Looking back at this past semester and the past four years as a whole, my leadership style has been formed and transformed time and time again.
My style was first developed as a "group leader" in Venture and Entrepreneur Management. In the course I was assigned to lead a group of 10 students to develop a business plan for a new restaurant. As the youngest member of the group, and the leader this prepared me for what is to come in the near future. I had to build credibility and I did this by emphasizing my past experience working in a fast casual restaurant similar to the restaurant we were designing.
As I am about to embark on a new adventure, joining a new team of people in a new environment I will look back to these experiences. As discussed in my leadership map, I am at a point where I am building my relationships. These will hopefully be the ones that I impact in the future.
This leadership development course has served as a great capstone to my HTM experience. I have learned a lot more about leadership theories and tactics than I ever would have expected and many of these tools will be very helpful in just a few months, when I am put in charge of my first team in Maui!
Developing MY Leadership Style
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Thursday, April 14, 2011
My Leadership Map
My leadership map shows what I see as the progression of leadership over time.
- A Born Leader refers to the theories that someone is either a leader or not, leadership is not developed over time.
- Building the Bonds is the stage of building relationships with employees. This will benefit the leader in the long run.
- The Nitty Gritty is the time to show that you can do work as a leader. During this stage the leader proves himself to his superiors.
- The final stage is Making the Impressions. During this stage the leader has an impact on his followers and helps to develop them as leaders.
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Participative Leadership
While researching the realm of leadership theories I stumbled upon a new theory that I have not heard of, participative leadership. Participative leadership assumes the following:
As with all theories, there are multiple stages of participative leadership. From least participative to most participative, the stages, according to Changing Minds are:
Leaders shy away from using participative leadership for the following reasons according to Suite 101:
I see participative leadership as an important tool in an arsenal of leadership theories. Keeping your leadership balanced, while still involving your team is important. Suite 101 also explains its importance and relevance with the following, which I think are all very applicable to hospitality:
- involvement in decision making improves understanding
- people are more devoted to a decision when they were involved in the process
- people are less competitive when working towards joint goals
- several people deciding together make better decisions than when people act alone
As with all theories, there are multiple stages of participative leadership. From least participative to most participative, the stages, according to Changing Minds are:
- autocratic decision by leader
- leader proposes decision, listens to feedback, then decides
- team proposes decision, leader has final decision
- joint decision with team as equals
- full delegation of decision to team
Leaders shy away from using participative leadership for the following reasons according to Suite 101:
- "they think they need to be strong, tough, independent and decisive to be seen as an effective manager"
- "they feel that being participative might make them seem weak or indecisive"
- managers want to be in control
- time pressure
I see participative leadership as an important tool in an arsenal of leadership theories. Keeping your leadership balanced, while still involving your team is important. Suite 101 also explains its importance and relevance with the following, which I think are all very applicable to hospitality:
- your employees are intelligent, highly skilled professionals
- people feel valued when you ask for their advice
- the best form of motivation and buy in is involvement
"If there is no worker involvement, there is no quality system.”
~Lloyd Dobens
~Lloyd Dobens
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Transforming the Leadership Theory
James McGregor Burns is a leader that took a very different outlook on leadership theory. His theory, transformational leadership proposes that this "occurs when one or more persons engage with others in such a way that leaders and followers raise one another to higher levels of motivation and morality." In this theory the leader focuses on the needs of his followers and this helps to create a sense of loyalty for the leader and his ideas. In additional to transformational leadership, Burns also contributed greatly to the visionary and aspirational schools of thought. Burns' contributions have improved the leader follower relationship.
Below is a video from one of my favorite movies, Miracle. In this speech the coach inspires his team to perform their best and engages them to play at that higher level.
This slide show is my take on transformational leadership...I hope you enjoy!
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Contingency Theory vs. Situational Leadership Theory
Situational Leadership Theory
Contingency Theory
An example of the contingency theory and its effectiveness is displayed in a static workplace. In many work environments management is static, but hourly employees are constantly changing. If the management is not constantly adapting to its staff, then they will continually have that turnover. The mismatch causes a need for some change.
- Four basic leadership behavior styles
- High task, low relationship (telling)
- High task, high relationship (selling)
- Low task, high relationship (participating)
- Low task, low relationship (delegating)
- Most effective style is different for each group-dependent on readiness which is composed of
- Ability
- Willingness
- Also dependent on the job performed
Contingency Theory
- Two factors
- Least preferred co-worker
- Measures leadership orientation
- Relationship or task?
- Situational favorableness
- No ideal leader
- Environment and followers should contribute to leadership style
- Match vs. mismatch (leader and situation)
- If there is a mismatch you may need to change the leader
An example of the contingency theory and its effectiveness is displayed in a static workplace. In many work environments management is static, but hourly employees are constantly changing. If the management is not constantly adapting to its staff, then they will continually have that turnover. The mismatch causes a need for some change.
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Outsourced
After a recommendation of my boss at work, I began watching "Outsourced," which is now in its second season. The show is based on Todd, an American whose call center in the United States was closed and outsourced while he was at management training. He was promoted to manage the call center, but the catch was it is now in India. The show follows his life and his challenges, especially culturally, managing the call center.
The characters I will examine to determine whether they lean more towards path/goal or LMX are Jerry (Todd's boss), Todd (Call Center Manager) and Rajiv (Todd's Assistant Manager). The clip below shows a glimpse of each leader's interactions with coworkers.
Jerry (Todd's Boss)
Rajiv (Todd's Assistant Manager)
The characters I will examine to determine whether they lean more towards path/goal or LMX are Jerry (Todd's boss), Todd (Call Center Manager) and Rajiv (Todd's Assistant Manager). The clip below shows a glimpse of each leader's interactions with coworkers.
Jerry (Todd's Boss)
- Jerry displays path/goal leadership with his choice to send the call center to India. He had a goal, which was to reduce cost, and to achieve that goal he outsourced his company and laid off his US employees. His direction to Todd was clear, and that was to run the call center based on his training and that if he did not want to go to India he would not have a job.
- Todd is a LMX leader. Immediately upon his arrival in India he works with the call center employees to ensure they understand US culture. The best display of his LMX leadership is towards the end of the clip when he encourages Madhuri (a quiet call center employee) to take a call on her own and speak up. After this first hurdle, Madhuri proves to be a valuable employee. By focusing on building these relationships, Todd has the most loyal call center employees in the entire building.
Rajiv (Todd's Assistant Manager)
- Rajiv is a path/goal leader who rules with an iron fist. If it were not for Todd, Rajiv would have fired all of the employees within season 1 of the show. He is very strict about quotas and policies and does not care to form relationships with them employees.
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