The impact of upward and downward leadership practices need
to be understood in each organization so the best leadership practices can be
implemented. This week we looked at the impact of followership and how be a
good follower, can lead to be a good leader. For example, “followership sides
of the equation is as important as the leadership side. The two combine into a
dynamic which can get better results in a more sustained way than typical
oligarchic approach” (Obolensky, 2014). As a follower there is a balance of
asking for feedback and taking initiative. Employees need to take action while
making sure it is the direction of the organization.
In the “circle of leaders” we see a rotation of behavior
that is never ending. When I think about my organization, I do not think that
the entire circle applies to us, we are immune to it because of the scope of
work we do. There are so sections however that do apply to us and that in turn
create our own little revolution of feedback to leader response. First, in our
company, everyone is a trained expert so there is little low skill
demonstration at the qualified employee level. There is generally not to much
concern either at the middle manager level/ air traffic manager level because
they know that the staff is trained for their environment. When issues arise,
it revolves around the manager taking to much of a hands on approach toward
employees. This can happen in different forms such as scheduling,
micro-managing staff, constant oversight, and to much feedback. Just like the
circle indicates when this happens, the controller’s confidence does decrease.
That can really jump start the circle into an un-needed spin. Here’s an
example: a qualified air traffic controller comes into work and begins to work
the traffic. At some point the ATM comes up to the tower and begins to watch
the evolutions (which is standard generally). Then instead of giving
constructive feedback, the manager says something to the effect of “well you
should have done…this…or that”. This really makes the controller feel under
appreciated and under qualified thus starting the circle. The circle breaks
down because in our organization there is no need to ask for advice from the
leader because we all hold the same knowledge and qualifications. It was mostly
the boss taking the wrong approach toward an employee. One source said this
about feedback, “Feedback becomes a gift of
someone investing in the recipient’s career” (Phoel, 2009). In my example, that
is really not helpful toward that person’s career.
As far as a new circle for
our organization, I think there are a couple things we can do to make things
better. First, we can allow for constructive feedback to be received when there
is a actual need for it. So if the controller is confused or actually does
something incorrect, then we can look at giving some feedback. Second, when the
feedback does occur, we need to eliminate any type of confidence issues taking
place. There is no need to have the employee question themselves. Last, when
there are questions or concerns exposed, the employees should converse and meet
amongst themselves and leave management out of the loop until they have to.
This would have to be a joint task, you cannot have one employee tattling on
the rest of the controllers. Everyone must be on board and agree to the
procedures. One source gave this option to organizations for communication,
“Companies should identify all of the various options available to them and
then, based on the type of communication, decide which communication tools--or
combination of communication tools--will be most effective and appropriate
given the specific communication goal and audience” (Richards, 2013). In
this case, employees can effectively communicate through any open discussion
technology they like. Just as long as the management/leadership is not aware of
the issues.
Obviously this is not a good circle to be caught in. The
circle just keeps going and going until something is done to remedy the issue.
It does not matter what type of organization you’re in, something can always be
done to help foster more effective upward and downward leadership. In our case,
we can take the middle manager out of the equation until it is absolutely
needed and avoid the concern from the home office. The more issues that are
handled by the level at which they occur, the better. A thought that the
reading mentioned that I’m still thinking a lot about is “the leadership we all
like is often not the leadership we need” (Obolensky, 2014). Perhaps there is some way to get stringent
leadership through interaction without demoralizing the employees and making
the manager feel useless. We just have to find that happy medium here.
References
Obolensky, N. (2014). Complex Adaptive Leadership, (2nd
Edition). London
Phoel, C. (2009, April 27). Feedback That Works. Retrieved
September 17, 2015, from https://hbr.org/2009/04/feedback-that-works/
Richards, L. (2013, April 3). Effective Employee
Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2015, from
http://smallbusiness.chron.com/effective-employee-communication-691.html
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