MSLD 511 Module 4- Locus of Control

In previous entries, I’ve mentioned that I am someone with a caring, empathetic nature. Because of this, prior to taking the Rotter’s Locus of Control Scale Test, I assumed that I would side more towards the internal locus of control. By definition, internal locus of control is the mentality where leaders openly take responsibility for their actions and follower’s outcome. As Northouse stated, leaders who side more towards the internal locus of control tends to favor participative leadership, which involves leaders and followers to share thoughts and opinions and integrate them in decision making (2015). This is something I do daily as an academic advisor. Despite students having specific rules and procedures, it is important for me to consider student issues and preferences. For example, when a student is newly admitted to the university, we are required to make degree maps, or a recommended schedule of classes. Though these are my recommendations, not all students can follow them. For instance, I have many students who work on second shift, and they cannot take live-session classes due to the lack of availability in classes in earlier parts of the day. As a result, it is important to adjust with their situation for effective decision making. Not doing so will result in a poorer road to success, which I take responsibility for.

The Rotter’s Locus of Control Scale Test consisted of a scale of 0 to 13, where lower scores indicated that internal locus of control is stronger. My results were surprising. I scored an 8, which is slightly more towards the external locus of control. In contrast to internal locus of control, external is the mentality where leaders believe that outside forces are responsible for an outcome. Those who side more towards external locus of control tends to favor directive leadership, where leaders provide a set of rules and regulations for people to follow (Northouse, 2015). After putting more thoughts into why I scored an 8, it makes sense since advisors are only assisting and recommending things to the student. In other words, the result of success is more based on student choice and actions. A good example that demonstrates this is when students disregard my warnings. It’s rare for students to do this, but whenever I catch required classes that are rarely offered, I forewarn my students and encourage them to take the class at a specified term. When students disregard my warnings, the ending result will be a very angry or stressed student. They may blame me for the struggle, but it is important to keep in mind that it is the choice or any outside event they had that initiated the problem.

Though I may have scored more towards external locus of control, the conclusion drawn is that we switch sides depending on different scenarios. For my job, I can be at fault for providing inaccurate or poorly delivered information to my students. However since my goal as an advisor is to assist students with their plan, it’s mostly up to the student to get the desired outcome. In my opinion, I don’t believe that leaders who fall strongly towards external locus of control mostly prefer directive leadership. In fact, a lot of my advisement is still more towards participative leadership. For example, I have students who end up in problematic situations due to how the university runs. To resolve or at least ease the problem, I usually become empathetic and caring since I can relate to from my past and current experience as a university student. In the end, I try to come up with solutions that will benefit the student, myself, and the university.

References:

Northouse, P. G. (2015). Leadership: Theory and Practice 7th ed. Los Angeles, CA:Sage Publishing

MSLD 511 Module 3- Directive and Supportive Behaviors

My position as an academic advisor demonstrates a perfect example of both directive and supportive behavior. It is something that I use and rely on daily when advising my students. Of the two, my job mainly consists of directive behavior. By definition, directive behavior is the one-way communication where leaders point directly to the activity that followers need to complete (Blanchard, 2008). As academic advisors, students and their success is our priority. To make this possible, we assist and guide our students from the day of their admission to the day they graduate.

Though any people-oriented position requires directive behavior, I believe that supportive behavior is what really drives both the leader and followers to success. By definition, supportive behavior is the two-way communication where leaders help followers feel comfortable to receive participation and response from their followers (Blanchard, 2008). According to empathy and job behavior researcher Parkash Singh, behavior is what people actually do. In other words, what’s going on inside one’s head affects how people act and perform (2014). Aware that our delivery of communication and services correlates with behaviors and reactions of my followers, it is important to perform more than the task itself.

The talk from the latest discussion board post demonstrated this importance. Though Greg Bock, a Fire Chief from Alton, Illinois manages and plays the role of the “big boss” in his department, he didn’t want his coworkers to have this mentality. Instead, he showed his care and concerns: which included the 30,000 residents of Alton, “I’m not there to flex my muscle and show you who the boss is” along with how you must treat people like “they’re your best friend” (NPR, 2008). If ones break down the roles of fire departments, we all might say that their goal is put out fires. However when thinking critically, this involves more than just putting out fires. Almost every case of a fire will involve people. People that are in distress both physically and mentally from the fire. Bock was able to carefully identify this, and expressed his need of care for everyone: both in and out of the department.

Similar to Bock, I too follow a similar approach. From past and current experiences, I fully understand the various situations students go through. As a student, I look up to my advisors: believing that they are always there for me when I need the help. However during my time as an undergraduate student, I was constantly treated in a rush, resulting in lack of advisement and more stressful issues. Now that I am an advisor, a leader in my small community, I do not want to be viewed as someone who’s merely there to “get the job done”. I truly do care about my students and their goal of success. As a result I often relate my experiences to similar situation students. This establishes a comfortable, caring environment. Like a mirror, students often react positively back- resulting a more fluid environment to perform my job efficiently.

References

Blanchard, K. (2008, May 25). Situational Leadership. Leadership Excellence, 19.

NPR. (2008). A Small-Town Fire Chief Juggles Big Responsibilities. Washington D.C. doi: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=94011870

Singh, P. (2014). Employees' use of empathy to improve their job behavior. The International Business & Economics Research Journal (Online). Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.libproxy.db.erau.edu/docview/1525361493/abstract/2F2815C3B74C411EPQ/1?accountid=27203

MSLD 511 Module 2- Reflecting on Leadership Traits

In the previous course (MSLD 500), students were assigned a project to study on a topic that ties with critical thinking and leadership. For the project, I decided to study on the importance of empathy in leadership. I learned that empathy not only establishes better relationships, but it also serves as an opportunity to gather data: which is necessary for effective decision making. In conclusion, leadership is more than just “getting the job done”. I see this clearly in my position as an academic advisor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Worldwide (ERAU). Though it is important to proactively assist students with general questions, it is also critical for me to maintain a strong relationship and aim for the success of my students.

Northouse provided a list and description of five major leadership traits: intelligence, self-confidence, determination, integrity and sociability (2015). Of the five, I heavily rely on sociability. Sociability is the most critical of the five traits because without it, I wouldn’t be able to perform my job. My position is entirely people-oriented and since students rely on me from the time they are admitted to the day they graduate, it is important for me to maintain a strong relationship to work efficiently.

Keeping in contact is one thing, but for any people-oriented position, it is important to be empathetic. Most of my students admire me for having this trait because I truly understand the feelings students go through: especially when students are dealing with frustrating situations. I often share my feelings and relate students’ issues with my personal experiences. For instance, I often have students complain about our Pacific Time versus Eastern Time (where most ERAU services take place). To ease the stress, I share some feelings of frustration due to the fact that I am a current student and also have to deal with the same problem as a staff. I also try to give a good laugh to my students by saying things such as, “even staff are students too!” to help them understand that we’re not simply here to “just get the work done”, but to show that we care.

The care shown strengthen our people-oriented business and encourages students to comeback and even recommend our campus to other potential students. It is a positive image and keeps us going. Another example that demonstrates the importance of having various traits in leadership was from a spokesperson from a TED video I watched for my previous assignment. Linda Cliatt-Wayman was a former principal at the Strawberry Mansion High School in North Philadelphia. The school was “broken” by the time she first started working and was heavily influenced by the high crime rates and deep poverty in the area. Rather than students and staff complaining and trying to ease their situation, they instead “just got their job done”. Wayman knew that a leader cannot work alone and focused on everyone and everything involved to reverse the damage the school had. Though training and building renovations were involved in the process, Wayman stated that the most important thing she did was to show and establish a caring and positive environment for every student at the campus. As a former student of North Philadelphia herself, she truly understood the hardships that the Strawberry Mansion High School students had to go through. To show this care, she used her personal experiences as data and implemented it to make effective decision making. In the end, Wayman was successfully able to increase proficiency in various studies as well as removed the title of the most dangerous school for the first time in five consecutive years (2015).

References:

Cliatt-Wayman, L. (2015). Linda Cliatt-Wayman: How to fix a broken school? Lead fearlessly, love hard [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/linda_cliatt_wayman_how_to_fix_a_broken_school_lead_fearlessly_love_hard?language=en

Northouse, P. G. (2015). Leadership: Theory and Practice 7th ed. Los Angeles, CA:
     Sage Publishing

MSLD 511 Module 1- Two-Way Street

As Northouse stated, leadership wouldn’t be possible without influence (2015). Influence is defined as the power to change or affect someone (Influence, n.d.). Northouse’s statement is true since the goal of leaders are to motivate and point groups to specific directions. While influence mainly acts as a force generated by the leader, influence also takes place with everyone involved in a group.

Due to the fact that I just got my first bachelor’s degree, I never really got many experience in the workforce. However I see influence involved almost daily as an assistant campus director at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Worldwide (ERAU). Though influence might be something that often occurs from the leader or a group, it actually revolves with everyone involved in a group. For our campus, students are what triggers me to influence my boss.

One of the biggest things I’ve done to influence my boss was to let him know the importance of keeping in touch with neighboring community colleges and potential students. When I first started working for the university, I often heard my boss mentioning about the declining numbers of new admissions. After a while, I realize that one of the things that lacked for our campus was the number of times we attended events outside of our school. I asked my boss about this but he admitted that he doesn’t attend every college fairs anymore due to the lack of table visits and low numbers of the students actually applying for the university. I found his statements to be false and while looking at other ERAU campuses in Washington states, they are attending various fairs: which indicates that there good reasons to attend them. As a result, I decided to attend as many of the fairs we were authorized to attend.

Though I was somewhat expecting similar descriptions as my boss stated, I was surprised by the number of interested students that came up to my table. The interesting trend I found was that these students came up letting me know that their friend previously saw my table (word of mouth). Another group of potential students that came up were ones either already aware or are students for ERAU. However most were surprised to see me since they didn’t know that there was a physical location and that most thought that ERAU Worldwide only served online classes. Most of the ERAU students were ERAU Worldwide Online students: another branch of ERAU Worldwide. Most of these students became Worldwide Online students due to the word “online”, however they prefer face-to-face contact and didn’t know that physical locations also serve online classes.

While I attended as many events, my boss came up to me and let me know about the steadily increasing number of admissions. He was surprised how attending outside events really do impact enrollments. Though he still doesn’t attend events, he is making more effort into finding events that I can attend.

References:

Influence. (n.d.). Retrieved June 8, 2016, from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/influence