How CIO Of Adobe Is Turning Her Team Into Consumer And Employee Experience Orchestrators

About Adobe Systems Incorporated

Discuss about the Clinical Leadership in Nursing and Healthcare.

The article “ How CIO of Adobe is turning her team into consumer and employee experience orchestrators “ shares the details of the IT leader of Adobe and her strategies to improve the marketing and IT relationships in the global market. It also discloses the reasons why the experiences of the employees of the company are the reasons for successful leadership. The Chief Information Officer of Adobe, Ms. Cynthia Stoddard is committed towards ensuring that the experiences of the employees are as strong and crucial as that of its consumers.

Adobe Systems Incorporated, an American Multinational is   a computer software company and its commercial transactions include creation of innovative and multimedia software products with its advancement towards manufacturing of internet application software development. Its transacts its business on an international level.

The philosophy of the CIO of Adobe is to utilize the experiences of the employees as well as consumers to create new tools and applications which would be helpful to its clients. In order to execute this, the company launched a program known as ‘advancing the inside’ which focused on the advancements one to improve the engagement of consumers and directed it towards the   employees as well.

The ideology of the leader has always been that of an enabler not of a roadblock. Because of her creativity and leadership qualities, the company is working towards creating a highly collaborative relationship between marketing and IT (Cameron, 2018).

In the present era of digital and cloud innovation, the experiences of the employees are considered as crucial as that of consumers. The leaders are required to invest their strategic resources such as time and money towards the ultimate foundation of everything- their team members. Since they are the ones who endeavor towards   satisfying the needs of the consumers and their experiences through the products and services (Ji et al., 2015).

If the employees are engaged in the whole process, the company is benefitted in many ways. The productivity of the organizations tends to increase manifold if they involve the employees. The employees who have been given the chance to exercise their strengths regularly tend to be more productive as compared to those who have not been involved. The team with more employee engagement tends to be more productive and creative in their working styles and they have less internal thefts as compared to those who don’t. If the employees are not engaged into their   teams or organizations, they tend to contribute far below their actual potential in the company (Kazmi, et al., 2016).

Utilizing Employee and Consumer Experiences

So, it is need of the time to consider the experiences of the employees as well along with those of the clients as they are integrated with each other. The rapid transformations in the technology demands more adaptability and flexibility as compared to the earlier times. The leader should enable the companies to shift their ideologies from consumer experiences to integrated consumer and employee experiences since they are now the two sides of the same coin (Hu, Zhang & Wang, 2015).

In order to become successful, the companies should realize that the enterprise needs cannot be separated from individual needs and they have to consider the engagement and wellbeing of their greatest asset – the employees and their talent. The leaders must put the interest of their team at the center and comprehend their true needs. These strategies can assist them in unlocking their whole potential .At the core of the issue, healthy, engaged and creative employees survive in a healthy enterprise. So, the leaders should assist their team to perform their responsibilities in a friction less manner (Kasema, 2015).  

The success mantra for most of the leading organizations is focusing on the improvement of the experiences of their employees rather than narrowly focusing on the engagement and culture. It is supported by the team leaders in the organization through providing a variety of techniques and feedback tools and employee self-service technologies.

In the digital world with growing transparency and influence of technology, the leaders are facilitating a productive, engaging and enjoyable atmosphere for their team. They are focused towards enabling the entire employee experience by bringing together all the components of HR, managerial practices and the workplace which create an influence on them. With the help of new approaches such as employee journey maps and  design thinking , the leaders are attempting to comprehend and improve this entire experience by using techniques such as employee net promoter scores to measure their satisfaction (Navickait?, Da?iulyt? & Urbanovi?, 2015).  

As per the research, the organizational culture and employee brand proposition remains the top preferences of the globally renowned companies. Furthermore, the experience of the employees is ranked as a major trend on the present scenario. So, a productive and positive experience of the employees has emerged as a new contract between the leader and their teams. The leaders are refocusing their efforts on creating strategies which can be implemented to comprehend and improve the experiences of the employees in the team.

Challenges Faced by Organizations

However, there are some challenges faced by the organizations in making the employee experiences an integral part of their core strategies. Most of the leaders have not been assigned the responsibility of designing and delivering the experiences of their team. The companies have not yet made the employee experience a preference. Some of the companies find it difficult to obtain resources required to address the integrated set of preferences ranging from managerial practices at the workplace extending up to the work culture itself.

It is the responsibility of the leaders to update the techniques required for engaging their teams on continuous basis .The leaders should incorporate the disciplines of performance management, diversity, goal setting, and workplace design into an integrated framework. Hence the leaders should comprehend and improve the experience of the employees because it is a critical element for companies operating in a global and highly competitive economy. If the employees are engaged at the workplace by the leaders, it would be helpful for the companies to retain and attract skilled and experienced employees.

As the companies shift their paradigm into a network and team based structure, the experience of the employees become more complex and crucial. The leaders have multiple roles with multiple teams. So, it is the responsibility of the leaders to create a new approach – the one which is built on the foundation of engagement and culture. The leaders are required to assist the company to focus on employee experiences and consider its aspects such as engagement, satisfaction of the workers, their wellness and alignment.

So, the business leaders are confronted with the demand and opportunity to reconsider the roles, structures, techniques and strategies used to formulate and implement the experience of their teams (Jati et al., 2015).

As per Allen et al., (2016) a servant leader is the one who initiates with the feeling of wanting to serve first. It is followed by the conscious choice of aspiring to lead. It is an ideology and a framework of leadership practices and qualities. The characteristics of a transformational servant leader are empathy, listening to his team, healing , awareness , conceptualization, foresightedness  , stewardship , commitment to help his team grown and progress .

The transformational servant leaders are focused on the objectives of the organization and they influence their teams by becoming their role models. They use persuasion and promote their individualized influence. They motivate their teams with the charm to attain the goals of the organization and aim to integrate the experiences of their teams in formulating new strategies to meet the goals of the organization.

Strategies for Engaging Teams

Under the transformational servant leadership, the business environments are extremely competitive and dynamic in nature .The leaders are risk taking and carefully balance the individual and organizational goals. The main focus of the transformational servant leaders is to meet the objectives of the organization by integrating the employees in its core strategies. They are targeted towards growth and development of the organization which is possible only in the case of employee engagement .

A transformational servant leader possesses the quality of empowering and encouraging the team members and involving them to share the organizational vision. They inspire the attitudes such as innovative approach, creativity, risk taking attitudes and intellectualism which will lead to their development and success (Peregrym & Wollf , 2013).

The transformational servant leaders comprise of the following behavioral constituents. The first one relates to motivating the team members to meet the goals of the organization. The leader should be enthusiastic, motivational, optimistic and inspirational. The motivation of the leaders helps in aligning the shared goals of the employees and the organization within a highly ethical and moral environment which assists in empowering the shared governance between the two (Sun, Thungjaroenkul & Supamanee, 2016).

The second being idealized influence of the transformational servant leaders .The duty of the leader is to emphasize on the need of the team members and to serve as an inspirational role model for the team. He attempts to integrate the members of his team in every aspect of the formulation and implementation of the core strategies of the organization (Cavazotte, Moreno  &  Bernardo, 2013).

Another behavioral characteristic is intellectual stimulation. The leader has been assigned the accountability to instigate creativity, innovation, risk bearing attitude and willingness to ignore the ineffective mechanisms of the organization amongst his team mates. He inspires his team to question their doubts, approach the issues and solve the problems in a creative way (Yasi & Mohamad, 2015).

The last behavioral aspect is considering the needs of the team members .The leader assess the need s of individual team members and helps in creating a supportive atmosphere which is focused on the accomplishment of the objectives of the organization by the team. He is in continuous attempt for the growth of his members and integrates their interests with those of organization. 

According to the opinion of Jiang et al., (2017) transformational leadership needs to assessed in the Chinese construction industry .The applicability of transformational servant leadership and higher ordered thinking and analysis  would be helpful in decreasing the turnover rate . The transformational leaders inspire their team mates to perform at their best so that they can meet the requirements of the project oriented companies with special emphasis on creating vision for the employees  and inspiring their participation in the core business strategies of the company .

Role of Transformational Servant Leaders

The retention of skilled and experienced employees is essential for any organization. So, in this regard, transformational leadership can be a useful strategy to accomplish sustainable project development in the company. For the project to be successful, it is essential for the company to integrate the experiences of the employees in the decision making process and other core strategies of the organization.

The sustainable performance of the employees forms the basis of job performance and project sustainability of the company. It has been analyzed that the performance of the team members is enhanced through transformational leadership by encouraging the organizational citizenship behavior. Thus studies show that transformational leadership creates a significant impact on the sustainable performance of the employees. The team members are expected to reciprocate the behavior in response to the behavior of the leaders (Mesterova, Prochazka & Vaculik, 2015).

The article can be summarized by stating the best practices in the area of leadership competency for problem solving learnt from evidence based investigations. An efficient leader is the one who establishes and maintains a culture where all the members of the team are respected. He keeps all hos commitments made to his team mates and ensures that they also keep the same. He motivates all his team mates to perform at their best and makes the decisions which are in their best interests and needs. He expresses his belief and trust in his team members that they have the potential to perform at their best in meeting the goals of the organization (Deloitte, 2017).

He acts in the best interests of the employees and makes sure that they are included in every crucial decision making and core strategy of the organization. He takes the initiative for progress and advancements of his teammates and makes necessary sacrifices to accomplish the results. An efficient leader demonstrates persistence and flexibility as required by the situation to meet the challenges for reaching the goals. He also integrates flexibility when there is a  transformation of the plan or situation in an unexpected way. He should have the capability to adjust his plans to accomplish the desired outcomes. He focuses upon the results and the methods adopted to achieve them. He should be able to take calculative risks and teaches his followers to do so. He takes the accountability for the mistakes done by his team mates and learns from success and failures and simultaneously teaches his followers to act in a similar way (Middleton, Harvey & Esaki,2015).

Behavioral Components of Transformational Servant Leaders

An important characteristic of a leader is to use the various forms of research to adopt the practices and uses appropriate data to access the scope of improvements and teaches others to do the same. He should be   innovative enough for encouraging creative ideas to resolve the issues confronted by the company. In this way he can make his team mates competitive enough so that they are engaged in the core strategies of the organization.

He promotes a culture of sharing efficient practices within the organization and amongst the members of the team. He evaluates useful relationships amongst complex data. He has the capability to identify the problems in advance and breaks down the complex data and problems into simple divisions so that it can be solved easily. He participates in the decision making processes of the company and encourages his team mates to participate in the same. He is also involved in communicating how  the decisions would be made  thereby making sure that the decisions made by the management is in the best interest  of the company (Slavika, Putnova & Cebakova ,2015).

He must possess the unique quality of making difficult choices in times of controversial situations which can have a benefit to the organization in the long run. He should share the understanding of the logic for decisions specially when the consent cannot be arrived at. He should have the capability to convey timely decisions to the stakeholders and take follow ups to assist those decisions. He should be active enough to take timely decisions using his intuitions as well as the available information in times of ambiguity.

The leader must evaluate the long and short term decisions and should have the courage to face the unintended consequences .He must also be able to manage the resources such as time, money etc. by prioritizing the efforts of his followers as per the goals of the organization. Additionally, he must safeguard and secure the resources required to complete the projects.

He must be able to formulate the emergency plans for the unforeseen situations and must be accountable to compare the real progress with the  plans . He should be able to adjust the plans as per the situation and should hold himself responsible for accomplishing the desired results. Apart from this, an efficient leader must be able to develop relationships which are based upon trust, mutual beliefs and accomplishment of common goals. He should be able to gain the trust of his followers   by actively listening to their problems and understanding their views and requirements (Su & Han, 2017).

He should show his respect and  appreciation for others  through valuing their worth  and contributions given by them to the team as a whole and  by being able to respond to their requirements .He should work with a variety of  personnel  to achieve common goals and better results. Also he should encourage his team to integrate their experiences in the main decision making processes and be a part of the core strategies of the company as a whole.

An efficient leader must be adaptive in nature and should inculcate the personality traits of transformational leadership to influence and motivate the followers. He should anticipate the reactions and must address the concerns of others in order to convince his followers to achieve the goals. Lastly, he should build alliances for support by aligning his ideas and necessities with those of others. He should be able to balance the strengths and weaknesses of his followers and must try to comprehend how other view his activities, comments and voice modulation.

The transformational leaders create an impact on the self-growth of the members of his team. According to my opinion, they help in transforming the members of their group into such individuals who are ready to sacrifice their  self-interest for the benefit of the whole team. They align their personal principles and values with those of the organization and nurture the moral development of the followers to assimilate these values and principles into their personality.

I believe that transformational leadership helps in advancement of the followers so that they can perform beyond the expectations which others and they have set for them. The influence of transformational leadership widely reaches to each and every level of the organization. At the levels of the various teams in various departments, the care, inspiration , stimulation and motivation can be felt for each other (Singh ,2015).

The transformational leaders set the vision and mission of the organization and direct the organization towards the accomplishment of its goals. They influence the operations of the lower level of the organization. They can assist the company in meeting new challenges during the times of strategic redirection, reorganization or downsizing of the company. It can help the company to reshape its goodwill in the market, create a positive work environment for the employees and improve the capability of the sales force (Knies, Jacobsen & Tummers , 2016).

Transformational leaders are focused towards creating vision, shared values, ideology and relationship amongst the members of the team. They challenge their team members to be innovative and creative. They adapt the collaborating style for management of conflict as they have an intense understanding about sharing of ideologies, knowledge and  relationship building. They have the openness to experience (Stanley, 2016).

They always welcome new ideologies and creative thinking from their team members and are ready to accept challenging tasks. They encourage their team members to perform well and involve them in the core strategies and decision making activities of the organization. The transformational leaders have a trait to introduce a positive change in the organization as they have the capability to allot the model of visionary leadership in the organization (Newland, 2015).

As per my opinion, the transformational leaders have a capability of directing their team and to transform the productive work into tasks. They can assess the existing scenario and introduce changes whenever necessary. They believe in building consensus, trust and confidence amongst the team members and serve as an ideal for their followers. They have the power to encourage and motivate the followers. Thus inspiring leadership is about encouraging the entire organization. They make clear the view of future and encourage their followers to accept the newly introduce change (Sanders &  Annmarie, 2015).

So, an action plan shall be formulated below which will demonstrate the implementation of the  traits of transformational leadership to involve the employees into the core strategies of the company. The process shall include the following steps viz. developing the transformational game plan, aligning the game plan with the mission of leadership, implementing the plan in an innovative manner and evaluation of its success(Aguas et al.,2017).

The action plan for the implementation of transformational leadership shall last for 3 months. It comprises of development of a transformational plan. In order to manage the time, the leaders formulate a game plan to guide the transformational initiatives so that they can introduce the desired change. The next step would be aligning the game plan with the mission of the leaders followed by its implementation in a creative manner. Its evaluation would be done at regular intervals to assess the level of success achieved by it .At each stage of the plan, the engagement of the stakeholders is necessary for its successful implementation. Also, it is expected to affect their interests as well (Reisner, 2011).

S.no.	Particulars	Duration	Description
1.	Development of a transformational leadership plan	1 month	To fulfill the requirements of introducing the change and involving the employees into the core strategies and decision making process of the company, the development of the transformational plan is needed (Daas , 2015). When the necessity for introducing the change is obvious , a transformational game plan is required  for guiding the method and the modes in which the actions will be numbered (Baah, 2015).
2.	Alignment of the game plan with the mission of the leaders	15 days	In order to make the plan successful, its alignment with the mission of the leaders is necessary .It is to be made sure that the transformation is consistent with the practice and applicable laws in the organization (Nanjundeswaraswamy & Swamy , 2014).
3.	Implementation in an innovative way	15 days	Changing the complex structure requires an innovative process which can generate the change initiatives which can be depended upon. It forms the basis of transformation and the innovative procedure must possess the capability to formulate a new vision for transformation. So if the game plan is creatively implemented, it will allow the transformational initiatives to connect the traditional mission of the organization with its future goals ( Lau, 2012).
4.	Regular evaluation of the implemented plan	1 month	The leadership plan should be consistently evaluated from time to time in order to analyze the success of its implementation (Wang &  Hu,2017).

Conclusion

Hence to conclude, it can be said that transformational leaders consistently strive for improvements in their qualities of leadership and stimulate the followers to demonstrate exceptional performances. They remove all the barriers of communication and enable the efficient functioning of the company. The leaders effectively manage the change and make the members of their team understand the reason for introducing the change. The transformational leaders are high risk takers and fight against prejudice and unethical conduct operating in the company .Lastly, they struggle for the progress of their team and strive to engage them in the core strategies and decision making policies of the company.

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