Author: layla

Part 1 Three types of competencies and application 

1. The Five Leadership Competencies (Lepsinger, 2010)

• Enhance and maintain employee self-esteem
• Set challenging goals
• Create a supportive environment
• Catch people doing something right
• Provide constructive feedback

2. Strategic thinking competencies (Hughes, Colarelli-Beatty, & Dinwoodie, 2014)

• Scanning
• Visioning
• Reframing
• Making common sense
• System thinking

3. Competencies for competitive advantage in the new economy (Ungerer, Ungerer, & Herholdt, 2016)

• Set compelling and socially relevant visions
• Demonstrate praise-worthy values
• Create space and opportunities for employees to excel

The five leadership competencies are appropriate to implement in my training department. We could also spread the ways to incorporate the competencies into daily professional work to the rest of the company if the results are delightful. The training department is, although not in the core group in this power-supply company, vital to preach the company’s MVV to all the staff and help them integrate into the corporate culture as soon as possible. Also, the situation which our managers have high expectations and consciously want to improve staff’s performance echoes the five leadership competencies (Lepsinger, 2010). First, I would suggest my managers improve the communication policy within the training department by consciously delivering the messages to other people with concerns rather than accusation, increasing the chances of brainstorming meetings, and designing a course of learning effective communication in our primary training courses. Listening and talking are two main factors of any types of communication. To understand and to be empathic to other people, the transformational servant leader should be able to receptively listen to what has been said and implied (Spears, 2004). People will feel being valued and safe in an open communicating environment, and in turn, their feelings of self-worth will increase their motivation to perform competently (Lepsinger, 2010). The brainstorming meetings provide time and opportunities for staff to feel free to talk and share their creative ideas. It also represents the leaders are supportive of the open communicating style and encouraging staff to try new ideas and creative challenges. Second, I will set SMART goals (Lepsinger, 2010) for my team and require feedback from both managers and team members. The SMART goals, along with individual job descriptions, are profound for the staff to gain both a clear overview of their job and detailed guidelines of what is expected in daily professional work without misunderstandings (Lepsinger, 2010). Further, the feedback from the team members guarantees their intentional reflection of the mistakes and issues and conceiving constructive solutions; the feedback from the managers shows their recognition to the teamwork. It is vitally important to help employees feel we need to focus on the future, not the past (Lepsinger, 2010), and transformational servant leaders value the growth of the staff (Northouse, 2013) by perfectly balancing the effective behaviours and less effective behaviours of the staff (Lepsinger, 2010). At last, I will collaborate will other team leaders and managers to tell trainers “you can do this” whenever they do something quite good (Lepsinger, 2010). I believe the staff in the training department have a clear understanding of what good performance looks like. They need more affirmation and encouragement when they are improving. As a result, they will know where they are competent at and make progress.

Regarding the entire company, the competencies for competitive advantage (Ungerer, Ungerer, & Herholdt, 2016) could genuinely help the organization achieve excellent performance and move towards corporate MVV of building up a world-class power grid and a world-class enterprise (State Grid, 2018). The competencies for competitive advantage in the new economy require the leaders to bring employees to higher levels of human capabilities at work such as passion, creativity, initiative (Ungerer, Ungerer, & Herholdt, 2016). I will suggest the organization redefine the praise-worthy values combining with corporate values. Not only the lower level staff but also all managers should demonstrate the value and lead the example (Hughes, Colarelli-Beatty, & Dinwoodie, 2014). Also,  to create space and opportunities for employees to excel the company should offer chances for staff to attend training courses in Western companies. The State Grid is a national electric utility monopoly of China. Generally, we do not have a competitor in this country, and the only way for the company to break the current situation and be the world-class company is to learn from companies of other countries. The staff will gain valuable knowledge and ways of practical work and more important, different perspectives of considering problems and dealing with conflict.

However, making the common sense and system thinking (Hughes, Colarelli-Beatty, & Dinwoodie, 2014) are hard to work well in the organization. Due to the coercive and authoritative leadership styles adopted by most leaders in the organization, it is unrealistic for them to “help others in their organizations make sense of the world around them, the challenges they collectively face, and how they will face them together” (Hughes, Colarelli-Beatty, & Dinwoodie, 2014, p. 80). In another word, most managers wish the staff to follow the orders rather than rationalizing the assignments and seeking understanding. They deem it is time-consuming and less effective to manage the work. Additionally, system thinking would greatly facilitate workflow and professional practice if employees were strategic thinkers, but the un-transparency of information on the lower level staff has stopped employees from discerning and understanding complex problems and the interrelationships between them (Hughes, Colarelli-Beatty, & Dinwoodie, 2014). Clearly, the managers have no intention to improve the information transparency in the organization as it is easier for them to get the upper hand and command the workers.

Part 2 Effective principles, not so effective principles

1. Three most important principles

• Increase Coordination and Cooperation (Lepsinger, 2010)

Most of the professional work in my company involves teamwork, and cooperation and coordination are imperative. However, the teamwork is not always effective, and the team could not finish the work efficiently. To be more specific, the level of teamwork effectiveness is low in the organization. I realize it is because employees always think they have been clear enough and other people are supposed to understand them (Lepsinger, 2010). Also, team leaders need to enhance team learning in the does to transfer the inter-team competition to collaboration (Zeeman, 2017). Hence, I would suggest the managers gather the perception how employees think of the cooperation. Then, they should focus on finding the ways to close the gap and building effective communication to make members willing to share their real thoughts in the working environment.

• Strategic acting (Hughes, Colarelli-Beatty, & Dinwoodie, 2014)

Strategic acting requires leaders to consider strategy “as a top-down and a bottom-up process” (Hughes, Colarelli-Beatty, & Dinwoodie, 2014, p. 101). It gives my organization a new perspective to conceive and design a strategy before implementing it as the leaders usually adopt the top-down implementation and could not have the insight throughout the organization (Hughes, Colarelli-Beatty, & Dinwoodie, 2014). As a result, the strategies are flawed and lack of agility. I believe the managers should acknowledge the possibility of uncertainty to the staff at the beginning and prepare to make decisive decisions when necessary (Hughes, Colarelli-Beatty, & Dinwoodie, 2014). Then, setting clear priorities for staff to discern the short-term actions and long-term actions (Hughes, Colarelli-Beatty, & Dinwoodie, 2014). It is significant for our company as the staff always feel confused about what should do and how to act. The team cohesion decreases and the working effectiveness suffers.

• Strategic execution principles (Ungerer, Ungerer, & Herholdt, 2016)

The strategic execution mindset does the importance of people, and “all role-players need to understand that execution requires an actionable strategy” (p. 221). This principle could help the staff recognize their useful roles in the strategic execution and managers realize it is essential to empower employees to act (Ungerer, Ungerer, & Herholdt, 2016). I will show the figure of strategy-making and execution process (Figure 5.7; Ungerer, Ungerer, & Herholdt, 2016, p. 225 ) in the meeting to other employees and let them understand how the strategy works. Second, staff will have to identify which step they are involved in and how they could make the contribution. Third, workers have to provide their feedback on how to align individual KPAs and KPIs with the corporate MVV through the whole process.

2. Three least important principles

• The business model formulation (Ungerer, Ungerer, & Herholdt, 2016)

I picked up this one just because our company is the monopolistic business in China. Therefore, the organization does not have to worry too much about the components of the business model; the government defines even the price of electricity.

• Synergy portfolio strategy (Galbraith, 2014)

It is the key for the company is to form “a complete organization-a complete Star Model” to achieve synergy (Galbraith, 2014, p. 255). Although useful, our company cannot be conglomerates with any other business without the permission of the only stakeholder-the government. Therefore, no matter personally or corporately synergy portfolio strategy will not be necessary. This is also the least effective course text material to me.

• Value-adding strategy for conglomerates (Galbraith, 2014)

The State Grid, being a monopolistic power supply company and entirely controlled by the government, actually does not need to invest much energy in market expectations. And the company is not a conglomerate and will not join with other companies.

 

References

Galbraith, J. R. (2014) Designing Organizations: strategy, structure, and process at the business unit and enterprise levels. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. [PDF version]

Hughes R., Colarelli-Beatty K. & Dinwoodie  D. (2014) Becoming a strategic leader. (2^nd ed.) San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. [PDF version]

Lepsinger  R. (2010) Closing the Execution Gap. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. [PDF version]

Northouse, P. (2013). Leadership: Theory and practice (6th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.

Spears, L. C. (2004). Practicing servant‐leadership. Leader to leader, 2004(34), 7-11.

State Grid. (2018). State Grid. Retrieved from http://www.sgcc.com.cn/ywlm/aboutus/value/index.shtml

Ungerer, M., Ungerer, G., & Herholdt, J. (2016). Navigating strategic possibilities : Strategy formulation and execution practices to flourish. Randburg: KR Publishing.

Zeeman, A. (2017). Senge’s Five Disciplines of Learning Organizations. Retrieved from ToolsHero: https://www.toolshero.com/management/five-disciplines-learning-organizations/

This is the response to Sally’s post: https://create.twu.ca/sally81/2018/10/25/the-three-questions-blog-post-4-1/

I was totally shocked after reading Sally’s post. It is incredible, and the perspectives in the blog are inspiring. Especially, the way in which Sally well combined two stories with the strategic knowledge made me realize leadership stems from our daily life. Rather than complaining it is hard to manage, we should stop the trifles to feel and reflect on what is happening around us and what can we learn from it. Sometimes, the essential point lies in normal little things.

I am especially touched when seeing Sally’s answers to “Who is the most important one”. I think we all are very familiar with the serving spirit, commitment to other’s growth and other traits of transformational servant leadership (Northouse, 2016). Sally’s post has brought up the basic need for not only being a transformational servant leader but also a normal person. Being a trainer for almost ten years, I have seen many adults lost their temper or were unable to manage emotions in the face of adversity. And I cannot guarantee I could take care of myself under any situation. Then, how could we genuinely focus on others’ needs when ourselves are a mess? Hence, a strategic leader should be capable of discerning the whole situation, other people’s intention, and our own status.

Further, “using mental health strategies to stay aligned with good practice” (Hinksman, 2018, para 19) just resonates with my need for professional work. Facing adult trainees, I sense the most tricky part for me is how to resolve the negative emotions I got from them. I love to listen to their problems, offer advice, and guide them to think positively. But sometimes the negativity lingers in my mind and bothers me a lot. I have found related psychological books to learn the correct way to comfort myself and become a better “counsellor” to help them. This is how I generate a healthy communication with my trainees and form trust in the trainer-trainee relationship. Being a mentally healthy individual and help others by using mental health strategies is both my personal and professional vision.

Thank you so much, Sally.

References

Hinksman, S. (2018, October 26). The three questions (blog post 4.1). [web log comment]. Retrieved from https://create.twu.ca/sally81/2018/10/25/the-three-questions-blog-post-4-1/

Northouse, P. G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and practice. Los Angeles, Calif: SAGE.

This is a response to Sadie’s blog https://create.twu.ca/ldrs501/2018/10/25/strategic-leadership-and-me/

Hi, Sadie. It is a nice to treat to read your blog, and I found a lot of shared feelings in your post. The teacher who would not share any resources or knowledge sounds very similar to many employees in my organization, and most of them are in the technical department. However, I do not think if we give enough attention to them, then they would feel like sharing with us. On the contrary, I believe the feeling to be valued is the main reason they adopt this “‘closed-door policy”. It is the uniqueness and superiority they are desired.  To help them fit in with the majority and contribute to the growth of the organization, I will try to create a collective mental model and a common overarching goal aligning with the company’s mission, vision, and value by constantly communicating with them. The common goal, serving as the best interests for everyone, is the most effective way to reduce communication distrust and “create trusting environments through open dialogue and transparency throughout” (Atha, 2018, para 16). Also, I will involve the techniques of “breaking the cycle” (Lepsinger, 2010, p. 51) to challenge the self-sustaining prophecy (Eden, 1990) for everyone and help them understand learning from other people is the only way to reach a win-win situation.

I strongly agree with the last one you mentioned in three things I can do to improve: “Build upon changes I’ve already made” (Oberle, 2018, para 20). This one is significant after the changes have been made yet tend to be ignored by people. Kotter (2012) argues “Real change runs deep, quick wins are only the beginning of what needs to be done to achieve long-term change” (p. 139). Moreover, investing great energy on reaching the long-term change and building on the sustainable higher organizational performance are critical for the strategic leaders. Considering my professional work, I will set goals and acknowledge my expectations to my team. Also, the regularly gathered feedback will make the strategic plan as a circular process to adjust the goals along the way towards greater performance.

References

Atha, D. (2018). Week 4 Post 4.3. [web log comment]. Retrieved from https://create.twu.ca/ldrs501/week-4-post-4-3/

Eden, D. (1990). Pygmalion in management: Productivity as a self-fulfilling prophecy. Lexington Books/DC Heath and Com.

Lepsinger, R. (2010). Closing the execution gap. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Kotter, J. P. (2012). Leading change, With a new preface by the author. Boston, MA: Harvard  Business Review Press.

Oberle, S. (2018, October 25). Strategic Leadership and Me! [web log comment]. Retrieved from https://create.twu.ca/ldrs501/2018/10/25/strategic-leadership-and-me/

Part 1. The best steps I envision for developing performance best practices across all areas of the organization.

Human Resources: Adding an appropriate portion of Individual Performance Evaluation in the salary structure.

Step 1. In the light of compensation policy (Galbraith, 2014), redesigning the salary structure and adding individual performance evaluation is imperative for human resources.

Due to the feature of a state-owned business, the organization I am working for keeps the traditional salary structure: the salary is solely associated with the positions, and employees on the same hierarchy get the identical wage. This policy has long dissatisfied the bottom staff. I have heard the colleagues complaining of the unfair pay since the daily routine might change and each faculty has a different job description. Therefore, it would be a significant improvement if the salary structure contains an individual performance evaluation as the reward or compensation to the staff who has more duty in hand.

Step 2. Form teams with distinctively specific main tasks to supervise the implementation of the new policy.

The new salary structure with individual performance evaluation might greatly cause different reactions among employees. Also, the details of the new salary policy need adjustments according to the reality of implementation and feedback of the lower level staff. There will be a lot of uncertainties, and “the greater the uncertainty, the greater the need for teamwork” (Cameron & Green, 2015, p. 64). For example, the Human Resource department could resort to the supervision team, feedback gathering team, and strategic planning team to collect and analyze information to improve the new salary policy.

Corporate Identity: Seeking a strategic partnership to win a community-friendly reputation.

The energy-supplying company I am working for is not only a national organization but also a monopolized industry in China. Naturally, society has biasedly criticized the company for being aggressive. The firm has regularly donated books or cared elders for charity, and the media also helps us reporting the event. However, it seems the company needs to invest more to gain the expected reputation. Therefore, I would suggest the organization build a long-term collaborative relationship with another charitable institution, such as an orphanage or a nursing home. First, building and maintaining the community-friendly reputation is one of the long-term goals of the company. Second, establishing a healthy conversation with the community which should be one of the stakeholders will help the firm receive a higher valuation (Ungerer, Ungerer, & Herholdt, 2016).

Organizational Culture: Including team learning in the organizational culture

One potential pitfall of the new salary policy mentioned above is the internal competition and negativity among employees. The staff with more duties and higher performance will get more salary than before. On the contrary, the ones who use to be freeloaders will not get as much as the old days. Senge articulates “It is crucial for the workforce to consider its colleagues as team members instead of rivals” (Zeeman, 2017, para 8). Hence, the organization should place great emphasis on promoting teamwork and team learning in the culture. Furthermore, the learning culture could greatly ensure the sustainable competitive advantage for the organization (Hughes, Beatty, & Dinwoodie, 2014) and also align with the company’s vision of becoming “a world-class enterprise” (State Grid, 2018).

Part 2. Some of the negative organizational renewal, execution and design challenges in the organization.

I have identified two negative aspects regarding organizational renewal and execution. First, from the big picture, the promotion policy is too rigid to help the company becoming innovative. Second, from my professional perspective, the leadership training courses designed under the company’s requirement and promotion policy are basically meaningless.

The promotion policy in my organization is “following the order, taking turns”. To be more specific, this policy implies that the positions of the lower level in the management hierarchy are occupied by the staff sequentially according to the length of the employment. This policy is set to protect and respect the senior employees, but there is hardly any chance for young employees with an innovative mindset to be leaders and apply creative ideas to gaining better organizational performance. In the publicly-knowing candidates’ situation, the leadership training courses which only open to candidates have been unimaginative all the time.

To shift these negative impacts and help the organization thrive, I have prepared three steps.

Step 1. Initiating a Pre-promotion Questionnaire based on the main factors of transformational servant leadership

This Pre-promotion Questionnaire is designed for all the staff in one division to take before the promotion. The results can help the leaders in the higher level to reassess the capacity and ability of the candidates before making the decision. Choosing the right managers for the positions can significantly facilitate the development of the organization. Also, the questionnaire could contribute to building a fair competitive culture and offer more chance to junior workers.

Step 2. Redesigning and Reorganizing the leadership courses for all the staff

I believe one of the main reasons for the existing execution gap is the lack of employee involvement in decision making (Lepsinger, 2010). The leadership courses solely serving senior managers seem to create benefit for them, but the managers also lose the chance to build a shared mental model with employees. This will result in the discrepancy between how employees understand the decisions and strategic plans and how managers construe them. It is not only time-consuming but also creates conflicts. From a long-term perspective, acknowledging the leadership mindset will help staff view the problems from the leaders’ perspective and gain a further understanding of the decisions made by managers.

Step 3. Creating a supportive environment

Building on step 1 and step 2, a supportive environment can help people feel comfortable to try new behaviours or take risks (Lepsinger, 2010). Leaders should encourage junior staff with innovative moves, provide appropriate support to build a learning culture. Also, a supportive environment will build confidence in workers. Once they feel they are allowed to voice their thoughts and needs, they are willing to execute the plans and help the company overcome setbacks.

Part 3. What’s more.

To promote positive renewal, execution and organizational design principles,

1. I will regularly visit and learn from other companies to improve my training methods and content.

2. I will measure every aspect of the training process, such as target trainees, the content of the courses, and training effectiveness evaluation.

3. I will gather feedbacks from three perspectives including managers, my team members, and trainees to close the strategic execution gap. 

To promote the negative practice of these principles,

1. I will not be biased.

I believe one of the essential virtues of being a teacher or a trainer is treating every student or trainee equally. Also, judging or forming an impression about the staff will set a barrier in front of gaining higher performance (Lepsinger, 2010).

2. I will not hide information to my team members.

The information exchange will greatly facilitate the growth of the whole team and reinforce the decision-making process.

3. I will not be dominant.

My Birkman report has pointed out I might be dominant when under pressure.  I understand things will not always go well. Self-awareness is crucial for transformational servant leadership (Northouse, 2016), and I will intentionally adjust my status and show appreciation to my team members when they notice me of going too far.

To correct behaviours not conducive to my career health and the principles required to promote the healthy strategic practice,

1. I will find effective ways to communicate with managers, team members, and trainees.

The effective communication could diminish misunderstandings and reduce conflicts. Besides, how to effectively deliver the knowledge to trainees and maximize the training results has always been critical for trainers.

2. I will respect others’ perspectives.

Only focusing on several perspectives will create a biased understanding of the whole picture, and the desired long-term results will suffer. Moreover, a transformational servant leader will empathically listen to other people and consider more perspectives into the decision-making process (Northouse, 2016).

3. I will lead by example.

Leadership is the process of influencing (Northouse, 2016), and the most powerful way to affect my trainees is to show them what to do and how to behave. Also, leading by example puts me into the scrutiny and help me become a better person. In turn, I could convince my trainees to promote healthy practice.

 

References

Cameron, E., & Green, M. (2015). Making sense of change management (4th ed.). Croydon, Great Britain: KoganPage Limited.

Galbraith, J. R. (2014). Designing organizations: Strategy, structure, and process at the business unit and enterprise levels. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Hughes, R., Beatty, K. & Dinwoodie, D. (2014). Becoming a strategic leader: Your role in your organization’s enduring success. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Lepsinger, R. (2010). Closing the execution gap: How great leaders and their companies get results. John Wiley & Sons.

Northouse, P. G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and practice. Los Angeles, Calif: SAGE.

State Grid. (2018). State Grid. Retrieved from http://www.sgcc.com.cn/ywlm/aboutus/value/index.shtml

Ungerer, M., Ungerer, G., & Herholdt, J. (2016). Navigating strategic possibilities : Strategy formulation and execution practices to flourish. Randburg: KR Publishing.

Zeeman, A. (2017). Senge’s Five Disciplines of Learning Organizations. Retrieved from ToolsHero: https://www.toolshero.com/management/five-disciplines-learning-organizations/

This is a response to Pierre’s post: https://create.twu.ca/pierreflorendo/2018/10/16/strategic-leadership-teams-hc1/

I believe Pierre did the right thing of using Strategic Team Review and Action Tool (STRAT; Hughes, Beatty, & Dinwoodie, 2014) to analyze the problems and learn from the former teamwork. It would be better to constantly use the STRAT tool for the new team as the STRAT is to “generate conversation among team members regarding what they do well and what they could do better” (Hughes, Beatty, & Dinwoodie, 2014, p. 228). Further, my understanding after reading the post is it is the team culture Pierre should focus on building. Besides the trust issue mentioned in the post, I also perceived the vulnerability among the inter-team relationship and teamwork. The team members with the past unpleasant experiences “felt ignored, suppressed, and disenfranchised” (Florendo, 2018, para 7). I think the team members are in the transition from the previous teamwork experiences to the new one. Hence, the transition is psychological, and it would be a danger for the team when conflicts are not well solved and team members feel like back to the old days (Bridges, 2009).

With the shared direction, alignment, and commitment (DAC; Hughes et al., 2014), empowerment and genuine communication are indeed the best two ways for Pierre’s team to regain trust and create a healthy team culture. But considering the vulnerability as the potential risk hiding in the team, I would figure out an effective way or well-thought-out workflow to resolve conflict and minimize the harm to the team culture in advance. Being a strategic leader, we need to exert the conflict management skill and “use different points of view to stimulate information exchange and learning” (Galbraith, 2014, p. 92). We should tell the team conflicts can help the team grow and thrive. The team could learn from the conflicts and we can always help as “making the commitment to other people’s growth” is one of the most important traits of transformational servant leadership (Northouse, 2016).

References

Bridges, W. (2009). Managing Transitions: Making the Most of Change. Philadelphia, PA: De Capo Press.

Florendo, P. (October 16, 2018). Strategic leadership teams – HC1 (post 3.1) (health care). [web log comment]. Retrieved from https://create.twu.ca/pierreflorendo/2018/10/16/strategic-leadership-teams-hc1/

Galbraith, J. R. (2014). Designing organizations: Strategy, structure, and process at the business unit and enterprise levels. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Hughes, R., Beatty, K. & Dinwoodie, D. (2014). Becoming a strategic leader: your role in your organization’s enduring success. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Northouse, P. G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and practice. Los Angeles, Calif: SAGE.

 

This is a response to Marcelo’s post “El Equipo Directivo” https://create.twu.ca/marcelowarkentin/2018/10/16/mssl-et1-el-equipo-directivo/

I appreciated your honesty of deeply analyzing the problems in your team, and it is definitely not easy for the leader to confess they failed to see long-time results and possibilities. From my perspective, the most tricky part is not to find the balance to focus between short-term and long-term gains but to convince the rest of the team to be patient and confident towards the long-term gains. In my training experiences, adult learners are easier to understand there will be long-term results than teenagers for being more logical and possessing more knowledge. Also, they are more impulsive to see short-term results than adolescents as well. To find the reason behind the impatience, I had communicated with some trainees, and they gave me the answers with two main points. First, adults are more anxious about the rewards after they have invested personal effort. Unlike teenagers who believe their future must have various possibilities, adults tend to be more realistic and fast grasp what they can perceive and gain. Second, adult learners with abundant personal experiences not only prefer to believe themselves but also hard to accept others’ beliefs (Xiao Yang, Hong Zhi, & Yi Xuan, personal communication, March 14, 2018).

However, I found out the most effective way was to build a collective mental model with them, such as team members, employees, and trainees, through constant communication. As leaders, we should acknowledge our team our own models “fall far short of representing the world fully” and “that’s why we make mistakes” (Meadows, 2008, p. 94). Therefore, creating a collective mental model is to help us become better people and gain a more comprehensive view of the world. Additionally, we still need to invest in gaining positive short-term results to maintain the team’s confidence and cohesion. We need to be clear “effective leaders plan for short-term wins, they do not just hope for them” (DuFour & Burnette, 2002, p. 28).

I hope you will find my response helpful.

References

DuFour, R., & Burnette, B. (2002). Pull Out Negativity by Its Roots. Journal of Staff Development, 23(3), 27-30.

Meadows, D. H. (2008). Thinking in systems: A primer. Chelsea Green Publishing.

This is a response to my team member Marcelo’s response: https://create.twu.ca/marcelowarkentin/2018/10/12/response-to-no-other-way-by-sally-hinksman/

Being international students, Marcelo and I tend to share the same feelings towards implementing transformational servant leadership in our culture. It seems the coercive leadership style in China is still in the primary role. The leaders, or managers, value their position so much and are obsessed with the power coming with the position. To be honest, I happened to witness the manager of the technical department publicly abused the staff of his department in the company-level meeting yesterday. Therefore, today I intentionally added the content of “discussing the benefit of exerting transformational servant leadership in your department” in this year’s training course. I still need to work on the details of this discussion next week, but implementing and preaching the spirit of transformational servant leadership is imperative. I had run into many barriers when I tried to re-design the courses with servant leadership and got mocked by other trainers. However, I never give up my intention and faith. And now I have gained strength from both Sally’s words “The transformational servant leadership model is necessary in our schools and in all levels of educational administration” and your experience.

In order to provide better practice, I  have designed knowledge teaching, case studying, team discussions, and personal leadership story sharing in the programs. I believe these activities will help new employees intrinsically realize the virtues of servant leadership. Unlike teaching children, training adults with formed worldviews and personal experiences is hard to see the immediate effect. Therefore, I need to be strong enough to patiently believe there will be changes from the long-term perspective.

I am wondering if you have other practices which can help students understand the significance of being transformational servant leadership?

 

This is the response to Health Care Team 2’s post：https://create.twu.ca/chiefanalyzerofthings/2018/10/09/servant-and-strategic-leadership-tools-hc2/

I was deeply touched by Samson’s story of visiting his grandmother and the sequentially triggered reflection “who will care for those who care for us”. I had the same feeling once this summer when talking with Sally in the course LDRS 503. I can still remember her passion towards each student and endless energy she invests in professional work. Also, I could sense her unpleasant mood of being controlled by the system and government and feeling hands are tied behind a chair (Sally Hinksman, personal communication, July 31, 2018 ). Obviously, the gratitude coming from students and patients could greatly comfort educators and health-care workers. Nonetheless, I guess the situation educators are facing is quite the same as health-care workers. I could not agree more with promoting Transformational Servant Leadership in the domains of both Education and Healthcare. The importance of voices being heard and recognized as you mentioned in the blog is emphasized in characteristics and conducts of Transformational Servant Leadership (Northouse, 2016). Although changes happen slowly and take time, transformational servant leaders could unconsciously make slight moves day by day combining with strategic leadership. The integration of strategic thinking, acting, and influencing in the service of direction, alignment, and commitment needs the effort of more people getting involved and investing in the strategic process (Hughes, Beatty, & Dinwoodie, 2014). The more people are engaged in making strategic changes, the more they understand the urgent needs to make an improvement and contribute more to creating a collective culture. Eventually, we could attain the desired future together and pass the spirit of strategically transformational servant leadership to the next generations.

References

Hughes, R. L., Beatty, C. K., & Dinwoodie, D. L. (2014). Becoming a strategic leader: Your role in your organization’s enduring success. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

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