A520.6.3 Conflict Resolution

    Conflict management is larger then just wars between nations, it is as small as where is my cookie to a child, to as big as policy decisions that impact millions.  I see them all, I am challenged with them all throughout my day; but what role do I play in those conflicts?  While modern scholars admit that conflicts will and do happen in the workplace it is the response to the conflict that will determine the outcome of productivity (Katz & Flynn, 2013).  Have I seen conflict?  One could say after seven deployments and several years on the road I have seen my fair share of conflict.  I have seen conflict on a global scale between near-peer nations, I have seen conflict on the small scale; distress caused from poor supervision.  Conflict is everywhere and in every organization, it is how it is handle that makes the difference in productivity for all parties.  Everyday there are new conflicts sources in senior management wether it is personal differences or environmental stress (Wheeton & Cameron, 2016).  

   One of my most recent conflicts just happened two weeks ago.  I am in charge of 120 personnel and everyday there are little challenges and complexities.  I recently had a young non-commissioned officer approach me with a problem.  Her problem was that her supervisor was perceived to playing favorites to another junior non-commissioned officer.  Her general complaint said that she could not leave to pick up her young boy from the child care because he was sick, her supervisor said she could not leave.  In this case I had to play the mediator.  I had to mediate delicately between a known hostile supervisor and disgruntled good Airmen.  In this case, I allowed both to tell me their side.  I gave the junior member my Air Force answer and allowed her to see my support for her case, yet I did not interfere with supervisors internal leadership.  I believe that this is where I screwed up and knowing what I know now I should have negotiated evenly, it was not a collaborative win-win result.  I could have improved the solution by noticing the discussion was not fair and I protected the integrity of the senior by not getting involved at all levels.  

Conflict resolution is a difficult task to do so peacefully means that sometimes I have to play hard ball, sometimes I have to protect the institution while other times I am a major source.  I have grown in my studies of mediation and resolution noticing that sometimes I need to take 15 minutes, slow down and understand the pulse of the problem.  As I grow in my leadership and maturation in the Air Force I hope to improve on these skills as I transition.     

References

Katz, N. H., & Flynn, L. T. (2013). Understanding conflict management systems and strategies in the workplace: A pilot study. Conflict Resolution Quarterly, 30(4), 393-410. doi:10.1002/crq.21070

Whetten, D. A. & Cameron, K. S. (2016). Developing management skills, 9th ed. Boston, MA: Pearson.

A520.5.3 Why do I serve

Why do I serve in the Air Force?

   What is my purpose?  Why do I put on an uniform everyday?  Is for the love of the country or love of the Airman, is it make it till retirement or is it something else?  What motivates me to continue to do this work? Achieving satisfaction and therefore achieving high states of motivation has been a difficult process for me.  I have gone through cycles in my career where my motivation has been high and others when I did not understand why I was there.  I understand that I am not alone in this struggle.  Government workers tend to have different motives from the private sector (Taylor & Westover, 2011).  I think that this is especially true in the "white collar" portions of the military. My job for example is to control the space domain that is bounded by physics and will never result in a tangible experience.  I work in the Air Force Space Command side of the military, my job is to apply space superiority yet I will never go to space and only by rarity have actually see a satellite.  Achieving job satisfaction can often be difficult   Locke (1976), defined job satisfaction, as "a pleasurable emotional state, resulting from the appraisal of one's own job or experience", or as Spector (1997) writes, how we feel about our job and its aspects.  Throughout my military career I have waxed and waned with the tidal waters of motivation while serving in the Air Force.  So I am inevitably left with the question, why do I put my uniform on everyday?  I am in the Air Force because I want to be not because I have to be. Taking this advice, I am choosing freely to serve.  I am not serving because of draft or because of family motivation, but because I want to.

   I believe that in my current position, as a squadron superintendent, my motivates have two primary sources retirement and my personnel.  I do the things that I do for those two reasons.  It is no surprise to my friends and family that I am tired, my mind is deteriorating as I have been diagnosed with a variety of mental health issues and I need to retire.  I have two more years left until I can retire and I am exhausted.  However my dedication to the my personnel continues to be my reason.  In one day, I feel responsible to everyone from senior squadron leadership to the lowest ranks and try to motivate them to continue.  I am impressed by their ability to solve puzzles, to discover new horizons and view the world differently as I did in their shoes.  Take for example the candle problem described by Dan Pink (2009).  I ran this same experiment without a consultation prize or any award fee, at a working lunch this week.  In every case, the problem was solved within minutes, not because they wanted a prize but because they wanted to solve the problem.  This is my motivation, this is my legacy as I descend out of the military.  To be fair to the social experiment, during my tenure over the past few months, I have challenged attitudes and motivation for my folks, I have spent a great deal amount of time working on their reasons "why are you here."  This question was easy for some but others felt lost in the answer without knowing their purpose.  The reality is that those folks had poor motivation and poor productivity.  Challenging those folks, the 9-to-5 crowd, those folks lost what it means to put on the uniform.  This satisfaction getting folks to find their purpose to serve and that is why I have surfed the tidal waters of the last 17 years. 

References

• Locke, E. (1976) ‘The Nature and Causes of Job Satisfaction’ in M. Dunnette (ed.) Handbook of Industrial and Organizational Psychology, Chicago, IL: Rand McNally

• Spector, P. E. (1997). Job satisfaction: Application, assessment, cause, and consequences. Thousand Oaks, Calif;London;: SAGE.
• 
  
• Taylor, J., & Westover, J. H. (2011). Job satisfaction in the public service: The effects of public service motivation, workplace attributes and work relations. Public Management Review, 13(5), 731-751. doi:10.1080/14719037.2010.532959

TED (2009). The Puzzle of Motivation: Dan Pink. Retrieved from YouTube

A520.4.3.RB Application of problem solving through influential change.

“We are getting less than 40 hours of work from a large number of our K.C.-based EMPLOYEES. The parking lot is sparsely used at 8:00 A.M.; likewise at 5 P.M. As managers – you either do not know what your EMPLOYEES are doing, or you do not CARE. You have created expectations on the work effort that allowed this to happen inside Cerner, creating a very unhealthy environment. In either case, you have a problem and you will fix it or I will replace you. NEVER in my career have I allowed a team that worked for me to think they had a 40-hour job. I have allowed YOU to create a culture that is permitting this. NO LONGER.”

   This weeks blog focuses in on what it means to be both a change agent while trying to be supportive through a contentious policy challenge from senior manager.  We all have been there, especially in the military and in life, contentious emails sent from the leadership without consideration of underlying data.  The immediate response from myself is typically defensive, leading to disagreements publicly and a reduction in performance.  After reading the above excerpt from the senior manager, there are some key factors to consider; how to become a change agent and enforce the policy while contain the morale of the organization, in 30 days.  Leaders are fearful of change that is centralized around based on “Bureaucracy, Bosses and Policies (BBP),” this makes changes from this excerpt  extremely diffcult to manage and contain (de Caluwe & Vermaak, 2003).   

    A change agent is a role that all humans will have to become.  Change agent leadership "it is the capacity to move into the future while preserving the values and the mission (Baer and Bushway, 2015).”  As such, even changing of duty hours or enforcing standards can be defensive and confrontational for most. Using supportive communication from mid-level leadership to influence change in the organization from BBP is a method that can lead to ownership from the employees.  Laying out a 30 day strategy to adapt change from the bosses email above is important but I have to do so smartly to benefit the whole while enforcing policy.  The 8 attributes of supportive communication (Whetten & Cameron, 2016) could change behavior if done correctly and therefore help me in the problem solving.  

    My detailed plan to implant the idea of change in my employees is broken down into 4 parts.  Part 1 of this strategy (week-1), would be focused in on seeking feedback.  This feedback would be aimed at identifying the problem and symptoms not the person.  I need to take ownership of the problem and the solution up front, not hiding from the problem or masking it with discontent to the BBP.  It is important that folks understand what is the measurable and what the reason is.  Week-1 could involve non-directive counseling and surveys, attempting to isolate special needs and circumstances from the majority.  I need to get a complete “sight picture” on the problem, understanding all the details, arguments and restraints the actual problems definition.   

   Part 2 (week 2) of the strategy is solve the masses first, the results from the surveys equips me with the necessary information to generate alternative/evaluate alternatives.  The masses may not have   Again using the 8 attributes combined in a problem solving methods I can focus in one the descriptive problem without solving the prescriptive answer in vacuum leadership.  This week is my analysis time, this is normally where I fail in my career.  I do not give the analysis time to work and discover where the results demonstrate where the trends are.  I often to be reactionary instead of thoughtful, this does influence a change.  

   Part 3 (week 3) of the “get-well” strategy is focused in on the outliers, the special needs employees and the case-by-case.  Are there circumstances of which the values of the company are challenged by the values of the person?  It is during this week, where supportive communication used poorly can easily erode productivity from the employee.  For example, in my career, recently I had an Airman that had to continuously leave work early because his wife had a severe case of Acute Mountain Sickness and she would pass out while trying to get to pick the kids up from school.  This special case requires that I walked a delicate line between being a supervisor while being supportive.  I had to own the process while also trying to be supportive.  Together, we determined a solution that benefited both the Air Force and the member.  It is during this week when I am trying to determine the locus of control from the member and develop strategies that are cooperative.  

   Finally Week 4, this week is trial and error through slow change, the expectation is that by the last work day consumption of the change has occurred.  Many of the Airman forget this part of day-to-day policies, they want answers to change NOW.  Employees morale cannot be changed in an hour, their values cannot be influenced in a day and change of influence has to take time.  The change agent needs to influence and convince that the change is ongoing in the positive direction.  I need to influence my Airman/employees that I “see" and understand that they are completing the task.  Following-up on the masses and the case-by-case; holding both them and me accountbable for the implementation of the alternatives that WE determined together.  After the strategy takes affect, I would hold regular climate assessments to ensure that change is  sticking and not just an artifact of the “change for the time”.                       

References

Baer, L. L., Duin, A. H., & Bushway, D. (2015). Change agent leadership. Planning for Higher Education, 43(3), 1-11.

de Caluwé, L. & Vermaak, H. (2003). Why change is complicated. In Learning to change: A guide for organization change agents (pp. 6-38). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications Ltd. doi: 10.4135/9781452229584.n2 

Whetton, D. A. & Cameron, K. S. (2016). Developing management skills, 9th ed. Boston, MA: Pearson.

A520.3.3.RB Constraint on Innovation.

A520.3.3RB

    Constraints to productivity, innovation and creativity exist everywhere in our lives.  There are so many mental, physical, or spiritual constraints that haunt my work center and its creativity, that sometimes even mundane tasks become difficult.  Innovation is a difficult idea to spark and to energize teams to develop in the military.  I spend most of my time trying to get my troops to think and act differently.  Old adages, axioms, mottos, and ways-of-old often limit creativity and innovation.  The hierarchal micro-society of the military usually place artificial constraints on creativity and restricts "new thinking" through this stereotyping based on past experiences (Whetten, 2010) way of thinking.  This is true in most forms of government even at the city level.  Take for example in the post Katrina reconstruction of New Orleans, city planners where struggling to come up with a unified plan.  They instead turned to the a collective of 9,000 residents to aid in the redesigned.  This plan ultimately provided a positive plan that had the collective buy-in (Cea, 2017).  Even great geniuses and some of the greatest minds that have ever lived have had constraints; take for Johannes Kepler, a brilliant scientist who put his work on hold and become a laughing stock because his mother was accused of witchcraft in the early 1600's (Landauer, 2001).  Kepler's work helped us define how planets orbits work, setting the stage for future Astronomer to develop complex theories we still use today.  His constraint on his creativity was his mother's trial.  

   My constraints and restraints setup obstacles that have been with me for years and years limiting me from solving creative simple and advanced problems.  One of those particular barriers is education; throughout my military career I struggled with the lack of education in the subject or the matter and therefore did not posses the intellect to work through problems.  I believed that the role of the enlisted space operator was too much of a barrier that the military and myself put in the way of innovation.  I believed that I could not be as educated on the satellite, payload or subject as perhaps an officer that had a degree from MIT and therefore could never solve advanced problems in my field.  This was an artificial barrier that I put in place.  This barrier was overcame when I started to gain my education, as I worked through my undergrad program I started to think differently about this barrier.  I started to understand that "education did not make you an intellect."  I started to grasp the idea of a life long learner.  Throughout my first graduate program in Space Sciences, I really started to understand that this barrier is artificial and intellect is not gained from a degree rather develops critical thinking skills.  It is not about the degree but about the journey and the process of creativity that is gained from a graduate degree.  Upon completion of tearing down this barrier I did not feel inferior or equal to the officer instead I felt disappointed that I had learned this lesson earlier in my career.       

References

Cea, J. L., & Rimington, J. (2017, Summer). Creating BREAKOUT innovation.Stanford Social Innovation Review, 15, 32-39.

Landauer, L. B. (2001). Johannes Kepler. In N. Schlager & J. Lauer (Eds.), Science and Its Times (Vol. 3, pp. 375-377). Detroit: Gale.

Whetten, D. A., & Cameron, K. S. (2016). Developing Management Skills (Ninth Edition). Harlow, UK: Pearson Education

A520.2.3 10 minutes a day

Finding peace through 10 minutes of nothing

   What is stress and how can I manage it through mindfulness?  Even trying to define stress and the human identity of the word can be stressful.  Both psychologists and physiologists have trouble defining the word stress, however both communities agree that it can have a negative impact on the body.  Over the past week, I have been over stressed, over taxed, and over worked and needed some help.  This same stress level skyrocketed over the past few years, in part because of the increase in rank and title, as well as every day life.  Doctor Breuning work in Psychology Today "people feel hopeless and defeated (2011)."  While this revelation is not mind blowing and humans have suffered from this since the dawn of man.  As Breuning explains it is how we deal with stress that can literally protect our heart.  

   In an effort to find peace, I have tried everything from eating vegetables, to walking on coals (did not work!), to floating in a therapeutic pods (creeped me out).  None of these things truly helped on a continuous basis.  I have sought mental health professionals even tried homeopathic remedies; while these worked on a temporary basis, my therapist is not always available and sudo science is expensive to try to buy the latest thing.  How can I relive my stress?  

   One thing that has worked well for me is mindfulness.  This 2,000 year old practice is a difficult thing to master, it requires patience and practice.  There are two different styles of mindfulness focused and choiceless closed (Bauer-Wu, 2010).  The focused style accepts that objects, stress, or actions happen.  The style calls for the person to accept that it happens or the object exist, but not doing anything with it; accept it and move one.  Choiceless on the other hand, is difficult to master, this is where the body and mind do not notice anything.  

    For three days in a row I used guided-focused mindfulness for ten minutes a day with the "Calm" app.  This guided mediation helped me focus on my breathing and finding its center of gravity in my process.  What a wonderful result! By spending 10 minutes a day doing nothing but focusing on my breathing helped me feel grounded, providing the clarity I needed that day.  While the practice of mindfulness is difficult for a working Airman while going through another graduate degree program, the ten minutes a day is one of the best practices I have found in many years.  

   References

• Bauer-Wu, S. (2010). Mindfulness meditation. Oncology (Williston Park, N.Y.), 24(10 Suppl), 36.

Breuning, Loretta (2011).  The Danger of Self-Identifying "Stressed. Psychology Today https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/your-neurochemical-self/201109/the-danger-self-identifying-stressed

• Persson, P. B., & Zakrisson, A. (2016). stress. Acta Physiologica, 216(2), 149-152. doi:10.1111/apha.12641

A520.1.3RB_MosleyHarold

  My purpose of the MSLD program 

   My purpose of continuing my leadership and managerial education is to develop me into a leader that can move both an organization and people.  I opted to take this program because I recognized that I was not as strong of leader, as I believed.  The MSLD program has provided me with a myriad of thought provoking mechanisms on how to critical think about my own deficiencies and strengths.  A fundamental question tends to appear as I move through my education: am I qualified to be a manager, and a leader to move an organization or a project, or people?  Building upon this question into my daily life: am I qualified to make the decision I am about to make?  This simple question is not aimed at the black/white answer do I have the training but rather do I have the trust in myself that I can make the decision (whatever it may be). 

  

At the start of this program, on the very first day I questioned my own definition of critical thinking, Robert Ennis defines critical thinking as "reflective thinking that is focused on deciding what to believe or do (Nosich, 2012).  Critically thinking on what defines me as a manager and a leader are furthered explored throughout the MSLD program.  Whetten and Cameron (2016) identified five critical areas of self-awareness that help me critical explore my own framework as a leader and a manger.  In my growth and development, it is important that I have a solid framework that is sturdy enough to hold the decision of which I might be asked to make.  Do I have what it takes as a manager to develop a new search engine or to develop a commercial space industry or council an Airman in suicidal distress?    

  

   People around me have started to notice a change.  I tend to take the time to go through inductive reasoning and critical thinking standard to actively apply ethical decision making.  For example, I recently struggled with an Airman that was struggling with a spouse's medical issue.  She was diagnosed with Acute Mountain Sickness, a debilitating sickness for people that live in high altitude bases (that most Airman and families get on arrival).  He struggled at home and work and his supervision jumped to conclusions and did not take extra measures to help.  His performance suffered as did the organization, this is typical of all Airman when getting accumulated to high attitudes.  When I took over as command, I immediately jumped into action by helping the Airman find a job that benefited the organization and the member.  I applied my knowledge, my core values, my ethical decision-making ability, my cognitive style toward my attitude to find an assignment that everyone benefited that was not at high altitude.  While this decision was unpopular amoungst my and his peers, it was the right thing to do.  Now I am faced with the consequences of setting the wrong message for an Airman that needed help.        

 Throughout my leadership growth in the military I have learned how to council Airmen, write appraisals, or manager resources (The Airman handbook, 2015).  However, I need to constantly asses my core and ensure that the decision that I must make is cored around five core aspects.  I need to know where my emotional intellectual levels, my values, my cognitive styles, my attitude toward change, and my self-evaluation (Whetten & Cameron pg 47).  These pillars help build my own pentagon of development providing five cornerstones to hang all other attributes, layers and levels on (pg 49).  

References

Nosich G.M. (2012) Learning to think Things Through; Critical Thinking across the curriculum. (4^th ed) Columbus , Oh Prentice Hall

The Airman's Handbook (2015). Department of the Air Force

Whetten, D.A., & Cameron, K.S. (2016). Developing 

management skills (9th ed.). New York, NY: Pearson.

A511.9.3 Course Reflections

What is leadership?

                            My basic definition over the past few weeks has not changed much but instead I have added more theories of what are the styles of leadership and there make-ups.  How is leeadership  defined, what does it mean to be a leader? Oxford defines leadership as a "the action of leading a group of people" (Leadership, n.d.). While my time in the military service, I have seen a trend of leadership, those that have "it", those that perceive that they have "it" and finally those that don't have "it." What is "it"? But what does this mean, how is it applied to modern leadership. Winston and Patterson's (2006) describe an in depth constructive definition of leadership that focuses on the influence of the followers and their gifts (strengths/weakness) to move the organization, while Northhouse (2015) it as a process of influence. Eisenhower describe leadership as "the art of getting someone to do something because he wants to it" (Chatham, 2016). A quick search of leadership in the Hunt Library and each time the definition changes only slightly; common themes appear art, influence and motivation.   

                             I believe that leadership is “the behavior of a person to influence and inspire a follower to accomplish an idea of investment, through one’s own commitment and self-actualization.” An old supervisor of mine once said “negative behavior does not move a mountain, but does carve a canyon.” It was not till years later did I learn the hard way what that meant. The behavior of a person can have great influence on the perceived or assigned followers ability to reconcile his/hers own opinion of themselves and the task at hand. Meaning that a single individual’s behavior can motivate me to find ownership in the process through my own lens. That person I will either follow or ignore. Will I be committed to the idea because I have reached the highest point accordingly to Maslow? To illustrate the point, a person (leader) asked (not told) me to develop a new weapon system, because they understood that this is something that I can do (and enjoy) and that their approach angle used would motivate me to reach my own peaks.  This was an exploitation of my reactions to their behaviors.  All the right things are said that drove me to commit myself to the idea.  Sometimes my wife does that to me "honey will you take the trash, or would you like to take the trash out for me." 

                             This is the balance of leadership, push too far and the follower will never move, push to aggressively and the follower will only carve internal dilemmas that not repairable.  This is where this course has helped me understand leadership theories like a follower-lead approach like path-goal theory (Northouse, 2016).  This theory leads the follower and leader to motivated the follower to reach their own commitment to the idea or the project.  My own leadership is directly reflected on my troops in path-goa; what am I doing to help them reach their goal.  I can use this theory in my own definition of leadership.  It was my superiors's and my follower that helped shaped me into who I am today and my behavior that influenced me, did they treat me with respect, and did they understand my strengths and weakness even when I did not; therefore am I orientating my followers the right way.  I intend to use this program to understand to become a better well rounded leader that understand genuine and authentic empathy and sympathy toward their blight and help my followers and subordinated reach their goals.         

                          Leadership is a difficult to understand and more difficult to define. There are hundreds of thousands of articles on how people, scholars and professionals define it.  Northouse has given us a brief synopsis of several theories throughout the past few weeks we have explored several, I intend to use these skills to learn more and to become a better well-rounded leader. There is so many definitions out there that all center on several themes, influence, art and motivation. In my attempt to define leadership in my own way, I found that the behavior of a person can motivate me to reach my own commitment to the idea or the project, and when that is self-sustained I found that I am better follower. 

References

BusinessPundit: 51 ways to define leadership (2016). . Chatham: Newstex. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.libproxy.db.erau.edu/docview/1824373430?accountid=27203 (Links to an external site.)

Leadership (Def 1) (n.d.) In Merriam Webster Online, Retrieved 11 January, 2016 from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/leadership

Northouse, P.G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and Practice (7th ed.). Los Angeles, CA: Sage Publishing.

Winston, B. E., & Patterson, K. (2006). An Integrative Definition of Leadership. International Journal of Leadership Studies, 1, 6-66.