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. 

A520.6.5_RB_Team Roles_Wathen_Sandra

A520.6.5_RB_Team Roles_Wathen_Sandra

This is my blog with respect to task-facilitating and relationship-building roles. I am reflecting upon my understanding of how these roles enhance team performance. Considerations on how I generally relate as a team-member. Whether I actively engage my team to accomplish its mission? And Whether I work to improve the team cohesion and collaboration?

First it is important to understand the definitions of task-facilitating and relationship-building roles in order to use these roles to enhance team performance.  Task-facilitating roles are those that help the team to meet its goals and objectives.  Basically, these roles help the team to work more efficiently at meeting their objectives.  As I lead the team, I will be finding ways to keep the team “on task”; helping the team to move forward on task accomplishment.  Whereas, relationship-building roles are more focused on interpersonal aspects of the team and provide a feeling of goodness amongst one another.  Having these types of roles are important when there are tensions or disagreements within the team.  Often, when in the task-facilitating role there is more of a group harmony, group empathy and high motivation. 

Although there are two distinctly different types of roles, it is important to understand that it still requires balance between the two to ensure that the tasks are accomplished and the team remains united.  That is the challenge for the team lead to execute their specific role; while maintaining balance and avoiding becoming undimensional in roles.  These roles enhance team performance and achieve exceptional results.  Through understanding, use, and balancing of both the task-facilitating and relationship-building roles, it will provide a team positive high-performance team environment that will effectively meet the task objectives; plus a win/win situation.

I am both a team leader and a team member on many types of teams.  I am on technical integrated product teams which are more “functional” task oriented and also am active on numerous process improvement teams which are more “process” related, such as; Lean Six Sigma (LSS), Total Quality Management (TQM), etc.  I have also performed roles as the “coach” or “facilitator” on many teams.  In that capacity, I strive to keep mutual, yet dynamic communication and cohesion with the team and encourage team members through the duration to achieve goals or stated mission.

In addition, I am a type “a” personality and strive diligently for excellence in what I do.  However, I am also a “people” person and very “team oriented”.   I am always seeking to do things better; more efficiently and effectively.  Paradigms are not part of my way of thinking; rather I encourage change and try to think “outside the box”.

For the teams that I am members of, I prefer to have a specific scope/purpose, clear, concise goals or vision on what we want to achieve and at the same time creating positive energy amongst the team.  I also prefer to have a schedule to work from that also is timely, reasonable, and achievable.  I am both task facilitating and relationship building in my roles.  I do have to admit that I do not like conflict; however, through experience, I have been able to overcome my fear of addressing problems diplomatically and I normally can come to some type of resolution without any disruption ot the meetings.

A520.5.3.RB_Forrestor’s Empowerment_Wathen_Sandra

A520.5.3.RB_Forrestor’s Empowerment_Wathen_Sandra

Re:  Forrestor, R. (2000) Empowerment: Rejuvenating a potent idea.  The Academy of Management Perspectives; ProQuest Central, p. 67.

This is my blog to compare and contrast the concepts discussed to those discussed in the “Empowerment: Rejuvenating a potent idea” by Russ Forrester and those of text.

As described by Russ Forrestor, empowerment is a concept that we need to learn how to apply more effectively.  He describes empowerment “implies the freedom and the ability to make decisions and commitments, not just to suggest them or be part of making them”.  He also mentions that “empowerment is about power and enhancing it”. 

One of the things that organizations tend to do with respect to empowerment is fall short in their method by which they empower.  Many organizations have problems with implementation of empowerment and that there are ways to successful ways for those that continue to struggle to bring it to fruition.  Unfortunately, some of those causes are due to the lack of throughput once implemented by those who were the implementers.  Other problems are that, although the implementation is sincere, it ends up back to status quo; often interfered with same bureaucracy as what was not intended originally.   Often times it becomes fruitless when empowerment is just an assumption of more responsibilities with no power or control.  These types of perceived empowerment implementations, often brings the workforce down and as a result has negative impact on productivity.  As Russ Forrestor states, “it is a retractable leash”. 

Much of Russ Forrestor’s writings talk about the transfer of power to those who have less power or to share power to more people who are able to exercise that power.  It is mentioned that those who were empowered did not execute satisfactorily of what was transferred to them and it became a psychological variable based on perception and that the psychological approach is not well served as it negatively affects motivation.  It is often seen as words of empowerment versus actual implementation – convince them they have it, but not really transferring it.   Other unsuccessful implementations are those that try to shift power to most of the employees in which this tries to make the empowerment equally distributed based on a fairness perspective as to not discriminate.  Sometimes one of the crippling factors is that organizations will empower without having the employees ready to accept the empowerment.  Other problems associated with empowerment, is that those who are supposed to release their powers have a hard time letting it go.  Therefore, not letting the one accepting the delegation to really have the reins on the things.  Another example of failure of empowerment implementation is that it is “piece mealed” which is only providing the person the empowerment of pieces rather than the whole.  However, the selective approach is a method of empowerment implementation that tends to be more successful.  It focuses on differentiating amongst the employees and identifies those that are ready to accept the additional power.  Some of those are finding ways to build upon the natural strengths of each employee.  Seek ways to assist them to meeting their capacity or expanding their scope of responsibility.   

So what does all this mean?  It means when an organization is sincere and wants to truly empower others within the organization they must take the necessary steps and process to implement effectively. 

For example:

·         Focus on finding ways to empower employees through increasing their  abilities

·         Foster training and development opportunities

·         Build their proficiencies through mentoring or hands-on

·         Top-Down approach for transitioning empowerment; start low-risk delegations first

·         Space to exercise their power

·         Clear goals, clear results

In comparison to the text (Developing Management Skills, 8^th Edition (Whetten & Cameron), empowerment is to develop others with a sense of self worth that includes determination, control, meaning and trust.  However, tendency is to be less empowering rather than more.  As people are often threatened by releasing power, they will tend to seek more control over their employees.  A competent manager who understands empowerment must apply his skills for empowering successfully.  If you can produce a sense of empowerment in employees and find effective ways of delegating responsibility, the outcomes are desirable for both the organization and the employee – win/win situation.  It will foster productivity, motivation and a much healthier working environment for all.  The text also provides behavioral guidelines for empowering others:  Self-efficacy (self competence); Self-determination (personal choice by alternatives); Personal consequence (personal impact); Meaningfulness (sense of value); Trust (sense of security); Delegate work effectively (using guidelines).

Our text focuses on the benefits of empowerment and the specific steps or guidelines to use for assisting with successful implementation.  Whereas, Russ Forrestor seems to focus more on the problems associated with implementing empowerment in an organization.  Although it is an important aspect with respect to understanding prior unsuccessful implementations, I felt his article focused too much on the negative aspects versus the procedures for implementing successfully.

In summary, empowerment is a win/win situation if implemented and followed through correctly.  In can bring a positive work environment to both the employee and organization.  The main thing is to do it right from the get go!

A520.4.3_RB_Motivation Beyond Money_Wathen_Sandra

A520.4.3_RB_Motivation Beyond Money_Wathen_Sandra

Sure we like to be paid, but money is not always the most important.   As identified by Andy Mulholland’s (2010) four minute citation in The Three Things We Work For (Money Isn’t One of Them) he mentions that money is not among the three most important things we work for.

Our bosses and our work environment affect our work behaviors and attitudes.  He mentions that good Human Relations (HR) develops a good working attitude, which in turn develops good leadership.  In addition as leaders/managers we are responsible for HR; we need to be the human manager.

One of the areas that Mulholland emphasizes is that the greatest salary does not necessarily equal the greatest job.  Income and job satisfaction are not equal.  He stresses that motivators are not necessarily for the money - in fact, he described the real motivators below:

The three reasons people really work for are these:

·         Give me interesting work

·         Help to expand skill sets

·         Recognize me, to be valued. Value you me for what I can do.

Also, to realize that if someone isn’t happy, you can’t pay them more money to stay – that is not the answer.

Additional areas to foster additional motivators:

One of the things I can do is to conduct a brief survey that reveals job satisfaction and attitudes towards work and the work environment.  I can use the survey to identify areas of concern and to also address the top several concerns immediately and then focus on the remaining (less priority) concerns throughout the remainder of the year.  This will give me an opportunity to get first hand insight of what the workforce attitudes are with respect to the work environment.  In addition, it will also provide me an opportunity to focus on the areas that will have most impact for improving motivation in the workforce.

I can also schedule a meeting with other corporate members within my company to address areas of concern regarding job satisfaction and work attitudes.  I would like to include areas of discussion with respect to how well our company does in the areas: offering interesting work to employees, finding ways for employees to have continuous learning and expansion of their skill sets, and also about recognizing and valuing employees.  I would like to put an action plan together to ensure that this is periodically followed-up with and meeting the purpose of the goals.  This will give me an opportunity to maybe influence top leadership on ideas that can provide the workforce the ability to expand their careers within the company – win/win situation.

I would also develop a method to find sincere and meaningful ways to recognize employees for jobs well done.  This would be for both formal and informal means of recognition.  I plan to send a “kudos” email for the less formal recognition.  For those that deserve formal recognition, I plan to write formal letters of appreciation to be signed by the President of the Company and also be added to our quarterly company newsletter.

I am very hopeful that this will add additional motivators for those that are looking beyond more than just the money.

A520.3.5_RB_Supportive Communication_Wathen_Sandra

A520.3.5_RB_Supportive Communication_Wathen_Sandra

This is my blog to describe how I can integrate supportive communication in my present position, utilize the guidelines detailed on page 265 and describe the expected outcomes that may result from my efforts.

There are ten behavioral guidelines for supportive communication as defined in Chapter 4 of the 8^th edition of Developing Management Skills (David A. Whetten & Kim S. Cameron, 2011):

1.       Differentiate between coaching situations, which requiring giving advice and direction to help foster behavior change, and counseling situations, in which understanding and problem recognition are the desired outcomes.

2.      Communicate congruently by acknowledging your true feelings without acting them out in destructive ways.  Make certain that your statements match your feelings and thoughts and that you communicate authentically.

3.      Use descriptive, not evaluative, statements.  Describe objectively what occurred, describe your reactions to events and their objective consequences, and suggest acceptable alternatives.

4.      Use problem-oriented statements rather than person-oriented statements; that is, focus on behavioral referents or characteristics of events, not attributes of the person.

5.      Use validating statements that acknowledge the other person’s importance and uniqueness.  Communicate your investment in the relationship by demonstrating your respect of the other person and your flexibility and humility is being open to new ideas or new data.  Foster two-way interchanges rather than dominating or interrupting the other person.  Identify areas of agreement or positive characteristics of the other person before pointing out areas of disagreement or negative characteristics.

6.      Use specific rather than global (either-or, black-or-white) statements, and, when trying to correct behavior, focus on things that are under the control of the other person rather than factors that cannot be changed.

7.      Use conjunctive statements that flow smoothly from what was said previously.  Ensure equal speaking opportunities for others participating in the interaction.  Do not cause long pauses that dominate the time.  Be careful not to completely control the topic being discussed.  Acknowledge what was said before by others.

8.      Own your statements, and encourage the other person to do likewise.  Use personal words (“I”) rather than impersonal words (“management”).

9.      Demonstrate supportive listening.  Make eye contact and be responsive nonverbally.   Use a variety of responses to others’ statements, depending on whether you are caching or counseling someone else.  Have a bias toward the use of reflective responses.

10.  Implement a personal management interview program with people for whom you have responsibility, and use supportive communication to coach, counsel, foster personal development, and build strong positive relationships.

Using the behavioral guidelines identified above will assist in increasing my abilities for developing effective supportive communication skills.  Applying these guidelines will provide a positive interpersonal relationship with people and therefore avoiding a feeling of distrust, hostility, defensiveness, etc.  It will also help me to foster interpersonal growth; both personally and professionally.  I also see how it will help me to have strong relationships that will aid in delivering negative news as how this type of information needs to be communicated in a sensitive manner.  Through reading this chapter, I now understand that one of the biggest problems with supportive communication and its affects with positive relationships and positive performance.  Effective supportive communication is essential for a successful leader or manager. 

These guidelines have also made me realize how in applying these guidelines will provide clarity and understanding of the message I am trying to provide and how it will be received by the recipient.  Basically, it is an effective tool for me to use to improve my competence level of communication with others.

In essence, supportive communication using the guidelines described above will provide me the ability to build positive interpersonal relationship in a way that enhances feelings of trust, openness, and support; hopefully long lasting.    It will also assist with the accuracy of the information that I am trying to transmit with little change from my original intent.    Basically, it will allow me to communicate accurately and honestly; especially during challenging times or circumstances.  It will encourage me to strive to maintain positive relationships between me and others – address the problem, give feedback (both positive and negative) and resolve the issue at hand. 

In summary, if I apply these guidelines, I feel strongly that I will be able to obtain positive interpersonal relationships, and as a result - the recipients will feel energized and motivated from our conversation.