What is authentic leadership and why is it important? authentic leadership represents one of the newer areas of leadership research it mainly focuses on whether leadership is genuine and “real” (Northouse, 2021, pg. 221). According to Harvard Business school, authentic leadership characteristics are known as someone who better themselves, cultivating self-awareness, disciplined, and mission driven. Most leaders should be able to acquire these characteristics to be seen as genuine. Based on events that has happened in the past decade like the destruction of 9/11, many corporate scandals like World Com and Enron, deliberate misinformation and claims of fake news and civil unrest and resulting from incidents of racial injustice have created anxiety and uncertainty (Northouse, 2021, pg. 221). Based on the public’s interest of this event, authentic leadership has been intriguing to the researchers. Practitioners developed approaches to authentic leadership that were not evidence based and so needed further testing (Northouse, 2021).

Authentic leadership is a complex process that can be defined by three different viewpoints. The first is the intrapersonal perspective which mainly focuses on the leader and whatever goes on within the leader. An intrapersonal perspective may incorporate self knowledge, self regulation, and self concept. This viewpoint is all about the leader and how the leader goes about different situations. The next view point is the interpersonal perspective and this outlines the authentic leadership as relational. This mainly means understanding the viewpoint from leader to follower and how to be able to correlate and bond with a certain situational. The last viewpoint is the developmental perspective which views authentic leadership as something that can be nurtured in a leader meaning that this leader can learn certain traits to benefit its followers or members.

The approaches to authentic approaches based on the text mentions the practical approach and the theoretical approach. The practical approach is an approach that is used when wanted to understand the actual understanding of becoming an authentic leader. In the book, the practical approach was studied by Bill George, who had an experience as a corporate executive. George found through his experience that authentic leaders can have a real sense of purpose. This means that these leaders knew what they were doing and what they were meant to do.

References:

Northouse, P.G. (2013).  Leadership: Theory and Practice.  Los Angeles: Sage Publications.

Everyday is another day that someone is using yet another leadership theory. People from all over the world are expected to wake up and help others in their day to day jobs. A job is simply to help others, whether it is being the leadership psychology professor at Penn State or a dog walker for the neighborhood, servant leadership is being practiced. The servant leadership approach works differently than many of the prior theories discussed. For example, trait approach determines the traits that a leader contains and path goal theory lays out principles for styles of leadership in certain situations. Servant leadership focuses primarily on how leaders should prioritize the followers first and support the followers personal development (Northouse, 2021, pg. 266).

There are a few characteristics of a servant leader that are important while working in customer service occupations. For example, someone who works at a receptionist desk or like said in the book, an airline must have qualities such as: listener, empathy, healing, and awareness. The first mentioned, listening, is simply the communication between leaders and followers whether it is talking or messaging. It is important for followers to be able to be listened to by their leaders. An example of this situation would be a customer needing help while grocery shopping in a grocery store. The follower (customer) communicates with the leader (manager or employee) about what they need and the leader’s job is to listen and act accordingly. The next characteristic mentioned is empathy. Empathy is “standing in the shoes” of another person and attempting to see the world from that person’s point of view (Northouse, 2021, pg. 255). When a leader shows empathy to a follower it is a sort of validation on the followers end. Empathetic servant leaders can help better understand their followers with this characteristic. An example would be like the case study discussed in the text, on page 274 case 10.2, a mother on an airplane needed to get their child food on the connecting flight stop. The flight attendant did more than the expectation for the one mother but showed empathy for all mothers on the flight and instead of getting the mother just one snack, she got all mothers some snack for their children because of the frustration that the one mother had. Being an empathetic leader means caring and understanding the emotions and feelings of their followers.

So how can a servant leader be a GREAT servant leader?

In order to understand how great leaders serve their team I am going to outline 5 ways that great leaders can become successful. The first way that leaders serve their team is to remove what is blocking their progress (Burks, 2010, min.1:51). This is to overcome any problems or situate anything that may destroy any progress to serving your followers. Solving big problems may change the role of the leader and followers are asked now to serve the leader which may do harm instead. The main goal is to find the problems or blockages of their team and find ways to help and support it. The second way good leaders serve their followers is to invest in growth and development. This doesn’t count training and job development strategies, it entails more of intellectual stimulation is one of the elements of transformational leadership and is a great way to grow a team. The third way that a leader can serve their team is to be a risk taker. “Business is never a zero risk game.” (Burks, 2010, min. 6:20) It is important to always expand growth and opportunities among your team by taking some risks. The fourth way a leader can serve their followers is finding a common understanding. If a team doesn’t have a sense of common understanding, then they wont know what is blocking their progress (Burks, 2010, min. 7:39). “Common understanding is the extent in which the members of a team know each other’s knowledge, skills, abilities, roles and responsibilities… and have clear expectation of them and everyone else on the team (Burks, 2010, min. 7:53). And lastly, is to remind who your serving why they’re working. This is a way for employees to better collaborate and work well with other to achieve that same goal the leader is trying to have every other follower over come as well. If a leader were to master all these steps on how to serve, then they can call themselves a great leader. Being a good leader means being a good influence in bettering your team.

references:

Burks, D. (2010, April 1). Servant leadership theory. David Burkus. Retrieved April 3, 2022, from https://davidburkus.com/2010/04/servant-leadership-theory/

Almost every individual has had a job before where a leader has a sort of relationship with each follower. The way that the member views and behaves around its leader determines the outcome for what type of relationship they will contain. There are two sorts of groups according to the leader member exchange theory. There are “in” and “out” groups. These “in” groups are followers who are interested in negotiating with the leader what they are willing to do for the group (Northouse, 2021, pg. 159). Those who are considered or interested in taking on new and different job responsibilities become part of the out group (Northouse, 2021, pg. 159). Think of it like this, if you try to challenge yourself with new duties and tasks at your job, your manager will recognize more of that effort and will trust you more in the job. As well as, spitting out ideas and giving a suggestion about a task will give your manager the impression that you really do care about your job and will tend to rely on you more for your sense of responsibility. This type of relationship would consider you as someone in an “in” group.

In a study from the textbook, researchers found that high quality leader member exchanges produced less employee turnover, more positive performance evaluations, higher frequency of promotions, greater organizational commitment, more desirable work assignments, better job attitudes, more attention and support from the leader, greater participation, and faster career progress over 25 years (Buch,Kuvaas, Dysvik & Schyns, 2014; Graaen &Uhl-Bien, 1995; Liden, Wayne, & Stilwell, 1993; Malik, Wan, Ahmad, Naseem, & Rehman 2015). Based on this study I was able to conclude the obvious positives from having a high quality leader member exchange. By creating this relationship among the leader and member, it creates a domino effect for the other aspects of the purpose of the group. A brief example would be if you(follower) and your manager(leader) establish a trusting relationship which then motivates and encourages you to come into work on time because of that trust foundation built between the both of you.  Northouse explains the exploration of empowerment through this study. The researchers found that empowerment and leader member exchange quality had a slight synergistic effect on job outcomes (Northouse, 2021, pg. 161). This aspect enhances the importance of how empowerment and encouragement influences good performance.

Something that may be questioned is how can a member get the trust and respect from that leader? Groups of members/ followers go through different stages of development. The first stage is forming which is characterized by information gathering about fellow members (PSU WC, L.9). An example of some sort of performed practice to this stage would be ice breakers or just simple questionnaires of introduction of a person. The second stage is storming which is characterized by group conflict. This happens when a group determines how the task will be accomplished. Group members may disagree on how to proceed with a certain task (PSU WC L.9). An example would be some sort of new company policy or manager policy against its employees. Norming is seen in the emergence of a leader and development of group norms (PSU WC,L.9). This means that the group is figuring ways out to reach the desired goal together.  The last one is the performing stage. This is reached when group members play functional, interdependent roles focused on the performance of group tasks (PSU WC, L.9). Having great performance among other members can show a sense of reliance towards the leader. This stage occurs when a group is completing a task. The leader member exchange theory relates to these stages because of that gained reputation and respect after the fact of these tasks being finished and the journey to get to each goal.

References:

Northouse, P.G. (2021).  Leadership: Theory and Practice. 9th Edition. Los Angeles: Sage Publications

Task vs. relationship leadership

We all have to identify who in our lives are our leaders and who we are leaders to. Whether that may make you go on a “power trip”, you should identify and understand that both the leader and follower of that specific organization, group, company etc. are all in it for the same end goal. How would the style of that leader benefit from its followers? Would it be by getting straight to the point or getting to know their followers to achieve that goal?

When examining a leader and their styles is good to categorize them by what they value as a leader. A leader who is mainly about achieving a specific goal regardless of other circumstances, then he/she are most likely a task-based leader. A leader who encourages on relying on procedures and assigning tasks based on the employee’s strengths and weaknesses is going to be categorized as a relationship-based leader. According to Northouse, task leadership considers the elements involved in task accomplishments from organizing work and defining roles to determining policies and procedures to facilitate production (Northouse, 2021, pg. 85). A better understanding of what this leadership is according to Northouse is that the task-oriented style is the opposite from what the relationship orientation style of leadership. Relationship oriented leadership behaviors focus on the well being of its followers and how they all relate with one another (Northouse, 2021, pg. 85). In this blog, behaviors of both task and relationship styles will be explored as well as, examples from real world scenarios will be explained.

First and foremost, when we think of our favorite leaders, we often think of the ones who motivate, encourage, and relate with us the most. When we think of bad leaders, we often think about the ones who may act like they don’t want to be there, inconvenience staff (aka, the followers), and don’t care about guests or customers. The list could go on in many different directions. When we think about a good leader and how they are with their employees, a good foundation for their work is getting to know their staff and how to implement the tasks needed to reach their goal. In the Ohio State studies, it was believed that the results of studying leadership as a personality was pointless and rather so, they decided to analyze how individuals acted when leading a group instead (Northouse, 2021, pg. 85). In a questionnaire, given to the leader’s followers, they had to rate the behavior of that leader. Examples of those questions asked were:

“He/She lets subordinates know when they’ve done a good job.

He/She sets clear expectations about performance.

He/She shows concern for subordinates as individuals.

He/She makes subordinates feel at ease. (PSU WC, 2022, L.5).”

This questionnaire that was used is called the Leader behavior description questionnaire (LBDQ). This questionnaire was to analyze and depict the kind of behaviors used during their leadership. Followers categorized the behaviors into two clusters, and those were if they initiated structure or consideration for the followers. The Ohio state studies came to a conclusion that a leader can be either high in initiating structure or high or low on consideration (PSU WC, 2022, L.5). Based on these studies, a way to determine if a leader is task oriented or relationship oriented in their leadership style is based on the Ohio studies is to see how followers answered the questions and if the leader scored high on the consideration aspect of the questionnaire. A leader who got a higher score would mean that they are nurturing to their followers and associate their success with the importance of their trust, respect and liking amongst themselves with their followers. Someone who scored higher on the initiative of structure may focus mainly on assigning roles, organization, and schedules (PSU WC, 2022, L.5).

Along with determining whether someone’s leadership style is task oriented or relationship oriented, these all come with certain traits that distinguish the two apart. According to Northouse, there are five major leadership traits and those are: intelligence, self-confidence, determination, integrity and sociability (Northouse, 2021, pg. 32). Out of those five traits, the one that would most likely resonate with task-oriented leaders would be determination. “Determination is the desire to get the job done and include characteristics such as initiative, persistence, dominance and drive (Northouse, 2021, pg. 33).” A task-oriented leader would need to contain this trait in order to even be considered a “task oriented” leader. Hence, the description of “getting things done.” On the other hand, a relationship-oriented leader would need the sociability trait out of those five traits. “Sociability is a leader’s inclination to seek out pleasant social relationships (Northouse, 2021, pg. 34).” Connecting with followers and understanding them to work toward the end goal that is shared among the leader and other followers is important. A leader who is oriented this way finds it easier to understand the strengths and weaknesses of their followers as mentioned before. By doing this, it is easier to assign specific roles to the followers liking. This also enhances the follower’s motivation to completing a task.

Personally, I have worked with both task-oriented leaders and relationship-oriented leaders. Traits that come out from task-oriented leaders from my experiences were one’s that were determined and had self-discipline. They took the responsibility for being in charge or their followers and made sure that all tasks were done correctly. On the other hand, a relationship-oriented leader that I had also was very successful because of the relationships amongst the followers (employees). When you build that trust and connection with those who need to take orders from, they respect you more to do it right. Many employees will do the bare-minimum work because of that lack of connection between them and their leader. I think that is a common issue among leaders and followers and that is their lack of respect and integrity. Another trait that most of those relationship-oriented leaders contain is a high level of emotional intelligence and extraversion. Those traits help leaders become closely connected with their followers. I think this because without that emotional intelligence trait, leaders wouldn’t be able to understand the needs of their followers.

When you look at both of these approaches and combine them together, you find a very great leader who is able to get jobs done while also gaining the trust and respect from their followers.

Northouse, P.G. (2021).  Leadership: Theory and Practice. 9th Edition. Los Angeles: Sage Publications

Pennsylvania State University World Campus (2022). PSYCH 485 Lesson 5: Style and situational approaches. Retrieved from https://psu.instructure.com/courses/2177519/modules/items/33991684

The covid-19 pandemic led many companies to go virtual through the entirety of the pandemic. Businesses are hiring employees but never seeing them face to face. This may result in emotional intelligence decreasing in the workplace especially those that require face to face encounters such as, teaching, sports, managing, and recreational companies. Public health strategies required through a mandatory isolation such as social distancing, quarantining, and lockdown may increase the probability of suffering mental health implications from the boredom of isolations(Elsevier, 2021). In this blog, I will highlight key points about the pandemic and its effects of emotional intelligence in the work place.

First of all, employees are starting to all go virtual and the idea of virtual work is becoming normalized. You can now get your therapies at home, send your boss an email of a spreadsheet, or send emails to clients all while watching TV in your living room at the same time. This can cause employees to get really comfortable with having virtual work and making coming in to work abnormal. Let alone the fact that coming in to work will feel odd, employers will get used to hiring employees virtually and never be able to actually meet them and get to know them emotionally. Sure, you can have emotional connections with someone through the phone or internet but it is not at its best capability.

According to Northouse, “emotions drive people and people drive performance.” How are employees going to drive their performance if it is all virtual?(Northouse, 2021) Some employees may beat around the bush to get their work done while others need more of an emotional drive to get the work finished. Many jobs require that one on one connection. For example, therapists likely need to see their clients current behavior state rather than seeing a “Camera off” screen or shoulders and above of their client. Teachers need to build those connections with students to help them in the future build connections with employees and employers. Kids are not getting that proper social interaction needed to expand growth and communication skills with one another.

In the study performed by Max Sadovyy, Martin Sanchez-Gomez, and Edgar Breso, they were able to find a correlation between stress, work performance and emotional intelligence and hypothetically through the stress generated by COVID-19 (Elsevier, 2021). Based on the results, it showed that emotional intelligence correlated positively with work performance and covid-19 stress correlated negatively with emotional intelligence (Elsevier, 2021). The researchers were also able to distinguish PTSD and the effect of it on the performance of the workplace through the pandemic. Meaning, many people may develop post traumatic stress symptoms after going through the pandemic. Also known as, PTSS. This result may lead to more people wanting to stay in the current conditions of their work because of the fear of going back to work and having another pandemic or drastic change happen to their schedule.

Northouse explains that the trait approach is one where someone can exhibit their strengths and weaknesses in being a leader. “Emotional intelligence can be tested using a scale called the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT)(Northouse, 2021). The MSCEIT measures emotional intelligence as a set of mental abilities, including the abilities to perceive, facilitate, understand, and manage emotion (Northouse, 2021).” Researchers found that emotional intelligence has been declining over time based from this scale. The possible cause of that is because of the lack of empathy and social skills that the generation is now encountering (Northouse, 2021). I believe that may be happening due to all of social media and technology taking over.

In the near future, hopefully everything will be as they were before. Businesses will be able to reopen fully and hiring employees will become a normal thing in person. Employers will possibly need to relearn how to establish emotional intelligence within their performance. In doing so, they will need to ask themselves these personal reflection questions(Goleman and Boyatzis (2017)):

1. What are the differences between how you see yourself and how others see you?
2. What matters to you?
3. What changes will you make to achieve these goals?

Becoming a good leader under all these circumstances will need to be re-evaluated as all of our current employees will be the leaders of the future.  Can we trust that those people will be able to be strong leaders for our kids?

References:

Elsevier. (2021, October). COVID-19: How the stress generated by the pandemic may affect work performance through the moderating role of emotional intelligence. Max SadovyyMartín Sanchez-GomezEdgar BresoLake,2020Lake, 2020Moreno et al., 2020Wiebers&Feigin, 2020Drigas&Chara, 2020Morenoet al., 2020Alonazi, 2020Volk et al., 2021Whitehead, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2021.110986

Northouse, P.G. (2021). Leadership: Theory and practice. 9th Edition. Los Angeles: Sage Publications.