Appreciating Your Real Self

February 24, 2017

Appreciating Your “Real Self”

This reflection blog is an output from exercises listed at the end of Chapter 5 (McKee, Boyatzis & Johnston, 2008).  This was a useful and beneficial look at my life through the guided questions and discussions in those exercises.

Lifeline.

I have stated previously that it is hard to write about oneself.  It took the directed exercises for me to look at various aspects of what I have become in 57 years.  Introspection has always been a strength for me, but with direct questions to answer about oneself, it is virtually impossible to avoid unpleasant memories or periods of time.  The self-identity of who I am jumped out at me from the very start.  My identity is composed of being a warrior, an athlete, an intellectual, a father, brother, and a husband.  These are not necessarily in order of importance, but they comprise the main characteristics of who I am.

The warrior training started early in life as a wrestler in high school.  It continued its progression when I started training in martial arts, and then became a member of the U.S. military.  That aspect of my real-self is undeniable.  I model myself after the Samurai warriors.  They were the most skilled and accomplished of warriors, but they had other surprising interests as well.  They were into learning/wisdom, poetry, art, music, and writing.  In all, they were my definition of some of the most well-rounded warriors throughout the world.

As an athlete, I was always good in sports even if my physical traits were not conducive to them beyond high school sports.  I continued those efforts by accumulating perfect scores on the Army Physical Fitness Tests, and by attending a school to become a Master Fitness Trainer.  My intellectual pursuits have stemmed from a love of history and reading from an early age.  That also developed well with earning my baccalaureate degree, pursing my graduate degree, and reading nearly a thousand books. 

My greatest disruptions have occurred as a brother, husband, and father.  Interestingly, my Chinese horoscope is that of the boar.  The Chinese use a twelve-year cycle, defined by year, to assign their horoscope signs.  My sign reads “Chivalrous and noble.  Your friends will be life-long, but your personal relationships will be rocky”.  Great.  I like the first part of this, but then it appears to describe the serious valleys that I have encountered in life.  They generally revolved around rocky relationships, which ended up bleeding over into my professional and financial spheres as well.  Fortunately, it appears as if I have settled in and resolved the turmoil in my personal relationships over the past few years.  I have better relations with my children, my spouse, and my family members.  I can honestly say that most of the problems were external, (I did my share of contributions as well!), but my response to a lot of them demonstrated a lack of emotional intelligence (EI).  Fortunately, I have recently learned that EI can be learned!  Good.  I will continue to improve those aspects of my life.

Social Identities.

This one was tough for me to resolve in my mind.  I have had many different affiliations and associations with my church and professional organizations.  However, at this point in my life, I am not interested in participating in them.  Why?  I could state that my life between work and multiple graduate courses per semester makes me too busy to participate.  Is that it or is there another reason?  I have been a 4^th Degree member of the Knights of Columbus, a member of the American Army Aviation Association (Quad A), a Eucharistic minister in the Catholic Church, a member of the professional pilots’ association, and a member of a township council.  I am not actively participating in any of these organizations right now.  Again, why?  I guess that I feel that I don’t need them and wish to be “left alone”.  In my church, I was into every aspect of it at various points in time.  Now, I just want to go to church, worship in private, and do not want to get involved.  It is more peaceful for me to do that.  I may gravitate back towards some involvement of certain things, like the Knights of Columbus, but that will come later when I feel that I have more time to give of myself to others.  It doesn’t mean that I am not charitable, pay tithes, or neglect those in need.  Those are different things entirely.  It is just that I am not as interested in my social network right now.  Is that a bad thing?  I don’t know.  I guess others who do not walk in my shoes could make that call easier than I can.

Strengths.

My strengths as a person and a professional are communication, process improvement, and strategic thinking.  I am sure that there are more strengths that could be listed as sub-categories to these, but they are what came to mind when doing the exercises.

My ability to communicate has improved over the years.  As my EI has developed, my ability to navigate through personal minefields has improved.  I no longer let others provoke me into rash words or actions.  In street terms, I am more easy-going and patient than I was in my earlier years.  Professionally, better communication has also kept me from being a victim of political games that are played in all large organizations.  I now come across as a straight shooter, who is not interested in playing games.  The professional game players tend to become bored with me and move onto other targets.

Process improvement came naturally to me as a student in high school.  It was nurtured by my work in the private market, by my undergraduate degree, and by my training in the military.  My graduate degree is enhancing my arsenal of tools for process improvement.  One of the things that I like to say to people is this: “A process improvement is NOT personality driven.  It is finding the optimum way of accomplishing a task.  That process, if correct, should survive me leaving or any other leader leaving their position.  The process should continue”. 

My love of strategic thinking began when I got started reading about military history in junior high school.  It was supplemented by love of playing chess, which I also learned in junior high school.  That process has been nurtured in my life by my undergraduate degree and my military training.  This aspect of my life has not been achieved when it comes to a leadership position in a large organization.  That was part of the outputs of the previous chapters.  With retirement looming in front of me, I have reconciled myself to the fact that this goal will probably not be achieved and that I should find peace within myself over that reality.

Roles.

My current professional role is as the Aviation Safety Officer for the Corpus Christi Army Depot (CCAD).  I also fulfill a role as an instructor pilot and as a “platform instructor”.  A platform instructor is one who attended the Total Army Instructor Course, and is now certified to teach any subject to anyone in the military.  That is my current role.  It is an important role, but it lacks “command authority”.  Any process improvements that are connected to safety must be done with persuasion and networking within the organization.

My personal roles are now as a father of grown children, a husband, a grandfather, an uncle, and a sibling.  My roles in these areas need further development.  No one has a blueprint for life and how to conduct themselves in every circumstance.  If they did, they could patent it and be rich!  Most of what I have learned about the need for good EI and communication has come from the school of “hard knocks”.  I don’t feel regret about my life in general.  Like anyone else, do I wish I could have done things differently for various situations in my life?  Certainly.  I can say that my process improvement in all my personal relationships and roles has progressed.  It has been an ongoing effort that began in earnest several years earlier.

My last role as a Christian and a member of my church will remain about the same for the rest of my life.  I am a believer in life after death, God, and an accounting of what we have or have not accomplished during our life when we die.  My goal is to ensure that I am ready for that final accounting.

Conclusion.

In summary, I have done many things in life.  I have worn many hats and played many roles.  Some of them have been good and some of them have been bad.  As I continue my journey through life, I will give attention to the weak areas that I identified within myself.  I will work on my own “process improvements” for those weak areas.  I have also learned not to ignore the strengths that I possess.  They can be developed further and can overlap into other associated areas.  A long and difficult transition period for me lasted nearly 20 years!  After enduring that transition, I have become a better person overall.  I am happier than I have ever been before.  I am better off financially and feel that I have better personal relationships now than ever before.  The one relationship that I have with God will continue to be a life-long improvement process!

Respectfully,

John H2O

Reference:

McKee, Annie., Boyatzis, Richard., Johnston, Frances. (2008) Becoming a Resonant Leader.

            Boston: Harvard Business Press

Intentional Change Theory at the Team Level

February 12, 2017

Using the concepts within ICT focused on the team level, reflect on why the Olympic US Women’s Soccer team won so often and the US Dream Team basketball men’s team did so poorly in 2000 and 2004?  (Note:  Basketball team won gold medal in 2000 Olympics)

Per ICT for groups, it is important to set clear goals at the beginning of putting the team together.  The US women’s soccer team progressed in its development as a team because they had the clear vision and goal of being the best in the world.  “We believe that a group’s shared vision of what they want to be and do as a group is the driver of intentional change”

(Kleio Akrivou, Richard. E. Boyatzis, Poppy L. McLeod, 2006).  While the women’s soccer team clearly had that goal in mind, it was not present in the 2004 Men’s Olympic Basketball Team.  (Note:  The Men’s Olympic Basketball Team won the gold medal in the 2000 Olympics and is therefore excluded from this team analysis.)

Coach Mike Krzyzewski said the following of the 2004 men’s basketball team.  “I, too, had watched as the United States had lost its competitive edge in international basketball.  This is not to place blame on those involved with the 2004 Olympic basketball team, a team that was comprised of some of the most talented players and some of the most knowledgeable coaches in the game.  In my perspective, the system failed them.  The team was sent into competition ill-prepared.  It was not a lack of talent or basketball know-how; it was simply a lack of proper time and competition.” It was easy to point fingers and blame this guy or that guy for the way he acted or didn’t act in 2004, but Jerry (Colangelo) and I both believed that it was our current system that was flawed, not the players.  This system was no longer conducive to winning.” (Krzyzewski, 2008) This made sense, but there were other opinions cited that list some deficiencies of the team that prevented them from following the team development per the ICT models.

Every “star” in the NBA isn’t equally productive.  As noted at Wired.com, players who score in abundance tend to be considered “stars.” But wins in the NBA – again, as noted at Wired.com — are primarily about shooting efficiency, gaining possession of the ball (i.e. grabbing defensive rebounds and steals), and keeping possession of the ball (i.e. grabbing offensive rebounds and avoiding turnovers).  Just chucking the ball at the basket might help a player increase his scoring totals (and consequently his salary and fan base); but if the shooting isn’t very efficient, then that scoring doesn’t really help a team win.

It also didn’t help that in 2004, many of the “stars” were just rookies in the NBA.  Other stars decided to pass on the Olympics and that narrowed the choices of who the coaches could select to the team.  Additionally, there were personalities on the team that had been rivals or enemies prior to getting named to the team.  “Strong negative emotions at the group level is seen as hindering the group task, or the formation of a shared identity” (Kleio Akrivou, Richard. E. Boyatzis, Poppy L. McLeod, 2006).  An example of this would be when Isaiah Thomas was not selected to the 1992 “Dream Team”.  This had no bearing on the level of his play (which at the time was the best in the NBA at the point guard position) but rather on the emotional and personal conflicts that Thomas had with other members of the team.

Both the men’s basketball team and the women’s soccer team had to go through the stages of team development.  They are change, stability, and continuity.  The women’s soccer team negotiated all three of these phases and continued the achievement of their shared goal.  The men’s basketball team was unsuccessful at handling the initial change (team formation) and never really stabilized as they should have.  That made continuity extremely difficult.  In a team game, such basketball, it is not always guaranteed that the best individual players when put together on a team will perform as the best team.  Chemistry is involved.  A less skilled player could make an impact if he could bring together the various phases of the game FOR his teammates.  It is often the best accolade an athlete can get when they are cited as someone who “makes everyone around them better”.  Team USA in 2004 lacked such a player.  Other teams that appeared to be less skilled than the US team, developed their ICT as a team and played better together. 

The bottom line is that the women’s soccer team had hope, an image of a desired outcome, and a solid core identity, whereas the men’s basketball team in 2004 did not.

References:

Kleio Akrivou, Richard. E. Boyatzis, Poppy L. McLeod, (2006) "The evolving group: towards a prescriptive theory of intentional group development", Journal of Management Development, Vol. 25 Iss: 7, pp.689 – 706

Boyatzis, Richard. & McKee, Annie. (2005) Resonant Leadership, Boston: Harvard Business School Press

Richard E. Boyatzis, (2006) "An overview of intentional change from a complexity perspective", Journal of Management Development, Vol. 25 Iss: 7, pp.607 – 623

Retrieved from: Wired.com, 2008

Tipping Points of Emotional Intelligence

February 1, 2017

URL:  https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4574314487193895552#editor/target=post;postID=2072331423877906257

Boyatzis ties emotional intelligence competencies as predictors of success.  He also states that negative emotions are much stronger in human beings that positive emotions.  Therefore, the statement that flows around in the Army (pardon the language, but I do want to be correct) is: “It only takes ‘One – Aw Shit, to wipe out a thousand atta boys’”.  Boyatzis research tends to prove this.  Maybe as a function of aging, it is why older people seem more negative and cynical.  They have been beaten down by life’s pressures and burdens.

Boyatzis also describes his positive applicable emotions (PAE) and its opposite of negative applicable emotions (NAE).  It reminds me of the Yin/Yang discussed in great length in Obolensky’s excellent book, Complex Adaptive Leadership 2^nd Edition.  One cannot exist without the other.  However, as noted above, Boyatzis encourages the emphasis on the positive to offset the more powerful negative.  In his video, he also compared his model to others such Barbara Fredrickson, who encourages a three to one ratio in professional and personal lives.  In fact, Boyatzis studies of marriage states that a 5 – 1 ratio is needed to sustain a happy marriage.  Interesting.

In his research, Boyatzis attempted to test the following: (1) demonstrated EI and cognitive

competencies would predict financial performance of leaders in the company; and (2) a tipping point analysis would reveal a better prediction of financial performance than other ways of estimating the impact of the competencies.  Clusters of 4 groups of competencies were tested.  They were: Self-Motivation Cluster, Self-Regulation Cluster, People Management Cluster, and Cognitive Cluster.

The results of Boyatzis study was:

“Two competencies were significantly correlated with the financial performance measure of Account Revenue: Facilitates Learning and Values Learning.

Ten competencies were significantly correlated with Account Gross Margin: Taking a

Risky Stand, Planning, Self-confidence, Leadership, Coaching, Facilitates Learning, Systems Thinking, Empathy, Adaptability, and Values Learning” (Boyatzis, 2006)

The financial results for a large organization were measured in order to determine the effect of EI competencies upon financial performance.  The result was with the clusters described above:

“In particular, the competencies that resulted in greater account revenue and/or account gross margin were, organized within their clusters:

(1) Self-motivation cluster: Planning, Achievement Orientation, Self-confidence;

(2) Self-regulation cluster: Taking a Risky Stand, Self-control, Adaptability, Conscientiousness,

      Values Learning;

(3) People management cluster: Networking, Leadership, Coaching, Empathy, Facilitates

      Learning; and

(4) Cognitive cluster: Systems Thinking” (Boyatzis, 2006)

Boyatzis also wrote about the limitations to his study.  They were the small sample size selected and the uneven distribution of financial measurements.  However, he concluded that the study is useful in that it adds to the empirical evidence accumulating about how EI can positively affect selection, development, retention, and motivation of leaders for the future.

It is interesting that in this leadership class, I was asked by a classmate if I had insight into how to determine EI in potential candidates for hire.  I offered back to her that although my experience was not with the human resources realm, that my intuition told me that if interviewers and screeners were well-versed in EI, then they may be able to recognize the traits during an interview and weight EI ahead of cognitive or technical skills.

Boyatzis and Dr. Goleman have both conducted studies that show that EI factors in more than 2 to 1 as a predictor of success as a leader within an organization.  This two to one ratio is over EI’s counterparts in the makeup of a candidate, cognitive skills and technical skills.  This is interesting due to the ability of EI to be learned even late in life and how it can round out the skills of an otherwise qualified candidate.  Coaching EI and focusing on EI rather than strictly academic achievements or technical knowledge should be the wave of the future for organizations.

In CCAD, I was hired to fill a “temporary” vacancy.  I did not want to be a temporary fill after I had been on the job and discovered that it was a good fit for me.  I had a relatively short timeframe to demonstrate that I could have a positive impact upon the organization.  I decided that I needed to emotionally connect with the pilots and the crew chiefs of CCAD’s Flight Test Section.

How was I going to do this?  The level of difficulty was raised because these were extremely skilled, veteran pilots and crew chiefs.  Their ability to sniff out bull-crap or insincerity was going to be of the highest degree.  Our higher Headquarters (HQ) decreed that we would have a Safety Stand-Down Day.  During a Safety Stand-Down Day, safety training and issues are discussed by the entire assembly of personnel.  In addition, no flight activities or normal activities can take place during this day.

I had my forum, but I was going to need to make this day a success.  First, unannounced to everyone, I purchased 12 dozen doughnuts and coffee for everyone in attendance to the Safety Day.  I meticulously prepared the classes and decided on a forum that would not administer “death by Power Point” to the attendees.  I had sign-in sheets, a large TV screen, a recorder, and all the professional tools available for this day.  How could I make the emotional connection to everyone?

Part of our training consisted of weather recovery procedures for pilots.  When caught in Inadvertent Meteorological Conditions (IMC), the pilots are supposed to follow very specific steps that include gaining altitude for safety, declaring an emergency, and executing a recovery to & landing at an airport with good weather.  I chose to share a story with everyone about how I screwed up when confronted with that very situation.  This was also in correlation to the Safety Officer keeping information in confidence and acting as a teacher or a guide.  I talked about how I was training a student at Fort Rucker under Night Vision Devices (NVDs), and was attempting to go to the Northern training area from the South.  I ran into bad weather and lost visibility with the ground.  I was flying at approximately 1000 feet above the ground.  What did I do?  I violated every procedure that I taught routinely, and started to descend to see if I could pick out my visual references (mainly the ground) again.  I descended to about 500’ above the ground when I picked up my references and turned Southbound and flew out of the bad weather.  My maneuver had been dangerous because there were towers in that area of operations that measure 750’ above the ground.  I could have hit one of those towers and never knew what happened until it was too late.  I admitted my error to everyone and vowed that I had learned from it, it would never happen again, and for these aircrews never to do what I did.

I had done it!  It worked.  The room went silent and all eyes were upon me as I recounted this harrowing experience.  They could feel my remorse at my mistake and the casualness of how I put my student’s life at risk, by making the wrong decision as his instructor pilot!  Once the emotional moment passed, a good 30 minute after discussion started as others opened-up to speak about hazards and their experiences with the relevant safety topic.  I had connected.  I gained the respect of everyone in attendance that day.  It was especially gratifying to have the senior pilots have their defenses broken down and they welcomed me into their “group”.  For the Safety Stand-Down Day, I wouldn’t have done it any different.  I do wish I had another chance to make a better decision on my training flight during that potentially fateful day in the Fort Rucker AO.

Respectfully,

John Hescott

References:

Boyatzis, Richard E. (2006), “USING TIPPING POINTS OF EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE AND COGNITIVE COMPETENCIES TO PREDICT FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE OF LEADERS” Psicothema. ISSN EDICIÓN EN PAPEL: 0214-9915. 2006. Vol. 18, Suplem.1, pp. 124-131

The Positive PEA and Negative NEA (YouTube - 10:14) (Links to an external site.)

Obolensky, Nick. (2016) “Complex Adaptive Leadership 2^nd Edition”. New York: Routledge

Barbara Fredrickson: Positive Emotions Open our Mind (YouTube - 08:37) (Links to an external site.)

Barbara Fredrickson: The Positivity Ratio (YouTube - 08:43) (Links to an external site.)