Case #1 - Kirandeep has worked as a financial advisor for a local bank for three years. As a result of her success in sales, she has been asked by the branch manager to train the company's newest financial advisor. Applying the 'principles of developing people' and the 'six practices of leadership development' discussed in this course, if you were Kirandeep, explain how you would train the new advisor.

Case #2 - Hal's Hardware is a nationwide hardware retail chain with non-unionized employees. James Stenson was the flooring department manager for six months at the Moose Jaw location and was not well liked or trusted by most of the employees in his department. James, who was 38 years old, set lofty sales goals for his department, as he wanted to be promoted to assistant store manager as soon as possible and achieving a high level of sales would go a long way to achieving his goal. Seemingly, the only two employees who liked and trusted James were Marty Clayborne and Patrick Wallace, who played with James in a recreational hockey league. The three other employees in the department felt that Marty and Patrick received preferential treatment from James because the two men usually were assigned to the more preferential shifts. Further, employees often noted that James was seen taking extra-long coffee and lunch breaks, while visiting with Marty and Patrick. With other employees, James was a stickler for not taking long coffee or lunch breaks as doing so could result in lost sales. James was focused on increasing sales numbers, and aside from his relationships with Marty and Patrick, he was extremely hard on his employees. James believed that people were naturally unmotivated and needed to be constantly prodded to put forth a decent effort. He used threats and coercion as his go to motivational tools. For example, when Jessica Thompson, an employee in the flooring department, was unable to secure a large sale of hardwood flooring, James threatened to write a negative quarterly review for her if she was unable to sell the equivalent of hardwood before her shift ended in five hours. Jessica did not want a negative quarterly review on her record as she was a single parent and provided the lone income for her and her two children. Feeling a sense of urgency, Jessica began to aggressively approach all customers that entered the flooring department and tried to push customers to put an order on the hardwood flooring. This approach was ineffective as Jessica was unable to sell any hardwood by the end of the shift. Additionally, one customer complained to James, stating that Jessica's approach was too pushy and made him feel uncomfortable. Consequently, James called Jessica into his office the next day and informed her of the customer's complaint and stated that this, along with her inability to secure sales would be written on her quarterly review. Now worried about her job security, Jessica became more stressed at work and began making uncharacteristic errors with inventory and ordering, which also had a negative impact on the performance of the department. This type of situation was a regular occurrence as James continued attempting to motivate other employees in a similar manner to that of Jessica. Jessica, along with the other four employees in the department felt that working under James' leadership style prevented them from performing at their highest levels. Over the next eight months departmental sales consistently declined and so did the morale of the employees. After months of working with James to try to fix the department's performance, the store manager removed James from his position. After a thorough recruitment and selection process, Deepa Bhat was selected as the next flooring department manager. Deepa was 27 years old with three years of experience working in the flooring department of a competing hardware store. Deepa was excited about her opportunity to lead the flooring department to a high level of sales. She was confident in her leadership ability to increase morale and sales by empowering and motivating the employees in her department. In previous leadership positions Deepa received great satisfaction in helping others perform at their highest level. Here is some additional information bout the other three employees Deepa will be supervising: Ruth, 38 years old, has worked in the flooring department for seven years. Last quarter, she was excited to increase her sales and reach an all-time high for personal sales in a quarter. One reason she was excited was because James promised her a cash bonus if she achieved her goal. Ruth planned on using the cash to take her husband and two children on a ski trip to Banff, which she otherwise could not afford. She exceeded her sales goal, however due to other unforeseen costs at the store, James was unable to follow through on the cash bonus. Since that time Ruth has lost trust in her supervisors and her negative attitude is affecting the other staff. Nellie, 23 years old, recently started as a sales representative in the department. She enjoyed playing sports in high school and college because she loved being a part of a team. Nellie thought that working at the store would be like being a part of a team. However, she describes the environment at the store as very competitive and each person is out for themselves. She has been working at the store for four months and it seems that she has lost the excitement and motivation that she had when she started. Stanley, 62 years old, has expressed that although working at Hal's hardware for the past 6 years has paid the bills, it has not contributed to his passion of helping those in need. Thus, he feels like he is just counting down the days until he can retire at age 65 and does not care about the success of the department, as long as his pay check keeps going into his bank account. Based on your knowledge of human motivation, develop a detailed strategy for how you think Deepa should attempt to motivate Jessica, Ruth, Nellie, and Stanley. Provide specific examples that are relevant to the case.

Case #3 - Imagine that you are the teacher of a course. Apply the principles of performance management and write out, as the teacher, what you would do to improve the performance of your students.