Reference no: EM132877560

Alexandra was recently promoted from Associate to Senior Associate at Jeffries, Smith, and West, an accounting company in Vancouver specializing in tax audits for companies in the entertainment industry. Before this promotion, Alexandra didn't have any managing experience with this firm. Still, with the promotion, she now manages a team of six Associates and three Junior Associates. Many employees on her team are people that she has worked with previously and knows quite well from her experience as an Associate.

One of the Associates whom Alexandra has worked with and now manages is James. James has worked for Jeffries, Smith, and West for three years and has developed a reputation of "playing hard," but not always "working hard."

Alexandra has worked with James on two separate occasions. The first time was two years ago when they were on a team that did an audit for Bridge Studios. While on this project, Alexandra observed that James was a very competent person and excelled as a team member. The second time Alexandra and James worked together was nine months ago when they worked on an audit for Vancouver Film Studios. While on this project, Alexandra saw a very different side of James. James seemed to be bored and unengaged with his work. On top of that,

Alexandra overheard their managing Senior Associate complain about James' lack of organization and discipline.

Because Alexandra is now James' manager, she is trying to figure out what she can do to help James be the employee he was when working on the Bridge job. Alexandra reflected upon the differences between the Bridge and the VFS jobs to see what kept him engaged and working hard on the Bridge job or what caused him to be disengaged from the VFS job. One difference between the two projects that stood out to Alexandra was the managing Senior Associate. The managing Senior Associate with the Bridge job, Jackson DeRosa, was probably one of the best managers that Alexandra had encountered since being with the firm. She loved how he was so personable with his subordinates. He seemed to know each employee personally. Even more, he seemed to know what buttons to push to motivate his employees. Throughout the company, Jackson was known as the only manager who always met his deadlines. Everyone loved working for him. In sharp contrast to Jackson was Alexandra's managing Senior Associate on the VFS job, Gary Boone. In Alexandra's opinion, Gary was a critical boss who seemed to care only about the numbers and not his employees. Gary often had his employees work 14 hour days on the weekend. Since that time, Gary had left the firm.

-If you were in Alexandra's position, what type of coaching style would most likely appeal to James, and why?

-What behaviours would you engage in while coaching James to ensure that he is productive? Be sure to provide reasons for why you would use the specified actions.