Category: Learning Activity 2

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.

 

 

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.

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

In the article for this activity, the Speers lists ten important characteristics of servant leaders (Spears, 2010, pgs. 27-28). Among these ten characteristics of a servant team leader, three that I value highly are: Listening, Awareness and Conceptualization. When coordinating a group project, a leader should at all times be listening to all conversations and ideas. Spears states that a servant leader should not only listen to what is said, but also “listen to what is unsaid” (Spears, 2010, pg. 27). This means a leaders should take time to reflect on conversations and meeting dialogue. This process “is essential to the growth and well-being of the servant leader” (Spears, 2010, pg. 27). In my opinion, listening further enables empathy, healing and commitment to the growth of people. Listening facilities the servant leader’s thinking and gives him or her more time to be more articulate and gain insights.

Awareness enables the servant leader to better focus, to more accurately analyze and be more discerning. Awareness is the opposite of “solace” because when the servant leader is aware, he or she is “sharply awake” and alert (Spears, 2010, pg. 27). When coordinating a group project, a servant leader can demonstrate Awareness by asking precise questions, evaluating body language, by being objective, analytical, flexible and teachable.

Conceptualization is the ability to analyze a situation by viewing it from “beyond day-to-day realities” (Spears, 2010, pg. 28). Servant leaders must, when coordinating a group project, think longer term and more “visionary” than conventional leaders (Spears, 2010, pg. 28). The servant leaders needs to combine both the day-to-day processes and the vision of the group. This helps group members stay on task while protecting them from becoming overwhelmed.

The servant leader, by being cognizant of daily processes and long-term goals and objectives, must consistently convey the same balance to team members. The team members are more aware of the value of the project, in and of itself, at the same time being appreciative of the value of the results in the big picture. Seeing the value of the project, in the big picture of the entire organization, enhances the perceived value of the individual group project.

Question

What are practical ways a Servant Leader can balance thinking about the day-to-day processes and the long term? Do you have an example of a leader who had achieved this balance?

Reference

Spears, Larry C. (2010). Character and Servant Leadership: Ten Characteristics of Effective, Caring Leaders. The Journal of Virtues & Leadership, 1(1), 25-30.

 

Emotional intelligence is “. . . the ability to perceive and express emotions, to use emotions to facilitate thinking, to understand reason with emotions and to effectively manage emotions within oneself in relationship with others” (Northouse, 2019, pg. 28). “Self-awareness” refers to the personal insights of the leader (Northouse, 2019, pg. 202). In a chapter on authentic leadership, Northouse states that one of the four components of authentic leadership is self-awareness (Northouse, 2019, pg. 202). In the context of the study of servant leadership, self-awareness differs from emotional intelligence in that awareness in a servant leader means that they are aware of a multitude of needs of their followers, from teaching, direction, affirmation, challenge and encouragement. In order to be aware of the needs of their followers, any servant leader needs to be a good listener, approachable, open-minded, kind and gracious.

A person who best exemplifies the servant leadership component of awareness is a former pastor of a large church. The pastor has great intuitive sense when someone was troubled or anxious. He was a remarkably good listener and always asked insightful and helpful questions. Working with him in a board context, I noticed his awareness of the motions of others, and this characteristic is one from which I continually learn. This pastor, because of his great awareness, was one of the most influential people on my leadership development.

The video on Southwest Airlines was fascinating (KnowledgeAtWharton, 2008). What was particularly notable was the servant leadership style of the management team. Each employee is respected equally, recognized for their contribution and challenged to their strengths. In the airline industry, there are very few variables given that all the companies buy the same planes, fuel and use the same airports. Most airlines too often lose money, but Southwest Airlines stands out as the exception. Competitors could attempt to copy its model of servant leadership, but they do not. Why these other airlines do not copy Southwest Airlines is a paradox. In contrast, in other industries, such as the graphic arts, there are many variables. Some companies in this industry are successful because of the leader’s genius for technology, skill in refining processes to increase productivity or are very sales driven. None of them model servant leadership but are successful.

It is interesting that servant leadership might be more of a requirement for ‘success’ in certain industries. Given this example, is servant leadership a requirement for success in your industry or area of leadership experience?

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

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

 

 

Response to Norm Benge – Rank, Think, Write

Wow! Thank you for your great critique of my post. You asked: “… what mechanism [would the] employer use to teach and  mentor employees to think for themselves while also upholding business standards?” For instance, my business is in manufacturing so we are always developing new products and modifying our machinery. On a regular basis, I task a large group of employees, from leadership to machine operators to figure out a way to improve a process, while maintaining our high standard of quality and service. I have learned to point out to new additions to the “thinking team” that each person should identify past attempts, failures, order of operations, etc. Then, we all meet and evaluate and rank the ideas based on cost, projected improvement, etc. We try several ideas, and often the best ideas are not from management!

You mentioned that in your education environment, it takes some time for some (or all?) or them to work out and fully understand their goal and settle on a process for completion. I think many people require structure and direction. Others, however, thrive on contributing their critical thinking in their workplace. You’ve given me something to think about it terms of whether it is desirable, possible or even feasible to shift the process of critical thinking to every employee. It might result in lower productivity for some and even prevent them from being their true selves. Thank you for giving me something to think about!

 

 

 

 

 

Learning Activity 2 – Rank, Talk, Write

What I particularly liked about your summary is Cooper’s contention that creative criticality helps “produce lifelong learners who are capable of creating new ideas that have been evaluated through critical thinking.” I like this idea because the process of creative criticality is important in and of itself, but the fact that it could be lifelong, infinitely multiplies its effectiveness. I find it encouraging that not only does creative criticality give the learner the ability to both create new solutions but it helps them critically analyze solutions before implementation. Implementation, to me, is the key because largely speaking, solutions that are not implemented I don’t think are as valuable.

Unit 3 – Rank, Talk, Write

In response to your question, “Is this all learned or can some of these traits come naturally as a church leader?”, I believe all Christians have been given one or more permanent spiritual gifts. The pastor with the spiritual gift of administration/leadership may have a different career trajectory than a pastor with the spiritual gift of helps or mercy.

Your analysis of this article was interesting, and I agree that practice makes you more effective in your vocation. In addition, the point about “incremental fluctuations” I have found to be true in my own life. For example, I’ve come to realize that many people have been changed in good or bad ways because of life experiences.