MY VISION OF LEADERSHIP

In the previous blogs, we have discussed a series of topics about leadership, including ethical leadership, management and leadership, the leadership style, change management and diversity team management. In this report, I would talk about my vision of leadership.

Lewin’s Leadership Styles Theory and My Leadership Style

Lewin’s leadership theory is used to identify three leadership styles:

• Authoritarian leadership: This kind of leaders make decision independently and provide clear expectations to the followers about what should be done and how it should be done.
• Participative leadership (democratic): Participative leadership offer guidance to group members, but retain the final say over the decision-making process.
• Delegative leadership: Delegative leaders offer litter guidance and requirements to group members and let members make decision(Cherry Kendra, 2014)

I identified my leadership style using the Lewin’s Leadership styles quiz and my previous working experience, my leadership style is both Participative and Delegative.Ihave been suggested that leader utilize all three styles depending upon the situation. So I want to be a leader using the situational leadership:

“Use an authoritarian style if a group member lacks knowledge about the task or procedure; use a participative style with group members which understand the objectives and their role in the task; use a declarative style if the group member know more than you do about the task.”(About.com.psychology, 2014)

The effective leader I have been inspired is Sheryl Sandberg, the COO of Facebook. She is war ranked #16 on Fortune’s 50 Most Powerful Women in Business list. She has three clear leadership style qualities which distinguish herself from others: team player, compassionate and ambitious (Farnaz Namin-Hedayati, 2014). In her book lean in, she encouraged all the women to sit at the table and think big, seek and speak the truth, don’t leave before leave (Sheryl Sandberg, 2013). It poses a set of ambitious challenges about create the lives we want, to be a leader in the work. It is an incredibly inspiring book and delivers the faith to her followers.

Leadership Skills Based On the Feedback from Colleagues and Test

I tried the Johari questionnaire online and Johari Window is list behind. It indicates that I am open to from the solicit feedback without too much blind and hidden area(Johari Window Model, 2014).The best way to improve myself is trying to explore my blind area. And I need to improve the skills according the suggestions of my colleagues.

• Time planning. In the activity of leadership, our team was cancelled the marks because we did not come back on time. And our team leader did not set a time plan for us. Actually, no matter I am a leader or a group member, time planning is necessary for me.
• Leading the change. After the activity of change management, I found one thing is very important for me is leading the change. As I presented in the blog change management, only stand out of my comfort zone, I can grow and learn. I knew it needs courage.

In an interview, Jurgen Hambrecht, the chairman of chemical giant BASF, was asked the about what he would like to do things differently during the last years if he could. He answered, “Being even more courageous by saying even earlier that things are changing fast.” (BCG, 2010)This answer has been written on my desk to remind me to challenge myself and manage time.

• Thinking and doing at the same time. I have been told by my colleague that my plan is not practical once a time I was the leader of our team. And I found there are two traps on the path of leader development. One is too theoretical;sometimes I only sat there and made plans using my imagination.The other is I was too busy in my previous work.I spent all the time to do the daily things and had no time to think about the big picture of future. In the Mckinsey’s interview for Chanda Kochhar, she said leaders must both consider the broad trends and have a very clear view of daily operations. “I have to be very close to reality while at the same time keeping the big picture in mind” she said. That is what I need to improve now.
• Being assertive. I think this is a challenge of most women. Because women always think too much she can insist on her decision. In my group activity, I found once I change my idea, our members would fill confused and might do not listen to me anymore. So being a leader, being assertive to present a positive personal image is essential for me.

Conclusion

From my experiences about leadership in the previous studying, my understanding of leadership has been redefined. My previous understanding of leadership is kind of between management and leadership. After ten weeks study and analysis, I found my leadership style and what I need to improve. To be a great leader is a long but achievablejourney.

List of reference

About.com.psychology (2014) ‘Quiz – What is your leadership style?’[online] available from <http://psychology.about.com/library/quiz/bl-leadershipquizbc.htm&gt; [10^th Sep. 2014]

BCG (2010)“Jurgen Hambrecht talks about the tough decision at BASF”The Boston Consulting Group[online] available from <https://www.bcgperspectives.com/content/interviews/leadership_organization_say_what_you_think_jurgen_hambrecht/ > [27th Aug. 2014]

Chandler Clay (2012) Leading in the 21st century: An interview with ChandaKochhar[online] available from [10^th Sep. 2014]

Cherry Kendra (2014) ‘Lewin’s leadership styles: three major styles of leadership’About.education[online] available from <52> [10^th Sep. 2014]

FarnazNamin-Hedayati (2014) ‘Leadership qualities of Sheryl Sandberg’[online] available from [10^th Sep. 2014]

Johari Window Model (2014) [online] available from [10^th Sep. 2014]

LEADERSHIP & MANAGEMENT STYLES & APPROACHES

Management and Leadership

Before 21s century, leadership was not mentioned as frequently as today in business world. It was thought almost the same with management. Along with the dramatical change of business model and technological development, the difference between leadership and management is noticed by many scholars and entrepreneurs.

At First, Management is more focusing on activity, “It is about changing behavior and making things happen” (Mullins Laurie J. 2013, 421) Leadership can be discussed as a behavioral category or the relationship which has the power to influence others’ thoughts and actions, and empower the people to do the right thing  (Mullins Laurie J. 2013, 421). Second, managers have people work for them and they make plan, implement and other practical things for employees to achieve objectives; while leaders provide the vision to believe, set and lead direction (GO2HR, 2014). Third, managers are likely to keep stable and obey the rules in organizations. Leaders would like to make change happen, seek opportunities and might break rules of organizations (EBA, 2014)

Approaches to Leadership and situational leadership model

Because the nature of leadership is complicated and hard to definite, there are many leadership perspectives.

• The qualities or traits approach;
• The functional or group approach;
• Leadership as a behavioral category;
• Leadership styles and impact;
• Situational leadership
• Transformational leadership
• Inspirational leadership
• Servant leadership

Some people believe the traits approach which assumes that leaders are born. The chairman and CEO of Saxum, Renzi Stone, said he believed that leaders are born (Jacobs Ken, 2014). Maybe some people were born to have some characteristics which are helpful to be a leader, but without the proper opportunity and enough experience, they still cannot be a leader. It is true that great leader needs some awareness which is extremely hard to get, but if a manager keep trying and learning in the right way, to be leader is not impossible.

With the dramatical globalization, technological development, the most effective leadership is the situational leadership model. Situational leadership model is based on the theory developed by Paul Hersey and Ken Blanchard. It is showed the picture below. Four styles of leadership are used according to the situation: delegating, supporting, coaching and directing. For example, if the subordinates have high supportive and low directive behavior, the leader should use the supporting style.

Situational leadership is not “one size fit all”. It is easy to understand and apply across various organizations’ situations. Many Fortune 500 companies use this approach for their leader development (Measom Cynthia, 2014)

However, these are few limitations in this model. The picture below is a guidelines concern one-to-one interaction. When it comes to a group, it becomes hard to use this model. Because in one group, individuals are different from knowledge, behavior, culture, it is hard adapt styles to fit in this group.

Geneal George Patton is an American military who is famous as his situational leadership style. His strategy of his army is focusing on analyzing the situation and when he started to fight, he will adjust his plan according to the analyses of the situation (Dems Kristina, 2010). The situation of war is complicated and unexpected, and business world as well. The world has never changed so rapidly, so situational leadership is an assistant approach for leaders.

Conclusion and Recommendations

A leader can be a manager, but a manager is not always a leader. In one organization, the members are coming from different culture and habits, and the external environment is changing every minute and moment, so it is crucial for leader to change their styles depending on the situation.

I would recommend the managers to learn about the leadership skills and increase the individual charms to influence more people. If a manager could provide the vision, value and power to group members, the group would develop soon and get more profit. And leaders do not only need the knowledge about leadership and their organization, but also the some other aspect: self-management, phycology, philosophy, cognitive development.

List of reference

Dems Kristina (2010) ‘A look at the situational leadership model’ [online] available from <http://www.brighthub.com/office/home/articles/83323.aspx&gt; [27th Aug. 2014]

EBA (2014) “The leadership versus management debate: what’s the difference?” Educational Business Articles [online] available from <http://www.educational-business-articles.com/leadership-versus-management.html&gt; [10th Sep. 2014]

GO2HR (2014) “Understanding the differences: Leadership VS management” GO2HR [online] available from <https://www.go2hr.ca/articles/understanding-differences-leadership-vs-management&gt; [10th Sep. 2014]

Jacobs Ken (2014) “From manager to leader: growing into a new role” Public Relations Tactics Jun2014 21 (6) p13

Measom Cynthia (2014) ‘Trait vs. Situational approach for leadership’ [online] available from <http://smallbusiness.chron.com/trait-vs-situational-approach-leadership-38796.html&gt; [27th Aug. 2014]

Mullins Laurie J. (2013) Management & Organizational Behavior. 10th ed. Harlow: Pearson Education Ltd

RESISTANCE TO CHANGE AND CHANGE MANAGEMENT

Change and Leadership

Resistance to Change and Change Management

In the modern business world, organizations have to deal with continually shifting, market conditioning, technologies, input cost, customer demands, and competition in every hour and moment. Change management plays an essential role as managers are facing a dramatically developing world. The internal and external environments require managers to have capabilities to deal with planned and unplanned changes.

Resistance to change

Due to the uncertain outcome of change, it is often resisted at both the individual and the organizational level. For individuals, changes tend to cause anxiety of fear, and cause uncomfortable feeling because they has used to the established and accustomed manner, The reasons of resistance to change usually include selective perception, habit, inconvenience or loss of freedom, economic implications, security in the past, fear of the unknown (Mullins Laurie J. 2013). For organizations, changes are more complicated and inevitable. The main reasons of resistance are organization culture, maintaining stability, investment in resources, past contracts or agreements and threats to power or influence (Mullins Laurie J. 2013)

Although change is often resisted, it is unavoidable and essential in business world. And it can be of great assistance of business success if being managed well. Many theories and models refer to create successful change.

Leaving the comfort zone

One of the most damaging things for business companies is to stay where they are confortable. And for individuals, staying the comfortable zone is also a crisis for their career development. It is critical for managers to help their employees leaving their comfort zone.

David Van Rooy, Walmart’s Senior Director of International Human Resources Strategy and Operations, who take charge of the development and execution of the IHMR (International Human Recourse Strategy) across Walmart’s non-US markets to, shared his perceptive point of view about the importance of breaking the comfort zone in employees’ career succeed. “I’ve seen in my work at Walmart that maintaining placement as the top retailer requires staying ahead of change and a willingness to ‘swim upstream.’ ” (Caprino Kathy, 2014)

The only way people are growing is leaving their comfort zone and make changes happens. Although they might feel uneasy before and during the process, after the change, they will find they have more power to change lives (Hudson Paul, 2013)

Change Management Model

Kotter’s 8-Step Change Model comprises three main parts:

Creating a climate for change. 1. Increase urgency. 2. Build the guiding team. 3. Get the right vision.

Engaging and enabling the organization. 4. Communicate for buy-in. 5. Empower action. 6. Create short-term wins

Implementing and sustaining change. 7. Don’t let up. 8. Make it stick (Covington John, 2002)

Kotter’s 8-Step Change Model is a valuable tool to manage changes and it has some advantage and. The first advantage is that it is easy to implement for managers because the process is step-by-step. It contains sufficient preparing steps for changes. Successful change requires each and every employee to understand the necessary of change; right team which has open and honest conversations, commitment and trust to do the job; managers to make the future more probable. So it is easier and more acceptable for employees to make changes happen.

However this model has limitations in practical. The most obvious one is it might take a long time to implement the whole process as time is the most valuable sources in a changing business world.

IBM is a classic example in change management. Before 1970s, IBM was the leader in the computer market and had strong culture to control uniform all the employees. They only focused on themselves and ignore the change outside. As a result, the company missed the technological and commercial trends and had gone terribly wrong. Fortunately, IBM found a new leader Lou Gerstner, who was a broad-based leader and change agent. He implemented a series of new policies within the company, created a revolution and revived IBM (Weeks John, 2004)

Conclusion and recommendation

It is different to definite what change is, but it happens every hour and moment. When facing the changes, organizations have only two options: adapt or die. Great leader has the capability to implement an theory into practice and has the capability to accept the unplanned changes and react quickly. Kotter’s 8-Step Change Model and other theories have demonstrated the method of leading changes. I would recommend managers create changes positively rather than wait for changes happen. They must continually re-evaluate their business models. And ask questions about their strategies to achieve their long term goals. Do not stay where you are now, make changes happen!

List of reference

Caprino Kathy (2014) “6 ways pushing past your comfort zone is critical to success” [online] available from <http://www.forbes.com/sites/kathycaprino/2014/05/21/6-ways-pushing-past-your-comfort-zone-is-critical-to-success/&gt; [27th Aug. 2014]

Covington, John (2002) “Eight Steps to Sustainable Change” Industrial Management Nov/Dec, 2002, 44(6) p8

Hudson Paul (2013) ‘The only way to create change is by leaving your comfort zone’ Elite Daily [online] available from <http://elitedaily.com/life/motivation/creatures-of-habit-and-self-motivating/&gt; [27th Aug. 2014]

Mullins Laurie J. (2013) Management & Organizational Behavior. 10th ed. Harlow: Pearson Education Ltd

Weeks John (2004) ‘Culture and leadership at IBM’ Insead [online] available from CULC Moodle [27th Aug. 2014]

THE BENEFITS AND REQUIREMENTS OF MANAGING DIVERSE TEAM

Introduction

The management of diversity encompasses managing the differences between individuals. It requires an effective action checklist and plan about the ethnic origin, age, gender, disability, family status, education, social or cultural background, personality or nationality etc. (Mullins Laurie J., 2013) It is playing an important role in the era of globalization. Meanwhile it brings many benefits and some challenges in organizations.

Advantages and challenges of diverse teams in organizations

The advantage of diversity in workplace has been explored by many organizations. A successful diverse team could lead to a range of profit-making ideas, innovation, creativity and an exchange of knowledge. In specific, the first is the team could attract the best talent to the company due to the high reputation of its workplace diversity. The second is that the different age groups, education, experience and genders are able to brainstorm a current issue to solve the problems efficiently. The Third, management of diversity could increase individual performance and retain the workforce (David McLauren (2009).

One of the most successful examples is HP. HP started its diversity management journey very early. It called “open corporate policy” From late 70’s and 80’s to 21st century, many activities have been hold such as “Black Managers Network” and “Diversity Lead named for Latin America.” These policies and actives bring the high reputation of trust and mutual understanding for HP, as trust is thought to be the most valuable and profitable elements of HP’s success (Kamal Yousuf, 2009)

However, diverse team not only brings benefits to organizations, but also triggers some problems, such as how to balance the difference and uniform, the flexibility and command the profitability and ethicality within a company. Take IKEA as an example, a global business of retail home furniture and house ware, it states in its corporate statements, “We see the diversity issue as a matter of creating a more challenging business atmosphere and of course expanding the recruitment base – including everyone and not just Swedish men.” (Korsgaard S. et al. 2013). On the one hand IKEA tries to respect and understand the differences of individuals, while on the other hand it also wants to keep a unified corporate culture. This leads the issue: if and how individuals with diverse background in culture, race, sexual orientation and age all can feel pleased with unified culture in IKEA workplace. (Korsgaard S. et al. 2013)

When a company organizes diverse teams, the ideal consequence is that the potential advantages are maximized and the potential disadvantages are minimized. But there is no guarantee that all the diverse teams could make a desired contribution to the organization. From the cultural aspect, according the Kovach’s research, the cross-cultural group could be highly effective and highly infective. Only when the teams have consensus, agreed processes and recognized diversity (CULC, 2014)

 

How to manage a diverse team

It is important that managers are able to effectively build a harmonious workplace in the diverse team. The key competencies and behaviors are display in Figure 1 below. It contains understanding others, developing self and others, communications, self-awareness, flexibility to management, HR disciplines and commitment to diversity. The explanation of each requirement is in the middle of the circle.

 

Figure 1:Manager’s competencies: leading diverse teams

In the Minister of manpower in Singapore, they give ten suggestions on how to build a harmonious team culture.

1. Establish a common team vision or objectives for the diverse team members.
2. Remove “us” and “them” to make the different individuals closer.
3. Communicate to your team members to emphasize the importance and benefits the different members bring.
4. Have regular conversation to monitor the process of projects and talk about the behavior expectations to each group member.
5. Keep a mind that what benefits and new perspective a new employee can bring while the recruitment process.
6. Help the new team members settle in.
7. Encourage full participation to all the team members.
8. Address and avoid biases
9. Organize regular team activities and celebrate special holidays to increase understanding and interaction with each other.
10. To be a role model on what you advocate.

Conclusion and recommendation

Diverse team has emerged its benefits and challenges in many organizations. It requires managers change their mind and improve skills to manage the diverse team.

Before most of people believed that the golden rule to get along with others is that, treat others as you want to be treated. But when it comes to a diverse time, the way we used to show respect or need might not the right way to treat others. The individual in the team has different values, need and habits. As the scholar states, individual differences are the bases of diversity (Mullins Laurie J, 2013) .Perhaps instead of using the golden rule, we could use the more respectful and thoughtful way: “Treat others as they want to be treated.” (UCSF, 2012)

List of reference

CULC (2014) Moodle ECSLON_E07 U6S1 Knowledge cast

David McLauren (2009) “Benefits of Workplace Diversity” [online] available from <http://www.davidmclauren.com/Connector_April_2009.pdf&gt; [20 Aug. 2014]

Korsgaard S. et al. (2013) “The diversity management paradox in globalization – the Swedish IKEA way” [online] available from <http://www.morten-rask.dk/2007c.pdf> [20 Aug. 2014]

Kamal Yousuf (2009) “Managing Diversity at Workplace: A Case Study of HP”. ASA University Review, 3 (2) July–December, 2009

Mullins Laurie J. (2013) Management & Organisational Behavour. 10th ed. Harlow: Pearson Education Ltd

Singapore Gov. (2014) Managing workplace diversity: a toolkit for organizations [online] available from <http://www.mom.gov.sg/Documents/employment-practices/WDM/Workplace%20Diversity%20Management%20Tookit%20and%20Manager’s%20Guide.pdf > [20 Aug. 2014]

UCSF (2012) “Managing Diversity in the Workplace” [online] available from <http://ucsfhr.ucsf.edu/index.php/pubs/hrguidearticle/chapter-12-managing-diversity-in-the-workplace/#681> [20 Aug. 2014]

ETHICAL LEADERSHIP & DEVELOPING ETHICAL CULTURE

The definition of ethical leadership is given by Bill Grace, as it is “knowing your core values and having the courage to live them in all parts of your life in service of the common good” (Bill Grace, 1999). And in 2005, ethical leadership was conceptualized into three key building blocks: being an ethical model, treating people fairly, and actively managing morality (Brown et al. 2005). These definition shows the ethics is consistently selection when individual and organizations face decision making.

What effect does ethical leadership have on the individuals and organizations?

Ethical leadership helps organizations to balance the profitability and social responsibility. Ethical leadership builds a high reputation for organizations. In some industry, when a customer or potential customers selects a production, the first thing they consider is weather this company is trustworthy. For example, the insurance company Aflac has been the world’s Most Ethical Companies for many years. The CEO said the ethical leadership is an instrument of the company’s success. They insist to be honest and benefit to the community. Good ethics has been a competitive advantage and the most valuable asset of the company (Aflac official website, 2014) What’s more, it can attract the good partner and gain the practical benefit for the organization. Starbucks CEO, Howard Schultz said, they selected a business partnership of the value of balancing profitability with a social conscience (Howard Schultz, 2012)

For individuals, ethical dimensions shape the culture of an organization and influence the value and behavior of the individual. An ethical leader is more popular for the companies and followers. He/she can set the ethical tone of an organization to create an interpersonally harmonious workplace (Mayer et al, 2012). As a result, employees in a neighbourly environments are more happy and efficiency.

Ethical versus Non-ethical leadership

A contrary example is the story of accountancy firm of Arthur Andersen. It has founded 89 years by 2002 and was once one of the world’s top five accountants. But it lost the most of business and two-third of the American workforce overnight. Because it was found the guilty of obstructing justice by shredding documents relating to the failed energy giant Enron, Andersen lost the trust of marketing (BBC, 2002). The decision leaders made ethically could lead a giants bankrupt or give a black eye on the organization’s history.

After the scandals in the economic crisis, business owners have a high concurrence on ethical leadership. Good news about the state of ethics is that NBES 2013 reveals that misconduct is at a historic low compared with 2012 in American workplace. Now the business calls for ethical leaders. They are expected to maximize economic outcomes to satisfy the stakeholder inside and outside the organization, meanwhile, the social responsibility is a measure standard of a good leader.

Developing Ethical Business Culture

For moral and practical reasons, organizations are trying to reduce the unethical behavior, but a perennial question asked by many leaders: How to develop an ethical culture in the organization? Here Bill Donahue gave some suggestions. He helps leaders grapple with personal and cultural ethics by focusing on 5 core areas (Bill Donabue, 2013)

1.Respects Others: People might disregard others unintentionally by ignoring some tiny impolite behaviors.

2. Serves Others: The goal of leadership is serving employees rather than exploiting them.

3. Show Justice: Leaders are the role models of the followers. It is crucial to make it right when they notice injustice in team, community or organizations.

4. Manifests Honesty: being honest is tricky in the business world, but Dishonest leaders will lead the biggest loss and damage the reputation of an organization.

5. Builds Community: Creating a community where people are embraced by an honest, caring and authentic culture. (Bill Donabue, 2013)

Indeed, it is the leaders of the company who affect the culture and followers in encouraging ethical behaviors in the organization. If leaders speak or act unethically, their follower will not comply with the values and missions which only state on the websites and walls. On other hand it is not enough to shape the culture by the leaders themselves. Reward and punishment systems should be created to influence other individuals’ behaviors (Mayer et al, 2012) Thus, ethical culture can be created by using ethical models and ethical rules at the same time. After this, organizations still need to work hard on maintaining and promoting the ethical leadership in daily management and in a changing world.

List of reference

Aflac official website (2014) World Most Ethical Companies [online] available from <http://www.aflac.com/aboutaflac/pressroom/ethisphere.aspx?WT.mc_id=Ethisphere%20Ad_B2B_Redirect_ethisphere_Print_+_&gt; [10th Aug. 2014]

BBC news (2002) ‘Andersen guilty in Enron case’ [online] available from <http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/2047122.stm&gt; [10th Aug. 2014]

Brown et al. (2005) ‘Ethical leadership: A social learning perspective for construct development and testing’, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 97(2) 117–134

Bill Donabue (2013) ‘The 5 Principles of Ethical Leadership’, Bill Donabue ’s Blog: Developing life-changing leaders [online] available from <http://drbilldonahue.com/ethical-leadership/ > [10th Aug. 2014]

Bill Grace (1999) Ethical Leadership: In Pursuit of the Common Good. Publisher: Center for Ethical Leadership

Howard Schultz (2012) Video [online] available from <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZY8gxJcKtjM > [10th Aug. 2014]

Mayer et al (2012) ‘Who displays ethical leadership, and why does it matter? An examination of antecedents and consequences of ethical leadership’ Academy of Management Journal 55(1) 151-171

NBES (2013) National Business Ethics Survey [online] available from <http://www.ethics.org/nbes/ > [10th Aug. 2014]