A520.9.3.RB Course Reflection

A520.9.3.RB – Course Reflections

Over the last 9 weeks I have studied a vast number of leadership principles and concepts.  Some of the concepts and ideas which I found interesting or valuable as a leader.  To begin with we looked at how we evaluate ourselves.  To me this was important because the workforce whether you are in the military or work in the fast food industry will be diverse and have different values and cultures.  Whetten and Cameron discuss how if you as a leader do not have a good understanding of your self-awareness than you will struggle when dealing with the differences of others.    They quote Erich Fromm who stated “hatred against oneself is inseparable from hatred against others (Whetten & Cameron, 2016, p45).”  Knowing what makes you tick will help you as a leader when dealing with others.

Next we touched on managing stress and problem solving which are important for any leader and manager.  The amount of work leaders are expected to produce and the amount of pressure most people put on themselves to succeed are going to lead to stress.  Learning different coping strategies and how to manage your stress is vital for your health and well-being.  The text states individuals are better off if they can eliminate harmful stressors thus reducing the potential negative effects of stressors (Whetten & Cameron, 2016, p 92).  I think that problem solving is very important when it comes to dealing with stress as well.  Leaders and managers spend a good majority of their time dealing with problems.  It is only a matter of time before these problems will start to lead to stress for the leader.  A leader who can handle problems is more apt to feel less stress than those who have a hard time when problems arise.

Another important thing I took from this course was the personal reflection time.  The video we watched (Puddicombe, 2012) made me realize that taking time for yourself is very important.  In the hectic and busy work environment it is important for many reasons to take time to decompress and reduce your stress level.  I put a considerable amount of pressure on myself to try to be able to do everything for everyone both at work and home.  This normally leads to me feeling overwhelmed and a bit stressed.  Knowing my limits and when I need to take a moment to just breathe is very beneficial.  I like to do this early in the morning while everyone in my house is still asleep.  This allows for no distractions and it is very peaceful and quite. 

The biggest take away for me in this course however, was the empowerment and motivation sections.  I feels these two areas may be the most powerful any leader or manager can use in today’s workforce.  The main reason for me I feel empowerment is so important is because it creates meaning for people.  Whetten and Cameron state that value will help people have purpose or value the outcome of the activity they are involved in (2016). Having meaning also affords people with a sense of purpose, passion, and enthusiasm for the task they are involved in. people who have meaning in their work are going to do things for more than just pay.  They will feel more apt to do their work and do it well.  Meaning is a powerful thing and can create valuable results within your organization.

Empowerment and value will go hand in hand with why I feel motivation is a powerful tool.  The challenge with motivation however, is that different things motivate different people.  As a leader you need to observe and identify these differences in your people.  According to Leadership-Central.com article (2016) there are several benefits of motivation in the workplace. First off you get increased quality in you products. Another benefit of motivated works is reduced turn over. Motivated workers like to come to work and will continue to do so until they are no longer motivated.  Having motivated workers helps keep your speed to market up.  Motivated workers will continue to keep the product new and up to date to keep the customers coming back for more.  Motivation helps keep product value high.  Motivated workers will produce quality product which consumers like and will continually produce this higher quality product. Finally motivated workers are happy people who in turn make people happy which makes society better overall.  So as you can see along with empowerment motivation is a very powerful and important tool for leaders.

During one of the final discussion posts for this course Dr. Rietsema posted a very interesting question.  He asked if personnel who graduate with the degree in leadership should be experts in leadership.  After reflect over some of the important topics and things that I am going to remember from this course I think the answer to this question is no.  I do not think that any degree will instantly make you an expert in any field.  No matter the grades or awards you may win during you degree completion.  I believe if you ask anyone whether doctor, lawyer, engineer, or psychologist and they will tell you that the degree does not make you an expert.  My opinion is that time in the field and experience are going to be the things that make you the expert.  Having completed this degree will put some (cliché as this sounds) tools in your tool box for when you enter the workforce and promote into leadership or management positions.  Using these tools and developing your skills are what is going to make you and expert.    

 

Puddicombe, A. (2012). All it Takes is 10 Mindful Minutes. TEDtalk. Retrieved from:

https://erau.instructure.com/courses/57520/assignments/905637?module_item_id=2904243

Whetton, D. A. & Cameron, K. S. (2016). Developing management skills,

        9th ed. Boston, MA: Pearson.

Importance Of Motivation. (2016). [Data file]. retrieved from:

         http://www.leadership-central.com/importance-of-motivation.html#axzz4bAUyNCtJ

 

A520.8.3.RB - Team Roles

A team can be described as a group of individuals organized to work together to accomplish an objective (Westcott & Duffy, 2014). Teams can also be described as a small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose. Teams can also be a group of two or more people who are equally accountable for the accomplishment of a task and specific performance goals.  No matter the definition two main concepts are present.  First multiple personnel, and second working toward the accomplishment of specific goals or tasks.  Within teams there are two main types of goals which exist.  They are task-facilitating roles and relationship building roles (Whetten & Cameron, 2016).  These goals focus on enhancing team performance.  Both types of roles are important however, it is difficult for members of a team to exhibit both types of goals equally.  Team members tend to favor one or the other while participating in team activities.  There are several different roles a task-facilitator can fill.  These roles include: direction giving, information seeking, information giving, elaborating, urging, monitoring, process analyzing, reality testing, enforcing, and summarizing.  These different roles all tend to focus on accomplishment of the mission or objective.  They are the roles which drive a team forward.  Task-facilitators help teams become more efficient and effective.  If a team lacks a task-facilitator they tend to take longer as well as lose focus easily.  The flip side of this is relationship-building roles.  These roles focus on the interpersonal aspects of teamwork.  Personnel who fill these roles tend to help others feel good about themselves as well as others on the team.  They tend to enjoy the work the team is trying to accomplish and create and maintain a tension free environment.  Some of the relationship-building roles include: supporting roles, harmonizing, tension relieving, confronting, energizing, developing, consensus building, and empathizing.  Those who fill these types of roles in a team make the work more enjoyable.  They are humorous and create great chemistry within the team.  These people are attractive (not in a physical sense) to be around and people tend to follow them.  They create a collaborative environment where team members try harder and normally come to consensus easier.  

These two different roles are both equally important to a team accomplishing its mission or goals.  To begin with task-facilitator roles help keep the train moving forward.  If there is nobody on the team who fills these roles then you may never get to your desired outcome.  Whetten and Cameron state that task-facilitator roles are important when your team is slow to progress towards its goal, the team has a hard time staying on task or is deflected easily, when time is a factor and things need to be accomplished by a certain time, when the task is complex or ambiguous, and when everyone seems to be doing their own thing and nobody is moving the team forward (2016).  Relationship building roles are important because of the human factor.  Anytime you have people working together there is the possibility of conflict.  Those who focus on these types of roles have empathy and incorporate humor and support into the team.  They focus on the individual and keep the environment light and positive.

When it comes to me working in a team I think I am pretty balanced and can play both roes well.  Spending the last 17 years of my life in the US Air Force has taught me how to focus on mission accomplishment.  So when the time comes and something needs to be taken care of I know how to get a team of people to focus and get the job done.  On the other side of the coin I enjoy life and like to make things as fun as possible.  So if the stakes are low and there is not a time sensitive situation I can very easily switch to a more relationship role mindset.  As a task oriented person I think I am good at letting the team wander down a rabbit whole long enough to explore some different ideas.  However, when the conversations or ideas start to get way out into left field I can get the group to re-focus and get back on track.  This also goes for sidebars and tangential conversations.  I would love nothing more than to sit around all day and talk sports or politics however, when we are working in a team I highly doubt the end goal is to discuss last night’s game or what the president is up to today. It is very easy for a group to get sidetracked on these types of conversations and it takes a task-facilitator to get everyone back in line with the objectives.  This is a good example of urging type role.  When it comes to my relationship building I love to develop younger Airmen.  When I was an Airman there was nothing I hated more than being told that I did not know the big picture.  Those who were senior felt this answer was good enough when I would ask questions trying to learn why we did things the way we did.  I always told myself if I ever was in a supervisory position where I knew the big picture I would let as many people know as possible.  Because the way I look at this is if I die tomorrow and I am the only one who knows the big picture well than I have just done the US Air Force a huge disservice.  I make it a point to take the most junior person I have on the team and show them exactly why and how we do what we do.  I like to show them the guidance and all the different things they would need to know if they happened to be the only one around and the task needed to be accomplished.

I feel that teams are very important in organizations today.  This is especially true due to the changes in generations within the workforce.  The younger generations are being taught about teamwork and the importance of being in teams.  Schools are now focusing on teamwork and doing group projects.  The need for leaders and managers to be mindful of the importance of teams and teamwork is vital in my opinion to the success or failure of your organization.  

 

Westcott, R. T. & Duffy, G. L. (2014). Team Organization and Purpose. The Journal for Quality and Participation. 37, 3; ProQuest Central.

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