A521.1.4.RB_Stories in Your Org_Wathen_Sandra

A521.1.4.RB_Stories in Your Org_Wathen_Sandra

Describe a common story in your organization and discuss its implications on the organization. Does this story promote the goals and ideals of the organization? Does it help describe "who we are and what we stand for?" What is the story's impact on the culture of the organization?

There are times the “common story” is often confusing.  I work for a Company that is moving from a small business to a large company.  When I first started with the Company it was small, quaint, and was very people oriented.  Leadership was very concerned about the workforce and building employee incentives.  Leadership would provide presentations that were encouraging for the workforce.  As the Company has grown over the past four years, many leadership goals have changed significantly as well.  Now that the Company has become more competitive due to the changing dynamics, leaderships has focused concentration on new business and winning contract solicitations. 

So now what this has done is created a sudden shift in that the only way to get a bonus is to successfully be a proposal capture manager for new business; whereas in the past, if you were a high-performer on your direct projects, you were recognized for the accomplished achievements.  Another problem with this shift is that there are limited opportunities to being a capture manager on the corporate side.  Not only is there limited opportunities, but it also requires a special knowledge and skill which only the high level managers possess.  Therefore, those that are receiving bonuses over and over again are those that hold those unique attributes.

The Company has changed their story from its original theme.  Although leadership continues to promote the theme from years past, the workforce is starting to see a different side.  Now, when leadership decides to provide a presentation or discuss employees’ salaries and bonuses, or even company incentives, it is obvious that the take away from the workforce is negative.  Unfortunately, there are beginning to be negative implications of the workforce culture due to this sudden shift on the Company’s newly found goals and objectives. 

Although a Company must pursue accomplishing goals and objectives due to every changing dynamics, they should also find ways to keep their “story” within the scope of the ideals which promote workforce incentives and from which the original framework of the guiding principles for the organization evolved.

In essence, the Company is trying to portray that they still operate under their original story that was bought in by the workforce, yet are operating by a different story which is causing confusion to the employees.  They need to work on gaining employee buy-in of the new story so that employees understand the changing shift in company goals and objectives otherwise they are going to be adversely impacted by employee dissatisfaction.

In summary, maintaining continuity of a story is extremely important.  A story cannot stop once it has been accepted by the organization; especially the workforce.  Once changes to the story occur, it is very important to ensure those story changes are reiterated to those that bought into the original story.

A520.9.5.RB_Power_Wathen_Sandra

A520.9.5.RB_Power_Wathen_Sandra

Potential to Influence Behavior…

I am very comfortable developing sources of personal influence to gain power.  I have learned over my career that it takes political competence in many cases to influence and it is a skill that has to be developed in most cases. Political clout is needed to be influential, as well as, having a strong power base in their organization. However, power is something that needs to be controlled and balanced.  Otherwise, there can be negative consequences due to lack of power and abuse of power.   

As far as a likeable person, I consider myself one.  I am very open-minded, honest and loyal.  I am loyal to both my employees and my superiors.  Often, my employees come to me and extend their thoughts on how much they appreciate me as being their supervisor.  I truly respect them and continually provide them the social reinforcement that they need in their day-to-day work efforts.  My employees are highly dependable and reliable and I want them to be rewarded fairly; often willing to battle with upper management to obtain recognition on their behalf.  Additionally, I continually make sacrifices to accommodate them.  They also have made sacrifices for me when the tough gets going.  They, as well as I, have similar attributes as they too will do “whatever it takes” to get the job done.  I also try to mentor them so that they can obtain more knowledge and power in their position.  This will allow them career growth and hopefully the opportunity to be competitive in their next endeavors.

Also, in my basic work environment, I consider myself an easy going person who strives to always do my best.  My peers and upper management have high regards for me and have often been willing to take the shirts off their back for me.  I support and make major contributions towards the company’s goals and objectives; often providing recommendations for continuous improvements.  I have earned respect and have been able to influence the company both horizontally and vertically (and vice versa) through the political competence that I have obtained.  The personal attributes and current position characteristics combined, provide me with a wonderful opportunity to display personal influence; strong person aligned to a strong position. There are times that I am sought out by my superiors as the subject matter expert in the field.   I use reason strategies and strive to use open direct approaches when dealing with situations where I need to influence.  I also have learned the importance of having a strong “network” of individuals that are “on my side”.  I often use them to assist me when I have a need to have back-up when going against strong opposition for areas that I need to win the issues at hand.

In summary, I feel very good about the type of person I am and what I have to offer my company and the individuals that support me.  I have had sufficient time in the workforce to acquire political savvy which gives me the ability to make a difference using my developed skills of personal influence and power.

A520.7.3.RB_Importance of Having a Coach and Mentor

A520.7.3.RB_Importance of Having a Coach and Mentor

This is my blog entry on the significance, importance, and/or impact of having a coach and/or a mentor to help me in my professional journey...

Even though the roles of coaches and mentors have some similarities, they also have distinct differences.  It is important to understand those differences as to be able to maximize the benefits of both during your professional journey.

So why are these two roles significant to me?  Why are they so important?  How are these roles of individuals going to assist me with my professional journey?  The next few paragraphs says it all...

As a team member of an organization, I need a coach as part of the team to ensure that there is someone within the team who has learning requisite attitudes, behaviors and skills that are required to perform successfully within my task area and who is task oriented.  I need the Coach to clearly define the vision and stated timeline or duration of the tasks for the team.  The Coach will provide the atmosphere for a more structured approach to the meetings that I attend.  The Coach will ensure that the meetings are scheduled regularly and keep the focus on agenda.  Even though I know the Coach does not need to be knowledgeable in the subject matter, he still will need to build trust, listen effectively, provide clear performance feedback and model effective leadership behaviors of those they are coaching.  It will be a short termed task based role.  An effective Coach is significant to me in my professional journey because they will be the one to ensure for the essential synergy needed meetings and they will be providing me the key elements to participate in a result driven meetings.  It is a very important role for ensuring for my success with the task assignments I receive.  Those successes will be my stepping stone for acceptance of more challenging and rewarding task assignments, as well as recognition for a job well done.

As for a Mentor, I can attest to the value it provided to me in my career.  In my later part of my career as a senior level government civil service employee I was accepted in to an Executive Leadership Program.  I had to compete for this program as only a select few were to be selected to participate.  As part of the Program it required that I select a Senior Executive Service (SES) candidate to formally become my Mentor for the duration of the five-year program.  As such, I entered in to a signed mentoring agreement with the SES Leader for the Headquarters contracts competency.  This entailed my personal and professional goals which also included my educational plans.  In addition, pre-requisite education at the Congressional Level was required to be completed prior to graduating from the Program.  My plan included a timeline for completion of my goals during the five-year period. 

During this time period, I scheduled appointments with my mentor to review my overall plans and goals and professional progress.  In addition to the Program plans and goals, we often discussed our personal lives as well.  It was a very personal, yet professional mentorship.  She was highly recognized within the organization and it was an honor for me to have the opportunity to be part of such a professional growth experience.   Often she would draw on her own professional experiences.  In addition, she provided advice, support and encouragement during the sessions.   I often shared ideas for potential professional plans that could affect my career and she would provide me guidance.  Being part of this program helped me grow professionally in a way that no one else can know unless they are part of a mentoring program.