Leadership, Coaching and Mentoring Scrapbook - Essay Example

? Leadership, Coaching and Mentoring Scrapbook BY YOU YOUR SCHOOL INFO HERE HERE Leadership, Coaching and Mentoring Scrapbook Entry The concept of leadership gives the student an opportunity to understand how best to guide and direct others in the organisation. Outside of management principles which include controlling, planning and organising, leadership theory provides students with real-life guidance for better loyalty development and followership. This is why keeping a leadership scrapbook is so important. It allows the student to look back on their understanding of leadership theory and also how it might influence followers by first examining oneself. It serves as a reflective account of learning so that the student can witness, first hand, how their learning has improved and developed over time. By having a reference for self-reflection, the scrapbook can show weaknesses and strengths in comprehension to see where improvements need to be made. The scrapbook is not a means of criticizing, it is a means of gaining important knowledge about what areas of leadership need growth. By examining real attitudes by the student left in diary format, it can show how attitude and psychology might affect real leadership in the organisational environment. Seeing how the student evolves over time is the most important part of keeping a scrapbook of attitude and understanding. The class has been very energetic and exciting and it would be a shame not to document the positive and negative views about the learning process. Entry 2 – September 6 One of the most interesting concepts learned this week was the importance of experiential learning. Experiential learning is a hands-on approach to leadership where people in the organisation are given the opportunity to gain real world experience. The benefit of experiential learning is to give learners active involvement and better problem solving skills through the effort (Merriam, Caffarella and Baumgartner 2007). This type of learning involves “a direct encounter with phenomenon being studied rather than just thinking about solutions to a problem” (Brookfield 1990, p.71). I felt privileged to understand how experiential learning can be beneficial by giving employees a purpose for learning. So, I thought about experiential learning and how it could be applied to a real-world organisation. This would be a critical learning process especially in an organisation where there is no real moral accountability and in a decentralised business that needs better human capital. Some organisations need positivist learners, those who understand moral accountability and its importance to business growth and reputation. Many organisations need employees and managers that consider ethics and morals. Much of this cannot always be learned through instruction and lecturing. For example, if many Wall Street firms had been more up front and ethical about their business practices in recent years it is likely the Occupy Wall Street situation would not have occurred. I think that experiential learning, such as role playing, would give employees more knowledge about ethical behaviours by exposing them to different situations where ethical responses are needed. I was able to review more research data on experiential learning and found through the analysis that it has more positive gains than negative outcomes. Businesses need to have a culture that is devoted to ethics and morality as described the lecture materials. According to Fairholm (2009), a leader must inspire vision and mission, be visionary and also teach others through inspiration. This is known as transformational leadership style. If more organisations such as Wall Street investment firms had moral accountability learned through role playing, they would be better off in representing the moral interests of shareholders and other stakeholders. Role playing as experiential learning actually creates more interest in learning than through just instruction (Poorman 2002). I really found this to be interesting in experiential learning as a tool for changing attitudes and minds related to ethics and morals. Entry 3 – September 6 Today we also learned about the different concerns regarding trust in businesses that comes from regular citizens and stakeholders. The films Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room and Inside Job really showed how trust is a major factor today when working with stakeholders. There is much demand for ethical business practices internationally and locally where many believe that unfairness and injustice is regular in organisations. According to Grieves (2010), change in an organisation must be negotiated or their will be much conflict and resistance to change. Therefore, I believe through these lessons that even trust and integrity must be negotiated to create a more trusting business model. Why is this? According to Hales (1993) it is often what is called power resources that changes attitudes negatively. Power resources include financial resources or any other form of leverage given to a business or leader. It is a resource that one has that another does not (Busher et al. 2003). Many financial organisations that service the public that must have trusting reputations will abuse their authority by having high power resources that include large cash flows. This makes an attitude in the power holder where they believe they can be deceptive. Organisations, to me, need to focus on building organisational culture around ethical beliefs and then find out what can reduce false attitudes of power that do not actually exist. Negotiation, transformational leadership, and creating a vision of ethics and morality could reduce power struggles that can lead to corruption. It seems to me that the real power in an organisation is meeting the demands of stakeholders who want ethical business to happen. A good leader is able to show that a good reputation actually is in the hands of stakeholders as a means to build a better business identity. Entry 4 – September 7 During this lecture, the theories offered by Kant were highly interesting. Kant believed that people should be considered an end and not a means to that end. Kant believes that the highest moral good is to act out of duty to assist others and treat them with respect (Bowie 1999). I felt this was very important to re-discuss the issues of trust, ethics and morality since it seems to be a common theme in business and organisation. This lecture gave me the opportunity to look more closely at Kantian beliefs by reviewing other literature on the subject. I learned that not all individuals believe in Kantian values which could be why trust is hard to develop in businesses. For example, there is a belief known as ethical relativism which states that there is no single method of deciding right versus wrong that can apply in all situations (University of Oregon 2006; Eyer 2008). I figured since not everyone sees the stakeholder as a positive ends, but instead a means, not everyone would agree with a company leader setting the moral codes by which they should obey. People who are ethical relativists might resist changes to create a more moral and ethical organisation which could create a poor organisational culture. It could even create a nightmare for human resources to try to get people to accept Kantian values. I felt this was all important today and in the first day lectures since we learned about the importance of understanding positive psychology to gain commitment to meet goals and objectives. Adult learners in the organisation need to be respected and have a solid goal in order to learn changes in attitude (CDC 2009). I believe it would be important to first understand the types of values people hold such as using a survey or interview process, before trying to change ethical attitudes and behaviours. This is because so much rests on whether a person is actually moral and ethical based on Kantian beliefs and values or whether they are easily corrupted by having power resources. Entry 5 – September 8 This lecture gave us information again about Kantian attitudes, learning about how to structure a proper academic argument, and also making comparisons to more ethical and moral beliefs. What I found most interesting was the idea about slavery and how it could be with us today. According to Mintzberg et al. (1998) any legitimate learning is emergent, meaning that history teaches us about mistakes and how to grow from them. By looking at trends in slavery during the years and then making comparisons to current organisational environments, we learn about proper human value systems needed in business and leadership. For example, Very et al. (1997) indicates that there is an importance in building a positive organisational culture to gain investment interest from business and private investors. The idea of slavery shown by the lecture this week opened my eyes to the many different rigid management systems that sometimes are used in organisations. This does not provide the employee or manager with opportunities to be creative or express their moral opinions. Managers that are not transformational or provide a Kant style of belief are actually creating a type of slavery within the organisation. If the leader does not provide for a decentralized business model or give employees a chance to be decision-makers, it shows that many non-Kantian values still exist in the organisation. There is a philosophy in psychology called divergence, which is about how a person learns best. Divergent thinkers perform best when they have opportunities to be creative and problem-solve (Squires 1993). They work best in groups to brainstorm solutions (Squire 1993). Earlier I realized that many people have different values in the business which requires a unique approach to gaining their support, trust and loyalty long-term. Businesses that do not allow divergent learners and thinkers to explore their unique solutions are imposing slavery. However, after performing more research, I came to realize that many organisations working with many different stakeholders work in centralized business environments. In this system, there are many rules with expectations for quiet compliance. I thought this very important to the lectures this week when reflecting on my leadership knowledge and styles. By really understanding that people have many psychological needs to be motivated and dedicated to meeting business goals, I came to the realisation that effective management is about coaching, teaching and trying to inspire others to succeed. Slavery is absolutely still with us in business and a good leader gives people a chance to be involved in politics and decision-making for a sense of belonging and self-esteem. Real-world business and theory are quite different and people who do not receive proper opportunities for growth and learning will ultimately create a negative organisational reputation. These lectures inspired me to explore more on Kant, non-Kant thinking and what drives human behaviour to build a better knowledge base on what leadership styles actually work best. Entry 6 – October 19 Today we role-played where the manager informed employees that the factory would be closed down and they would be forced to find other employment opportunities. The goal was to gain understanding and empathy about employees’ situation and the difficulties they would face through the news delivery. I learned how to find empathy about sadness, anger and disappointment while people in the role play told their different heart-warming and sad stories. It was a very effective learning process that strengthened my leadership knowledge. Throughout all of these learnings, it became very clear to me that people have very complicated needs that need to be considered as a leader and mentor. Theory can show much about how to address problems, but one is not really prepared to handle the difficulty of working with emotional people until they actually hear first-hand information from them. The leader must absolutely put the team first and prioritise how best to handle complicated emotions before bearing bad news. When people leave an organisation due to forced exit, it can de-motivate employees who are left behind to watch their friends and colleagues lose their jobs. If it is not handled properly, human resources can have a very difficult time bringing back motivation and goal-setting (Mathis and Jackson 2005). All of this seems to tie in with what we learned so far about having Kantian values for equal respect and fair treatment. It also seems to connect with earlier lessons about building trust and integrity as it relates to ethical and moral behaviour for leaders. I felt the role play exercise was very important in linking theory to actual human behaviour. One can look at theories and try to come up with a plan of leadership action. However, when you actually see a person feeling real emotions connected to bad news in the organisation, it gives you a better viewpoint about the importance of equality, justice, fairness and responsibility as a manager. One must be responsive to the needs of people if they hope to have a good culture and gain support from followers. Entry 7 – October 20 This was a real eye-opener for me. The situation with Sara Lee and Bill Quinn was described as being spreadsheet management. This led to Bill Quinn having a nervous breakdown by not being consulted about important management and leadership issues. Sara Lee seemed to lack basic knowledge about servant leadership or transformational leadership and did not see employees as an end to a means. Instead, they were treated like simple commodities and neglected even though many employees in the first company had great skills and talents as well as knowledge. I think upon reflection that it is irresponsible for large companies to have very controlling management styles without thinking about human needs. The goal of leadership is to gain loyalty and commitment. It is not practical for companies like Sara Lee to believe that they can have limited HR and leadership focus and still get positive end results. The idea in this last lecture about celebrating quality achievements is important. People in the organisation need to have opportunities to celebrate their victories. This is true whether they are ethical, moral or business related to finance. Centralised businesses where decision-making is always made at the highest levels does not provide incentive or motivation. By exploring real situations with poor management and leadership skills, it reminded me of the importance of building support networks and expressing achievements to get support and satisfy employees. Entry 8 – Reflection This class really taught me the value of being a good coach, leader and mentor to others. It also provided me with knowledge about theory versus practice and what to really expect in an organisational environment. The psychology of leadership is important. The ethics and morals of leadership are even more critical to satisfy internal and external stakeholders. Most importantly, though, I believe this class taught me how to separate ineffective leadership from effective leadership to be more well-rounded in gaining commitment from employees. When thinking of the term praxis, I realised there is almost always a solution when business management is not effective. At the same time, I learned that not all solutions will be effective in different industries. This is why it is necessary to really understand what employees value and need and then try to build these principles into the leadership model. Some employees may be divergent while others work better independently and do not appreciate being part of a quality team. It does not seem to make much sense, upon reflection, for a leader to approach people until they have absolute awareness of how information will be perceived by the workers. Usually, it would seem, the solution to organisational conflict and problems is to first address psychology using positive thinking principles and actions. I think overall my greatest learning from the course was that leader must first be role models. They must show ethical behaviours, moral behaviours, and then promote these actions with others. When a person in a leadership position is considered credible and important, people will follow these actions to make a better business environment. People must be treated with dignity, be given a purpose, and then allowed to be at least a little creative in coming up with organisational solutions. I really appreciated this very big eye-opener about leadership development and how people are big factors in culture, reputation and even competitive advantage against businesses in the same industry type. References Bowie, N.E. (1999). A Kantian Approach to Business Ethics. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers. Brookfield, S. (1990). The Skillful Teacher. Jossey-Bass. CDC. (2009). Effective teaching strategies, Centers for Disease Control. [online] Available at: http://www.docstoc.com/docs/93106127/Effective-Teaching-Strategies-(PDF) (accessed October 29, 2012). Eyer, R.C. (2008). Ethical relativism and truth, Concordia University. [online] Available at: https://www.cuw.edu/Departments/institutes/bioethics/assets/relativism_and_truth.pdf (accessed November 1, 2012). Fairholm, M. (2009). Leadership and organisational strategy, The Public Sector Innovation Journal, 14(1), pp.26-27. Grieves, J. (2010). Organizational Change: Themes and issues. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Hales, C.P. (1993). Management through Organisations: The Management process, forms of organisation and the work of managers. London: Routledge. Mathis, R. and Jackson, J. (2005). Human Resource Management, 13th ed. South-Western Cengage Learning. Merriam, S., Caffarella, R. and Baumgartner, L.M. (2007). Learning in Adulthood: A comprehensive guide. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Mintzberg, H.Ahlstrand, B. and Lampel, J. (1998). Strategy safari: A guided tour through the wilds of strategic management. London: Prentice Hall. Poorman, P. (2002). Biography and role-playing: Fostering empathy in abnormal psychology, Teaching of Psychology, 29(1), pp.32-36. Squires, G. (1993). Education for adults, in M. Thorpe, R. Edwards and A. Hanson (eds.) Culture and Processes of Adult Learning. London: Routledge. Very, P., Lubatkin, M., Calori, R. and Veiga, J. (1997). Relative standing and the performance of recently acquired European firms, Strategic Management Journal 18(8). University of Oregon. (2006). Ethical relativism and subjectivism, p.1. [online] Available at: http://journalism.uoregon.edu/~tbivins/J397/Podcasts/Podcast/8092F52E-AC51-4354-A2D4-033ACC869857_files/Ethical-Relativism.pdf (accessed October 22, 2012). Read More