A511.3.3 RB Directive and Supportive

My experience and misuse of Directive and Supportive Behaviors.  

       This weeks blog is about the my experiences between supportive and directive behaviors.  What are the differences in the two? When is it appropriate to use each of these behaviors?  When are these behaviors misused?

       My experience in situational leadership and behavior is mostly a military one.  Military leaders are unique and cannot be easliy compared to leaders in the civilian world (Yeakey, 2000).  We have luxuries of demand response when required, we have attitudes that can control a battlefield or shape the future of next generation of American leadership; for example the current Secretary of Defense.  This burden or gift ensures that democracy is secure, that our Constitution is defended and our way of life is maintained.  But this burden or gift starts with leaders at every level applying situational leadership correctly, when and where it is appropriate and not to misuse this empowerment.  We have to understand how poor leadership application can quickly erode mission and morale.           

      Directive behavior is "highly directive and low supportive," the leader that correctly or incorrectly assumes not to trust or empower the follower (Blanchard, 2008).  This type of leader becomes a necessity during some crisis action (not all) and when the follower is new to the task.  This form of leadership can have a negative affect on an old solider or a experienced Airmen, as in my case.  I am very aware of this type of leadership and its recourse to the outcome of the task.  I currently have a supervisors who misuses this style of leadership every single day, because he assumes that he is the only expert and that there is no other.  If you will allow me for a quick digression to explain his background.  He is a retired O-5 in the Air Force and is currently a GS-13 in the Civilian Service.  I have informally worked for him for the past 15 years and now directly work for him.  My experience with him is he forgets that I am extremely experienced in the task of which I am asked to perform and instead of motivating me he will treat me as I have no experience.  He will attempt to treat me as if my opinion does not matter.  This indeed is the oppposite of the reality, I have never let him down and have always produced for him, there is simply no room for this behavior in our organization.  He uses directive leadership with me everyday in every case, calling me out in front of peers and colleagues as if I was not even present.  This type of misuse deteriorates our relationship to the point where it is toxic.  His behavior is so toxic that it breaks our sacred bound of trust, defined by Blanchard (Lynch, 2015).  His mantra was mission first, then people.  

     Supportive behavior is the opposite.  It is the description that the leader supports the follower.  They encourage, listen, facilitate growth, and work on the follower.  This requires trust in both the follower and the leader.  This form of leadership works best with folks that have extensive experience in the field.  The leader and follower both are expected to retain the mutual trust and the relationship.  This form of relationship is forms a bound that last can last a lifetime.  It can lead to quality and sometimes appropriate country-club style management (Northouse, 2016), because both parties understand the relationship and the expectations and entrust each other to take care of each other.  I have experienced this first hand in my military service while working in the field during my last deployment, my senior officer understood my capabilities and let me run the missions with very little guidance.  He trusted that I would make the right decision when and where that was needed.  In returned we built a bound of trust and a relationship that last to this day.  Instead of directing me on what to do and when to do it, he asked me about my family, brought me and my troops water, even through BBQ's when we just needed a break.  He would take the time to get to know me and my style under pressure instead of applying unwarranted pressure of his own.  He understood the magnitude of his job and I entrusted him to take care of me (not the mission).  His mantra people first then mission.               

References

Blanchard, K. (2008, May). Situational Leadership. Leadership Excellence, 19.

• Lynch, B. (2015). Partnering for performance in situational leadership: A person-centred leadership approach. International Practice Development Journal, 5

Peter Northouse (2016) Leadership: Theory and Practice 7th.  Sage Productions Ca

• Yeakey, G. W. (2000). Hersey and blanchard's situational leadership theory: Applications in the military

A511.2.3RB Reflecting on Leadership Traits

My leadership toolbox.  

       What is the make up of my leadership traits?  What are the traits would I add or remove that can prepare me for the leadership tasks?  What makes a good leader under combat and what makes a good leader in the boardroom?  How can I person like me go from one extreme to another?

    In order to find some gaps that I need to work on first, I need to look at what is my leadership makeup; examining my own reflection this week, I have found both positive and negative traits.  What traits are important to my leadership style?  In the trait approach I found at good time-to-subordinates ratio, technically knowledgeable, and the clarity of concepts are my strong traits.  This time management is not about me but for my troops and subordinates and the time I spend with them. They know that during the normal work day I am dedicated to them, helping assisting and ensuring that I am available all the time for them.  Sharmi wrote that "time is crucial for the understanding of the leadership relationship" (2011), I think I expound this out more to ratio.  

Technical knowledge is important to me, I have to understand what my subordinates are working on and ensure that I completely understand it.  This is not informational or knowledge power, but instead simply empathy and sympathy and personal involvement in their job (Leadership traits, 2009).   This not only gains me credibility with my troops but helps me understand their problems and how I might be able to help.  The last trait that I observed this week is clarity of concepts.  Throughout my experience, I often do not look at the small details but instead stay steadfast on the clarity of the concept.  Change is always around us, in the military ranks, change happens every two or three years, commanders and senior management changes out all the time. A lack of clarity can have detrimental affects on the relationship and the mission (Burnes 2012).  I have mission commanders rotate in and had no idea on 

     Knowing that these are my traits that I have observed, what could I add or what is distracting me from the ability to lead properly?  There are may distractors that I prevent me from leading in every situation and no matter the cause, one particular that comes to mind is my emotional intelligence and its relationship to my mood, or the trait of intellectual humility (George 2000).  In my previous class I wrote about this trait in my final paper and it is still something I need to understand when it distracts or prevents me from leading.  Intellectual humility, is as J.P. Moreland indicated, the ability to open minded and thoughtful. To challenge but not criticize, to understand another view point but not feel superior.  Intellectual humility (IH) is an abstract virtue in modern psychology (Tanesini, 2016).  It is the concession that we can recognize and admit that we do not know everything about everything and have limitations to our knowledge.  To recognize one’s IH limitation and remove unhelpful biases requires an internal observation of courage, honesty, commitment and knowledge in a social and self-reflective dimension.  

      The challenge is how important is this trait in my everyday life.  I face this difficulty “reaching the truth in a reasoned way” as defined by J.P.Moreland (1997) every day in my job both in the social and self-reflective dimensions.  In my squadron and in my position inside the Air Force organization, it is important to recognize the one’s own limitation factors.  Identifying that I am not always the subject matter expert in front of senior officers, civilians and industry, can be intimidating and can lead to a loss of a career, multi-billion dollar assets or even lives.  My experience with this trait has shown both good and bad outcomes.  My supervisors trust my knowledge, and I am usually the first person assigned to a new squadron establishment.  For the past 15 years, I have established three new units and countless small teams.  Too much IH and one becomes intellectual arrogant, too little and the application of all my other traits are unbalanced.  In one particalur  example, I became so arrogant with knowledge that my I lost any personal relationship that I had at the unit.  When I wrap IH properly with my strengths I find a unbalanced leadership style that seeks out truths, understands empathy and yet hold truths closely without much acceptance of others.  

References

• Burnes, B., & By, R. T. (2012). Leadership and change: The case for greater ethical clarity.Journal of Business Ethics, 108(2), 239-252. doi:10.1007/s10551-011-1088-2

• George, J. M. (2000). Emotions and leadership: The role of emotional intelligence. Human Relations,53(8), 1027-1055. doi:10.1177/0018726700538001

• Leadership traits. (2006). Partner's Report, 6(2), 9.

• Shamir, B. (2011). Leadership takes time: Some implications of (not) taking time seriously in leadership research. The Leadership Quarterly, 22(2), 307-315. doi:10.1016/j.leaqua.2011.02.006

• J.P. Moreland (1997) on Intellectual humility 
  http://afterall.net/quotes/j-p-moreland-on-intellectual-humility/

Tanesini, A. (2016). Intellectual humility as attitude. Philosophy and Phenomenological

Research, doi:10.1111/phpr.12326