What Does It Take To Lead Change - Essay Example

?What Does It Take To Lead Change? "Reflection is a tool used in the development of particular forms of knowledge.....The acquisition of such knowledge is aimed at producing a transformation in the self, or in the personal, social or world situation or any combination of these" (Moon, 1999, p. 13 - p. 14). Reflecting over one’s own actions help people develop self-knowledge and analyze where we went wrong. This helps in personal development and continuous improvement. Even though the reflection process involves a group of people and one's reaction towards their action, reflection is actually an analysis of one’s own personal experience. It is the process of exploring one's own self-evaluation, thinking whether the way they acted in a particular situation is correct or not. Reflecting on one’s own actions is important for business development. It is a must to improve our communication style, clarify our expectations and put into practice the various theories learnt. In fact there are many programs like the Ignatius exercises which use role modelling to focus on various critical issues, kindle the emotions of a person, get a response and help them reflect on the same. These exercises give a person a chance to act with more maturity and calmness if they face the same problem in real life (Moberg & Calkins, 2001, p. 257 - 270). The project we selected to do was ‘Eliminating Job Satisfaction’. Our team believed it will help us to understand the work environment in the corporate industry better and enable us to act as better managers because we will get to know what different types of workers expect from their management and superiors. My group project enabled me to talk to various types of people. What we found out was that, nearly half of the people excelling in today's corporate world do so because they did not have a chance to excel in their field of choice. I realized the meaning of the word 'identity workspace' (Petriglieri & Petriglieri, 2010, p. 44 - 60) only by working in this project. The experience made me wonder if these people are so productive and capable in a field they have no like or dislike, how much they would contribute if they were only given a chance to work in their field of choice. Surely, the world would be a much better place with many more inventions then. The aim of our project was to reach out to at least a few people who are totally dissatisfied with their job and make them pursue their passion for their own happiness and the betterment of their passionate field. My team attended a workshop at the end of the project, which enabled us to reflect on what we have done so far. I got a chance to reflect on several incidents which took place throughout the project. The workshop instilled in me various reflections regarding the way I communicated to my peers, how I failed to make them understand some of my views and how I acted as a self-elected leader in some instances. The workshop did not teach us anything new, but helped us reflect on the way we acted throughout the project and question ourselves what would have been the outcome, if we have acted differently. There is a general notion that management studies will not be much useful, if a person does not have prior management experience. The idea was stressed by Mintzberg (2004) in his work. No matter how many hours you study volumes and volumes of management theories it isn’t equivalent to one day's experience of managing a team in the real world. Managing this project helped me understand this practically. I tried in every possible way to help my team but it only resulted in building more tension within the team. “Communication within a group deals with the spoken and the unspoken, the verbal and the non-verbal, the explicit and the implied messages that are conveyed and exchanged relating to information and ideas, and Feelings” (Group Dynamics, 2004). I understood where I went wrong and how communication was limited in our team while playing the reflective exercises in this workshop. I strongly felt the way I acted as a self-elected leader prevented the other members in the team from expressing their views with an open mind. Though I did it for the betterment of the team, it curbed the participation of other members to the project. I realized this when we were given a chance to discuss about the topic communication. Reflecting back on how I acted with authority in choosing the topic for the project amidst various concerns, I feel my team members should have been given more chance to communicate their views. Once I realized where I have gone wrong, I refrained from interfering too much in the seminar activities and let others take charge observing their talent. It was hard for me control myself from pinpointing the minor mistakes they did. But, I understood it should have been the same for them when they worked under my leadership. The second session of the workshop aimed in teaching the various skills required to correct our small mistakes which we discovered in ourselves in the first session. The session started with examples of ideal leadership which really helped the society. Leadership Models Supporting Social Change When we study the life of great achievers we could see that most of them bore great difficulties to accomplish what they actually believed would change the world. We can give several examples from Edison to Bill Gates for the scenario. But, the mainstream people who concentrated only on the future leisure would never be able to give such a commitment to their work. They just bear the hardship of the daily work because they believe it will give them a secure life in the old age. But, life is not all about financial gains alone. It is the relationships and friendships we create that matter. After all we need people to care about us more than the bank balance. An interview we did with a drug dealer in course of our project helped me understand this fact clearly. Skills Necessary to Implement the Change To be an ideal leader, a person has to give enough importance to ethics as well as self-belief. The skills necessary to implement the same are a friendly approach and a great understanding about our team members. Our external visits to the Newtown Primary School which provided great skill based training helped me understand what efficient steps have been taken regarding making our project a reality. We as a team pledged to make such actions public by publishing them online inspiring many other people to pursue their passion instead of settling down on their monotonous job. In the beginning of the project I was quite confident I could achieve this myself. But, this seminar made me understand my team members contribution will prove valuable for the process. The second session of the seminar conducted by Neil helped me understand most of the great leaders have accomplished what they wanted by working only as a team. My Presentations We were asked to give two presentations regarding what we have learned in Neil’s seminar, one on the first day explaining what our reflections have taught us and an elaborate one on the second day explaining what action we actually plan to take to improve ourselves. The first presentation lasted around 3 minutes. I started by pointing out a quote from my favourite book “Discovering your authentic Leadership” stating not all leaders share a common trait (George et al. 2007). They simply have a deep inner understanding and use it to influence others. It was hard for me to admit that I was domineering and did not listen well to others. I overcame the feeling to say that all I did was what my position demanded from me. I sincerely acknowledged I haven’t given enough chance for others to express their views during the course of the project. The eternal three minutes seemed to end with me pin pointing how Leadership was defined as a “mutual influence......... Shared sense or 'we-ness'” by Haslam (2004, p.58). I assured I am ready to be influenced by others ideas henceforth. The declaration bought about lot of approval nods from my teammates. Afterwards, many of my team mates expressed their appreciation towards the change in my attitude. The second day’s presentation lasted nearly 10 minutes, in which I explained various ways to make up for my action. Since, I noticed many of my team members had the same domineering problem I have, I explained to them a process called ‘Gold star rating’ which could be used to assess a person’s influence in any team. The team members should bring forth a system to rate themselves and each other once in every week. According to the pact, every person will get a good mark in everybody's chart if any of their work is contributing significantly to the team. Every person will be given an extra mark if they arrive on time to the meetings, did not pick up fight unnecessarily and finished their work on time properly. "Create valuable development programs for managers by using social learning in its most natural form-encouraging managers to learn from their own experiences and enabling connections with each other " (Mintzberg, 2011, p.51). This is exactly what will happen when a team starts to implement the 'Gold star' exercise. Each of us future managers will learn to communicate and appreciate the 'social form' we were in. I quoted Kotler's 'Leading Change'. He clearly mentions every person should step out of their comfort zone to let a change happen. It did not happen in our team. It did not happen in many huge corporate offices either because people were not ready to take that extra step. And the very few who dared to do so cannot succeed because of very little support from others. I pledged to implement any change in the team, project or an organization as a whole by motivating my employees take that extra step instead of simply ordering them or threatening them. I also obliged to go by their way if majority of the workers are against the decision stepping out of my comfort zone. As a manager it is my duty to acknowledge their needs too at times. What I Actually Learned In The Project? The ‘Gold star rating’ actually helped me to evaluate the problematic situation rather than taking it as it seemed to be like Mingers said (2000). As a team leader I was determined to curb the growing hatred in the team. Very soon, we were able to see nearly every person in the team had equal potential. It helped us start respecting each other better. Though it seemed like a kinder garden play, it helped us recognize and appreciate each other’s talents, which was a really hard thing to do. It will help us shed our childish insecurities and act like a mature grownups. Each of my team members had a deep sense of pride that only we could do the work better than others. This attitude is important to make us stand out from others. The seminar helped us to transform the same pride into an important factor necessary to stand along with others. The work we did with the drug dealer had influenced every person in the team in a different way. Most of us were very clear unethical means of success will always lead to disaster in the end. It only took some time for us to understand and admit we all thought alike. This reflective seminar was instrumental in instilling this change in us. After that, working hard to get the project finished was stress free. The Influence of the Action Plan I strongly believe our action plan which kindled the dissatisfied workers to create a vision for themselves and implement it strategically will help many individuals struggling with their passion and financial security choose their passion. When we publish our results online to the mainstream media it will sure help us many other people get a clear idea on how to migrate from their mundane life into a more zealous one they like. Job dissatisfaction is not just about career. It is about how much control a person exerts over one’s life. If you have the capability to do the work you like, then you will be able to achieve whatever you want. The project’s action plan kindles each person to reflect on such tasks and accomplish what they like with the collaboration of their friends and family. It is the most important part of the project because it actually gives a solution to the problem. I am quite convinced at least a small percentage of people whom we communicated will benefit from this project’s results and follow the same, making their life a better one. I think this action plan is the greatest achievement of the project. All our team members swore we will work happily in the field we like and help at least two people in similar position achieve their dreams, instead of wasting their life in the field they do not like. Reflecting back on my journey I am quite satisfied my team has taken the right steps and achieved its aim to a certain extent influencing all those who participated in the survey. Our recordings will continue to influence many others who will be reading our blog in the future. How the Project Affected My Critical Thinking Before starting this process, leadership was all about motivating others for me. In course of time, I learned the valuable lesson 'I am inferior to no one and superior to none'. This project trained me how to manage myself and understand what I want from me and then others. Earlier, I expected obedience and excellence in work. Now I expect co-operation and understanding of the task. The people working with me have become more important to me rather than the tasks given to them. My mental perception has changed to 'people working with me' rather than 'under me'. I strongly feel any team members could be motivated with certain level of friendly approach and certain level of power to mould their career. I would have been a rather nosy, strong headed manager, if it weren’t for my project. Now I am a compassionate and sensible manager who values human resources better than other resources in the company. The seminar and the project simply acted as an eye opener for me helping me to understand myself better. Conclusion Handy (1993, p.342) once said, 'Self-knowledge is uncomfortable'. This project and seminar had helped me gain a deep understanding about this self-knowledge. I no longer take pains to protect or hide it. I got a chance to explore it and understand what really makes me happy. What started as a simple program helped us gain ample self-knowledge which even Himalayan gurus would not have been able to install within us. I look forward to my career with lots of expectations. I can assure that corporate world has one understanding, compassionate and result showing manager ready for it. Not another complaining worker or a nosy boss. References 1. George, B., Sims, P., McLean, A., and Mayer, D., 2007, Discovering your authentic Leadership, Harvard Business Review. 2. Group Dynamics, 2004, Retrieved December 15, 2012 from http://main.ccghe.net/assets/CCGHE/Documents/S2-Group_Dynamics.pdf 3. Handy, C. B., 1993, Understanding organizations, Penguin, London. 4. Haslam, S. A., 2003, Psychology in organizations: the social identity approach, Sage Publications Ltd, London. 5. Mintzberg, H 2004, Managers Not MBA’s, A Hard Look at the Soft Practice of Managing and Management Development, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, CA. 6. Mintzberg, H. 2011, Looking Forward to Development. American Society for Training & Development. 7. Mingers, J 2000, What is it to be Critical? Teaching a Critical Approach to Management Undergraduates, Management Learning. 8. Moon, J.A., 1999, Reflection in Learning and Professional Development, Kogan Page Ltd, London. 9. Moberg, D. J & Calkins, M, 2001, Reflections in Business Ethic: Insight from St.Ignatius' "Spiritual Exercises". 10. Petriglieri & Petriglieri, 2010, Identity Workspaces: The Case of Business Schools, Academy of Management Learning & Education. Read More