A633.6.4.RB
- Circle of Leadership
Does this happen in your organization? What are the effects on the organization? Create a new circle that would promote strong followership and even leadership at the lower levels of the organization. Ensure that this reflects the actions and involvements of all significant functions such as; Sales, Marketing, Finance, Accounting, Operations, Marketing, and Distribution.
Of course, a form of this
"charade" happens in all organizations not just mine. The main
problem stems from immaturity in leadership or business interactions alone. Immaturity
might not classify everybody's behavior, but rather individuals early on in
their social interactions with new members seem to be a bit more politically
correct in order to feel out the individual. This my spark individuals to seem
alerted if they haven't perceived the interaction as being polite. Of course,
this isn't always the case, but for initial interactions, it usually is. Also
with new members to the organization, they also fall victim into this trap because
it's usually a safer practice to ask first versus doing something what's unbeknown
to you . Once people start to gain a heightened sense of confidence in the
"skill" zone, then they'd most likely feel comfortable displaying
some disciplined initiative without direction. It certainly a two way street,
and takes overt action to break this mundane cycle. Usually I find it best to
sit an individual down and do some formal counseling, for which I focus on their
positive performance, but now want to push them into the next category in order
to progress them their career field.
This can in-fact be a charade that's
intended. I wouldn't necessary stamp this as negative interaction, especially
if the organization is very young at all facets. For me, if initially an organization
under communicates then chaos is usually unleashed fairly early, and then
everybody looks at leadership as the culprit. I see that over communication
usually happens when leadership positions are exercising parallel learning tactics
in order to learn, mentor, coach, and evaluate all at the same time. This
happens constantly for new lieutenants straight out of flight school in my
formation. They have a good core concept of leadership as a general sense, but
are "suppose" to be the leaders of the many who are in fact the ones
responsible for training them, very awkward situation for many. I've found that
the leaders who succeed at this venture really ask many questions, especially
the ones like "where can I help you." This allows the individual to
gain report in the formation as well as hyper-accelerating their position as
both a functional member in the force, and as a leader.
I'm
really a super fan of Obolensky's (2014) statement that "leaders get the
followers they deserve" and "followers get the leaders they
deserve." This really puts the onus on both individuals to bring their
best to the table when it comes to serving the organization. We are way to
politically correct in today's society and I think that is one of the
contributors to all the charades that partake daily. Individuals use this as an
excuse as to why they weren't acting in a manner that's more appropriate, far
too many crutches out there.
I
don't think a hard in stone "circle for leaders" should ever be
established because that style of thinking lacks critical thinking, and doesn't
adopt a complex strategy for mentoring. As a critical thinker, when an employee
comes to me improperly for direction, I simply ask them if they conferred with
one of their piers initially. I'm a big fan of peer driven mentorship, because this
is where I get to witness new leaders starting to emerge. This also allows me
to identify my key players and the roles that others are accustomed too. As
well, I get to observe and start to see where individuals start setting in as
strict followers. I then pull them out of the game, unknowingly to the other
members, counsel, coach, mentor, and motivate them, then get them back into the
game. The Military Leader states that "counseling
your team is a lot like creating a leader development program…if you overthink it, it’ll
never get done." The main point I'm
trying to make is that cycles happen because both the leader and the
subordinate don't take overt action to break it. It's very easy to get caught
up in a repetitive cycle, because individuals feel as though they have found
their lane and start feeling comfortable. You have to break the chain at the
most opportune time in order to keep confidence in the individual and the tem
rolling in the right direction. This of course takes time and mentorship from
other leaders when new leaders don't know the best tactics to break the chain.
I'd conclude that my proposed circle
of leadership would look more like the Olympic Flag, with each intersection
being a pit stop for counseling. This counseling's can serve a multitude of
functions and can either get individuals back in track, transition them into
totally different department based on a certain skill set, or get them positioned
into a heightened level of responsibility. My biggest consideration is to have
a program that allows many different options for leaders to utilize when
dealing with the array of charades that they will indeed encounter.
References
Obolensky, M. N. (2014). Complex Adaptive
Leadership, 2nd Edition. [Bookshelf Online]. Retrieved from
https://bookshelf.vitalsource.com/#/books/9781472447937/
The Military Leader. (2018). 12 tips for effectively counseling your subordinates. Retrieved
from https://www.themilitaryleader.com/12-tips-for-effectively-counseling-your-subordinates/
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