Category: Leadership Archive

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Leadership Archive

Looking back

Doing communications work for as long as I have, I can tell you that creating content that will compel somebody to read it is not easy. You get excited to start putting whatever comes into your head on this blank canvas that you’ve been given. Then after a certain period of time has passed, you start running out of things to say. This is pretty much how I felt previous blogs went: they were rather fruitless exercises because my point of view was a little too unique for the common visitor.

What makes this time different, and honestly more satisfying, is that I had an actual theme that I had to stick to. That kept me honest. I could still give my own little spin on things–that’s how I managed to incorporate Patrick Mahomes and the controversy surrounding the Houston Astros into posts–just as long as they were somehow tied into leadership and specifically the topic for that week.

The hope is that my posts from the past seven weeks show the information that I’ve gained about myself and about the concept of leadership in general. The latter is, in my opinion, a lot more complex than just taking charge and giving orders. You have to be able to motivate and inspire people to be their best version of themselves. Like writing a blog, really. I don’t know that I offered all that much inspiration or motivation in previous writings, it was basically typing just to see my words on the screen. Now I’ve imparted knowledge through research and my understanding of the subject that ideally people will pass on to others, and I will use this knowledge to continue to better myself as I strive to be the one people turn to for my particular line of work.

This has been a lot of fun. I will have plenty more to write later in the year when I head to Tokyo for the Summer Olympics, if not before then. Stay safe out there, and go Chiefs!

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Leadership Archive

A bases-loaded jam

Now that it’s been a couple of weeks since the Super Bowl, we can begin the transition from the gridiron to the baseball diamond. And we find the major leagues in a difficult moment right now, with much of the news centered around findings that the Houston Astros employed sign-stealing methods en route to their World Series title in 2017. The fallout from these actions has been described by public relations experts and sportswriters alike as a crisis for MLB. By their accounts, commissioner Rob Manfred has handled the situation rather clumsily. Writes John Feinstein in the Washington Post, “Right from the beginning, MLB has botched this investigation, from the blanket immunity it gave players to Manfred’s refusal to…tak(e) the 2017 World Series title and trophy away from the Astros.”

As the head of a professional sports organization, it is perhaps inevitable that Rob Manfred would be subjected to fierce criticism of his decisions. But how do other leaders avoid the same kind of scorn from the public and the press? The answer, say Lussier & Achua (2016), is very simple: the leader must get in front of the situation and be able to communicate effectively with all parties. This includes the public, the media, and especially with employees in the organization.

Ideally, the firm will have a plan already in place for dealing with scenarios that are at best embarrassing and at worst have deadly consequences. They’ve assembled a team, determined possible threats to operations, and created an outline for publicly dealing with these threats (Lussier & Achua, 2016). Given the ability to react in real-time on social media now, as people did when Astros players apologized during a news conference, it is not unreasonable for organizations to implement so-called “safety measures” that protect their reputation from further damage.

I would have to imagine that for being such well-known entities in North America, Major League Baseball and the Houston Astros would have some sort of contingency plan for handling controversial matters, it’s just in this instance both seemed to swing and miss.

Reference

Lussier, R.N., & Achua, C.F. (2016). Leadership: Theory, application, & skill development (6th ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.

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Leadership Archive

Diversity at Amazon: Thinking Outside the Box

Amazon presents itself as a champion of diversity and inclusion. “We seek builders from all backgrounds to join our teams, and we encourage our employees to bring their authentic, original, and best selves to work,” writes the online retailer on its careers site.

In spite of this declaration, Amazon’s track record paints a different picture. The company balked a couple of years ago at a plan to require that consideration be given to women and minorities qualified for a leadership role, a policy similar to the NFL’s Rooney Rule in which teams must speak to minorities when filling vacancies at the head coach and general manager positions.

Just this week, the Seattle Times reported that two women have joined senior management, otherwise referred to as the “S team” internally, tripling the number of female leaders. Three is also the number of people on the 22-member S team who are not white, suggesting that Amazon has been slower to accept diversity at the top.

A lack of diversity can have consequences for both minority groups who may feel ostracized and the organization that loses talented employees, creating costs in the process. There should be a commitment to diversity on all levels at Amazon and other firms. However, they need to be more than empty gestures meant to satisfy public relations and government law (Lussier & Achua, 2016).

Amazon for its part did relent and agree to implement the Rooney Rule in its hiring practices. It also reports offering staff educational opportunities such as training, mentorships, and recognition of events such as Black History Month, which we happen to be in right now. But is it enough when the people at the top are still mostly white? My recommendation for Amazon would be that they include more women and minorities on their leadership team to help promote the message of inclusivity within the company in the hopes of delivering a positive work experience for employees.

Reference

Lussier, R.N., & Achua, C.F. (2016). Leadership: Theory, application, & skill development (6th ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.

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Leadership Archive

Team Meeting

To some people, twice a week may seem like an excessive amount to hold department meetings. But as a communications professional, my team serves as the face of the organization in many ways, working on fundraising, marketing, and social media. And that’s a lot of things to keep track of, so much it’s hard to condense into one-hour meetings each week. As a result, we go over projects on Mondays and Thursdays, with social media and fund development the focus on Monday and other outreach on Thursday. While not a fan of meetings in general, I do enjoy the opportunity to tackle the objectives for our department and I try to have a little fun, too. Today, of course, we talked a little about the first Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl victory in 50 years. How could I not as a Chiefs fan?

Even with such asides, we get a lot accomplished in this scheduled time, a lot more than other meetings I’ve been part of. The biggest culprit in the past has been waffling on certain decisions. Either several people needed to have input on a matter or there was nitpicking on content, layout, even the type of font we used. This led to spinning our wheels and ultimately a delay in completing projects, a very frustrating process to say the least.

With the method that my current team has in place, we’re able to look more at the bigger picture of creating the right message to convey how we help our community. We still pay attention to detail and want to present a quality product, and effective meetings allow us to do that. Lussier & Achua (2016) indicate that laying out objectives, breaking out topics to be covered, then going back to discuss action items are the three components that make a meeting most successful. I feel like we accomplish this in each meeting and have a sense of direction for what our department should be working on before the next one.

Technology plays a major role in moving our meetings along. We have a monitor in the conference room and so we’re able to see things on the screen and make adjustments as we notice something. This saves us a great deal of time, not to mention sheets of paper that we’re not having to print.

For me, the department meeting really is a chance to give my input on things and help improve upon our processes to do great things for the organization.

Reference

Lussier, R.N., & Achua, C.F. (2016). Leadership: Theory, application, & skill development (6th ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.

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Leadership Archive

It takes a village

My first two posts have talked about leadership and important attributes for a leader to have. Now I’m going to switch gears a bit here and look at the people who complete the process. Followers are crucial to making a leader effective. They work in concert with the leader on attaining organizational goals that will greatly benefit all parties. That’s right–ideally, the relationship between a leader and follower is one of mutuality where each supports each other rather than the person of “lesser” status doing much of the heavy lifting.

Even so, the follower still has to be committed to doing their part. A work ethic and loyalty are just two of the traits that John McCallum (2013) in Ivey Business Journal says a follower should possess. There are eight qualities in all which constitute a Boy Scout-Esque oath if you will, of prudent followership. Trustworthiness, good judgment, ability, courage, and tact are included as characteristics. Finally, McCallum says that a good follower can check his or her ego at the door to accomplish the task at hand.

It’s important that leaders be able to track whether objectives are being met. This ultimately means tracking the performance of followers to determine whether they are up to par as far as the guidelines of followership are concerned. According to Lussier & Achua (2016), the goal of evaluations is to provide an opportunity for the employee to understand strengths and weaknesses and gain further experience to grow in their careers. My opinion is that reviews should be treated as such by leaders rather than a means to reward or punish followers, though instances may occur that require appropriate intervention. It may also be helpful to use McCallum’s eight pillars as criteria for assessing performance.

A complication in the leader-follower relationship is the suitability of fraternization between the two. The United States military notably has had a policy prohibiting such a connection. Here it is an issue of maintaining discipline within the realm of the Armed Forces. Any breach of this discipline can create a decrease in morale and performance (Thompson, 1986). This could have devastating consequences in the course of combat.

Yet it would be to the detriment of the leader to completely close themselves off from those below them. They should make an effort to know who their followers are, what interests them, their family members and/or pets. The leader could also decide to have outings with followers at their home or a local bar, but they should take care to ensure that all members of the group are afforded the opportunity to participate. The leader also needs to maintain professionalism even off the clock.

The tips that are outlined above go a long way in reciprocating a relationship between a leader and follower that nurtures growth and innovation in the issues that both are collectively tackling.

References

Lussier, R.N., & Achua, C.F. (2016). Leadership: Theory, application, & skill development (6th ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.

McCallum, J.S. (2013, September/October). Followership: The other side of leadership. Retrieved from https://iveybusinessjournal.com/publication/followership-the-other-side-of-leadership/

Thompson, C.L., Jr. (1986, April). Fraternization: A military offense? [PDF File]. Retrieved from https://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a168706.pdf

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Leadership Archive

Contingency leadership and the Big Ten models

This week I’ll be talking about theories of contingency leadership, defined by Lussier & Achua (2016) as a guideline of which leadership style is best suited for a particular situation. Some factors that must be considered include the disposition and experience of the leader; what the followers are able to do and whether they’re motivated to do it; and the project’s nature.

Looking back on the jobs I’ve had in communications over the years, there have been some differences in terms of the situation at hand. With news, I was putting out a product on a daily basis, so there was a great deal of urgency and thus the emphasis was on doing things the correct way. Outside of news, I’ve found that I have a bit more license as to how I do my job. The deadlines still remain, but they aren’t as frequent as they used to be. The culture where I am now is also a lot more supportive. Under the contingency leadership model, the objective is either dictated by the task itself or the need to build relationships (Lussier & Achua, 2016). My opinion is that the news business is much more task-focused, while nonprofit work is about building relationships out in the community.

In some ways, contingency leadership complements the ideas of what I like to call the “Big Ten models” because they were all introduced by researchers at Michigan, Ohio State, and my alma mater, Iowa, all who compete athletically in the Big Ten Conference. Each of these models that examine behavior closely reflects the contingency leadership idea because they indicate that leaders act based either on the job or maintaining relationships. Ohio State goes a little more in-depth, suggesting that leaders may prioritize the job, the employees, or both or neither equally. Iowa, meanwhile, focuses more on the personality of the leader themselves. Michigan’s model matches the contingency leadership theory the closest (Lussier & Achua, 2016).

Now as much as I love my Hawkeyes, I really have to give the nod to Ohio State in terms of behavior model preference just because it gives leaders a much more detailed analysis of how they carry themselves. Once armed with that knowledge, the leader can then assess whether their style fits the scenario in front of them and adapt as needed.

Reference

Lussier, R.N., & Achua, C.F. (2016). Leadership: Theory, application, & skill development (6th ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.

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Leadership Archive

Don’t Call it a Comeback

It looked as though the Ghost of Playoff Setbacks Past had once again haunted Kansas City’s Arrowhead Stadium, where its tenant the Chiefs were staring down a 24-0 deficit to the Houston Texans in the AFC Divisional Playoff game. If the score held up, it would be another devastating end to a season filled with Super Bowl aspirations.

But that’s when Patrick Mahomes decided to take things over. The gunslinging Kansas City quarterback threw five touchdowns–four of those in the second quarter–and the Chiefs not only came from behind to book a trip to the AFC Championship Game, but they did so by a 20-point margin.

For Patrick Mahomes, charisma has led to an endorsement deal with Helzberg Diamonds among other businesses.
(Brian Siguenza photo)

I can’t stress enough how much I appreciate having Patrick Mahomes on the team that I’ve followed over the past 27 NFL seasons. The leadership that he possesses reflects his performance on the field, not to mention that of his teammates. If you’ve ever caught a Chiefs game, then you’ve seen the TV cameras get shots of him firing up the team on the sidelines or in the locker room, encouraging them to do what is necessary to accomplish their goal. When not in the game, he’s often seated on the bench next to his head coach Andy Reid, presumably to discuss strategy. In essence, Patrick Mahomes is proof that being an athlete at the professional level is about so much more than just throwing a ball or scoring points. It takes a great deal of development both physically and mentally to be successful in high-pressure situations such as Mahomes faced trailing big in a playoff game.

While an appearance in the Super Bowl isn’t generally on the line in day-to-day operations, the experience of dealing with adversity on the football field is transferable to any place of business. In fact, many of today’s CEOs had played an organized sport growing up. And while commentators carrying on about athlete’s “grit” or “tenacity” during any sports broadcast seems rather cliched, those are desirable traits for a leader to have in business and in sports. Charisma helps a great deal also, and Mahomes has used it to his advantage, developing a legion of fans in Kansas City plus endorsement deals.

So to summarize, the definition of leadership as observed through an NFL quarterback is displaying strength, confidence, and calmness through times of great uncertainty. That Patrick Mahomes has all these qualities gives the Chiefs their best chance in years to achieve greatness.