Evaluation of Learning Patch One and Two - Essay Example

?What I Learned from the Previous Patch Work In the previous assignment, I used the dynamo as a best representative of myself as a leader; being hardworking, teamplayer, energetic, forceful and inexhaustible source of energy. From a generalized definition of a leader as “the ability to influence people to set aside and support a larger idea - at least for a while . . . that effective leaders motivate people to perform above and beyond the call of duty in order to enhance group success” (Boseman, 2008), the patchwork process enabled me to discern what characterizes a leader that they can after all be learned and aligned with my current personality. During the process, I learned to be more critical of myself because this was a necessary requisite of being an effective leader. I learned that “it is necessary for a “leader, who possesses a clear self-concept through private self-consciousness, to be more likely to possess a strong purpose-in-life. Having a strong purpose involves consistency in self-identity (i.e., self-concept clarity) (Campbell, 1990 :59; Frankl, 1992). This clear awareness of my “self” translates to a clearer sense of goal and purpose which will evolve as a Self-Belief. Self-belief which will improve my inner confidence therefore will succeed and overcome any obstacle to achieve the best outcomes for service improvement. I also learned that this “mirroring as the reflections of self that a group member encounters in other group members, in the group leader, or in the group as a whole (Bion, 1961) harmonizes us within and eliminates discord beginning from perception of how I observe myself through my peers. I learned that this awareness of my “Self” and environment is a necessary aptitude for leadership in addition to technical competencies. As Gardner (1983) expounds “expanding on the concepts presented in early intelligence work as well as social intelligence theory, developed a theory of multiple intelligences. ...one of the seven areas of intelligence discussed in multiple intelligence theory, personal intelligence, corresponds to earlier theories such as social intelligence”. This emotional intelligence also provided me with the competencies such as self-awareness, self-regulation, personal motivation, empathy and strong social skills that enable me to be a democratic leader; a leader that involve and commit others not only in achieving a desired result but also the process of achieving it. My belief in democratic leadership was reinforced when Lawler (2001: 16-17) argued that democracy is inevitable, even in the workplace . . . Hierarchial organizations are simply too inflexible and rigid to compete effectively in today's business environment. They fail to attract the right human capital and to produce the right core competencies and organizational capabilities. As a result, they need to be replaced by lateral forms of organization that rely heavily on teams, information technology, networks, shared leadership, and involved employees . . . [These new organizational forms] will have flat, agile structures, open information, power that moves to expertise, and systems that create knowledge and employees throughout the organization. Democratic leadership “functions as a means of engendering compliance with dominant goals and values and harnessing staff commitment, ideas, expertise and experience to realizing these” (Woods, 2004). I preferred a democratic process in dealing and decision making because the seeming differences will make us aware of the different perspectives that may be unknown to us before. Therefore, better approach and solution to certain issues may crystallize after the free flow of ideas. This has to be understood because “ understanding and cooperation of superiors, peers, and subordinates, it takes time to build these relationships” (Kayser, 1973;24). In conclusion of the previous module, I learned that to effectively lead and manage others, I must lead and manage my “Self” first. To direct others, it is imperative that I must have a clear control of my faculties. This finally led to the validation of my preference for a democratic type of leadership to engage my peers not only on our common goal but commit them as well in the process of determining it. Thereby they can claim ownership to that shared vision making them more engaged in attaining it. I intend to become a transformational leader someday; a leader that is “a source of inspiration that develops other leaders in an organization” (Judge and Piccolo, 2004). While I am aware that I am not yet that leader, I believe that this continuous learning will eventually lead me to that. I believe that my current skill set as a leader and manager will eventually evolve to a transformational leader. For I am aware of myself; of how I perceive myself compared to others. I am also sensitive to others realizing that it is not just the intellectual aptitude that matters to achieve a certain result but also the emotional aspect as well (emotional intelligence). While I have a belief in myself, I am democratic in the process of decision making knowing that the process will galvanize cohesion which will lead to teamwork and increased productivity. I often hear the word that theory is different from practice. During the duration of the course until the end, I subscribe that practice can be better when founded on a sound theoretical framework especially with leadership today in an ever changing and demanding organization. Theory and practice are not really that different from each other. In fact, they support each other. Theory after all is derived from practiced only that it was condensed. Leadership in workplace today does not only demand being an alpha worker but also an amalgam of particular personality traits, understanding and sensitivity. Such, it needs to be studied and reflected for one to become an effective leader and manager in an organization. One my end, I can say that I am many times a better worker now after I took this course. For I learned that for others to believe in me, I have to believe in me first. For me to lead and direct others, I have to master myself first. For me to be understood, I have to understand other people first. Above all, this course may even have contributed to my progress not only as a professional but as a person as well considering the culture that I came from where women are not expected to assert nor speak much about themselves. The course taught me to look beyond the norm and it enabled me to transcend to be able to do what is needed to get a job done even if that is not the popular norm in the context that I operate in. Further Learning and Reflection Learning Patch One and Two made me understood how important it is to for me to be critical about myself to become a leader. It also taught me to be sensitive to others as a requisite for good leadership. I learned that having the emotional aptitude is equally important for the manager and leader to be able to relate to his/her peers and subordinates. It also validated my preference for a democratic type of leadership that involving people in the process of decision making makes people commit to the shared goal. As I learned these new management imperatives and brought it to my workplace, it made me subconsciously align my thoughts and actions towards that newly acquired knowledge. It made me a better worker and even achieved a small degree of success when I applied the concepts that I learned from the course. It also made me wanted to learn more management concepts and theories that could help me with my current work and to develop further as a person and a professional. These new theories that I have learned made me realized that there are things with my current work that I have been doing well which I did not realized as a leadership and managerial trait. Classic example is my interpersonal skills, my ability to work with different type of people and department. Just when I thought this trait was trivial and unimportant, this course made me realized that it was after all, a necessary leadership and managerial trait. Bass (1990) explained, leaders high on consideration show concern and respect for individual group members, are friendly and approachable, are open to input from other, and treat all group members as equals. Similar relational-oriented behaviors are described in research on empowering (Kahai, Sosik, & Avolio, 1977), and democratic (Gastil, 1994) leadership. A common theme among these relational-oriented behaviors is that the leader acts in ways that build follower respect and encourage followers to focus on the welfare of the group. It should be noted that certain aspects of transformational leader behaviors (e.g., individualized consideration) also consist of a relational orientation (Derue, et. al, 2011). Learning these new theories widened my horizon and made me wanted to learn more. And was even elated to know that this inherent sociable trait in me is a necessary prerequisite of transformational leadership; a leadership that inspires and develop other leaders. As I researched and investigated further, I learned that these are traits that a manager has to have in order to be effective. Scholars often vary in their definition of leadership effectiveness (Avolio et al., 2003; Yukl, 2006), but I figured that any differences that might exist are due to confounding relationships with other leader traits such as intelligence and personality (Feingold, 1994; Halpern, 1997). Traits manifest into the expected set of behaviors only when the situation makes the need for that trait behavior salient. When situations makes the need for a particular trait, the trait does not manifest and its impact on outcome is marginalized (Pfeffer, 1977). Task competence is a general category of leader trait that relate to how individuals approach the execution and performance of tasks (Bass & Bass, 2008). Although a variety of task-related personality traits have been studied, leadership scholars most often describe task competence in terms of four traits: intelligence, Conscientiousness, Openness to Experience, and Emotional Stability. Intelligence reflects a general factor of cognitive abilities and has been established as a consistent predictor of task performance (Hunter & Hunter, 1984). But “beyond intelligence, Conscientiousness, Openness to Experience, and Emotional Stability are often used to describe how one approaches and reacts to task work (Barrik & Mount, 1991). Conscientiousness reflects the extent to which a person is dependable, dutiful, and achievement oriented and is often associated with deliberate planning and structure. Openness to Experience is commonly associated with being imaginative, curious, and open minded to new and different ways of working. Emotional Stability refers to a person's ability to remain calm and not be easily upset when faced with challenging tasks (Derue, et. al, 2011). I work as a nutritionist in a hospital for two years and basing with what I have learned in this course, I believe I have been doing well. But before I proceed further, I have to mention that I came from a different culture where women are not expected to be assertive. But this is slowly changing now as more and more women are beginning to get better education and become professional. This is important to mention so that the reader may have an appreciation of the context of the culture where I came from. I may be young, but I get things done because I believe I can get it done. And this course helped me tremendously to get it done. This was manifested in an instance where the Manager of my Department asked if we have any idea to improve the operation of the hospital. I took the initiative to make an appointment with the Department Manager to present my idea and told that I could get it done. During the appointment, the Manager was amazed and surprised as I tried to build rapport with him. I intended to make him understand that we have to be at ease with each other because when my proposal will be implemented, we will be coordinating with each other. Perhaps this may sound as a natural thing to do in starting a team; but to fully appreciate the circumstance, the reader has to understand that in the culture where I come from, women are not expected to be assertive and to strike conversation with men let alone talk something about themselves. But I find this necessary for the implementation of my proposal as it will require rapport and coordination with several departments. I learned to be more assertive due to what I learned in this course about Self-belief (Campbell, 1990; Frankl, 1992) in order to get things done. My proposal was in line with my expertise which is nutrition (I am a Professional Nutritionist). I proposed that proper nutrition is not only a concern of the patients who are sick but is also everybody’s concern. For us to be healthy, we have to nourish ourselves properly and will not have to wait to get sick. Such, proper nutrition should be implemented in all departments where our meals will be regulated according to proper nutrition. This may sound a good idea but given the number of departments and people involve, this is not an easy task. This requires coordination with a lot of departments and tremendous amount of Public Relation work for the idea to be accepted. But I was ready as I already realized in this subject with Goleman’s Emotional Intelligence(Goleman.1998) that interpersonal skill is also a necessary skill set especially when I have to coordinate with people As a usual case of any new idea, there were people who opposed my idea. But I was ready with what I learned in this course and was not daunted with it. Instead of reacting with a sub-personality resistance, I looked at it as an opportunity to improve my proposal as I hear what the oppositionist has to say. Such that, when I involved them, I won them over that they even became a part of the implementation of the project. I was not threatened by the resistance for I was made aware about sub-personality In Roberto Assagioli's (1975) book Psychosynthesis that "the organization of sub-personalities is very revealing and sometimes surprising, baffling or even frightening. One discovers how very different and often quite antagonistic traits are displayed in the different roles. These differences of traits which are organized around a role justify, in our opinion, the use of the word "sub-personality." Ordinary people shift from one to the other without clear awareness, and only a thin thread of memory connects them; but for all practical purposes they are different beings – they act differently, they show very different traits." Such that when properly understood, they are not that threatening after all. I also did not look at the issue passively as I what I have learned in this course. I refrained practicing a passive leadership which is an ineffective method of dealing issues. I learned in this course that when leaders do not actively engage in behaviors consistent with these role behaviors, the inaction becomes symbolic (Pfeffer, 1981) and likely renders the person a non-leader in the eyes of followers. Instead, I likened myself to a dynamo as I have previously mentioned in the first two parts of this course, working tirelessly to implement my proposal and encourage team work to get it done. My approach proved to be successful that as of this writing, my proposal is still an on-going project being implemented across departments. I got the confidence to propose and implement with what I have learned in this subject by knowing and believing in myself and understanding that every new idea, there will always be a resistance to it and it is not necessarily a threat. They are just people assuming their sub-personalities that when properly handled, can easily be neutralized. It is also important to note that I did not use to think that my sociable personality to be a leadership trait. The course made me realize that it is a very potent managerial tool and an important leadership and managerial trait. I used to think that being sociable is unprofessional and the course made me realized that it was not. So I harnessed this inherent trait in me which has tremendously helped me with my job when I unleashed its potential of getting people work towards a common goal. This was validated when (Derue, et. al, 2011) agreeable individuals will be more friendly and approachable, likely to help followers develop their strengths, and respectful to followers. All of these behaviors are akin to those articulated in the consideration and transformational theories of leader behavior. Conclusion I have learned a lot from this course which was beneficial to my job. In a culture where women are not expected to assert, I learned to have more self-confidence by learning Self-Belief. For me to be effective, I learned to be critical of myself whether how I perceive myself reconciles with how others see me. What I used to think as an unprofessional trait, this course made me realize that emotional intelligence (Goleman, 1983) and interpersonal skill is a potent managerial tool and as such should be harnessed instead of disregarded. It validated my leadership preference of democratic leadership which proved to be effective when I turned opposition to be an advocate of my proposal. My realization about sub personalities as taught in this subject, made me realize that people are not what they seemed they are when they oppose; that when understood properly, such issues can be easily handled. I also learned how followers attribute and identify with leader's traits. Specifically, we propose that certain traits, especially those that are highly salient to followers, have symbolic meaning and can be the basis upon which followers make judgements about that leader that are independent of any actual behavior. (Derue, et. al, 2011)20 But above all, considering the culture that I came from, the indispensable lesson I learned in this course which I will carry for the rest of my life; is the lesson I learned in this subject that “although men and women exhibit difference in leadership style, men and women appear to be equally effective! (Derue, et. al, 2011). REFERENCES: Avolio BJ, Sosik JJ, Jung DI, Berson Y. (2003). Leadership models, methods, and applications: Small steps adn giant leaps. In Borman WC, Klimonski R, Ilgen DR, Weiner B(Eds), Handbook of psychology(Vik,12, pp 277-307). New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons. Barrick MR, Mount MK. (1991). The Big Five personality dimensions and job performance-a meta analysis. 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Democratic leadership: drawing distinctions with distributed leadership.. International Journal of Leadership in Education, Jan-Mar2004, Vol. 7 Issue 1, p3-26, 24p, 1 Chart; DOI: 10.1080/1360312032000154522 Read More