A631.6.4.RB - Transformational Strategies

Watch the videos below. Both of these videos highlight leadership in times of transformational change. How do you relate and make sense of the approaches taken by Jim "Mattress Mack" McIngvale and Stanley McChrystal compared to the information presented in your textbook? Use Figure 15.4 Relative Strength of Corporate Cultures and Figure 15.5 The Strategy-Culture Matrix in your response. (below the videos)

Organization transformation refers to those drastic changes in how an organization functions and relates to its environment. The story of Gallery Furniture was very inspiring and reflects this drastic change. The company, started in 1981, is owned by Jim "Mattress Mack" McIngvale. After two big hits to the stability of the company (2008's housing crisis and a major fire in 2009), the company realized that the old way of conducting business was not working. Though McIngvale does not go into much detaill about the "old way", he gives some hints to how things may have went, and as a customer, on can assume it went a little like this:

• Customer walks into store, and is greeted by salesperson, who asks what s/he can help them find 
• Customer says, "just looking around," and salesperson says, "come find me if you need any help" 
• Customer usually has questions but cannot find salesperson, so leaves and never returns
• To change this dynamic, McIngvale read a book called "Influencer" about how to influence the behavior or his employees and himself to interact with customers better and increase sales. For instance, through contacts (addressing the customer who left without a sale), Gallery was able to recoup the interest of visitors by $4000. The tenets which turned Gallery into a more successful and enjoyable business were to institute:

• the love of "prospecting" - employees needed to learn to love what they hated 
• sales training - teaching employees how to follow up with visitors and keep interest 
• recognition - celebrating the success and using it to show others that the new way can work 
• computer coaches/sales coaches 
• incentive pay - find a way to encourage change, while assuring the change was legitimate 
• post data/ ipads - using technology to show how extended customer service impacts sales, showing the benchmark for recognition and signs of further training needs

The evidence indicates that managers play a major role in whether or not an organization performs. Managers make strategy and strategy determines business success or failure. McIngvale sensed a possible end to his long-standing business. Good management does not mean trying harder by using old, out-dated methods; he utilized an external source to seek knowledge from, and rolled out a new process to motivate his team. Overall, Gallery predicts it has added $600,000 to revenue per month through training, $1 million in savings (from doing things right the first time) and results in long-term customers and good publicity. McIngvale also believes the changes have has a great impact on the team dynamic, as they are closer and feel more prepared to succeed and more respected by peers and management. Brown notes this exact result for when the need for organization is addressed (2011, p.399).

I really like McIngvale's sales reality quote, "'Be Back's don't come back". As a customer, he is spot on. If I have decided that one store is too expensive, or does not fulfill my need and I move on to another shop for what I want, the past store is no longer in my mind or in the running for my business. In fact, I may think, "if they were too expensive for X, they are probably out of my range for Y and Z down the line." I do not know how Gallery gets the information from the customer in the first place (if I am just surveying, there's little chance I'm giving up personal information) but the follow up is a great idea. It reenters the store back into my mind. Brown states that “corporate culture is important because of its relation to organizational effectiveness” (Brown, 2011, p. 403). McIngvale seems to had seen a need for change in strategy to effectively change the culture. The strategy culture matrix assessed the employee’s performance, their strengths and weaknesses, and how to improve in those areas. But Gallery workers did not take this as, "meet my demands or get out." Because he told his employees, "I know you don't have all the tools and skills, but I am going to give them to you in order for you to meet my expectations", they have trust in him, and know he will not give up on them if they show effort.

In his TEDx talk on leadership, Stanley McChrystal discusses his more than 20-year career in the Army. He describes the differences in how leadership and trust were built when he first enlisted to

how he must lead and trust as a Brig. General leading those with very significant generational skills and perspectives. Though his understanding of change, he realizes how flexible he must be in order to be an effective team member. Though the military is still very strict in the way things are done (he notes that the younger paratroopers did things exactly by the book, as trained), he paints a different picture of what most may believe about the way he functions: "instead of giving orders, you're now building consensus and you're building a sense of shared purpose." This is the way he has found to be most effective when leading his global 
team; he quietly acknowledges that, because he is not present where all of his followers are, he needs to consider their perspective in assuring he is not missing blatant hazards. He also discussed the need to get warm with people who, in the past, you'd punch in the shoulder and call it intimacy. There no longer is that should always there, so he sometimes must get that support across in other ways. It's become harder, because the plethora technology is foreign to someone who came in the military before the internet. The way he bonds with people has to change too, as he realized he was talking to a kid who was a preteen when 9/11 occurred; he was a mid-level commander, showing recruits how to jump out of planes when the recruit in front of him watched the tragedy of 2001 from an elementary school classroom. I feel the same impact as McChrystal at times; while I was sitting in the same classroom when the Twin Towers fell, a kid who told me dead baby and dead hooker jokes on Thanksgiving was just born! It blows my mind how much I have lived through, and how much has changed since the end of the 20th century.


McChrystal then mirrors the same attitude as McIngvale in realizing the benefit of realizing the person as a being, at work. He notes having a conversation with a fellow senior officer while watching a firefight, in which the fellow's son was a part of. The reaction he received when inquiring about the son was the equivalent to, "I'm fine." And we all know that fine never really means fine; someone could be dying inside. McChrystal details that we need to care for that pain, worry, insecurity and helplessness. As an Army baby, I know very well how much trauma service-folk carry, and how that pressure to perform and remain stoic in times of great disappointment, fear and tragedy can impact the person and everyone around them. It is important that those who face consistent stressful situations to know that they, and their feelings, matter.


Rolling back a little in his talk, McChrystal recalls his early years in the military and how important support is in future success. After a training gone poorly, McChrystal sat through an "after action review", an evaluation he describes as "leadership by humiliation".


They put a big screen up, and they take you through everything: "and then you didn't do this, and you didn't do this, etc." I walked out feeling as low as a snake's belly in a wagon rut. And I saw my battalion commander, because I had let him down. (McChrystal, 2012)

However, he is rejuvenated when his commander comes up to him and says, "Stanley, I thought you did great." Lesson? Leaders can let you fail and yet not let you be a failure. Just the same, leaders should not be scared to tell you the truth, should care about you inside and outside of the workplace, and understand the multidimensional roles of humanity, enough to forgive and support through disappointment.

Brown writes, leadership in today’s fast-changing world involves developing an innovative corporate culture that recognizesthe firm’s history, the marketplace, and the company’s products and services, and balances those with employees’ needs (2011, p. 409). Both McIngvale and McChrystal are successful because of their ability to reflect and learn about these factors. Sometimes we think that we are so wise, there is nothing we could possibly learn from those more inexperienced than ourselves. I have found that everyone is a master of something. Particularly in reflection of this week's Home Depot drop, fall and recovery before, during and after failed CEO Bob Nardelli, both videos show a dedication to people as paramount to money. The shame of Nardelli is present as soon as you type his name into Google; he is not a leader, but a great manipulator and surveyor of personal gain. One of the reasons why Nardelli failed at Home Depot was because he failed to learn the culture that existed and to respect the things the employees cared about. He wanted to create a structure that maximized profits, and the only profits Home Depot saw while he was in place were due to the savings created by firing people. He did the company a disservice by kicking out their committed and skilled talent. Talent costs money, but lack thereof creates a dearth in quality, which is why Home Deport plunged deeper with his management. He then ended his reign with one last kick to the leg; he walked away with millions of dollars in settlement funds. He saw a way to benefit himself and cared little about the exponential effect of his actions.

On the other hand, respect, trust and support are the foundation of all success. As McChrystal stated, soldiers do not leave each other behind. They sacrifice whatever is needed to get their man back. If all managers had this mantra, workers would be far more satisfied at work (Vanderkam, 2015). "I was raised to believe that soldiers were strong and wise and brave and faithful; they didn't lie, cheat, steal or abandon their comrades. And I still believe real leaders are like that. "

References

Brown, D. R. (2011). An experiential approach to organization development (8th ed.). Boston: Prentice Hall.

McChrystal, Stanley Listen, learn ... then lead. (2011). TED. Accessed at http://www.ted.com/talks/stanley_mcchrystal.htm

McIngvale, Jim. Gallery Furniture Case Study. (2012). Vital Smarts. Accessed at http://www.vitalsmarts.com/casestudies/gallery-furniture/

Vanderkam, Laura. (2015). Accessed at http://fortune.com/2015/09/26/happy-work-tips/

A631.5.4.RB - Leading System Wide Change

In your reflection blog, consider how difficult it must be for a leader to grow into a person who can lead a system-wide change effectively. Perhaps you remember leaders who attempted system wide interventions but failed because they were not capable of pulling it all together. On the other hand, you may know leaders who were able to do what you thought would be impossible. From your point of view now, what is required for a leader to be successful?


I consider myself to be a participative leader. As I note in a past post on Supportive Behavior,
participative leadership is a managerial style that invites input from employees on all company decisions. This occurs when staff is given pertinent information regarding company issues, and a majority vote determines the course of action the company will take (Yukl, 2010). I prefer my coworkers be in the same page before we move forward with any plan. We may have reservations behind closed doors, but my hope is we can come to enough common ground that those reservations are minimal. There’s nothing worse than moving forward without someone fully dedicated to the plan.

The Apple video focuses on the negative comments about people that were the catalyst for a positive environment. They were different, thinkers that worked their way to the top while being able to adapt to their environment. Despite disbelievers, they never lose sight of the objective.

I am sure everybody thinks they are a good leader, but in comparison to where I have been in my leadership training and where I am now, I believe I am much better than the average supervisor, and this is because of a lot of mistakes I have made in the past. for instance, when I work in corporate event management, I worked with a lot of people who were quite determined. a lot of them went to the local university, Temple University, and were majoring in hotel and tourism management. They knew they were doing work that would support their career in the future, and one is to make your they were securing good contacts for references and recommendations. They are not my problem.

For some reason, it seems like those with the most responsibilities
work harder than those who have absolutely nothing going on.

However, there was one staff member who never wanted to do work. He was a college dropout, wanted to pursue rap and developing his own clothing line, and was preparing to become a father to one of his two girlfriends’ fetuses. All he ever did was come to work late, shoot the breeze in the kitchen and do his work as slowly as possible. He would even try to negotiate with me at the end of the night to close the office as slowly as possible: “You’re hourly, too. We could all use more money!” A good worker who was close to him was one of the best workers we had, so I started by complementing the friend in his presence: “Great job guys; ____, as always, top notch stuff.” I wanted him to feel free to change rather than being coerced (Brown, 2011). I tried coaching him: “What do you like about this job? What are you getting from it that can help with with your dreams of becoming a successful music and clothing line mogul?” He complained that he didn’t make enough money, and I told him, “get here on time, do your work efficiently, and I’ll make sure you’re in the running for that raise.” I could not get a good month straight out of him without ½ hour latenesses, and during this period, he began inviting his pregnant girlfriend to sit in our office during closes. After a month, I was sure we could do better without him.

After a long discussion with the other supervisors, it was clear that he was not a favorite of the staff, but we kept him because of his upcoming parenthood. I simply do not believe this is a good reason to keep bad people, but it would seem that procreation, no matter how unplanned, is a possible precursor to better responsibility commitment. In addition, a supervisor tried to inspire him in his evaluation by saying that this - that he was only being kept because of his future child and that he should keep this in mind as he worked - thus, his reasoning for lateness and sloth became his pregnant girlfriend. I was quite sore about this, and I placed him on night shifts as little as possible.I did not know what else to do at that point, but looking back, I could have requested probation for his multiple latenesses, his lack of professionalism and failure to complete work in a timely manner. From there, I could have drafted an improvement plan and used his actions from then to gauge if he was meeting standards or still failing to provide adequate service to the company.

I am not sure which one is harder to deal with: having one bad apple or having mostly bad apples. i personally believe, if there are one or two people slacking, it’s a personal problem with them; however, if they entire staff (or classroom) is failing or lagging behind, a leader must reflect on their personal leadership style and training of the staff to see where the downfall occurred and how to fix the dynamic.

At a job where I supervised paraprofessionals in a boarding school, only 2-3 employees were average to exceptional. The Resident Assistant serves as the liaison between student and staff of the school. Resident Assistants enhance each resident student's experience by providing information, direction, guidance, friendship, and support. Such interactions occur within the context of creating community. There are informal day-to-day contacts with residents as well as formal floor meetings and programs, and office hours supervised by a professional staff member during evening hours every day and additional midday hours on the weekends, where RAs ran shuttles to local grocery stores and shopping plazas. Just about all of the staff showed up to work late, dressed inappropriately for work, did not do rounds, avoided engagement with the students and failed to do programming.

Our year started off as everyone getting along with me, which was important to me as an implant to a very new area with a different culture. I have strong work ethic, and when I realized my team was not as eager as I was to do the work, I became disenchanted. Staff would switch work days, and not show up for their switched shift, or show up late. This led to some employees working a cumulative of 5-6 more days a month than other workers. I shared responsibility over supervision with five others, who collectively felt that the job did not pay enough to formally document and retrain for the behavior. After I was notified that shuttles were not being run and RAs were skipping rounds to do their hair, I began to note the actions of individual staff members.

Once again, I decided if inspiration, rewarding the best, and one-on-one talks about personal concerns were not effective, and my colleagues were not going to take action, I’d discuss doing so with my supervisor; however, after his display of apathy was noted with regards to difficulty in getting replacement staff (again, the job did not pay well), I decided to pick work shifts with a majority of “good” workers on it. I also offered to work a greater amount of the more work intensive day shifts instead of night shifts. After about a month and a half, some staff noted that they never worked shifts with me. Once again, I expressed my concerns with their work ethic and how much work was done with particular individuals. leaders know how to communicate effectively. This means you need to cater your communication to the people you’re working with. I should have taken the approach of asking how shifts without my supervision were going, and I would have discovered why they were asking about my absence. I would have been told, as I was from better workers, that working on shifts with lazy staff and an unattentive supervisor seemingly resulted in more student write-ups, which then lead to even more work. What some workers hear when i responded to their inquiry was, “I don’t like working with you, ___, because you don’t take your job seriously. Change and I will work with you.” Apparently, this was not taken well and those who did not perform well became offended. They would say the power went to my head. They did not feel that i had a right to evaluate their work, as I only supervised 2 RAs outside of office hours.

Leaders are proactive and do not stop until he or she is satisfied with the result. In retrospect, I should have suggested monthly or bimonthly formal evaluations, but instead of supervisors evaluating staff, allow supervisees to evaluate each other. Perhaps even the students should have been able to do an evaluation of the service provided during the night shifts, to show the inconsistency of service between workers. Also, a chart for accomplishments may have provided a better representation of the problem of unmet expectations. An effective leader possesses a certain drive to want to take charge and action in getting things done and accomplishing a task/goal. Instead of circumventing the poorer workers, I should have worked with them MORE, to change their understanding of how the work should be done. I would have loved to instill a staff member of the month award as well, so that employees who went above and beyond knew they were recognized for their sacrifices.

Though this program and through time at other positions, I’ve learned how integral hiring the right people is to team success.

According to Kreitner and Kinicki (2013), the common themes in the varying definitions of leadership include that it is a process between leaders and followers, it provides influence, it occurs at multiple levels in any organization, and it focuses on goal accomplishment. Past performance is such a good indicator of future success. Therefore, for myself, I’ve learned how to take my negative work experiences and see them as growing pains and learning experiences. I enjoy that my supervisory position presently allows for me to pick my direct supervisors from a pool of previous workers for the department but at a lower level; I can spend the entire year looking at the work of my supervisee’s supervisees and seeing who would be best for the next level position if it becomes available. When I chose one of my present supervisees, I looked at all of his evaluations and concerns from the year before, and asked about those incidents and successes during his interview for his present position. I was able to start off the year with what i wanted him to improve on and what would not fly in his new position. We’ve been able to have an amazing relationship because there weren’t many surprises about what I wanted, how I worked (my outgoing supervisees gave him the rundown) and what he needed to change to be successful with me. In the beginning of the year, i also did a SWOT inventory with both of my direct supervisees (something i do not necessarily enjoy but I believe gives workers the opportunity to start the process of goal-setting that I want them to use for self-evaluation later in the semester) and encouraged them to give me a list of their expectations of me as a supervisor.

Brown (2011) notes that leaders “will no longer be seen as grand visionaries, all-wise decision makers, and iron-fisted disciplinarians”, so it’s important that those receiving leadership are getting it the right way. I feel that it's fair for supervisees to evaluate their boss and I personally find my workers’ evaluations to be more meaningful than my supervisor’s. it takes a certain person to become a successful leader who is inspiring, motivating and leads by example. I’ve now learned that millennials are not inspired to work by money. They can get money elsewhere, but they also may feel stuck where they are and need to get pushed out to move on. But that should not be MY goal! You have to be able to connect the work getting done now to what people want to do in the future. Consequently, I think they help me gain skills I know I need to have to success; I am unlearning some of the habits that I used as a student to get work done and realizing they may not have been as helpful then either. You need to care about them and inspire them; sometimes the inspiration needs to come before the hard work does. If millennials think they are doing a great job, they’ll actually start trying to live up to expectations. Lastly, I’ve recognized I need my workers as much as they need me, and perhaps I need them more. It’s a lot of time and money to replace someone! They have to see you as a viable resource in accomplishing their goals, and when they have a use for you, they will respect you and do what they need to do.



References

Brown, D. (2011). An experiential approach to organizational development (8th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Kreitner, R. & Kinicki, A. (2013). Organizational Behavior (10th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

Yukl, G. (2010). Leadership in Organizations, 8th edition. Prentice Hall.

A631.4.4.RB- INSEAD Reflection

In light of the video and the readings from your textbook;

• What do you see as some of the major benefits and drawbacks of self-managed teams?
• Would you like to work within such a team?
• What competencies would you need to develop to be an effective external manager of a self-managed work team?

You may want to complete A631.4.5.CM prior to preparing your reflection blog.

Self-managed work teams are responsible for managing and performing tasks that result in products or services being delivered to a customer. They are usually made up of employee groups of 5 - 15 people, who are responsible for managing all or a majority of the work including planning and scheduling, monitoring, and staffing (MacDonald,n/d). They are also responsible for the technical aspects of the work, and usually rotate these management and technical responsibilities amongst themselves. Most importantly, self managed work teams rely on interdependence, which quells the opportunities for individuals to only seek work benefits for themselves (Brown, 2011, p. 282). When workers depend  on each other to complete projects, they are more likely to do their best work.

There are several benefits to self managed work teams. Self-managed work teams empower the employee, lower turnover, heighten productivity, and reduce absenteeism (Benson et al, 1994). It relies heavily on worker motivation and places a great deal of responsibility on teams. Employees who buy into the concept of self-direction feel pride in producing quality products or  services. This morale boost increases motivation, which insights greater effort within the team. The results are clear through monetary gains. However, it also may show through employee retention, desires for higher-level positions, and higher demands for:extended amount of employees.

Some of the setbacks of installing self managed work teams may be that people who have always benefited from the hierarchy are now level to everyone else, and may feel a loss of power. However, self-managed work teams empower everyone to provide for the greater good. Since all team members are considered leaders, there is a responsibility to prove competency and the ability to work autonomously without supervision (Benson et al, 1994). It requires a great deal of trust, however it also allows for leaders to conceptualize innovation for the benefit of the company. Because the leaders have the power to change their working conditions, the usual desire for more money to fill a void within their position canal be filled through non-monetary means. This means the company saves money from its employees! If it seems that some are giving far less than others, employees can come together and discuss the role of that person and conclude if training is necessary, or perhaps probation or firing. Team members always have the ability to add input, though they may not always play a role in the final decision making.  

Perhaps one of the most curious setbacks of self managed groups would be the possibility that the team is cohesive to the extent that they feel obligated to find common ground in all situations. Teams need diversity, and if everyone is buying to the group simply to maintain the status quo, this slows production and can be catastrophic for a company (2011, p. 288). Groupthink allows for workers to  overlook possibilities of failure and possible setbacks. It establishes a group bravado does not tolerate those who are against the majority.

The goal of an effective external manager is to clarify the goals of the team and tie them to action, without being a micromanager or coming off as distrusting. As Paul Tesluk notes in the video, the person needs to be “very flexible on the means but very specific on the ends” (Huy, 2008). The effect of external manager is a visionary, who is inspirational and encourages the team to find new ways of doing old things and finding new things to do. That person keeps everyone feeling like they matter, and are doing work that means something and helps people. This person does not step in every time there is a problem, and instead allows for the team to join together and solve problems on their own. It is also great for external managers to conduct or bring in trainers who can do occasional leadership development on effective communication, customer service and opportunities for growth. This person should give highlights of new opportunities.

I am not sure that I would define what I have at work as self lead, but it does have many of the qualities of a self managed team. It is a natural work team with very few projects that involved the whole, so everyone essentially has almost keywords that determine where problems go. Housing charges from over the summer? Me. I solve upper-level first-year student issues that have been addressed by the two levels ahead of mine. I deal with anything related to RHA; this may be a care package issue, a problem our movie streamer, a request to add new facilities to campus, etc. If I need to ship our order envelopes for RHA, I need my Administrative Assistant to pull the most updated roster, as she  runs that database. Now, I could run the report myself, but it may not be accurate. I do not work With the system every day, so I could inadvertently mess something very important up. I don't see interdependence as  saying I have to wait on someone else to do my job, but it is a way of saying that I appreciate that my administrative assistant can do something more effectively than I can,  and there are some things that I do better than her which I do everyday as well. She will always be a need, and so I value her. I enjoy knowing I can count on her!

In reflecting on how I advise the student organization Residence Hall Association - the largest student run organization in the world - I think of the talents I know are inherent in all of my executive board members and how last year laid the foundation for them to realize their own ability to solve problems. We went through extensive training, one-on-ones, follow ups,  and corrections, but the team internalized those educational moments and with some suggestion, found effective ways to solve issues. In our second year, I have stepped back even more to see how they function without my involvement. It is the type of leadership that does not solve all of the problems for their team but steps aside and allows the team to use problem solving techniques knowing that the biggest responsibility of external leadership is to only intervene for emergencies (Huy, 2008). I can admit that sometimes it is difficult for me to watch them try to rush to do something last minute, but I think the best teacher for that type of action is failure. Sometimes people have to fail, and if they are resilient leaders, they will only learn from that failure.

References

Benson, John; Bruil, Spencer; Coghill, Don; Cleator, Rebecca Huber; et al. (1994). Production and Inventory Management Journal 35.1. Accessed at http://search.proquest.com/docview/199926055?pq-origsite=gscholar

Brown, D. R. (2011). An Experimental Approach to Organization Development (8th ed.). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall.   

Huy, Q. (2008). Self-managing teams: debunking the leadership paradox. YouTube. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBnR00qgGgM&feature=youtu.be

A631.3.4.RB - Feedback and Goals

Feedback refers to informing someone - in a timely and ongoing basis - how they are performing, and includes both positive and negative observations (Brown, 2011, p. 371). As an educator, supervisor and advisor, providing feedback is a skill that I comprehend and continue to learn about formally and informally. I understand how valuable words are, and try to use them to build leaders. In that same way, I must set goals for myself and encourage the goals others have for themselves, providing resources for growth however I can.

Brown (2011) discusses that any one born after 1980 requires more feedback than those born before that date. He highlights the generational implications regarding the amount of feedback; specifically the Millennial (Generation Y) as opposed to older generations and their desire for more feedback. Millennials, those born from 1981 to 2000, make up more than 50 percent of the workforce to date.
Millennials grew up with the ever-present parent and grew up believing they can do anything; therefore, they are used to people celebrating their every accomplishment and feel enormous academic pressure.

This is the case for me. I want to know everything. It is a terrible goal by most standards, and perhaps even a flaw.

It seems obvious that setting goals should be based on achievable outcomes, but from a personal perspective I have learned that everyone's definition of achievable is different. Most people set low goals, then settle for what life gives them, hence the mediocrity of the workplace or the apathetic academic. One cannot simply pass at life! As Benjamin Franklin said, "Some people die at 25 and aren't buried until 75." I claim this as statistically accurate. We should not be miserable should-have-beens for a half-century. However, work can sometimes make us into these stagnant, mentally-withered beings that were so close to our dreams, but quit. Often bosses sort value of employee with the most archaic way of discussing goals, by limiting them, which they call the SMART goal. I can only imagine that those who are most settled, desiring nothing more than what they are, are deemed the best.

As Clay Waters notes in his article, Why SMART Goals Suck And How You Should Set Goals (2015),

SMART goals were created in a time of steady state and incremental optimization. Slow and steady incremental improvement in the professional world is sure to get one one thing, left behind.

See the display to the left.  I completely disagree with the definition of most of these segments. First, SMART goals are not for employees; they are for employers, so all of the you statements should be focused on the evaluator. Who is to say my goals are not attainable? The reactions I have seen from such goal possibilities are "that has never been done before" and "I don't know anyone else doing that". These types of reactions are those of the mentally withered and settled. SMART goals are limited, cold and do not seem to get on the path to accomplishing anything. They remind me of the letter. Useful, but drastically outdated. I still write letters at times in which I am not pressed about when someone receives them; and yes, they are seemingly sentimental. However, I'd prefer to send an email, or call them, on any other day, to check it off of my list. A lot has changed since 1968! Perhaps this is the goal of SMART: trying to get to know their new worker, while trying to find a way to evaluate them. However, goals are a to-do list of action. Measure me by creativity and output. There are so many way to get to the end, why waste time drawing the path? Do I fail the journey if I get to the goal another way, or are points taken off for not sticking to the plan?

The surveillance in the path to achievement is nearly policing. I want to be empowered in life. Self-motivation is best, but I do not want to be told to pipe down when I share what I was asked to share, particularly about myself. I was once told in my first year of college, when discussing my life goals, that "the A in SMART stands for attainable." That is my biggest challenge. I have goals that seem impossible to some people. Internally, I hear them saying, "it's possible, but not for you." And I've always heard that, and I seem to prove people wrong then leave them behind. If I know I am not appreciated somewhere, it is a waste of time to be there. My supervisees are not interested in staying in education, so a lot of our conversations are about their futures. I ask them how this job can help get them to the next place. We do not discuss setbacks (as the SMART cousin, SWOT, does). In preparing for a road trip, who talks about the eventual traffic? I am not saying to ignore the negatives, but are they not so obvious, they need not be mentioned? The next goal should be more unbelievable than the last. Life is not to be survived, but experienced! I do not live to work. I wouldn't consider a lifetime at the same place doing the same thing a life (for me).

This is how I feel writing this.

I learned within the course of the MSLD program that work is not about ideas or even output, in most environments. The work needs to be good, but the deference needs to be superb. Today's bosses are still much like they have always been painted. They seem to want employees to praise them and (as one of my favorite books notes) don't outshine the master. This has been a constant pull on my heart; there MUST be a workplace that has surpassed the 20th century! I have learned that it is certainly better to lay down and shut up, lest the tallest blade of grass get mowed.  However, there is a comfort in being quiet. You hear information that others have shared. It's hard for people to forget the conversations they have with you, since your opinions and requests are few and far between. When you then do make noise, people listen. Then pursue your passions in other ways; passions are not always going to be acknowledged or seen as valuable at work. As Amazon’s CEO Jeff Bezos notes in 'SMART' Goals Can Sometimes Be Dumb, I am trying to “exercise new muscles, never mind how uncomfortable and awkward-feeling those first steps might be.” The temporary pain of smiling when I do not feel like smiling, and biting my tongue when I have an opinion is taxing, but it seems to add to a better... something.

I am a Millennial, but am also very absorbent of the Generation X personality. GenXers are infamously known disliking their workplace. Xers believe their managers ignore ideas from employees, and are disenchanted with the ‘do-it because I said so’ management in place (Tolbize, 2008). Xers and Millennials have a few things in common. Both are comfortable with authority figures and are not impressed with titles or intimidated by them (Tolbize, 2008). Older generations, those of the GenX and older, want a boss with credibility and experience; Millennials appreciate a leader who listens well and answers their many curious questions (Deal, 2007). I want a fusion of both.

I require feedback, but I expect it to be mostly about how amazing I am. It only matters, however, if the person telling me is someone I respect. This person is someone who I have shared passions with and someone I see as a mentor. People do not usually give me feedback, as I converse rather than accept their criticisms without question. I've learned that I am just about the only person in my workplaces that can find a way to put the less-than-stellar in between accolades, and can defend my examples of areas of growth. I believe accolades keep people engaged and support relationships, particularly my younger employees. If you don't care about people, you don't try to do this; telling someone they have a laundry list of flaws is great way to develop someone into a terrible employee.

In the course discussions, I appreciate others opinions, and want to see how people think; but unless

This is the mantra of my management style.

something I do directly counters the truth, I want it to be respected, and at times this does not happen. I disagree with authors and will support my beliefs with others. I do not believe that because someone writes a book, they have the best opinion on every subject within. When the situation arises in which I receive no feedback or poor feedback, particularly for a poor grade, I begin to dig in into where I went wrong. What was I thinking? What was the professor expecting? What percentage of personal input vs. scholarly citation are they looking for? I want feedback; however, more so than that (and only slightly), I want a perfect grade.

I suppose I take this into the real world at times and disappoint myself; however, it does not stop me from working longer and harder than others. I've learned to work just a bit smarter, too. This has provided me with an excellent high performance work history. I appreciate feedback, particularly from those who know what I actually do, and have done it before. When I receive good feedback I feel that supervisors value me and respect me, and that is how I want my supervisees to feel. Brown notes that “frequent, relevant, and specific feedback […] occurs as soon after the work activity as possible” (Brown, 2011). If I am going to get critiqued, it needs to happen when I did it, not weeks or months down the line. It is nearly useless to tell me about things that were never addressed in the moment; I may not even remember the instance. Delegating and downing leads to more frustration than learning. However, with my supervisees, I contact them as soon as possible to get their self-evaluation of things, highlight was was doing well, areas of improvement, confidence to do it over in another situation better, and offer to be a resources (and actually come through when they call). In the future, I will reflect on how I handled the situation and ask my supervisees, "what could I have done better in x situation?" I trust they will tell me the truth, because I have laid the framework for open communication. I see this as the future of management.

References

Brown, D. (2011). An experiential approach to organizational development. (8th ed.). New Jersey: Prentice Hall.

Deal, J. J. (2007). Retiring the generation gap: How employees young and old can find common ground. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. ISBN: 0787985252

Murphy, Mark. (2015). 'SMART' Goals Can Sometimes Be Dumb. Forbes. Accessed at http://www.forbes.com/sites/markmurphy/2015/01/08/smart-goals-can-sometimes-be-dumb/

Tolbize, Anick. (2008). Generational differences in the workplace. University of Minnesota. Accessed at http://rtc3.umn.edu/docs/2_18_Gen_diff_workplace.pdf

A631.2.5.RB - Cooperation and Competition

I recognize a lot of names and believe I worked with some students prior to this class so I know what to expect from them. I hope my team is secure in using email more than the discussion board. This means checking in every couple of days, asking questions, providing help where it is needed. This gives accountability to each member and if we have to nudge the other members we can do it in a constructive way. We all seem to have the same thoughts on expectations and what we expect from our learning experiences here.

I do not believe this will be the case.

Over the course of this program I have learned a lot about working on teams. At first, I groaned about this as I had my own assumptions as to how it work or not work. Instead of looking at the positive I focused on the negative aspects of team work. For instance, in another course it seemed that right out of the gate, one team member thought he was God's Six Sigma gift to the team and wanted to run everything but talked like a politician. I suggested our team use Google documents to collect information for this assignment, everyone agreed, and then no one used it. Sometime groups are very frustrating! I always seem to have issues with members; either we must deal with a very aggressive member or lack of participation. However, these experiences have actually taught me about group dynamics and how to better work with teams. I believe too many members hinders teams and creates more of a likelihood of role ambiguity and conflict (Brown, 2011, p. 298). One of my courses had 3 students. Period. It was great! However, I am open-minded and try to see the good in teams.


With any group, there will be times where we disagree with each other and even with communication on the discussion board, the message can get lost as tone cannot be conveyed through here. Everyone approaches decision-making or problem-solving differently so it is important that we try to avoid conflict if possible. However if that is not possible we must be able to manage conflict constructively by using compromising and integrating styles. The charter is straight forward and there are not really any factors that inhibit the process or time needed to get it done. Everyone submitted their parts pretty quickly. I was last, but with plenty of time to spare. Being on the West Coast is a challenge, as I see time differently and work "later" than others.

Overall I would say communication and coordination of responsibilities are essential behaviors that will contribute in helping us to successfully and efficiently complete tasks. As a team I believe we are all on the same page with how we share information: through the discussion board with email follow up as needed. No time was spent on decision-making and problem-solving this week; it was not required. At this point there are no real issues with authority or power that would affect our team. It is possible that it may happen in some of the later projects however I feel confident that we will be able to work through those issues and remain cohesive. As I read over the charter I can see that we will be able to collaborate well in order to influence a great outcome to our projects. I do think that it would be interesting to ask these types of questions in some of the other projects that are more time consuming and more detail oriented where the chances of conflict and competition will most likely occur. This way we could get a better idea of different challenges there are and how we dealt with differences and still managed to get the project done in a timely manner.


Brown, D. (2011). An experiential approach to organizational development. (8th ed.). New Jersey: Prentice Hall.