Journal Assignment: (Minimum two pages required) (Do not attempt to solve if you
ID: 332747 • Letter: J
Question
Journal Assignment: (Minimum two pages required)
(Do not attempt to solve if you can not fulfill all the requirements!!!!)
Progress as a leader or manager is inextricably bound to progress as a healthy, mature, and interpersonally skilled person. Therefore, one of the goals of the course is to help you establish a strategic plan or program to grow personally and to help you develop learning skills and management skills to improve your performance at work now and in the future. In addition, one of the greatest challenges of strategic management is the implementation of the strategy. Many managers cannot lead their organizations to implement strategy because they themselves have not developed the necessary understandings and skills to do so.
This journal assignment will be the approximately two-pages paper describing how you are applying the concept or insight that you found especially relevant to your life, your home, and/or to your work situation/organization.
Sample Journal assignment: (Please follow the same format)
ACQUIRE
I have chosen to apply Stephen Covey’s Habit One, “Be Proactive” from the “7 Habits of Highly Effective People.” I always believed that I was a proactive person, only to find out that the way I react to one particular friend is highly reactive. I have decided to take a stand on the way I react to negative comments and the way I feel about it. This stand was mostly influenced by Covey’s book, pages 72 & 73, as well as other concepts and ideas throughout the class reads.
INTERPRET
In my life, I have been blessed with many amazing friends and coworkers, but there is that one friend that just knows how to push my buttons and makes me feel angry and miserable each time we encounter. Getting rid of this particular friend wasn’t my ideal fix for two reasons:
1. We have way too many friends in common and it would make everything awkward, as our paths cross very often.
2. I just can’t stand the thought that there is someone out there that has a total control of my feelings.
In his book, “The fifth discipline,” Senge would reason me saying, “The cure lies in your relationship with your “enemy” (pg. 67.) I attempted to rationalize with this friend in so many ways, quick fixes that didn’t last for very long, only to end up feeling the same shortly after. I believe that Covey’s book was sent to me from Heaven; it came along to save me. A simple quote from page 73 saying: “It’s not what happens to us, but our response to what happens to us that hurt us” was like an epiphany to me, a wakeup call. To add to this statement, Eleanor Roosevelt’s quote on Covey’s book, pg. 72 “No one can hurt you without your consent” made me realize that I am allowing myself to feel like this, but I can control this, I have a choice.
APPLY
PLAN: My plan is to get together with this friend in person and be able to spend an entire evening having a decent time. I intend to listen, be proactive and not react to her negative comments. Last but not least, once I separate from her, I want to be able to go home feeling calm, without any bitter feelings about anything she said or the way I reacted to it. What I don’t want is “to build my life around her behavior, empowering her weaknesses to control me” (Covey, pg. 72.)
DO: Last Friday night I invited my friend to go out to dinner. Overall, I don’t remember last time I had such a good time with her. I started the evening by listening, I wanted her to talk as much as possible, so when she makes the comments that tend to push my buttons, I can control the way I feel about it. Notice how I said feel, as I don’t always react to her; instead, I let myself feel bad in the inside, causing me to get very angry for a long period of time, sometimes days and weeks after. But last Friday was not the case. I had many concepts in my mind and I wanted to apply them all, starting with my listening skills; “Seeking first to understand, then be understood,” (pg. 235-260); and “carry my own weather” (pg. 71.) Feeling like this is something I’ve wanted for so long, and I cannot believe that it finally seems to work. Perhaps in the past, I have tried only one thing at a time, while that problem had too many roots; perhaps I gave up too soon, but this time I promised myself to treat better and not be influenced negatively by what others think or say about me. In the words of Michael J. Fox: “What others think of me is none of my business.”
STUDY: Although I feel like last evening was a breakthrough, I know we have a long way before my friend and I can trust that we are not here to harm one another; instead, we are friends that somehow have gotten on each other's bad side. The last encounter was a lot about me truly listening and caring, as well as controlling the way I feel. I believe my next step is for me to be more proactive and engage in more conversations, choosing my words carefully, because perhaps I, just like her, know how to push her buttons. This is a friendship that I would like to bring it to the same level as is best described by Scholtes in his “Relationships” paragraph on page 40 – 41, where among many great things he quotes: “A good, old-fashioned, one-on-one, personal relationship, face-to-face, first name to the first name is when: 1. You listen to each other’s stories. 2. Each respects the other and knows how to show respect in ways the other wants respect to be shown. 3. Each knows the other well enough to know what the vulnerabilities and hot buttons are. Each cares enough about the other to avoid those vulnerabilities and hot buttons.“
ACT: Couple days later I feel a lot better, and I am hopeful that I can save my friendship. I have continued my positive attitude towards her via Facebook comments, a communication means that we use a lot, and in return, she’s been responding back very positively, too. I have once read that if we assume that everyone says things with their best intention, the words that once hurt us will hurt no more. All we have to do is make that switch or change in our subconscious and not only will we personally benefit from it, but so will all the people around us. Senge calls this compassion.
Explanation / Answer
If you want to be a great manager who inspires others to greatness, you don’t have to don a new outsized personality or break a mold. You simply have to choose to communicate, connect, and bring your full presence to those you lead.
Here are five strategies that continually come up in my research for how to be a leader others want to follow:
Be straightforward.
Trust is the gatekeeper to connection. A great manager doesn’t sugarcoat bad news, evade the facts, or attempt to spin. She respects her employees enough to give them the truth, even if it’s not the most palatable thing to hear on a Monday morning. Great managers inspire their team by being authentic, direct, and honest.
Not only does being honest foster trust, it also encourages an open culture that’s good for business. According to a 2010 study by the Corporate Executive Board (CEB), “firms whose culture encourages open communication outperform peers by more than 270% in terms of long-term (10 year) total shareholder return.”
A straightforward style also leads to efficiency, as it decreases rumor and misinterpretation which thwart productivity.
Exhibit leadership maturity.
When you get to a leadership level, you lose your ability to gripe – especially to those at lower levels. You become a representative of the company. The company’s policies need to be aligned with your own personal values.
You can’t just pay lip service to management decisio
ons but must actually believe the value in what you’re proposing. This means being reflective and aligning yourself behind the corporate direction, and finding a way to credibly and honestly represent it.
The opposite – so often on exhibit in companies – is a cancer. If a manager constantly complains about corporate policies, they lose followership and their employees lose hope.
Put the right people in the right jobs.
Writing about the thesis of his bestselling book, Good to Great, author Jim Collins argues that leaders of successful companies differentiate themselves by starting “not with where but with who. They start by getting the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus, and the right people in the right seats.”
Gallup research shows that people are happiest and most engaged when they apply their strengths to their job. Instead of changing people to fit the job, great managers try to put the right people in the jobs in which they can perform well.
Hold regular, meaningful one-to-ones.
Most managers know the importance of scheduling regular one-on-ones with direct reports – some companies even require it. Yet, these are often poorly organized, frequently rescheduled, and largely ineffective.
Great managers prioritize their meetings with directs and honor the importance of that time. As Susan Scott says, “the conversation is the relationship.” Schedule one-to-ones with your direct reports weekly or biweekly and keep to your established schedule. Have a format to optimize each meeting as I discuss here.
If you use these meetings well, the upfront time investment will more than pay off with increased efficiencies.
Actively manage conflict.
Successful managers don’t avoid the issues—they face them, head on.
The reality is that sometimes employees don’t work out, projects fail, turf wars launch, and tough decisions have to be made. When you’re able to successfully manage during these trying situations, you serve as a role model for your team, thereby inspiring accountability and decision making in your employees.
If you’re a manager who hates conflict, figure out how to manage it. Conflict is a constant when people are involved, and it’s simply impossible to avoid it without damaging your leadership capability. Employees want a leader who stands up for them, clears a path, and makes it easier to do their jobs. Avoiding conflict is no longer an option.
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