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Moral Leadership and Unconscious Bias

Have you ever seen something wrong... but you stayed silent about it? Katie Shonk (2020) shares a personal story in a blog post about a good intentioned, but rather crass effort that they made to shut down a homophobic comment made at their wedding reception. Even though Shonk does not identify as gay, she took offense at this comment and made the decision to call out the comment as unacceptable. She wanted to be a good ally. When we hear people say things that are offensive or rude, it can be difficult to speak up, especially if we aren’t the ones that comment was about. When we do, it can be easy to come across as self-righteous and create more tension. So, what are we meant to do when we see biased or antisocial behavior?  As a university employee I am required to complete standard HR training on a yearly basis. One of these training sessions is related to harassment prevention. Last year our training was revamped to include bystander intervention and a section on the importance...
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Leaders and Followers and How They Work Together

Obolensky (2016) provides a 16 question assessment to help readers assess the leadership strategy that they mostly gravitate towards. Below I describe four leadership strategies as outlined by Obolensky (2016).  Strategy I - Tell You've probably used this strategy before. Telling someone what to do! This strategy is pretty straight forward, however, it requires the leader to know what to do. This prescriptive approach is a direct strategy that focuses attention on the goal/outcome rather than on the people. The tell strategy I only selected once in this assessment.  Strategy II - Sell Sell strikes a balance between focusing leadership efforts on the goal and on the people executing the goal. Much like a salesperson, the sell strategy requires the leader to fully understand the situation and for them to describe the benefits and risks associated with the actions to be undertaken. A good sales person can make their client (or in this case employee) feel good about their purchase...
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Emerging as a Leader

Throughout my leadership studies the idea that leadership is about how you do your work rather than the job title you have has become increasingly clear. Northouse (2016) describes these different types of leadership as assigned by one's job title or as emergent when someone who does not have a leadership position emerges as a leader. How to Lead When You're Not the Boss (2009) provides five actions that one can take in order to emerge as a leader; they include- Establish Goals Think systematically  Learn from experience-while it is happening Engage others Provide feedback Image from: https://vgpsblog.wordpress.com/2013/02/10/assigned-leadership-vs-emergent-leadership/ Throughout my career, I have engaged in these kinds of behaviors in order to have the biggest impact on my work center. I didn't know it at the time, but by engaging in these ways I was showing off some leadership skills that were emerging within me. I always asked questions, requested and provided feedback (...
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Mind the (Leadership) Gap

The Rebel Child As I suspect you may have experienced, I had a complicated relationship with leadership in my younger years. I conflated leadership with authority and, boy did I dislike authority. Parent's telling me precisely how to live my life. Administrators telling me exactly how to perform my job duties. I saw these authority figures as barriers to freedom of choice and how I wanted to live my life or perform my duties. I felt that the role of a leader was that of a dictator. Growing older, and having had a taste of leadership through my roles in different organizations, I learned to untangle leadership from authority. I learned that leadership can be assigned or emergent and that what I experienced in my younger years was not the ideal example of leadership (Northouse, 2016). This experience of leadership seems to conflict with those of my parents and my grandparents. Changing Views - A Generational and Technological Difference I am lucky enough to have one living grandparen...
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A520.9.3.RB - Course Reflections

The Master of Leadership program at Embry-Riddle is comprised of short 9-week course. Although these courses are short, the readings and assignments required are quite involved and require a great deal of self-reflection, especially with these reflection blog assignments. MSLD 520 Management Skills for Leaders has been an in-depth exploration into the specific skills, attitudes, and behaviors required for leaders to best lead their teams. Organized in a similar structure to the Eastern style Lovingkindness Meditation. It begins with the self (self-awareness), the expands out to an individual (inter-personal), then finally out to the world (groups) (Kang et al., 2014; Whetten & Cameron, 2011). Image From: https://playfishmedia.com/thats-a-wrap/ One of my major takeaways from this course has been the connection between mindfulness and leadership theory and practice. Previously, I thought that my mindfulness journey and my leadership journey were two separate life adventures. I kn...
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My Role(s) in a Team

Teamwork is a common thread throughout life. Growing up with parents and a sibling, working at my first job at McDonald's, and my marriage and current household all provide me with an opportunity to practice teamwork. Most, if not all, of the engagements in my life involve interacting and cooperating with others, so this exploration into how teams form and are led is an interesting practice of reviewing literature and reflecting on how I engage in my day-to-date life. As a part of a team, I tend to take leadership roles quite naturally. Whetten & Cameron (2011) describe several roles of embers within a team: task-facilitating, relationship-building, and blocking roles. I believe that I have played each role at some point. I feel most at home when I play a task-facilitation role, but I also make time and space for relationship-building. Teamwork is all about getting individual contributors to work together toward a common goal, so ensuring that the relationships among team membe...
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Conflict Management

Before reading about conflict from the perspective in Whetten and Cameron's (2016) Management Skills for Leaders I held a rather negative view of conflict in general. Through the lens of the dual concern model of conflict management styles, I took an avoidance style which is uncooperative and unassertive. Basically I thought that conflict was bad and something to avoid at all costs, especially at work. Empowered with new knowledge about the nature of conflict and its benefits to decision-making and problem solving processes I now adopt a more conflict-positive attitude. What caused this shift for me in a big was was the study which described the powerful positive impact that a devil’s advocate can play on improving business outcomes, even though they can cause great stress to a team (Whetten & Cameron, 2016). Perhaps the reason that I’ve avoided conflict like the plague has something to do with the negative emotions that it can bring up. As a remedy to this Whetten and Cameron...
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