A631.5.4RB_SeabournBeau

In your reflection blog, consider how difficult it must be for a leader to grow into a person who can lead a system-wide change effectively. Perhaps you remember leaders who attempted system wide interventions but failed because they were not capable of pulling it all together. On the other hand, you may know leaders who were able to do what you thought would be impossible. From your point of view now, what is required for a leader to be successful?

From a personal standpoint, a great example of this comes to mind quickly. At my first air traffic control facility (in the U.S. Navy), we had a very hands off, passive leader who in short, did not have any of the traits I would now look for in a good leader. His personal approach was to let things run themselves and to let people under him do all of the work. Not long after being there however, we got a new leader. He was the complete opposite of the first leader. He was very aggressive, hands on (although he did not micromanage), and he made sure things were done correctly. He was very intense and he wanted to make sure everything was corrected from the previous leader. He did have a hard time maintain certain relationships due to his role though. People began to fear him which in turn led to no one wanting to be around him or ask for his guidance. He had fixed the issues we were having but in turn he basically became ostracized for it.  Brown states “in solving problems in the learning organization, collaboration occurs between people throughout the organization: vertically, horizontally, and diagonally” (Brown, 2011). In the case of this leader, that communication failed to exist after a small amount of time there.

I thought a lot about what it takes to be a successful leader this week. I found that trust, hard work, caring about coworkers (regardless of up or down), and perspective are the most important factors when becoming a good leader. A good leader has to be able to understand the environment they’re in, figure out what changes need to happen and then apply their skill set to help fix any issues. In doing that, a good leader also needs to let other people shine, not just themselves. When you get other people involved in successful situations, they perform at a higher level. In this week’s class discussion, Deborah Burke stated “Some advantages of flat organizational structure include increased responsibility for the employee, removal of excess layers of management which results in more effective collaboration, communication, and an easier decision-making process among employees, eliminating middle managers’ salaries resulting in organizational cost savings, and innovation and creativity are encouraged in such structure” (Burke, 2015). I bring that observation up because I think that flat organizations are working now. To be a good leader, you need to keep communication lines open and you need to share knowledge and insight. Let you employees in on the leadership action while direction their course.

I find it interesting that people often times want to be the leader but they don’t to put in the time or hard work that comes with being the leader. What I’ve come to learn is that leaders have a hard job and they have a lot to think about everyday. Sometime leaders make mistakes but the good leaders will forget about the mistakes and move forward in a positive direction. People who work under someone who dwell on past mistakes cannot have a very optimistic vision of the organizational future. A good leader needs to be a leader while maintaining composure and perspective. My last source is from Richard Branson, he states “"A passionate belief in your business and personal objectives can make all the difference between success and failure. If you aren't proud of what you're doing, why should anybody else be?" (Feloni, 2014). What a great way to look at things. A good leader will believe in their cause and believe in their subordinates.

Brown, D. (2011). An experiential approach to organizational development (8^th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Burke, D. (2015, January 1). Class Discussion [Online].

Feloni, R. (2014, October 17). Richard Branson's 10 rules for being a great leader. Retrieved April 22, 2015, from http://www.businessinsider.com/richard-bransons-leadership-rules-2014-10

A631.4.4RB_SeabournBeau

To start, I thought that it was interesting to hear Paul Tesluk talk about leading teams that essentially lead themselves. He touched on the importance of the external manger coming and trying to lead a team and how beneficial a tool that is to have. Personally, I like how the team makes the decisions on how they will be formatted and how they’ll adhere to the norms. This allows the members to form conclusions and ideas based on their experiences and not precedents set by their organization. They can utilize tools and strategies they’re comfortable using and tools that have been successful for them in the past. That allows a better working environment for that specific team.

What do you see as some of the major benefits and drawbacks of self-managed teams?

I see a major benefit being that each team member is an expert in their field. Brown states “self managed work teams have autonomy when they have freedom to set goals, make work schedules, discipline, and reward team members and decide on work methods” (Brown, 2011). I see that being a huge advantage in any group setting. Let the majority set the boundaries of what works for them and what they’re comfortable doing. You don’t want to push past standards on them, they are there to fix issues not be bound by restrictions.

Would you like to work within such a team?

I think that I would want to work with such a team. I’ve never had the opportunity to share my insights and thoughts about organizational procedures and I think that being in a team would allow me to voice my opinion and to hear feedback from other team members. I’d like to “compare notes” with other experts within our organization and see what is going on in other facilities. It would be a pleasure to be involved with any directed change our group might come up with. One source says it well when they said “this means the majority of key decisions about activities are made by people with direct knowledge of, and who are most affected by those choices” (Boundless, 2014). It would be good to be part of the change when it will affect me also.

What competencies would you need to develop to be an effective external manager of a self-managed work team?

I think to be effective; you need to be able to gain meaningful insight to the problem and the team in a timely manner. You also need to be able to understand the purpose of the team and understand why they set the guidelines the way they did. I think to be effective here, you want to lead the group but make sure they still feel as though they are in the conversation when it comes to solving whatever issues they may be working on. In our class discussion this week, Tracy Michael stated “Although Xerox reached its peak of performance in Leadership through Quality, the company continued to strive for better quality through training its employees on what quality and customer satisfaction truly means” (Michael, 2015). I took that interpretation to mean that even though that company was succeeding, they still took time to identify needs. An external manager could help understand the future needs and push a team toward not only addressing the current needs, but potential market shifts and future needs.

Brown, D. (2011).  An Experiential Approach to Organizational Development, 8th Ed.  Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.

Self-Managing Teams - Boundless Open Textbook. (2014, January 1). Retrieved April 16, 2015, from https://www.boundless.com/management/textbooks/boundless-management-textbook/groups-teams-and-teamwork-6/types-of-teams-52/self-managing-teams-265-3934/

Michael, T. (2015, April 15). ERAU Discussion [Discussion Board].

A631.3.3RB_SeabournBeau

Personally, I've never thought of how important feedback might be to an organization. The reading this week states, “frequent, relevant, and specific feedback is important for goal setting to be a success” (Brown, 2011). I reference that because in my career field, feedback and long term goals are essential to being successful. When I was training to become an air traffic controller, we had to set a map of how we were going to complete our training and qualification programs and we set long term goals for ourselves. Once training commenced, we would receive feedback about our performance immediately after we were done. This allowed us to know how we did that day and what steps could be taken to be more effective the next time. Initially, some of the older controllers were not on board with giving all of this feedback, they wanted the younger group to learn my trial and error and learn for themselves “the hard way”.  I link that into the observation that “generation Y” wants feedback faster. I feel as though if we know what we are doing, either right or wrong, when it happens, we can mentally take a note of what to improve upon for next time.

I look at goals as a very positive tool in any leadership role. Where do you want to go from here? How can I help others succeed? Feedback is a form of constrictive communication between employees. One source states “poor communication can disrupt a team’s performance and sometimes these disruptions are caused by personality clashes between members” (Boundless, 2012). I draw a direct relation to the reading in that the younger members want the feedback and feel it necessary but the older generations do not. This could create friction in the workplace about the direction of the organizational and its goal setting objectives.

In our discussion from class this week, I took note of another classmates comment. Julia Cannell mentioned “goals are not simply a stated desire to achieve an outcome but are a choice of behavior that is impacted by who we are, what we really want, and what we are willing to do to reach them (Cannell, 2015). This is a good observation of how people perceive goals setting and how important it can be.  Long term goal setting paired with feedback in my personal career has paid huge dividends for me because I was able to adjust and move past in deficiencies I had in the learning process. As a general observation, not all the people I worked with liked the feedback. I generally feel they felt that way because the feedback wasn't always positive but it cannot be. Feedback has to be constructive and meaningful otherwise it is pointless.

Brown, D. R. (2011). An Experiential Approach to Organization Development (Eighth ed.). Prentice Hall

Cannell, J. (2015, April 6). Discussion Forum - Julia Cannell [Personal interview].

Setting Team Goals and Providing Team Feedback - Boundless Open Textbook. (2012, January 1). Retrieved April 8, 2015, from https://www.boundless.com/management/textbooks/boundless-management-textbook/groups-teams-and-teamwork-6/building-successful-teams-53/setting-team-goals-and-providing-team-feedback-266-7085/

A631.2.5RB_SeabournBeau

What behaviors seemed to help your team successfully complete its task?

In our group, we were able to work together rather quickly to get ahead of task. As team members we showed dedication, motivation and willingness to overcome obstacles in order to be successful. The reading this week states "teamwork implies that all the members are contributing to an overall objective even if doing so means subordinating their personal prominence' (Brown, 2011). I think this week we all showed that we are team players and politely interactive.

What factors inhibited decision-making or problem-solving?

The main factor that lead us to making decisions faster was the motivation to get things set up for the sake of time and the group. We all felt that as long as we were proactive in getting things set up, we could foster an environment for success. One team member, Mark, said it best this way this week, "I think its important to have clear roles and designate task with estimated completion dates, especially when building a project". Getting the jump start on the project was important to us and we took time to communicate and understand each person's goals.

 

How much time was spent on decision-making and problem-solving?

I don't think we spent a lot of time actually deciding what we were going to do. As team members, we through out some initial ideas and we were able to get a consensus of what other members thought pretty quickly. We determined early on that to avoid any problem areas, we should set up clear expectations that everyone is okay with. That allowed us to move past problem solving into task completion. 

How was information shared among team members?

We used our discussion board to share most of our ideas and thoughts. In a few cases, we all communicated via school email to make sure we have secondary communication lines open as well. When the inputs from team members needed to be shared, we used the file exchange in out group forum area.

How did issues of authority or power affect the team?

I don't know that we had any authority issues in the group. it was determined that we would need a group leader each week and that all of us would get the chance to be that team lead. We took time to discuss how each of us fit into the team and a couple of members volunteered to either submit each project and or to proofread it. We worked those ideas out quickly and efficiently.  

How did collaboration and competition influence the outcome?

Our team did a great job of collaborating with one another from the very start. We did have some small conflict but the reading this week states "if conflict is managed properly, it can actually enhance working relationships and build a positive climate" (Brown, 2011). Personally, I believe that is exactly what happened in our group. Any disagreement was addressed and we all now know that we can share ideas and thoughts constructively with one another.

Did team members make process interventions?

I think in a small way we did. We all shared our input on what has to be accomplished and what needs to be done each week. In a sense we used our own knowledge to determine the best course of action for our group. In our class discussion this week, Phillip Petrazio shared a great example of how he experienced group familiarization. He stated " Initially our assignment was to collaborate as a group over a fictitious problem then do a CI Change Event from the start to the end.  The best team would receive a special prize, and would also be excused from one of the three follow-on CI events we were required to complete for our certification process". (Petrazio, 2015). In his case, he was offered a special incentive to complete the task. In our group, our special incentive is to complete the tasks at hand and to get the best grade possible. As a group we determined that we would all participate to the best of our ability and communicate with one another as much as we can.

Reference

Brown, D. R. (2011). An Experimental Approach to Organizational Development (8th Ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.

Petrazio, P. (2015, April 2). ERAU Discussion Board [Online interview].