Category: Unit 10

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Blog Post One

After stimulating some new life to once dormant academic muscles, the work in this course was a great way to shake loose some of the residue and re-engage some excellent material with a fresh perspective. Leadership ethics and leading people and organizations through aspects of change are two particular course learnings that have impacted my practice and helped me produce good fruit professionally. These models are highly relevant in my workplace because I am the one responsible for both setting the tone on behalf of our organization, and when facing changing environments, I am charged with promoting the role of said values throughout our decision-making structure, specifically when allocating resources that aid successful transition of people and processes.

What is the right decision? Who defines the word right? If right is good and Jesus Christ is the only one who is good, then we as humans can never truly make the right decision. The work in developing an intuitive sense of right and wrong never ceases; however, the practice only helps to better clarify the moral compass we use to both interact with strategies and decisions, and manage power and control. At the outset of the course, I had observed that my main struggle was how to illuminate or harness specific underlying biases that blind me, versus those that inform me when facing an ethical decision. Through this learning, I have been able to better recognize patterns and who I am serving at the root of my ethic – myself or those I lead.

In situations of change, the right decision may not be so right for other people; therefore, the course learning which surrounded building transformative principles into people and organizations helped me to better assert a lasting investment in others while in the midst of change. Being able to maintain perspective and people development in the midst of change is a critical feature of leadership. I have experienced times when withdrawing from the opportunities that change presents can be overwhelmingly attractive; however, I learned to control any false sense of needed urgency for the sake of those I lead, because as Peter G. Northouse (2016) states, “this sense of urgency may override their sensitivity” resulting in poor decision-making, reduced communication and loss of commitment (p. 320).

My current leadership challenge is one of complexity because I encounter so many organizational issues all within a context that channels endless competing values, demands and perspectives. Throughout this course, I have learned that trying to anchor myself to one specific leadership style in managing the breadth of this complexity simply reduces my overall effectiveness; therefore, developing core leadership principles versus adopting a specific style affords me a good foundation to build upon. The essence of which falls upon consistently demonstrating a successful transfer of knowledge applied towards individual betterment, and that of my team. Ultimately, choosing an academic discipline that can benefit so many with so little effort, means that we are obliged to use it, and use it frequently. In my opinion, a pragmatic and honest approach when working to influence others is a golden combination; therefore, let us not remain aloof, lazy and quietly content, full in the knowledge we have gained. Open our mouths, get out the plough and churn up positive changes in others.

 “To know and not to do is not to know”

Wang Yang Ming

Matt

Northouse, P. G. (2016). Leadership: theory and practice (Seventh ed.). Los Angeles: Sage Publications.

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Light from Many Lamps – Part Five

In times of war, the sense of hope usually becomes the first of many casualties because the paralysis of fear overwhelms the populace, leaving a negative and lasting impression well beyond the physical destruction upon the landscape. After the last shot is fired, the battle for spiritual healing never ends, and those with permanently scarred hearts and minds are left to once again redefine and rediscover what faith and confidence look like. In the book titled Light from Many Lamps, former Chairman of the United States Atomic Energy Commission, David E. Lilienthal (1951), shares his inspiring testimony of how faith-in-action could propel post-war era Americans through “one of the blessed periods of all history” (p. 288). Lilienthal knew that times would be challenging, especially for disillusioned women and young men, sensing now more than ever, that this was his opportunity to lead others through a tumultuous environment with a message of hope. For those of us leading through changing environments, Lilienthal’s message reminds us how re-patterning ourselves as an adaptive response towards building new realities in quickly transforming landscapes is precisely where “all hope, creativity, insight and possibility resides” (Bridges & Bridges, 2009, p. vii).

Lilienthal focused his message towards young men and women in the United States because he understood that the future of the country belonged to them. Moreover, like leaders in organizations and groups, he knew that behind every successful transformation effort lay a necessary foundation built upon developing a compelling message through “visualizing positive outcomes” (Northouse, 2016, p. 174). Armed with his capacity to inspire, Lilienthal fiercely believed that followers could align themselves with this vision allowing their new-found strength through faith to become what Lilienthal called “the most potent weapon ever devised” (p. 291). Apart from using visioning techniques to show others how their dreams could be realized, Lilienthal emphasized his message of “developing a capacity for new thought” specifically towards leaders, because the overwhelming psychological challenge of a supposed atomic threat forced individuals to fear innovation. (Lilienthal, 1951, p. 295).

It never ceases to amaze me just how often the capacity to innovate becomes stifled in the presence of gripping fear. In Lilienthal’s era, individuals feared innovations like atomic energy because they were focused solely on its capacity to destroy. When compared with situational changes in organizations, similar to a post-war populace, fear still prevents individuals from seeing the opportunities that exist while in transition. However, “transition starts with an ending”; therefore, leaders who demonstrate faith and vision, alongside establishing safe places to innovate and brainstorm, strengthen the measure of hope and ultimately, transform reflections of past hurts into positive contributions towards the future (Bridges & Bridges, 2009, p. 7). Like Lilienthal, I spend a great deal of time integrating vision into all planning and executing processes because not only is our vision is fixed as an ethereal objective, it ultimately exerts itself practically as the binding fabric in the tapestry of our everyday discussions and actions.

Matt

Bridges, W., & Bridges, S. (2009). Managing transitions: Making the most of change (3rd ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Da Capo Press.

Lilienthal, D. E. (1951). The age in which we live can become one of the blessed periods in all history. In L. E. Watson, Light from Many Lamps (pp. 287-297). New York: Simon & Schuster.

Northouse, P. G. (2016). Leadership: theory and practice (Seventh ed.). Los Angeles: Sage Publications.