A511.4.4.RB

A511.4.4.RB

 

This week’s readings and content covered managerial motivation and effectiveness.  Motivation is a topic I could read about all the time and never get tired of!  In many of the instances I've experienced where employees were unhappy, it was due to being unmotivated in their work.  When you, as a manager can motivate your employees, it gives them a sense of purpose.  Today, more than ever, a sense of purpose is important!

 

Managerial motivation, or motivating as a manager is not too much different than motivating as a team member, it simply has more weight!  As a manager, it is my job to encourage and motivate my team.  I realized some time ago, that motivating my team makes things not only go smoother, but have a coherent outcome.

 

 

Managerial Effectiveness

Theodore Rubin stated the following about problems (as a manager).  The problem is not that there are problems. The problem is expecting otherwise and thinking that having problems is a problem.

 

Managers loose effectiveness when they loose site of the fact that problems will happen, after all it is PART of the job!  It is important for managers to take the people out of the problem and simply focus on the problem!

 

As a leader I posses the following skills which I believe contribute greatly to the leader and manager I am:

• Vision
• Intuitive
• Set a Good Example
• Supportive (give praise for great work)
• Listener
• Doer
• Foster leadership in subordinates/employees

 

I believe I can leverage those strengths to improve value to my organization by using them to influence change.  Change is necessary for growth and doesn't always have to be painful.  influencing change, creates an environment that is open to change, which is a beautiful thing!

 

 

 

 The type of change I am speaking of, is in leadership and management that holds the torch high, but still low enough to keep everybody warm!  It is the type of leadership and management which hones the leaders who to come, because a leader is only as good as his/her team!  The contingency theory can help me by continually being flexible as a leader and manager.  There is not a one-size fit-all answer to every question and fix to every problem.  Each solution is contingent, not only on the team member, but the situation at hand!

 

Taking in account situational variables to assist in the process will show employees and peers that I have taken the time to think about options, rather than just making a quick decision because I can.

 

 

References:

 

 http://quotations.about.com/cs/inspirationquotes/a/Team9.htm

 

Yukl, G.  (2013).  Leadership in organization. (8th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ:  Prentice Hall

A511.3.4.RB

Power and influence are subjects which pervade our society as well as our organizations – those in which we work, play, and live (our families!).  

What is power and influence? 

Power:

According to Yukl, 2013, the concept of  power is useful for understanding how people are able to influence each other in organizations (Mintzberg, 1983; Pfeffer, 1981, 1992). Power involves the capacity of one party (the “agent”) to influence another party (the “target”).  How power is used and the outcomes of influence attempts can increase or reduce an agent’s subsequent power. In this book, the term power is usually used to describe the absolute capacity of an individual agent to influence the behavior or attitudes of one or more designated target persons at a given point in time.


 
 

Influence:

Influence is the essence of leadership. To be effective as a leader, it is necessary to influence people to carry out requests, support proposals, and implement decisions. In large organizations, the

effectiveness of managers depends on influence over superiors and peers as well as influence over

subordinates. Influence in one direction tends to enhance influence in other directions (Yukl, 2013).

 
 

How is power is acquired or lost in organizations?

 According to Gareth, 2006, the "power" within an organization may not always rest with the "boss".

The following sources of power can provide organization members with a variety of means for enhancing their interests and smoothing over or creating organization conflict.

1. Formal authority
2. Use of organizational structure, rules and regulations
3. Ability to cope with uncertainty
4. Interpersonal alliances, networks, and control of "informal organization"
5. Symbolism and the management of meaning
6. Gender and the management of gender relations
7. Structural factors that define the stage of action
8. The power one already has

Additionally, the control of the following can provide additional power to members: 

S	carce resources
	Decision processes
	Knowledge and information
	Boundaries
	Technology
	Counter organizations

 

Consequence of power for leadership effectiveness:

Members of teams with high-power leaders are likely to keep quiet in meetings, both because high-power leaders talk a lot, meaning there's not much time for others to talk, and because of the perception—fair or not—that powerful people aren't interested in anyone else's ideas. This can result in a dearth of ideas during brainstorming sessions.

Leader power has a negative effect on team members' perceptions of the leader's ability and desire to engage in open communication. Because open communication is vital to any project, these perceptions can hurt team performance.

These negative effects of leader power can be virtually eliminated simply by clearly communicating the idea that every team member is individually instrumental to any given task at hand.

 

 

 

Types of influence tactics used in organizations:

 Influence, at its most basic definition, is changing someone’s behavior. It making an impact in a situation where you ordinarily you wouldn’t have much control. It is a way of doing something, rather than sitting back and deciding that there is nothing you can do.

Influencing tactics are as follows:

• Rational/Logical Persuasion
• Inspirational Appeal
• Consultation
• Collaboration

I believe that all of the above tactics can be used to influence subordinates and peers.  I am a firm believer that more than one tactic should be used!  Different people react to influence in different ways, when different tactics are used a manager is not only influencing but doing so with the best possible outcome!  Influencing superiors however, is a bit trickier!  When influencing superiors
it is important to inspire and collaborate, leaning any further on the consultation or persuasion side of things could be taken as being a pushy or over-stepping boundaries!

 

 The power that I personally bring to my work place is a collaborative, inspiring and roll-your-sleeves up approach.  I believe people are much more receptive to me in this manner, which in turn does not make it tough to convince 'Alaskans to buy ice' from me!  (I can be very persuasive, without anybody knowing at all)  

A strong part of this power and influence for me, is team work.  I never ask a person to do something I will not do myself, I like working with people, whenever possible!

In my current position  I haven't experience high quality LMX situations (Leader-member exchange). 

 

Leader-member exchange (LMX) theory posits that leaders develop special relationships with certain employees.  By and large, prior studies have emphasized the positive aspects of LMX for the employees who have high-quality exchange relationships with their supervisors

However, given the benefits that tend to accrue to employees in high-quality exchange relationships, workers who have relatively low-quality exchange relationships with their supervisors are likely to be frustrated when they compare their situation to that of their peers.

 

On second thought, maybe I HAVE experience high quality LMX situation, but am just on the 'high' side.  I tend to have really good relationships with my supervisors!

 

 

 

 

 

References:

 Morgan, G. (2006). Images of organization (Updated ed.). Thousand Oaks, [etc.: Sage Publications.

Yukl, G.  (2013).  Leadership in organization. (8th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ:  Prentice Hall.
 

A511.2.4.RB Supportive Leadership

Leadership Behavior

Take the opportunity to reflect specifically on Yukl's material on pages 63 through 72, Supportive Behavior

Supportive leadership (or “supporting”) includes a wide variety of behaviors that show consideration, acceptance, and concern for the needs and feelings of other people. Supportive leadership helps to build and maintain effective interpersonal relationships. A manager who is considerate and friendly toward people is more likely to win their friendship and loyalty. The emotional ties that are formed make it easier to gain cooperation and support from people on whom the manager must rely to get the work done. It is more satisfying to work with someone  who is friendly, cooperative, and supportive than with someone who is cold and impersonal, or worse, hostile, and uncooperative (Yukl, 2013).

Guidelines for Supporting

·        Show acceptance and positive regard.

·        Provide sympathy and support when the person is anxious or upset.

·        Bolster the person’s self-esteem and confidence.

·        Be willing to help with personal problems.

Guidelines for Developing Subordinates

·        Show concern for each person's development.

·        Help the person identify ways to improve performance.

·        Be patient and helpful when providing coaching.

·        Provide helpful career advice.

·        Help the person prepare for a job change.

·        Encourage attendance at relevant training activities.

·        Provide opportunities to learn from experience.

·        Encourage coaching by peers when appropriate.

·        Promote the person’s reputation.
 

Recognizing

Recognizing involves giving praise and showing appreciation to others for effective performance, significant achievements, and important contributions to the organization. The primary purpose of recognizing, especially when used with subordinates, is to strengthen desirable behavior and task commitment. Recognizing is primarily a relations behavior, but like developing, it can contribute to the attainment of task objectives as well. Three major forms of recognizing are praise, awards, and recognition ceremonies.

Assuming that these leadership behaviors are appropriate at all levels of organizations; I do a fairly good job of using these tactics with my Work Experience Students.  In my role, it is extremely important to give positive constructive feedback, coach, encourage, support and recognize individuals for all progress, no matter how small! 

I’ve found that the students respond positively and in turn actually WANT to come to ‘work’.  That is what I aim for, a positive experience that they actually want to come and do every day!  All students met 2 out of 3 goals set for them in the beginning of the year, this is big!  These two things alone give me plenty of reason and cause to keep these tools close and use often because I want to engage the participants in my program!

 

A511.1.5.RB

Where Leadership and Management Intersect: The ‘IT’ Factor

A leader realizes that in order to develop and lead other people he or she must first develop her/himself, it is in this respect I think leadership is a key quality in being an effective manager.  This post will look closely at the intersect of leadership and management.  Nobody has proposed that managing and leading are equivalent, but the degree of overlap is a point of sharp disagreement (Yukl, 2013).

In order to take a closer look we must first answer the following questions: What is leadership and how does it relate to management? The concept of how management and leadership intersect is continually discussed and debated.

 

 

Leadership Definition:

According to the text, (Yukl, 2013, Leadership is the process of influencing others to understand and agree about what needs to be done and how to do it, and the process of facilitating individual and collective efforts to accomplish shared objectives.

Leadership Theories & Concepts:

Most theories about effective leadership focus on behaviors used to directly influence immediate subordinates, but a leader can also influence other people inside the organization, including peers, bosses, and people at lower levels who do not report to the leader.

In the text, Yuki states that leadership has many different and varying meanings to people, “some theorists question whether it is even useful as a scientific construct (e.g., Alvesson & Sveningsson, 2003; Miner, 1975). Nevertheless, most behavioral scientists and practitioners seem to believe leadership is a real phenomenon that is important for the effectiveness of organizations. Interest in the subject continues to increase and the deluge of articles and books about leadership shows no sign of abating”(Yukl, 2013).

Split Concepts of Leadership:

A major controversy involves the issue of whether leadership should be viewed as a specialized role or as a shared influence process.  Another way to view leadership is in terms of an influence process that occurs naturally within a social system and is diffused among the members. Writers with this perspective believe it is more useful to study “leadership” as a social process or pattern of relationships rather than as a specialized role.

Kotter (1990) proposed that managing seeks to produce predictability and order, where-as leading seeks to produce organizational change. Both roles are necessary, but problems can occur if an appropriate balance is not maintained. Too much emphasis on the managing role can discourage risk taking and create a bureaucracy without a clear purpose. Too much emphasis on the leadership role can disrupt order and create change that is impractical. According to Kotter, the importance of leading and managing depends in part on the situation. As an organization becomes larger and more complex, managing becomes more important (Yukl, 2013).

Management Concepts:

The descriptive research found that managerial work is inherently hectic, varied, fragmented, reactive, disorderly, and political. Brief oral interactions predominate, and many of these involve people outside the manager’s immediate work unit and chain of command. Identifying meaningful and widely applicable categories to describe the content of managerial work has been a problem for a long time. One approach is the taxonomy of managerial roles proposed by Mintzberg.



 

TABLE 2-1   (Yukl, 2013)  Mintzberg’s Managerial Roles

 Information Processing Roles

• Disseminator
• Monitor
• Spokesperson

 Decision-Making Roles

• Entrepreneur
• Disturbance handler
• Resource allocator
• Negotiator

Interpersonal Roles

• Liaison
• Figurehead
• Leader

Another approach is represented by job description research that asks managers to rate the importance of different activities and responsibilities for their jobs (Yuki, 2013).

The ‘IT’ Factor:

Leaders and followers influence each other as they interact in non-coercive ways to decide what changes they want to make. Managers may be leaders, but only if they have this type of influence relationship.

“Failing organizations are often over managed and under led” –Warren G. Bennis

Finally, effective managers are more proactive in their behavior. Even when reacting to unforeseen events, their behavior more closely reflects their objectives and priorities. Effective leaders devote time to identifying current problems for which a solution can be found, and they prepare how to respond to unavoidable but predictable problems and disruptions. When a problem occurs, they quickly identify the cause and take decisive action to direct the work unit’s response. Effective leaders also keep people informed about progress in efforts to deal with a serious crisis (Yuki, 2013).

 

Manager/ Leaders with the ‘IT’ factor have done the following:

• Go from Planning  to Creating Vision
• Go from Organizing to Aligning
• Go from Controlling to Inspiring

 

Reference:

Yukl, G. A. (2013). Leadership in organizations (8th ed.). Boston: Pearson.

A520.9.3.CM.HoyeJennifer

The text defines power as the "potential to influence behavior" (Whetton and Cameron, 2011, p. 286).  Power is a funny thing, I read an anonymous quote once that said, "The only way to predict the future is to have power to shape the future."   As a leader, this quote couldn't be MORE true!  As an effective leader, we have the power to change the future of our company!  Leadership is the ability to influence employees to voluntarily pursue organizational goals....very powerful indeed!  Leadership copes with change by setting a direction, aligning people to accomplish an agenda, and motivating and inspiring people.

 

Are you comfortable developing sources of personal influence to gain power?

I am comfortable developing sources of personal influence to gain power.  Let me explain a bit further about this:  I think it can be assumed that it is easy for someone with power to give commands rather than make requests.  Powerful people tend to get positive feedback from subordinates and they begin to care less about what subordinates say.   With this assumption in mind, I try to stay very grounded in my leadership/ power approach. 
In my experience, people prefer managers and leaders who have direct and cooperative power.  The most effective power tactics are rational argument, consultation and inspirational appeal.  These are the more socially acceptable tactics and are very useful in influencing situations!

Do you embody the characteristics of likable people depicted in Table 5.4 (p. 290)?
The characteristics of likable people are as follows:

Table 5.4 Characteristics of Likable People

We like people when we have reason to believe they will:

• Support an open, honest, and loyal relationship.
• Foster intimacy by being emotionally accessible.
• Provide unconditional, positive regard and acceptance.
• Endure some sacrifices if the relationship should demand them.
• Provide social reinforcement in the form of sympathy or empathy.
• Engage in the social exchanges necessary to sustain a relationship.

I think I definitely embody these characteristics.  The one place I could work on a little more, however, is showing a bit more sympathy and empathy.   The reason I don't often show these things to employees, is with the thought that,  "if I've done it in worse situations, you can do it now".   Yes, I indeed, should accept that not everybody is a super hero like myself and show more sympathy!  ha ha

Are you able to use influence both up and down your organization considering the information in Table 5.5 (p. 293)

I feel I am able to use influence rather interchangeably both up and down  considering the information.   I am always the manager which subordinates come to with problems, when they won't go to others managers.  They know I will listen to them, and they also know, I have the ability to influence change.  I don't take that lightly, I take is as a great compliment and try not to become complacent!

A520.7.3.RB.HoyeJennifer

I remember the day, I fell in love with the art of presentation. It was the first day of my freshman year. I attended my first high school assembly where Dr. Pheifer, the principle of the massive 5A Cooper High School in Abilene, TX (there were 500 people freshman in my class alone) was able to hold the ENTIRE student body attention for 45 minutes straight. I remember sitting on the edge of my seat because I couldn't wait for her next analogy. Dr. Pheifer, was a master at public speaking.

I was on speech and debate team throughout my entire high school years and always aspired to speak as eloquently as she did! During that time, Dr. Pheifer would step in to 'have a listen'. It was my Speech coach, Ms. Gary, that I consider to be my very first mentor. SHE was the one who actually TAUGHT you how to speak in front of people...'effortlessly'! Ms. Gary's lessons still ring in the back of my mind today, nearly two decades later!

The Significance of a Mentor
A mentor is someone who allows you to see the hope inside yourself. Mentoring requires a willingness to share, listen, and provide advice in a flexible relationship. One can’t get through all those challenges without a little help and a lot of internal strength. Thus, a mentor is someone who can show that internal strength that each person presumably has. And though small as it may seem, a glimpse of the potential greatness that resides within each person is enough for anyone to believe in the future and continue to persevere.

The Impact of Having a Mentor
My first mentor, Ms. Gary exposed me to educational and social opportunities, which opened my eyes to all the different possibilities. She motivated me to seek out new experiences, which I otherwise would not have done! I believe a mentor can motivate by helping protege's set achievable goals and realize personally relevant outcomes. This is extremely important and 'sticks', carrying over into other areas of life. Moreover, the impact of having a mentor is as vast as the ocean dropping into the horizon!

Get around people who have something of value to share with you. Their impact will continue to have a significant effect on your life long they have departed.

A520.6.5.RB.HoyeJennifer

What is a task-facilitating role?

A facilitator is an individual who's job is to help to manage a process of information exchange. While an expert's" role is to offer advice, particularly about the content of a discussion, the facilitator's role is to help with HOW the discussion is proceeding. In other words, facilitating main purpose is in the journey, not the destination!

In the Foreword to Facilitator’s Guide to Participatory Decision Making by Sam Kaner, Michael Doyle presents two important lessons learned. "Lesson one: if people don’t participate in and ‘own’ the solution to the problems or agree to the decision, implementation will be half-hearted at best, probably misunderstood, and, more likely than not, fail. The second lesson is that the key differentiating factor in the success of an organization is not just the products and services, not just its technology or market share, but the organization’s ability to elicit, harness, and focus the vast intellectual capital and goodwill in their members, employees, and stakeholders. When these get energized and focused, the organization becomes a powerful force for positive change in today’s business and societal environments."

How does this role enhance team performance?

The role of facilitator enhances team performance by helping teams to operate more efficiently. A facilitator must know what questions to ask, when to ask them and how questions should be structured to get good answers without prompting defensiveness.

I tend to relate as a team-member to the team and facilitating by the following:

• Offer perspective and ideas
• Actively participate in team meetings
• Adhere to meeting ground rules
• Complete assignments on time
• Support implementation of recommendations

I am definitely an engaging person in a team setting. I believe it is essential to accomplish the mission. Engaging people in a team setting, helps them understand that their work is important. I tend to believe that people want to contribute, so engaging people fully in their work to enable them to use their talents and have a sense of fulfilment is top priority!

My facilitation style definitely aims to improve team cohesion and collaboration! The best efforts of teams usually produce better results than individual efforts. Increased participation within the group definitely increases productivity. Once the team realizes this fact, they become unstoppable!

What is a relationship-building role?
Building relationships is just as important within the project team as it is outside. Good relationships can be the difference between outstanding success and dismal failure because it's all about getting people to like and trust you so that they will deliver what you need them to deliver at the right time in the right way. As with anything that involves people, establishing processes to encourage good communication and relationships and make clear expectations, provides the cornerstone for success in any project.

How does this role enhance team performance?
Anytime, relationships are being built, the foundation of team performance is being strengthened. The team members not only share expectations for accomplishing group tasks, but trust and support one another and respect one another's individual differences.

I generally relate as a team-member openly to relationship-building! The type of relationship that comes from relationship-building is one that is open, respectful and motivating!

It is important to me to actively engage my team to accomplish its mission because it feels really great to be part of something that is successful!

I definitely work to improve team cohesion and collaboration! Teams that are not committed to each other or a common goal, do not experience cohesion and are much more like to leave the team or even the organization.


Reference:

http://www.extension.umn.edu/distribution/citizenship/DH7429.html