Month: November 2018

My work is in the graphic arts industry, so I am knowledgeable about both the Canadian and American postal systems.  The US system loses large amounts of money each year. Yes, I will acknowledge that both systems generate the bulk of their revenue from parcel delivery but it was largely handed to them. You could argue they took on the new revenue stream out of desperation. In Canada, you will notice that the union is not at the present time engaging in a regular strike; but rather rotating strikes. The answer to this is their largest parcel customer has stated that if there is a national strike, “the customer” will find other carriers to deliver their parcels permanently! Obviously, the postal service (and I) believe the customer. By any standard, having “too many eggs in a basket at the same time,” is a very bad business strategy.  I feel that both postal services, for different reasons have done a poor job of using technology for communication and transacting business. My suggestions for the postal services are:

1. aggressively seek new sources of revenue.
2. Reduce a preponderance of technical rules required of products to be mailed. Because of these rules many products are not mailed.
3. Reduce through negotiations with the unions, the complexity of rules which have resulted in a bloated, salaried overhead.
4. privatize the postal service.

Walmart, on the other hand, is different. One of the reasons they can so progressively increase their reliance on technology, especially for communication and transacting business is the fact that have historically appreciated the benefits of being probable the world’s largest non-union company in the world. Walmart is now the second largest online shopping company in America behind Amazon, and the gap is narrowing. Walmart has a history of success. At one time Walmart did not sell groceries. Within two years, they were the biggest seller of groceries in America! Groceries now account for 56% of their sales. They have Americas’ largest satellite monitored truck fleet in America. Through technology, one computer can tell how many “toothbrushes” are in each of nearly 5,000 stores – by colour, brand and price! Technology allows them on average to load every truck, on average, to 96% of the cubic feet of each truck. Because of technology, they are able to have a much higher “warehouse turns” than, for instance, Target. From the time a supplier delivers their product to Walmart’s warehouse, until the product is sold, the timeframe is much shorter than all other major retailers.

“Truly great companies of the last hundred years-from Walmart to Walgreens-trace their roots back through generations of technology change” (Collins, 2001, p. 147). Wal-Mart’s stranglehold over the distribution of traditional toys and games, which has resulted in the bankruptcy of fabled F.A.O. Schwartz” (Taylor, 2006, p. 49). Subsequently the bankruptcy of Toys “R” Us happened recently. Walmart’s size is a major reason for their endurance.

Jim Collins, in his influential book, Good To Great, reveals an important concept of core values, “is that there are no specific ‘right’ core values for becoming an enduring great company. A company need not have a passion for its customers (Sony didn’t), or respect the individual (Disney didn’t), or quality (Walmart didn’t), or social responsibility (Ford didn’t) in order to become enduring and great” (Collins, 2001, p. 195). I found Collin’s insight to be profound.  According to Collin’s argument, customer focus isn’t necessarily a requirement for success.

Walmart has greatly influenced corporations of all sizes. The CEO of Proctor & Gamble “unleashed a ‘major discontinuities’ in how P&G does business –from globalizing its product introduction strategies in the 1980’s to reckon with the ‘shopper revolution’ at Walmart” (Taylor, 2006, p. 92).

Something that should be said is that Amazon has yet to make a profit. The stock market is betting on the future. The extent of this betting on the future has never occurred, even remotely, in the history of the stock market. I’ll be watching with interest to see Walmart’s attempt of late to have many of their 1.5 million employees deliver packages to customers on their way home from work and get paid for the deliveries. If the strategy works, it is something that Amazon cannot do.

I have two recommendations for Walmart. One is to accelerate their use of technology in processes of moving inventory, merchandise stocking, inner store and corporate communications and check-out. Second would be to continue their continue price strategy. “I cannot debate that dropping the price is not a perfectly legitimate way of driving business; the challenge is staying profitable. Walmart seems to be the exception to the rule. They have built a phenomenally successful business playing the price game” (Sinek, 2009, p. 18).

References

Collins, J. (2001). Good to Great. New York: Harper Collins Publishing.

Sinek, S. (2009). Start with Why. New York: NY: Penguin Group.

Taylor, T. (2006). Mavericks at Work. New York: NY: Harper Collins Publishers.

 

Because of this week’s focus on gender discrimination, I have spent time reviewing books I have read recently, but this time looking for references or stories about gender discrimination. Pages that I previously read didn’t impress me about gender discrimination, but with a reread I was greatly impressed with the frequency and intensity of gender discrimination historically and even to the present day.

Historically, gender discrimination was rampant in the Federal Bureau of Investigation. J. Edgar Hoover was president from 1924 to 1972. Hoover “wanted young, energetic white men . . . men like himself” (Anders, 2011, pg. 46). During that time, “women didn’t stand a chance” (Anders, 2011, pg. 35). I found this to be appalling.

There is a common stereotype that woman are more emotional than men (Epley, 2014, pg. 125). Woman smile more often, cry more often and laugh more than men (Epley, 2014, pg. 125). Scientists can actually see people’s “emotional experiences” because they “leave physiological traces” in their minds. Scientists have found that “when people are hooked up to this equipment, research confirms that man and women watching the same emotionally evocative scenes show the same emotional reactions . . . [and] the same intensity” (Epley, 2014, pg. 125-126). What is great is that technology has proven a stereotype to be wrong.

Caroline Turner, author of Different Works: Improving Retention, Productivity, and Profitability Through Inclusion writes that out of the top three reasons women leave the workforce the top reason was child care. But after this, the motivation for leaving a job most frequently given “was lack of engagement or enjoyment in the job” (Huffington, 2014, pg. 25). Turner writes that “for women to be engaged in the workplace, they need to feel valued. And the way many workplaces are setup, masculine ways of succeeding—fueled by stress and burnout—are often accorded more value” (Huffington, 2014, pg. 26). From this, I conclude that if workplaces were not set up in “masculine ways,” fewer women would leave the workplace.

Do I see gender discrimination in the home? Definitely yes. The following is taken from a New York Times article about patterns of marriage, housework, and earnings. The article reported that “wives who earn more than their husbands also do significantly more housework and child care than their husbands do, perhaps to make their husbands feel less threatened” (Rubin, 2017, pg. 158).

Carl Jung, an influential thought leader of the last century promoted analytic psychology, which “cared about the individual’s feelings and experience with an intensity that was unprecedented in American society—a philosophy of emotional attentiveness that was especially pertinent to the nations’ female minds” (Emre, 2018, pg. 89). Even in the mind and philosophy of the influential Carl Jung, woman are overly emotional.

To the question about how I can foster recognition and a sense of belonging for women in my organization, I have thought of the following.

1. Develop a “pyramid” management chart that will consist mostly of women.
2. Design and print business cards for employees who are on our team. Many are women.
3. Highlight key employees (most of them women) on our two websites
4. Have more one on one conversations with team members.
5. Supply appropriate reading material on the subject of management and leadership to all team members

Because of this study I will be permanently more aware of gender discrimination and ways to reduced it, even in areas of my influence outside of my organization.

References

Anders, G. (2011). The Rare Find. New York, NY: Penguin.

Emre, M. (2018). The Personality Brokers. Random House: Toronto, Canada.

Epley, N. (2015). Mindwise. Vintage Books: New York, NY.

Huffington, A. (2014). Thrive. Random House: New York, NY.

Rubin G. (2017). The Four Tendencies. Harmony Books: New York, NY.

 

 

Greatly summarized, the case study of The Glass Ceiling (Northouse, 2018, p. 412-413) describes the story of Lisa, a competent, confident, experienced, extremely well educated, investment executive who was blatantly discriminated against because of her gender. In spite of outperforming her peers, she was denied promotion. She was publicly discriminated against when the CEO, when seeing Lisa with another woman, “he called out to the men, ‘Hey, guys, two women in one room. That’s scary’.” (Northouse, 2019, p. 412). This obvious gender discrimination is disturbing to me. I would like to think that Lisa would today have grounds for a law suit.

In the light of this article, and other readings in the context of gender discrimination, I have assessed my own organization of 65 people. Half of our sales force is female. Our plant manager and assistant manager are female, three of four departments are led by woman, two of three production managers are female and three out of four of the highest paid salaries are paid to females. However, I acknowledge, that in our management team (of three woman and four men), the men “out talk,” the woman. While this is largely because the men have more technical knowledge in the areas we discuss, I plan on making it my goal to tip the balance of conservation, so it is more balanced.

When thinking about gender discrimination, this week I’ve read of a number of discrimination instances that have received a public profile. For instance, recently there was tremendous backlash again when “women scientists who were told that they might be too distracting to the male scientist in the lab” (Dulski, 2018, p. 27).

Historical evidence of gender discrimination is the fact that not a single woman is pictured on Canadian currency. To address this, Merna Forster “led a successful campaign calling for women to be put Canadian currency . . . [to ensure] woman are recognized for their contributions to society” (Dulski, 2018, p. 172). Eventually Forster was successful, and Viola Desmond was placed on Canadian currency (Dulski, 2018, p. 175).

A woman named Celine Schillinger who worked in a very large organization recognized “that her organization possessed a significant gender imbalance – where the majority of the senior roles were occupied by men and the majority of promotions were awarded to men-Celine wrote a letter to the CEO” (Pontefract, 2016, p. 89). She described the problem and identified ways in which to remedy the situation. The letter went vial throughout the organization. Over 2,500 people supported her. The CEO agreed that gender balance was an issue and changes were made. Her outspoken voice made a difference.

The president of one of the greatest universities in America “opined publicly that perhaps biological differences were responsible for the underrepresentation of woman in science and technology.” (Hennessy, 2018, p. 71). Ten years later after an immensely strong criticism of this opinion, “this struggle continues, as evidences by the famed “Google memo,” containing similar opinions about biology and ability” (Hennessy, 2018, p. 72).  As the author says, that in spite of ten years of voluminous push-back against a university president’s, gender discrimination statement, it obviously hasn’t ended the debate.

Kahnweiler writes that female introverts are judged by men “as being ‘cold and unfeeling’” (2018, p. 13). In contrast, these same men do not view male introverts “as cold and unfeeling”. This is clear evidence of gender discrimination. Because of this study I am much more aware of gender discrimination. I plan to more proactive about identifying ways this discrimination shows up in my organization, church and friendship circle.

References                                                                      

Dulski, J. (2018). Purposeful. New York, NY: Penguin.

Hennessy, J.L. (2018). Leading Matters. Stanford, CA: Standford University Press.

Kahnweiller, J.B. (2018). The Introverted Leader. Oakland. CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc.

Northouse, P.G. (2019). Leadership: Theory and Practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Pontefract, D. (2016). The Purpose Effect. Boise, Idaho: Elevate Publishing.

Wang and Oh (2011), detail an abundance of practical research data that, for the most part, shows that transformational leaders have a strong, measurable ability to improve the performance of individual followers as well as a group. Transformational leaders are highly influential on their followers. Transformational leaders accomplish three things:

1. They “motivate their followers to move beyond self-interest and work for the collective good” (Avolio & Yammarino; Bass; Burns, as cited in Wang, Oh, Courtright & Colbert, 2011, pg. 224).
2. They “increase followers’ confidence and the intrinsic value of performance, resulting in higher levels of motivation” (Seibert, Wang & Courtwright, as cited in Wang et al., 2011, pg. 224).
3. They “motivate followers to go beyond the minimum requirements of their job descriptions” (Podsakoff, MacKenzie & Bommer, as cited in Wang et al., 2011, pg. 228).

Bass argues that there are four distinguishable traits of transformational leaders (as cited in Wang et al., 2011, pg. 230):

1. First, transformational leaders “develop and articulate a shared vision and high expectations” (Wang et al., 2011, pg. 230).
2. Second, they “exhibit the behavior of idealize influence, serving as a role model” (Wang et al., 2011, pg. 230).
3. Third, they “intellectually stimulate their followers to challenge existing assumptions and solicit followers’ suggestions and ideas” (Wang et al., 2011, pg. 230).
4. Fourth, transformational leaders “attend to the needs of their followers and treat each follower as a unique individual” (Wang et al., 2011, pg. 230).

Transformational leaders “enable and motivate their followers” (Wang et al., 2011, pg. 230) by doing five things:

1. Transformational leaders “link followers work roles to a compelling vision of the future” (Bono & Judge; Zhu, Avolio, & Walumbwa, as cited in Wang et al., 2011, pg. 231).
2. Shamir et al. suggest that transformational leaders “instill in their followers a belief that they can achieve the goals that are set out for them (as cited in Wang et al., 2011, pg. 231).
3. Howell and Hall-Merenda argue that transformational leader “provide them with support and tools that they need to accomplish their jobs” (as cited in Wang et al., 2011, pg. 230).
4. Bass says that transformational leaders “encourage and intellectually stimulate followers to challenge the status quo, question assumptions, take risks, suggest innovative ideas, and engage in divergent thinking” (as cited in Wang et al., 2011, pg. 231).
5. Bass states they also “positively influence performance through the communication of a vision that serves to motivate employees and align their efforts” (as cited in Wang et al., 2011, pg. 233).

As described, the positive outcomes of transformational leadership are many. For my purposes, the main benefits of transformational leadership in my organization is in the context of our team. My most desired outcomes for my team are:

1. The nurturing of innovative and creative thinking.
2. Development of team problem solving skills.
3. Increased appreciation and understanding of each team members love language, temperament, learning styles and values.
4. A more unified understanding of our organizations potential and future within a rapidly changing industry.

My main “take away” from this article was research that indicated that followers under the leadership of a transformational leader would “go above and beyond” their job description. The fact that followers would improve and “get better,” wasn’t surprising to me, but the fact that they would “go beyond” was a new understanding for me. Another piece of research indicating that innovation and creativity increased under transformational leadership for me was a new insight.

In the context of leadership, Northouse explains that “ethics is concerned with what leaders do and who leaders are. It has to do with the nature of leaders’ behavior, and with their virtuousness. In any decision-making situation, ethical issues are either implicitly or explicitly involved. The choices leaders make and how they respond in a given circumstances are informed and directed by their ethics” (2019, p. 330). Northouse lists five principles of ethical leadership:

1. Respect
2. Services
3. Justice
4. Honesty
5. Community (2019, p. 341)

The two of the five ethical principles of leadership that appeal to me most are respect and community.  In my leadership context respect in a sense overrides service, justice and honesty because If I don’t have respect from our team, a lack of respect to some degree negates all three. A lack of respect “clouds over” team members’ ability to see or appreciate service, justice and honesty. To gain even more respect I have to listen more intentionally, be more verbal in the team to acknowledge individual contributions and successes, be more verbally affirming and talk less emphatically in team meetings.

The second component of the five ethical leadership principles which is most important to me is “community.” In a Christian context, much of the church is about community. Gretchen Rubin, author of the best sellers Better than Before and The Happiness Project, “affirms the centrality of meaningful relationship and important causes to achieving happiness” (as cited in Sasse, 2017, p. 154). Robert Putnam in his book, Our Kids, states, “researchers have steadily piled up evidence of how important social context, social institutions, and social networks-in short, our communities-remain for our well- being” (2015, p. 206). Lukianoff and Haidt argue that “the United States has experienced a steady increase in at least one form of polarization since the 1980s: affective (or emotional) polarization” (2018, p. 141). Here we see the pressing need for community yet on the other hand we see the growing polarization of “community,” therefore I see the great and growing for community.

Question

I wonder if any of you have thoughts about what, if any of the five ethical principles may be more elevated or pronounced in the Scriptures. Is there an order of importance?

References 

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

Northouse, P. G. (2019). Leadership: Theory and Practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Putnam, R. D. (2015). Our Kids. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.

Lukianoff & Haidt. (2018). The Coddling of the American Mind. New York, NY: Penguin Press.

Sasse, B. (2017). The Vanishing American Adult. New York, NY: St. Martin’s Press.

From Avolio and Gardner’s (2005) article, Authentic leadership development: Getting to the root of positive forms of leadership, I derive many intangible morals effects of authentic leadership on followers. The article describes how the morals of “authentic leaders” influence the morals and ethics of their followers. Michie and Gooty (2005) note “self-transcendent values (e.g., universal values such as social justice, equality, and broadmindedness; benevolent values, such as honesty, loyalty and responsibility) and positive other-directed emotions (e.g., gratitude, goodwill, appreciation and concern for others) play a fundamental role in the emergence and development of authentic leadership” (as cited in Avolio and Gardner, 2005, pg. 318).

The article promotes the importance of “self-actualized persons . . . who are ‘in tune’ with their basic nature and clearly and accurately see themselves” (Rogers, 1959; 1963 & Maslow, 1968; 1971, as cited in Avolio and Gardner, 2005, pg. 319). In addition, Maslow (1971) sees “self-actualizing people as having strong ethical convictions” (as cited in Avolio and Gardner, 2005, pg. 319).

Luthans and Avolio (2003) “assert that authentic leadership …encompasses an inherently ethical/moral component” (as cited in as cited in Avolio and Gardner, 2005, pg. 324). May et al. (2003) describes how “authentic leaders develop and draw upon reserves of moral capacity . . . to address ethical issues and achieve authentic and sustained moral actions” (as cited in as cited in Avolio and Gardner, 2005, pg. 324). Avolio and Gardner say that they “believe the inclusion of a positive moral perspective is crucial to the emerging work on authentic leadership development” (2005, pg. 324). Burns (1978) said that leadership “clearly invoked a positive moral perspective” (as cited in Avolio and Gardner, 2005, pg. 324). Self-awareness is a process in which “one continually comes to understand his or her . . . sense of purpose, core values, beliefs and desires” (Avolio and Gardner, 2005, pg. 324). Of the authors’ four elements of self-awareness, “values” is first on the list. They state that “self-regulation is the process through which authentic leaders align their values with their intentions and actions” (Avolio and Gardner, 2005, pg. 325).

Avolio, Gardner et al. (2004), Avolio, Luthans et al., (2004), Gardner et al. (2005), “describe personal and social identification processes whereby followers come to identity with authentic leaders and their values. In addition, . . . a positive moral perspective has been consistently identified as a primary mechanism whereby authentic leadership influence and develop followers” (as cited in Avolio and Gardner, 2005, pg. 325). Bass (1998) further states that among other things authentic leaders have a “high moral character” (as cited in Avolio and Gardner, 2005, pg. 329). Authentic leaders influence the morals of their followers. Avolio et al. (2004), Avolio et al. (2004), Gardner et al. (2005), and Ilies et al. (2005) argue that “followers come to identify with authentic leaders and their values” (as cited in Avolio and Gardner, 2005, pg. 325).

The moral implications of leadership behaviour is such that the absence of moral convictions and beliefs according to the article would mean great diminishing of the leader’s effectiveness in changing behaviour in desirable ways. The leader who doesn’t convey moral convictions cannot be described as an authentic leader. The absence of moral convictions does not promote trust, transparency or unity.

In the context of moral leadership, in my company, I have historically by design have had no written “management pyramid chart,” no written dress codes, policies, rules, mission/visions statements or ethics code. However, in a practical sense, I have fired someone (and paid them severance) for lying. Someone who has a temper explosion is often in my office with their direct supervisor to discuss the problem and to explain that a repetition of their outburst will have serious consequences. Someone who is exhibiting sexist actions is confronted and changed actions and attitudes are demanded. Looking to future I anticipate writing and posting statements about ethical issues and policies regarding issues like marijuana.

Question

How have you handled unethical behaviour in your leadership context? If the behaviour was address, how was the conversation received?

Reference

Avolio, B., & Gardner, W. (2005). Authentic leadership development: Getting to the root of positive forms of leadership. Leadership Quarterly, 16 (3), 315–338.

 

 

This research paper on hospitality was insightful because of the many references to creativity and innovation. Successful firms can only obtain “creativity and innovation” if they build “trust and emotional engagement with people, both within and outside the organization” (Akroush, Abu-ElSamen, Samawi, & Odetallah, as cited in Kandampully, Bilgihan and Tingting, 2016, pg. 154). Before reading this paper, I had not made the connection between trust leading to innovation. In another instance, researchers “found that an empowering service climate plays a key role in enhancing employees’ creativity” (Voon, Hamali, Lee, Abdullah & Kueh, as cited in Kandampully et al., 2016, pg. 155). In this instance “empowering” employees can lead to increased creativity. Another aspect regarding innovation in successful companies is the fact they “provide employees with . . . the collective experience in which employees enjoy working together with colleagues and the excel in creativity and innovation” (Kandampully et al., 2016, pg. 157).

I believe that a key part of “employees enjoy working together,” is the importance of interpersonal relationships (Kandampully et al., 2016, pg. 157). “Authentic leadership is an interpersonal process. This . . . outlines authentic leadership as relational created by leaders and followers together” (Eagly, as cited in Northouse, 2016, pg. 196). One of the results of employees enjoy working together, is creativity and innovation. Additionally, employees feel more motivated when they work within a management team and when their contributions are appreciated.

In my manufacturing company which is innovative and product driven, implementing the kinds of technology referred to in this article is not feasible or necessarily desirable. Never-the-less, our management team is analyzing the potential, costs and ramifications of customer contact, support and education through the internet and social media. Thus far, we have over two years of showing weekly product videos to 18,000 email addresses that can be subsequently viewed YouTube. We anticipate soon being able to Skype with all customers. Because we produce such a wide range of unusual and unique products, we are planning to be able to send customized product videos with each order quote we send out. This group team process will hopefully lead to improved employee satisfaction.

My employee development plans going forward is largely based on a simple online Myers-Briggs personality test. I am using this as a starting point to help team members more easily and accurately identify their ten most important behaviours and skills and give them more confidence to narrow the list to three. I feel that that the most important two steps of Rockwell’s (2017) The Anatomy of Performance Enhancing Coaching Conversations are the ninth and tenth steps. Without commitments, step one through eight will or might result in frustration, sense of failure and potential disillusionment with the team leader. The absence of the tenth step will result in far less than hoped for results.

References

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

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

Rockwell, D. (2017). The Anatomy of Performance Enhancing Coaching Conversations. Retrieved from https://leadershipfreak.blog/2017/03/05/the-anatomy-of-performance-enhancing-coaching-conversations/

I had an hour-long conversation with “B.” She described to me how the times when she performed really well were circumstances when she had opportunity to critically evaluate leadership situations. She views that one of her main strengths is the ability to intuitively and quickly identify problems; most frequently people problems. At times, B is frustrated because on occasions when she identifies a problem, she has difficulty identify the cause or source of the problem.

In five years, B wants to transition out of parachurch work into business and I agree with her reasons for wanting to make this change. She is a dominant, decisive, “black and white” kind of person, and has great difficulty in dealing mediocre performance. We both feel that her leadership style is not appreciated within a Christian leadership context as much as her style would be encouraged and supported in a secular business context.

I feel that B will accomplish her five-year goal of transitioning to very different career because of two important things. First, she has a very health grasp of reality, her circumstances, very emotional needs and spiritual leading of the Lord. Secondly, she has, what I feel is, a very mature and objective understanding of herself. She is aware of and understands her temperament, her learning style, her spiritual gifts, birth order, love language and leadership style.

My advice to B to help her obtain her five-year goal is to:

1. Expand her hobbies of bicycling and hiking for health reasons
2. Read more widely
3. Keep a journal
4. Dream and envision
5. Consciously strive for contentment