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/

Greenleaf (1970) defines that “servant leadership begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first” (p. 15). Additionally, Spears (2002) identifies 10 characteristics of a servant leader which contain listening, empathy, healing, awareness, persuasion, conceptualization, foresight, stewardship, commitment to the growth of people, and building community. In order to better understand the complexities and the phenomenon of servant leadership, a servant leadership model is established by Liden, Wayne, Zhao, and Henderson (2008) and refined by Liden, Panaccio, Hu, and Meuser (2014). The model comprises three parts: antecedent conditions, servant leader behaviours, and outcomes. To be more specific, servant leader behaviours, the core of the servant leadership process, includes conceptualizing, emotional healing, putting followers first, helping followers grow and succeed, behaving ethically, empowering, and creating value for the community. When comparing with other types of leadership, servant leadership is unique for being the only leadership approach that frames the leadership process around the caring for others. Also, servant leadership does not incorporate influence, or power, in a traditional way (Northouse, 2016).

Awareness in servant leadership includes understanding oneself and the impact one has on others (Northouse, 2016). Clearly, awareness is presented as one of the 10 characteristics of a servant leader rather than servant leadership behaviours, which means awareness is a quality of servant leaders. In another word, the individual has to initially possess or to be cultivated to form the trait of awareness. All servant leaders share a common ability to be aware of the needs of other people. For example, Colleen Barrett, president of Southwest Airlines, mentions that she thinks herself more of a follower, also addresses that servant leaders care about other people’s needs and help them achieve their dreams (KnowledgeAtWharton, 2008). I think the awareness in servant leadership equals to sensing and respecting the needs of other people. In turn,  the leaders could make a change in the greater context of the situation for other people. Ian Fuhr in TEDx Talks (2016) makes it clearer that the difference between servant leadership and other types of leadership is servant leaders give people dignity, and respect; they sense the needs of staff not only in organization but also in life; they put the needs of the staff the top priority and try their best to help the employees.

On the other hand, emotional intelligence, including self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and social skill, is addressed and applied more in the context within a team or an organization (Goleman, 2017). For example, emotional intelligence could effectively help leaders solve conflict within the group during the decision-making process. Leaders with high emotional intelligence can timely be aware of the uncomfortable interpersonal disagreements in the team and help the team members realize the open discussion and disagreements can sharpen decision making (Goleman, Boyatzis, & McKee, 2002). The awareness in emotional intelligence is more like a tool for leaders to solve problems in the working context and to gain the ideal outcomes. Whereas the awareness adopted by servant leaders is to perceive the needs of the followers and to help them and satisfy them. Basically, servant leaders do not mind the outcomes such as money, power, and influence, they value more making a difference in people’s lives (TEDx Talks, 2016).

One of my colleagues, also my best friend, is a typical servant leader in teaching. Unlike other teachers who value the scores of the students the most, she cares about the real concerns of the students. She invests plenty of time in reading the blogs full of the students’ feelings and trivial stuff of life. She cares about what makes them unhappy and why. The students love her so much. Although she has not put too much effort in demanding the students to achieve the highest score, the results always appear to be the best. She explains that once the caring and warming environment is formed, the students would actively motivate themselves to learn. It perfectly echoes the words said by Ian Fuhr that servant leaders do not motivate people, they inspire people and create a working environment which is conducive to people motivating themselves (TEDx Talks, 2016).

References

Liden, R. C., Panaccio, A., Hu, J., & Meuser, J. D. (2014). Servant leadership: Antecedents, consequences, and contextual moderators. In D. V. Day (Ed.), The Oxford handbook of leadership and organizations. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Liden, R. C., Wayne, S. J, Zhao, H., & Henderson, D. (2008). Servant leadership: Development of a multidimensional measure and multi-level assessment. Leadership Quarterly, 19, 161-177.

Goleman, D. (2017). Leadership That Gets Results (Harvard Business Review Classics). Harvard Business Press.

Goleman, D., Boyatzis, R., & McKee, A. (2002). The emotional reality of teams. Global Business and Organizational Excellence, 21(2), 55-65.

Greenleaf, R. K. (1970). The servant as leader. Westfield, IN: Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership.

KnowledgeAtWharton. (2008, July, 9). Southwest Airlines’ Colleen Barrett on ‘Servant Leadership’ [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TgR95vnM0c

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

Spears, L. C. (2002). Tracing the past, present, and future of servant-leadership. In L. C. Spears & M. Lawrence (Eds.), Focus on leadership: Servant-leadership for the 21st century (pp. 1-16). New York: Wiley.

TEDx Talks. (2016, February  22). The subversive power of servant leadership | Ian Fuhr | TEDxJohannesburg [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKrTEEHID50

https://create.twu.ca/ldrs500/unit-4/unit-4-learning-activities/

Precis:

Transformational leadership, coined by Downton (1973) and rooted in the writings of Burns (1978) and Bass (1985), is the process whereby a person engages with others and creates a connection that raises the level of motivation and morality in both the leader and the follower. Transformational leadership, always mixed with charismatic leadership by most people, contains two elements: charismatic and affective elements of leadership; emphasizes on intrinsic motivation and follower development; is concerned with emotions, values, ethics, standards, and long-term goals; includes assessing followers’ motivation, satisfying their needs, and treating them as full human beings (Northouse, 2016).

There are seven factors illustrated on the Full Range of Leadership model that can be divided into three parts: transformational factors, transactional factors, and the nonleadership factor. These seven factors can also help understand and distinguish transformational leadership from transactional leadership and other leadership styles. The four factors included in transformational leadership are idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and individualized consideration. Transactional leadership comprising contingent reward and management-by-exception focuses on expected outcomes, while transformational leadership results in performance that goes well beyond what is expected (Northouse, 2016).

Transformational leadership is stressed by many scholars that it is more of a bunch of behaviours can be learned and developed than a set of traits the leaders possess naturally (Kouzes & Posner, 1987). Transformational leaders usually empower followers and nurture them in change; become strong role models with high moral values for the followers (Avolio & Gibbons, 1988); create a meaningful vision; become social architects; are effective at working with people. Also, The most widely used measure of transformational leadership, Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (Bass & Avolio, 1990b), can help leaders pinpoint the weak areas and leadership attributes they could improve.

Discussion:

I would like to present my teacher of Leadership 490 in the last semester, professor Carol C. Molcar, as the transformational leader for this blog. There were other choices. But considering the four typical factors of transformational leadership, I thought my professor Molcar was the perfect one.

Professor Molcar has very high standards of moral and ethical conduct on teaching. She devotes a lot to teaching and is the favourite teacher among us. She is my role model, and the teaching method presented by her is what I would like to incorporate in my teaching career. She always assigned the students into teams with novel themes and let us work something out within the team. The sense of teamwork, collaborating with team members, and breaking the limitations of our imagination were the most useful thing we had learned from her class. Also, She likes to talk with her students. I always found her chatting with the students on the campus happily and warmly. I had talked with her several times after the class. She patiently listened to my situation, my dreams, and my worries, and provided with very useful and inspirational thoughts to help solve my issues. She not only offered generous help to me but also taught me to take wider perspectives into account during decision-making process. Even till now, we are regularly writing Email to each other, and she is willing to reading my concerns and help me to make the best decision for myself. The most impressed thing for me is that she mentions many times she has also learned a lot of things from me and other students. This is an important reason that motivates her to be a teacher, learning from the students and carrying these beautiful traits of the previous groups with her to the next group of graduates.

References

Avolio, B. J., & Gibbons, T. C. (1988). Developing transformational leaders: A life span approach. In J. A. Conger, R. N. Kanungo, & Asssociates (Eds.), Charismatic leadership: The elusive factors in organizational effectiveness (pp. 276-308). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Bass, B. M. (1985). Leadership and performance beyond expectation. New York: Free Press.

Bass, B. M., & Avolio, B. J. (1990b). Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire. Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists Press.

Burns, J. M. (1978). Leadership. New York: Harper & Row.

Downton, J. V. (1973). Rebel leadership: Commitment and charisma in a revolutionary process. New York: Free Press.

Kouzes, J. M., & Posner, B. Z. (1987). The leadership challenge: How to get extraordinary things done in organizations. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

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

https://create.twu.ca/ldrs500/unit-4/unit-4-learning-activities/

This is a response to Achsahs-Springs’ post https://create.twu.ca/achsahs-springs/2018/05/18/rank-talk-write/

I would like to respond to the questions mentioned by Achsahs-Springs. Actually, I am in the same situation with Achsahs that my practice in professional work has been unchallenged these years. Since I have been working for nearly ten years, and the routine tasks remain basically the same. I would like to interpret this phenomenon as I have been institutionalized and my creative thoughts and critical-thinking habit are taken away unconsciously during these years. Fortunately, or unfortunately, I was raised by mother who had an extremely high standard of my performance. Therefore, keep learning and reading have been inscribed in my body as muscle memory. Although I had lost the critical thinking in professional work, I kept updating other habits and reading the books I was interested in. For example, I played the piano since six years old. My interest towards music made me pursue playing another kind of string instrument Gu Qin, the most ancient musical instrument in human history. I learnt to play Gu Qin 4 years ago and have gained not only knowledge but also gratification during this learning process.Also I could gain the feeling of gratification from reading books related to Psychology. I am sure that it is the gratification I continually gained from the learning process motives me to keep renewing myself and expanding the knowledge reservoir, like this Master journey we are involved in right now. I think critical thinking cannot emerge naturally, the most useful way to regain critical thinking is to keep learning and reading. The more you have learnt, the more you would understand that there is still a far way to go. It is the learning process where critical thinking can take root and sprout.

At last, I would like to recommend the article of Cahalan and Foley (2017 ): Integrative Knowing and Practical Wisdom. I am sure the content on page 17 would increase Achsahs’ confidence that faith and reason can co-exist.

Reference

Cahalan, K.,Foley, E. and G. S. Mikoski eds. (2017). Integrative Knowing and Practical Wisdom in Minding the Gaps: Integrating Work in Theological Education. Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock.

This is a response to Wafa Siyam’s post https://create.twu.ca/twuwafasiyam/ldrs-500-unit-3-la-2-rank-talk-write/

I am impressed by the quotation made by Wafa about the traits of critical thinker. Please allow me to restate them here: “a) self-awareness of one’s own and others unsupported able prejudice, b) Willingness to discard or modify cherished assumptions or ideologies on the basis of evidence,  c) Non-conformity- the acceptance that an evidence-based or logical belief must be championed despite the fact that annoys others and may threaten relationships or status, d) Judgment and decision-making free of unrecognized self-interest” (Riddell, 2007, p.34). These traits can serve as the standard of cultivating critical thinking for myself. I think the most difficult one is the willingness to discard or modify cherished assumptions or ideologies on the basis of evidence. Our ideologies are formed in our mind unconsciously. It is already hard to realize our genuine ideologies since they invisibly “manipulate” our thoughts and conducts, it would be harder to discard or modify them. However, there are still ways to achieve this goal. Firstly, we have to be self-aware all the time. It would be constructive to find out our true feelings and explore the ideologies. Secondly, argue with yourself. It is the most useful way to gain as many perspectives as possible during the process of problem-solving, and the hardest way to challenge yourself to gain critical thinking. I summarized three steps in the process of arguing with yourself. Step one, you need to find out your preference toward a choice or an idea and other preferences, especially the one you are extremely reluctant to agree with. Step two, you have to actively figure out several logical pieces of evidence that support the other preferences. I think this step is the most important because the analyzation can help you review different thoughts critically and understand the motivations behind other preferences and perspectives. As long as the ability of understanding is gained, it would be much easier for you to being logical, critical, and authentic in any situation. Step three, rethink your original preference and make some adjustments to optimize the results. As far as I am concerned, this three-step method echoes the last paragraph of Wafa’s post that the traits of critical thinking provides the confidence and knowledge and understanding, and probing different points of view and evidence helps in conveying and answering the inquiry.

Reference

Riddell, T. (2007). Critical assumptions: Thinking critically about critical thinking. Journal of Nursing Education, 46(3).DOI:1040187978-1-4666-8411-9.ch002.

 

I picked the article Integrative Knowing and Practical Wisdom (Cahalan & Foley, 2017) for being extremely interested in the eight ways of cultivating wise practice. I have read it for several times and found the article containing many profound thoughts and ideas that can be constructive and applicable to both our life and professional work.

1. Practical wisdom, the least understood, the hardest to learn, and often the most devalued kind of knowledge, is integrative knowledge that encompasses the full dimensions of human being, knowing, and acting (Cahalan & Foley, 2017).

2. Eight ways of knowing essential to wise practice:

• Situated awareness is noticing and describing contextual factors
• Embodied realizing is developing skilled competence in bodily action
• Critical thinking is analyzing and evaluating concepts and actions
• Emotional attunement is identifying and using awareness of feelings and affective states
• Creative insight is developing imaginative and creative responses
• Spiritual discernment perceiving what is of God and not of God
• Practical reasoning is problem-solving, forming judgments, gaining a sense of salience, and acting wisely

3. Step 1: Understanding the general thoughts and conducts of a novice can help release the pressure of being a novice and build confidence through practice.

“Novices generally rely on theoretical models, preferring to follow a set of rules or steps; mimic the practice of exemplars; are physically and emotionally self-conscious; and have limited ability to read the dynamics of the context beyond their own actions” (Cahalan & Foley, 2017, p. 10).

Novices need to practice a skill repeatedly, reflective practice over time, pattern themselves after the actions of exemplars, reflect on the performance rather than judging the performance, get used to vacillating between feelings of failure and moments of exhilaration (Cahalan & Foley, 2017).

4. Step 2: Practice plays a significant role in helping students achieve advancement.

(1) “Students grow in their ability to assess situations and make nascent decisions about how to proceed” (Cahalan & Foley, 2017, p. 14).

(2) Students need to practice alongside a mentor who can both observe and be observed by them in practice (Cahalan & Foley, 2017).

(3) Achieving “acknowledgement”. In acknowledgement, which means individuals’ skills and knowledge are acknowledged by others in a professional setting, intuitive awareness becomes self-declaration about one’s future (Cahalan & Foley, 2017).

(4) Docility, the capacity to learn from others; humor, the ability to not take oneself too seriously; humility, knowing that one’s life and practice is entirely dependent upon God; and deep background knowledge, the heart of practical reason and decision making, are all important for the students to get advanced in practice (Cahalan & Foley, 2017).

5. Step 3: Being competent in practice involves practical thinking, integration of self and calling that leads to an identity as a called profession, making predictions and coping with the stress in the process of decision-making, practical reasoning, and precisely sensing the needs and responses of people (Cahalan & Foley, 2017).

“Becoming competent in professional practice is a way of being faithful to one’s vocation, gifts, and capacities” (Cahalan & Foley, 2017, p. 17). Further, becoming competent in practice can help develop spiritual growth and development which occurs “when a person’s sense of self is strong enough that they can surrender their own desires in service to another” (Cahalan & Foley, 2017, p. 17).

6. Step 4: “Unknowing is kenotic knowledge; it is the experience of living by way of the imitation of Christ” (Cahalan & Foley, 2017, p. 18).

Being an expert, an individual must possess several insights: First, Expertise not only requires hours of practice to hone one’s skill but also requires taking the time to focus on discrete aspects of one’s practice and become more accomplished in these; second, experts still need theory; third, experts learn from people who are better than they are and accept coaching (Cahalan & Foley, 2017).

“Unknowing relates to perceptions we have of the self, the world, and God. We can never know all there is to know, never completely know ourselves, nor ever completely comprehend God” (Cahalan & Foley, 2017, p. 18). Kenotic is interpreted as “self-emptying” of one’s own will and becoming entirely receptive to God’s divine will (Stevenson, 2010). All experts will eventually realize that they cannot be the experts of all domains and there is still a lot to learn and explore. The more you learn, the deeper you reflect that you are still a long way from knowing. Therefore, Cahalan and Foley (2017) state that long engagement in spiritual practice leads to unknowing.

Among all the eight ways of knowing, situated awareness, critical thinking, and practical reasoning are the top-three important aspects to me. Actually, I believe these eight ways encompass each other and are interrelated. For example, critical thinking is greatly functioning in problem-solving, forming judgments, and acting wisely, which represent practical reasoning. At the same time, embodied realizing, conceptual understanding, and situated awareness serve as the basis of cultivating critical thinking. I deem this is natural because it is impossible to clearly separate the abilities and capacities into independent ones. These abilities and capacities formed in our body are connected like complicated nets. The bigger and more complex the nets are, the wiser and more mature we would be.

Additionally, I would like to mention the idea brought explicitly by Cahalan that “To learn a practice means to experience the practice, practice it, tell about it, ask questions about it, read about it, write about it, practice it, do it, empower others to do it” (Cahalan & Foley, 2017, p. 12). These are exactly what we are doing right now in this course. We are assigned to read, write, reflect on our thoughts, ask questions to invite further discussion, and response to others’ blogs. That is why I love getting involved in education because I could help myself and other people become a wiser person.

References

Cahalan, K., & Foley, E. (2017). Integrative Knowing and Practical Wisdom in Minding the Gaps: Integrating Work in Theological Education. Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock.

Stevenson, A. (Ed.). (2010). Oxford dictionary of English. New York: Oxford University Press.

https://create.twu.ca/ldrs500/unit-3/unit-3-learning-activities/

This is a response to Wafa’s post https://create.twu.ca/twuwafasiyam/ldrs-500-unit-1-la3/

Question: Do you think leaders are vulnerable in the leadership process? How they react to it?

I do not think leaders are willing to being vulnerable in the leadership process, but they are allowed. Everyone has his or her own vulnerable moments which are unavoidable. Although leader is an unique identity, a leader is a human being as well. Leaders, who are taking the responsibilities of establishing direction, aligning people, motivating and inspiring the whole team or organization, have to master the skill of managing personal stress. This is why emotional intelligence is counted as one of the most important trait for a leader. Therefore, I believe the leaders could deal with their own vulnerable time. Also, Wafa mentioned that leadership was a bidirectional connection, where the exchange and interaction took place instead of one step deal. I like this interpretation very much. Because of the bidirectional connection, not only the messages of tasks but also feelings could exchange and interact the team members simultaneously. This perfectly explains why leaders are very good at concealing feelings. When being vulnerable or depressed, they might not want to affect other people’s emotional status or to send the wrong message to make the team less confident about the outcomes. But I would like to add that leaders are allowed to being vulnerable. Showing the vulnerable side can significantly close the relationship. It is helpful for leaders to manage inter-team relationship and be trusted and supported by other team members. In another word, when to show or not show the vulnerable side is also an essential part of emotional intelligence.

This is a response to Lewa Ahmed’s post https://create.twu.ca/lewaahmed/2018/05/07/ldrs-500-unit-one-learning-activity-four-blog-post-two/

Question: How can a healthy balance be achieved between leading and managing in an organization?

In order to achieve the balance, I think the real leader or leaders in the organization have to identify leaders that should possess leadership skills, leaders that should wield management skills, and leaders who should engage both types of skills during work. As long as they confirm the list according to the managerial hierarchy in the organization, the specialized assessment and consequent training courses could be provided to them. Leaders and managers are in charge of different tasks every day, therefore, the requirements of their skills vary. Fortunately, scholars have listed the functions of management and leadership. It should be easy to distinguish between managers and leaders, and their typical activities could serve as the basis of the training content. “Managers are people who do things right and leaders are people who do the right thing” (Bennis & Nanus, 1985, p. 221). I might add that the right people have to be in the right position for the best of the organization.

Reference

Bennis, W. G., & Nanus, B. (1985). Leaders: The strategies for taking charge. New York: Harper & Row.

This is a response to Maddison Olsen’s post https://create.twu.ca/maddisonolson/2018/05/06/unit-1-learning-activity-5/

Question: How can I ensure I’m listening to my team members and effectively communicating with them when our paths do not cross on a regular basis?

This question sounds more like asking for suggestions. If I understand the question incorrect, please forgive me. As far as I am concerned, when your paths do not cross on the regular basis, it would be hard for you to have effectively straight communication. The communication might be interrupted anytime and you have to restart the conversation and to reorganize the thoughts. It would be better if you change the form of “listening” to “reading”. You can leave notes, messages, and Emails to each other. It is important to make sure the content written in the notes or messages can effectively pass the thoughts and feelings to each other. It is more important for everyone to check the Email in time and respond to each other when available. At last, when you feel that you cannot exactly grasp the explicit or implicit meaning written in the note, just find the comfortable time for both of you and listen to him or her face to face. All kinds of communication can build trust, and they should all be used to facilitate the communication as much as possible and to build the bridges among the team.