Complete the exercise at the beginning of Chapter 10 and use the scoring table at the end to assess your responses. Reflect on what this assessment means in terms of you as a leader and your relationship to your followers.
Has your thinking changed over the course of the past six weeks, if so; why, and, if not; why?
What is the significance of this assessment in the context of your future leadership goals and objectives?
How can you apply what you learned in your assessment to strategy?
The assessment consisted of 16 situations in which I was the leader of a team of followers and I had to select how I would approach each situation. ‘Would’ being the key word in this exercise. I had to mentally eliminate the temptation of answering the assessment with how a leader ‘could’ or ‘should’ react. I envisioned how I would honestly respond if these were real-world scenarios. My scores of the assessment were:
Strategy 1 (S1): 0
Strategy 2 (S2): 2
Strategy 3 (S3): 8
Strategy 4 (S4): 6
S1 is a “Telling” strategy with a low people focus and a high goal focus. This strategy is just that, telling followers what to do. This doesn’t necessarily equate to being mean and unpleasant, but may be done in such forms as showing or training people. S2 is a “Selling” strategy with a high people focus and a high goal focus. This is typically associated with leaders needing followers to ‘buy-in’ to the strategy and increase ownership. S3 is an “Involving” strategy with a high people focus and a low goal focus. The leader may not have the answer in these situations or may want the followers to discover the solution on their own. S4 is a “Devolving” strategy with a low people focus and a low goal focus. The strategy is used when followers have the skill and will to perform the job and the leader may choose to take a step back and observe before taking action.
I wouldn’t say my thinking has changed over the past six weeks towards being a leader and follower relationships. It would be more accurate to say my thinking has been strengthened by the many subject areas of this course. Strategy, complexity, and balance (Wu Wei and Ying/Yang) and their connection to leadership and followership have specifically been beneficial. For example, scoring highest in the S3 and S4 areas, this assessment was very helpful in validating what I already thought about myself in terms of my personal leader/follower relationship. I’ve known for quite some time that I am a very non-confrontational person who chooses to involve others in decision-making processes when possible. My personality fits nicely with S3 and S4 strategies. Obolensky (2014) even suggests the S3 and S4 approaches together can be “applied to upward leadership and in today’s complex world, where solutions are more at the bottom than the top, upward leadership is becoming increasingly important” (p. 172). However, there are both strengths and weaknesses to unintentionally limiting myself to these strategies as a leader.
There are times when my natural reaction to situations is to involve everyone around me. I tend to think that it is highly doubtful I have the best and only answer. Therefore, I would rather involve others to increase the chances they have can offer the best solution for all involved. Odds are usually pretty good that someone has an idea or suggestion in which I hadn’t yet thought of. Not always the case, but I like being more safe than sorry if time is not an issue. I used to be very proactive towards everything. I learned fairly recently that being proactive is not always the best approach. A perfect example is when I would communicate information to others as soon as I received it. This information was vital to how employees performed their jobs. The problem was that I would receive changes to this information, sometimes multiple changes, after I already communicated it to employees. This created an issue with my credibility and taught me to wait until all changes occurred and let the dust settle so to speak before communicating information. It was an important lesson and one I began to apply to other areas, such as leadership and strategy. The most significant takeaway of this assessment is how I can apply it towards strategy and my future leadership goals. I will be the first to tell anyone that balance is essential in life and leadership is no different. Yet, I struggle stepping out of my comfort zone of the S3/S4 strategies and into the S1/S2 strategies when situations may demand them. I am very aware this is an area I need to improve. I must find a way to strengthen my “Telling” and “Selling” abilities if I want to become a well-rounded leader ready for any situation.
References:
Obolensky, N. (2014). Complex adaptive leadership: embracing paradox and uncertainty (2nd ed.). Farnham, Surrey, UK: Gower.
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