Knowledgeable 

Objective:

Knowledgeable:

Understand and apply the theoretical concepts of leadership, organizational behavior and systems and evaluate their effectiveness in leading change initiatives.

Reflection:

Knowledge is the art of obtaining facts, information, and skills through experience and education. To coincide with the purpose of this portfolio, knowledge consists of learning about historical and contemporary leadership approaches, organizational behaviors and systems, and evaluating their effectiveness in change initiatives. In my personal and professional life, It has been difficult to explain the discipline of leadership studies and why it is important to society. Truthfully, leadership is complex, has multiple dimensions, and means something different to everyone. By the same token, application of the leadership skills and behaviors is even more challenging than the skills written on paper. To lay a solid foundation, I have adopted the definition of leadership written by Joseph Rost (1993) in his book Leadership in the Twenty-First Century, “Leadership is an influence relationship among leaders and followers who intend real changes and reflect their mutual purposes” (p. 102). Importantly, the role of leadership is available to anyone and is not limited to an individual with a particular role, trait, or characteristic. Leadership is a process that is not linear but rather a transactional process between leaders and followers. Leadership is now seen as a social change construct and is utilized in various contexts outside of business and production. The study of leadership is important to society because “many people believe that leadership is a way to improve their personal, social, and professional lives. Corporations seek those with leadership ability because they bring special assets to their organization and, ultimately, improve the bottom line. Hence, leadership is a highly sought-after and highlyvalued commodity” (Northouse, 2019, p. 1).

One of the benefits of completing my graduate education at the same institution as my undergraduate degree is digging deeper into the fundamental leadership theories and grasping an understanding of what the theorist was trying to convey to their target audience. During the foundations of leadership course, we were instructed to build a final concept map that analyzed how our perceptions about leadership changed based on the literature. As a result, there are concepts that I attribute more to leadership now than I did when I was an undergraduate student. As I transitioned to a professional work environment, I have learned that an individual has the potential to act as both a leader and a follower at certain moments in their organization based on strengths and weaknesses. Personally, I believe that followership is underappreciated and underrepresented in leadership research. The leader is seen as the locus of leadership, however, leadership cannot be fully explained or executed without followers. “Theories that posit the followers as the locus of leadership identify unique aspects of followers which by themselves (i.e., independent of the leader) would make leadership possible” (Hernandez, 2011, p. 1167). As a leader, it is important to recognize the follower’s strengths and weaknesses, delegate tasks accordingly, and reward followers for their contributions. Throughout my time in the program, my ideals align with Kelley’s (1988, 2008) typology. Specifically, “followers share the same indispensable qualities: (1)They self-manage and think for themselves, exercise control and independence, and work without supervision; (2) they show a strong commitment to organizational goals as well as their personal goals; (3) they build their competence and master job skills; and (4) they are credible, ethical, and courageous. As a rule, followers are valuable to organizations and the leadership process and should be treated as such.

As I continue to develop my philosophy of leadership, I completed a Scholarly Journal Article Critique (SJAC) that focused on Kurt Lewin’s research and advancements pertaining to group behavior, action research, participative management, and the first phase of the Harwood Studies that laid a solid foundation for organizational development. Although his thoughts were radical at the time, his idea of democratic-participative leadership is revolutionary for modern-day organizations. It is a fact that leaders will never have all of the correct answers or information. To make fruitful decisions for the whole organization, leaders must consult stakeholders at every level. There is no one right way to accomplish a task and strategizing creates a sense of belonging. Hence, leaders and followers must work together to achieve mutual goals. He is recognized for the creation of the three-stage change process: unfreezing, changing, and refreezing. Although criticized because his model is too instrumental and simplistic, the model is prescriptive. I appreciate Lewin’s approach because he emphasizes effective team building and implementation of a common purpose. Also, he reflects on the degree to which managers involve others in making and implementing decisions. Ultimately, leadership is not a position or title and it cannot be done alone. In my professional career, I have learned that the more vulnerable and authentic I am about the knowledge and experiences that I bring to the table, the more willing I am to receive support and consideration from my coworkers. Humility is a big part of buy-in when it comes to establishing future and performance orientation.

In my second Scholarly Journal Article Critique (SJAC), I provide exposure to McGregor’s Theory X and Theory Y and the legacy and impact they had on managerial thinking and behavior. To further explain, “Theory X is defined as: the traditional view of direction and control” (Warner Burke, 2011, p. 194). Whereas “Theory Y is defined as “the integration of individual and organizational goals” (Warner Burke, 2011, p. 195). In my lower-level leadership courses, I was under the impression that the two were dichotomies. However, as I reviewed the research, I learned that McGregor insisted that both approaches be used interchangeably in various contexts. Although Theory Y is more predominant in society, some certain professions and organizations function better under a Theory X system such as libraries, the military, and factories. Organizations that require a strict system and hierarchy work well under this approach. Hence, both styles can be successful in different situations and reinforce one another at different points in our professional life. “There is enough Theory X within us to doubt the efficacy of acting as a manager consistently with Theory Y" (Warner Burke, 2011, p. 199). Although his methods are criticized for being over-generalized and too specific, McGregor draws a lot of insights from this theory that influence participative management, leadership, and motivational theories. His work impacts fields such as consulting, human resources, management, and leadership studies.

Lastly, my final artifact is the one that I am most passionate about and proud to have completed. If you had asked me in my undergraduate degree if crisis and leadership belong in the same sentence, I would have told you no. Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic impacted us globally the semester that I graduated in 2020. As a result, my perspective has changed and I believe that leaders must be responsible for learning how to proactively handle crises. By doing so, they have the opportunity to lessen the impact of reputational, financial, and personal repercussions. Also, leaders have the opportunity to produce positive organizational change from negative occurrences. Dr. Jill Arensdorf created a course exactly for this purpose. In the crisis leadership course, I was asked to create a concept map and paper demonstrating the main components of crisis leadership. During my first draft, I was only aware of the recovery efforts associated with the crisis. However, in this final draft, my eyes were open to behaviors, competencies, values, emotions, and resource tools associated with each stage of the crisis. One of my favorite takeaways from this course is that no crisis will be executed perfectly. Leaders need to be able to fail fast and rebound with an adaptive strategy. Furthermore, sometimes we are required to make executive decisions with the information that we have readily available. This includes handling information overload, reevaluating and changing direction, and handling criticism. All in all, my knowledge of leadership concepts has grown significantly. Although my formal education is coming to a close, there will always be new advancements and areas of scholarship to explore to excel professionally.

One example of how I have applied my knowledge of leadership to my personal life occurred last January. My organization had produced its annual company survey results and one of the primary areas of weakness centered around cross-departmental relationships and communication. As a result, my organization's knowledge management team constructed a group of professionals from each department to improve the diagnosis. I was placed on this working committee due to my education and role within my department. I was able to assist in creating group goals, a mission, and a vision statement. We set group expectations, decision-making guidelines, and developed a clear timeline. As we worked on an adaptive challenge that did not have defined answers, it took us several months to come up with a strategy that we would deploy. I was able to assist in creating several initiatives such as enhancing our Internal Knowledge Base (IKB) search functionality, highlighting team roles and their impact/purpose as product matter experts, and launching a chat widget to ask product functionality questions to the correct team. Furthermore, we were responsible for outlining the communication initiatives to department heads to receive buy-in and help them understand the purpose of the project. By challenging them to use the resources and activities that we outlined, we were ensuring that multiple teams were taking ownership and improving communication efforts between teams. As a result of working on this initiative and contributing my leadership knowledge to this team, I was able to produce constructive advice and apply my education to a practical, real-world situation.

As I reflect on the course material and constructive feedback provided by my professors, I have learned that an effective leader communicates clear, transparent messages. They discuss what their plan of action is, how they plan to execute it, and provide distinct reasons for their actions. As I continue to work in teams that promote organizational change, my goal is to clearly articulate my leadership knowledge, my role within the change initiative, and my rationale regarding the development measures. In addition, as I seek a new position or promotion, it is my responsibility to effectively convey what leadership studies consist of and how my skill sets can be valuable to the organization. Although this degree is not well-recognized, the knowledge and practices that I bring to the table can make a significant difference. This requires me to reach new levels of confidence and self-efficacy to successfully convey my ideas and market myself to future employers. In addition, there are widely known practices of effective leadership. “The Kouzes and Posner Model consist of five fundamental practices that enable leaders to get extraordinary things accomplished: model the way, inspire a shared vision, challenge the process, enable others to act, and encourage the heart” (Northouse, 2019, p. 176). My goal is to question the status quo in appropriate situations, inspire others to think critically and visualize future outcomes, foster trust and collaboration among my colleagues, and remain authentic in my appreciation efforts. I am establishing this goal because it is easy to fall into the rhythm of GroupThink and agree with those who have credibility and status. By taking this transformational approach, I need to be receptive to my leader and followers’ needs, values, and morals. Especially, as being an effective leader requires me to motivate others to transcend their interests and pursue higher standards of moral responsibility.

References:

Hernandez, M., Eberly, M.B., Avolio, B.J., & Johnson, M.D. (2011). The loci and mechanisms of

leadership: Exploring a more comprehensive view of leadership theory. Leadership

Quarterly, 22, 1165-1185.

Kelly, R. E.(1988). In praise of followers. Harvard Business Review, 66(6), 141-148.

Kelly, R. E. (2008). Rethinking followership. In R. E. Riggio, I. Chaleff, & J. Lipman-Blumen

(Eds.), The art of followership: How great followers create leaders in organizations (pp.

55-16). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Northouse, P. G. (2019). Leadership: theory and practice. SAGE Publications, Inc.

Rost, J.C. (1993). Leadership for the twenty-first century. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers.

Warner Burke, W. (2011). On the legacy of theory Y. Journal of Management History, 17(2),

193-201. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/17511341111112596