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Reflecting on the exercise in page 42 of Becoming a Resonant Leader, I discovered that it is common for people to operate under poor assumptions of what great leadership truly is. I have long been under the assumption that emotions and feelings aren’t something that should at all be discussed or even dealt with in the workplace. I do know that one should always keep their emotions in-check with what is being said and also be careful to not create a negative emotion in the workplace. In part, I think it’s also because I have a bit of a shy personality, kind of like a quiet leader per say. I rise to the occasion when needed but I more empower employees and let them lead so they can gain the experience and the knowledge as well. So it has come to a surprise to me that emotions do matter in the workplace and that it’s important to understand how emotions play a role in leadership.

            While reading and trying to complete the exercise on the workbook, it became apparent to me that this topic was challenging for me. It forced me to think hard and deeply into the different experiences I have had. Since I do not have a lot of organizational experience, there are not a lot of different experiences in which I can reflect on except those from my last employer. Therefore, after completing the workbook exercise, I discovered a couple of things about my resonant leadership. In the first question, “Am I inspirational? How do I inspire people?” I can’t say explicitly that I am an inspirational person because in reality I don’t know how to effectively motivate people. I believe that in part it’s because of my shy personality. It could also be that I have never truly experienced true motivation and therefore, do not know what true positive motivation is or even looks like.

            An example of this would be when the store district manager came for a visit and noticed that the store lacked inspiration. The district manager asked for anyone in a leadership position to form a small group, like a huddle, and to say something that would inspire the team to continue progressing forward. My supervisor took this as an opportunity in which I could learn from, so she volunteered me. I feel that I felt short from what she was expecting or of what could’ve been a great moment to learn about inspiration. One of the few things I recall doing was trying to make people feel good about their hard work, about themselves, what they have achieved so far, and how thankful I was to be part of such a great team.

Another part in which I feel that I felt short would be “creating an overall positive emotional tone that is characterized by hope.” I feel that I did create a tone through hope but it wasn’t the desired positive emotional tone. It was more like: “Lets all hope that tomorrow goes smoother than today” or “tomorrow will be better guys, I promise.” The question in my mind still continues to be how could I create a desired positive emotional tone that would help or even engage employees more deeply to the goals of the organization? I know how to engage employees to the goals of the organization. But, how to truly create a positive emotional tone, as in speech, for employee engagement, it’s something I continue to wonder about.

Overall, in the other questions of the exercise I performed pretty well. I know how to be in touch with others, what is truly on their heart and their minds, how to show it, how to demonstrate and experience compassion regularly, and how to be authentic and in tune with myself and with others. The only things that mainly came to a shock to me, as a leader, is what has been said above. Honestly, to a point it even frightens me not knowing how to fix, change, or overcome the situation if this happened again. So, I’m looking forward to the next chapter on learning more about who I am and what are my strengths.

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After completing the exercise on page 4 and 5 of Becoming a Resonant Leader, I gain a bit more clear understanding of how past leaders, supervisors, and managers have helped me learn and grow to the leader I am today. “Resonant leaders use personal qualities to inspire employees toward a common goal” (Kokemuller, n.d.). This quote speaks to me as it makes me reflect on the different types of conversations I had with past supervisors, leaders, role models, coaches, etc. Most of these conversations took place and form in an informal setting, where it felt more like a casual conversation than a formal meeting. I find it that I feel more comfortable talking to someone about leadership, feelings, and emotions in an informal setting. I’m not entirely sure why but I feel that in a formal setting, feelings and emotions isn’t something that should be discussed. So, I feel more at ease in an informal setting when it comes to talking about these sorts of things.

Overall, I believe these conversations have indeed established the foundation of my professional development. Many times my first supervisor encouraged and motivated me to always do my best, try my hardest, and to never give up. Her advices and guidance throughout my career have indeed become the foundation of my professionalism and leadership development. Reflecting on how I have learned and developed my own style of leadership, I believe I have been able to sustain this foundation of leadership because I stay true to my feelings and myself. I am a firm believer of respecting everyone even when they are rude, “don’t due onto others what you wouldn’t like to have done to you”, and of not asking others what I wouldn’t like to do myself. In fact a good example of this is when “dirty” or long tasks arrive, I first ask for volunteers for the tasks. If nobody volunteers then, then I split the task into parts so we all “get dirty” equally. In a way, breaking down the task helps to complete it more quickly and to stay fair with everyone.

Since I do not like to do onto others what I would not like to be done to me, I try to find fun or quick ways to complete tasks. An example of this would be cleaning tasks. Not everyone keeps their area clean throughout their shift, so I made a rule that an hour before the end of their shift, their area must be fully stocked, cleaned, and prepared for the next employee. I know I wouldn’t like to walk into a “dirty” or messy area, so why should I do that to the next employee. With this example and rule, it can be seen that I stay consistent with my feelings of how I not like doing to others what I wouldn’t like to be done to me.

Honestly, there is no exact recipe that I can say that helps to develop everyone. To me, it all depends on the situation, the need of the individual, and his/her capabilities. If this individual has the skills to complete the tasks but does not have the will, I typically sit down with the individual and ask what do they think is blocking their motivation for the task. Sometimes it’s the length of the task, lack of skill, confusion, and/or unclear purpose of the task. Depending on the cause of lack of motivation, I make the necessary changes or steps to help the individual find motivation. Another form of helping others to develop leadership is through informal conversations. In some situations, I ask if it’s ok to give my advice on how to proceed, but I only do this when the individual has first tried various times to complete the task on his/her own. Along with these informal conversations, I also pass along the same advices that were first given to me. I tell individuals to stay true to themselves, to their values, and what they believe in, to respect everyone even when people don’t deserve it, and to not due onto others what they would not like to be done onto them.

Reference:

Kokemuller, N. (n.d.). Resonant Vs. Dissonant Leadership Styles. Small Business. Retrieved March 25, 2014, from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/resonant-vs-dissonant-leadership-styles-65011.html

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Oligarchy is mainly about leadership done by a few leaders over many followers and the challenge with this type of leadership is effective “leadership”, such as public speaking. Polyarchy is about leadership done by the many and the main challenge is effective “followership” such as public listening (Obolensky, 2008). If polyarchy is fast replacing the old oligarchy assumptions does this make these old leadership models redundant? I don’t believe so. Not one model is more important or effective alone. It’s important to know that there must be a balance between the oligarchy leadership models and the polyarchy models. One form of rebalancing leadership when only one model of leadership is used is to use “both/and” instead of “either/or”. It’s also important to remember that the environment is always changing, so a good understanding and knowledge of these two types of leadership models is very important in order to help the organization remain effective even during times of crisis. This type of understanding also helps leaders understand the chaos and complexity of organizations.

Reflecting on the traditional form of leadership from the perspective of complex adaptive leadership, one of the implications is that traditional leaders seem to believe that old traditions, structures, and forms of leadership are still effective. Another implication of this is the belief that these old forms of leadership can overcome any situation or problem without damaging or increasing the negative effect of any situation/problem. Business environments are no longer the same compared to businesses from over 30 years ago. So it is a false assumption to believe that the old forms of leadership alone are still effective today. This knowledge will affect me in the future as a leader because it lets me know that in a few years more research will be done on the aspect of leadership. Meaning, new forms of leadership styles will be found more effective than the forms of leadership known now. This lets me know as a leader that in order to remain effective, I must keep up with the most current knowledge of leadership. I believe that in about 10 – 15 years I must revise and/or revisit my overall leadership style in order to remain effective. But in the mean time, I must remain self-aware of my leadership style and the changing environment around me so I can adapt to it. This will hopefully lessen the impact that new forms of leadership styles will have on my future strategies.

Reference:

Obolensky, N. (2008, September 11). “Chaos Leadership and Polyarchy”. Complex Adaptive Leadership. Retrieved March 14, 2014, from http://www.complexadaptiveleadership.com/v2/assets/BAM2008v2.pdf

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“To be an executive coach, it is necessary to know that clients are the first and best experts capable of solving their own problems and achieving their own ambitions, that is precisely the main reason why clients are motivated to call on a coach. When clients bring important issues to a coach, they already made a complete inventory of their personal or professional issues and of all possible options. Clients have already tried working out their issues alone, and have not succeeded” (Unknown).

Given the statement above, I believe that coaches provide a tremendous amount of value to the clients asking for their services. In other words, leadership coaching can make a difference to the client organization. “The greatest gift a coach can give a person is insight into their strengths and ways to improve on those strengths and minimize the weaknesses” (Chandler, n.d.). In monetary terms, a coach can help improve an individual’s skills and behaviors, which in turn can result in an increase in productivity and organizational production. In organizational terms, a coach can provide great value to the organization by developing employees’ skills. As the statement above mentioned, “clients have already tried working out their issues alone, and have not succeeded” (Unknown). In my opinion, this is the best buy-in opportunity a coach can have from an employee, as he or she is interested and eager to learn how to solve such issues. If the coach: is flexible with his/her leadership and coaching styles, provides consistent coaching throughout the sessions, discovers how the employee can grow within the company by discovering his/her strengths/weaknesses, and by identifying and eliminating gaps in the performance level of the employee (Chandler, n.d.), the coach will help the individual reach his/her goals within the organization. Ultimately, this adds more value to the organization in terms of leadership.

Since a coaching plan can help the coacher unlock the true potentials of the employee, I believe that coaching is a vital aspect of leadership and strategy. The reason being is because coaching can help the employee gain clarity and an understanding of the organization’s values, purpose, and mission statement; understand the concerns of the employee; learn what are the areas of expertise an employee lacks; unlock the true desires of the employee; hone on leadership skills; and help develop the skills needed for both strategy development and leadership. This also helps unlock the employee’s understanding of the organization’s strategy. If the understanding of the organization’s strategy lacks, it does not matter how much time is invested in coaching the individual, the coach will never have that full buy-in and commitment from the employee.

Coaching can make a huge difference in an organization in both monetary terms as well as organizational terms. Coaching in monetary terms, as mentioned above, can translate into more productivity from employees. More productivity translates to better products and service, which ultimately translates to organizational cost efficiency and higher profits. In organizational terms, coaching can make a difference in terms of gaining more commitment to the organization’s goals as employees now have an understanding of the purpose of the organization and the drive to learn and achieve what has been practiced throughout the coaching sessions.

What coaching means to me in terms of my past organization is that coaching was barely existent. I mean, we had supervisors that called themselves coaches but coaching was barely even practiced. In my opinion, it seemed to me that supervisors waited until employees said something in order to coach them. I believe that at times you don’t need to be asked to coach but rather see the opportunity to coach an employee and if the employee is also willing to learn then it is ok to coach. But, honestly only about two handful of employees showed and practiced good coaching abilities. My recommendation for my past organization is to invest time and money into receiving some sort of leadership assessment. This way the organization can gain an overall understanding of what areas of leadership the organization should focus on, develop a plan to get there, plan to promote leadership within the organization, and an understanding on how to coach in order to help develop employees skills.

Reference:

Chandler, L. (n.d.). Coach the Whole Person. Advantage Performance Group RSS. Retrieved March 7, 2014, from http://www.advantageperformance.com/2011/07/coach-the-whole-person/

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After completing the exercise at the beginning of chapter 10, the table scores reveal that I need to continue working on my leadership style and skills. My scores for the strategy questions are: S1 (Tell) – 4, S2 (Sell) – 3, S3 (Involve) – 9, S4 (Devolve) – 0. Ideally, the scores should be 4 on each column for a total of 16 questions answered. The score of 4 on each column would mean that the leader is a well-rounded aware leader, knowledgeable and skilled in all of the areas of leadership. When I was promoted to shift leader, I quickly began to realize that my skills for ‘selling’ were weak as I didn’t have a solid understanding of the need to have employees ‘buy in’ to ideas, strategies, etc. I also had no idea how to ‘devolve’ employees. It seems I only got as far as involving employees with tasks according to the Complex Adaptive Leadership model (Obolensky, 2010). Therefore, this chapter holds some new concepts for me to learn from.

Over the course of these past six weeks, my understanding and clarification of what leadership entails has broaden. It has helped me to understand and to know that as a leader it is ok to not know everything or have all the answers. It has also showed me the importance and the meaning of having and developing employees as followers, as well as when to let others take the lead. During these past few weeks, I have been given the methods and suggestions on how to develop my skills as leader and how to develop the skills of the followers. As Obolensky says “Leaders get the followers they deserve. Followers get the leaders they deserve” (Obolensky, 2010). Therefore, it has become important for me to recognize that there is no perfect specific leadership style but rather a unification and mix of all leadership styles. This course has also given me the tools on how to deal and embrace chaos, complexity, and uncertainty. Along with these tools, I now also understand what it takes to create, build, and develop an organization sustainable of great leadership by adding the Four + Four leadership model to the duties of the organization.

Honestly, I began the MSLD course with curiosity. I had wondered whether or not leaders were born or rather made. I was also curious about whether there was a specific form of leadership style that only all those great CEOs that I always read about knew about it. Therefore after enrolling on this program, I decided to give leadership a practice by applying to the shift lead position in my organization. Before I left the organization, I saw improvement on how to handle leader situations, how to solve problems, how to increase communication between leads and followers, and so on. As the courses progressed, I had continued to apply this new information to the department. Unfortunately, I’m no longer with the organization so it has been hard at times to put into perspective some of these topics. I have only been able to reflect back on similar situations and now understand what I could’ve done differently.

The significance of this to me is the confidence that this course has given me. I’m no longer scared about making mistakes because I know how to find solutions and how to learn from the situation. I no longer feel as if I am guessing my way through the organization or leadership position. I am fully confident that I can handle the situations that will be thrown at me. I now understand that I don’t need to be perfect in every aspect of the organization but rather effective and efficient. I also now understand the need to have an open, clear communication and feedback both downward and upward in the organization. Therefore in the context of my future leadership goals and objectives, I am confident to know that I can and will overcome any obstacle as well as know when to seek help and clarification. With this confidence, understanding, and broaden view of leadership and what it entails, I hope to be an effective leader wherever this understanding, skills, and will take me. If it means moving up on the chain of command in a specific organization then great! If it means that later in life I will be the leader of my own organization then that is great as well. I only hope that as a leader I continue learning from experiences, continue practicing what I have learned thus far, continue developing the skills of those around me, continue to adapt to this new changing environment, and to never give up on anyone or situation.

Reference:

Obolensky, N. (2010). Complex adaptive leadership embracing paradox and uncertainty. Farnham, Surrey: Gower.