Category: UNIT 1

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Unit 1, Responses

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.

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Unit 1, Learning Activity 5

1. Emotional Healing

Example: I think my husband is playing the servant leader role in my entire family, which includes my parents, his parents, and other relatives. When my parents got divorced two years ago, I was completely depressed and my parents were frustrated as well. I could not offer my help and understand to them, and they were unable to comfort me as well. Even my husband’s parents were confused about the whole thing. He briefly explained to his parents to seek support and understanding, and then he spent as much time as he could to stay with me. He tried everything to make me talk to him,  he even learnt the related knowledge of psychology to solve my emotional issues. In the meantime, he had to cope with my unstable parents separately. He comforted my mother and made my father calm. I appreciated that he never blamed me for being with depressive disorder, and he told me that he had become a better person after undergoing all these things.

2. Putting Followers First

Example: One of my teachers in high school, Mrs Chen, is an example of how a leader puts followers first. The students in China are under great pressure of endless examinations. After being assigned as our reading teacher, she required all of us to write daily note about our concerns and feelings. There were 64 students in the class. In addition to correcting our papers and tests, she kept reading our notes day by day. She wanted to find out what her students were worried about and spent a lot of time to chat with the students individually. We all knew that Mrs Chen always missed her lunch and supper, but she never allowed us to miss any meal. She placed what we needed and concerned higher than her needs.

3. Empowering

Example: I am a lecturer in an organization and my job is providing skills and passing the technical knowledge to the employees. Last year, I found the content of my course outdated and the timetable overlapped with another teacher. We reported the situation to our new manager. Instead of arranging the courses and assigning the timetable to us like the previous manager did, the new leader told us we could decide the content by ourselves and negotiate the time with each other. He just needed us to hand in the whole timetable and teaching plan after our decisions. We were thrilled when we heard him, and the new teaching plan satisfied all the lecturers. We became more involved during teaching, and the responses of the staff were positive and delightful.

Among all three principles, the most challenging one for me is emotional healing. I chose this one for concerning that my depression disorder might be the barrier in the process of emotional healing. Although I am not depressed now, I perceive that I am still reluctant to open my heart and share my feelings with the other people at times. I am a good listener, and all my friends enjoying staying with me. But the emotional healing is a two-way event (Northouse, 2016), I am afraid that I cannot make the best of the healing for the team when I could only use it as a one-way approach. I am working on this mental issue and I believe that I could be a competent servant leader in the very near future.

My question: Which characteristics of a servant leader do you possess?

Reference

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

Unit 1 Learning Activities

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Unit 1, Learning Activity 4

Part 1: Assigned Leaders And Emergent Leaders

The assigned leader is an individual occupying a position in an organization, and the emergent leader is the most influential member of the group or the organization (Northouse, 2016). I think it is worth noticing that the emergent leader does not have to be the assigned leader. In another word, the emergent leader might be the assigned leader or might be someone else in the group. Moreover, the assigned leader is decided by the upper leaders, yet the emergent leader is recognized by the other members of the group.

Back to the days when I was playing piano in the orchestra of the university, our teacher was playing the role of assigned leader. She assigned us heavy tasks of practice every day and was extremely grumpy when we were slightly underperforming. Basically, all the members in the orchestra were exhausted and reluctant to play. One day, the teacher was somehow late to show up in the practice room. All the members just sat on their seats or the ground and chatted with each other. Clearly, everyone deliberately avoided talking about practice. Then I walked toward my piano and played the first note. I could feel them stopping talking and staring at me. Without asking me to stop or questioning my action, they just stayed quiet for a while. I looked back at them and tried to tell them that we were practising for ourselves rather than the teacher. They followed me eventually, and the teacher was totally surprised when she walked in. After that day, no matter how hard the practice and how long the time we had practised, no one complained and felt frustrated. I could feel the trust from them when I was sitting in front of my piano. They had told me that I gave them courage and reason to keep playing, and as long as I played they would follow me. Although the teacher was the assigned leader, I understood that I was the emergent leader at that time. Furthermore, it is the emergent leader who can emotionally sustain the whole group and genuinely encourage the members to show their best.

Part 2: Management and Leadership

There is some commonality between management and leadership. First, both leadership and management entail working with people; second, they value goal accomplishment; third, they both involve influence (Northouse, 2016).

On the other hand, management is about providing order and consistency and seeking stability, but leadership is about seeking adaptive and constructive change and producing movement (Northouse, 2016). Northouse (2016) also demonstrated main activities of management and leadership through a figure adapted from Kotter (1990). For instance, management involves planning and budgeting, organizing and staffing, and controlling and problem solving; leadership contains establishing direction, motivating and inspiring, and aligning people (Northouse, 2016).

To be more specific, managers could establish agendas, set timetables, and allocate resources for planning and budgeting. They could provide structure, make job placements, and establish rules and procedures to achieve organizing and staffing. In order to control and solve problem, managers could develop incentives, generate creative solutions, and take corrective actions (Northouse, 2016). As for leaders, they could create the vision, clarify big pictures, and set strategies to establish direction for the team; they communicate goals, seek commitment, and build teams and coalitions to aligning people; they are also good at inspiring and energizing, empowering followers, and satisfying unmet needs.

Evidently, both management and leadership are essential for an organization to prosper. I could not identify the most significant approach in my heart. Then I read the sentence “Leaders change the way people think about what is possible” (Northouse, 2016, p. 15). This idea, which could also be illustrated as inspiring, actually serves as the most decisive factor for an organization to win and prosper. Therefore, I believe the approaches to motivating and inspiring are the most essential ones for an organization.

My question: how would you understand the idea of Bennis and Nanus (1985), “Managers are people who do things right and leaders are people who do the right thing” (p. 221)?

References

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

Kotter, J. P. (1990). A force for change: How leadership differs from management. New York: Free Press.

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

 

Unit 1 Learning Activities

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Unit 1, Learning Activity 3

The author has defined leadership as “a process whereby an individual influences a group of individuals to achieve a common goal” (Northouse, 2016, p. 6). Clearly, there are four components contained in the definition.

The first one is the process. I could not agree more with Northouse defining leadership as a process. Leadership is working at least for a period and requires responses from both leaders and followers. It is not enough for leadership being effective for just a moment or a minute. In addition, I think the process contributes to the outcome pursued by leaders and followers. Although the outcome may turn out to be completely different, the endeavour contained in the process matters the most. And the endeavour actually means the all the reactions caused by leadership. Moreover, I believe the energy flow is implied in the process. The energy flow does not only mean extrinsic communication, also means sharing the intrinsic feeling, need, aspiration, and so on. Leadership allows the energy of each individual to be seen and accepted by the other ones. In another word, the leaders and followers could perceive and exchange their energy smoothly in the process.

The second one is the influence. Besides all the points illustrated by the author in the textbook, I would like to add that this component is mostly talking about a linear, one-way event. Influence emphasizes the effects that the leaders have on the followers.

The third one is the group context. I think the importance of the group context to the leadership is like that of the soil to the flower. The group context is where the leadership takes place.

The last component is the goal attainment. I like the word “mutual” in the textbook. It shows that both leaders and followers in the group are sharing the something in common, which means all of them would working together to achieve the common goal. Having a mutual purpose is the best way to motivate everyone and to encourage them to show their best performance during the process. Also, it is worth mentioning that the goal attainment is resonated with the process.

At last, I would like to share my understanding of power. The author has thoroughly explained the types and effects of the power. As far as I am concerned, there are two more aspects that should be noticed. First, we need to admit the existence of power and accept it. The power implied in the leadership can be intimidating to both leaders and followers. Therefore, facing it is far more important than intentionally ignoring or avoiding it. Second, it is crucial to be aware of the attitude towards the power. To be more specific, the leaders have to wield the power in a right way, and the followers could be influenced willingly. This is the reasonable and logical way to make the best use of the power.

My question: Above all the five components, which one would you value the most?

Reference

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

https://create.twu.ca/ldrs500/unit-1/unit-1-learning-activities/

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Unit 1, Response

This is in response to Leona’s post on learning activity 1.3-https://create.twu.ca/soleona/2018/01/07/ldrs591-unit-1-activity-1-3/

The question she invited for the further discussion is that where can be observed the negative results of the misinformation and what are the results. In my experience, misinformation mostly happens in the situation that people possess different perspectives or different worldview. There is a famous fable in China. It is about one people discussing with one animal if there are four seasons in one year. The animal strongly argued that there were only three seasons in a year for it could only survive from Spring to Autumn. A wise man passing by waked up the man that it was pointless to debate with the animal because it was hard to explain something which is totally beyond one’s cognition. In another word, they had a different worldview and different perspectives on the same thing. The result was also a sad one that neither of them could be persuaded by the other one. I like to use the word “sad” to describe my feelings toward this kind of results because there is no evident boundary between right and wrong in most of the situation. If the people on different perspectives of one thing cannot genuinely understand each other and reach to an agreement mutually, they will just stick to their own thoughts and accomplish the tasks or other things in their own ways.

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Unit 1, activity 1.3

How did the authors of the articles conceptualize evidence-based leadership?

The significance of “best practices” and “lessons learned” is emphasized in the article of Patton (2001). Although he prefers to use “better practices” instead of “best practices”, “best practices” are still the most popular form of knowledge and act as the principles to guide practice. On the other hand, the number of supporting evidence and supporting sources determines whether a “lesson learned” is meaningful. Clearly, the more rigorous and the greater number of the evidence, the more confidence one has in the lessons learned.

Moreover, Trybus (2007) states that WWC established by the US Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences will transform education into an evidence-based field with standards of scientifically based research. She also mentions that a sound decision making needs the equilibrium of application and utilization of evidence-based research and professional wisdom.

Walshe and Rundall (2001) formally introduce the concept of evidence-based practice. Firstly, the authors illustrate how evidence-based practice is applied to health care. The gap between research and clinical practice in health care generated three problems, whereas evidence-based practice has greatly improved this situation. Then, the evidence-based practice is used in the managerial domain. In order to make the best use of the evidence-based practice, the managerial culture and the preference of qualitative research of managers should both be taken into account. Also, the differences between managers and clinicians of making decisions offer another perspective on the implementation of evidence-based practice. At last, the authors combine all the aspects mentioned above and depict evidence-based leadership as leaders who are more able and willing to use evidence in the decision-making process, also can deal with the complexities of the practice, and make an improvement in the quality of management.

What is considered as “evidence”?

There are many understandings and notions of “evidence”.  Walshe and Rundall (2001) articulate in the essay that “evidence” should include the guidelines being produced and disseminated, the training in techniques such as critical appraisal, and the books and journal papers about evidence-based practice. Also, the “evidence” means the culture, research base, and decision-making processes.

I think there are another two aspects should be considered as “evidence” after reading and reflecting all the articles. They are rigorous and well-conducted research findings in suitable context, and the real things happened in the history.

Why is evidence-based decision-making important?

As far as I am concerned, the decision made through evidence-based practice is more sound than other decisions. Secondly, the evidence-based practice in decision-making offers a logical way to make the decision sensible. At last, an evidence-based decision gives persuasive arguments for other people to accept and be supportive.

My question

Everyone has different opinions of “evidence”. Clearly, we would only use the ones that sound reliable to us. What kinds of evidence would you use in your decision-making process?

 

 

References

Patton, M. (2001). Evaluation, knowledge management, best practices and high quality lessons learned. American Journal of Evaluation, 22(3), 329-336.

Trybus, M. (2007). Understanding scientifically based research: A mandate or decision making tool? Delta Kappa Gamma Bulletin, 73(4), 5-8.

Walshe, K. & Rundall, T.G. (2001). Evidence-based management: From theory to practice in health care. The Millbank Quarterly, 79(3), 429-457.

Unit 1 Learning Activities

 

 

 

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Unit 1, Activity 1.2

There are many factors that could shape the decision-making process of a leader. In my opinion, there are five principal factors: past experience, professional knowledge, personal capability and capacity, emotional intelligence, and worldview. I did not think of one’s worldview in the beginning. While after reading Unit 1 Notes, I sensed that one’s worldview actually played an invisible and significant role in decision-making process. Basically, the formation of a worldview is based on one’s cognitive process, and people control their own destinies and make their own decisions by believing in and acting on the values and beliefs that they hold (Cameron & Green, 2015). Therefore, the contribution of one’s worldview to the decision-making process cannot be neglected anymore.

Moreover, I completely agree with the proposition made in Unit 1 Notes that one’s worldview influences the types of questions that one asks and the processes one uses to find the answers to his or her questions. According to Peterson (2001), one’s worldview can be depicted as a larger cognitive framework. Everyone asks questions and finds the answers in his or her own way, which greatly corresponds to his or her own cognition, preference, and experience. In another word, the way in which an individual understands the world and other people determines the way that the individual thinks and behaves (Peck, 2002). As a result, people observe this world in distinct ways and form their own worldview. As mentioned in the first paragraph, most of the people are unconscious of the power of their worldview playing in the decision-making process and other issues in daily life. Thus, it is understandable that there would be conflicts among people from time to time because the worldview held by them might be completely different. So, it would be interesting to further figure out one question:

How to reconcile opinions of different worldviews to reach an agreement when there is a conflict?

References

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.

Peck, M. S. (2002). The Road Less Traveled: A New Psychology of Love, Values, And Spiritual

       Growth. New York: Simon and Schuster.

Peterson, G. R. (2001). Religion as orienting worldview. Zygon®, 36(1), 5-19.

 

https://create.twu.ca/ldrs591-sp18/unit-1-learning-activities/

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LDRS 591 UNIT1: Layla’s Opinion of Research and Servant leadership

Last year, when I was preparing for a presentation talking about air pollution, I realized that presenting pictures and theories of the polluted environment was not enough. Then I decided to do a research to find out the perspective of the local people. I interviewed more than twenty people, including pregnant women, securities, customers, young generations. Generally, I asked them four questions: Have you ever heard about the water pollution or air pollution in this country or other counties? What kinds of reasons lead to the consequences? How do you think these pollutions will affect people? Could you please recommend some solutions? During this research, I surprisingly found out that this polluted topic, with which I was very familiar, was kind of a new issue for most of them, especially the young generation. I took records of their words and organized them after going back home. The result of this research had greatly changed the content of the solution part of my presentation. Not only was the audience very interested in this research, but also the suggestions gave in the presentation were recognized by all of them. The most significant part for me was that I realized the true world is the perfect combination of both theories and research.

Furthermore, in my experiences, research is an essential tool for servant leadership. I was a mentor in a company and my job was to pass the knowledge and skills required in the work to all the new staff and part of the old staff. I always considered teachers as servant leaders and was behaving this way all the time. In order to make the course timetable perfect for everyone, I decided to change their course arrangement once. Most of the old staff resisted this change at first for thinking that their personal time would be changed as well. I made a survey and did the research to find out the available time of everyone. I also adjusted the arrangement of different courses to make sure everyone was on the right course and right time. With the help of the research, the staff resisting the new timetable found my plan plausible and reconsidered it. In the end, my decision was agreed by all the staff and everyone was delighted with the new arrangement. In my opinion, research played a crucial role in making my decision come true and accepted by other people smoothly.

I always believe that the goal of servant leadership is to serve other people in the best way and to make everyone a better person. To achieve this overarching goal, leaders should possess the capacity and the capability of using different skills and tools. I firmly hold that research is one of them, and I am looking forward to learning more by the end of this course.

Unit 1 Learning Activities