MSLD 633 Module 8- How To Better Enable Leadership

                 

As Obolensky stated a few times in his text, organizations are becoming complex to the point that top leaders cannot make all the decisions for the entire organization (2014). As a result, superior leaders need the help of others to simplify complexity and get the most of their jobs done. An online university: such as my organization is a perfect example.

Overall, my organization has a good leadership structure. As an online university, it is critical: particularly to employees running one of many campuses to have a strong set of self-leadership skills. Without sufficient skills, we will be too dependent to university headquarters: which can eventually hurt the entire organization. My level of the organization only consists of my boss and myself. Personally, we believe that constant communication can help establish leadership.

Aside from our daily side conversations (we’re almost like best of pals), we often have an array of discussions. This can include anywhere from going over new university procedures to talking about an unusual advisement in the office. The key here is learning from one another. As Obolensky stated, every level of an organization tends to think and do things differently (2014). For instance, bottom-leveled departments could have as much as 60% of the information needed for effective decision-making versus the 10 to 30% in top and middle levels (Obolensky, 2014). Since my boss and I are close, we are aware of the differences in what we do and speak. Considering this, we are open to discuss and listen to one another in hopes to gather enough information to help us do our own work.

While I was unable to get any interviews from those above us, the challenge in my organization is closing the gap between university headquarters and its surrounding campuses. Currently, the university is making a shift towards online classes to the point that they no longer need as much help from employees outside headquarters (who advises and runs on-campus courses). While it is convenient for them to centralize and cover most of the daily tasks, I believe they are making a backward approach to Obolensky’s importance of polyarchy systems. To better enable leadership and ways of doing at the university, everyone needs to engage in further communication and listening. As previously mentioned, organizations are expanding and becoming complex to the point that leaders cannot make all the decisions for the entire organization (Obolensky, 2014). Considering the previously mentioned 10 to 30% of information from top levels, leading with the missing 60% can cause a domino effect of problems. To avoid this, everyone should engage in communication and listening to not only learn about one another, but to make more effective decision-making.

References:

Obolensky, N. (2014). Complex Adaptive Leadership: Embracing Paradox and Uncertainty (2nd ed.). UK: Gower Publishing.

MSLD 633 Module 7- Leader Follower Relationship

Numerous times throughout my life, I've either experienced, seen, or heard stories about strict and poor leadership and management in the workplace. Especially when many of my friends started working in part-time positions during high school, I often wondered why such style of leadership is considered good for their employees. The stories had many similarities and outcomes: the leader progressively pushes or disregard employee's breaks to focus on customer demand. The leader demands their employees to come to work despite pre-planning their day(s) off. The list goes on. All of these examples often lead to stress, poor motivation, and lack of work satisfaction.

As someone who also had a few similar experiences in the past, I knew that this wasn't the right way to do business. My overall thoughts on leadership remains constant, and it wasn't much of a surprise to see the test results on the tenth chapter of Obolensky's textbook. Of the four strategies, I mostly aligned with Obolensky's strategy 2. Strategy 2, as Obolensky states is where both the focus on goal and people are high. While I understand the reasons behind some of the stories I've heard, it is important to keep in mind that people also makes up the organization. Since teamwork is necessary to run an organization, it is important for leaders to keep a balance between task and relationships (Whetten and Cameron, 2016).

Personally, I believe that the most common mistake organizations make is focusing too much on company tasks. This whole idea of leadership reminds me of an interesting TED talk by Itay Talgam. Talgam's Lead like the great conductors provided some great examples by showing orchestra performances from various conductors. At one point, Talgam shared a clip of Riccardo Muti’s performance, which he used as a metaphor of an over-commanding, task-focused leader. He adds on saying that being too directive and task-driven tends to create social issues, in addition to blocking opportunities for personal development (Talgam, 2009). In another example, Talgam shows a conductor hardly moving his conductor's baton. He uses this example to explain how giving too much authority to followers can also spark conflict. For this case, followers may be at the risk getting "lost" or not putting enough work effort.

Unlike the past, organizations are becoming more complex to the point that it's too much for one or several leaders to handle. As Obolensky states, leaders are starting to depend on the help of others to convert complexity into simplicity (2014). In addition, Whetten and Cameron states that leaders should not only concentrate on getting the job done: as people's physical and mental state has an effect on the organization's outcomes (2016). To avoid stress, lack of motivation, etc. that can potentially hurt the organization, it is important for leaders to constantly place themselves in "other's shoes" and communicate with employees to make effective decision-making.


References:
Obolensky, N. (2014). Complex Adaptive Leadership: Embracing Paradox and Uncertainty (2nd ed.). UK: Gower Publishing.

Talgam, I. (2009). Itay Talgam: Lead like the great conductors [Video File]. TED. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/itay_talgam_lead_like_the_great_conductors


Whetten, D. A. & Cameron, K. S. (2016). Developing management skills, 9th ed. Boston, MA: Pearson.

MSLD 633 Module 7- How Do Coaches Help?

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, often they already made a complete inventory of their personal or professional issues and identified all possible (known) options. Clients have already tried working out their issues alone, and have not succeeded.

As the statement above mentioned, everyone is an expert of themselves. Despite the knowledge and ability in making the best decisions, it is important to keep in mind that self-decisions often times follow a one-side approach. According to Nosich (2012), effective decision-making is established with sufficient and relevant information. Information not only includes general research and data, but also includes different point-of-views (Nosich, 2012). This is where coaching comes to play: as it provides confidence, clarity, as well as additional information to enhance ones’ knowledge. Coaching is what I primarily do for my current position as an academic advisor. While my students are overall independent, it is important to keep in mind that obstacles may come across throughout their degree program. Whether it’s personal or academic-related, our goal is to provide both informational and emotional support to overcome these obstacles.

Academic assistance is the primary form of coaching at my campus, and this includes anywhere from providing clarifications to making recommendations. Perhaps the most common form of coaching is making course recommendations. When students visit or contacts me for assistance, they almost always have some kind of plan developed. While I respect their preferences, my goal is to provide information that they might consider. For example, I usually suggest some elective courses that I or another student found helpful. Unlike regular information (database, policies, etc.), word-of-mouth not only informs the student, but they can see information from a similar perspective. By viewing a situation from "others' shoes", they may be able to obtain additional information they initially were not aware about that may help them make more effective decision-making. 

While clarifying and providing additional information is important in coaching, I also believe that emotional support can be just as important. According to Whetten and Cameron (2016), there is a tie between emotions and productivity. It is not uncommon to come across students who are stressed, worried, and struggling with their degree progress. When a student is worried about a particular class for example, I try to share success stories. For example, I had a student last year that became worried about retaking a physics class he failed the previous term. Rather than simply giving him a "good luck", I told him a story of how it is actually common for students to retake the course and that even I had to retake the class myself. I told him that since he already has some previous background knowledge, re-taking the class should be much easier. Often times, students regain some confidence and when success does happen, the relationship between the student and I usually strengthen. 

References:

Nosich, G.D. (2012). Learning To Think Things Through: A Guide to Critical Thinking Across the Curriculum. Boston: Pearson Education.

Whetten, D. A. & Cameron, K. S. (2016). Developing management skills, 9th ed. Boston, MA: Pearson.