Catherine Gastelum

04/22/15
Ch. 2 Summary
In order to run a restaurant or hotel successfully it is important to know what a leader is
and how to be a good one. Chapter 2 of our Supervisory Management book talks about how a
supervisors role fits into being a leader. It starts by mentioning how a leader must have the
desire to influence others, have self-confidence, need a certain level of relevant knowledge and
intelligence and that they need to create a vision, develop goals and motivate their employees.
One can only be a leader if their employees follow them voluntarily, and are able to change their
methods of motivating their employees depending on the situation at hand. It is important for a
leader to know how to motivate their employees and the best ways of doing so. The two methods
of motivating people are Transactional Leadership and Transformational Leadership.
Transactional leaders motivate their workers by appealing to what their self-interests are. That
means that a supervisors employees listen to them because that is how they will get paid. This
method only engages the employee by rewarding them with money, this does not allow for a
employee to feel motivated or engage in their creative nature. Transformational leadership is the
best method for a supervisor to use to achieve long term success in the work force. In this
process, a supervisor is looking for employees to continually better themselves. In this method, a
supervisor must constantly challenge their employees, coach and mentor them to improve on a
day to day example and lead as an example so that the employees know what to achieve to be. A
supervisor is a mentor to their employees. They need to find a way to empower their workers and
coach them every day to become better and better at their job. In the workforce, a supervisor is a
teacher.
Effective leaders are able to influence other to behave in a particular way, that ability to
do so is what the book calls power, and is needed to guide a supervisor to influence their
employees to reach certain foals in an establishment. A leader is someone who must be able to
get their hands dirty at times. They must be able to take on any job in the workforce, no matter
what. They must be able to listen to their employees and not just hear them. They need to be
honest to the owners, employees and guests, and decide how and what is the best decision in any
situation. A leader must treat their employees fairy, including themselves, as a leader is just as
important as their employees. A leader must be willing to learn. Every day is a new day to learn
something new. There are new problems, different complaints, and the only way to survive is to
adapt to each situation. A leader needs to be able to train their employees. They must be able to
move their employees up so that they can in turn move up the ladder. Finally, a leader must be
able to admit when they have made mistakes. A leader will gain a higher amount of respect from
their employees if they admit when they have made a mistake in the workforce. In chapter 2
there are four primary sources of power; legitimate power, reward power, coercive power and
expert power. According to the book, legitimate power, is the power that is derived from a
supervisors position in an establishment. This is usually a title and is passed over. Reward power
comes from a supervisors control over the rewards given to employees. Coercive power comes
from a supervisors ability to threaten their employees due to mistakes made, and expert power
comes from ones charisma and the respect given due to their position. Just because one has
power, it does not make them a leader. Their employees must want to follow them out of their
own free will. Without leadership the reason an employee will do what they are told is because

their supervisor has formal authority over them. That means that the organization gave them the
right to command that employee. That supervisor is the boss and is in control of the rewards and
punishments of their employees. A supervisor may have the formal authority over their
employees, however, without the cooperation and participation, they are not the real authority.
This means that their employees didnt grant them the authority to make decisions and carry
them out. That means that they do not hold the support of their employees. Without your
employees support, they might break the rules, refuse to do what their supervisor tells them to
do, are rude to the guests, come in late, and because of this they impact the overall work
environment with the work establishment. It is important for a supervisor to work with the
management by walking around (MBWA) technique. This means that they should talk to their
employees and guests. With this employees will feel they are being listened to and coach while a
supervisor fixes problems in the workforce.
There are several different forms of leadership styles used today including; autocratic,
bureaucratic, democratic, and laissez-faire. Autocratic focuses on the idea of reward and
punishment. As a supervisor you are in total control of your employees and can only reward the
good and must always punish the bad. This is known as the carrot and stick method, and is
often used because managers have a negative view of their employees and believe that they are
all bad and must be watched over with a firm hand. This usually goes hand-in-hand with Theory
X that assumes that employees hate to work and will do everything they can to avoid doing their
work or finding shortcuts to get out as soon as possible. Because of this employees must be
controlled at all times, and threated or punished to get them to work properly. On the opposite
spectrum is Theory Y. This approach was introduced by Douglas McGregor in the 1950s who
stated that Theory X was wrong and that people do not start off hating their job, that under the
right work environments, that people do not only accept their responsibilities, but also look for
more. He believes that all employees just want to have self-respect, be given recognition for their
accomplishments, be told how they have grown in the workforce as well as learning how to grow
every day to be better. In a democratic leadership style, also known as participative leadership,
supervisors want to share the decision-making responsibility with their employees. This could be
as simple as informing employees on all matters that concern them. In this form of leadership, a
democratic supervisor is seen as a coach who is there to lead their team to be productive and
successful. Finally a laissez-faire or free-reign leadership style looks at the hand-off approach in
the workforce. Most supervisors who work with this method usually delegate all authority and
power to the employees. The supervisors in this instance rely on the employees to establish foals,
make decisions and solve any problems in the work force. Different leaders follow different
styles depending on their personalities and the situations at hand. These leadership styles include;
directing style, coaching style, supporting style, and delegating style. The directing style is based
solely on the supervisor being solely in charge. This is great for new hires who do not know what
they are doing, most of the time they will need for their supervisor to tell them what to do,
watching over them closely as well as solving all of their problems for them. The coaching style
is based on the idea that employees are just starting to get the swing of how things are run in the
establishment, but are starting to get discouraged. They need time to build up their skills with
help from their supervisors so that they feel and know they are a vital role in the workforce. At
this point in time a supervisor would usually carry on into a supporting syle role, in which the
employee knows what to do but needs reassurance that they are on the right track. As this point
in time a supervisor would be very limited on directing their employees and more on
encouraging. Eventually an employee will reach a point in time when they know what to do.

Eventually a delegating style is used and an employee will start taking on more responsibilities
and provide their own support as well. The best thing to do is use a situational leadership point of
view. This enables for a supervisor to use any of the styles whenever it is needed. The goal of a
supervisor is to eventually have employees reach a competence and commitment level when they
will only need supporting and delegating styles at times.