A511.2.4.RB: Leadership Analysis

      As identified by Gary Yukl, there are many different viewpoints and research surveys that focus on leadership behavior that influence employee’s performance and overall organizational efficiency. However to this day, I cannot recall a study that fits all situations. What I have discovered is too often these studies concentrate these studies on the person in charge and not on the human factor and the ever changing environment (external and internal). For the environment in which I currently work, I am of the belief that the Change-Oriented Behavior style of leadership is what I think is most appropriate. Change, both internal and external, plays a huge role in the federal government and it has an effect on employees on all levels. As quoted by the philosopher Niccolo Machiavelli in 1532, "There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things." Author Gary Yukl emphasizes how this style of leadership is incorporated in both charismatic and transformational leadership styles thus enhancing the ability of leaders to understand the environment while finding innovative ways to adapt and implement changes to an organization.

       Those who serve in a leadership position for any federal government must understand that change are inevitable when it comes to organizational goals and they must be resourceful when coming up with innovative ways to reach those goals. This is very important because the federal government is in constant change. There are many variables that influence the federal objective, to include politics, foreign affairs, budget constraints and so on. For the federal government, a person not only must be able to accept constant change, they also need to adapt to get buy in for to subordinates and to adapt to the organization 's way of operating at any given time. As far as if these leaders are effective in producing results, it is hard to determine how success should be defined. The federal government does not operate on a profit based principle as the corporate environment does. From a personal perspective, I worry that a more hard line style of leadership is needed; one that holds everyone more accountable. Yukl stated that these leaders encourage people to view problems or opportunities in a different way. Leaders that fi this category also needs to be a spin doctor; having the ability to find the positive perspective, no matter what the issue is.

       With all of this information being presented, I must be very clear in stating that this style of leadership is not perfect in any way. The problem with this style of leadership is it can confuse subordinates; in which employees become frustrated and disillusioned by inconsistencies. This style of leadership also stresses that a leader be entrenched in the objectives of the organization; thus they need to understand the implications of changes before implementing. To address the question of whether or not the various leadership style presented by Yukl are used by me. I would have to say yes. I think leaders who strive for success must be flexible in their leadership approach. I believe I have already added them to my personal repertoire of leadership behaviors. Then question is when to use them. However, understanding that change oriented style may be best for the environment in which I work, I do have a style I will always consider my safe mode for success. From a personal perspective, I think the one leadership style that has the most potential for success is transformational leadership. With this style a lot of focus is based on the leader that sets a good example and clearly communicates organizational goals to subordinates. This style of leadership inspires subordinates to focus on what is best for the organization. So far, it has not failed me.

•A511.1.5.RB - Leadership Analysis

Understanding the concepts of leadership and management are processes that are often made very complex.  I don’t understand why we as a society must define both in such multifaceted and often complicated ways.  In my personal opinion, both terms can be defined in a one word definition; leadership inspires, while management directs.   However, as simple as this may be, many so called experts will disagree with me while some would hesitantly agree with me. 

In 2011, renown leadership expert Henry Mintzberg participated in a special issue of the journal, Strategy & Leadership, where he made two profound statements (to me anyway) that I think speaks volumes to the field of leadership.  (1) The problem with the concept of leadership is that it implies everyone else is a follower.  To me, this speaks to the basic instinct of all living things; survival.  Not everyone or every living creature is willing to be a follower; many seek to be the “alpha”, which is defined in many circles as the individual in the community with the highest rank of authority.  I feel this applies also to the business community as it relates to organizational and individual success.  Many leaders have left companies because they themselves wanted to be that person in charge, thus not followers.  In the same sense many managers have left companies because they did not believe in the leadership vision in which they worked (more to come on this later).  (2) The notion that one can be a leader and not a manager, originally postulated by Harvard Business School professor Abraham Zaleznik, is wrong. An executive cannot lead without managing.  If they’re not correlated in some way, the organization may become dysfunctional and inefficient. I agree whole-hearted with Mintzberg’s statement that for a person to truly comprehend the understanding leadership and management, individuals needs to occupy both roles within their career path. I believe this point is supported by the video of Simon Sinek's, “WHY…of leadership”.  How can a leader become successful if they do not know how to inspire employees or even connect them?  As Mr. Simon Sinek stated, Dr. Martin Luther King did speak of a dream that the audience shared, not a plan on how to overcome.  However, if he himself had never been deprived of such human rights, how would he know this (not by reading a book).  It has been said that to truly appreciate winning, one must experience defeat; to appreciate freedom, it must be taken from you; and I believe to truly embrace leadership and management, one must experience the good and bad of both roles. 

    

As far as Herb Kelleher and the question of why does Southwest Airlines exist, I think the slogan “Freedom to Fly" makes sense only when it is understood.  By in itself the slogan may seem somewhat blah.  On the other hand, when it is explained by leadership, it carries a different meaning which encompassed with a sense of motivation and even inspiration. I myself did not understand it, until I conducted further research on the slogan “Freedom to Fly".  I believe the same goes for the speech by Dr. King.  It is one thing to read a message, but when explained by a great leader, it can take on a totally different meaning.  This leads me back to that statement I made earlier on how leaders and managers have left companies because for various reasons.  The bottom line is in most situations people don’t leave companies and jobs; they leave because of poor leadership and management.  Mr. Kelleher and Dr. King proved this to be true.  Even when Southwest and its employees went through tough times, employees stood by the company and even though people knew the civil rights movement would not be easy, they stood by the words of Dr. King. 

 

A500.8.3.RB - Blog - Good Presentation Design

For this week’s entry I had to focus on my thoughts on good presentation design.   Some of the information may seem repetitious due to fact that I share my thoughts in the weekly discussion forum.  I find this discussion very interesting because to me presentation plays a huge factor in my career field of education and training.  One question that comes to mind when it comes to presentation is what we did 25 years ago.  Did large butcher block pads and chalkboards do the same as today’s computers?  Were presenters of the past more skilled when it came to presentations than today’s speakers and presenters?  Make no mistake about it, I feel all types of professional presenters over use and abuse electronic presentations. The trendy phrase I often hear in presentation complaints from adult students is “Death by PowerPoint”.  Just like David Letterman has his nightly top ten; I have my own top 10… “I call this my "10 deadly sins of presentations"

(1) KISS- Keep it simple, stupid!

(2) A speaker must remember that a good presentation is there to support the speaker, not to do their job for them (they are the expert not the computer).

(3) Avoid distraction…annoying sounds and loud colors. With that said, the presenter must also remember that what looks good on a 20 inch computer screen may not be so good on a 9 ft. screen.

(4) Practice, Practice, Practice…enough said on that

(5) Avoid using audio visuals unprofessionally

(6) Avoid using out of date material. Make sure what you present is current (goes to credibility)

(7) Avoid using inappropriate humor that may not be funny; understand that some may be offended with certain jokes, if you would tell it to you mother keep it to yourself (know your audience)

(8) Avoid using poor grammar, pronunciation, and enunciation

(9) Being unfamiliar with YOUR information

(10) LAST BUT NOT LEAST…BE ON TIME & BE ORGANIZED. 

Another point I would like to address is using PowerPoint and other presentation tools as a crutch. I think the most important things is we must keep in perspective is that computers and presentation software are assistance tools and should remain as such. A question all presenters should ask themselves is, “Do you want the audience to pay attention to you or the presentation?" The biggest issue that I think is overlooked when it comes to presentation is problem the one the presenter has the most control over.  This issue is practice.  No matter how experienced a presenter is, they need to review their slides ahead of time before they present.  Personally I think a review should be done at least twice. A good review can assist in identifying slides that might be irrelevant.  The bottom line is the more prepared and familiar you are with your slides, the smoother the presentation will go.

A500.9.4.RB - Course Reflections

So now I must answer several questions concerning what have I learned from this course?  For me, the experience of this first course for this degree was very eye opening.  Even though the timing of this course was not the best for me, I felt I was able to rise to the occasion and complete the majority of the assignments.  I know there is one assignment that I will not be able to complete on time due to an account glitch and the administrators for the survey website are slow to assist me.  For that I will take a hit on my grade and feel I have let myself and the professor down.  However, I do feel I have learned quite a bit from the course.  This was a labor intensive course with a lot to learn in 9 weeks.  As far as the subject of critical thinking, I must admit that I have enhanced my comprehension.  I wonder how I will apply this new found skill throughout my life, personally and professionally.  As for the blogs, I was very skeptical at first, but now I see it as a living journal where students post their thought on the subject of that week; and I have grown to enjoy it.  I now see it as a life-long learning tool.  Now I must address the required questions for this course requirement.  What might I have done to improve my learning experience in this course?  Overall my learning experience was very good.  If anything, I could have improved on my time management where I could focus on areas that did not interest me as much.  I must admit that I did just enough to get by in those areas.  How might the University or your instructor provide additional support for your learning? Because critical thinking is not an easy subject to comprehend, more examples would assist in understanding and comprehension.  The things that provided me the most values to learning the process of critical thinking were the required videos.  The TED video Beware Conflicts of Interest by behavioral economist Dan Ariely and the TED video by Sheena Iyengar are videos that I really enjoyed and gave me a lot of insight on critical thinking.  Were there topics covered in this course that seem particularly relevant or irrelevant to your experiences and to what you expect to come in future courses?  I did not have any expectations for this course.  I am hoping is this course will set a solid foundation for this degree plan.  Last thing I feel I must address relates to the software we had to purchase.   I am curious to know how purchasing “The Brain” software will assist me in my learning endeavors.  It seems to be more of an online storage database tool rather than an educational tool.  This class caused me to think about things in various ways and the Brain software did not seem critical to my learning endeavors. 

A500.7.3.RB Quantitative Research Methods

“Quantitative research methods” have provided me with an insight into research that is different than that of qualitative research methods.  Just as I defined qualitative research methods, I feel it is important to provide my definition of quantitative research.  As stated earlier there is no finite universal definition of quantitative research.  Quantitative research it tries to quantify the problem and understand how prevalent it is by looking for projectable results to a larger population; by using data collection tools like various surveys, polls, and various type of interviews.  Many of the key themes of quantitative research are:

·         Seeks to discover a final course of action to a problem
·         Seeks a consensus on a final course of action to a problem
·         Project results by using smaller samples of a large population
·         Identifies independent and dependent variables
·         Test specific hypothesis and examine relationship between variables

The core of quantitative research is all about examining variables; usually independent (predictor variable) and dependent (response variables.  In quantitative research the primary objective is to analyze if there is a relationship between one thing (an independent variable) and another (a dependent or outcome variable) in a chosen population.   

There are also strengths and weakness of quantitative research.  The top five strengths I identify with are (1) useful for studying large numbers of people, (2) results are relatively independent of the researcher, (3) relatively less time consuming when using statistical software, (4) may have higher credibility through the use of statistics, and  (5) can generalize results of a research finding on many different populations.  The top five weaknesses I identify with are (1) results are limited…which provide numerical descriptions instead of narrative accounts of human observation, (2) standard researchers questions can lead to fundamental bias and false representation, (3) knowledge might be too abstract for application to research, and (4) many think it tends to cause a researcher to become immersed in the research topic and remain disconnected from the subject matter. 

A500.6.3.RB Qualitative Research

After reading, “Choosing Qualitative Research: A Primer for Technology Education Researchers,” I know more about qualitative research than I did one day ago.  However with all the information I have now absorbed, I must be a realist and understand that there is no universal definition of qualitative research.  With an understanding of this, I will still attempt to present my definition of qualitative research methods (in its simplest terms).  Qualitative approaches to research are based on a broad based view of a problem in which there is not a finite reality.  This reality is based on upon observations, interpretations, perceptions and attitudes of each person/researcher and given the situation of context, change may occur.  Examples of qualitative research methods are action research, case study, grounded theory, historical methods, in-depth interviews and focus groups.  Qualitative research differs from quantitative research in that the data collected is not statistically based.

There are several elements/characteristics in qualitative research.  The first would be “using natural setting as the source”.  Qualitative research best works if it takes place in natural settings, this is often supported by using several methods of research such as observations, interviews, and document reviews in the natural setting of the participant.  (My personal perspective; keeping the environment the as close to normal as possible to replicate a comfortable environment).  The next element is when the researcher acts as the “human instrument” for data collection.  This human instrument can either be a stand-alone or as a compliment to another participant in the collection of data.  (My personal perspective; something as simple as a time keeper in an observation or someone looking for key trigger words in an interview).  The next characteristic in qualitative research is researchers’ predominant use of “inductive data analysis”.  There are several main points to inductive data analysis to include: general raw text data in a brief, summary format; clear links between the objectives and the overall findings from the raw data and the development of a framework about the underlying structure of experiences which are evident in the raw data.  (My personal perspective; repeated actions are presented in raw data, without the restraints of structured techniques).  The fourth element of qualitative research reports is descriptive, incorporating expressive language and the "presence of voice in the text".  More than any other technique, this element allows the participants and responders have the ability to speak.  (My personal perspective; an example question in such research would be “tell me how you feel about or view this situation”).  Number five is has an interpretive character, aimed at discovering the meaning events have for the individuals who experience them, and the interpretations of those meanings by the researcher.  (My personal perspective: deep insight into the studied problem and translating participants thought processes into a language that can be easily understood by the average educated readers).  The sixth feature is researchers pay attention to the idiosyncratic as well as the pervasive, seeking the uniqueness of each case.   A simple definition of idiosyncratic means, “a structural or behavioral characteristic peculiar to an individual or group…one size does not fit all”.  (My personal perspective; don’t always depend on reliability because every individual will have a different reaction, even if the situation or stimulus is replicated in the same way)  The seventh element has an emergent design, focusing on evolving process as well as the outcomes or product of the research.  There is not an expected outcome based on the research.  (My personal perspective is revisions should be the normal behavior of any research…we will rebuild the mouse trap until we are satisfied with the final product…it may start out blue and in the end, be red).  Last but not least is research uses special criteria for trustworthiness.  There needs to be a certain degree of trust between researcher and participant...trustworthiness.  This element is not achieved instantly in any situation.  In any qualitative research project, several issues require attention: credibility, transferability, dependability, and conformability.   (My personal perspective, several questions are asked, the participant wants to know if the study is worth their time and the reader of the study ask the question, “is the study worth my attention”). 

I must admit I have a personal connection when it comes to qualitative research.  I feel it focuses on the true meaning of the study and not just a bunch of numbers that say if something is true or not.  When conducting a study, detailed explanation and use of expressive language is a very powerful tool.  Because of the quantitative research process adopted buy a major university, I withdrew from my doctoral program.  My desire was to find a school that was based on qualitative research.  My personal perspective is qualitative research requires a certain degree of passion for human reaction, something I believe cannot be duplicate with stand-alone statistical numbers

 

 

A500.5.3.RB - Blog - Critical Thinking about Critical Thinking

For this assignment, there are several questions I must address.  The first being that I must take time for reflection of my critical thinking competencies, I am not sure if I really know how much improvement I have made.  I am not sure if I have an understanding of the textbook definition of the difference between ordinary thinking and critical thinking.  From a personal perspective, I have always questioned what everyone else considered normal.  I never really thought what I was doing was critical thinking I just wanted to know why and what was next.  As I matured, I developed my leadership skills through various career endeavors; I learned to use these skills like a game of chess.  I learned to ask the right questions so I could think about my next three moves for future success and not what was directly in front of me.  That being said, I now must address the question of “has my thinking process changed.”  Yes, it has changed to some degree; but the main issue is how much has it changed?  To be honest, I am not happy with my progress because I yearn to learn more about the process of critical thinking. 

As always, there are personal problems in which I must overcome.  The first being that there is not enough time in the day to devote to this learning process the way I would like to.  I seemed to have stretched myself thin over the last year and find myself not giving 100% on many tasks.  Even more so, to concentrate and learn the way I should, I need to give something up.  There are personal hobbies I have, being an adjunct teacher part time, a professional educator full time, kids, hobbies, family time and not to mention that my current college course has so many assignments; I cannot dedicate the time I need to really focus on the art of critical thinking and how to improve my comprehension of it. 

The next question I must address is “have I been able to internalize any of the techniques and concepts I have learned?”  To this question, I must answer yes and no.  Even though I have always asked in-depth questions, they may have not been the correct questions or be in the correct context.  One way I have truly internalized different techniques is through the videos we are assigned to view.  For some reason I learn better through watching videos than by reading material; I have never been a fan of reading.  One thing I have learned so far in this course is to ask questions in different ways.  I also have a new understanding of my personal assumptions and biases and how I apply them to critical thinking.  Last but not least is being comfortable with the SEE-I model and applying it in certain situations.  Am I there yet, no; and I have a long way to go when it comes to new techniques and concepts of critical thinking. 

What will it take to make lasting, positive changes in the way you think?  This is a very complicated question to me because I know that critical thinking in itself is a science that cannot be mastered in a short time period.  Honestly, I wish I was at a level where I could evaluate information with a little less bias, but that has not been proven yet.  What I can say with certainty is that I have become more aware of the information set before me.