A633.7.3.RB_Burns_Melissa

Complete the exercise at the beginning of Obolensky’s Chapter 10 and use the scoring table at the end to assess your responses. Also consider Heifetz et al’s vision of adaptive culture.

In your submission, reflect on what this assessment means in terms of your leadership and your relationship to your followers. 

See Appendix A and B after the reference section for my quiz results and explanation. 

Has your thinking changed over the course of the past six weeks, if so; why, and, if not; why?

This course in adaptive leadership has helped to broaden my awareness of how I view leadership.  The quiz in Obolensky’s (2014) Chapter 10 especially pointed out my tendencies to lean towards a people focused over a goal focused approach.  We can all be our own biggest critic or asset and when self-evaluating our own leadership qualities it is easy to start to pick yourself apart.  I know that when I am faced with a scenario that I feel wronged or that makes my own personal crusader kick in that I tend towards being reactionary and forceful in my actions and decisions.  As I have gotten older and more aware of my own tendencies, I try to combat them by stepping back and waiting with patience, like I am constantly telling my toddler to do, before I make any decisions.  I am certainly not always successful in this, but knowing helps me to do better in these circumstances.   

When I have control over the scenario and I am in more of a teaching or mentoring role, then I am more naturally an inclusive leader.  I choose to work with people who are highly skilled and good at what they do and as a result I can trust them to make good decisions and to do their job well.  If I step in to interfere, they will often react in opposition to me or they will simply shut down and not do their job, in the same way that I do in similar situations.  Knowing myself, and knowing my colleagues, we all achieve better success when we can let go of some of our own control and allow one another to do what we have been trained to do and that is to make our own decisions.  Sometimes mistakes will be made, but that is all a part of the process of change.  Through these mistakes we are given an opportunity to grow and to learn and to become better leaders and professionals.    

What is the significance of this assessment in the context of your future leadership goals and objectives?

            My goals for the future are to move into a mentorship role.  This role may be teaching or coaching and continuing to give motivational and safety focused keynote speeches.  Coutu and Kauffman (2009) discuss the role of coaches as leaders and how they are continuing to evolve their practice in order to provide their clients with the best possible results.  I hope to continue to grow and learn and to evolve the way that I do things so that my students can continue to learn from me and to ensure that the things that I am teaching remain relevant.  

        Fear is one of the traits that I see holding leaders back more than anything else.  There is a fear of becoming irrelevant, being left behind, being surpassed, or being left out.  There is a fear of letting go of control and letting those that they have mentored be allowed total freedom to make their own choices and their own mistakes.  If a person teaches or coaches another person or acts as their manager and that person fails, the leader fears that this failure will reflect back on them.  My awareness of this has been broadened by this course and I hope to continue to challenge myself to not have these fears as I get older. 

         I am currently 34 years old and have had a career for 15 years that I am taking a break from to be a mother and have to remind myself every day that the job I left is not going anywhere and that I am doing the most important job in the world right now.  I try to focus on the present rather than bogging myself down with getting stuck in the past or the future.  I seek to find the yin-yang balance between work and family and my own personal life and accept that there are times in life where one may outweigh another for a time.  Currently family is outweighing all of the others and there is nothing wrong with that.  I do not have to be a part of every world record or world championship in order to remain relevant.                

     Heifetz and Kauffman (2009) discuss the characteristics of an adaptive culture and while I am in this time of being family focused, I have the opportunity to focus on some of these aspects.  Developing the leadership capacity within my industry through mentorship is one of the key concepts that I choose to focus on and sharing responsibility for the health and safety and growth of the airshow world.  When I was flying full time I was on the road 11 months each year and averaging 15 different countries in an airshow season while competing in the World Championships, representing the US Team and continuing to take part in various stunts and world records in my various sports.  I ran an international airshow team in one of the most high risk sports while entertaining millions and hopefully inspiring the next generation to chase their dreams.  During this time in my career, there was not time for me to focus on individuals, but instead I tried to lead by setting an example through my work.  Now is my opportunity to focus in on the individuals and to help to foster leadership growth in the young women who are coming up in the world of aerobatics.  I hope that I can inspire and encourage them to continue to chase their dreams and to help to guide them towards building an adaptive culture that can thrive for generations to come.  

References

Coutu, D., & Kauffman, C. (2009). What can Coaches Do for You? (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. Harvard Business Review,87(1),91-97

Heifetz, R.; Grashow, A.; & Linsky, M. (2009).  Orchestrate Conflict.  The Practice of Adaptive Leadership Tools and Tactics for Changing Your Organization and the World.  (Chapter 12-14). Boston, Massachusetts: Harvard Business Press.

Obolensky, N. (2014). What About the Followers?  Complex Adaptive Leadership:  Embracing Paradox and Uncertainty.  Second Edition.  (Chapter 10). Surrey, England:  Gower Publishing Company.  

Appendix A

Quiz Results and Description

Quiz Results:  

1.  c

2.  b

3.  a

4.  d

5.  b

6.  a

7.  d

8.  d

9.  a

10.  a

11.  a

12.  c

13.  d

14.  d

15.  c

16.  b

                                            

Figure 1 Scoring Sheet (Obolensky, 2014)

TOTALS        Strategy1: 1  Strategy 2:  0Strategy 3: 13  Strategy 4:  2

Strategy 1 involves telling the employee how to do something and this is sometimes needed.  I chose strategy 1 to have an expert come in to do training on a system that the team needed help learning.  

Strategy 2 is to sell an idea to the employee and I am not a sales person I guess!  I feel very fake and manipulative when I even read the responses that include selling an idea.  This just is not my style of leadership or management in any way and I personally don’t respond well to it when others try to sell me on ideas.  I feel like they are talking down to me and I am sure that it shows all over my face in disgust and annoyance.  This is a skill that I should try to improve upon and to better tolerate as there are certain personality types who work well with this approach.  This reminds me of the book, the five love languages, and I just must learn to better understand this language.

     

Strategy 3 is to involve the team.  I am prone towards this strategy and have always gotten my best results when involving everyone in the problem solving and decision making process.  I work with a lot of very talented and very strongly opinionated individuals and when they are feel involved in the decision rather than feeling told what to do they respond much better, me included.  

Strategy 4 is to devolve or step back and this is sometimes necessary.  I tend to go in this direction at times due to my desire to not micro-manage, but then usually motivate to implement strategy 3 and involve the team.  I know that I am a type a personality and that I like to have control, so my awareness of this will push me towards devolving in an attempt not to micro-manage sometimes.  It is like going for opposite approaches rather than finding the happy middle ground.  Strategy 4 is a very passive form of leadership where you sit back and wait and watch and allow others to be in control of their situation.  There are times when this is appropriate and in this scenario, I chose this approach for the employee who was grieving a loss at home. There is not always a need to step in when productivity is low, sometimes a person just needs some personal space and time to deal and they will bounce back.    

Appendix B

Diagram of Leadership Strategies and Analysis

Figure 2 shows a diagram that is a visual example of the four leadership strategies presented by Obolensky (2014).  The Yin-Yeng depicted in the background is a beautiful example of how a need to find balance between these approaches is required for a strong and adaptive leader to operate in today’s complex business environment.  These strategies are meant to enable polyarchy to thrive, and to lessen the tension that exists when oligarchic assumptions are still influencing the way that people think and operate (Obolensky, 2014).  

                                                          

Figure 2 Leadership Road Map (Obolensky, 2014)