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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