A521.9.4.RB - Reflections on Leadership

Leadership today takes a different type of person than it did in the past.  The world has changed and leadership has changed with it, gone are the days of a leader sitting behind a large desk giving orders to others and telling them the right way to do things.  Leadership has become a more interactive and responsive type of relationship.  Denning (2011) described several dimensions of the interactive leader such as working with the world rather than against it, building on personal integrity and authenticity, benefiting from an understanding of different narrative patterns and most importantly that leadership entails active participation rather than detached observation.  Three aspects of Denning’s view on today’s leadership that resonate with me most are the ideas that leadership participates, that leadership connects, and that leadership is free of ego.  These characteristics are most associated with the view I have on my leadership goals. 

When a leader is actively engaging in the workplace rather than simply observing their surroundings they are able to see things from a different perspective, the employee’s perspective.  As Denning (2011) points out that when a leader is active they are more able to hold capacities for understanding, trust and respect, thus strengthening the bond with their employees.  I have always has the belief that a leader should be actively involved in the workplace, I wouldn’t ask someone to do something I wasn’t willing to do myself.  I also do not believe that there are tasks within the workplace that are beneath a leader either.  As a supervisor I was just as willing to answer the phone, as I was to deal with upset guests, it was all part of the job.

While a leader is actively participating in the workplace they will, in turn, connect with their employees.  Denning (2011) describes an interactive leader as sending a message or agenda with hopes to seek feedback from the audience, where a controlling manager’s message is often in the form of a lecture that has no room for listener interjection.  Yulk (2013) used the term participative leadership to describe the decision process that allows others to have some influence over the leader decisions.  Denning paints a picture of an audience filled with possibility when they are asked for their reaction to a story or even a problem.  I believe in this type of interacting and feel it is best practice, however, I sometimes get caught up in the moment and forget to ask my staff for their opinion.  I always debrief after a shift and that is when I often realize I have forgotten to engage with my staff over a decision in the moment.  I am hopeful to implement this practice more as I work on improving my leadership skills.

For me, leadership is not about what it can do for me but what I can offer as a leader.  Denning (2011) defines this as leading free of ego, which he describes as leading because one has something to give not because they are expecting something in return.  This theory was very powerful for me, I have worked under many managers where this was not the case.  They were leaders for the mere reason of being in power; they were looking for either respect for others of some other type of benefit.  Whetten and Cameron (2011) talked about the balance of power and how leaders were influential because they used their power to help others accomplish exceptional tasks.  When leaders let their ego’s become involved often the scale is tipped and there becomes an abuse of power where the leader uses power for personal or business gain.  This type of leadership is not healthy for anyone involved.  I would like to believe that I let my ego go when I step into the office, but I know that is not always the case.  Sometimes the thought of losing a battle can overcome me and I refuse to back down, my husband might agree with that statement as well.  I am determined to overcome this and to learn how to admit being wrong, or that another person may have a better solution, in order to create the best possible outcome for the business and all the people involved. 

Denning (2011) provided multiple dimensions of leadership, and three of those stood out to me: the idea that a leader participates, a leader connects, and that a leader is free of ego.  Throughout this course, I have learned a lot about how to convey my message through story, and with that my final story is about becoming the best leader I can be.  To begin this journey I will strive to become a leader that reflects these three aspects of leadership, I will work every day to improve on them and to continually learn how to be a better leader.    

  

Denning, S. (2011). The Leader’s Guide to Storytelling: Mastering the Art and

Discipline of Business Narrative. San Francisco, CA: John Wiley & Sons/Jossey-Bass

Whetten, D. A., & Cameron, K. S. (2011). Developing Management Skills (E. Svendsen

Ed. 8th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Yukl, G. (2013). Leadership in organizations (8th ed.). Boston: Pearson.

A521.8.4.RB - Making Contact

I have never had an issue talking to strangers, in fact, my husband picks on me about making friends wherever I go.  I get this from my father, who when we traveled from Vermont to Walt Disney World on vacation managed to find one person in the park he knew, and then made, at least, five other new friends along the way.  In fact, on the trip down to my wedding I stepped in to help an older gentleman as our flight was delayed and we were going to miss the connecting flight.  I heard him talking to the agent and we were both trying to get to West Palm Beach, but we were going to miss the last flight of the night and my wedding was the next day.  I suggested he reroute to Fort Lauderdale instead, to which he told me he did not have a ride home, as his wife could not drive after dark.  I called my now husband and asked if we could give him a ride home and after making sure the man was not a serial killer he agreed.  I was happy to help out and to make it to my wedding on time.  The gentleman was so grateful to be able to get to South Florida he upgraded my seat to first class from Philadelphia to Fort Lauderdale, he was already in first class.  So, in the end, things worked out for both of us, and all of this because I decided to talk to a stranger.

McKay, Davis, and Fanning (2009) state that the fear of talking to strangers can stem from the belief that you are unworthy, which can lead to being self-conscious and the conclusion that people do not want to be around you.  In his study, Nauert (n.d) concluded that socially anxious people must improve their social performance to break the cycle of social rejection, because when they continue to think negatively then only negative outcomes occur.  In another article, Lerner (2010) described a situation where one may not have experienced enough rejection to know how to handle it.  While I understand all of these theories from a psychological standpoint, my question is when did everything start being all about us?

When approaching another person we are always taking a chance that they are in a hurry, having a bad day, or any other number of things that may prevent them from either speaking to us or rejecting an offer.  These rejections have nothing to do with us; they are all about the other person, so why do we feel so badly about the interaction?  Why are we conditioned to believe that we are the problem?  McKay, Davis, and Fanning (2009) offer many good tips on overcoming one’s social anxiety around speaking to others: body language, icebreakers, different types of questions, active listening and self-disclosure.  However, none of these will make a difference if the other person is not open to the communication, and that is something we cannot control.  Just as we cannot control whether the other person has already eaten, has plans or is late for a meeting.  At some point we need to stop thinking that every rejection is about us, and realize that sometimes when we put ourselves out there we are going to be turned down.  It is okay to be rejected and it’s okay to be sad and feel hurt by it, but at some point we need to stand back up and realize the rejection may not have anything to do with us, but with our timing.            

Lerner, H. (2010, March 27). The Fear of Rejection: A One Day Cure! (Part II).

Retrieved December 10, 2015, from https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-dance-connection/201003/the-fear-rejection-one-day-cure-part-ii

McKay, M., Davis, M., & Fanning, P. (2009). Messages the communication skills book

(3rd ed.). Oakland, Calif.: New Harbinger Publications.

A521.7.4.RB - Knowledge Sharing Story

A knowledge-sharing story is one where the speaker shares knowledge from their prior experience to an audience.  According to Denning (2011) when we tell an experience based story we included some detail of the actual event, embellish other parts with fictional details and actually leave out most of the experience altogether.  This is my knowledge-sharing story.

At one point when I worked for the airline, we changed computer systems, and even though we had all gone through training the cutover was a nightmare.  The system was not running properly, people were not sure how to do the simplest of tasks and the managers were not properly trained to help the agents with issues.  I was on maternity leave during the cutover process, thankfully, but I found myself in a situation where I needed to step in and help an agent.  I was flying home from another station when I noticed a gate agent struggling to work the computer system, I watched for about ten minutes while she attempted to do routine transactions, had passengers yelling at her, and was alone and frustrated.  It was clear she was not able to run the system at all, and her phone calls to ask for assistance were not being answered.  After the ten minutes, I couldn’t stand around and watch her struggle anymore.  I was dressed in street clothes, but I took out my badge and offered to help her with the system.  She gladly accepted and we went to work.  I fixed the issues she was having and then continued to help as we worked our way through the boarding process.  The entire time I was helping her not one agent or supervisor approached her to help.  This was a sad day for our airline.  I then assigned myself a seat and boarded the plane, but not before printing the necessary paperwork she needed to close the flight.  All of this could have been avoided with proper training and support from above. 

This story would be a great training tool on how not to make a major change to a company without being 100 percent sure that there are enough resources to cover any or all of the issues that might arise.  Managers will often find themselves in difficult situations, it’s how they choose to deal with that situation can earn them the distinction of a great manager.  Whetten and Cameron (2011) provide a model of problem-solving that involves the following: define the problem, generate solutions, evaluate and select a solution, and then implement and follow up on the solution.  As a manager, you aren’t always going to make the best or most popular decisions especially when faced with a dilemma, but I feel that if that manager offers to follow up and feedback then most employees will feel heard and in turn trust that manager in crisis.  The employees may not agree with the decisions made, but they will have grown to have an amount of respect for that manager to follow without question.       

Supportive leadership as described by Yukl (2013) includes behaviors such as consideration, acceptance, and concerns for the needs and feelings of others.  It is these qualities that help create interpersonal relationships.  In my story, this component is lacking.  While the company as a whole may be to blame for the lack of training given to both the agents and the supervisors, however, it is the supervisor’s role to support their agents even if they are not able to run the computer system.  If a supervisor had just been at the boarding podium to help answer passengers questions or to offer moral support to the agent then things may not have gotten so out of hand.  I believe it is acceptable as a manager to let your employees know you may not have the answer, but that you will find it somehow.  I had a supervisor who always did exactly that if he did not know the answer he would acknowledge that and either steer me to the person who would have it or tell me he would look into it and let me know.  He would also send me emails updating his progress to show that he had not forgotten and that he was actively searching.  To this day, he was one of my favorite managers and I learned a lot by watching him, it is no surprise that he is now the general manager of a different station. 

We can all learn a lot from each other, and we need to understand and accept that it is acceptable to admit we don’t have the answers to the questions ask.  The only things that would be unacceptable would be to not offer to find the answer.  A manager’s best ally just might be his employee.          

Denning, S. (2011). The Leader’s Guide to Storytelling: Mastering the Art and

Discipline of Business Narrative. San Francisco, CA: John Wiley & Sons/Jossey-Bass

Whetten, D. A., & Cameron, K. S. (2011). Developing Management Skills (E. Svendsen

Ed. 8th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Yukl, G. (2013). Leadership in organizations (8th ed.). Boston: Pearson.

A521.6.3.RB – High-Performance Teams

Whetten and Cameron (2011) defined a team as “groups of people who are interdependent in the tasks they perform, affect one another’s behaviors through interaction and see themselves as a unique entity” (p494).  To me, a team is a group of people who share a common goal or outcome.  They may be in the same company, they may simply share similar interests, and they may be in the same building or across the globe.  The one thing that brings them together is the goal they have in front of them.

High-Performance Teams are slightly different that regular teams in that they are exceptional and what makes them exceptional are they have a clear goal, appropriate leadership and members, and adequate resources (Denning, 2011).  According to Denning (2011) there are six elements of high-preforming teams:

·      They shape the expectations of those who use their output

·      They adjust their performance to meet the needs of the situation

·      They grow steadily stronger over time

·      The members grow individually

·      They are fueled by interpersonal commitments

·      They carry out their work with a shared passion

What makes high-performing teams unique is the bond the members share with each other, in fact, it is that bond that makes them high performing.  Managers can create teams and mandate that they hold meetings and discuss ideas, but they cannot force them to have a bond or work well together, that is up to the team and the chemistry they have.   Yukl (2013) points out that group performance is higher when members have the knowledge and skills needed for the task and when they know what is expected of them.  Denning (2011) stated that the reason team building activities are not effective is the lack of follow through or substance.  In order for a team to become high performing they must find a shared value or set of values, without this the team may still end up with an appropriate outcome but they will not form the bond needed to be high performing.  The ideal situation is to have all members of the team want to work together again once they are finished with the current task, an even better result would be the members forming a bond strong enough for them to reach out to each other without management assigning them. 

When I think of a work group I think of my undergraduate years where the professor would assign us to work together to complete an assignment.  This usually meant that we would meet once to divide the assignment up, work on our parts separately, meet again to check the status then hand the assignment in on the due date.  There was very little if any collaboration.  If we had met more often and worked together to complete the assignment instead of simply dividing up the tasks, we may have learned more from the assignment and even about each other.  On the other side of the spectrum, the soccer board that I am a member of has become a great working community.  We are all volunteers, but we share the love of soccer and a commitment to the town’s youth.  Some of the members have been there from the beginning, some of us are newer and some have participated and moved on.  We are still in contact with some of the former members and they often make an appearance at our annual open community meeting.  While some of us have assigned roles such as president, secretary, treasurer and registrar we all help out as needed.  We also have enough faith in the other members to know the tasks will be done.  We also know we can rely on each other outside the meetings for support and help with any issues we have.             

Denning, S. (2011). The Leader’s Guide to Storytelling: Mastering the Art and

Discipline of Business Narrative. San Francisco, CA: John Wiley & Sons/Jossey-Bass

Whetten, D. A., & Cameron, K. S. (2011). Developing Management Skills (E. Svendsen

Ed. 8th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Yukl, G. (2013). Leadership in organizations (8th ed.). Boston: Pearson.

A521.5.4.RB - Aligning Values

Denning (2011) breaks ethical communities down into three components: trust, loyalty, and solidarity.  Trust is defined as the general expectation that all employees will behave ethically towards each other.  Loyalty refers to excepting obligation and refraining from breaking others trust.  Solidarity means caring for other people and acting on their behalf.  These three components are very important in a company, and without them employees are not likely to stay for very long.  They lay down the framework in which the communities are built.

There is a distinction between instrumental values and ethical values.  Whetten and Cameron (2011) define instrumental values as the standard of conduct or methods for attaining an end while ethical decision-making is described as a set of moral principals used when making decisions.  Denning (2011) lays out a test for determining a company’s moral values by listening to the words they use.  If the words are people oriented then they are most likely a moral company, if they view employees as a means to and end then they are not as morally sound.       

Inside a company, the leader is the one who imposes ethics on their staff.  Yukl (2013) stated that a key characteristic in ethical leadership was a leader’s efforts to influence the ethical behavior of others.  Yukl (2013) also defines integrity as honesty and consistency between a person’s embraced values and behavior.  Not all employees are going to buy into the company’s values and beliefs and this can create tension.  Some employees will see and accept the gap in values and continue on, others will make the decision to leave the company.  Those that remain will either grow increasingly pessimistic about the company or choose to rise above and act with their own higher ethical standards.

When a company looks to be broken from the top down the bottom of the pile has to either step up or move on.  This was the case with my last employer.  The upper management was nonresponsive to our department’s requests for changes and, as a result, we could either pass the blame onto the department that was at fault in front of the customer or we could smile and try to make things right.  For the majority of our staff, the correct or ethical thing to do was to smile and make it right.  We each created a standard of our own and that was the standard we maintained, even with little to no support from above.  As the supervisor in my department, I held my staff to the higher standard of our department rather than the lower standard of the upper management, and as a result we were routinely in the top two in departmental rankings from guest surveys.  We could have lowered ourselves and aligned with the “Oh well, its someone else’s fault, not ours” mentality, however, that would not have fixed the issue at hand.  I still live by the rule that it may not be my fault but at the moment it is my problem and I will find a way to fix it.  I apply this to both my personal and profession life every day.              

Denning, S. (2011). The Leader’s Guide to Storytelling: Mastering the Art and

Discipline of Business Narrative. San Francisco, CA: John Wiley & Sons/Jossey-Bass.

Whetten, D. A., & Cameron, K. S. (2011). Developing Management Skills (E. Svendsen

Ed. 8th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Yukl, G. (2013). Leadership in organizations (8th ed.). Boston: Pearson.