A511.7.3RB Inner Work for authentic leadership

  What is authentic leadership?  How do followers respect the authorities of those that have it?  Does the the military breed authentic leaders, do we see ourselves as genuine leaders because of stripes or bars tell us we are or is there some other reflection process that makes us good leaders?

  Authentic leadership is a leadership style that "emphasizes sincerity and genuineness (Authentic leadership (2015)."  It establishes that the leaders stay true to their own values and principles.  It involves being open and honest, deciosn-making, mistakes, to both the leader and the followers.  At the very essence it is about being transparent with the follower or authentic (Wood, 2007). 

  The military requires open and honest communication between the leader and the follower.  It exemplifies their demand signal.  Since the formation of organized military thousands of years ago, we have stood by these demands.  This demand has not changed for authentic leaders.  The military in itself trains us to believe that we are good leaders, we go through our lives with new promotions, leading troops, putting on those new stripes or those new officers colors.  We move from gunner to platoon sergeant to a staff job.  We spend twenty years presuming that we are authentic leaders.  I have done this; this however does not mean that I was an authentic leader.

  Authentic leader means that I was genuine to my own values and principles and that I was willingly to accept criticism and feedback.  I was open to new ideas and to my mistakes and reflect and even adapt my own leadership practices.  At my last job I was responsible for the stand up of a new mission area and handpick 25 new troops. This exciting request a new squadron standup and I started four previous squadrons before, so this was not my first time.  As the troops started to arrive one bye one they tested by authentic leadership, some tested me from day one.  They tried to see what the bounds of my own principle would be, how far would I go to defend them, to stand up fro them, to get hem what they needed to get the job done.  What lengths would I go for them? 

 Everyday I called an "Afternoon Huddle" with my senior team to discuss the day, I would ask for feedback honest, and open--the kind of "Let me have it!".  This was a open discussion about anything they needed it could be personal, it could be mission related, it could be secretive, it did not leave the room.  And they would let me have it, with all due respect.  I would reflect on what they had to say, taking notes, jotting things down, even drafting the next days war plans on the board, so I would not make the same mistakes twice.  I listened and made changes, I adapted where I could and where I needed too in order to both be authentic to my principles and to get the mission done.  I was willingly to admit mistakes, I was willingly to discuss and debate, I was not willingly to argue or to fight.  I was willingly to present evidence and counter evidence.  I was willingly to be open and honest and to communicate all requirements.  This required great comprise between myself, the team and the mission.  But at the end of the day the team respected me more for it.  This is authentic leadership.

References

• Authentic leadership. (2015). In J. Mcray (Ed.), Leadership glossary: Essential terms for the 21st century. Santa Barbara, CA: Mission Bell Media. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.libproxy.db.erau.edu/login?url=http://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/mbmlg/authentic_leadership/0

• Wood, G. M. (2007). Authentic leadership: Do we really need another leadership theory?

A511.6.3RB Leader from the Past

A leader from the past

This is an exciting blog.  The blog is a reflection about my past leaders and their positive and sometimes negatives qualities of transformations on me and the society around me.  How can one man or woman change a society in two or three years, is that possible or has the system made this not capable?  Can one officer revolutionize and a create a movement, change a new ocean current toward a specific goal?  Did I work harder for the greater good or harder for the individual out of respect of the officer?

Transformational leadership is a style of leadership that should result in the follower wanting to become the leader, if expertly executed the follower should reach a higher level of performance and the society as a whole benefits (Kendrick, 2011).  It seeks out to increase the followers motivation and performance through a transformation, leader inspires.  They motivate, the leader should be the followers role model as a cross benefit the society as the whole benefits (Transformational leadership, 2015).  However this can be a negative tasnformation as well.

I have had many leaders in the military some good some bad.  A couple of assignments ago I had a leader who could not inspire.  Northouse (2016) describes this as pseudotransfomational leadership (self-consumed, exploitative  power oriented).  He wrongfully thought that he moved the unit and that he inspired me to do great things.  This was not the case, instead he was moving the imagine for his own power and imagine.  He had a negative approach.  He attempted to transform the unit in his imagine.  This backfired at the lower levels and though he was promoted, it cost my morale, my units morale, the mission, and will continue to haunt the unit for many more years.  

One of the most inspirational leaders that I have worked for has been Col Curtis Herdanez.  His leadership after we saw a unit go through a squadron commander get fired, we needed a leader, we needed inspiration, we needed motivation, we needed to find our way out.  An example was during a convoy, I was the commander driving the convoy back from a mission, when the previous commander was relieved of command; during this return to base he drove to meet us and personally escorted us back to base for no other reason but to show us he was on our side and team.  Scraps demonstrated to me, from the get go that he was willing to go the extra mile under all circumstances to support me and my family.  He inspired me to continue going, during on particular field exercise he came outside to work with me and my team in the pouring rain just to help us setup and then bought lunch and dinner for me and the team just to motivate us.  He found out what moved us and why?  He did this not because he had to but because he wanted to.  He knew what motivated me and why.  He tried it is for those reasons why I worked so hard to move the organization and he society change under his command.  His under current was there the entire time it was up to us to figure how to surf it.  I respected and respect him and the rank not just the rank.

References

• Kendrick, J.  (2011). Transformational leadership. Professional Safety, 56(11), 14.

Northouse, P. (2016). Leadership; theory and practice. 7th edition (seventh ed.). Los Angeles: Sage.

• Transformational leadership (2015).

  

A511.5.3RB Mid-Term Reflection

Lead like great conductors

 Over the past few weeks we have examined the different leadership approaches from the academic prespectpective.  We have examined leader-member exhange, path-goal theory, behavioral and situation approaches to leadership.  We have examined the intricacies of each of these applications including the depths of the theories.

This mid-term review is an excellent point of reference as Itay Talgram gives us a role up of different leadership practices in by examining different musical conductors and their style of leadership.  He examined how conductors guide the orchestras in their own way (2009).  in the first case the conductor is using a behavioral country-club style with a slight middle of the road management to relax the orchestra, as describe by Northouse (2016).  Everyone is happy, he is relax, his hands are in his pockets and his body language demonstrates that he is neither feverous nor scared.  He is allowing the stories of everyone around him to be told.  This is very similiar to one of my finest commander I have ever work for she was always relaxed even under intense pressure.  She had trust that we could do our job and trusted us to get the job done and we enjoyed doing it for her.  She allowed for individuality while transforming us into a team.  

The second conductor is controlling described by Talgam, commands his orchestras with situational leadership and controls the dynamic through demand response through direction and coaching.  You can see it in the body language of control and snap of the music.  A person can almost fell the command of the baton as the orchestra is intemdiated by the stroke of the hand.  While the conductor ceterinaly is a great conductor this approach may not work for the exploration of the individual.  It controls the behavior of all the followers without allowing for support of the individual.  I currently have a supervisor who is like this conductor and pushes me and team to his own will and it has broken me down.  He offered very little support and the outcomes have had a negative outcome on my morale while the mission has succeeded.  One can feel the tension in the air when he walks in, we perform for the mission not for the person or the joy of the music.  

An intersting parallel to things we have learned about leadership, this this week is the way Talgam describe's the conductor Carlos Kleiber (Talgam, 2009).  This conductor encompasses the path-goal theory.  During the short presentation we watch the conductor point out the individual of each of the musicians with different guidances approaches, noticing behaviors that work for some but not for all.  We notice his posture and his eye contact, we noticed the conductor letting the individual explore the next layer of music.  Is this not the very idea of path-goal?  In this case, I have rarely seen this used correctly as the ultimate goal of any leader of so many would be to lead like an great conductor and allow the orchestras to play for you not you play for them (a cut scene at the end of the Ted Talk).  The military tends to force the music instead of allowing the music to play.  This type of relationship takes time and effort that very few people are willing to put in.  I hope that through this course I can learn different tools to become a better conductor.      

References

Itay Talgram "Lead like great conductor" (2009) TedTalk. https://www.ted.com/speakers/itay_talgam

Northouse, P. G. (2015). Leadership: Theory and Practice 7th ed. Los Angeles, CA: Sage Publishing

Vandergrift, R., & Matusitz, J. (2011). Path-goal theory: A successful columbia records story.Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment, 21(4), 350-362. doi:10.1080/10911359.2011.555651

A511.4.3.RB Locus of Control

My locus of control

    What is Locus of Control (LOC)? Is it real or is it connected to other parts of personalities?  Does my behavior influence my own outcome or fate?  Or is this just taking charge of my own emtions and understanding of the situation?

   First it is important to define what LOC is and is not?  LOC is "defined as the degree to which an individual expects that a contingent relationship exists between one’s behaviors and outcomes" (Ryon, 2014).  Further research in LOC breaks it down further into two major divisions: internal and external.  People with internal LOC tend to believe that have responsibilities of themselves and their own attitudes and actions and destines (Locus of Control, 2009).  While people with external LOC have tendencies that their behaviors are controlled and influenced by outside influences.    

   I do believe that people control their own desires, behaviors, performance and motivation and outcomes.  I think that things like organized religion are often misinterpreted with trying to control folks outcomes, even in Christianity there are underlying tones of "God gave us free will" and that our fate is not controlled instead we are meant to decide for ourselves.  It is when that text is used for influence that the central message is lost.  An example is an often misinterpreted passage "an eye for an eye".             

   After taking the Rotter's Locus of Control Scale test, the evidence indicates that I favor high internal locus of control.  This means that I control my own outcomes and my own beliefs and performance.  While there are influences along the way, good leaders, my wife, my demographic, and my upbringing for the most part I control my outcomes.  In my military past supervisors have attempted to control my outcomes/my behaviors and to get me to adapt to them.  This does not work for me, supportive behaviors work best for me, directive behaviors tend to throw me off and my outcomes are no longer focused on myself.  I need to feel like I am integral part of the team and the decision making (Northouse, 2016).  Path-goal is a good leadership approach for me as it allows people with high level of internal LOC to work with the leader to adapt for the follower and to understand how behaviors can play a role in people lives.              

References

• locus of control (2009).

Northhouse, P. G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and practice (7th edition). Los Angeles, CA:       SAGE Publications, Inc.

• Ryon, H. S., & Gleason, M. E. J. (2014). The role of locus of control in daily life. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 40(1), 121-131. doi:10.1177/0146167213507087