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Blog XVI: Executive Women’s Case Study

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Case 15.1 – The “Glass Ceiling”

Lisa Weber never doubted that she would be a partner in her Wall Street firm. A graduate of a prestigious business school with a doctorate in economics, she had taught briefly at a major university. She was the first woman hired as a market analyst in her well-regarded firm. Within two years, she has become one of four senior portfolio managers reporting directly to a senior partner. Her clients give her the highest commendations for her outstanding performance; over the past two years, she has brought in the largest number of new accounts to the firm.

Despite the admiration of her colleagues and their seeming acceptance of her, there is a disturbing, if flattering, aspect to her job. Most of her peers and some of the partners visit her office during the day to discuss in private her opinions on market performance and financial projections. She enjoys these private sessions but is dismayed that at the weekly staff meetings the CEO, Michael Breyer, usually says something like, “OK, let’s get started and bring Lisa up to date on some of the trouble spots.” None of her peers or the partners mention that Lisa knows as much as they do about what’s going on in the firm. She never protests this slight to her competence and knowledge of firm business, nor does she mention the almost-daily private meetings where her advice is sought. As the only woman on the executive level, she prefers to be considered a team player and one of the boys.

In the past year, one of her peers has been promoted to partner, although Lisa’s performance clearly surpassed his, as measured by the success of her accounts and the amount of new business she brought to the firm. Having heard no mention of partnership for herself, she approached her boss, one of the partners, and asked about the path to a partnership. He replied, “You’re doing great, Lisa, but professors do not partners make. What happens if you are a partner and you make a huge mistake? How would you take it? And what about our clients? There’s never been a female partner in the 103 years of our firm.”

Shortly thereafter, another woman, Pamela Tobias, was hired as a marketing analyst. Once, when the CEO saw Lisa and Pamela together, he called out to the men, “Hey, guys, two women in one room. That’s scary.”

During the next six months, Lisa meets several times with the CEO to make her case for a partnership on the basis of her performance. She finally realizes that there is no possibility of change in the foreseeable future and decides to leave and form her own investment firm. (Northouse, 2016, pp. 412-413)

 

    In the case study of Lisa Weber desiring a promotion from her strong preformance as a portfolio manager for a Wall Street firm, her boss refuses to make her a partner of the firm because “there’s never been a female partner in the 103 years of our firm” (Northouse, 2016, p. 412). It’s obvious from the audience’s perspective that her boss does not have a valid reason to withhold a possible promotion since her preformance far exceeded her colleagues. One of the reasons for this is because her boss, Michael Breyer, has a stereotype towards women being unable to handle the responsibilities of a partner and is closed off from seeing change in the firm. He also has a stereotype towards professors not making good partners and doesn’t believe Lisa can handle the pressure that comes with being a partner. Neither of Michael’s stereotypes however present any logical evidence against either a woman or a professor’s ability to carry out the responsibilities of a partner.

Another factor preventing Lisa from advancing is the lack of credit she gets when her colleagues succeed from her advice. As Northouse stated: “Empirical research also shows that women are less likely to promote themselves as a leader” (Northouse, 2016, p. 403). Because Lisa didn’t confront her colleagues about them taking the credit from her advice, her boss was unaware of the positive influence she had within the overall firm, besides her strong preformance. Lisa’s tendency to conform with her colleagues is what sets her back rather than trying to actively outperform them. She complies with the social expectations towards women to display nurturing, sensitive and communal qualities even when they detriment her reputation by not claiming the credit she deserves. Many women face these similar challenges but are afraid to overstep the social boundaries that society places on them. Women have to balance taking on male qualities in order to advance in a male-dominated world and also be aware of negative perceptions that can be placed on them if they lead too similarly to how males would (Northouse, 2016).

As a result from the firm’s lack of respect for Lisa’s abilities, she left to start her own which costed the firm a very valuable asset to their company. I don’t think Lisa would have left if the company had properly acknowledged her efforts due to her strong efforts to benefit the team. It’s very difficult for women in leadership positions to change the stereotype that their organization may have towards working women if the top-level management team isn’t aware or concerned of these stereotypes. One approach I would have recommended Lisa was to approach her boss using fact-based evidence as to why she should be promoted and help him unravel the unconscious biases that he has towards women. She should convince him that a lot of her colleagues’ success was slightly attributed to her and if Michael doesn’t believe her, she should decrease the amount of advice she gives out until it becomes apparent to him about the magnitude of her contributions. Lisa could benefit from acting more selfishly since she has nothing to lose from the firm’s upper management being so blinded by their biases. Lisa could then leverage her skills and negotiate with Michael again in order to succeed in her goal before deciding to start her own firm.

Lisa could also ask her colleagues for support and ask them to give her credit during the weekly staff meetings. I believe this approach may have been more effective in helping her boss to realize the value of her contributions if she had the support of the team. Either way, levelling the gender gap has to start from the firm’s top management for there to be significant changes throughout the company. Lisa’s individual actions can help spur the change, her team’s support maty also change Michael’s mind about gender equality, or perhaps he gains a sudden notion of insight from an external source that raises his awareness to this inequality. Whatever the case may be, managers and executives must have a mindset of openness and change in order to advance social inclusivity and the potential within their organizations.

 

References

Coors Healthcare Solutions. (n.d.). Coors to Sponsor Women Leaders in Healthcare Conference. [Digital Image]. Retrieved from http://coorshealthcaresolutions.com/coors-to-sponsor-women-leaders-in-healthcare-conference/

Northouse, P. (2016). Leadership: Theory and practice (7th eds). Los Angeles: Sage Publications.  

RE: Transformational leadership and the impact it has on managerial positions by Jason

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Hi Jason,

Great article you wrote about ethical leadership. I thought you did a great job fleshing out key points of ethical leadership and how respect and servitude impact followers. I’d like to address the question you posted about how we feel when adding value to the lives of others from an ethical leadership standpoint.

As a leader, I personally feel a sense of joy when I play a part in the physical, intellectual, or spiritual development of others. I agree with you that servitude is a key components of ethical leadership and is the main tenet of the rapidly growing theoretical approach of servant leadership. Servant leadership ideals are steeply influenced by the teleological theory of altruism which is also rooted in a basic desire to love and care for others (Northouse, 2016, p. 335). Love and concern for others is the root mechanism from which we act to promote humanity, develop ethical standards, or improve society. It’s from this root desire where we debate on achieving a common understanding of standards and ethics that’s consistent across all societies. As you mentioned, certain concepts such as fairness or truth are still currently debated on because there hasn’t been an established set of principles or laws due to differences in perspective.

However moving forward, if we have love, altruism, and servitude act as the moral guideline for our thoughts and actions, we can achieve consensus on a centuries long philosophical debate of a universal code of ethics.

 

Sincerely,

-Ruiz

 

References

Martin, J. (2018, November 10). Transformational leadership and the impact it has on followers. [Blog Post]. Retrieved from

Transformational Leadership and the impact it has on managerial positions

Northouse, P. (2016). Leadership: Theory and practice (7th eds). Los Angeles: Sage Publications.  

51918418 - growing money - chart in rise

Blog XV: The two most important principles of ethical leadership

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According to Northouse (2016, p. 330), ethics in regards to leadership are concerned with who leaders are (their moral character) and what leaders do (their moral conduct). The choices that leaders make and their motives behind their choices are guided by their moral code and their ethics.

There are multiple perspectives on how ethics influence a leader’s behaviour and their conduct with followers. One perspective is that of Burns, a proponent of transformational leadership, who believes that leaders have a moral obligation to move followers towards a higher moral standard (Northouse, 2016, p. 338). Another slightly different perspective of ethical leadership is made by Heifetz, who believes that leaders should only help followers deal with conflicting ethical values that emerge in a dynamic work environment (Northouse, 2016, p. 337). Northouse (2016, p. 341) also identifies five principles of ethical leadership which trace back to the teachings of Aristotle. That ethical leaders should respect others, serve others, are just, honest, and build community. Of these principles, I will focus on the two that I feel are most important for leaders.

Service to others are what I believe lie in the heart of leadership. The concept of leadership describes the leader-follower relationship. In order to maximize this relationship, there must be an element of mutual servitude between leaders and followers. This must be initiated and emphasized in the leaders’ relation to the follower as they’re responsible for achieving the goals set by the organization. Leaders who act in servitude, or the best interests of their followers, will ultimately be driven to do right by them which include the other described principles such as honesty and fairness. Leaders also serve and strengthen their organization through servitude of their followers as a means of developing them to achieve higher standards and hopefully become servant leaders themselves.

Leaders who build community is the other principle that I think should be emphasized out of the other five. Leaders in organizations need to realize that they don’t work in a vacuum and that their actions affect the community. This may be either the local community and it’s surrounding inhabitants (people, animals, plants, the environment) or the professional community from which they’re part of (other related organizations). In all instances, leaders must not only focus on upholding the community’s values but also improving on them and setting an example for others. This can involve partnering with green energy startups to install renewable energy infrastructure or making business decisions that set a moral precedent for the business community. Whatever the case may be, community must be at the heart of the direction and decisions that an organizations makes for the long-term.

 

References

GICEL. (n.d). Economics And Law Of Green Economy From A Developmental Perspective. [Digital Image]. Retrieved from https://gicel.ch/economics-and-law-of-green-economy-from-the-development-perspective/

Northouse, P. (2016). Leadership: Theory and practice (7th eds). Los Angeles: Sage Publications.  

Blog XIV: Fostering ethical workplace cultures

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Ethical leadership implies that leaders have the knowledge to differentiate between right and wrong and also have the desire develop this moral compass within their followers (BuildingCapacity, 2013). In doing so, ethical leaders strive to promote a culture of adherence to moral codes within their organizations.  

For leaders to achieve this, they themselves have to be knowledgeable of ethical dilemmas which could arise from employee activities and possess a toolkit of ethical perspectives to apply. A great perspective for leaders to adopt as they build the organization’s ethical climate is transformational leadership.

Transformational leadership involves transforming the ethics, morals, and goals of the people involved with the leader and influencing these people to exceed expectations of them. Wang et al. (2011) meta-analysis of transformational leadership shows that it’s positively related to individual, group, and organizational preformance. Transformational leaders can foster the ethical development and preformance of their followers through idealized influence, or positively role-modelling ethical behaviour (Wang et al., 2011). Once a personalized ethical code or standard has been set for the organization, the ethical transformational leader sets visible examples for followers to abide by. Examples of this can include publicly admitting mistakes made by the leadership team to promote ethical integrity amongst employees.

In my organization, one recommendation I can make to promote a strong ethical climate would be to increase transparency of organizational expenditures. Since the organization I work for is government-based, transparency is important for the public to know how public funds are being used. Alongside transparency, public information should also be easily accessible and understandable. From an employee perspective, financial transparency is also important because it helps us understand the conditions that management must work with. In doing this, the department can foster collaboration in the decision-making or problem solving process and also cultivate the intellectual development of followers.

 

References

 

BuildingCapactiy. (2013, March 29). What is Ethical Leadership? [Video File]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/ks2QGoIq5nA

 

Wang, G., Oh, I., Courtright, S. H., & Colbert, A. E. (2011). Transformational leadership and performance across criteria and levels: A meta-analytic review of 25 years of research. Los Angeles, CA: SAGE Publications. doi:10.1177/1059601111401017

buddha wallpaper

Light From Many Lamps III: “All that we are is a result of what we have thought. The mind is everything. What we think, we become.”

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Our minds are like a double edged sword that serves as both a blessing and a curse.  It’s responsible for our most brilliant ideas, our lens in which we see the world, or the joy we get from others.  But it can also drive us to feelings of despair and anguish, set us in complacency and hinders our inner potential.  Our mind, like everything else, can serve us in two dual, opposing manners and it’s here where we must recognize this. We must utilize it to its full capacity to do good not only to ourselves, but for others as well. Buddha says it best when he said “all that we are is a result of what we have thought. The mind is everything. What we think, we become” (as cited by Watson, 1988, p. 173).

Too many times do we see those around fall into a cycle of anguish, blaming everyone but themselves for their misfortunes. Attributing all their problems to “bad luck,” “fate,” “God’s will” etc. Yes, there are many things in life that are out of our control but often people don’t take into account the things they can control. One of the most liberating feelings for me personally, is when I break out this thought pattern and realize that I have more control over my destiny then I originally thought. That I have control over my environment and that I can be proactive when facing uncertainty rather than reactive.

For example, when I attended a conference sponsored by TWU last Thursday about female leaders in the tech industry, one of the panelists, Rebecca Troelstra, mentioned that in her company, they hire more so based on people’s attitude and potential fit in their work culture rather than than the job skills they possessed. She said skills were something the company can teach to an employee but having the right attitude is what will enable the employee to learn. If they person truly believes they will be a good fit for the role and for the company, they should put themselves out there regardless because they will never know what will happen if they didn’t. I found her statement very empowering because one of my biggest fears is the feeling of rejection. I’m confident in my ability to learn and provide value to others but I also feel I limit myself career-wise because I despise the feeling of rejection. I become what I ultimately believe and prior to her reminder, my self-imposed limitations become my reality.

Everyone naturally feels negatively about themselves at certain times because we’re all imperfect. Everyone is going to make mistakes. What matters, however, is whether you can learn from those mistakes and truly believe that it is in your power to make a difference. If you truly believe that you have the ability to improve or control what you can control, that belief will become your reality and you can achieve mastery of your mind dualistic nature in the process.

 

References

Watson, L. E. (1988). Light from many lamps. New York: Simon & Schuster.

Blog XII: Interviewing Jason

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For this activity, I had an insightful conversation with Jason about his personal values and his methods to track and improve the preformance of his employees, both in his roles as an IT administrator and as a senior pastor for different organizations in Jamaica. Jason stressed that his reasons for taking this program is to learn the best practices of leading an organization as he envisions himself as either a full senior pastor or senior administrator five years from now (J. Martin, personal communication, Nov 3, 2018). Jason improves the preformance of his employees by interviewing each of them in a similar fashion as our meeting. Through his interviews he gathers who his employees are as people, what their goals are, identifies metrics to track their progress, and then outlines a plan to achieve these goals during their employment (J. Martin, personal communication, Nov 3, 2018). Jason feels that if he, as a leader, is able to better take care of his employees then they will provide returns for the organization through better preformance.

To best lead his employees however, Jason understands that improvement must first come from within by maximizing his abilities in order to maximize others’ potential which is why he enrolled in this program (J. Martin, personal communication, Nov 3, 2018). Jason also has a lot of experience to draw from which I’m sure enriches his learning experience and understands how to translate thoughts into action. One of Jason’s methods to transition is his thoughts involves a tool he developed at work to centralize the process of improving his employees. His tool functions to provide a structure for effectively goal-setting, setting a development plan, and then quarterly reviews of their development plan (J. Martin, personal communication, Nov 3, 2018). It impressed me by how sophisticated and thorough it was which leads me to believe that Jason is wholeheartedly invested in the development of his employees.

Jason also believes in setting a workplace culture that emphasizes teamwork, respect, and empowerment. As an individual, Jason prefers that he’s given the freedom to make decisions and control his environment so naturally he reflects his preferences on to the workplace he leads (J. Martin, personal communication, Nov 3, 2018). It was a pleasure to interview Jason as his wealth of experiences provided me insight that I have yet to embark.

Blog XI: Implementing a service-oriented culture

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In my role of managing and supporting tenants living in social housing buildings for the City of Vancouver, I would like to define what a service-oriented culture would look like in my workplace followed with some recommendations that could help my organization embody this culture.

In my organization, a service-oriented culture would be one where tenants feel fully supported by staff to improve their current living situation. Many tenants who live in these social-housing building suffer from either mental health, substance addiction, or poverty for a number of reasons. From personal experience, tenants have expressed to me that they would like to see staff support them by connecting them to desired resources such as housing, health clinics, or detox. A service-oriented culture for my department would be one where staff have the knowledge and initiative to generate positive changes for our tenants.

To put this into practice, upper management would need to initiate a framework for full-time staff to work with. This would start by training staff how to gather information and communicate with tenants effectively, empathetically and respectfully, provide them information of key partnerships and resources within the community, hire extra staff to support tenants on each shift, and then create an infrastructure to track both tenant and staff progress. Once staff have the basic knowledge to effectively support tenants, managers need to be able to support staff with this operation as well by conducting progress meetings with staff, encouragement, and assigning staff an appropriate caseload of tenants. This process needs to start with managers however as their investment in this initiative will reflect off staff. If managers are willing and eager to support staff with this process and provide guidance, this could help spur change in the department for staff to be more service-oriented to tenants.

Managers should also be invested in the growth of their employees by asking questions such as what they’re hoping to gain from working in this department or organization, asking them what their short-term and long-term goals are, and gathering feedback in how they can improve both their service to them and how staff can better serve tenants. Managers need to serve as role models for implementing this change to the organization and will need to be in the front lines with staff in the early stages of this change.

Introducing a service-orientated culture for my organization would be a long process because the organization doesn’t currently have any formal systems in place. However, staff need to understand the value that they are generating for the community and if management can enable staff to better invest in the work they do, not only will tenants benefit, but staff as well will feel a stronger sense of purpose in their roles. This change will reverberate throughout the community as the organization will set a precedence for what good service looks like to the disenfranchised and impoverished within Vancouver.

devil's advocate

Blog X: Devil’s Advocate to Andragogy

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Knowles’ assumptions of andragogy are well thought out and I think relates to the vast majority of adult learners out there, including myself. That being said, as an adult learner, I’d like to challenge myself this time and play devil’s advocate to Knowles’ assumptions about adult learners. I think many his assumptions relate more strongly with learners who are not only willing to learn, but are open to learning as well. These are the adults who are usually easiest and most enjoyable to work with; however not all adults are like this. In this post, I’ll do my best to describe scenarios where some of these assumptions can have the opposite desired effect.

“As a person matures, his or her self-concept moves from that of a dependent personality toward one of a self-directing human being” (as cited in Penfold Navarro, 2018)

This assumption is likely true for most adults because as one ages, one has to make more decisions about not only themselves, but for others who are dependent on them such as young children or older parents. However, I argue this can also have a negative effect in a physical learning environment as well because as learners, they will have to be dependent on their teacher during the process of transferring knowledge to some extent. Since adults are used to being independent and controlling their narrative, this may hinder their openness to new information, particularly information that counters their understanding of a subject. This discomfort about being unfamiliar can equate to feelings of losing control over their environment and may restrict their receptiveness to the material being taught.

“An adult accumulates a growing reservoir of experience, which is a rich resource for learning” (as cited in Penfold Navarro, 2018).

Experience can be a great asset particularly when it comes to solving problems that are similar to ones solved before. However, this may also hinder one’s ability to learn material much different from his or her past experience. For example, an operational manager may have a harder time understanding advice from an HR consultant who recommends giving employees flex days in order to better stabilize their work-life balance. From his perspective, this undermines his work philosophy of maximizing production from employees and may  not be as receptive to this recommendation.

“Adults are mostly driven by internal motivation, rather than external motivators” (as cited in Penfold Navarro, 2018).

While ideally teachers and leaders would hope everyone they teach or mentor is driven internally to learn, in reality I don’t agree this is the case. External motivations can be a powerful tool as well and many learners can get a strong grasp of certain topics if the external reward are strong enough. For example, take the case of a father who was formerly a top electrical engineer from a third world country moving to Canada in search of a better future for his family. He may be strongly motivated to switch career paths and earn a basic I.T. diploma if many of his friends recommend it as a great way to earn money quickly due to its high demand and short program length. Ideally, the father would like to continue his profession as an electrical engineer because his brilliance and enjoyment of it but may decide against it due to the cost and time it would take to re-certify his credentials.

Now in the spirit of Knowles making assumptions about adult learners, I will make one myself: The more you mature, the more you realize how complex life can be.

 

References

Cleaver, J. (Creator). (2016). How to handle the devil’s advocate. [Blog Post]. Retrieved from https://www.irishtimes.com/business/work/how-to-handle-the-devil-s-advocate-1.2531082

Penforld-Navarro, C. (2018). Unit 6 Notes. [Blog Post]. Retrieved Oct 29th, 2018 from https://create.twu.ca/ldrs500/unit-6/unit-6-notes/

RE: Unit 6 Learning Activity 1 by Christina

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Hi Christina,

 

Great blog post, I thought this post was well-thought out and engaging and I just wanted to respond to your question about lacking in the motivational principles of andragogy to complete a task. Rather than talk about completing a task, I’ll quickly summarize how lacking the last principle of andragogy for me made me regret not being able to maximize my educational experience from high school onwards.

As an adult learner, I can personally say that all the assumptions of adult learners in andragogy are true with me. I’ve come to love and appreciate the process of learning more so now then when I was in high school or in my early years of university. Back then, I was truly motivated to learn only from external motivators such as to find decent job prospects or to avoid disappointing my family. As a result, I only strived to earn what I felt was an acceptable grade which hindered my experience as a learner.

One of the things that really made me appreciative of the general learning process was when I started to notice how my profs were applying classroom theories to real-world problems. I felt that learning without knowing why I was learning had always been a challenge for me growing up. I can vividly remember struggling with sine, cosine, and tangents for geometry in my grade 12 math class and constantly asking myself: “Why am I learning these complicated equations? I’m never going to use this in the future. Normal, everyday people don’t solve these problems!” Ultimately, I never bothered exerting myself to learn the material, something I deeply regretted years later.

My disdain for math lasted until about my 3rd year of university when I watched and became fascinated with the movie “Imitation Game” which was about how a mathematician named Alan Turing helped end World War II through his invention of the early computer. This was one of the key moments that made me realize how powerful knowledge can be and sparked my appreciation for mathematics as I began to realize how it’s been practically used to explain everything in our physical world. Merriam & Bierma (2014) described it best when they stated “adults need to know the reason for learning something,” something I found relatable even before I reached adulthood (as cited by Penfold Navarro, 2018). I needed to see the big picture in learning these foundational materials before committing to learning them.

I’m sure many younger students share the same sentiment as I did growing up and placed learning on the back burner to pursue their passions like basketball, football, music, or video games. I think many of these students can come to appreciate the learning process just as I did if educators are able to connect the educational material to their personal interests at a deeper level and hopefully spark an interest in the material itself. For example, as a basketball player in high school I would’ve loved to know statistically which areas on court were the most valuable to shoot from or how to optimize shooting technique based on our individual biomechanics. Had I been able to connect my passions with my educational material back then, my educational experience and specializations would have likely been drastically different.

 

-Ruiz

RE: Learning Activity 2-Servant leadership and team effectiveness by Hiromi Hasegawa

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Hi Hiromi,

 

I really liked your outline of what modern servant leadership looks like and how it relates to team leadership. One of the thoughts I had while reading Northouse’s chapter on ‘Team Leadership’ was that it seems to be the ideal goal for leaders utilizing a Transformational Servant style of leadership (TSL). What I mean by this is that TSL leaders focus on developing their followers to the best version of themselves. I feel like when followers have been empowered to the point where each team member is competent and confident, that’s when you start to see the principles of a team leadership capacity. Team leadership capacity enables each team member to lead when the situation best suits their particular skills and allows for faster response time in environments that change rapidly (Northouse, 2016, p. 365). When TSL leaders have built a strong team with member competent, confident, and embodying the principles of TSL similar to their leader, then it makes for a strong overall team that’s humble and supportive of each other throughout. TSL, in my opinion, is great training for an aspiring leader and it also allows for other individuals to encompass TSL within the same group without competing interests as the overall interests of the group and team’s development would be the main focus of a TSL-driven team.

 

Yours truly,

 

-Ruiz

 

 

References

 

Northouse, P. G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and practice, Seventh Edition. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. ISBN 971452203409

Blog IX: Characteristics of a Servant Leader in a team context

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As a practitioner of servant leadership reading through Northouse’s chapter on team leadership, there were three characteristics of servant leadership that I thought stood out in leading teams set with A specific tasks: Commitment to the growth of people, awareness, and persuasion.

To me, commitment to the growth of people lies at the heart of servant leadership because everything a servant leader does should be for the good of their teammates and the community. When coordinating projects, a servant leader should constantly ask him or herself: “what can I do as a member of the team to elevate every member of the group?” This may include checking in with each member to determine if anyone is having difficulty or spending time with each member to find out what their individual goals are or how they prefer to work in groups. From this, servant leaders must do what they can to meet their teams’ needs, both internal to the project or externally in their lives. Individuals who aren’t assigned the leadership role in their group can still implement this commitment as it boosts overall morale and strength of the team if every member feels supported and respected.

Awareness is crucial as well because it helps leaders understand how their team is working together and the impacts (or lack thereof) they’re having on their teammates. Having awareness as a servant leader can help one determine if situations needs intervention and provides insights on the type of action to take as well as who to act on; whether this be members of the team or on the external environment such as upper management or outside teams (Northouse, 2016, p. 373). This also helps leaders determine whether dysfunctions in the team are task-related or relationship-related and allows them to act accordingly. Teams often go through phases Tuckman & Jensen (2010) identify as forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning so applying the appropriate timing and intervention strategy for problematic phases of the group’s development is important (as cited in Northouse, 2016). Northouse identified three strategies tailored for each stage of the group development process: motivational coaching to be used at the start of the group process, consultative coaching to be used midway through, and then educational coaching to be used near the end of group cycle. Awareness is important for a leader to identify which stage his or her group is currently in and then applying the appropriate strategies to intervene at certain stages if necessary.

Persuasion is the last servant leader characteristic that’s crucial to team leadership especially when intervening. Persuasion is needed for a leader to communicate a problem the team may collectively be having and guiding teams to overcome this problem. Without it, leaders would be ineffective in having an influence on their team if needed which signals that the team may benefit from having another member lead the group. Servant leaders also need to be accomplished in communicating to the group in a way that’s gentle and non-judgemental (Northouse, 2016, p. 228).

Essentially, all servant leadership characteristics should be used in the team leadership context. However, the three highlighted above are crucial to the immediate success of team whereas other characteristics of servant leadership are more applicable for long-term growth (such as building community or empathy) or in specific situations (such as healing).

 

 

References

 

Northouse, P. G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and practice, Seventh Edition. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. ISBN 971452203409

Spears, L. C. (2010). Character and servant leadership: Ten characteristics of effective, caring leaders. Journal of Virtues & Leadership, 1(1), 25-30

Blog VIII: Team Leadership

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Team leadership capacity is a model where different members can take on leadership capacities and share influence depending on the situation which allows for faster responses for more complex issues and allows for the most competent member leading the group for the task he/she is best suited to deal with (Northouse, 2016, p. 365). Two critical functions of team effectiveness are performance/task accomplishment and development/team maintenance. The characteristics which may help or predict team effectiveness in groups include:

  1. A clear, elevating goal
  2. Results-driven structure which are features that certain teams need in order to be successful. For example, in another leadership class I’m taking that’s face-to-face, we’re constantly placed in teams to analyze and critique our peers research questions. In our case we’d need a basic understanding of research methods, examples of what research questions look like, time set aside for teams to freely discuss each research question, and computers to gain a background understanding of the research topic as structure to formulate results.
  3. Competent team members
  4. A collaborative climate. Using the example earlier, to enable each member to freely discuss and improve components of the research question, everyone in the team must be open to suggestions and supportive of one another when making these suggestions to stimulate the learning environment.
  5. Unified commitment. For another leadership class I’m taking, one of the ‘virtual’ team projects we have to do in that class takes several weeks. In the first week of the course, my teammates and I created a team charter which included what our team mission was, our shared values, our defined roles in the project and ways in which we would keep each other accountable for our work.
  6. Standards of excellence. During the team project, every week we’d set deadlines for everyone to complete their work by. We’d set these deadlines a day or two in advance before the actual class deadlines to ensure we had time editing or making changes. After each deadline was set, we would also schedule a video conference to discuss new timelines, work to split up, and strategies.
  7. External support and recognition
  8. Principled leadership.

Principled leadership is the central driver of team effectiveness and influences the team through four separate processes: cognitive, motivational, affective, and coordination. In the example I gave earlier about the weeks long team project, I helped coordinate many of our meetings by setting scheduling our team meetings, provided the platform in which we would hold our team meetings, and organized our meeting agendas so that each meeting was streamlined and productive.

 

Reference:

Northouse, P. G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and practice, Seventh Edition. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

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