Reflecting on MY Leadership Style...

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!

My Leadership Map

My leadership map shows what I see as the progression of leadership over time.

1. A Born Leader refers to the theories that someone is either a leader or not, leadership is not developed over time.
2. Building the Bonds is the stage of building relationships with employees. This will benefit the leader in the long run.
3. 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.
4. 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.

Right now I see myself at the Building Bonds stage. I am currently networking and learning the aspects of leading in a hotel setting. With my next move into Corporate Management Training I will be getting to know people and their jobs throughout the hotel. After this stage, I will then be managing other people, which will move me into the next stage.

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:

• 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

I believe the participative approach is a good approach for small teams, but completely impossible when leading a large group. With a large group it is logistically impossible to get everyone's input and that why with large groups, such as the entire US population, a leader is voted on.

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

A balance is what I see fit in most situations. Most of the time when making a crucial decision, the leader is not the one directly affected. For example, when a teacher makes a decision to postpone an exam the students are the ones affected. In this instance, participative leadership would be the most logical form.

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 

  
  
    More from Suite 101

           More info from Changing Minds

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

Participative leadership is sure to play a role in my future career. As a part of a constantly evolving industry, involvement is important from top to bottom.

"If there is no worker involvement, there is no quality system.”
~Lloyd Dobens

Midterm

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!

 

Contingency Theory vs. Situational Leadership Theory

Situational Leadership Theory

• 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

An example of the effectiveness of situational leadership theory and its effectiveness is the diversity of the managing committee at my work. The best example is to compare and contrast the Controller and the Rooms Executive. The controller focuses mainly on her work, making her high task, low relationship. The Rooms Executive is high task, high relationship, making sure that everyone gets work done, but also mentoring her employees. These two diverse leadership types run different departments in one hotel very effectively. The key takeaway for me is adaptation to your role.

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.

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)

• 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 (Call Center Manager)

• 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.

My blog vs. others

After reading many other students' blogs I have noticed that each person has taken a different path in creating their blog. Although the paths are different the end goal is still achieved, and that is to help develop our leadership styles. To compare and contrast I chose Shilo's blog as a similar blog, and Dan's blog as a different blog.

Shilo's Blog (click here)

• As I did, Shilo followed a template to create his blog. This gives a feeling of unity among the blog. The color schemes match, and as a reader you get a simple feeling
• His content is similar to mine in the sense that it is concise and written from his perspective. I think that this makes the blog personal and allows the reader to feel like they have entered your life.

Dan's Blog (click here)

• Dan's blog is just like Dan himself, different. He is very involved in the blog outside of just the assignments with posts just about everyday. I like that he is taking this beyond the requirements.
• The layout of Dan's blog is a little difficult to understand, but if you a regular follower you can get used to it.

From these blogs I hope to incorporate posts beyond the assignments. I have started this with my posts about my future career, but I plan on using this more often.

My new home!

Aloha!

Today was a big day for developing my future leadership potential. I was offered my first management job for post-college today. I will be starting in June as a Rooms Division Corporate Management Trainee at the Hyatt Regency Maui Resort & Spa. I am nervous, but most of all excited! The reasons I am nervous are abundant:

• Maui is a union hotel and I have never worked, let alone managed, at a union property. Rumors that I have heard say that it is much more difficult and that many employees are unmotivated because they are tenured.
• Maui is far! What will I bring? Should I ship my car? Questions are racing through my mind.
• I may never make it back to the mainland. The company is investing a lot of money in me to send me to Maui. It will be at least a year before they will even think about sending me back.
• Will the locals just think of me as another mainlander?

This is the biggest move I have ever made and I am really looking forward to it!

My PMAI Results

After reviewing my results from the PMAI test I better understand where I currently stand as a leader.

My top scores from the test are:

• Jester
• I am happy, playful, and full of energy. When it comes to problem solving I think outside the box. I have a trickier side and find fun in every situation. I need to be careful to not be irresponsible and to make sure that my trickery does not get out of hand.
• Ruler
• I step up to the plate to be a leader when possible. To solve problems I try to put in place policies. I like to intensify my power. I need to be on guard to ensure that I do not become a dictator as a leader.
• Creator
• I am highly imaginative. When problems arise I try to develop a clear path to resolution. I always think of new inventions, and I need to guard against reducing everything to its most simple form.

I am most definitely a combination of the three, leaning most towards Jester, which is exactly what the results stated. In addition to my most prevalent archetypes, the PMAI also gave my least prevalent archetype, orphan. I need to incorporate some of the orphan characteristics to round out my leadership style. The most important area of focus that I found is realism. Orphan leaders are realistic, and my strong archetypes are not.

These survey results seem to be very accurate for how I see myself as a leader. With focus on the weaknesses of the archetypes that are prevalent in my style I can improve myself as a leader.

Archetypes and Leaders

As I further develop my leadership style I am starting to observe the importance of searching for the "hidden" traits that make up my character. The PMAI (Pearson-Marr Archetype Indicator) test takes symbols, images and themes that are gathered through a series of questions and establishes the top archetypes. These archetypes are named based off of the common characteristics and desires that go along with them.

The archetypes PMAI uses are:

 Each of these archetypes describes the most important desires and goals of the individual who is evaluated and the potential for parts of that person's leadership style. These archetypes come from values that are created throughout one's life. After completing the evaluation, my results proved to be very informative. The next post will touch more on that. After this test I trust much more in the archetype based leadership theory rather than the traits based leadership theory.

Judging by your traits...

Trait based leadership theory was developed to pinpoint leaders in a group based on the traits that one portrays. To actually determine one's ability to lead much more research must be done.

By using only traits, an observer can only pinpoint a member of a team with potential to leadership based on six key traits explained in "Leadership: Do Traits Matter?" These traits are drive, leadership motivation, honesty and integrity, self confidence, cognitive ability, and knowledge of the business. 

The major con of this approach is that this only shows potential for leadership. Without further investigation an observer cannot determine whether or not the individual can apply those traits in the required situations.

For purposes of preliminary analysis trait based leadership theory can work well, but for decision making, there is further investigation required.

My Top 5

In order to be a great leader one must have a great base of traits to build from. Here are my top 5 (in no particular order):

1. Honest-your team must trust you and if you are not honest, that trust will never be gained.
2. Competent-if my leader is not competent and able to perform, or at least understand, the tasks that I do it takes a lot longer to gain my respect.
3. Risk-taking-this is more important to me if you are an employee of mine. With big risk comes big reward and I would want my supervisors to take INTELLIGENT risk.
4. Innovative-new ideas keep a team consistently growing and developing. If the leader is innovative he will inspire his team to be.
5. Rational-when a leader sets impossible deadlines he is setting his team up for failure. As a leader I want to always set my team up for success, and therefore must be rational when developing rules and regulations.

Character is like a tree and reputation like its shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.

~Abraham Lincoln 

About Me

"Adam is all about building from the ground up and achieving trust of his team through buy in. He looks for inspiration and risk taking in a leader as seen in the move Miracle as well as in leaders such as Richard Branson, who built his empire from the ground up. Adam sees innovation as a key to leadership evident in his leader choice Steve Jobs who is the "scout" of the group. Overall, Adam looks to be a team builder, who is a genuine leader, and inspires his team to be better than they are." ~ Galit Tashman

As evident in this story of my leadership style from a fellow classmate, describing another person's leadership is much easier than formulating an explanation of your own. I agree with Galit and emphasize the fact that my main focus is the buy in. Once you have your team on board, anything is possible. I also believe that a great leader is only as good as their team and that a great team is only as good as their leader. That means that you must build the great team before you get the buy in.

Through the course of this class and the use of this blog, I hope to develop myself as a leader. This can be done by observing good and bad leadership situations. To formulate the information above I completed the exercise below:


Leadership Exploration Exercise:

• Images

·      Movie Examples

o   Miracle

o   Braveheart

o   Office Space (bad examples)

·      Famous Leaders

o   Richard Branson

o   Abraham Lincoln

o   Steve Jobs

·      Values

o   Genuine

o   Risk-taker

o   Inspiring

·      Quotes

o   People are more easily led than driven.
~David Harold Fink

o   The leader has to be practical and a realist, yet must talk the language of the visionary and the idealist.
~Eric Hoffer

o   To be able to lead others, a man must be willing to go forward alone.
~Harry Truman

Context

·      The carpenter

o   An example of “the carpenter” would be Richard Branson. He is a big risk taker and two weeks ago when I heard his keynote speech he inspired me. He has built Virgin from the ground up, with each new division a culmination of his ideas. As a leader he proves that anything is possible and is currently building Virgin Hotels from the ground up.

·      The communicator

o   Most people think of Martin Luther King Jr. as an icon for inspiring masses. He was able to communicate with all types of people to pass along his ideals and eventually create an equal environment for all.

·      The scout

o   Steve Jobs is “the scout.” He has taken Apple to new heights and is constantly innovating technology. Apple has become the leaders and all others follow to that territory.