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1.    Are you comfortable developing sources of personal influence to gain power?

There are four sources of personal characteristics that help influence power. They are: expertise, personal attraction, effort, and legitimacy. For the first personal characteristic, expertise, I believe I hold my professional expertise through formal education and on-the-job experience. It took me 4 years of my time and effort for me to recently realize that I held enough expertise to begin climbing the management latter. I don’t think I would be in the professional position I am right now with the company if it wasn’t because of education and on-the-job experience.

In the second characteristic, personal attraction, I’m not confident I hold all the key aspects of what is defined as personal attraction as a source of power. Personal attraction is defined as an individual who has charisma, agreeable behavior, and physical characteristics (Whetten & Cameron, 2011). Personally, I do behave myself properly, which can be defined as an agreeable behavior because it’s associated in the form of friendship. I have many coworkers who I trust and believe they are my friends. But, for the other key aspects of personal attraction such as charisma and physical characteristics, I’m very uncertain I hold these qualities. I don’t think I’m really a charismatic individual because even though I show devotion and dedication to my profession, I don’t show enthusiasm for what I do. When it comes to physical characteristics, I do dress appropriately but I don’t think that’s what Whetten & Cameron were referring to when saying physical characteristics are a source of personal power.

The third personal characteristic is effort. I do put my all energy and efforts into everything that I’m passionate about. In order words, if there’s one task that is dreadful to me, I would rather hand it off to someone else. But, how can I learn and become a better leader if I continue to pass it off or wait until the last minute to complete the task? After I had realized this, I began to take the task one step at a time, looked at the advantages of learning more and completing the task, involved others who felt the same way about the task to work alongside me to complete the task, and so on. Also, in my opinion, I do believe I’m a dependable and reliable worker. Since I want to continue being seeing as dependable and reliable, it’s important to me to continue learning and gaining more experience. Legitimacy is the last source of personal influence. My actions are congruent with the company’s established value system. I’m the type of person who tends to focus on “hows and whys” we do business the “right” way other than because of ethical reasons. I like to learn how come we have been doing business the way we have and when possible (and when it seems correct) I challenge the notion to try to bring a new perspective into the problem or learn why it has been done the way it has. Therefore, my professional actions are deemed as credible or legitimate as pointed out by Whetten & Cameron.

After reflecting on each definition of the personal characteristics that help influence power, I do believe I will be comfortable developing or furthermore enhancing these sources of personal influence in order to gain power if it means that this will help me become a better leader. This is something I think I will develop more through time, experiences, and confidence in myself and the decisions I make. To this day, when I hear the words “we have to talk” I get nervous. I begin to think about the million things that probably went wrong and it’s all my fault and this causes me to doubt myself and second-guess myself sometimes. So overall, I do believe I will be comfortable and want to develop and enhance more the sources of personal influence in order to gain “professional” power and feel empowered to make decisions.

2. Do you embody the characteristics of likeable people depicted in Table 5.4 (p. 290)?

According to Whetten & Cameron, we like people when we have reason to believe they will: support an open, honest, and loyal relationship; foster intimacy by being emotionally accessible; provide unconditional, positive regard and acceptance; endure some sacrifices if the relationship should demand them; provide social reinforcement in the form of sympathy or empathy; and engage in the social exchanges necessary to sustain a relationship (Whetten & Cameron, 2011). It’s not to say that it’s very important for me to be liked by everyone but it does make it easier to get along with everyone when you are polite which can transmit to likeableness. I personally believe that I can like and be polite to everyone until I feel that I have been “double crossed” per say or once I see that your actions aren’t congruent with what you are telling me.

For example, the atmosphere of my workplace changes when my boss walks into the store compared to when I’m in the store. One day I was out sick and when I showed up the next day some of my coworkers were telling me “Next time, give me a heads up when you call off so I can call off as well”. At first I didn’t understand what was happening until a coworker sat me down and told me everything that had happened. In simple terms, they felt as if they were walking on eggshells the entire day, which made it seem like a terrible day at work. After reflecting on how my boss handles the store compared to the decisions I have made when I’m there and through subordinate feedback, I realized that my boss’s actions aren’t congruent with what she says. So her constant “flipping” back and forth with what really needs to be done makes it seem like we handle the shifts completely different. This reflection or “wake up call” has given me an understanding of why my boss and me don’t get along so well and why things always seem different (in a good way) when I’m around.

3. Are you able to use influence both up and down your organization considering the information in Table 5.5 (p. 293)

Because of the type of relationship I have with my boss, it’s been very hard to influence up in the organization according to what Whetten & Cameron have established in the table 5.5. I’ve tried to understand her but, again, her constant back and forth on decisions make it difficult to really understand her. One day I asked her what were her goals and objectives for me and she couldn’t give me a straight answer. I rephrased the question to see what her goals and objectives were and all she could say was to be in a managerial position some day. So as you can read, it’s difficult to influence up in the organization when you have a boss who doesn’t fully know what she wants.

Reflecting on my influence down in the organization, I believe I am able to influence others around and below me to continue increasing their knowledge and to continue going up in the organization. As pointed out in the table 5.5, I need to be aware of my own strengths, weaknesses, personal style, and predisposition toward dependence on authority figures. I also need to be willing to develop and maintain a relationship with others above, around, and below me. I do believe myself to be aware of what has been mentioned above in order to influence others in the organization.

Reference:

Whetten, D. A., & Cameron, K. S. (2011). Developing Self-Awareness. Developing management skills (8th ed.). Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall/Pearson.

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I think it’s important for someone to have a professional mentor and/or coach during their professional journey. Recently, I read a case study for this class (Hauser, 2009) of an executive coaching program. In this article an example was given of an employee named Lee that wanted to succeed professionally but didn’t know how. The article starts by explaining the executive program coaching in the concept of the “Bridge to Success”. The first of four phases is the Jump Start concept that helps you understanding who you are and where you are now professionally. After meeting with a professional coach for the first time, Lee was able to learn who he is as a person, how others perceive him, what it takes to go up in the organization today and in the future, and so on. Through different interviews and surveys the coach got a clear idea and understanding of who Lee is, what his values and interests are, what drives his professional passion, and how he interacts with fellow coworkers.

The second phase was Goal Setting. Once you know you are as a whole, its good to know, understand and/or have an idea of who you want to be and/or where you want to be in the future. Therefore, it is important to set goals that align to your values and interests. The third phases consists of Real-World Application. Basically, it’s putting what you have learned about yourself and your desire to be where you want to be into the world and begin working towards your future and goals. As a great example, the article talked about how Lee practiced with his coach different scenarios of things his boss might ask him. When it came time to talk to his boss, Lee was able to express himself clearly. In other words, he was able to begin applying what he had learned about himself and his desire to continue growing with the company to the real world. The last phase is Learning and Achievement Measurement. This is phase is about tying everything together to get an overall view to see if the coaching program was effective or not and if the individual was able to reach his or her goals. To me this phase is about getting a sense of who you were and where you were and seeing how you are now, where you are now, and who you are now.

The reason behind this summary is because through this article I was able to learn more in-depth about coaching and what can coaching do for someone. In other words, this article helped as a wake up call of my desire to prosper and succeed professionally. In the recent years, all I have been thinking about is just about finishing school first, educating myself and it feels like I haven’t been thinking too far ahead or set my goals straight of where I want to be in the next few years. Not only did this article helped me wake up but it also gave me an idea of what I could do in order to seek the path towards my future. I want to be able to set my goals and say this is what I want to achieve in 3 years or less and this is where I want to be in 5 years. In this class, we have touched on the subject of self-awareness. Even though I have an idea of who I am, I don’t have a clear understanding of how others see me. Therefore, I think I’m doing ok but in reality I may not be or I may not be in the right path to where I would like to be.

It is very important for me to understand who I am as a person and as a leader just like Lee did in the article. There are many reasons for me personally and professionally on why it is so important to have a coach and/or mentor. Such as for my: personal future, financial stability, career and/or profession’s future, the leadership experience, help others reach their goals, and also because I have student loans to pay back. Career-wise it’s important for me to become aware of who I am, where I am, how others perceive me, what do I want professionally, what will I do to get there, what have I learned, and if I was able to reach my goals on the proper time frame I gave myself (Hauser, 2009). In my opinion, there are many things that define a leader but a good leader will know when to be a mentor and when to become a coach. Professionally, I would like to help those around me to succeed the same way I have been able to. So if one day I’m given the opportunity to lead, coach, and/or mentor someone I will more than happy and capable of doing it.

Source:

Hauser, L. (2009). Evidence-Based coaching. OD Practicioner, 41(1), 8-13. Retrieved May 10, 2013, from http://lsiltd.com/pdfs/evidence-based-coaching.pdf

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According to Whetten & Cameron, there are two main roles that enhance team performance: task-facilitating role and relationship-building roles. The task-facilitating role is when a team member helps the team accomplish the objectives or outcomes of the team (Whetten & Cameron, 2011). In other words, task-facilitating members help accomplish the tasks assigned in order to reach the team’s goals. There are at least 10 common task-facilitating roles for team members: direction giving, information seeking, information giving, elaborating, urging, monitoring, process analysis, reality testing, enforcing, and summarizing. Task facilitating roles tend to help the team work more effectively and efficiently by ensuring the team stays focused on task. There’s also evidence that team members of a high performance team have a certain amount of interpersonal cohesion and collaboration, interdependent, and have positive affect among team members (Whetten & Cameron, 2011).

The relationship-building role emphasizes on the interpersonal aspects of the team (Whetten & Cameron, 2011). Relationship-building roles focus on building unity, collaboration, assisting team members to feel good about one another, and maintain a tension-free climate (Whetten & Cameron, 2011). In other words, this role emphasizes on building the relationship between team members of the team. For this role there are at least 10 common relationship-building roles: supporting, harmonizing, tension relieving, confronting, energizing, developing, consensus building, and empathizing.

Looking at my past experiences of working on team, I believe I’m more of a task-oriented person than I am a “people” person per say. Reflecting on the definitions above, I believe I take on the role of task facilitating on a high performance team. I have always personally had a hard time connecting with other individuals so I tend to wait until others open up to me first before I can fully trust them and their judgments. Therefore, it’s hard for me to help improve the unity or relationship in the team when I barely know the individuals in the team. For example, if I had met with some of those individuals and have had the time to connect with them then I do try and help as much as I can on building that relationship and the relationship with those who I do know because I trust them. In other words, I collaborate and expect more from those who I do know than from those who are new to the team. But I have also realized that on the eyes of others this seems to come across as favoritism, which is not what I intend it to be.

When it comes to tasks, if the mission, expected outcomes, and/or goals are clearly stated then from experience I can say I do guide my team through the tasks in order to reach the team’s goals and accomplish the mission. If there’s extra time, typically, I like to go back and see places where task improvement can be made or try to go above and beyond on our work. At the end of every project, I tend to ask all team members for their feedback on: How do you think the overall project went? Where can we improve? Do you think we could’ve done the tasks more effectively and efficiently? If so, how? And so on. Like I mentioned above, I’m not the type of person to know how to fix relationships or unite people. This is one of my greatest weaknesses. Its something that I have always struggled with and it’s a working progress. Now with the semester being over, I cant exactly put what I have learned here into practice but keeping notes along with the textbook will help me understand more and hopefully guide me on how to gain a better balance between the task-facilitating role and the relationship-building role.

Reference:

Whetten, D. A., & Cameron, K. S. (2011). Developing Self-Awareness. Developing management skills (8th ed.). Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall/Pearson.