Leadership

PSYCH 485 blog

Parents as Leaders

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Leaders are everywhere. They are in businesses, in hospitals, and doctors’ offices. They have jobs at high schools and universities. They even take care of animals and dedicate their lives to helping others. Likewise, our parents are leaders and the dynamic is not that much different. From the moment we are born, our parents make a very important choice to raise and protect us. They share a common goal for us and make it their responsibility and number one priority. Although parents share this same goal, they often have two very different parenting styles which has a lot to do with how their children view them as leaders. 

 

I grew up in a bit of a divided family. My mother and father had very different parental leadership styles and their household relationship caused a gendered environment. This definitely contributed to the division that we experienced. My mother was the caretaker of the family, but not only of the children. She also took care of the laundry, the dishes, and anything my father needed help with. This included making his coffee and packing his lunch before work. She always made sure that everything was to his liking. Judging by my mother’s personality and need to care for others as well as the gentle way that she raised us, I would say that she utilized servant leadership quite obviously. Servant leadership is an approach that describes the leadership process as being more so about the followers than the leader (Looking at Leadership Through Many Lenses, Lesson 1).  My mom’s parental style embodies this form of leadership because she always puts the needs of her followers (in this case, myself and my brother and sometimes my father) before her own. She prioritizes her followers’ opinions to help encompass her idea of leadership and how she can best serve her children and husband. 

 

In comparison, my father has always been the sole “bread-winner” in the family. He never spent much time at home helping my mother raise my brother and I, and he was definitely not the laundry type. His sole idea of leadership is very similar to the styles and skills approach as well as the psychodynamic approach. The styles and skills approach describes leadership as having an “emphasis on the behavior of the leader” and a desire to improve (Looking at Leadership Through Many Lenses, Lesson 1). The psychodynamic approach states that leaders who understand their psychological characteristics and those of their followers are more likely to be successful (Looking at Leadership Through Many Lenses, Lesson 1). To clarify, my father was very involved in his career and he always wanted to be the best that he could be in order to provide for his family. Therefore, he believed that it was always possible for him to improve and his belief in hard work is what contributed to his support of the styles and skills approach. Likewise, my father’s parental leadership styles embodied the psychodynamic approach because he was very in tune with the emotions and psychological makeup of others. This made him a great negotiator but he was also very understanding of others, including his children. His use of the psychodynamic approach allowed him to understand the minds of his children and how he could instill in them the qualities needed to fulfill a prosperous life. 

 

In conclusion, our parents are the first individuals to expose us to the many different forms of leadership. Just as a manager might interact with their subordinates, our parents helped us set and accomplish goals, understand right from wrong, comprehend new ideas, and learn the necessary skills to have successful futures. It is obvious that many parents are also active leaders in our schools, communities, and extracurriculars as coaches, mentors, tutors, and our biggest fans, but they leave the most impact on our lives when they are there for us, teaching us how to be the best we can be. They may not always be perfect, but their commitment to our development makes them some of the most influential leaders in our lives, for the worst and for the better.

REFERENCES

Hamel, R. (n.d.). Lesson 1: Introduction to Leadership, 2021

Leadership Strategies within the McKinsey 7-S Framework

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In the late 1970’s, McKinsey & Company developed the 7-S framework as a way to conceptualize the various aspects of a successful organization, (Enduring Ideas: The 7-S Framework 2008). Prior to this model, leaders and managers commonly thought about organizations in terms of structure. The CEO sat at the top. They would report to the Board of Directors, and would have a group of executives reporting to them. This broke down into Marketing, Accounting, R&D, HR, and other areas where the business needed to focus. But structure doesn’t equate to strategy or success. The 7-S model aimed to replace that thinking by describing 7 different aspects of any successful organization and showing how interrelated they all are. These areas are:

  1. Shared Values
  2. Strategy
  3. Staff
  4. Systems
  5. Style
  6. Skills
  7. Structure

I will be going through these one by one and showing how different leadership theories are better suited for each of the 7 areas, demonstrating that a successful organization may outperform others by using a variety of leadership styles.

Shared Values

What is the purpose of the organization? What are the company’s overall goals? What does it mean to be a part of this team? Values are highly abstract ideas that get to the heart of how we feel about things. For an organization like The New England Patriots, the values center around excellence and vying for the NFL Championship every single season. For the Red Cross, the shared values center around the desire to help victims of disasters at the time they are most in need. For a labor union, the values will likely be about providing well-paying jobs, safety and job security to its members. Every organization is different, but truly successful organizations have shared values that everyone can get behind and use as a personal driving force. This is where transformational leadership is extremely powerful. Transformational leaders motivate followers by engaging their need for meaning in their work, life and career, (Northouse, p. 162). Bill Belichick (the Head Coach/General Manager of the New England Patriots) taps into his players’ desire for accomplishments and championships, then demands nothing short of excellence out of each of them.

Strategy

You cannot get to your destination without a roadmap. Every organization needs to be planning ahead and thinking about where they want to be in the next year, 5 years, decade, and beyond. For some, it may be more about maintaining what they have and continuing to hold their place in the market. For others, it may be about achieving significant growth or venturing into new markets with new products or services. But development and following of an organizational strategy requires leadership best described by the Path-Goal theory, (Northouse, p. 115). Leaders need to be attuned to the work needs of their followers and need to provide them with the tools and motivations necessary for attaining the goals set forth. When developing and executing strategy, leaders have to have a strong grasp on internal talents and capabilities while also motivating their teams to accomplish the goals set forth. For these reasons, focusing on strategy will require a path-goal leadership approach.

Staff

Most successful organizations rely heavily on people. Staffing an organization requires recruitment efforts that are great at finding the right kind of people who have high potential to succeed within that organization. But once those individuals are on-boarded and working, they need to be able to work among others with similar skills and aspirations. And this is where Team Leadership works so well, (Northouse, p. 363). Leaders need to coordinate employee activities and progress towards specific goals that are aligned with the strategy and shared values of the company. Team leadership focuses on the leadership style to recognizes the need to organize team efforts and motivate employees as a group, not just individually. It’s not enough that individuals are motivated or are working on specific tasks diligently and effectively. They need to be doing so in the context of a larger group with larger goals. For this reason, team leadership is most effective when dealing directly with the staff of an organization.

Systems

Systems are the processes and procedures involved in accomplishing the day-to-day activities of an organization. How does the salesman onboard a new client? How does HR handle complaints from employees? How often are C-Suite meetings held, who sets that agenda and who’s allowed or required to attend. Every organization needs to have a well-defined method of getting the daily and weekly tasks accomplished. One could make the argument that systems require management, not necessarily leadership. But to the extent that leadership is required here, I’d argue that the Skills approach is most appropriate, (Northouse, p. 44). The leader needs to have the technical skill and organizational understanding to oversee the systems and processes that the company undertakes. They need to have the human skills to make sure people are motivated to get the work done.

Style

Style can be thought of as the culture of the organization, the overall attitudes, or simply the way people behave around one another at the office and within the organization. There’s an old business saying coined by Peter Drucker; “Culture eats strategy for breakfast,” (Rick, 2020). If true, (Drucker was a pretty smart guy, so it’s a safe assumption) we can see that this is an essential aspect of running a successful organization. If those around you are working hard and taking pride in their work, you’ll be more likely to do the same. If everyone is working slowly and taking little care to get things right, then you’ll feel less pressure to perform yourself. The situational approach to leadership seems the best suited to this organizational aspect, (Northouse, p. 93). Leaders need to be able to assess the situations at hand and make appropriate decisions based on that. These leaders need to be extremely attuned to the feelings, behaviors and culture of the organization, but a certain finesse is necessary to maintain morale and overall focus. A good leader will understand when to inspire, when to offer incentives, and when to crack the proverbial whip in order to keep the culture strong in their organization.

Skills

Skills can refer to the talents of the individual employees, or to the organizational skills overall. As an example, Apple Computers has many tremendously talented individuals working in their research and development division. But only the organization as a whole has the skill to create brand new technologies, build them, and get them to the consumers who want them. As the name implies, the Skills approach to leadership is best suited to this area, just as it was to the systems aspect, (Northouse, p. 44). Leaders here need to have a strong understanding of the technical aspects of their organizations and what skill sets are needed in the staff to make those areas function best. They also need the human skills to work with those people and ascertain what skills the people may need to further develop via training or continuing education.

Structure

Rounding out our discussion of the 7-S model is the Structure of the organization, the very thing that too many executives focused on excessively prior to the introduction of this model. There are a huge number of potential structures that a large organization can take. None seem to be demonstrably better than others, but an organization must choose one that works well with their strategy, systems, style and shared values. On the one hand, one might argue that the structure of an organization requires little leadership as it’s more of a description of how they are organized. But I would argue that structure requires both transformational leadership, (Northouse, p. 161) and skill based leadership, (Northouse, p. 44). The leader needs to have the skill to understand how the pieces of the organization fit together and operate. But they also need to be able to make large scale changes when necessary and called for. This might include eliminating divisions, positions, or just reorganizing the c-suite. Such moves can be extremely disruptive to the processes of a company, but also to the overall culture or style. This is where a good transformational leader can inspire his team and company to get onboard with the changes in the quest for improved company performance.

Strong companies and organizations require a large variety of leadership styles. As demonstrated by the McKinsey 7-S model, these organizations are also incredibly complex entities, with many aspects that need to work in alignment with one another, all focused on an overarching goal and on the shared values of the organization. By thinking about the leadership styles best suited for each area, we can use the McKinsey 7-S model along with a variety of leadership theories to design a more effective and successful organization.

Resources

Northouse, P. G. (2019). Leadership: Theory and practice. Los Angeles: Sage.

Enduring Ideas: The 7-S Framework. (2008, March 01). Retrieved June 20, 2020, from https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/strategy-and-corporate-finance/our-insights/enduring-ideas-the-7-s-framework

Rick, T. (2020, February 27). How and Why Organizational Culture Eats Strategy for Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner – Supply Chain 24/7. Retrieved June 20, 2020, from https://www.supplychain247.com/article/organizational_culture_eats_strategy_for_breakfast_lunch_and_dinner

Mad Men: Who Would You Work For?

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I recently finished watching the TV show Mad Men on Netflix. It’s a popular TV series that seemingly everyone had seen except me. Throughout the seven seasons of the show I had plenty of opportunities to analyze the leaders of the different advertising companies I, the viewer, came to see. There were a multitude of personalities and leadership styles and oftentimes they didn’t work very well together. The show is set in the 1960s and 1970s. What I found really interesting is that despite the fact that times have changed (we no longer drink whiskey throughout the work day while smoking Lucky Strike cigarettes), leaders’ personality traits and leadership styles haven’t changed much. For example, one of the characters is Pete Campbell who starts out as a copywriter and is eventually made a partner. Throughout the series, Campbell’s poor attitude cost him many opportunities and eventually his marriage. In this course we learned that there are six dark personality traits; Campbell consistently exhibited five of them. He was argumentative, highly sensitive to criticism, extremely narcissistic and thought he deserved clients and promotions ahead of others, he was impulsive and made terrible, rash decisions all the time, and he was very inflexible. He was one of the characters that I disliked from the beginning until the very end of the show because he was unable to adapt to the changing situations. He always looked for ways to help himself with no regard for others. He was hurtful towards his loved ones and colleagues and retaliated when he felt that he had been wronged.

On the other hand, my favorite character and leader was Roger Sterling. Though flawed in his personal life choices, he cared for the people who worked for him. Anyone could walk into his office and tell him what was going on and he would offer them a drink, advice, and oftentimes the cold, hard truth. In Lesson 5, we learned about Style and Situational Approaches. Sterling’s style was task-oriented when necessary but mostly relationship-oriented. He was well-liked because of his personality and supportive behaviors but also respected for his work (directive behaviors). Of course, as always, there were a few people who were not his biggest fans but that is to be expected considering he inherited his partnership in the company from his father. Many of his subordinates were at developmental levels D3 and D4. Throughout the show, people changed positions due to promotions, mergers, expansions, etc. but each time something changed, Sterling was available and ready to support his team. His ability to handle change was a great example of the Situational Approach. I chose to write about Sterling because one of the biggest strengths of this approach is the leader’s ability to be flexible and that is exactly what I saw as a viewer. Additionally, this approach allows for subordinates to be treated differently based on the task at hand. Sterling was great at leveling with each of his partners and employees in a way that was meaningful to the recipient.

Overall, the show was tough to watch at first because women and people of color were not appreciated, rewarded, nor encouraged to succeed in the workplace. Some of the lifestyle choices that the characters made were also hard to stomach but I attributed that to the era. However, I must say that I was happy to see the progress that the characters made. One of the female leads, Joan Harris, started off as a secretary and at the end of the show, she had left her job and partnership in a huge advertising firm to pursue a self-started career as a producer. She had exceptional organizational skills and displayed a multitude of positive leadership traits, including developing other employees, having integrity, and having an achievement-oriented leadership style that was highly favorable among others.

If I could choose someone to work with and work for, I would choose Roger Sterling every time. I can appreciate someone who knows they have flaws but will do whatever it takes to help you achieve your personal and professional goals.

References:

Pennsylvania State University World Campus (2020). PSYCH 485 Lesson 2: Trait Approach. Retrieved from https://psu.instructure.com/courses/2040131/modules/items/28001669

Pennsylvania State University World Campus (2020). PSYCH 485 Lesson 5: Style and Situational Approaches. Retrieved from https://psu.instructure.com/courses/2040131/modules/items/28001726

 

 

Switching up Leadership Styles is Important

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This past summer I began working at an auto detailing shop. I am a “team” manager and help the other employees with detailing cars and it can be very difficult at times. It can be difficult because the shop I work at is centered around hiring adults with cognitive disabilities. This makes it difficult for me to manage them because there is not one specific way to manage them, each employee requires different needs. Some of them need more direction and attention while others need more of a relationship style leader to help maximize their productivity.

When I first started, I struggled with managing the workers because I was too focused on getting the tasks completed. Based on the Leadership Grid, I was managing with more of an authority-compliance leadership style (PSU WC, 2019, L. 5).This was because I had not been around the workers enough to understand what they needed and how I could help them. I would often just tell the workers how to do something and then tell them to do it while I went and worked on something else that had to be done in the detailing process. Even if that worker would get distracted or didn’t do the task correctly, I wouldn’t say anything and end up just doing it myself. My boss noticed this and told me that I need to put more effort into getting the other workers to do the tasks instead of letting them slack off. To do this, I began to form more relationships with the workers so I could learn how to help and guide them.

After learning about the workers, I realized that each one needed different things and I was able to give each one the guidance that they needed. Based on the leadership grid, I soon became a team management style leader and had much more success. While I was still focused on the tasks at hand, I also began putting more emphasis on my relationships with the employees(PSU WC, 2019, L. 5).For my job, the team management style was very effective at getting the workers to be productive, but sometimes I had to change my style depending on the person. One worker for example, can’t really talk all that well so he decides not to most of the time. It was hard to develop a relationship with him and get him to do his job. He also would get distracted and space out a lot of the time. Using a different style approach, like the authority compliance style was more effective for this person. I had to often keep an eye on him and remind him that he needs to stay focused and continue working on his task (PSU WC, 2019, L. 5).

There is another worker who really likes to talk. When I first started working, I wouldn’t engage with them enough and instead would remind them what they needed to be doing and this didn’t work because this person began to get upset and annoyed with work. Taking this class helped me realize that I needed to switch up my leadership style for this particular employee. For this employee I decided to try the country club management style from the Leadership Grid and focus more on the social needs of this worker (PSU WC, 2019, L. 5).I began to engage more with this person and talking to them while working. This helped the employee to remain happy and because they were happier their work performance improved and they stayed focused much longer on their tasks.

 

References:

 

Pennsylvania State University World Campus (2019). PSYCH 485 Discussion 5: Style and Situational Approaches [Video file]. Retrieved from https://psu.instructure.com/courses/2008237/discussion_topics/12613428?module_item_id=27074668.

Saban: The “Nicktator”, or a Leader in Adapting Leadership Models

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Nick Saban has been around the coaching block in the game of Football. From his days as a player on a dirt field outside of his father’s coal mine in West Virginia, to the championship podium at the 50-yard line following another NCAA BCS National Championship win as the coach at Alabama, Saban has been challenged as a leader for his entire professional career. 

Those who see Nick Saban in press conferences, on the field, or in passing see a man who many think to be a stone cold dictator; a man who expects only the best out of the people who play for him, work for him, and those he works for. Many consider him to be one of the most demanding coaches in the game. While those characteristics may be true, from a leadership perspective, he may be one of the most adaptive leader in sports. 

For the last decade, Saban and his sports psychology guru Dr. Lionel Rosen have been promoting the fine art of process learning and improvement, with each and every day serving as an opportunity to learn and improve. Prior to meeting Dr. Rosen, Saban expected his players and staff to work as hard as he did, and learn at the same rate he did, which was impossible considering the places each person found themselves in the game of football. He believed that through hard work alone, everybody could be great, and that by practicing harder than everyone else, you would improve faster. Before what he calls “The Process”, which is now a metric he uses with every member of his team, Saban had above average coaching success rebuilding the Michigan State Football Team, and serving as a Defensive Coordinator for the Buffalo Bills and Ohio State Buckeyes, but he never won the big games; Bowl Games, Rivalry Games, National Championships, or Super Bowls. 

Saban had to reinvent his approach to leadership to adapt to the people he was taking with him on the ride that is a football season. After spending an extended amount of time with Dr. Rosen, the two men found a way to schedule a football season based on process-driven learning. In an article by BalancedAchievement.com called, “Nick Saban’s Process: A Methodical Grind Toward Greatness”, Saban describes process-based learning as “what you have to do day in and day out to be successful.” (Zeis, 2018)

Through the adoption of “The Process”, Saban proved to the people who thought of him as a hopelessly structured dictator, fondly referred to as “The Nicktator” in a New York Time article (Bautista, 2008). Through my studies in leadership, I found Saban to be a classic example of a prominent leader who follows a Path-Goal Theory of Leadership (Northouse, 2018). The path-goal theory “assumes effective leaders will provide valued rewards for the follower and then help them find the best way to get there.” (Northouse, 2018). Saban proves time and time again that he does whatever it takes to get his players on a path to be successful. In the book, “Saban: The Making of a Coach”, by Monte Burke, he gives an example of a time while Saban was at Alabama, and his players had stopped eating before workouts. When their energy was low, and they werent’ working hard, the Saban of the past would have taken it as a lack of preparation by the players to be nutritiously prepared for practice. Today’s Saban asked why they were in this state, and learned the food was not appropriate for the athletes, and they weren’t eating because it would impact their performance in a negative way. Saban contacted the Alabama nutritionist responsible for football, and the next day, you better believe his players had the proper food they needed. 

Along the road to leadership through the path-goal theory, Saban has had to change his leadership style. Initially, many could consider Saban to be a directive leader (Northouse, 2018), who set all of the parameters of the program, expecting everyone to conform to those parameters. He made each task laid in front of them clear, and made sure each member of the team was certain about how to reach their goal. 

Since his commitment to process-driven learning, Saban has evolved into more of an achievement-oriented leader (Northouse, 2018). This type of leader “challenge(s) subordinates to work at the highest level possible.” (Northouse, 2018). Everything about Saban is now about getting his players to follow a process that he’s laid out for the players, and they are responsible for their achievement. Saban once said, “…the things that I talked about before, being responsible for your own self-determination, having a positive attitude, having great work ethic, having discipline to be able to execute on a consistent basis, whatever it is you’re trying to do, those are the things that we try to focus on, and we don’t try to focus as much on the outcomes as we do on being all that you can be.” (Zeis, 2018)

When asked what current leader has applied the path-goal theory to leadership within their organization, Nick Saban, the one-time “Nicktator” of college football, may be our best example in collegiate and professional sports of someone who will work his hardest to adapt to the needs of his team. 

 

References:

 

Battista, J. (2006, October 8). Tough Love and Hard Questions in Miami. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/08/sports/football/08dolphins.html.

 

Burke, M. (2016). Saban: the making of a coach. Place of publication not identified: Simon & Schuster.

 

Northouse, P. G. (2018). Leadership: theory and practice. Los Angeles: SAGE Publications.

 

Zeis, P., & Zeis, P. (2018, January 19). Nick Saban’s Process: A Methodical Grind Towards Greatness. Retrieved from https://balancedachievement.com/psychology/nick-sabans-process/.

 

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