Q.A sales team consistently misses its monthly targets. On investigation, it is found that the sales manager never explains the reasoning behind targets to the team, rarely acknowledges good performance, and communicates instructions only through occasional terse emails, never in person or through discussion. Based on this situation, answer:

The manager's behaviour — poor explanation, no recognition of good work, and terse, one-way communication — maps directly onto weaknesses in three of the four elements of directing: leadership, motivation and communication.

(a) Identifying the function and elements: The sales team's underperformance is not explained by a lack of planning (targets do exist) or a lack of staffing (a team and manager are in place) — it is explained by how the manager is guiding the team day-to-day, which is the domain of directing. Within directing's four elements, three appear weak here:

• Leadership is weak because the manager never explains the reasoning behind targets — a good leader builds understanding and buy-in, helping the team see why a target matters, rather than simply issuing it as an order.
• Motivation is weak because good performance is rarely acknowledged — recognition (a non-financial motivator) is one of the simplest and most effective ways to sustain employee effort, and its absence likely discourages the team.
• Communication is weak because instructions are given only through occasional terse emails, which is one-way and infrequent, rather than a genuine two-way exchange that allows the team to ask questions, raise concerns, or give feedback.

(Supervision is not clearly identified as weak from the facts given — the case does not mention whether the manager oversees day-to-day work; the described weaknesses are specifically about explanation, recognition and communication style.)

(b) Suggested improvements, one per weak element:

• Leadership — the manager should hold a brief team discussion when setting or revising targets, explaining the business reasoning behind them, so the team understands and is more likely to commit to achieving them. …

Students sometimes label the whole problem simply as 'poor communication' and stop there, missing that the case also clearly points to weak leadership (no explanation/buy-in) and …