Caselet 1: “I Never Thought About It” Elena Shomos was looking forward to a preliminary interview for a job as a sales manager with Italia Optics. Elena had done well working as a sales...

Caselet 1: “I Never Thought About It”

Elena Shomos was looking forward to a preliminary interview for a job as a sales manager with Italia Optics. Elena had done well working as a sales representative for Italia. She nearly always was able to meet or surpass her sales, profitability, and customer service goals. In addition she had enjoyed her training and leadership development experiences with the company. People often told her she was a natural leader. Not surprisingly, her manager Liz Mercer had encouraged her to consider a sales management position. Liz called Elena in and was helping her to prepare for her interviews with some additional sales executives. “Now, Elena, you’ve done the training and are showing good prospects for being a terrific saleswoman,” Liz said. “If you are interested in becoming a leader at Italia, you need to have some idea about how you’ll get there. So when they ask you in your interview about your style of leadership, what will you tell them?” Elena thought a moment and then commented: “Style of leadership? Hmmm, I’ve never thought much about it. I’ve just done things.” As Elena left the office, Liz offered the following comment and suggestion: “If you don’t think about your leadership style, how can management get a handle on what it is? Why don’t you take some time and think about it.”

Question 1.

Put yourself in Elena’s position. Based on what you know about different leadership approaches, how would you describe your leadership style?