Question 1: What are the main implications for managers in the article? How can you use this information to become a better leader?

I think there are four main implications for managerial strategies which can be pulled out of the article. First, the company should provide training to managers and help them acquire or enhance the transformational leadership.  Hypotheses 1, 2, 3, 4 supported by the results imply that transformational leadership greatly contributes to superior performance at all levels (Wang, Oh,  Courtright, & Colbert, 2011). Moreover, Barling, Weber, and Kelloway (1996) have examined that transformational leadership can be gained through training and practice. Second, for an individual who wants to be picked up as the manager, he/she should possess the traits of transformational leader in advance such as “being dominant and self-confident, having a strong desire to influence others, and having a strong sense of one’s own moral values” (Northouse, 2016, p. 164). Sequentially, he/she could select or nurture the next potential manager who is “more likely to become a transformational leader”(Wang, Oh,  Courtright, & Colbert, 2011, p. 253). Third, the managers could increase the chances of engaging team-work in tasks to gain higher performance. The results tested in the article show that “the overall relationship of transformational leadership with organizational-level performance was somewhat smaller than for team-level performance but greater than for individual-level performance” (Wang, Oh,  Courtright, & Colbert, 2011, p. 246). In sum, the transformational leadership will work the best within teams. Fourth, it is crucial for managers to exert transactional leadership when necessary to maximize the performance. The contingent reward, one of the typical transactional leadership behaviours, is examined to be particularly useful in increasing individual-level task performance (Wang, Oh,  Courtright, & Colbert, 2011). Although the transformational leadership is superior in other aspects such as enhancing individual-level contextual performance and team performance (Wang, Oh,  Courtright, & Colbert, 2011), the manager can demonstrate a multi-leadership style rather than sticking to only one type of leadership. Incorporating different types of leadership and balancing the factors of the leadership in the managerial actions are the best choice for the manager.

Question 2: Define and describe the principles of ethical leadership.

(1) Respects others

Respect others means “Treat others the way in which you like to be treated” (BuildingCapacity, 2013). It also means that the leader “listen closely to followers, is empathic, and is tolerant of opposing points of view” (Northouse, 2016, p. 342). In sum, “respect includes giving credence to others’ ideas and confirming them as human beings” (p. 342).

(2) Serves others

A leader who puts the followers’ needs and concerns foremost demonstrates the principle of serving others (Northouse, 2016). Also, this principle is “an example of altruism” (Northouse, 2016, p. 342).

(3) Shows justice

Being fair means the leader chooses to treat the followers equally (Northouse, 2016). This principle needs the leaders to “place issues of fairness at the center of their decision making”(Northouse, 2016, p. 344).

(4) Manifests honesty

Dalla Costa (1998) states that the honest principle means “do not promise what you can’t deliver, do not misrepresent, do not hide behind spin-doctored evasions, do not suppress obligations, do not evade accountability, do not accept that the ‘survival of the fittest’ pressures of business release any of us from the responsibility to respect another’s dignity and humanity” (p. 164).

(5) Builds community

The ethical leader intrinsically feels he/she should seek the common goal which presents the good of everyone (Northouse, 2016). Consequently, the community will be built based on all the members moving towards the mutual goal.

Question 3: Which 2 do you think are the most important? Why?

Serving others and showing honesty are the most important principles from my perspective. The reason for choosing them is that they are both hard to achieve for the leader. The aforementioned altruism, another illustration of serving, requires the leader to promote the interests of others regardless of his/her own preference (Northouse, 2016). Also, altruism is addressed in many types of leadership such as authentic leadership, transformational leadership, and especially servant leadership. I believe that these types of leadership value the role of serving not only because it is unique but also it can contribute to long-term benefit including the welfare of the people, the flourish of the company, and the harmony of the community (Northouse, 2016). Comparing with serving others, being honest is relatively easy to achieve. While the critical part of being honest is to what extent should a leader share candidly with the followers (Northouse, 2016). Apparently, lying to the others most of the time will make the individual undependable and unreliable, and the consequences of this behaviour could be destructive and irreparable. On the contrary, always being honest and open is unwise because “telling the complete truth can be destructive or counterproductive” (p. 346). In order to motivate the followers in the best way and to gain the better performance effectively, the leader should face the challenge of striking the balance “between being open and candid while monitoring what is appropriate to disclose in a particular situation” (p. 346). I think the words of Dalla Costa (1998) mentioned above can serve as the standard of being honest or not for a leader. However, the leader should decide or develop his/her own standard of honesty considering different situations or issues. This could be a critical task for the leader. But once the leader has figured it out and exerted this principle perfectly, he/she can genuinely achieve the reciprocal relationship with the followers and the long-term effect will be positive.

My questions: If you are the leader who chose to disclose some information in the particular situation, how would you deal with the dissatisfied emotion of the followers when they discover the truth? How would you rebuild the trusty relationship with them?

References

Barling, J., Weber, T., & Kelloway, E. K. (1996). Effects of transformational leadership training on attitudinal and financial outcomes: A field experiment. Journal of Applied Psychology, 81, 827-832.

BuildingCapacity. (2013, March 29). What is Ethical Leadership? [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ks2QGoIq5nA

Dalla Costa, J. (1998). The ethical imperative: Why moral leadership is good business. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.

Northouse, P. G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and practice. Sage publications.

Wang, G., Oh, I. S., Courtright, S. H., & Colbert, A. E. (2011). Transformational leadership and performance across criteria and levels: A meta-analytic review of 25 years of research. Group & Organization Management, 36(2), 223-270.

https://create.twu.ca/ldrs500/unit-7-2/unit-7-learning-activities/

Question 1: What are the moral implications of leadership behaviour?

Since the leadership behaviour is definitely related to three factors including the leaders, the followers, and the organizational context or certain events or challenges, I would like to consider the answers according to the components of authentic leadership development theory (Avolio & Gardner, 2005), ethical theories, and principles of ethical leadership (Northouse, 2016).

(1) Considering the influence/impact of the consequences of leaders’ conduct

There will be many types of conducts involved in leaders’ actions, such as making decisions, dealing with conflict, express their preferences and emotions. Each conduct would produce its particular consequences (Northouse, 2016) revealed eventually in short term or long term, and in turn the consequences would influence the followers and the context. Therefore, whether the leaders have consider about the consequences and the impacts and how they are going to act could greatly reveal the leaders’ ethical level ((Northouse, 2016).

(2) Arranging the hierarchy of interests

I concluded the types of interest which should be considered and balanced by leaders including self-interest, interest of others, and the interest of the community. Regarding to the moral conducts which shows the concern for self-interest or concern for the interest of others, the figure 13.1 (Northouse, 2016, p. 334) and the three approaches including ethical egoism, utilitarianism, and altruism demonstrate the way in which leaders arrange their personal hierarchy of interests. Apparently, the leader who take the job or the power for his/her selfish enjoys represents  ethical egoism (Northouse, 2016). So, there is a great chance that the leader might cheat, conceal, or act dishonestly to maximize his/her own profit.  Utilitarianism means that the leader should behave “to create the greatest good for the greatest number” (Northouse, 2016, p.334). I think the leader would consider both self-interest and the interest of others, therefore, the moral level of the leader would be moderate. In terms of altruism, the leader may consider most about the interest of the others and the community, “even when it runs contrary to his or her own self-interests” (Northouse, 2016, p.335). I deem the approach of altruism, to some extent, equals to the spirit of sacrifice. The leaders need to give up personal self-interests to make a contribution to the interest of the others and the mutual interests. Hence, demonstrating altruism requires that the leader need to be psychological healthy. In another word, he/she has the ability to construe his/her loss of self-interest in a positive way, and the capacity of balancing the feelings and emotions. This point echoes the positive psychological capital of authentic leadership (Avolio & Gardner, 2005).

Positive psychological capacities, such as “confidence, optimism, hope and resiliency” (Avolio & Gardner, 2005, p. 322), are drawn on emphasizing the self-awareness and self-regulatory behaviours of the leaders (Luthans & Avolio, 2003). Combined with the authentic leadership, the moral behaviours of a leader showing altruism would be consciously keeping a cool head of what he/she is doing and where he/she is leading, keeping the answers honestly to himself/herself, and staying consistent during the process.

(3) Viewing their duty

“Whether a given action is ethical rests not only with its consequences, but also with whether the action itself is good” (Northouse, 2016, p.335). The duty of the leader mainly focuses on the leader’s moral obligation and responsibilities (Northouse, 2016). Then, the process for the leader to take the responsibilities, such as helping the followers “assess their own values and needs in order to raise them to a higher level of functioning” (p. 338) and  “telling the truth, keeping promises, and respecting others” (p. 335) or not, can be resorted to assess the moral level of the leader.

(4) Further learning to enhance or update their virtues and moral abilities through practice

I add this aspect for it implies that a leader with high ethical spirit has the urge to be a “morally appropriate human being” (Northouse, 2016, p.335). Despite the moral factors of the leaders are always categorized into the virtue-based theories which state that virtues are part of the individual’s characteristics (Pojman, 1995), Northouse (2016) argues that the virtues and moral abilities can be acquired and enhanced through practice.

Combined with the authentic leadership, I think the moral abilities include the ability of self-awareness and self-regulation (Avolio & Gardner, 2005), the ability to “incorporate positive moral perspectives” (p. 324), and being “temperance, generosity, modesty, fairness, and justice” (Northouse, 2016, p.336). I always think that it is easy for the leader to demonstrate a high level of morality in their conducts when the context is stable and harmonious. In order to keep the morality in the destructive, unstable, or threatened context which could trigger destructive leadership (Northouse, 2016), the leader would actively practice their heart and validate their faith to be competent and moral in all kinds of context. The initiative to practice and to forge the moral abilities can genuinely explain the will of the leader to achieve a higher level of morality.

Question 2: How can you enable your organization to grow and flourish?

(1) Building a supportive and trust context

The organization is consist of staff including leaders, managers, and followers. In order to enable the organization to grow, it is fundamentally to enable the staff to grow. Therefore, creating a supportive context should be the first thing to do. “For leaders and followers to be effective, leaders must promote an inclusive organizational climate that enables themselves and followers to continually learn and grow” (Avolio & Gardner, 2005, p. 327). Further, when facing tough issues, it is significant for the leader to create “a ‘holding environment’ in which there is trust, nurturance, and empathy” (Northouse, 2016, p.338). Within the holding environment, there are “clarity about project scope, meetings times, and a clearly defined set of operating procedures and ground rules in which people can get together, share feedback together and learn together” (Cameron & Green, 2015, p. 210). With the trust climate and collaboration, the staff could effectively tackle the hard issues, their confidence and abilities would grow as well. In turn, the organization would grow eventually.

(2) Engaging in more charitable activities

The organization could intentionally do more charity, such as donating books to the schools, visiting the orphanage, and so on. These charitable works could create and “institutionalize an ethical culture”(BuildingCapacity, 2013) within the organization. When an ethical culture is formed in the organization, all staff would be motivated to work towards something larger than themselves, such as contributing to the good of the organization and the community. In the long-term perspective, the organization and the community will definitely flourish and be benefited. 

(3) Increasing sustainable superior performance

“Sustainable superior performance” can be interchangeably used as “sustainable competitive advantage” (Avolio & Gardner, 2005, p. 328). The sustainable competitive advantage means when a company is “implementing a value creating strategy not simultaneously being implemented by any current or potential competitors and when these firms are unable to duplicate the benefits of this strategy” (Barney, 1991, pp. 99-120). In another word, when the organization has the sustainable competitive advantage, it is unlikely to be overwhelmed by other companies. Also, it is clear that sustained superior performance can help the organization “achieve persistently high performance and growth over a long period of time” (Avolio & Gardner, 2005, p. 328). Besides “financial, human, social, and psychological capital” (Avolio & Gardner, 2005, p. 328) which are included in the sustained performance, I think that keeping to the organizational code of ethics (BuildingCapacity, 2013) should also count. Moreover, obeying the code of ethics should be seen as the underpinning of all the performances.

(4) Providing trainings

Most of the companies provide technical training for the staff all the time. As far as I am concerned, the training regarding leadership and ethics should also be provided. For example, the ethical training could help the staff gain a better understanding of the codes of ethics in employee manual (BuildingCapacity, 2013). The staff should have a clear sense of what they can do and what they cannot do. Also, the ethical training could build the capacity of empathy for the staff. People would understand the situations or perspectives of others with the power of empathy. In turn, the communication would be greatly facilitated and the consensus within the organization will be achieved easily.  The staff would work productively when they are sharing a mutual goal (Cameron & Green, 2015), and the organization can be flourishing apparently. 

Questions: If you have any working experience, do you familiar with the codes of ethics in your company? How do you think of or understand the codes?

References

Avolio, B. J., & Gardner, W. L. (2005). Authentic leadership development: Getting to the root of positive forms of leadership. The leadership quarterly, 16(3), 315-338.

Barney, J. B. (1991). Firm resources and sustained competitive advantage. Journal of Management, 17, 99-120.

BuildingCapacity. (2013, March 29). What is Ethical Leadership? [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ks2QGoIq5nA

Cameron, E., & Green, M. (2015). Making sense of change management: A complete guide to the models, tools, and techniques of organizational change. (4th ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Kogan Page.

Luthans, F., & Avolio, B. J. (2003). Authentic leadership: A positive developmental approach. In K. S. Cameron, J. E. Dutton, & R. E. Quinn (Eds.), Positive organizational scholarship (pp. 241-261). San Francisco: Barrett-Koehler.

Northouse, P. G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and practice. Sage publications.

Pojman, L. P. (1995). Ethical theory: Classical and contemporary readings (2nd ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

https://create.twu.ca/ldrs500/unit-7-2/unit-7-learning-activities/

Living in the Informational Age, people have invested too much energy in building the relationship with technology and relied on it. Technology has become part of our life, and basically, all kinds of organization exert the role of technology to gather information and to break through. For example, in my company, the Information Department has designed an organizational website for the staff to review the news of the organization and to post their professional report. We also have our own chat tools requested to use within the organization. Although most of the companies have incorporated high-tech means, technology itself is not the most crucial factor to offer “competitive advantage” (Kandampully, Bilgihan, & Tingting, 2016, p. 159). How to use it effectively in the right way is the main task for the organizations. In another word, “technology is created and changed by human actions, it is also used by people to accomplish various actions” (Kandampully, Bilgihan, & Tingting, 2016, p. 159). Therefore, the organization should address more on how to motivate the staff to use technology creatively. 

Inspired by the People-technology hybrid organizational model (Kandampully, Bilgihan, & Tingting, 2016), I have outlined a 4-step plan for employee development in my organization.

1. Design new communication tool for group chat

Although we have chat tools installed on everyone’s computer, we just use it to transfer files or documents most of the time. We used to text each other or send voice messages via other communication means such as Wechat. While actually, it is inappropriate for us to talk about issues of work through other communication means, and the chat record cannot be presented as evidence when encountering issues such as the conflict between different divisions. Therefore, creating an effective communication tool within the organization which could enable staff to use group chat whenever they want is the top-priority thing to do. The staff could genuinely exchange their opinions or thoughts through the group chat with each other, and they can create many chat groups to facilitate the communication with different people. For example, an employee can join a chat group of his/her division, or he/she could join another chat group which is consist of other people from different divisions who are in charge of the similar tasks as him/her.

2. Create a platform for offering and filtering feedbacks of innovative ideas

After creating the useful communication means for exchanging opinions, a platform which could allow staff to upload the electronic materials of their innovative products should be established. Also, the platform should allow other people to offer useful and valuable feedbacks rated by other readers. The innovators could refine their innovative products based on the feedbacks which are considered useful. I believe this would be the right way for genuine creation because the products are made based on the need of the workers rather than the need of the managers.

3. Offering external support

Sometimes, the chatting software or platform cannot be designed and accomplished by the staff in the organization. The higher management should offer great help such as technicists from a software company to make it happen. Although the technicists might not be familiar with the needs of the staff, they could have meetings and discussions until the satisfactory plan comes out. 

The external support could also involve hiring a professional assessment company to design a series of suitable questionnaires for the company. The questionnaires can help the staff to rate their level of professional work, to develop their personalities perceived by other colleagues, and to acquire all kinds of perspective including customers.

4. Seeking online courses to help managers understand and exert the power of leardership

Managers are definitely adult learners. Offering the suitable training courses to help them get access to the knowledge of leadership is the perfect way to motivate them to learn internally (Knowles, Holton, & Swanson, 1972). When managers possess the knowledge of leadership, they could understand how to better motivate the staff towards the common goal. Further, they could solve the problems and make decisions effectively with the ability of critical thinking. The most important thing is that once the managers have become transformative leaders or servant leaders, they could devote more to the community and society (Northouse, 2016).

References

Kandampully, J., Bilgihan, A., & Zhang, T. C. (2016). Developing a people-technology hybrids model to unleash innovation and creativity: The new hospitality frontier. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management, 29, 154-164.

Knowles, M. S., Holton, E., & Swanson, R. (1972). Andragogy. NETCHE.

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

https://create.twu.ca/ldrs500/unit-6/unit-6-learning-activities/

 

My experience working with adult learners

Fortunately, my professional work has a lot to do with adult learners as I am one of the trainers in my organization to train new recruits who are at least older than 22. Adult learners are defined in two ways: in one sense, adults refer to “mentally mature people”; in a different sense, adults can be understood as “individuals who are beyond the traditional school ages of 7 to 21” (Lieb & Goodlad, 2005, p. 7). Clearly, the new employees can be treated as adult learners. Before I got access to the term “Andragogy”, I had never systematically considered about the difference between adult learners and children or teenagers. However, I did find out that the employees trained in my course represented several traits which were completely different with my memory of being a student during the period of high school or college. I had summarized these traits that the employees (adult learners) were very aware of what was imported to them; they also valued their experience and thoughts very much and loved to share the experience with other people; when they were not interested in the content or knowledge points I was illustrating, they just left the room to run their personal errands; and it was hard for them to accept something beyond their recognition and beliefs. These special features sometimes greatly facilitated the quality of training and the trainees showed high degree of original learning, such as the principles or knowledge just accorded with their values and experience. While, sometimes the traits were the obstacles against adult learners’ participation in learning. My previous summarization did help me to reinforce my understanding the six principles of andragogy (Knowles, Holton, & Swanson, 1972).

1. “Self-concept: As a person matures, his or her self-concept moves from that of a dependent personality toward one of a self-directing human being” (Knowles, Holton, & Swanson, 1972, p. 4).

Self-concept includes self-schema, which is our “beliefs about self that organize and guide the processing of self-relevant information”, and possible selves which are “images of what we dream of or dread becoming in the future” (Myers & Smith, 2012, p. 39). Basically, self-concept is our sense of self that based on our personal experience and keeping moving towards our ideal self. Since each individual has his or her own possible selves, their destinations and directions are completely distinctive. I can always distinguish the trainees’ directions because they would focus more on the knowledge which can help them build on the way towards their possible selves and act indifferent to the skills which is irrelevant to the directions. Also, they are more firm on their way to achieve the ideal selves than the teenagers who are mostly confused and unsure about the future.

2. “Experience: As a person matures, he or she accumulates a growing reservoir of experience that becomes an increasing resource for learning” (Knowles, Holton, & Swanson, 1972, p. 4).

Experience is related to self-concept because the self-schemas of self-concept can “help us organize and retrieve our experiences” (Myers & Smith, 2012, p. 39). Experience is also the most typical principle that makes adult learning distinctive from learning in childhood (Mezirow, 1993). Generally, the older you are, the more experience you will gain in terms of many aspects of life and professional work. Based on my experience with adult learners, the Experience can be both an accelerator and a barrier for them. We do not just train new staff, we also regularly give class to older workers to see if they still retain the skills and knowledge. Apparently, the older staff have possessed several years working experience. It is extremely easy to re-teach them, and they are always willing to share their experience with the new staff. But when we are trying to show them a new way or method which can help them work effectively, the acceptance degree of the older staff is much lower than the new employees as the older staff are habitual of resorting to the old ways to solve problems. They would rely on their own experience, which they value a lot and has become part of their beliefs (Mezirow, 1993), and it is hard to transform them to another perspective.

3. “Readiness to learn: As a person matures his/her readiness to learn becomes oriented increasingly to the developmental tasks of his social roles” (Knowles, Holton, & Swanson, 1972, p. 4).

“Adults are practical, focusing on the aspects of a lesson most useful to them in their work” (Lieb & Goodlad, 2005, p. 2). I think the developmental tasks of one’s social roles can be seen as the tasks they would like to accomplish to become their possible selves. Focusing on the practical aspects can help the adult learners move towards the goal accurately and steadily.

4. “Orientation to learning: There is a change in time perspective as people mature – from future application of knowledge to immediacy of application. Thus, an adult is more problem than subject centered in learning” (Knowles, Holton, & Swanson, 1972, p. 4).

Adults are “goal-oriented” and “relevancy-oriented” (Lieb & Goodlad, 2005, p. 2). I think the goal means solving real life or work problems as soon as possible. Based on my experience, I think the reason why adult learners are reluctant to accept irrelevant knowledge they might use in the future is that adults have so much to deal with both in life and work and they do not have enough capacity to memorize a vast amount of knowledge. They just want to gain the relevant skills that can fix the problem they are facing as soon as possible.

5. “Motivation to learn: As a person matures the motivation to learn is internal” (Knowles, Holton, & Swanson, 1972, p. 4).

The motivation factors for adult learners are listed by Lieb and Goodlad (2005) that “typical motivations include a requirement for competence or licensing, an expected promotion, a need to maintain old skills or learn new ones, a need to adapt to job changes, and the need to learn in order to comply with company directives” (p. 3). Clearly, the needs and requirements mentioned above are internal factors which represent the adults’ own willingness. The trainees I have met are more motivated by the need to adapt to job changes and to comply with company directives, and they want to be competent in the work and become someone reliable and trustworthy.

6. “The need to know: Adults need to know why they need to learn something before undertaking to learn it” (Knowles, Holton, & Swanson, 1972, p. 4).

As an adult learner, I clearly realized that teacher or trainer is a typical type of servant leadership before I took the course. And I hope what I am learning right now and what I will learn from the future courses will greatly help me create value for the organization and the community. I would also want to help other people understand the power of embodying servant leadership in educational and training profession.

References

Knowles, M. S., Holton, E., & Swanson, R. (1972). Andragogy. NETCHE.

Lieb, S., & Goodlad, J. (2005). Principles of adult learning. Retrieve from http://carrie-e.startlogic.com/handouts/Rotterdam2012/Eu_Coaches_Conf2_Rott_Day_1_A4.pdf

Mezirow, J. (1993). A transformation theory of adult learning. In Adult Education Research Annual Conference Proceedings. pp. 141-146.

Myers, D. G., & Smith, S. M. (2012). Exploring social psychology. New York: McGraw-Hill.

https://create.twu.ca/ldrs500/unit-6/unit-6-learning-activities/

A Facetime Audio Interview with Linda Elson

Linda is a sales manager of a pharmaceutical company. Sometimes, there will be more than two providers, and she can always deal with them very well. She is very confident in staying calm and communicating with people, including her team, the providers, and the patients. Further, She cares not only for the patients and her team members but also the providers. When the drugs are promoted to the market, she can always get support from people, and her sales performance and customer satisfaction level are high. She loves her job very much and has decided to be with the company and her team in the future. She would like to make the best of the team in this company and to become a better herself as well. In order to devote more to her professional work, she would continue with this master to develop her potential ability as much as she can. And, more important, the leadership role she is taking can be an emergent leader sometimes, the ability required in the decision-making process is crucial for her, as well as critical thinking. Luckily, she is very good at being calm, which makes her reliable to other people and a natural leader to deal with issues effectively.

Through our 13-minute interview, I can perceive her caring heart. She asked me about my concerned issues and shared her experience with me which did give me a lot of strength. She also introduced a book to me after knowing the topic I was interested in. She mentioned that she was good at communicating with people, and I believe the key factor is that she has shown empathy during the communication. Also, she is a very good listener who could try to connect herself to other people’s feeling and share the experience to comfort other people. More, the ability to keep calm possessed by her, which is the most desired ability for me, is the decisive factor for being an effective leader. Basically, most of the practices of a leader could really use this ability, such as making decisions, negotiating, managing conflict, and so on. I really value the chance to talk to her next time and would like to learn from her in the future.

https://create.twu.ca/ldrs500/unit-6/unit-6-learning-activities/

This is a response to Achsah Springs’ blog https://create.twu.ca/achsahs-springs/2018/06/01/team-leadership-and-effectiveness/

Questions:  Have others also experienced dysfunctional teams?  Can you identify why?  Have you experienced exceptional teams, and can you identify why?

My response: I have experienced dysfunctional teams or technically observed dysfunctional teams many times in my work. As a teacher, I like to assign students to teams and observe the performance of the teams. Unfortunately, there was always an absence of several characteristics or conditions that led to dysfunctional teams. I have concluded that the teams formed by students usually lack unified commitment and principled leadership. Each student thinks he or she is the most intelligent one in the team and should be the leader of the team, which makes the team hard to achieve wholeness. I think I will incorporate the knowledge of team effectiveness in my teaching content. I am not sure about how much the student could understand, remember, and apply to in the future, but it is good to raise their awareness about team effectiveness.

This is a response to Kwantlen Branda’s blog https://create.twu.ca/kwantlenbrenda/2018/05/30/unit-5-learning-activity-2/

Question: What happens though when a team falls off the rails and a new project lead is required. Can a team really ever recover from this type of situation?

My response: You really have brought up a tough situation which is hard for even the most excellent leader to go through. But we have to get ourselves ready for this kind of situation as none of us has the ability to see the future. Luckily, we are learning servant leadership now, and the method of salvation lies in the ten characteristics of a servant leader. Healing is a special and unique trait of the servant leader. It means the servant leader possesses the power of healing himself or herself and the relationship to others as well. I always believe that servant leaders are all mentally healthy individuals. Therefore, their ability of resilience must be superior than other people when facing incidents. Also, servant leaders seek to nurture their abilities to dream great dreams, which means they would view the problem from a conceptualizing perspective. Hence, it would be easier for them to accept the reality that their project has been outdated and will be replaced. The servant leaders will not restrict themselves to one project, they can understand the overarching goal and devote to other meaningful task immediately.

This is a response to Lara Lacroix’s blog https://create.twu.ca/awalkinthewoods/unit-5-character-and-servant-leadership/

Questions: Do you feel like you are actively listened to in your workplace? What advice would you give your direct supervisor about how they might improve their practice of listening before embarking on a new project or assigning tasks?

My response: I deem that I am well listened and understood in my workplace. My direct supervisor is very busy so that we do not have a lot chances to chat face to face. But he has invented a box hanging on the wall in our office, we could write notes to him about all kinds of things and issues. No matter how busy he is, it seems that he can always read every note wrote by us. Sometimes he will provide feedback immediately, sometimes he just keeps the things in his mind and manages to help us silently. If I am going to give him advice about listening before embarking on a new project, I will suggest him listen more to his own inner voice. I think he has invented too much time on considering other people’s perspectives and collecting information, it would be better for him to press the pause button and turn around to himself. Having his own inner serenity could also contribute to making decisions effectively. He already has the trust of both us and the higher management, now he needs to trust himself and become more steady.

When the team leader wants to coordinate a group project in an organization, he should attune the goal of the group project to the overarching goal of the organization. According to the Diamond Model for Practicing Servant-Leadership (Page & Wong, 2000), the team leader, who is engaging in participatory goal-setting, stays on the top of the pyramid. This action took by the leader could exert three characteristics of a servant leader such as listening, awareness and conceptualization (Spears, 2010). First, although the goal of the group is ultimately decided by the leader, a servant leader has the ability to corporate the will of the group in the goal and to attune the goal to the goal of the organization at the same time. In order to identify the will of the group and clarify that will, the servant leader needs to develop a deep commitment to listening intently to others (Spears, 2010). Second, the servant leader should be able to view most situations from a more integrated, holistic position and to set the goal appropriately. Awareness helps the leader in understanding issues and situations involving many aspects such as ethics, power, and values (Spears, 2010). In another word, awareness is contributing to making the reasonable, comprehensive goal for a servant leader. Third, in order to attune the goal to the overarching goal of the organization, the leader needs to look at the group and set the goal of the group from a conceptualizing perspective. This requires discipline and practice, also the leader needs to think beyond day-to-day realities and sets a broader and long-term goal for the group (Spears, 2010).

During the implementation of the group project, the leader could reverse the Diamond Model (Figure 2) and situated himself or herself down in the serving role of the team. Staying down and serving can greatly facilitate the progress by solving the trivial problems which hinder the movement, building the cohesion of the team. The related characteristics are listening, empathy, healing and persuasion.  Different issues will be generated unexpectedly during the progress. In order to solve the problems completely, the effective leader needs to dig the roots of the problems through listening receptively to the members including what is being said and unsaid (Spears, 2010). In terms of building cohesion, the effective leader should consider all the personalities of the members. People need to be accepted and recognized for their special and unique spirits (Spears, 2010). People need to feel being understood, then they would motivate themselves actively to fight for the wholeness of the team. This requires the leader to become skilled empathetic listeners and to build the healing relationship within the team. Moreover, the reliance on persuasion makes the servant leader effective at building consensus within a team (Spears, 2010).

I do believe the other characteristics are also helpful for all kinds of actions taken by the servant leader. To be an effective and caring leader, the ten characteristics ought to be precisely used by the skilled servant leader. Not only practice is needed, but also the heart of the servant leader should remain the same (Figure 1).

Figure 1

Figure 2

Questions: I was very much enjoying reading the article: A conceptual framework for measuring servant leadership (Page & Wong, 2000). I am so proud that the authors are from our university. According to the figure 1 presented above, they have interpreted the Relationship of Servant Leadership as Building up others. What does this mean exactly? What kind of relationship is that? Do you have your own understanding or interpretation?

References

Page, D., & Wong, T. P. (2000). A conceptual framework for measuring servant leadership. The human factor in shaping the course of history and development, 69-110.

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

https://create.twu.ca/ldrs500/unit-5/unit-5-learning-activity/

1. The two critical functions of team effectiveness

“The two critical functions of team effectiveness are performance (task accomplishment) and development (team maintenance)” (Northouse, 2016, p. 367-368). Hackman (2012) points out six enabling components that lead to group effectiveness including compelling purpose, right people, real team, clear norms of conduct, supportive organizational context, and team-focused coaching. Larson and LaFasto (1989) find that eight characteristics are highly related to team excellence regardless of the type of team. The eight characteristics are clear goal, results-driven structure, competent team members, unified commitment, collaborative climate, standards of excellence, external support and recognition, and principled leadership (Larson & LaFasto, 1989).

Example No. 1: Right people

Four years ago, our company initiated an event of “Voluntary Teaching”. The five teachers, including me, was chosen to a rural school and taught for two months. When we were preparing the teaching tools and discussing the content of the course and course arrangement, there were always issues or opinions jumping out and getting in the way of preparation. In order to reach an agreement about all the aspects within the team and to get each of us well prepared as soon as possible before we left, I reported to the manager about the rocky-patch situation we were experiencing. The manager reviewed the reports which recorded the details of the meetings we had. Then he talked with the team member one by one and found out that one team member was extremely reluctant to be involved in this event as she hated to leave her newborn baby for two months. This explained why she delayed to hand in the documents and appeared negative in the discussion. The manager immediately replaced her with a new teacher who adopted the enthusiastic attitude toward this event. Our team made every decision quickly before we left, and the whole event turned out to be meaningful and profound not only to the company but also to the five team members, the rural school, and the community.

Example 2: Standards of Excellence

The teaching team I am in right now is engaging in a teaching competition in our company. There are total four steps to win the competition. We have average three meetings before each steps to conclude the effort and experience, and the leader of the team will offer his suggestions and make the requests. All team members could perceive that he wanted to adopt the encouragement strategy and tried not to put pressure on us. After every meeting, he always said we were doing great and wished we could do better. But we did not know to what extent we should strive for. By thinking we were doing well, we overestimated ourselves and underestimated the competitors, and we lost the first two steps. The leader held another meeting immediately after we lost the second competition. Unlike the old days, he clearly announced his expectations and listed specific standards for each of us. After that, he adjusted the standards accordingly based on our performance in every meeting. And, the team won the third competition. Now, we are preparing for the last one. The last win has greatly encouraged the whole team  and we are confident about the next competition.

Example 3: External Support and Recognition

My colleagues applied for a project about cross-company teaching. Our manager liked their idea and approved the project. We thought this was a chance to communicate with other teachers in other company, and to keep up with the information of the bigger context. We soon prepared everything including the documents and reports that needed to be signed by other managers. And we ran into the obstacle that other managers deliberately made excuses and refused to sign the papers. Our manager went to find the CEO after hearing this situation and finally got the support from the top management. With the approval from CEO, all the papers and documents were signed directly and the project had been launched smoothly.

2. Principled Leadership

Anthony and Huckshorn (2008) state that it’s the quality and effectiveness of its leadership that fuels a successful organization. Principle leadership, as an effective leadership, contains eight leadership principles or traits including: (1) Leaders communicate a shared vision; (2) Leaders centralize by mission and decentralize by operations; (3) Leaders create an organizational cultural that identifies and tries to live by key values; (4) Leaders create an organizational structure and culture that empowers their employees and themselves; (5) Leaders ensure that staff are trained in a human technology that can translate vision into reality; (6) Leaders relate constructively to employees; (7) Leaders access and use information to make change a constant ingredient in their organization; (8) Leaders build their organization around exemplary performers (Anthony & Huckshorn, 2008). Furthermore, Dean Garth Saloner of Stanford Graduate School of Business (2009) mentions that principled leaders need to think not just about the impact of their actions on their own firm, but the impact of those actions on society more broadly. In another word, principled leaders need to dig deeply beyond their immediate domain to the broader context when making decisions.

Leadership could influence the team effectiveness through four sets of processes: cognitive, motivational, affective, and coordination (Zaccaro et al., 2001). I would like to make an example of the coordination process. Like the 4-step competition mentioned above, our team is consist of five team members. We were chose by the team leader for each of us was good at one teaching skill. In order to win, we are in charge of different roles and are accountable for our own role. Each role has its standards for performance set up by the team leader, and all roles share a common goal which is to win eventually. Moreover, the team leader are providing distinctive feedback to us regularly according to his observation of our performance. The team leader also has studied the rules of the competition to find out the requirements of each role implied in the rules. If the rules change, the standards toward each role might change accordingly. With the standards of my role, I am confident about my performance and my strategy. The other team members share the same feeling when we communicate with each other. We can feel that every part of our team is functioning well, just like the perfect fit gears making the team work effectively.

Questions: What is your own definition of the principled leadership? If you are a principled leader, what kinds of strategy would you adopt to make decisions?

References

Anthony, W. A., & Huckshorn, K. A. (2008). Principled leadership in mental health systems and programs. Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation/Boston U.

Hackman, J. R. (2012). From causes to conditions in group research. Journal of Organizational Behaviour, 33, 428-444.

Larson, C. E., & LaFasto, F. M. J. (1989). Teamwork: What must go right/what can go wrong. Newbury Park CA: SAGE.

Northouse, P. G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and practice. Sage publications.

Stanford Graduate School of Business. (2009, September 2). Principled Leadership for a Life of Meaning and Impact [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDbxOdMdxYo

https://create.twu.ca/ldrs500/unit-5/unit-5-learning-activity/