Why Are They Not Listening?

Introduction
For a leadership training to be successful, the one conducting the training must seriously
be careful about how he or she performs the exercise. The greatest leaders and the worst leaders
are memorable because of what they ever did in our lives at one point. It is therefore essential to
have effective leadership at the place of work so that they can be at a position to empower and
influence the people with whom they are in contact. Leadership training can best help achieve
this objective. The good news for this case is the fact that good leaders can easily be created
through leadership training that is effective. In the organization, the practice of the leaders has
tremendous benefits. Proper and effective leadership training can significantly increase the
productivity of an organization (BARINE, 2016). The right and consistent leadership can in
return result into productivity in the individuals you are leading.
Through training, the leadership can obtain emotional intelligence which is very
necessary for a leader to be successful. It also enables the leader to have empathy for the other
employees. Through training, the organization can easily retain its employees. Employees can
easily quit their jobs in the presence of ineffective leadership. Therefore, it is worth investing in
the direction so that you can hire your employees. Through leadership training, it is possible that
you nurture the future leaders while at the same time increasing employee engagement. To
implement a leadership style which is effective, you need proper leadership training to affect the
same. The last importance of leadership training is that it aids one in making appropriate
decisions (BARINE, 2016). However, leadership training if not done correctly cannot yield the

WHY ARE THEY NOT LISTENING? 3
desired results. This paper aims at identifying the possible barriers to effective leadership
training and how such obstacles can be overcome.
Body
According to the SLII model, Jim is adopting the use of Democratic leadership style. This
type of leadership is otherwise known as a participative leadership style. It is a type of leadership
where the leader and the staff are brought at the same level with no feelings of superiority. Under
such leadership styles, the workers display a very high level of job satisfaction compared to the
other leadership styles. However, it is a slower form of leadership because it results in a delay of
decisions to be made. As in the case of Jim, he has no much control over the managers, and they
have the choice to either be in attendance during the seminar or not. It can work better in some
environments and other situations and not in cases such as that in which Jim is involved (Parés,
Ospina, & Subirats, 2017). This scenario requires some order and authority.
Democratic Style of leadership encourages the members of the team to each take
responsibilities in the process of making a decision. The main feature of this style of leadership
is that it helps everyone to participate in the decision-making process without imposing the
decision on them. Despite the many advantages that this leadership style has, the disadvantages
are outrightly obvious and can be visualized as in the case of Jim. This leadership style can
create negative emotions in individuals and can result in procrastination by the individuals. It
takes a lot of time before those involved in the decision-making process reaches a consensus
(Parés, Ospina, & Subirats, 2017). This style also comes with an element of constant uncertainty
within the team. For instance, these managers could not tell what would happen next, and so they
concluded it would be the regular events as had been in the previous pieces of training. This
leadership style worked against Jim.

WHY ARE THEY NOT LISTENING? 4
There are three levels of management in an organizational setup. These levels are; Top,
Middle and Low levels of management. The managers who Jim was training were at the middle
level of control. In this category falls the line and departmental managers. The people at this
level are directly responsible to the top management with regards to the functionality of the
departments. Their significant responsibilities in the organizations stem from the directions that
are given by the directional as well as the managerial functions within the organizations. The
roles of the managers at this level are varied, and they span a wide range. In most cases, they are
junior managers who are promoted to the higher managerial levels following their hard work and
diligence in the past (International Conference on Management of Manufacturing Systems, In
Modrák, In Semanco, & In Balog, 2015). Therefore they tend to believe that they know a lot
about management and they aim to make more discoveries.
Their primary roles lie with the policies that are to be implemented as well as the plans
and the directives which are given by the top management. These managers are also responsible
for making the preparations for the programs that are required in the respective departments.
They are also expected to contribute actively to the guidance as well as the employment of the
supervisory management levels. Their other primary task is to fully understand as well as
elucidate the policies which are used by the top management to the lower control. They have the
responsibility to bring the activities within the departments together and also assess the
performance of the managers at the low level. They are equally required to have timely reports
and the data that should be taken to the top management (International Conference on
Management of Manufacturing Systems, In Modrák, In Semanco, & In Balog, 2015). With these
responsibilities, it can be explained why these managers had to leave and get to the office now
and then.

WHY ARE THEY NOT LISTENING? 5
The intentions for this leadership training are excellent and commendable. However as
mentioned in the introduction, for the trainees to take with them something out of the training
session, the one leading the session must play his or her game very well. Otherwise, it is most
probable that the training might not be efficient at the end of the day. As with the case of Jim, he
had a slight misunderstanding of what he ought to do during the training session, and for that
reason, he could not manage to hold his audience appropriately. These are the errors that most
leaders make with the thought that they are getting somewhere with the team, yet there is no
effect which they are creating at the end of the day. The first fundamental mistake that Jim made
was to be too friendly with his team. Jim forgot that he should remain a boss even amidst
conversations (Kraft, 2012). Thus he ended up breaking the boundary until the managers could
not tell their action limits and so they could leave at their own time and come back when they
thought necessary.
Failure to clearly define the goals also contributed much to the misbehavior observed
among the managers. Without a definition of clear objectives, it is most probable that these goals
might not materialize at the end of the day. Jim should have defined the purpose of the training
from the onset so that those who are attending are aware of what exactly they are expecting to
come out with at the end of the training session. Another serious problem that was with Jim is his
misunderstanding of what motivation is. According to his understanding, allowing for frequent
coffee breaks and encouraging socialization among the managers would bring fun among these
people and thereby help them to come some other time again. Many leaders like Jim assume that
awarding through funs and monetary value is the best. Probably these managers would
appreciate mental stimulation or any other form of motivation to feel appreciated and thereby
develop the interest to attend the future pieces of training (Kraft, 2012). Jim also became too

WHY ARE THEY NOT LISTENING? 6
predictable as he repeated the same things with the same trends over and over again. Such trend
creates boredom and as a result a loss of interest in those who are listening. These are errors that
are possible with any leader just like the case of Jim.
Jim can do much to make his seminars more interesting that they have been before. He
can change the trends so that the fancy activities that he encourages in between the training
sessions can be minimized appropriately. Many leaders like Jim are struggling to meet their
goals for performance despite having attended and conducted several leadership training
programs. The greatest challenge which these people encounter is the fact that most leadership
developments are clinging on the old ideologies and the methodologies that had worked in the
traditional setup. Such doctrines are not workable all the time. The leadership training programs
require the facilitator to create agile leaders at the end of the day. Some ideas on how to make
these pieces of training useful are; the one leading the practice should encourage experiential
learning. Jim concentrated much on the theoretical aspects of the practice than the practical, and
as a result, many managers lost interest along the way (Tucker, 2013). Experimental learning is
meant to in most cases take advantage of the tendency of the human brain to remember more
clearly the events as they follow in their active participation.
Jim should also incorporate Multiple Types of Learning content. Having a similar kind of
the material in most cases does not prove to be very helpful because those who have been in the
previous pieces of training would quickly lose interest. By making delivery of the content in
diverse manners, there is a possibility that the learners are likely to be seriously engaged than
when the mode of learning is single. Jim should design the content of his presentations
concerning the contemporary needs of the society. It is quite difficult to contain an individual to
be an audience in places where the content being delivered is the same. Therefore Jim can assess

WHY ARE THEY NOT LISTENING? 7
the strengths and weaknesses of these organizations before putting the managers in a leadership
development program. In that manner, Jim can have some relevant content for these managers
and hence prevent them from walking out of the training session. Jim can try to adopt a variety
of the skills, have varied viewpoints and experiences (Tucker, 2013). By making these
adjustments, it is possible that this leader can have an audience to the end of his next training
session without any necessarily having to walk out.
Conclusion
In Conclusion, Jim has an excellent initiative which is for the good of the organization.
However, the mode of delivery of the content is not very appropriate. Jim made some common
mistakes which the leaders make of being too friendly and having a small range of materials for
the audience. Jim would have adopted the bureaucratic leadership style and set the rules for the
training session to have ordered. By adjusting the content and avoiding being too predictable,
Jim could do better some other time. The target managers are also people who have so many
responsibilities, and that could explain why they had to walk back to their offices. Jim should,
however, improve on his presentation skills.

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References

BARINE, K. I. (2016). SUCCESSFUL LEADERSHIP. S.l.: INTEGRITY PUBLISHERS INC.
International Conference on Management of Manufacturing Systems, In Modrák, V., In
Semanco, P., & In Balog, M. (2015). Research in Engineering and Management of
Advanced Manufacturing Systems. Zurich: Trans Tech Publishers.
Kraft, D. (2012). Mistakes leaders make. Wheaton, IL: Crossway.
Parés, F. M., Ospina, S., & Subirats, J. (2017). Social innovation and democratic leadership:
Communities and social change from below.
Tucker, P. D. (2013). Leadership training.