PART and cleared for medicals before entering
PART AReflection piece onleadership experienceIntroductionAs part of this critical assignment, it is a requirementthat I reflect on my own experience as a Leader where I have demonstrated ahigh level of emotional intelligence, as well use theories to demonstrate mylearning’s.
Example 1I was a Human Resources Manager for a Mining organisation,supervising four staff members at various locations within Queensland, my goalwas to oversee and ensure that all contract employees were processed in a timelymanner, for example, inducted, reference checked, accommodation booked andcleared for medicals before entering a mining site, all data was required to beupdated in the company’s data base. Furthermore all letters of offers were tobe cited for my approval. I found it difficult to manage one of my staff members’s whowas habitually taking time off or not turning up for work, this was proving tobe detrimental in the organisations ability to function, and furthermore herabsence was notably having an adverse impact amongst the other team’s members,this was creating animosity, this in turn was placing a tremendous amount ofpressure on me. I was able to exhibitand maintain self awareness, (Goleman, 2009) by organising a team meeting to consult andupdate the team on their accomplishments and reinforce the organisations goals. During the team meeting,members were encouraged to participate, be proactive and articulate a visionfor the organisation. Effective teamworkis critical for success and teamwork starts with team players (Parker, 2011). The team were enthusiasticas this involved them in decision making. They were informed during the team meeting thatI would be having a one on one informal catch up, which provided me with anopportunity to discuss my concerns with the staff member’s absenteeism.
As the meeting concluded, I observed that the team weremotivated and empowered, this concept of Leadership connotation was amicable with TransformationalLeadership Theory (Burns, 2012), which inturn lead on to positive outcomes associated with intrinsic motivation (Brown et al., 2015), furthermore this enabled theteam member to feel at ease and upfront when faced with the situation ofabsenteeism. I chose to approach TheTransformational style of Leadership based on the discussion with the teammember after I was provided with a considerable amount of information togetherwith an explanation. In conclusion of our meeting, I drew her to the attentionthat she was a valuable member of the team, furthermore I enabled to provideher with an opportunity to enhance her performance and initiate a vision thataligned with the organisations goals, by referring her to an agency to supporther, by doing so I wanted to create a positive change, furthermore enable tocreate a culture of trust and respect. This created synergism amongst the team;as a result of great performance, we reached our organisation’s goal, witheveryone being on board, harmony was created within the team. Having empathy and social skills as a Leader is paramount,by delegating more responsibility within the team, provided an opportunity ofownership, growth and accountability. Example 2I was a Recruitment Manager for a labour hire company,overseeing four staff members. My goal was to develop and manage strategies,lead the team and report on their performance.
Oversee that all labour hireemployees paperwork was entered and updated in the database. Manage majorshutdowns, furthermore to monitor costs, as well as contribute toorganisational growth, by seeking out new opportunities.I found it arduous in managing one of my employees who wasdemonstrating unsatisfactory performance, for example, arriving late for workon a regular basis, leaving early, making personal phone calls and notfollowing up on customer’s requests for labour hire therefore not filling inorders or following my instructions.
Even though she had just returned back towork after maternity leave, I felt that was no excuse and seemed unfair thatthe rest of the team was left to complete her work, I felt that everyone wasrequired to pull their weight to reach the organisations targets.Due to increased work pressure, I found that I was becomingirritated, frustrated and showing a dark side personality trait of scepticism, (Hogan, 2004), towards the staff member for example I wasconstantly checking and questioning work that had not been completed, she was observeddemonstrating no motivation, ultimately this type of behaviour was interferingwith my ability to maintain the team’s performance within the organisation (Tilin), furthermore, Ifelt she was enticing me and thereby attemptingto cause instability within the team (Kellerman, 2004).I assessed the situation before deciding which leadershipbehaviour would be the most effective to approach the team member; I came tothe conclusion that Directive Leadership style (House, 1971), in this instance would be best, I felt I neededto set firm boundaries, clarify how the work that she did connected with theother team members, remind the team member of the organisations targets thatwere expected to be met quarterly, I explained that an organised a daily workschedule would be maintained, in addition mandatory meetings once a week to monitor their performance.
The impact of this style of leadership was used on thisparticular team member as there was a sense of urgency, the team were showingsigns of stress at the possibility of not meeting their targets; eventually theteam member left the organisation; however the team members expressed theirrelief as we had an opportunity to employ another team member and meet theorganisations quarterly target. ConclusionI believe that my Leadership styles played a crucial role inboth examples in the team’s development in meeting their goals which I haddemonstrated through solving problems that arose, delegating and creatingharmony together forming a positive relationship between leader andfollowers. These examples also identified and areas where I requiredfurther personal development, for example on reflection, I could have managedthe team member in example two by being more understanding and empathetic forexample she had come back from maternity leave and was not coping emotionally. PART BReflection onLeadership and MotivationIntroductionIn this part of my assignment I am required to reflect my leadershipstyle in motivation, identify a strategy where I demonstrated motivation as aLeader to staff that was successful. There is an old 12th Century English proverb, whichsays you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink, the horse willonly drink water if it is thirsty, I believe this to be the case when you aredealing with human behaviour, unless employees are motivated in some way orother to reach any targets or goals, they will simply not do it, they need tohave a reason. I believe that tomotivate or be motivated is a skill that anyone can learn for any organisationto enable to reach its targets or goals.I am currently employed as an Advisor in a non for profitorganisation; my goal is to targetearly intervention by assisting parents who are at risk of long-term welfaredependency, identify their education and employment related career pathways andto participate in activities that help them achieve them.
Connect parents tolocal community services that are able to address their barriers to employment;furthermore I am required to interpret The Parents Next Deed and Guidelines, monitorservice delivery and performance reporting on Key Performance Indicators aswell as drafting management and Departmental reports as required. We were in the process of applying for anotherround of funding for the Parents Next Tender, as I was collating data topresent to the Regional Manager, it came to my attention the team had not metone of the stipulated KPI’S in the Deed, namely using the Work STAR system, thiswas a tool to measure outcomes for our participants, which involvesparticipants to complete a survey with their case manager face to face, whichonce completed, required to be updated in the Departments portal. I observedthe data and ascertained we were far behind in comparison to the all otherproviders nationally, this was a serious concern furthermore it was going toprove to be a challenge for the team to attempt to achieve. We were alreadyoverwhelmed with appointments, meetings and other events, how could we possiblysee any more participants, how were we going to accomplish this goal due to timeconstraints? As a leader I felt that tosucceed in achieving this goal, attitude was everything (Meyer, 2003).By utilizing my TransformationalLeadership style I called a team meeting to address this task, in an attempt todevelop a strategy to motivate, inspire and encourage (Bass, 1985) my staffto complete the STAR’s quickly and efficiently furthermore to obtain thedesired outcome to achieve this goal. At the meeting, I outlined what the situationwas to the team, organised the steps required to accomplish this in a timelymanner specifically to be, being mindful not to impact or contribute furtherundue stress on the team members.By adopting the goal setting theory, (Locke & Latham,2013) firstly Ineeded to obtain the team’s acceptance, acknowledge and to participate, collaborativelywe all needed to be involved to focus on how we were going to achieve this.
Forexample, we identified that 180 Work STAR’S where required to ensure our KPIwas accumulated, by doing this I informed the team that the best way to managethis as we were time poor was to firstly divide the stars equally, even thoughmy work load was heavier, as a leader I needed to set an example, the second wasto contact the participants by phoning them instead of setting up anappointment for them to come in and see their case manager. My strategy behindthis was that by approaching the goal in this way meant it would be achievable,furthermore based on past data, therewas evidence of participants not turning up for their appointments, we could not risk this, invariably participantsnormally answered their phones when we contacted them to arrange furtherappointments or activities.This seemed the logical thing to do;it was not an ideal situation, nevertheless by adopting this strategy, wouldmean we would meet the KPI’s required by the department within thetimeframe. This meant that we needed tojuggle our appointments to fit these telephone conversations in with our dailycalendar. I acknowledged that it was going to take an incredible amount ofeffort for everyone and I would provide them with feedback on a daily basis ontheir development.To ensure the team remained motivated throughout(Bandura, 1986), this task, I advised that on completion andin recognition of all their hard work, we would all go out and celebrate at theorganisations expense.ConclusionThen impact using the goal settingtheory strategy for motivating staff was effective in this instance forexample, by identifying the need, the team were provided with a clearachievable goal they could easily attain, the task was broken up in chunks overa period of a week, to make it work they showed commitment from the start inrealising the importance it was to meet our KPI’s. My learning experience from this wasin order to motivate teams, goals should be SMART (specific, measurable,aggressive, attainable and time bound).
Feedback is paramount, as the team wereable to track their positive changes that they were making daily. Practicing bykeeping communication open and transparent, I believe that goal setting is askill that can be learnt over time. Part CReflectionof Journal ArticleChange is a process that happens within organisations globally, although at times change could be for thebetter, employees resist, remain fearful (Burnes, 2017) and notalways readily embrace change. This could ultimately be perceived in a negativeor positive manner. It all comes down to the Emotional Intelligence coupledwith servant leadership as whether it will prove to be successful or not. The concept of servant leadership focuses on fulfilling the needsof the employees, it is a different type of leadership in comparison to other leadership styles, servant leadership is intended to inspire leadersinto a more caring and serving leadership role rather than a controlling one (Greenleaf, 1998).Emotional Intelligence which is perceived as being able to monitor andunderstand one’s own feelings and have empathy for other people as well (Salovey & Mayer, 2004).
The challenge of Lewin’s model demonstrates three processes whereleaders can manage stages of organisational change, (Baldomir & Hood, 2016) as explained firstly is to unfreeze, then followed byimplementation of change, this is where the leader of the organisation advisesand prepares employees of the change, during this process the leader is clearand concise in delivery alternatives, the third and final stage in Lewin’smodel is the refreezing stage (Baldomir , 2016), in this stage the leader demonstrates a vision moving forwardfor the organisation, with this process, employees are willing to embrace thechanges.During an organisational change, one aspect of dark side couldmanifest in servant leadership, for example, the servant leader’s role is toserve and not to control (Greenleaf, 1998), so muchso that the leader could become aggrieved, causing undue mental anguish onthemselves, for examplein the organisation I am currently employed in, we wereproviding a service for refugees and asylum seekers on Naru. Towards the end ofour project, our CEO with consultation with the Executive team, announced thatwe would not be seeking a further term contract with the Turnbull Government, inturn this was to add pressure on the Government to make a conscious decision tofind a solution on how and where they were going to resettle the asylum seekersand refugees.At the time there were over 100 staff employed in Naru who were providinghealth, education, job opportunities, furthermore assisting refugees and asylumto assimilate in Naru. Our CEO’s at the time raised concerns and reported the horrific conditionsthat were going on in Naru to the Australian Government, our CEO felt that theconditions were so alarming, that our organisation decided to walk away and notaccept any further money from the Government.This had presented huge ramifications within our organisation asthe CEO announced that as a result, the company needed to go through anorganisational change. There were a series of meetings and where possible,employees were redeployed.
Redundancies were offered where a solution could notbe found and within 90 days of the announcement of our organisation leavingNaru, 150 employees subsequently left our organisation. We would receive emails daily of a staffmember leaving our organisation, morale was visibly low. Our CEO was very emotional the whole idea,and very apologetic, however working together to overcome the challenges thatwere about to face us. Throughout theprocess; however she felt in order for our organisation to survive the storm,tough decisions were necessarily, furthermore she had to set clear visions andgoals and create moreopportunities for all, she informed the employees to take this set back to heal and grow fromthis as in (Maslow, 2013). This isan example of how dark leadership can manifest when the servant leadershipbecomes so emotionally exhausted to a point that they need to be forgiven.The emphasis on servant leader is to advance employees inspirationand aid them with talents, as well as to guide and provide a sense ofresponsibility. This is important as unlikeTransformational Leadership where a leader focuses on the team, servantleadership focuses on an individual’s improvement.
In servant leadership, it isthe servant who puts the needs of the followers, employees and the community first (Greenleaf, 2002). Theservant leader is the one who listens who demonstrates a connection withfollowers, who always encourages participation and values input from employees.InconclusionUsing servant leadership style can play an important role inorganisational change, not only doesthis style of leadership value theiremployees it also has humane effect, for example, empowering individuals tocope with difficult changes. Servant leaders must be wise when commencing thechange, employees need to see a vision or a goal, with this the employees areprepared and embracing change is more acceptable.
