive, especially when they join a weight loss or a Bet on Me challenge, where you get paid to lose weight or gain weight. “Leaders who show interest and who value constant learning and continuous improvement through both intrinsic and extrinsic rewards encourage effort and productivity in followers, which in turn experiment for the benefit of the organization” ( Weiss, 2015). Herbalife rewards its top sales with an all-inclusive paid vacation to various spots during the year. For instance, this year, it is the Bahamas last year it was Hawaii. So with incentives like that, it makes people want to keep reaching that next level. Dominique rewards her top performers with a Herbalife goodie basket and a gift card. I wouldn’t recommend another strategy simply because these methods have been proven to work, and it has made some significant changes to people that are trying to lose weight or gain weight. Who doesn’t want to get paid to lose weight or gain weight? If you had the chance to get paid to lose weight and all you had to do was change your lifestyle by opting for healthier choices, wouldn’t you go for it? It’s fifty percent of the jackpot if you are first place, thirty percent for second place, twenty percent for third place. Followers who push themselves not only reward themselves by feeling better and more confident, and they are the product of the product.

Evaluation of the Role of Transformational and Transactional Leadership in Herbalife

“Transformational Leadership is seen as a leadership style in which the leader employs charisma and enthusiasm to inspire his followers. Transactional Leadership is seen as a leadership style that uses rewards and punishments for motivating followers” (Surbhi, 2019). Herbalife has many individuals who display transformational leadership as well as transactional leadership. Herbalife, as a transactional leadership style, created a program intending to improve children’s lives by helping organizations provide healthy nutrition to vulnerable children around the world. Herbalife also lends their support to relief efforts and responds to natural disasters around the world. (Herbalife Nutrition Foundation, n.d).

A prime example of this would be the American Red Cross where you donate blood at your local Red Cross Centers; they would reward you and thank you for giving blood by letting you have a sweet treat, sticker, maybe a t-shirt, juice, and water afterward. Recently, Red Cross Centers have been working with Herbalife, and they have been passing out Herbalife protein bars and soy nuts instead of cookies. Every middle of the year, Herbalife throws an extravaganza where every independent distributor around the globe goes, and it’s three days of party and recognition of everyone who has said yes to the company and is improving their lives inside and outside as well as their community.

Dominique is an example of an individual who possesses a transformational leadership style. Dominique inspires people within the El Paso Community, either by walking into the Herbalife nutrition shop, social media, or by invitations to build up their self-confidence as well as promoting innovation of a healthy lifestyle as a whole. Dominique is a leader, a role model, a motivator who offers encouragement, morale, empowerment, vision, and satisfaction of everyone who is following her or on her team.

Traits and Characteristics of an Effective Team Leader

As indicated by Scott & Thompson (2019), “An effective team leader has a variety of traits and characteristics that encourage team members to follow. Team leaders naturally possess certain qualities, such as compassion and integrity, or learn leadership skills through formal training and experience.” In our textbook, “effective team leadership and followership depend on factors” (Weiss, 2015). Dominique possesses traits of an effective team leader. Dominique is big on communication. Being able to convey clear messages to her team members and receive feedback from them ensures that the business is working smoothly. If anyone has a question on how to make the shakes more creamier and not icy, she shows them how or gives them instructions on how to make them. If they have any other questions concerning the products on what to take and what not to take, she gives them her full attention. If they have questions on how to go about joining the business side to bring on some income, she answers them wholeheartedly. Dominique is confident in everyone that is on her team or any other team. Whether you are losing weight or gaining weight, Dominique supports everyone in any shape. No judgments and no repercussions. Integrity and honesty are also values of an effective team leader. An effective team leader should also be a respectful, fair, kind, influential, powerful facilitator and negotiator (Scott & Thompson, 2019). An effective team leader should also be culturally aware of everyone around them.

How Leadership Supports the Vision, Mission & Strategy

According to Caldwell, Hasan, & Smith (2015), “Virtuous leadership integrates abilities required to be excellent with a commitment to the pursuit of the welfare and success of others. Those who seek to become moral leaders can only do so by understanding how they can best serve their organizations and the people with whom they work.” Dr. Richard Carmona, the 17th Surgeon General of the United States and Member of the Herbalife Nutrition Board of Directors, shared a message of community and leadership, “Leadership is a privilege. Leadership is a journey. Leaders lead with integrity.” (Carmona, n.d). Herbalife’s mission is to change people’s lives by providing the best nutrition and weight-management products in the world. Herbalife’s vision is changing people’s lives one at a time. Herbalife’s strategy in making this happen is that the leaders would invite people to come to a Herbalife nutrition club to enjoy a free shake and tea of their choosing. They can also go and get a free workout as well. Even, they can taste a shake and tea if one of their friends or coworkers hosted a Herbalife Shake Party at home or their place of business. Some Herbalife nutrition clubs have more than just shake and teas; they offer waffles, pancakes, energy shots, protein balls, and so forth. The transactional leadership style that was mentioned earlier in the paper supports the mission, vision, and strategy. Dominique helps the community by sponsoring 5k marathon events, and nutrition clubs have weight loss challenges, Bet on Me challenges or Bella Diamond challenges that can be four weeks, six weeks, or nine weeks long. You are going to eat and drink every day. So why not opt for a healthier meal that is quick and easy and very satisfying. Changing one person at a time is all it takes to make a significant impact.

Changes I Would Make If I Were the Leader

If I was the leader in my organization, I think the one thing that I would change would be the incentives. In Herbalife, once you reach the supervisor level, you get a fifty percent off of products that you order. After the supervisor level, its called the world team, then a millionaire team and eventually presidents team. Yes, you get royalty bonus as you hit each level after the supervisor level but it would be nice to get more than fifty percent as you level up. The flexibility, stability, of working your own hours and making your business grow all depends on the person itself. If they want their business to grow and have a considerable impact on the community and everyone, they will put in the work to get it done at all costs. With Herbalife, anyone can become a leader and surpass their leader. Mainly because there is always room to grow and improve. As that saying goes, “I don’t make money if you don’t make money.” So for everybody to get a seat at the table, everybody needs some work.

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