Over recent years, the topic of individuality has been on the rise. Kids are taught at a young age to pursue what you want, follow your passion, and to express yourself. This isn’t a new or revolutionary idea, but it has become more widespread and pervasive to our modern culture. While we are taught to be independent with our ideas or our motives, there is oddly a lack of independence when it comes to handling life decisions or tasks. America scores a radically higher individualism score than the rest of the world. This is something that has demonstrated itself in my personal life that is worth sharing.

 

Being from America, the individual idea that we have has directly influenced the way that I view the world. I wouldn’t argue that I’m a selfish person, but I do look out for myself in many ways before I’ll look after others. This has demonstrated itself at my work. I work for a corporation called Paylocity. We are a fast growing payroll company that is extremely diverse. We have programers, consultants, IT, and many other departments filled with people that have different cultural backgrounds.

 

In the few short months that I have been working at Paylocity, I have seen my drive and self pursuit directly contradict a few of my close coworkers. One competency that I score high on is career ambition (Saunders, 2012).  My ambition for growth, development, and ultimately self-gain is incredible high. I pursuit leadership positions, higher pay, and more work experience. I’ve seen this individual pursuit effect the perception from my other team that doesn’t have this same drive for self gain. One of my coworkers in particular that I work directly with is completely opposite. He is from Mexico which has a score of 30, as apposed to 91 that the United States has. He is content in his role not looking for much growth or self gain.

 

Interestingly, this pushes us to a similar place from two different approaches. We both try to help the team, build into others, and establish relationships with peers. Much of my motivation is for recognition and to be seen by the leaders around me. His motivation is purely to help the team and help them succeed. I am cheering on others, and genuinely hoping for their success. But my motivation at work is to build into my career and establish myself as a successful resource at work.

 

Sources:

What about the USA? (n.d.). Retrieved April 24, 2015, from http://geert-hofstede.com/united-states.html

Lominger Competency List. (n.d.). Retrieved April 24, 2015, from http://youremployment.biz/competency/lominger-competency-list/

 

Saunders, L. (2012). Identifying Core Reference Competencies from an Employers’ Perspective: Implications for Instruction. Retrieved April 24, 2015, from http://crl.acrl.org/content/73/4/390.abstract

At the most basic level, communication is one of the most important aspects of modern life. Throughout a given day, one communicates with their spouse, children, store clerk, business partners, neighbors, and any other people they come in contact with. Everything we do and everything we say portrays some level of communication. Communication is way more than saying the right words but is rather about saying things the right way.

Nonverbal communication is is one of the most key and important aspects of how we communicate with people. Studies have shown that roughly 55% of communication is body language, 38% is tone of voice, and 7% is the actual words spoken (Thompson, 2011). Because of this, miscommunication happens way more than we generally accept. We often forget that way we’re communicating is more based around our body language and less around words even though we place such an emphasis on the actual words spoken.

Miscommunication is something that every leader needs to avoid. Three things to be aware of are context, clusters, and congruence (Thompson, 2011). Context is taking the situation around everyone and building an idea as to what the person is trying to communicate. In many ways it is making an assumption and hypothesis about what the other person is and should be saying and testing to see if the test passes. Clusters is making sure that one doesn’t take a single gesture and base everything off it. For example, if someone crosses their arms, many would think that is a symbol of resistance. However, if their teeth are chattering they could potentially just be cold. And congruence is making sure that the tone matches the body language and the words being spoken. Build a complete idea about what is being communicated and miscommunication will happen far less.

Leaders need to be some of the best communicators. It is a tricky task to be able to communicate with large teams but is critical to the success of the team. If the leader isn’t capable of good communication that will trickle throughout the rest of the team. Focus on communication and your team will be far more successful.

 

Sources:

 

Thompson, J. (Sept 30, 2011). Is Nonverbal Communication a Numbers Game? Retrieved April 20, 2015, from https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/beyond-words/201109/is-nonverbal-communication-numbers-game

Communication – What Percentage is Body Language? (n.d.). Retrieved April 20, 2015, from http://www.bodylanguageexpert.co.uk/communication-what-percentage-body-language.html

Leadership is a changing word. It rarely carries the same meaning throughout different contexts, cultures, eras, or ideologies. It is constantly evolving and changing based on the people and the way they receive a leader. Because of this, universals are hard to narrow down. It makes for a complex concept because it changes so rapidly and sometimes unexpectedly. But while leadership adapts and molds, there are aspects that are consistent and applicable in many contexts. This short essay is going to discuss one of those important and universal aspects to leadership which is values.

Values are at the core of a team. Within every team, they value one end goal of some type. Some are more personal and selfish, and some are collaborative and team oriented. Within any healthy team, there is a goal that is attainable and worth working towards. People have two types of values, personal and cultural. A personal goal in the context of the professional world may be career oriented such as being promoted or changing departments. While personal values are strong motivators and push people towards better work, they don’t revolutionize the way a team interacts. In some cases, a personal value can actually be detrimental towards the team. If someone has their eyes set on something that requires them to superseded coworkers, it can break relationships between the team. (Dean, 2014).

The other type of value is a cultural value. This is more complex in may ways because it can be hidden in the subconscious of a person. We value and peruse certain things because our culture tells us that we need this or that. It isn’t necessarily something that we’ve reasoned to need, but rather “naturally” need it.It is that natural response that is often dictated by the environment or otherwise known as the culture. This is tricky as a leader to navigate because people aren’t as aware of these values but they are still strong. This lack of awareness can add confusion for both parties when resolving conflict or navigating as a team. (Moran and Harris, 2011).

Every one has a value, but establishing a common value as a team is the challenge. In order to obtain a common value requires hiring and building a team that agrees with each other. This doesn’t mean that everyone has to be the same person, but the common and core value of everyone should be closely related.

For example, the company that I work for values the client experience. Everything we do is filtered through our core value of making the client’s experience better. When I was going through the interview process a few months ago, this was something they kept addressing. They were careful to make sure that I was client oriented and would do what was right for the client. When building your specific team, this is incredible important. You need to be able to establish what your core value is, and what type of team members will be able to share in that value.

 

Sources:

DEAN, K. (n.d.). Values-Based Leadership. Retrieved March 25, 2015, from http://www.valuesbasedleadershipjournal.com/issues/vol1issue1/dean.php

Moran, R. T., Harris, P. R., & Moran, S. V. (2011). Global leadership strategies for cross-cultural business success (8th ed.) (p. 292-322). Oxford, UK: Elsevier Inc.

Synergy is defined by Harris and Moran as a cooperative or combined action, and occurs when diverse or disparate individuals or groups collaborate for a commoncause. The objective is to increase effectiveness by sharing perceptions and experiences, insights, and knowledge. (Harris, & Moran, 2011, p.233). People think of synergy as something within an organization. It is usually when two parties collaborate and create a culture of excellence that is mutually beneficial. This can be broadened outside of an organization.

An example of synergy can be illustrated by a car wash. Let’s suppose you own a car wash. You have been ordering soap from a manufacture that is based far away from you and is charging you a premium for their soap. This is a major expense for you as you are obviously looking to lower your expenses. Now let’s say another distributor moves into town and offers you a 25% discount if you put a sigh out front advertising the product you use. This is a mutually beneficial situation because you save 25% your major expense of soap and they receive advertising at a minimal cost (Hoback, R. (n.d.).

You can see that synergy can happen at a macro level. Businesses making decisions that help promote each other. But synergy goes way beyond the macro level. It can happen between two individuals within an organization. When two people begin functioning at a new level because of the support and collaboration they are sharing with each other, synergy is present. With good synergy comes an effective team. Even if the team doesn’t have the brightest or most talented people, they will be able to work as a team to accomplish things beyond their individual skills. This is a major reason why synergy is so important and critical to the success of a team. If people are functioning as one cohesive team, they will be able to move an objective forward.

Synergy makes a team stronger. It makes them more effective. When everyone is benefiting from a relationship it is healthy and prosperous. That should be the goal of any individual, organization, or team. Synergy is the goal and achieving it is critical to success.

 

 

Sources:

Moran,R., & Harris, P. (2011). Managing cultural differences global leadershipstrategies for cross-cultural business success (8th ed.). Burlington, MA:Butterworth-Heinemann

Hoback, R. (n.d.). Synergy Business Consultancy. Retrieved February 22, 2015, from http://synergy.ph/en/the-use-of-synergy-in-business/

People talk about leadership a lot. When people think or talk about leadership, they often think of the powerful CEO’s and rich business men. Leadership is so much more than just earning a lot of money or having people working for you, but it is a gift and an ability that can be grown and fostered. Leaders can demonstrate their abilities in their job, their family, their friendships, and many other areas of life. Being a strong leader takes someone that is willing to make the hard decision and stand up for what they know is right. It requires someone that can see into the future and how things will play out.

So how do we become leaders in a world that exists in a global context? How do we interact with people that have different backgrounds, different cultures, and different experiences? Does leadership look different now that we are living in a global context?

While leadership can take place in many situations, this post is going to focus on the professional class. Being a leader in the world today takes a lot of political savvy. You have to be aware of how everyone, everywhere, is viewing and perceiving what you are doing. There are people from different backgrounds that change how they will view your leadership abilities. It has always been important to be aware of every team member and their perceptions, but now more than ever.

Interacting with people from different cultures means being aware of different cultures. We have to be focused on how different people will view our actions. My parents both work for an organization called International Teams. They have over 1,200 missionaries all throughout the world and have to provide direction and guidance to each and every one of them. Leading an organization such as this requires a broad understanding of different cultures and how they function.

Leadership isn’t ever going to be easy, but it has become more complex the more that societies merge into a more global context.

Hello,

My name is Josh. I’m a 20 year old student. I’ve elected to attend Penn State World Campus because of the flexibility it offers around my schedule. I’m currently working at an Apple Retail store but am interviewing with other companies to find a full time position. I’m currently working as a sales specialist at my store.

I live just outside of Chicago. I could drive there in about 45 minutes. I’m just starting out professionally and don’t have a ton of professional leadership experience. In the long run, I would love to be a worship leader at a church. I’m very passionate about music and leading others in worship. I’m not sure at this point if that will be a full time position or in a part time capacity. If I do that more part time, I would love to be the leader of a team in some business. I want to make an impact with people and make their day better.

The best example of past leadership experiences I’ve had would be last year when I was a part of the Apple Business Team. I did an experience where I partnered with them for about 5 months and was able to work with business customers. This gave me experience leading and teaching my team members how to interact and provide great experiences for business customers.

As I already mentioned, I’m very passionate about worship. I have been blessed to play lead guitar at my church. The picture was last summer at a retreat in Indiana. I love doing nothing more! It was for the high school ministry and we have another one coming up in a week and a half. I’m very excited about getting the opportunity to lead worship again at these large retreats.

 

I look forward to working with all of you!

 

Josh