Four Dimensions of Emotional Intelligence

Reflection Blog on the 4 Dimensions of Emotional Intelligence

MSLD 641 – Module 3

January 27, 2017

URL: https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4574314487193895552#editor/target=post;postID=2059353947491888686

This reflection blog will discuss the 4 dimensions of emotional intelligence, and how it applies to myself, my strengths, areas that I need to develop, and how the dimensions have helped or hindered me in my performance and/or career.

Dimension 1:  Self Awareness.

Dan Goleman talks about this dimension of emotional intelligence to include having a moral compass.  When I reflect upon the statement “having a moral compass”, I usually include several aspects to this.  Morality is taught in the home and through religious beliefs.  The Ten Commandments listed in the Old Testament are a good start when building a moral foundation.  The Ten Commandments for those who are not familiar are (and these are abbreviated): To worship only God, Swearing (Lord’s name in vain), Keep the Sabbath, Honor thy Mother and thy Father, Do not Kill, Do not commit Adultery, Do not Steal, Do not Lie (bear false witness against thy neighbor), Do not covet thy Neighbor’s Wife, Do not covet thy Neighbor’s Goods.  I grew up in the Roman Catholic tradition.  The Catholic Church expands the list of the 10 commandments to include the 7 deadly sins.  The seven deadly sins are gluttony, fornication, greed, pride, wrath, vainglory, and sloth.  They also teach introspection and an examination of one’s conscience.  This is practiced as the sacrament of confession.  All of these things teach young people to develop their moral compass.  The examination of one’s conscience, teaches introspection.  Why is this important?  I believe it is important in today’s world where everyone tends to blame others or circumstances for everything that happens in their life.  It carries over into the workplace.  Have you ever known a supervisor or a leader with whom nothing is EVER their fault?  The list of their excuses is impressively long.

My introspection and truthfulness has been strong throughout my life.  It has even harmed me in ways when I was too truthful or open about things for my own good.  For example, I admitted to some bad behavior when I was about 18 years of age, and it cost me a chance to get hired by General Motors.  Should I have disclosed what I had done?  I don’t know.  I do know that my career path took a much different direction as a result of my “confession”.  During that period of time, I don’t believe that the information could have been discovered.  However, I like to use the phrase “Do the right thing, even when no one is looking”.  I did and it cost me.  Although in my later years I retain the introspection and truthfulness necessary to round out my moral compass, I am much more guarded about information that I disclose about myself.  This has coincided with the development of my emotional intelligence and my skills as a leader.

Dimension 2: Self-Management.

In the military, we talk about self-starters as a bullet point on an evaluation report.  I think that Dr. Goleman is going beyond motivated individuals who don’t need a lot of supervision.  I believe that he is talking about managing emotions.  In the paragraph above, I reflected on the morality of managing information about one’s self.  Self-Management implies balancing emotions in the extreme.  Don’t get too high and don’t get too low.  Don’t let success go to your head and hinder future performance.  Don’t let challenges that cause one’s emotions to drop keep you there very long.  Have resiliency against the negative.  Emphasize the positive.  If one can marshal the positive emotions out of situations, there is a better chance that they will be resolved.  Furthermore, it will draw people unto you as they see real leadership in someone who can withstand failures or less than optimal conditions in a given situation. 

I failed in that aspect temporarily when confronted with an extremely toxic supervisor a couple of years ago.  However, now I am grateful for having experienced that situation.  It has given me insight into leadership, emotional intelligence, and the art of connecting with people within an organization.  I have grown stronger and more resilient as a leader due to that bad experience.  It also awakened within me the need to search out that something that transcended power or job skills.  That something is emotional intelligence.

Dimension 3:  Empathy & Compassion.

Having empathy will increase the likelihood that one will be able to connect with others in their professional career.  Of course having empathy and compassion will help in our personal lives, but the focus here is on how it translates into an organization.  I feel that I have great empathy for others around me in the workplace.  It helps me connect with their needs.  It helps me to actively listen to them when they are describing a process that appears to be broken.

I loved the examples that Dr. Goleman gave in his second TED video.  He talked about the Good Samaritan.  He talked about the speed dating test.  Finally, he talked about the complete lack of correlation between IQ and emotional intelligence.  I thought of lots of examples in my own life when I failed the compassion test, but also thought of some when I passed (I hope!).  As word gets around that many people who hold up signs on the road begging for money, food, or work are actually well-off and do that for a living, then people have a tendency to say, “I won’t help any of them then”!  How are we to judge who is actually in need and who is simply a scam artist?  Maybe it is one’s intuition or sixth sense if you will.  I had read somewhere that what Dr. Goleman was saying was correct.  There are many mentally ill people on the streets and we need to help them and not pass by them.  Are we in too much of a hurry?  I remember many years ago I was working in Detroit as a U.S. Customs Inspector.  I had a good job, but didn’t have much money.  I drove 81 miles one way to get to work.  One day, as I was leaving work and getting ready to drive back to my home in Flint, MI, two straggly looking men approached me as I was about to get into my car.  They asked for money because they were hungry and needed something to eat.  It was cold outside and was just beginning to snow.  Something inside of me told me to help them out.  I told them that I only had $5.00 in my pocket (and that was a lot of money to me at the time!) and that if they really needed food, I would give it to them.  They promised me that they would not buy booze, but would go get something to eat.  I gave them my last $5.00 and they were happy!  I don’t know if they really went to buy food or went to the liquor store, but that was not up to me to decide.  That was up to God to judge the recipients.  That I may not be judged as harshly, I will admit that there have been too many times that I have failed to be the Good Samaritan and help people. 

Dimension 4:  Social Skills.

Social skills is defined by Dr. Goleman as the ability to put the other three dimensions into a framework that defines our social skills.  Ironically, I am a late bloomer, but prior to taking my MBAA courses through Embry-Riddle, I instinctively already had these competencies.  It is instructive and enlightening to learn about how other people have studied them and written about them.  One addition that I would like to add to Dr. Goleman’s viewpoint is what I call the “Multiplier Effect” (ME).  The ME means that by optimally combining the first three dimensions of emotional intelligence, then the sum total of the three becomes greater than the sum total of each individual attribute added up as a distinct and separate unit.  In street language, it means “Having your stuff together”.  I hope to continue my growth and travel on that path.  Although I am 33 years into a military career, I approach each day as if it was my first one.  I try to learn something new or something from someone at work every day.  I am better now than I ever was on a personal and leadership level, and I want to continue to improve.  I would like to be accused of “Having my stuff together”!

References:

Daniel Goleman Introduces Emotional Intelligence:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7m9eNoB3NU (Links to an external site.)

Daniel Goleman: Why aren't we more compassionate?

www.ted.com/talks/daniel_goleman_on_compassion (Links to an external site.)

 

Module 1 URL: http://hescottjohn.blogspot.com/2017/01/what-is-great-leadership.html

Module 2 URL: http://hescottjohn.blogspot.com/

Module 3 URL:

Am I A Resonant Leader?

January 20, 2017

I think that I can answer whether I am a resonant leader or not by simply saying that I believe that I am.  However, one must accept the possibility of being a resonant leader without actually being in a leadership position.  I am a “leader” who is not in a command authority position.

I feel as if I am a resonant leader.  I think I exemplified many of the basic qualities prior to pursuing my MBAA degree through Embry-Riddle.  That being said, the past few semesters have opened up new thought patterns about leadership that I have adopted.  For instance, although I thought of myself as a logical and analytical thinker, I learned a lot during my opening MSLD course.  I delved deep into what compromised a critical thinker.  How did one conduct an analysis that ran a circle logic that would provide an answer once one completed the exercise?  The tools used in critical thinking helped boost my value to my organization as I began to incorporate those things.  Technical expertise within an area is important when attempting to gain the trust of others.

I had always felt that I was able to connect with people and network various support groups within an organization.  However, I didn’t realize how important that was until I began the Masters of Science in Leadership (MSLD) 641 course.  I realized that connecting with people was part of having emotional intelligence.  Having emotional intelligence lead to becoming a resonant leader.  The fact that this course talked about these characteristics has helped me re-align my priorities when it comes to performing my job.  This can be exemplified by building trust and relationships.  One has to have the trust of others in to be effective.  That means having values and a moral compass.  Doing the right thing when no one is looking is one way of having values and morals.  The Army likes to say, "Choose the hard right versus the easy wrong".  

In the book, “Resonant Leadership”, Boyatzis and McKee talk about the importance of compassion and hope.  Retaining those qualities gives an individual a better chance at being a resilient or resonant leader.  I had also worked very hard in the previous year as I pursued a policy of adding value to my organization.  By the time the holidays rolled around in December, I was on the verge of burning out.  I sacrificed a lot for the organization, but felt that I was unable to do enough.  That was where compassion and hope came in.  Learning about those traits helped to guide me through a renewal process.  This helped me gain resilience in a stressful situation, but it also helped me realize that I had to be able to offer the other people in the organization hope.  Hope that things can and will get better if we all work towards a common goal.  It also demonstrated that I needed to be able to demonstrate that things can change, even when it appears that the weight of a large organization is resisting that change. 

How to differentiate between hard power and soft power?  In Nick Obolensky’s excellent book, “Complex Adaptive leadership 2^nd Edition”, Nick likens some of the leadership traits to the Yin and Yang.  On one side there is the hard power and on the other side is soft power.  Each of the Yin and Yang contain a small circle of the opposite color within their areas.  In this way, Obolensky was stating that a good leader had to have a mixture of both hard power and soft power, and no when to utilize which.  That requires being able to communicate with and read people and situations.  A superior leader does this seemingly without effort.

I do believe that given an opportunity to be in a position of authority, my life experiences will help to keep me emotionally grounded.  I believe that I have the communication skills and the emotional intelligence necessary to excel as a leader.

John Hescott

References:

Boyatzis, Richard. McKee, Annie. (2005) “Resonant Leadership” Boston: Harvard Business

            School Press

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

            Francis

Boyatzis, Richard. McKee, Annie. Johnston, Frances. (2008) “Becoming a Resonant Leader”.
             Boston: Harvard Business Press

What Is Great Leadership?

January 11, 2017

What is great leadership?  Everyone has some idea or an opinion on what sort of traits that comprise

great leadership.  I have had the opportunity in my long military career (33 years and counting) to work for two people that were polar opposites.  In this blog, I will first describe the great leader that I served under, and then contrast him with the poor leader that I served under.  Interestingly, they also fell on a timeline where I had the great leader first (2005-2007), and the poor leader second (2014-2015).  I have used only their initials to protect their privacy as well as my own.

In 2005, I was at a low point in my career.  I had been transferred to a brand-new unit within the 10^th Mountain Division.  I was to be the aviation tactical operations officer (TACOPS) for a Brigade Combat Team (BCT).  I knew very little about an infantry unit because most of my career had been spent in the aviation branch of the Army.  The one thing I did know was that I was not going to be flying, and was going to be a brand new TACOPS officer.  I had been an aviation safety officer (ASO) with nearly 2,000 flight hours.  Over 1,000 of those flight hours had been in the AH-1S/F Cobras, an Army gunship helicopter.  I accepted my fate and resignedly accepted my new assignment with the 3^rd BCT of 10^th Mountain in February 2005.  My section was called the Brigade Aviation Element (BAE) that was part of the S3 Operations Section.  I was immediately part of the Brigade Staff.  That was when I was introduced to the Brigade Commander, J.N.  An Army Brigade Commander is a full colonel (O-6). 

During the first brigade staff meeting, we were told that we would be deploying to Afghanistan in about a year.  Our task was to relieve the 82^nd Airborne Division and continue combat operations against the Taliban in North East Afghanistan.  Our battle space was known as Regional Combat East or simply RC East.  J.N. was impressive.  He was tall, confident, educated, well-spoken, and exuded a personal warmth not usually found in Army brigade commanders.  During that first meeting, he laid out everyone’s assignments and started questioning us all on our backgrounds.  When it came to my turn, I briefly introduced myself and described my aviation background and experience.  J.N. simply smiled and said, “Oh.  You are my aviator!”  I answered in the affirmative and he questioned me a bit more about my knowledge and how I felt to be part of a BCT.  I told him that I was just excited to be there and looked forward to the challenges that he had laid out.  That was my first inkling that J.N. had this “it”.  It was some sort of leadership trait that made people want to follow this man and be part of his team.  A week earlier, I had been despondent and now I was fired up about the new job!  It wasn’t all fun and games.  J.N. worked us harder than I had ever worked before in my military career.  Many weekends were totally shot as we performed exercise after exercise while we prepared for our looming combat deployment.  Speaking of exercise, the brigade staff officers worked out harder and longer than the enlisted did in the BCT, and longer and harder than in any other unit I had ever been in!  I had to toughen up and get better in several different areas.

J.N. not only made me and others excited about our jobs, but he made us feel important.  He made us feel as if we were part of something larger than ourselves.  He was an excellent communicator and motivator.  Early on, he quickly identified officers on the brigade staff that were disgruntled or would not subordinate themselves to our larger goals.  Those officers were replaced and without fail, the new-comers were always better than the outgoing officers.  That also taught me a lesson.  If J.N. was unable to get you excited about what you were doing, then he didn’t want you on his team.  The danger was that bad attitudes would spread like cancer.  At the end of 12 long months of grueling train-up, we were ready.  We trusted J.N.  We loved him.  Most of us would fall on a grenade and sacrifice ourselves to save him.  Why?  It is hard to point to any one example.  His leadership was one constant highlight reel of resiliency, resonant leadership, and smooth polished and cuss-free communication.  He didn’t have to yell or raise his voice to get things done.  For example, one day he called me to his tactical operations center (TOC) during one of our combat simulations.  He took out a map and said to me, “Chief, we have to pick up a medical evacuation (MEDEVAC) casualty by regulation within one hour”.  Our helicopters are stationed here, but what if we get a call to respond here?  I went to work on the problem with my team of aviators and we finally were able to figure out an optimal staging of our MEDEVAC assets to cover the entire RC-East.  Once we figure that out, he then threw another variable into the equation.  What if we were picking up a MEDEVAC casualty from that area, and we got another call for air-support for troops under fire in this area?  The area he was pointing to was at the opposite end of the RC.  We racked our brains for hours attempting to solve the dilemma.  RC-East was a very large area cover with only 1 BCT and two-thirds of an aviation brigade.  The exercise made us very aware of our limited resources, but it paid off once we arrived in Afghanistan and began our combat operations.  It was his insight that forced us to make worst-case scenario plans based upon limited resources available.  This insight was repeated countless times in all functional areas of our BCT.  He thought about logistics, maintenance, transportation, troop strength, air power, mountain tactics, air assaults, and local Afghan troops.  His mind was that of a genius working through various scenarios and plans.  All of it was based upon his goal of maximum efficiency, and maximum combat power directed in all the right places.

We encountered numerous challenges in our combat operations in RC-East.  We spent 16 months fighting the Taliban and were the last clearly successful unit to take the offensive and control the most territory within RC-East.  The examples of J.N.’s leadership are too numerous to list here, but he also placed trust in me as a Chief Warrant Officer 3^rd Class (CW3).  We planned to do an air assault into the Korengal Valley NE of Jalalabad.  A tactical decision needed to be made about our exfiltration route of our helicopters after our initial landing.  J.N. was going on the air assault, so the decision that I made could mean life or death for him.  I made a very tough call as to how we would accomplish the exfiltration and it worked out.  We did not lose a single aircraft and the air assault was wildly successful.  He trusted me!  Wow.  That felt good and it spurred me to get even better as a TACOPS officer.

What was J.N.?  He was a resonant leader.  He had emotional intelligence.  He had great communication skills.  He had great vision.  He was the ultimate personification of everything an Army Colonel should be……………and more!  He had that unique something that made him a natural leader and inspired people to follow him and want to be part of his team.  J.N. is now a three-star general.  I am honored that I got to serve with the finest Army Colonel during my career, and serve with the ultimate role model of a great leader.

The heights that I experienced with J.N. vanished to the darkest depths of despair while serving under N.T. in 2014-2015.  N.T. was an example of a person who interviewed well and got selected into his position, but was totally out of his league for the responsibilities that it entailed.  What made N.T. a bad leader?  People dis-trusted him.  He was totally self-serving.  He always took credit for anything good that was produced by his team, and NEVER took responsibility for any failures.  He was not a good communicator.  He was vindictive and dishonest.  He set people against each other.  He thought that was funny and he thrived in an atmosphere of animosity and distrust.

When I arrived at my unit where N.T. was in charge, I thought that the stories I had heard about him were either exaggerated or told by some disgruntled subordinates.  Boy, was I wrong!  N.T. had no vision.  He was not a team player for the larger organization.  N.T. was all about power and demonstrating that he had that power and the ear of the commanding general.  People actively tried to bypass N.T. because of his corrosive style of leadership and the inability to get anything done.  N.T. had a way of talking to the senior leadership to make it appear that he was running a great shop when the opposite was true.  Communication from the bottom up was non-existent.  Team relationships were constantly being damaged due to his meddling and micro-managing of all day to day affairs.  N.T. never respected anyone except for higher ranking individuals that he was vested in deceiving.

I clashed with N.T. on a regular basis.  His decisions were not optimal for the mission of United States combat power in the Middle East.  He personally berated me both in private and in front of others.  He tried to diminish me as a person.  I had completed 4 successful combat deployments prior to this one, but he spoke to me as if I was a private.  I was now promoted to CW5.  Other high ranking colonels tried to intervene to save our team from the abuse by N.T., but his political power was too strong.  They all failed in their attempts to reign him in.  As with J.N.’s successes as a resonant leader, N.T.’s failures and nasty traits are too numerous to list here. 

I did learn some things from N.T.  I learned that he had no communication skills, emotional intelligence, integrity, or ability to build an effective team.  No feedback loops were established so the commanding general was never made aware of the true dysfunction of that section or its leader, N.T.  I was personally threatened with career ending consequences if I went to the general on my own to let him know what was going on.  N.T. is a cancer that will remain with that organization until the day that he finally retires and that unit can start de-toxifying itself from his poisonous leadership.  N.T. never should have been put in charge of that section in such a large Army organization.  He is the perfect example of what not to do as a leader.

John Hescott

References:

Nosich, Gerald M., 2012, “Learning to Think Things Through” Salt Lake City: Pearson Education

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

McKee, Annie., Boyatzis, Richard., Johnston, Frances. (2008) “Becoming a Resonant Leader” Boston: Harvard Business Press   

Oligarchy, Polyarchy & Future Leadership Development

December 12, 2016

Is the traditional oligarchy structure of most organizations redundant?  The oligarchy assumptions may be redundant in some aspects.  An example I like to use is the very funny scene in the movie “Office Space”, where the main character has several people in about a three-minute time span, including his top boss, ask if he saw the memo on the new TPX report cover sheets.  This memo mandated a new cover sheet for the TPX reports and the main character inadvertently used the old one.  It is funny to those who may believe that their organization has too many layers of management performing the same functions.  With this example one could argue redundancy from several points of view.  It could be a mistake to label all oligarchic structures redundant.  Every situation is different, and as Obolensky argues in his book, the true leaders are not influenced by potential obstacles.  They flow around them like water in a stream.  I like that analogy and find it a useful tool to add to my personal repertoire.  The true leaders empower their employees and appear to not even be leading their teams.  That is the optimal state of the truly enlightened leader. 

The implications of learning techniques and knowledge during this course (MSLD 633, Strategic Leadership; Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University) has forced me into a critical examination of myself.  What am I good at?  What am I weak at?  How can I get better?  My personal improvement must start with honestly evaluating where I am at as a leader.  I have put some serious critical thought into these questions and issues.  As part of my own critical evaluation and improvement, I have already begun implementing various techniques into my work as a leader at the Corpus Christi Army Depot (CCAD).  I have utilized the hard and soft techniques of the Yin and Yang model.  I have started to listen more and talk less.  These are just small examples of an implementation plan that will not be realized overnight.

I have always lived my life with the purpose of continually improving all aspects of my life.  It is hard to try and do a makeover all at once.  The process has been gradual and has taken decades.  I now try to pick out the three most important areas of improvement and work on that list until it is satisfied.  Then I re-evaluate where I am at, and pick another three issues to work on.

My needs over the next three years will include re-looking at the material covered in this course, seeking out additional sources of information, and taking advantage of training opportunities as they arise.  My immediate goal for next year is to complete my lean six sigma blackbelt training and to complete my CP-12 certification.  CP-12 is a nationally recognized program for safety professionals.  It is almost like a leader getting an MBA only illustrated as a safety professional getting a nationally recognized certification.  I have 6 courses to complete out of 38.  One of the six courses, is the 30-hour OSHA certification.

Of course, as I complete my MBA through Embry-Riddle, the courses remaining will also focus on various aspects of leadership and how they relate to different aspects of business.  Finally, the experience gained as a supervisor will also help me grow in the current position and prepare me for the next level of leadership.

I touched on this above, but after I read the 70-20-10 presentation, which describes a person spending 70% of their time on their core competency, 20% of their time on related projects to their core competency, and 10% of their time on learning new information or taking on projects unrelated to their core competency.  The work that I have completed for CCAD over the past year closely mirrors the 70-20-10 breakdown, but it gave me pause as I considered the possibility that I had skewed my own percentages.  I had to critically analyze whether I had broken barriers with the number of projects and areas that I have attempted to influence.  For example, trying to fix the quality deficiency reports (QDRs) for CCAD is a safety officer function, but is not considered a core competency.  Therefore, it must fall within the 20% realm of related projects to the core competency.  It can be argued that nearly EVERY aspect of CCAD falls in some way under the safety umbrella.  However, that begs the question.  Am I ignoring my 70% core competency in regards to my time spent on Aviation Safety?  I am not sure.  I think that will require more self-examination.  I feel that I have been positively influenced by the Strategic Leadership Course and by Nick Obolensky’s book.  I have recommended it to other leaders who make it their business to teach leadership at the senior levels.  Only time will tell as to whether my personal plan will be effective and useful for CCAD.

John H2O

References:

Obolensky, Nick. (2016). Complex Adaptive Leadership Second Edition, New York: Routledge.

How Do Coaches Help?

How Do Coaches Help?

External Link: https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4574314487193895552#editor/target=post;postID=5884130132577284132

Date: December 6, 2016

To be an executive coach, it is necessary to know that clients are the first and best expert capable of solving their own problems and achieving their own ambitions, that is precisely the main reason why clients are motivated to call on a coach. When clients bring important issues to a coach, they already made a complete inventory of their personal or professional issues and of all possible options. Clients have already tried working out their issues alone, and have not succeeded.  The following questions are answered as part of the material read from the references below.  The answers are based upon the ideas presented in those documents.

Given the statement above what is it that coaches do to provide value to their clients?

Coaches need to be good communicators, adept at human psychology, and good facilitators of solutions.  With communication, a good coach needs to be able to listen and ask the proper questions that will elicit further information about a topic.  They avoid close ended questions that shut off dialogue.  With the human psychology element, a good coach knows how to read people and dialogue with them to maximum effect.  Many people who are called “people persons” have a natural ability to do this.  Reading people requires delving into external issues that may be affecting the immediate issue without offending that person.  A good facilitator will be able to guide the discussion of an issue towards an optimal solution.

Establishing trust and credibility are important as well.  That is because a coach will tend to provide constructive feedback that may or may not be accepted positively.  A trusted coach with credibility will have an easier time providing constructive feedback that may be resisted on a human emotional level.

Why is coaching a vital aspect of both leadership and strategy?

Coaching behavior is important for an organizations strategy because in makes an investment in individuals in the hope that this investment will pay off long-term dividends for the organization.  In other words, you are developing your future leaders on one hand, and in the other you are formulating a long-term health strategy for your organization.  An organization that actively develops its future leaders is practicing long-term strategy without naming it so.  The additional benefit to the coaching ensures that lines of communication are open, feedback loops are established, and the organization’s goals are known from top to bottom.  Therefore, when the coached individuals attain leader status, they are already dialed in on the direction of the organization.  This includes short term tactics as well as an overall long-term strategy.

How can it make a difference in an organization?

Coaching can make a difference in an organization in two ways.  First, the organization is investing in its people and nurturing the future leaders of that organization.  This requires the current crop of leaders to be enlightened and view this as a long-term investment that will pay off for the organization.  Second, it can have the effect of changing the culture within an organization and prevent it from having bad employee management relations.  Most employees will respond positively to management if they feel that they care about them and their welfare.  An effective coaching program sends those types of positive signals.

What does this mean to you and your organization?

Coach the safety officers and various artisans by selling them on the why, telling them the what, involve them on the how/what, and devolve them by leaving the details to them.

I have identified several people within my organization that deserve an investment of time for coaching so that they can grow into the future leaders of the Corpus Christi Army Depot (CCAD).

References:

Goleman, D. (2000). Leadership that Gets Results, Harvard Business Review, 78(2), 78-90.

von Hoffman, C. (1999). Coaching: The ten killer myths, Harvard Management Update, 4(1), 4.

Obolensky, Nick. (2016) Complex Adaptive Leadership Second Edition, New York: Routledge.

John H2O

Assessing My Leadership Style

December 2, 2016

For the readers of this blog, I highly recommend Nick Obolensky’s book, “Complex Adaptive Leadership 2^nd Edition”.  At the beginning of chapter 10, Obolensky poses some tough questions for the reader to gage what sort of leadership style that he has.  As in many cases throughout this excellent book, there is not an easy answer or a one-size-fits-all solution.  Full Disclosure:  I scored heavily in the strategy 3 range after taking the quiz.

As I thought about why this is so, I thought back to a time when I took a personality test that labeled me as an “equalitarian” type of leader.  An equalitarian leader shies away from making directive commands and authoritarian stances.  Maybe I need to balance this tendency out with a mixture of various leadership styles which are essential to complex adaptive leadership. 

My thinking during this course has changed and has stretched to reach higher levels.  By scoring heavily in the strategy 3 category probably means that I would rather guide subordinates to come up with their own solutions rather than tell or direct them on how to do it.  I think that I may have missed the selling point of explaining new changes and benefits of those changes when answering the quiz questions.  I felt that if I could skillfully guide a subordinate to the proper conclusion, then that would mean that I was empowering them.  Additionally, there are times when directive leadership and telling a subordinate to do something becomes necessary. 

From another point of view, when someone challenges you for solutions to a problem, your brain begins to think of ways to solve the issue or overcome the challenges presented.  My instructor for this course has been successful in getting me to look at myself and figure out what barriers I had to material that was presented.

For my future goals as a senior leader within my organization, I will need to guard against heavily relying on only one strategy as a leader.  I will use Obolensky’s book as a reference if I feel that I am slipping into old, unproductive habits.  I have a type A personality and it can be difficult for me to let others do work that I feel I could accomplish faster or better.  That attitude seems to contrast with the equalitarian label that was bestowed upon me so many years ago.   I need to develop trust in others that they will perform and not “let me down” on important issues.  This course has gone a long way in rounding out my own personal style.  In fact, since I put the needs of my organization above all else, the organization will ultimately benefit from the lessons I have learned as I attempt to implement them efficiently and effectively.

John H2O

Reference:

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

The Vicious Circle of Leadership

November 30, 2016

The Vicious Circle of Leadership

The vicious circle for leaders per Obolensky is:

1.      Follower asks for advice – demonstrates low skill to the leader

2.      Leader gets concerned

3.      Leader takes a more hands on approach

4.      Follower’s confidence lowers

5.      Follower thinks he has to defer more

These steps are illustrated as a vicious circle on page 162 of Obolensky’s book (Obolensky, 2016). 

This vicious circle happens at the Corpus Christi Army Depot (CCAD).  Part of the reason that this happens is because CCAD in the past did not typically promote employees that would make good supervisors.  CCAD tended to promote the best artisans into management positions.  This was, and still is, a tendency to confuse good mechanical skills and knowledge with leadership ability.  Many shops have suffered with poor leadership in which supervisors promoted beyond their capabilities end up getting into the vicious circle and do not have a clue on how to break the cycle.

The effects on the organization is poor morale and a great distrust of upper management.  Upper management makes the selections for supervisors.  Therefore, if their selections are poor, then the artisans suffering under the “rule” of upper management’s choice, they blame upper management for their short-sightedness.  This leads to an un-necessary migration of capable employees into the unacceptable level of I & II followership (Obolensky page 159, 2016). 

To break this vicious circle, a new circle needs to be created.  Since CCAD doesn’t have a sales, marketing, or distribution departments, the new circle would encompass Finance/Accounting and operations.  Here is an alternate circle:

1.      Follower asks for advice and is asked for his opinion on how to solve the issue

2.      Leader feels less burdened by answering questions that he feels subordinates should know

3.      Leader continues to empower his employees and actively solicit their input on decisions

4.      Follower’s confidence and morale climb to new heights

5.      Follower’s productivity and job satisfaction reach record levels

Some may feel that this is an overly optimistic scenario.  It may well be.  However, the longest journey begins with the first step.  Communication and the ability for supervisors to develop their subordinates seems like a good place to start.

John H2O

Reference:

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