MSLD 641 Module 9- Becoming A Resonant Leader

For this week’s blog, we are asked to write a blog in a form of a letter to ourselves addressing the personal vision*. Additionally, I must list a few learning goals, milestones and action steps, and the list of key people who will support you to achieve the learning goals.

Hi Kelli,

Hope this letter finds you well. Despite recently finishing your Bachelor’s degree, I find it surprising that you have decided to push yourself even further and is now just two classes away from getting your Master’s degree in Leadership. Time sure does fly. As a passionate and very hard working individual, I believe that you will inspire many people and will go to all kinds of places.

Aside from wanting a Master’s degree, I am very well aware of your daily struggles on finding what it is you want to do as a person. I recall you mentioning how nervous you are: especially since many of your friends and family already knows their hopes and dreams. Honestly, you’re not alone. You’re still 25 after all- just entered the workforce and getting the hang of things.

It may not be much of an advice, but since you got a great starting position as an Assistant Campus Director, I suggest you to keep doing what you’ve been doing. Ever since you graduated with your Bachelor’s you became more independent in terms of making decisions. You even overcame your fears of talking to people. It’s a big change! I recall you avoiding to talk to people: especially to customer service representatives when you go shopping. Today, you talk to an array of people: taking the time to know and help them. Your hard efforts are also leaving great impressions on your students. They are very well aware of your authenticity and continue to look up to you until they graduate. I also applaud you to have some of these students recommend your campus to their friends. It helped boost enrollment numbers and allowed nearby communities to invite you to local events.

You mentioned in your blurry vision statement that you are not aware of your dream careers, but want to ensure you are someone who always put people first- no matter what situation you’re in. 

Personally, I’d say you’re on the right track for the second half. You mentioned before that you didn’t want students to go through the same struggles you’ve been through as a student. Rather than simply getting the job done, you took the time to work and understand the students. To help you find the right career paths, I have three suggestions in mind. The first thing is obvious… get that Master’s degree! The program has and continues to teach you so many things. This will help open more doors of opportunity. Second, continue to meet people. With Boeing and many other large companies nearby, you have a great selection of people coming into your office. While we don’t want to force them, occasionally ask questions or talk about their job. Just maybe, you can find something interesting. Lastly, continue to take any opportunities that come by. While you can discover what you like and dislike, you can also further sharpen your skills and knowledge.

MSLD 641 Module 8- Personal Balance Sheet

For this week’s blog, we were asked to complete an exercise that focused on our assets and liabilities. All leaders, even the most iconic ones all have their strengths and weaknesses. To ensure that we lead as effective and efficiently as possible, it is important for leaders to know their strengths and weaknesses. By knowing what we do well and focusing on areas that need improvement, we can promote further growth. Since I have a habit of focusing too much on my assets, this exercise was a great opportunity to breakdown what I do and analyze what areas I could use improvement on.

Assets:

            Personally, I believe my most distinctive assets is empathy. As an employee and longtime student for the same university, I am very familiar with the processes and situations that occur both from the staff and students’ perspective. Specifically, when a student is going through a tough situation I’ve previously been through, I can immediately relate and understand how they feel. Often times, I share personal examples to help explain things from a student’s perspective (speaking in a similar “language” so it’s easier for them to understand) and also acknowledge that I understand their situation: which also include emotions. By establishing a connection, this can promote positive relationships.

            A potential strength that I believe I have is independence and confidence in decision making. As someone who is worried on stressing people out and making mistakes, I occasionally ask people for their opinion to check whether my thoughts are on the right track. This used to be much more frequent during the first year into my current job: as I had hardly any workplace experience. Now working nearly three years into my job, I am very familiar with the campus operation and has sharpened my general skills and knowledge essential in the workplace.

            The last portion of the assets section focused on enduring dispositions that support me. These include traits, habits, and behaviors that I do not want to change and will help me be successful (Boyatzis et al., 2008). Personally, I find my ability to control emotions during stressful situation to be a huge plus to both my personal and professional life. My whole life lives by the Golden Rule, or the way where we treat others in the way you want to be treated in the same situation (Putnam, 2006). One of the main reasons why I joined the leadership program is because I’ve came across many poor examples of leadership. Every time I experience poor leadership, I often ask myself, “what good can you get for rolling your eyes and sounding irritated to your customers? Does that make me, your customers, or your company feel good?”. When people act in such way, I knew that this would only make things difficult, so while advisement can be very stressful at times, I try not to add further stress for both myself, the student, and my university.

Liabilities:

            As previously mentioned, I tend to focus strongly towards my strengths than my weaknesses. However, one weakness that I have is the ability to resolve conflict. As a naturally friendly and caring individual, it is very rare to come across situations where ones don’t agree or are highly dissatisfied. I recall a situation one time where a student made a mistake and blamed me for not telling her about a university policy. While I can simply explain what the policy was, hearing the student yell and talking back shuts me off. I tend to take things too personally, wondering if there was anything I did wrong and feeling emotionally hurt in general. As conflict can occur anywhere and anytime, this is also a weakness that I want to change and improve on. While I don’t want to purposely get into any sticky situations, I personally believe that having experience and taking the time to respond would help me overcome this weakness.

            The last portion of the liability section focused on enduring dispositions that sometimes cause me to be less effective. My response may be a bit odd, but a personal habit I have is that I sometimes side with my own convenience rather than the person I am interacting with. While taking phone calls is a primary task as an academic advisor, I usually try to have students either visit the office in-person or email me due to a hearing disability. As previously mentioned, I tend to worry about making mistakes and stressing people because of my mistakes. In fact, the most common reasons for disputes in my organization is because of my misunderstandings. While I am fully aware that phone calls are convenient for certain students (such as they want that “human” interaction or they have restricted schedules), I usually end up encouraging them to email or visit me in-person. In hope that they don’t view my request as a way to avoid working with them, I usually explain that I want to ensure accuracy for the sakes of the student.

References:

McKee, A., Boyatzis, R. E., & Johnston, F. (2008). Becoming a resonant leader: Develop your emotional intelligence, renew your relationships, sustain your effectiveness. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School.

Putnam, M. (2006). Reflections on the Golden Rule. Global Ethics University. Retrieved from http://www.globalethicsuniversity.com/articles/thegoldenrule.htm

MSLD 641 Module 7- Appreciating Your “Real Self”

For this week’s reflection blog, I have completed a series of exercises from the Becoming a Resonant Leader textbook. The exercise explored different things about myself: including different events that have occurred in my lifetime, relationships, as well as changes in the way I think and do things. Overall, I found the exercise to be not only interesting, but useful. It helped me understand my strengths and weaknesses better, and the series of exercises were also helpful in providing ideas for a suitable career path.

Of all the exercises, I found the lifeline exercise to be the most interesting. My 25 years of life so far has been overall positive. I have done and accomplished many things- travelling to various famous cities around the world, winning first place in an island-wide essay contest, graduating with a Bachelor’s of Science in Business Administration, and soon to graduate with a Master’s of Science in Leadership. Aside from the events that have occurred in my life, seeing how I changed as a person was also very interesting.

One of my big turning points occurred near the end of high school when my best friend unexpectedly passed away. He was the first non-family loss I’ve experienced. I recall not doing well in class and isolating myself from everyone. As friends and family members eventually learned what I was going through, I remember receiving a lot of emotional support- some from people that I hardly even knew or spoke with. As a very introverted and somewhat mean person at the time, I was at first a bit irritated and nervous on having many people approach me. Eventually, it made me realize how people really cared about me and was sacrificing their own time to make sure I was doing okay. Around the same time, my friend’s parents, who are community spokespersons began sharing his story: spreading awareness to share kindness with others. After hearing the many good things my friend has done before he died, I began to think that I should do the same. Since then, I have started to talk to an array of people and focused more on establishing positive relationships.

Another activity that was included in the textbook were focused on social identities. This exercise, in my opinion was the most challenging: as there were some areas (such as interests) that I am unsure about. The most difficult part of the exercise was when I listed my social roles. It took me a very long time to think over what roles I have, and I could only come up with very little: daughter, sister, student, full-time employee, and academic advisor. After listing the different roles I have, the exercise asked the three big questions that I struggle with almost daily:

1. Which roles and social identities are most important to you and why?
2. How were you taught about your identities?
3. Are there any aspects of your identity or roles that you are interested in exploring more deeply? Which ones and why?

Even though I am currently an academic advisor, I have chosen this path because of opportunities. Desperate for a job after getting my bachelors, I applied to various places in hope to develop a starting point and discover what my interests are and skills are. Now nearly in my third year as an advisor, I have developed and enhanced an array of skills, but is still unsure if student advisement is a long term path I’d like to stick to. This exercise however had helped me identify what skills, strengths, and weaknesses I have- which could be used to narrow down and provide ideas for a new career path.

Reference:

McKee, A., Boyatzis, R. E., & Johnston, F. (2008). Becoming a resonant leader: Develop your emotional intelligence, renew your relationships, sustain your effectiveness. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School. 

MSLD 641 Module 5- ICT at the Team Level

From an honest standpoint, I am very unfamiliar with professional sports and any news regarding to them. For this week’s blog, we examine and compare the leadership styles of the Olympic US Women’s Soccer team and the US Dream Team basketball team between the years 2000 and 2004. Despite the lack of interest and understanding of professional sports and athletes, I was a former volleyball and tennis athlete, and can understand the importance of teamwork and the leadership needed to help the team succeed.

The first team to analyze was the US Dream Team basketball. For several consecutive years, the US basketball team always brought home the Olympic gold medal. In 2004 however, it took a different turn and the team took home the bronze medal. The result of the loss was due to poor organization and team leadership. In an interview, Olympian Emeka Okafor stated that, “the team came together at the very last minute”. Others on the 2004 team also mentioned that Larry Brown, the coach at the time focused mostly towards veteran players rather than the team all together (Leopold & Teitelbaum, 2016).

                US Dream Team’s loss of 2004 reminded me a bit of my past experience as a volleyball player for the high school tennis team. Inspired by an old Japanese anime, I decided to join the team with very little experience. While my coaches initially did an excellent job and helped me become a skilled player, my experience with the team slowly turned into a negative one. Halfway into the season, my coaches began to focus mostly on the top three players of the team: one being an expert player towards the net, middle, and back of the court. Due to the lack of training, everyone else was slowly becoming disorganized: resulting many losses. Rather than providing further training to strengthen our weaknesses, the coaches instead openly admitted that they were disappointed and eventually forced the team (excluding the three players) to run several miles and wrapping it up with a few sit-ups and push-ups as punishment.

                Connecting this to our readings, the result of the losses were likely due to poor relationships. From my personal experience and US Dream Team, it is clear that everyone was not receiving the same treatment. As Dr. Boyatzis (n.d.) stated, leadership is successful when they establish relationships and recognize people as an individual rather than an object. This reminded me of a past TED talk I’ve watched titled What Makes Us Feel Good About Our Work. In summary, Dan Ariely had a series of experiments that focused on the sense of recognition and purpose of work. The results of these experiments showed that motivation: which boost work outcomes, increased when work was being recognized. In addition, it was found that being recognized not only motivated employees to work, but it also promoted happiness (Ariely, 2012).

                By providing recognition, establishing, and maintaining relationships, ones could yield results similar to the Olympic US Women’s Soccer team. Just like the US Dream Team, the Olympic Women’s soccer team consisted of players of different ages, talent, and personality. Despite the differences however, head coach April Heinrich treated everyone as one team and established the mentality of winning (U.S. Soccer Federation, 2004). With a common ground, recognition, and some encouragement, it can establish a successful and powerful team. After a disappointing experience with the high school volleyball team, I joined the tennis team. Just like the women’s soccer and Dream Team, my team consisted of an array of players of all ages and talents. What motivated me to continue for the remainder of my high school days was that my coaches recognized each and everyone’s strengths and weaknesses, and provided personalized training to enhance our skills. Starting as the lowest rank on my first year, my coaches’ efforts greatly motivated me to become better: eventually leading me to become a mid-ranked varsity player by my senior year.

References:

Boyatzis, R. (n.d.). What is Great Leadership? Case Western Reserve University. Retrieved from https://820961.kaf.kaltura.com/browseandembed/index/media-redirect/entryid/1_irqylr7d/showDescription/false/showTitle/false/showTags/false/showDuration/false/showOwner/false/showUploadDate/false/playerSize/400x285/playerSkin/30818691#

Leopold, B. & Teitelbaum, B. (2016).  Red, White and Bronze: The death and rebirth of USA Basketball. NBC Olympics. Retrieved from http://www.nbcolympics.com/news/red-white-and-bronze-2004-death-and-rebirth-usa-basketball

U.S. Soccer Federation. (2004). Heinrichs Names 2004 U.S. Olympic Women's Soccer Team. Retrieved from https://www.ussoccer.com/stories/2014/03/17/13/06/heinrichs-names-2004-u-s-olympic-womens-soccer-team

MSLD 641 Module 4- Tipping Points of Emotional Intelligence

For this week’s blog, we focus on tipping points, or points where events and changes becomes significant enough to cause a larger, more important change. For changes to occur however, two attractors are required: positive emotional attractors (PEA) and negative emotional attractors (NEA). PEA includes dreams, possibilities, and strengths whereas NEA includes fears and weaknesses (Howard, 2006). While Boyatzis and Taylor (2015) states that NEA are required to have people move from vision to action, a person must spend more time with PEA in order to achieve a sustained desired change. Despite this however, he adds that it is important for leaders to maintain balance between PEA and NEA to make effective decisions (Boyatzis & Taylor, 2015).  

A tipping point I recall is when I was working on my past job as a summer camp employee. After a successful first year, I was promoted as a coordinator and had more responsibilities: which included the management of an entire camp and lower-leveled employees. Unlike the previous year, the number of camp participants nearly doubled. In addition to having around the same number of employees as the previous year, everyone was struggling and exceptionally busy.

Likely due to the high levels of stress and lack of employees, my coworkers and occasionally myself made a lot of mistakes and in general was not performing to the expected standards. With the constant mistakes, I was also progressively getting upset at myself and my coworkers. At one point during the summer camp program, I was entering my exam week for classes. Since my workplace had academics as their top priority, I had two assistants take over my camp for the day while I was given a couple hours to focus on my studies. At one point, one of the camp instructors interrupted and notified me that a few students were missing and was needed to complete an activity. Already stressed from studying, I ended up getting into an argument with my assistants: blaming them for their mistakes.

With the constant arguments and negative emotions, I started to notice that workplace performance and relationships were getting worse. I eventually reached the tipping point when my boss called me into his office for a talk. I was worried, thinking I’d lose my job, but instead he thanked me for my so-far work efforts and pointed out some areas that needed some fixing on. While the talk made me feel better, it also made me think about the way I treated my coworkers. At this stage, I was able to identify NEA and PEA: I became more aware that everyone was stressed and that treating them negatively is only making things worse. Inspired by how my boss treated me, I then decided to get in a better habit to stay positive, even during the most difficult times. This is critical for leaders, as study finds that positivity help improve relationships and overall work outcomes (Fredrickson, 2011). In the end, I was able to apologize for my behavior on the two assistants and we improved on communication.

References:

Boyatzis, R. E., Rochford, K., & Taylor, S. N. (2015). The role of the positive emotional attractor in vision and shared vision: Toward effective leadership, relationships, and engagement. Frontiers in Psychology, 6, 670. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00670

Fredrickson, B. (2011). Barbara Fredrickson: Positive Emotions Open our Mind [Video File]. YouTube. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7dFDHzV36g&feature=youtu.be

Howard, A. (2006). Positive and negative emotional attractors and intentional change. Journal of Management Development, Vol. 25 Issue: 7, pp.657-670

MSLD 641 Module 3- Working with EI: Getting Results!

While having the ability to complete tasks is critical, it’s the social aspects that help drive organizations to success (Boyatzis, 2012).. Emotional intelligence (EI), or the way we handle ourselves and our relationships is often seen as the foundation to building and understanding relationships (Goleman, 2012). In this week’s video, Goleman (2012) describes the four dimensions of EI: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and social skills (Goleman, 2012).

Although I mostly provide general information and resources to students, EI plays an important role in student advisement and help make decision-making more effective. Occasionally, we have students that come to my office for assistance after struggling with academic, work, or personal reasons. Simply telling them to, “retake the class” or “fill these papers out” could result in miscommunication or feelings of discomfort: which could potentially worsen the situation the student is already going through as well as the overall relationship. To avoid these issues, it is important for leaders to thinking critically: which includes thinking about our choices as well as how these choices align how other people think.

Of all the four dimensions Goleman mentioned, my strongest is without a doubt social awareness. Social awareness, as he explains is the ability to understand and respond to the need of others (Goleman, 2012). The key here is empathy: where we sync and relate with one another. While it might mostly be because I previously and currently attend the same university I work for, I can easily sync with the student and respond accordingly. When it comes to a student failing and needing to retake a class for example, I can easily relate to my own personal experience. This is where self-awareness and self-management comes to play: as I start to pick up and understand the emotions that occurred in the past. As I gather all the information, I can then approach the situation.

With EI, I personally believe that there’s more value added to our actions because we are recognizing our people as individuals rather than objects. In my previous example, we’re not only helping the student retake the class, but we also provide emotional support: we understand how they feel and bring out positivity. When I usually approach this situation, I usually ensure that the situation is nothing ones should be deeply ashamed or embarrassed about. We basically let our students know that it can happen to anyone as an array of things can interfere in our lives. We try to empower and motivate our students by providing them the information and other counseling needs. In the end, we hope for the students to have a sense that we care about them: which can help build stronger relationships. With stronger relationships, advising becomes easier and could also boost the campus’s overall reputation.

References:

Boyatzis, R. (2012). Dr. Richard Boyatzis- Resonant Leadership- UNC Kenan-Flager [Video file]. YouTube. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxjNu6kSpKc&feature=youtu.be&list=PLC5BF495EE698766F

Goleman, D. (2012). Daniel Goleman Introduces Emotional Intelligence [Video file]. YouTube. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7m9eNoB3NU

MSLD 641 Module 2- Am I a Resonant Leader

For this week’s module, we had the opportunity to complete a brief self-reflection exercise to see whether we have demonstrated or lacked any resonant leadership skills and mindset. As Boyatzis (2012) mentioned in the video, although coming up with strategies, visions, or goals are essential, it’s the relationship between the leader and people that help drives organizations to success. Ever since I started working in my current job as an academic advisor, I’ve followed mostly with resonant leadership. While I have picked up many things from long-time employees at my organization, most of what I do is inspired based on my own personal experience as a student. Just like my students currently do, I also got help from my advisors. With a large campus and a long line of other students outside my advisor’s office, advisement was often rushed to ensure everyone got the help they needed. My overall feedback on my past experiences were satisfactory, but I was wishing some more time and more personalized responses and resources. Now an advisor myself, I can my goal for students is to give them what I was unable to get several years back.

After completing the short exercise, seeing my results were not that surprising. The first question of the exercise asked whether I am inspirational and how I inspire people. While I don’t find myself to be highly inspirational, I do have goals to inspire students to help them feel hopeful: specifically during challenging situations. As a student advisor, my goal is to help student succeed. As we all have personal situations pop up here and then, this could lead to some difficulties academically. A few years back for example, I had a student fresh out of high school fail his first class. He was clearly upset and was likely worried about how the remaining classes would be like. My approach to this situation adds up to the remaining questions of the exercise. Upon hearing the student’s situation, I clearly saw myself: as I also failed the same class he took. While I knew the course very difficult, I also considered the stressful shift from high school to college and feelings of embarrassment and disappointment that I felt in the past.

With my past experiences in mind, I first approached the student to let him know that he’s not alone and that it happens to anyone. To express my understanding of his situation, I shared my personal experience with the class and occasionally made a few funny remarks for good laughs. To inspire and make him feel more hopeful about the future, I let him know that taking the same course the second time was a lot easier: allowing me to successfully pass the class and eventually get the degree. In the end, I gave him recommendations and some resources to help him overcome the problem. In the end, the student was able to pass the class and is now close to completing his degree. When advisement is successful, I personally believe that this enhances the relationship I already have with students. As a result, communication becomes more frequent and students have better trust in me to provide advisement in the future.

Reference:

Boyatzis, R. (2012). Dr. Richard Boyatzis- Resonant Leadership- UNC Kenan-Flager [Video file]. YouTube. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxjNu6kSpKc&feature=youtu.be&list=PLC5BF495EE698766F

MSLD 641 Module 1- What is Great Leadership?

            For this week’s module, Dr. Richard Boyatzis asked viewers in his video What is Great Leadership to stop and think about past leaders we’ve worked with. He first wanted us to think of a leader that brought out the best- one that we’d be gladly to work for again in the future. On the contrary, he also asked us to list another past leader that did not- one who you’d avoid working with in the future. With a little less than three years of work experience and technically working on my first and only job (my other was a temporary summer job), it’s hard to come up with an individual that I’d completely avoid. As both individuals that came in mind are overall good leaders, I will instead point out some areas that I believe could have been improved.

            The first person that came in mind currently works for the same organization that I work for. Since I’d like to keep the name anonymous, I will name her “Mrs. I”. For the activity, I described Mrs. I as a creative, caring, and a dependable coach. While Mrs. I isn’t exactly my boss, she has always been someone I looked up to. The main reason why I look up to her is because she has provided training when I first started working in my current job and continues to help sharpen my current skills and knowledge on student advisement. Also knowing that I am currently building overall work experience, she is very patient and provides detailed information and suggestions to help make improvements. When we cross path at work, she never fails to greet me and occasionally checks on me to make sure everything is running smoothly at my campus.

            The second person that came in mind also works for the same organization but was for a different position. Unlike Mrs. I, my former supervisor nicknamed “Mr. F” was more task-driven. For the activity, I described him as strict, task-driven, and single-minded. In my previous position, I was a summer camp coordinator: where I was in charge of escorting and ensuring the safety of middle school and high school participants. As the camp consisted of various activities, staff had to stick with the schedule to ensure everything runs smoothly. With me and my assistant in charge of a camp group consisting of more than 40 participants, we often had some difficulties to manage our students. Rather than understanding our best attempt to ensure everything runs smoothly, Mr. F often called me into the office, giving me a “do better next time” feedback (no detailed explanation). When things do run smoothly, I also never received any detailed feedback on what I did good or could do better. Often times, I felt that I wasn’t being recognized for my efforts: which made me less motivated to put additional effort.

            As Dr. Boyatzis (n.d.) explained in his video, I think the key to what makes great leaders are that they establish relationships and recognize employees as an individual rather than an object. This reminded me of a past TED talk I’ve watched called What Makes Us Feel Good About Our Work. In summary, Dan Ariely had a series of experiments that focused on the sense of recognition and purpose of work. The results of these experiments showed that motivation increased when work was being recognized. In addition, it was found that being recognized not only motivated employees to work, but it also promoted happiness (Ariely, 2012).

Not receiving any acknowledgement or knowing that efforts will never be acknowledged often leads to negative reactions including frustration, sense of unworthiness, and disappointment. This was something I felt when working with Mr.F: as he didn’t recognize my efforts or provided any good or bad feedback for personal improvement. Lack of recognition and purpose is hazardous for any organizations: as it reduce human capital, which is essential for organizational success (Mathis and Jackson, 2011).

References:

Ariely, D. (2012). Dan Ariely: What makes us feel good about our work? [Video File]. TED. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/dan_ariely_what_makes_us_feel_good_about_our_work

Boyatzis, R. (n.d.). What is Great Leadership? Case Western Reserve University. Retrieved from https://820961.kaf.kaltura.com/browseandembed/index/media-redirect/entryid/1_irqylr7d/showDescription/false/showTitle/false/showTags/false/showDuration/false/showOwner/false/showUploadDate/false/playerSize/400x285/playerSkin/30818691#

Mathis, R. L., & Jackson, J. H. (2011). Human resource management (13th ed.). Mason, OH: South-Western, Cengage Learning

MSLD 634 Module 9- A Reflection of Our Learning

The Leadership Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility (MSLD 634) course has reminded us of the importance of critical thinking and provided important lessons that can be applied to both my personal and professional life. The three topics that I find to be most beneficial and interesting were the slippery slope arguments (SSA), the differences in age groups in today’s organization, and The Golden Rule.

Of all the topics, I learned some new insights on the slippery slope arguments (SSA). While I’ve heard of the terminology before taking this class, I’ve always thought that SSA were always bad. This class has taught me that this is not always the case and that the general idea is SSA is a chain reaction: we look ahead and view how different kinds of actions leads to certain consequences (LaFollette, 2007). The SSA also reminded us of the importance of considering the thoughts of others in the decision making process, since each and every one of us see and think things differently. With this in mind, we can minimize or completely avoid dealing with negative consequences.

As a millennial and an individual relatively new to the workforce, I’ve sometimes worried and even struggled a little when working with different age groups. This class has provided some more in-depth information about the different age groups in today’s organizations and how they see and think things differently. The lessons learned has also reminded us that working with different age groups is not necessarily a bad thing: as differences can also promote learning opportunities (Deyoe & Fox, 2012). With these lessons, I plan to encourage myself to communicate with others in hope to learn new things to improve my everyday task as an academic advisor.

While the topic was more of a review, the last thing I thought was interesting and important was The Golden Rule. One of the most important thing I follow both in my every day and professional life is the idea to treat others in the same way I’d like to be treated in the same situation (Putnam, 2006). Prior to this class, I mentioned the Golden Rule several times in my assignments, but was not aware that there was an actual name for such idea. Now that I know the name, I can correctly refer to the Golden Rule for my future classes.

References:

Deyoe, R. H., & Fox, T. L. (2012). Identifying strategies to minimize workplace conflict due to generational differences. Journal of Behavioral Studies, 5, 1-17.

LaFollette, H. (2007). The Practice of Ethics. Blackwell Publishing.

Putnam, M. (2006). Reflections on the Golden Rule. Global Ethics University. Retrieved from http://www.globalethicsuniversity.com/articles/thegoldenrule.htm

MSLD 634 Module 8- Gun Control: What is the Answer?

While gun laws and violence has been around for a very long time, recent media seems to be getting into the topic more than ever before. Gun violence in U.S. soil has once again gone up, a 4 percent increase since last year’s statistics (Gun Violence Archive, 2018). While the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution provided rights to bear arms (U.S. Const. amend. II), the public often wonders whether a wide range of alternatives should be considered: including no, partial, or total abolition (LaFollette, 2007).

As intimidating firearms looks, they’re merely just a tool for self-defense. When given to the wrong individuals however, they become deadly weapons. Despite this fact however, I personally find guns to be no different than everyday items such as forks or a pitcher of iced tea. As the Merriam-Webster (n.d.) dictionary defines, a weapon is something used to injure, defeat, or destroy someone or something. Since how the gun is used really depends on the individual, I personally believe that gun laws should revolve mostly around gun users and not the object itself. As easy as it sounds however, establishing gun laws based on our mental state is excruciating difficult since the only person who really understands it is ourselves.

While we hope that future technology allows us to accurately read and understand one’s mental state, I personally think the closest we can get to determining one’s thinking is through a series of personal interviews and close examinations of the individual’s medical and crime records. In other words, individuals should go through extensive background checks before purchasing firearm.

Although background checks may help, I believe it is also everyone’s responsibility to ensure that firearms don’t end up with the wrong person. One shooting I recall is the Cascade Mall Shooting that occurred in Washington State last year. The incident occurred just a few miles away from where my family and I live, and I recall several friends and acquaintances who knew the 20-year-old suspect, Arcan Cetin. While the motive is still unclear to this day, Cetin entered the mall with a .22 Ruger rifle, instantly killing five people. Upon further investigation, it was found that Cetin had multiple troubled histories and was banned of possessing firearm. Despite the ruling, he still managed to get his hands on the rifle, which was stolen from a family member (Solis & Hughes, 2016). Although it is unclear how the rifle was stolen, perhaps the incident wouldn’t have occurred if it were locked away and closely monitored by the appropriate owner. In addition, if ones even knew or sensed suspicion of an individual, these should be reported immediately to reduce situations from occurring.
References:

“Gun Violence Archive”. (2018). 2014-2017 End of Year Logs. Retrieved from http://www.gunviolencearchive.org/

“Weapon” [Def 1]. (n.d.). Merriam-Webster Online. Retrieved from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/weapon

LaFollette, H. (2007). The Practice of Ethics. Blackwell Publishing.

Solis, S. & Hughes, T. (2016). Washington mall shooting suspect to face 5 murder charges. USA Today. Retrieved from https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2016/09/25/washington-mall-shooting-suspect-arcan-cetin/91071336/

U.S. Const. amend. II. Retrieved from https://www.constituteproject.org/constitution/United_States_of_America_1992 

MSLD 634 Module 7- Ethics and Behaviors

Ethics play an important role not only in our personal lives, but also in our professional lives. For this week’s module, we watched two short videos that examined both ethical and unethical behaviors in the workplace. The first video, focused mostly on the importance of treating others with respect whereas the second video explored aftermaths when an unethical situation takes place.

Of the two videos, I was able to mostly relate to Bruce Weinstein’s statements on the Keynote Speech Excerpts from The Ethics Guy video. He first talked about the importance of respecting others. While this ensures a good relationship within the organization, he also states that doing so will also make the individual feel good about themselves (Weinstein, 2012). This was demonstrated when Weinstein called out for two volunteers: who felt unappreciated. Weinstein then told his audience to applaud for the volunteers. Although this was a simple task, it eventually made the two individuals smile as well as the audience (Weinstein, 2012).

I am able to relate to Weinstein’s statements as well his simple exercise to my current job as an academic advisor. Over the course of years, I’ve learned the importance of respect and is aware of how different the outcomes are when doing so. My advisement strategies are heavily based on my past experience as a student. While my advisors provided me the resources I needed, they often rushed through their advisement due to the large traffic of students waiting to seek advisement. In addition to easily be forgotten, I often felt a bit unimportant and a nuisance to the advisors. Now that I’m an advisor and is aware of the student’s point-of-view, I place myself in “the students’ shoes” and ensure that I not only provide the help they need, but to establish good business relationships (such as remembering names, occasionally have small talks, etc.).

In the second video, Chuck Gallagher introduced us to the Unethical Continuum, which identifies the different types of unethical behaviors and the probable outcomes on each of these behaviors. One of the most common reason why organizations and individuals fail to make effective decision making is because they often approach situations as a monolithic process (Anthony & Schwartz, 2017). Gallagher’s statement reminded us of this mistake and explains the importance of thinking critically. This included not only the decisions we make, but also how other feel about the idea (Gallagher, 2013).

Since the primary goal of my organization is student success, we overall have a good practice of looking at situations critically. While most advisement goes smoothly, there are some instances where the student is in distress. If we approach them like any other student, this could cause some difficulties with advisement and misunderstandings: which could potentially hurt our relationship. To ensure that we assist them successfully, I try to identify how the student is feeling. If the student is dealing with family troubles for instance, we have to be sympathetic (it’s important to ensure that we’re not excessive either!) and let them know that we’ll be at assistance through their difficult time. In addition to speaking in a slow, calm voice, this signals the student that we care and want to help: which could help maintain or even improve our relationship.

References:

Anthony, S. & Schwartz, E. (2017). What the Best Transformational Leaders Do. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2017/05/what-the-best-transformational-leaders-do

Gallagher, C. (2013). Business Ethics Keynote Speaker - Chuck Gallagher - shares Straight Talk about Ethics! [Video file]. YouTube. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUJ00vNGCPE

Weinstein, B. (2012). Keynote Speech Excerpts from The Ethics Guy [Video file]. YouTube. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLxbHBpilJQ

MSLD 634 Module 6- What are Virtues?

In 1726, at the age of 20, Benjamin Franklin established the 13 Virtues for self-improvement. While Franklin wasn’t able to always follow his own advice regarding to the virtues, he aimed to inspire others to live a better-quality life (Cain, 2016). Below are Franklin’s 13 Virtues and a short description of each (PBS, 2002):

1.         Temperance: Eat not to dullness. Drink not to elevation.

2.         Silence: Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself. Avoid trifling conversation.

3.         Order: Let all your things have their places. Let each part of your business have its time.

4.         Resolution: Resolve to perform what you ought. Perform without fail what you resolve.

5.         Frugality: Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself: i.e., Waste nothing.

6.         Industry: Lose no time. Be always employed in something useful. Cut off all unnecessary actions.

7.         Sincerity: Use no hurtful deceit. Think innocently and justly; and if you speak, speak accordingly.

8.         Justice: Wrong none by doing injuries, or omitting the benefits that are your duty.

9.         Moderation: Avoid extremes. Forbear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve.

10.       Cleanliness: Tolerate no uncleanness in body, clothes, or habitation.

11.       Tranquility: Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable.

12.       Chastity: Rarely use venery but for health or offspring; never to dullness, weakness, or the injury of your own or another's peace or reputation.

13.       Humility: Imitate Jesus and Socrates.

            Of the 13 Virtues, I was mostly able to relate to sincerity: where ones communicate and act in accordance with their feelings, thoughts, and beliefs. Personally, I believe this virtue is very important since sincerity also revolves around honesty (McKay & McKay, 2008). In my organization for example, sincerity is very important since it help establish positive relationships and trust with my students. As an advisor and a student myself, I want to ensure they succeed and do not go through some of the struggles and mistakes I’ve experienced. Because of this, I often times share personal experiences to enhance or clarify advisement, but to also show students that I understand and is willing to help.

            Prior to the making of this blog, we were given a brief placement quiz based on Franklin’s 13 Virtues. While the results show that I overall made very virtuous choices and closely followed Franklin’s own self-improvement plan, the two virtues I might need to focus more on were resolution and moderation. I chuckled at these responses since they were very accurate and is indeed something that I need to improve on.

While I understand the importance of maintaining goals and keeping things in close moderation, I personally believe that I scored low on these because of my current struggle on balancing my school, work, and personal life. Due to the stress buildup on these things, I tend to procrastinate and go off track. For instance, rather than making little progress each day on homework, I almost always end up playing excessive amounts of video games: which cause me to do my assignments in large chunks (which means staying up too late!). Another example revolves around dieting. Despite having the goal to shed a few pounds, I constantly get distracted and stressed from school and work: which often times leads me to eat for comfort (junk food and excessive eating). While overcoming these mistakes is excruciatingly difficult right now, the best thing I can do is to improve my time management by sticking with some sort of schedule. Since I tend to spend too much time on work and school, I need to ensure that I make time to do things that I enjoy: which can not only relieve stress, but also increase willpower to stay on track.

References:

Cain, A. (2016). Visiting a modern-day salon where people discuss Ben Franklin's ideas showed me how valuable his insights can be 290 years later. Business Insider. Retrieved from http://www.businessinsider.com/ben-franklin-circle-salon-2016-11

Mckay, B. & Mckay, K. (2008). The Virtuous Life: Sincerity. Retrieved from https://www.artofmanliness.com/2008/04/13/the-virtuous-life-sincerity/

PBS. (2002). Ben’s 13 Virtues. PBS. Retrieved from http://www.pbs.org/benfranklin/pop_virtues_list.html

MSLD 634 Module 5-Is Marketing Evil?

When it comes to business, people often times immediately assume that the primary goal is to promote and sell products or services. Mostly true, but as a former business student, I’ve learned that businesses are so much more than selling. One of the most common reasons why organizations fail to lead effectively is because they view decision-making as a one directional, monolithic process (Anthony & Schwartz, 2017). While selling is indeed a primary operation, it is important to remember that people are what make business possible. And with people, there are always social aspects to consider and implement in decision-making: one of which is ethics.

Ethics and ethically decision-making is a bit of a "no-brainer": we have to understand and do things that’s considered right and agreeable by the people to effectively run our organization. This relationship is seen on Ferrell’s (2005) chart from Marketing Ethics (p.4):   

The important thing to consider from the table above is that this doesn’t show how to make a decision, but rather how decisions are made (Ferrell, 2005). Another thing we can draw from the table above is that how ethical decisions are depends on how the company internally approaches ethics. To ensure that ones don’t go off track, it is critical to establish strong and clear ethical guidelines throughout the company.

            While ethics is one critical thing to consider in marketing, it is also important to maintain positive relationships with consumers as well as understanding what people need, want, and like in general. One way businesses gain such information is through what Herb Weisbaum (n.d.) labels as “behavioral tracking”. Behavioral tracking is the way where organizations builds a detailed profile about people based on the information on what sites you visit and the things you buy and search. In most cases, this is done without ones knowledge or consent (Weisbaum, n.d.). To me, consent and being informed is very important, and I’d find it very unethical if ones have unauthorized access through my personal information. So here we might ask, if some business think this way, how can ones gain useful information for their business? If I played a role as a marketing manager, I’d try to gain information based on consumer feedback while maintaining a good company reputation by quickly responding to consumers.

While participation may be a bit of a struggle, I personally believe that feedback is a more reliable source of information as it comes directly from the consumer. In addition, feedback informs consumers about our request for information and gives them the option on whether or not to give consent to the company. To maintain a good reputation for the company, communication and timely responses are critical. If consumers were dissatisfied or received a faulty product or service, we need to accommodate them as soon as possible. If we see a trend that effects our consumers, take notice and take action. Just as Ferrell (2005) mentioned, companies can also get involved and give to the community to maintain a good company image (such as Home Depot providing support to Habitat for Humanity in response to Hurricane Kathrina). When this all comes down together, I personally believe that marketing isn’t necessarily evil as long as the company responds and meets consumer demands, needs, and preferences.  

References:

Anthony, S. & Schwartz, E. (2017). What the Best Transformational Leaders Do. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2017/05/what-the-best-transformational-leaders-do

Ferrell, L. (2005). Marketing Ethics. Retrieved from http://college.cengage.com/business/modules/marktngethics.pdf

Weisbaum, H. (n.d.). Who’s watching you online? FTC pushes ‘Do Not Track’ plan. MSN News. Retrieved from http://www.nbcnews.com/id/42239031/ns/business-consumer_news/t/whos-watching-you-online-ftc-pushes-do-not-track-plan/#.WjriM1VKuUl

MSLD 634 Module 4-Is Affirmative Action Ethical?

Affirmative action, or the practice of giving special consideration to minorities (LaFollette, 2007) may appear ethical for those in consideration, but we may ask ourselves: is it really ethical? Looking into our history, the general idea of affirmative action was ideal. American women once did not have equal rights with men and blacks once did not share equal rights to whites. Eventually, such discrimination were prohibited and affirmative actions (a plausible form of compensatory justice) were taken to ensure equal qualities of life to those involved (AAAED, 2015). Over the course of years however, racism and other forms of discrimination has declined: which changed the way we view affirmative actions.

The whole concept of affirmative action reminded me of a personal situation I’ve been involved with during a mid-season tryout for my high school varsity tennis team. During these tryouts, top rank players from the junior varsity team had a chance to play several matches against the varsity players. Depending on the result of these matches, players had the opportunity to move up and even join the varsity team. As the top-rank player in the junior varsity team, I participated in the tryouts and managed to win a match against a varsity player. Upon winning, my opponent and the entire varsity team got into a very emotional state and were deeply sadden by her loss. Despite my hard efforts, the coaches eventually made the ultimate decision to not swap ranks due to the “friendship” involved. When this decision was made, I was confused (and very upset) since I didn’t understand the difference between my opponent’s friendship to the varsity team and mine. What made my opponent stand out more than me? If I were my opponent, would I be getting the same treatment? While the probable reason may be for the two of us to avoid any negative impacts (the opponent dealing with embarrassment and the varsity team treating me badly due to winning), the real reason to this decision remains unclear.

Similar thoughts and questions arises in the case of student admissions: which I personally find to be a long time and fairly popular topic related to affirmative action. A recent article I came across is in relation to Harvard University and their lack of admission for Asian-Americans. Recent statistics show that more than half of the university’s freshmen class were women, more than one in five were Asian and nearly 15% were African-American (BBC, 2017). While it is unclear if race is involved in the admissions process, some claims that education standards in Asian countries may be the primary reason to lower admission rates. In a 2010 statistics from the Program for International Assessment (PISA), eight of the top ten countries that ranked in education were from the Asia-Pacific region (Desai, 2010). If Harvard’s decision-making were based on this, this would be a form of reverse-discrimination and hence unethical for the Asian-American population. While there are many other factors involved in the admissions’ process, I generally believe that affirmative action is unethical: as there will always be two different sides in a situation.

References:

American Association for Access Equity and Diversity. (2015). More History of Affirmative Action Policies From the 1960s. Retrieved from https://www.aaaed.org/aaaed/History_of_Affirmative_Action.asp

BBC. (2017). Harvard affirmative action ‘investigated by Justice Dept’. BBC News. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-42070493

Desai, V. (2010). The U.S. must start learning from Asia. CNN. Retrieved from http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/12/07/school.results.us.asia.desai/index.html

LaFollette, H. (2007). The Practice of Ethics. Blackwell Publishing.

MSLD 634 Module 3- The Harder They Fall

The leadership program so far has taught me many tips on what it takes to be a great leader, and I once again sharpened my understanding this week. For this week’s module, we read Roderick Kramer’s article The Harder They Fall: which primarily focused on power. Many people desire to move up and be successful, however often times they are not aware of the potential risks involved and as a result struggle to maintain efficient leadership. For this blog post, I will be briefly discussing some of Kramer’s points and suggestions, in addition to relating the topic to my current work experiences.

Despite being constantly reminded how the world is getting flatter, I personally believe that strictly following the traditional top-down styles of leadership is one common mistake in many organizations today. According to Obolensky (2014), different levels of an organization tend to have different kinds and amount of information. In his study, he finds that approximately 60% of the information required for decision-making are found at the bottom level of an organization versus 30% in the middle and 10 on the top level (p.37). As a result, he concludes that it’s important for ones to encourage communication (including external stakeholders) to make more effective decision-making (Obolensky, 2014).

Obolensky’s points adds up to Kramer’s points on the danger of over relying on power. By doing so, ones come to believe that normal limits don't apply to them and that they are entitled to any spoils they can seize. This behavior then causes them to become less aware of the things happening around them, which can eventually lead them to corruption (Kramer, 2003). To ensure that leaders can avoid the traps that power can bring, Kramer (2003) suggests leaders to implement several common psychological and behavioral habits. Some of the suggestions included that ones should simply live their lives, be “ordinary” like everyone else, shine a light on their weaknesses instead of trying to cover them up, and to always be reflective (Kramer, 2003). The suggestions Kramer made reminded me of Obolensky’s concepts of leading as a polygarchy (where everyone works and has a leadership role). By reducing the power barrier in the workplace, it encourages ones to communicate with one another. This can establish more of a learning environment in the organization: which can serve growth opportunities for the organization (Obolensky, 2014).

This week’s topic reminds me of a time when my workplace was in the early process of simplifying and centralizing campus operations. Some of the changes revolved around the low levels of the university: which caused a lot of issues with student advisement. Eventually, the university established a month-long training session: where we received new and refresh training to clarify and improve campus operations. During our sessions, many of the lower-leveled employees including myself were given the opportunity to speak out and even provide suggestions to individuals from various departments and levels of the organization. Despite higher levels having their own preferred way, our opportunity to speak provided them opportunities to consider additional information to a procedure or standard. Since this training, I personally believe that top leaders have improved their understanding of listening and hence been making improvements for the university.

References:

Kramer, R. M. (2003). THE HARDER THEY FALL. (cover story). Harvard Business Review, 81(10), 58-66.

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

MSLD 634 Module 2- Theories of Ethics

For this week’s module, LaFollette introduced us to two different categories of ethical theory that have different approaches on problem solving: consequentialism and deontology. Consequentialism, as LaFollette (2007) defines is the way where ones choose the available action(s) with the best overall consequences, whereas deontology states that ones should act in ways circumscribed by moral rules or rights (p. 22). The key difference is that consequentialism focuses more on results while deontology focuses on how to get to the results (Rudin, 2014).

Of the two categories, I consider myself more of a consequentialist since I personally believe that a thorough analysis (more details) is what makes decision-making more efficient. As LaFollette (2007) stated, consequentialists typically specify which consequences are morally relevant, how much “weight” or consideration we should give to those that count, and how precisely we should use them in moral reasoning (p. 23). An example I had was whether to determine if making regular phone calls (general information) to students was an ideal operation for my campus. If I chose to regularly call students, I know that students will be informed and will likely be happy to hear from us. However, considering the fact that most students are full-time employees, I worried that calling them about non-urgent information in the middle of work could be a distraction and may lead to negative consequences. With these and other thoughts in mind, I decided that calling regularly will likely not be the best choice for my campus, an instead decided to email the information to the students.

                As previously mentioned, deontology is the way where we act in ways circumscribed by moral rules or rights (LaFollette, 2007). A recent example of this is when I went over the Train Dilemma in last week’s blog post. One of the scenario asked whether I should push an elderly man to save five children on the tracks or not to push. At an instance, my immediate thought was to not push the elder because, I believe that all human life is sacred regardless of their gender, age, race, etc. While I make some decisions in this category, I personally worry if my moral beliefs do not align with what others think. In a hypothetical setting, if I chose not to sacrifice the elder despite sacrificing to save the young were considered a moral act for many, I’d likely face deep consequences for my action. With this in mind, I personally believe that deontology is a better approach when dealing with less complex situations (no large consequences).

References:

LaFollette, H. (2007). The practice of ethics. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.

Rudin, S. (2014). Consequentialism, Deontology, Ethics, and Virtue. The Loop. Retrieved from http://www.theloopnewspaper.com/story/2014/03/29/local-news/consequentialism-deontology-ethics-and-virtue/416.html

MSLD 634 Module 1-The Train Dilemma: When no Choice is a Good One!

Whether it’s for personal or professional reasons, we make decisions every day. In most cases, we require little time to think over and determine the most effective choice(s). Decision-making however is not always easy: as not all choices can be good. For this week’s module, I had the opportunity to learn about the Train Dilemma. Developed by Phillippa Foot in 1967 and later adapted by Judith Thomson in 1985, the purpose of the experiment is to think through the consequences of an action and consider whether its moral value is determined solely by its outcome (D’Olimpio, 2016).

The Train Dilemma consist of a situation where a train is hurtling down a track where several children are standing. As a switchperson, we are involved in making a choice that involves unpleasant sacrifices. Below are three different situations of the Train Dilemma and how I will likely approach each situation:

Situation One:

A train is hurtling down the track where five children are standing. You are the switchperson. By throwing the switch, you can put the train on a side track where one child is standing. Will you throw the switch?

In any crisis, our goal as humans is to save as many lives as possible. We see examples of this almost daily with local news stations: warning and helping citizen prepare for an upcoming hurricane to sending alerts of an active shooting. While making efforts is important, every case is different and we are sometimes unable to save every one. In this case, we see a train coming at full speed and only have a few seconds until the train hits someone. With the previous moral belief and hope that all children will make effort to escape, I’d likely turn the switch to the single child on the side railing since I’d lose one rather than five children if they were unable to escape on time.

Situation Two:

A train is hurtling down the track where five children are standing. You are the switchperson and standing next to an elderly man. If you push him in front of the train, it will stop the train and all the children will be saved. Will you push him?

Unlike the last situation, we have an elderly man that’s currently at the scene, but not necessarily involved in the same danger the children are in (not on the tracks). If the scene has the exact set up as the last scenario, but with no one on the side rail, throwing the switch will be the most ideal choice. However based on the description of the scenario, this is likely not the case. Despite the fact that sacrificing an elder can save all the children, all human life is sacred regardless of their gender, age, race, etc. If I decided to sacrifice the elder despite this belief, people will likely view my actions as murder: which can pose lifetime complications than dealing with the fate of the children. As a result, I will not sacrifice the elder. Other reasons for this action include a belief that there may be a possibility of the elder failing to stop the train and the possibility of the elder making his own choice to sacrificing himself (the public will likely see this as an act of heroism rather than murder).

Situation Three:

A train is hurtling down the track where five children are standing. You are the switchperson. By throwing the switch, you can put the train on a side track where one child is standing. However, this child is your own child. Will you throw the switch to save the five children?

               Despite believing that it’s important to save as many lives possible, this situation becomes excruciatingly difficult when you have a family member involved. As a result, the actions we make in such situations will likely be personal.  If all the children involved were far from reach (distance and time-wise), I’d honestly save my own child. However, still believing the importance of saving people, I’d likely throw the switch to ensure the five children will not get hurt, and try to save or sacrifice myself to save my child.

Although I listed the choices for each scenario, I’d honestly say that I can’t guarantee making ethical and efficient decisions despite knowing what I believe is right and wrong. The Train Dilemma reminded me of a mall stabbing incident that occurred earlier this year. Everything happened so fast- the moment I saw a large crowd of people running towards our direction, I didn’t know what was happening. Without realizing what was going on, I ran with the crowd despite being with my friend: who happened to be visiting the mall for the very first time that day. If I had the time and was in a more relax state, helping and escaping with my friend will be the more ideal choice. However, since fear shuts down the thinking process, I ended up making the less ethical choice (Dayton, n.d.).

References:

Dayton, T. (n.d.). Scared Stiff: The Biology of Fear. Tian Dayton Phd. Retrieved from http://www.tiandayton.com/scared-stiff-the-biology-of-fear

D’Olimpio, L. (2016). The trolley dilemma: would you kill one person to save five?. The Conversation. Retrieved from https://theconversation.com/the-trolley-dilemma-would-you-kill-one-person-to-save-five-57111

MSLD 635 Module 8- Transformational Strategies

Throughout the leadership program, we’ve been constantly reminded how change is always constant. Because of this, organizations must stay proactive and adapt to any changes in order to survive (Obolensky, 2014). Leading and adapting to changes however is not always easy. One common reason why organizations fail to lead during change is because they approach change as a monolithic process (Anthony & Schwartz, 2017). As leaders, it is important to keep in mind that adapting to change consist of a multi-step process.

According to Brown (2011), company culture plays a large role: as it correlates to an array of things in an organization (p 406). Figure 15.4 shows and define what strong and weak cultures are:

To ensure organizations have strong company culture, there must be a strong commitment and share of company values. In addition, it is important for leaders to note that strong culture often times leads to higher resistance to change (Brown, 2011).

Another helpful tool to consider for organizational transformation is the Strategy-Culture Matrix:

Since company culture correlates to an array of areas within the organization, it is ideal to know the status of the company culture before implementing a strategy. Figure 15.5 shows the relationship between company culture and strategy: which can help leaders decide the most appropriate strategy for the company.

            For this week’s module we watched two videos that focused on transformational strategies. The first video consisted of a short interview with Gallery Furniture owner, Jim McIngvale. In the 31 years of his business, McIngvale dealt with two major issues. The first was a recession that lead to a decrease in new homes (which decreased customer traffic) and another was a $30 million fire that resulted in an 80% drop of the company (VitalSmarts, 2012). Due to these changes and continuing decline, McIngvale decided to take immediate actions.

Since McIngvale was aware of customers leaving the store without any purchase, he decided to train his employees on how to approach potential customers. Something that left me in awe was when McIngvale quoted that he had to “teach them (employees) to love what they hated” (VitalSmarts, 2013). This statement reminded of myself when advising students who disliked or wanted to avoid online classes. Since individuals who resist something mostly focus on the negatives, it is important to counter this by bringing out the positives (Brown, 2011). In McIngvale’s case, he showed his employees examples of successful people to bring out the message that they too can be successful if they implement the new strategy (VitalSmarts, 2013).

The second video for this week’s module was a TED talk by Stanley McChrystal titled, Listen, Learn….Then Lead. Throughout the talk, McChrystal shares what he learned about leadership in the military. He initially talked about how he was raised with the traditional styles of leadership, but in time, he realized how leadership styles have changed. In summary, he has learned the importance of relationships. One of my favorite quotation in the TED talk actually occurred in the end where McChrystal quotes, “If you're a leader, the people you've counted on will help you up. And if you're a leader, the people who count on you need you on your feet.” (McChrystal, 2011). Unlike the past, leadership has shifted from a traditional, “one-leads-all” to that of a polygarcy: where everyone has a leadership role (Obolensky, 2014). The key here is that everyone can learn from each other. While they’re not necessarily employees, an example that occurs in my organization is between me and students. As an advisor, it’s always important to remember that students actually have experiences in classes and other university resources. From this other perspective, I can gain new information: which can be used for future advisement.

References:

Anthony, S. & Schwartz, E. (2017). What the Best Transformational Leaders Do. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2017/05/what-the-best-transformational-leaders-do

Brown, D. R. (2011). An experiential approach to organization development (8th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

McChrystal, S. (2011). Stanley McChrystal: Listen, learn…then lead. TED. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/stanley_mcchrystal

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

VitalSmarts. (2012). Influencer: Gallery Furniture Video Case Study [Video file]. YouTube. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E20RW75Fhu4