A Day in the Life of Alex Sander: Driving in the Fast Lane at Landon Care Products

July 15, 2021

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A performance review is crucial for ensuring that every institution measures the input of its employees. One of the tools used for the review is the 3600 review model. This model unites all the stakeholders including the management team, employees and sometimes even clients. Alex Sander is a product manager of Landon Care Products. A performance review of the product manager revealed some of his strengths and the areas of work that needs to improve as a leader. On the one hand, he was observed as a committed leader who worked tirelessly to ensure that he succeeded in the various projects undertaken by him. On the other hand, Sander had a bad temper, made most of the decisions without consulting others, and was seen to underestimate other employees. In terms of his effort to be more involved in the decision-making process of the institution, Sander should improve the downside of his performance.

Performance review is crucial for measuring the performance of employees in the institution. Without any performance reviews, it would be difficult to assess the performance of the workforce or any relationships that they have with the rest of the employees. As such, an institution needs to implement a good tool to support their performance review. One of the tools implemented is the 3600 feedback process. This tool ensures that people get feedback on all issues from their supervisors and managers, and their fellow colleagues provide feedback to the clients they work with. This ensures an all rounded approach towards the review process that reveals the areas that need to be improved by a specific individual, and the areas in which they are experienced. In the given case, Alex Sander was a product manager in Landon Care Products. He was successful in the rebranding of two national skin care products, which took a little more than a year. Even with the success that Sander achieved, there was a need to carry out a performance review to outline the areas that makes him successful and those that he needs to improve. It is crucial to perform an analysis of Sander’s performance as a product manager in Landon Care products to outline the role that a 3600 review has on this kind of manager and give recommendations on the ways through which Sander should deal with the 3600 review by other employees.

Case Analysis

In this case, Landon care products began to use the 3600 feedback process as a performance review model for its employees. One of the employees who needed to be reviewed was Alex Sander. Sander was a product manager who at the age of 32 years was the youngest and newest worker in the company and had so far rebranded two products in the market in just over a year (Greiner & Collins, 2008). Sander’s style of work helped to bring in the best team for a particular job even in a manner that might have been viewed as commanding and pushy by some of his colleagues. In some cases, he was seen as ignoring what others felt about a certain product or their ideas and this might not have gone well with some other employees. Moreover, Sander was seen as having a bad temper especially in cases when he felt that a long-term employee did not put in the hours required to deal with a critical deadline. However, such a temper was observed to spark things up and turn them in the right direction. As stated above, during the hiring process, Sander’s supervisor Sam Glass knew how Sander behaved in the workplace and employed him for the said reasons (Greiner & Collins, 2008). Overall, Sander was a successful product manager but some of the methods that he used could not be considered favorable for the rest of the employees. As a result, a 3600 review was meant to point out the strengths that he has according to the opinion of his supervisor and colleagues and the areas in which he needs to improve his performance so as to continue working on his career as a product manager. Sander sought to gain more control over the problem of dealing with various issues in the firm. He wanted to feel that he was a part of a product starting from its inception to the time when the given product was availed to the market. He felt the need to influence strategic decisions made for products in the long-term and this would not be possible if he did not take advantage of the 3600 review process and deal with some of the issues that might be a hindrance to his performance.

3600 Performance Review

The 3600 feedback process is a performance metrics tool used by various institutions to point out the strengths of their employees and the areas that they need to improve. Feedback is obtained from various stakeholders including the supervising authority, the co-workers and the clients that an employee interacts with. It provides an opportunity for employees working together to improve the performance of each other. If the feedback model is implemented in the right way, then the process can be considered while conducting the performance reviews. Managers need to streamline the feedback process to ensure that they capture on the crucial areas of focus in their respective institutions (Heathfield, 2016). The 3600 feedback process is different from any traditional feedback model that only relies on the opinions provided by the manager or the goals achieved by the employee. In contrast, the 3600 feedback process seeks to look at the contributions and abilities of an employee. It provides an equal overview of all sectors of work such as employee communication, leadership, team work, management, and interaction among other characteristics depending on the job requirements of an employee. Depending on the nature of specific organizations, the 3600 model is either implemented directly when all parties are involved or through surveys where all the responses are recorded and the employee in question provides the notes to be reviewed and improved in the highlighted section. It therefore serves to improve the performance of the employee.

Sander’s strengths. Based on Sander’s review process, several issues on the upside and downside can be noted. Several employees provided a list of Sander’s qualities that they thought contributed to the success of the institution. One of these qualities is his aggressive manner revealed in the fact that Sander was able to use the available resources to deliver the necessary product in time (Greiner & Collins, 2008). He also proved the efficiency of the learning systems within an organization since he was able to continue learning about gaps in his personal knowledge and adequately fixing them. This is revealed in the fact that Sander had previously performed an accounting role prior to joining Landon. After joining the company, he was able to learn how production was conducted to become one of the best product managers that the company ever had. Sander was also viewed as being committed to the various tasks that he performed. He worked tirelessly to ensure that products were launched at the right time and that everyone worked in the right direction in the process of production. This can be observed during the meeting held at 2pm on the day when the Nourish team was gathered (Greiner & Collins, 2008). Sander asked each of the team members to pull their weight to ensure that they moved in the right direction with their project. The last upward comment regarding the performance of Alex Sander is his ability of multitasking. Alex has been viewed as a multitasker in the sense that he was able to launch two products within the same timeframe. This means that Sander has the ability to handle several tasks at a time.

Sander’s weaknesses. On the downside, there are several issues mentioned above that Sander should seek to improve. The first of these issues is the fact that Sander can breed hostility (Greiner & Collins, 2008). In most cases, Sander has been observed to make decisions on his own without consulting any member of his team. This led to a situation when some members of his team started feeling undermined and this could further result in hostility among the team members. Moreover, Sander has been seen as the one who has a bad temper. Sander mentioned that his temper helps him in his work since he needs to get people to work but the same can be viewed in a different light and seen as an issue that may threaten anyone who works with him. He considers his temper as a tool to motivate the teams he works with but the same also proves to be a negative attitude towards the team. The last negative quality of Sander listed by the various members that Sander has worked with is the lone ranger attribute. Some of the workers perceive Sander as a long ranger. He is viewed as an individual who chooses a path to follow in regard to some product, and the one who insists on doing most of the work. This can be an issue since some of the team members may feel that the work they do is not valued and that Sander undermines them. Sander seeks to have a stake in the decision-making process of the institution and to do this he needs to deal with some of the issues mentioned above.

Recommendations

The analysis of the 3600 review process shows that Sander receives support for most of the activities he conducts. However, he needs to work on the downside comments. As a leader, Sander needs to learn how to delegate his duties to the rest of the team members so as to provide mentorship and give them a chance to develop at work within the institution. Moreover, he needs to take into consideration all the inputs given by each member so that they can feel valued by the firm. Lastly, Sander should learn how to communicate with different individuals. A good team leader knows how to use the work of team members to his/her advantage depending on their strengths and how to address each of them to ensure the coherence of the team. Doing this ensures that Sander prospers in his career at the same time leading to personal development.

Conclusion

The 3600 feedback model is a tool that is used to analyze the performance of an individual. Sander is a project manager in Landon, an institution that has decided to use the model to get the feedback about their employees. Several strengths have been outlined about Sander including his aggressive manner, commitment to his job and his learning ability. On the downside, he has been viewed as the one who can breed hostility, has a bad temper, and undermines his colleagues. To ensure that his career is on the right path, he needs to address some of the downside comments.