Determination: When is it good and When is it bad?
Is determination in a manager always a positive leadership trait or can that actually become a negative trait? I had a recent conversation with my manager and she said to me “I will do whatever it takes to not let the company fail.”
As we are learning about leadership traits, I found determination as an appropriate subject to discuss in my first blog. Northouse describes determination as “the desire to get the job done and includes characteristics such as initiative, persistence, dominance and drive.”(p. 25)
I found her statement to be very interesting because our conversation was in regards to her micro-managing our department. My manager micro-manages the department leaving me annoyed at times because I have to explain over and over that everything is under control and that she needs to lay back at times. My title and position within the company is assistant production supervisor / lead technician. Her title and position is the production supervisor. I found her statement to be misleading in that I felt that her determination to not let the company fail is exactly why the company will fail.
My manager does not recognize that her determination can actually be hurtful to the company. In my attempt to explain to her that she does not communicate anything of importance such as company change and my responsibilities as the assistant production supervisor and how that leads to the team feeling unsettled in our department. My manager is in the middle of implementing a major change to our department and she did not share or discuss any information in regards to this change with me. The team is hearing about the change through rumors and they have major concerns about this change.
The team is very comfortable with discussing their concerns with me but they are not so comfortable with discussing their concerns with the manager so they lean on me to speak up for them. As I explained more about our overall team concerns, that is when she made her determination quote. She did not care about our concerns but only her own determination to not let the company fail. I then tried to explain that by her taking on so much and not sharing the information with me that she is setting us up to fail. She holds so much information that if she was to miss more than 3-4 days of work, things will not run as a system but instead be chaotic as we try to piece together exactly what she does so that I can pick up the slack or we wait until she gets back. This scenario hasn’t happened because she has never taken a vacation longer than two days in the eight years that she has worked there.
Can determination actually be seen as a negative?
References:
Northouse, P. G. (2015). Leadership: Theory and Practice (7th ed.). (pp. 18-42) Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications Inc.
Analyzing specific leadership traits
There is no doubt about it; there has been much debate about what makes good leaders great. Looking specifically at personality traits, there are certain traits that are associated with great leadership; however simply processing these traits is not a guarantee that a leader will work well in any given situation. I am going to take this opportunity to point out several leadership traits that I have noticed during my professional career and further analyze them to associate the traits with either a good leader, a poor leader or specific situation.
At one time or another we have all had a great supervisor or someone in our lives that has inspired us in some way or another. Looking back on some of these example some specific traits jump out at me. The first trait I will discuss is intelligence. Leaders tend to have a higher intelligence level than non-leaders, Zaccaro et al (2004). In order to be a great leader you need to have significant intelligence about the area you are trying to lead in. For example in order to excel in a golf course superintendent position, one needs to have a good understanding of turf grass science along with people management. With out a proper background on the subject one is set up for failure. In this instance intelligence is needed to succeed in this particular job, in this example intelligence influences the outcome of a situation. A person with a high overall intelligence with no previous knowledge of turfgrass management will most likely not succeed as a golf course superintendent. Even though the overall intelligence is there, the relevance to the specific situation will hurt someone in a leadership position. Another issue related to intelligence is that the both the leader and followers need to be around the same intelligence level. If there is too big of a gap in intelligence between the leader and followers it may actually be counterproductive (Northouse 2015 Chapter 2). As you can see intelligence is an important trait for a leader to possess, however it is not a trait that guarantees someone will be a great leader. Intelligence regarding the specific subject matter is needed along with a similar level of intelligence possessed by the leaders followers.
One trait that has personally affected me early on in my professional career is the ability to possess an outgoing personality. The five-factor model of personality points out that extraversion is a quality of an effective leader (Psych 485 Angel Lesson 2, Trait approach Page 4). Leadership is associated with having an outgoing personality, with the ability to effectively discuss specific subject matter. Early on in my professional career I struggled with this in job interviews. I am a naturally shy and quiet person, which I believe hurt me while interviewing for job out of college. Even though my educational background was there, others perceived that since I was somewhat shy and quiet that I would not be a good leader. Needless to say I took me over a year to find a golf course management position. Once I noticed this trend, I worked very hard to reverse how others perceived me. I took every opportunity to attend conferences to meet others in the same industry and get my name out there. Overtime I gradually groomed my personality to become more outgoing and through many different people interactions now how the perception that I am more outgoing. This helped me interview for several high profile jobs and I eventually landed my dream job as the head grounds keeper at the little league world series. I attribute this to becoming more outgoing or possessing extraversion. This helped me portray that not only was I knowledgeable about the subject matter but that I am also outgoing and have many connections in the industry. I now take every opportunity available to get recognition for my organization and to also promote myself. I openly talk to the media, which includes both local news and magazine interviews. Overall this adjustment in extraversion that helped me greatly and ultimately played toward my benefit.
The last personality trait I will be discussing is integrity. For a leader to exhibit integrity, they must be both honest and trustworthy, have a strong set of principals and also take responsibility for their actions (Northouse 2015 Chapter 2). Integrity goes a long way when looking at the productivity of followers. Having the ability to inspire others to work toward a common goal will result in followers working much harder to achieve said goal. This also goes the other way, if a leader is looked at as they have no integrity, it will adversely affect them. Integrity is established by first being a model for the people that you lead, setting ethical standards and encourage followers to express concern about questionable practices. One great example of the lack of integrity is the Bill Clinton impeachment (Northouse 2015 Chapter 2). This example shows that ethical standards were broken and the president was no longer a proper model for the American public. Following this scandal president Clinton lost much of his credibility and American citizens had a hard time trusting him. The implications of this event were the possibility of impeachment and ultimately the lack of integrity resulted in him not running for a second presidential term.
Although there are many other personality traits that affect a leader, these are three that I have seen through out my professional career. Ultimately these three traits, intelligence, outgoing personality and integrity can either positively or negatively impact a leader. No one trait is an indicator of a good leader, along with a great leader may not be great in every situation. Further work is needed to examine leadership traits to associate them with certain situations. Breaking down specific situations may further help us understand why certain leadership traits are effective or are not effective based on a leaders traits to see if they fit well in a particular situation.
References:
Northouse, Peter G. (2015). Leadership: Theory and Practice, 7th Edition. Chapter 2
Pennsylvania State University (2016) Psych 485: Leadership in work settings.
Lesson 2, Trait approach, Page 4.
https://courses.worldcampus.psu.edu/sp16/psych485/001/content/02_lesson/04_page.html
Using Your Dark Side for Good
If you were to ask someone “what makes a good manager or leader” you would probably get a list of positive characteristic traits: smart, motivated, confident. Through the years, many studies have been done to look at leadership traits and characteristics and these are a few that are on the list. Kirkpatrick and Locke (1991) came up with a list of six traits that distinguished leaders from nonleaders: drive, motivation, integrity, confidence, cognitive ability and task knowledge (Northhouse, 2016). Personality it also something that people comment on when asked about a good leader or manager. Researchers came up with five dimensions known as the Five Factor Model (FFM) of personality. The five dimensions are: conscientiousness (dependability), agreeableness, neuroticism (emotional stability/adjustment), openness to experience (intellectance) and extraversion (PSU WC, 2016, L. 2, p. 4) – again, all positive attributes. But what about the other qualities – the ones we usually think of when asked about a bad manager or leader?
Not all leaders or manager are good at what they do and these other qualities, dark-side personality traits, are what may be the cause. Dark-side personality traits are irritating or counterproductive behavioral tendencies that interfere with a leaders ability to form cohesive teams and tend to have followers tat exert less effort toward goal accomplishment (PSU WC, 2016, L. 2, p. 6). There are six traits: argumentative, interpersonal insensitivity, narcissism, fear of failure, perfectionism and impulsivity. Used alone, they will most definitely be counterproductive to your position, but used in conjunction with some of the more positive aspects may actually create more successful outcomes. Think about it, do you want the micromanaging perfectionist manager or the laid back, do your best manager responsible for creating or maintaining medical equipment that may one day save your life? I’m going to go with the perfectionist.
Researchers have started to look at the dark side traits and have found that they do, in some jobs, prove beneficial (Furnham, Trickey, & Hyde, 2012). Perfectionism was found to be associated with high levels of integrity and low amounts of counterproductive work behaviors (blog). Steve Jobs was a leader whom many didn’t like. He was labeled as a high-maintenance, controlling and a perfectionist yet he was passionate about his vision and effective at communicating this (McInerney, 2011). Being able to take the best of both types of traits can possibly make you a very successful leader. So don’t be afraid to use some of your dark side for good!
Furnham, A., Trickey, G., & Hyde, G. (2012). Bright aspects to dark side traits: Dark side traits associated with work success. Personality and Individual Differences, 52(8), 908-913.
Northouse, P.G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and Practice. Los Angeles: Sage Publications.
McInerney, S. (2011, October 7). Steve Jobs: A unconventional leader. Retrieved from: http://www.executivestyle.com.au/steve-jobs-an-unconventional-leader-1lcmo
Pennsylvania State University (2016). Psych485: Leadership in work settings. Lesson 2, Trait approach: The Great Man Theory. Retrieved from: https://courses.worldcampus.psu.edu/sp16/psych485/002/content/02_lesson/06_pag
Recognizing Your Traits
A trait approach assessment can assist managers with identifying what leadership traits they possess and what traits are weaknesses for them to improve upon. Also, it can be a method that organizations use to analyze leaders by determining what traits their leaders need to possess to make them effective within the organization (Northouse, p. 29).
Sociability is a trait that is important to many organizations and is described as a leader who is, “friendly, outgoing, courteous, tactful, and diplomatic (Northouse, 2016). A well-known quote by Theodore Roosevelt is, “People don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care.”
In the healthcare field, in which I am involved, it is imperative to master the sociability trait as we interact with patients and each other. In 2015, my workplace named a new President and CEO. He has made it his mission to meet and speak to nearly all 23,000+ employees in our health system which expands across the majority of the state of Pennsylvania. You will find him in the kitchen talking to cooks, in environmental services speaking to housekeepers, and in the halls speaking to doctors and nurses. He sits with patients and talks to them not just about their care, but about their life before their injury or illness. He understands you need to be able to socialize and speak at a laymen’s level to understand the wants and needs of the patients and those on the frontline caring for them. He offers his business card and cell phone number to patients and employees of the health system. He epitomizes the definition of the leadership trait of sociability and serves as a good example for the rest us to follow.
By taking a leadership assessment it will allow you to understand your leadership style strengths and weaknesses. Sociability is the leadership trait that I most identify with. I have recently been awarded a newly created position, which is within a created real estate department. Currently, I am the only employee in this real estate department. I find myself in a unique position to create the work environment and culture that I want it to be known for throughout the health system, as we move forward and build this department. It is important to me to create an atmosphere of being friendly, easy to speak with, and have positive interactions with other departments in the health system.
References
Northouse, P.G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and Practice. Los Angeles: Sage Publications.
A quote by Theodore Roosevelt. (n.d.). Retrieved January 22, 2016, from http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/34690-people-don-t-care-how-much-you-know-until-they-know
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