Four pages Film analysis paper

Collaborative Leadership: an introduction

Collaborative leaders rely on synergy, openness, full disclosure, transparency, and collaborative consensus decision making vs. compromise and majority rule. Communication is omnidirectional vs. top down. Performance recognition is team oriented vs. internal competition, individual activity and rewards. Innovation, flexibility, and customizing is encouraged vs. traditional activity. within any limits of privacy, confidentiality, legal and ethical standards. High-functioning collaborative leaders are familiar with organization policies and procedures –– especially those that are non-negotiable.

Helpful definitions

Acceptance: To recognize and allow for the reality of something.

Adherence: Being committed to or supportive of an idea, program or philosophy and acting accordingly. Being congruent with one’s preference. A significant characteristic of a High-functioning team.

Autonomy: The state of being self-directing and self-governing.

Collaborative consensus: A decision making process that seeks a unified decision via a collaborative process. While the decision is not necessarily any member’s first choice, the decision is recognized as the best option for the team, and is one that all participants will accept and support. A significant characteristic of a High-functioning team.

Collaborative leadership: A collaborative endeavor in which a leader influences and motivates a team to accomplish mutually desired objectives. A significant characteristic of a High-functioning team.

Collaborative teamwork: The process of a collaborative team, in which the participants develop a sense of trust and mutual belonging. Teamwork is the ultimate manifestation of a collaborative workplace. It’s the amazing phenomenon that comes about when all the components of a collaborative system are integrated into the routine functioning of a collaborative team.

Collaborative workplace: A working environment in which all members, regardless of rank, participate in a cooperative effort, governed by the principals of collaboration.

Compliance: Conforming to the wishes of others without changing one’s private attitudes. A person appears to agree with another, but actually keeps his or her dissenting opinions private. Typical behavior of a sycophant. A significant characteristic of an authoritarian-directive system.

Compromise: A way to reach agreement in which each person or group gives up something that was wanted to end an argument or dispute. A common result is a grief-like state of dissatisfaction, which often leads to resentments and passive-aggressive resistance to the agreement. A significant characteristic of a low functioning team.

Confirmation bias: A distortion of perception due to a person’s need to be accurate about the way he or she sees the world. A seeking of information that confirms one’s beliefs and the avoidance and minimization of contradictory evidence and opinions. A type of selective thinking in which one tends to notice and to look for what confirms one's beliefs, and to ignore, not look for, or undervalue the relevance of what contradicts one's beliefs.

Culture: The constellation of shared experiences, beliefs, assumptions, stories, customs and actions that characterize a group of people. Culture is to a system as personality is to an individual.

Defense: See Psychological defense.

Empathy: A person’s cognitive and emotional accompanying of another person into the other’s frame of reference and understanding and appreciating the other’s thoughts, feelings and actions. Relating to another in objective fashion.

Empower: Inspire self or another to be self-directed toward positive, healthful and productive action. A significant characteristic of a High-functioning team.

Ethics: The explicit, philosophical reflection on moral beliefs and practices. The discipline dealing with what is good and bad, right and wrong or with moral duty and obligation. Principles and practices of approved or accepted conduct governing an individual or association. A moral code. Formal and informal standards of conduct that organizations adopt to guide the behavior of their employees. Workplace ethics are usually based on principles from core values of honesty, respect and trust.

Genuineness: Authentic. Relaxed attitude regarding one’s general being. Having congruence in one’s thoughts, feelings, urges, and behaviors..

Honesty: Truthfulness. Fairness and straightforwardness of conduct. Adherence to the facts.

Interpersonal: Relating to, or involving relations between people.

Intimacy: Showing, fostering, or sharing personal interests and relations. Expressing the innermost true self, indicative of one’s deepest nature. An atmosphere created by unreserved personal expression, communication and experience. It’s characterized by vulnerability, acceptance, trust, genuineness, empathy, and mutuality.

Majority rule: A decision making procedure that provides the power to the majority, usually constituted by fifty percent plus one of an organized group, whose choices are binding upon the whole. It is the traditional decision making format most often used in voting bodies.

Mission statement: The formal declaration of the primary intent of a team. It’s the focal point around which team members will gather and function in a cohesive fashion. It reflects the essence of the team and the reason it exists.Themes can include excellence in product and service, attention to the consumer, well-being of employees and workplace harmony

Mutual: Common to or shared by two or more things or people. Especially given or done in return. Reciprocal effort or aid.

Optimism: The belief something will get better, due to acceptance of an accumulation of experiences that gives one evidence that improvement is possible. A philosophy and the tendency to expect good fortune or the best outcome in any circumstance. A general disposition to look on the bright side and to expect the best in all things.

Personality: One’s personal identity. Indicative of one’s self. The unique product of one’s dynamic, psychophysical, organized and determined expression of one’s self. Habitual patterns and qualities of one’s thoughts, feelings, sensations, urges and behaviors. It’s formed through one’s past experiences, and expressed in the moment by: 1. What one screens in and screens out from contemporary reality (what one sees and doesn’t see.) 2. How one interprets these seeings. 3. How one acts on the interpretations.

Synergy: The result of the efforts of a High-functioning team in which the total effort is greater than the sum of the individual efforts.

Toxic: Being harmful and poisonous.

Trust: Assured reliance on the character, reliability, ability, strength, or truth of someone or something.

Vulnerability: A state in which one is capable of being physically or emotionally wounded. Open, unguarded, lacking toxic defenses.

Leadership premises

The art of leadership is to empower employees.

And be supportive while they develop efficiency with the collaborative process.

High-functioning leaders model the attitudes and behaviors expected of employees.

Empowered employees will strive to act in the best interests of themselves, their workplace associates and team, and the organization.

Empowered employees will bring harmony to the workplace through collaborative response to workplace conflict.

Collaborative conflict response will inspire change.

Here are some traits common to high-functioning, collaborative leaders

Collaborative leaders

Offer autonomy to the team

Within company policies and procedures

Are dedicated to the idea that every team member will bring unique idea s and experiences to the team,

This will not happen if they are over-regulated and limited to a particular, traditional way of thinking or working.

Have goals and targets –– but it’s counterproductive to dictate exactly how to get there.

Have exemplary character.

Communication

Collaborative communication is the choice.

High-functioning leaders really listen to, and hear what team members say.

They respond genuinely to questions.

Guidance

Based on their team’s collaborative mission statement, leaders empower collaborative teamwork.

Leaders guide their teams to achieve high quality relationships and productivity.

Motivators

· Effective leaders encourage adherence vs. compliance.

Optimism

High-functioning leaders empower their team members to be optimistic.

They know that issue and problem solving will drop the barriers to outstanding teamwork.

Empower problem solving

Guiding the team through respectful and efficient conflict and problem solving.

They integrate collaborative, open discussion that encourages respectful resolution of problems.

High performance is voluntary

Collaborative leaders know that high performance is always voluntary, as is collaboration.

The formal "carrot on a stick" and other stretch goals do not empower employees to be as consistently motivated and productive nearly as well as being and participating in harmonious teamwork.

They are comfortable with intimacy.

They are self-aware.

As well as being aware of how they are seen by others.

They know it’s difficult to see themselves through the filters of their defenses.

They’re aware of confirmation bias.

· They know the way to really get to know and experience one’s own personality is through the dynamics of intimate relationships.

They can see the impact they have on others.

And they can sense and observe the impact others have on uthem.

The cornerstones of intimacy are

Vulnerability

They’re open and unguarded.

A lack of toxic defenses.

Acceptance

They recognize and allow for the reality of something.

Trust

Trusted leaders earn trust.

Trusted leaders are objective and consistent,.

They model the attitudes and behaviors they expect from their team members.

They inspire and empower team members to higher character, strength, ability and genuineness.

Genuineness

They’re authentic.

Have a relaxed attitude regarding their general being.

Have congruent thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.

Empathy

They appreciate another’s thoughts and feelings.

Mutuality

High functioning leaders empower interpersonal relating and sharing of common experience with regard to the best interests of all involved.

An interesting way to determine the effectiveness of leadership is to review the negative and positive comments team members report of their leaders.

Employees name these top 15 negative leadership attitudes and behaviors

Poor interpersonal skills.

Public criticism of team members.

Dishonesty

Poor communications skills.

Rigid and inflexible attitudes and behaviors.

Disorganization.

Failure to empower team members.

Abrasiveness.

Demeaning behavior.

Unpredictability.

Indecisiveness.

Not being a team player.

Failure to delegate authority.

Arrogance.

Taking credit due to others.

Note: How many of these complaints are about workplace relationships vs. job skills?

On the other hand, these are the top 10 admired characteristics of leaders.

1. Honesty.

Being forward-looking –– promoting the vision.

Being inspirational and empowering.

Show appreciation.

Are respectful and caring.

Stay close to the action.

Keep promises.

Competency.

Follow the Golden Rule.

Admit their mistakes.

Here’s an interesting research project on brain signatures of leaders..

David Waldman, a professor of management in the W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University studied brain signatures to identify ethical and abusive bosses, in the hopes of creating ethical leaders. He has studied “good and bad” leaders, over the last 10 years, and has become an expert on using neuroscience to observe people’s brain activity. His research shows a “brain signature” of people who are considered to be ethical leaders and maps of electrical brain activity of people considered to be abusive. Waldman is interested not only in what can be seen in brain patterns, but whether the patterns can be changed through a process called neurofeedback.

In one study, Waldman and his co-authors, Danni Wang of Rutgers University, Sean T. Hannah of Wake Forest University and Pierre A. Balthazard of California State University wanted to see if they could establish a signature of the brain patterns of people who are considered to be ethical leaders. The study included 104 people who were military or business leaders. They each filled out a survey on their own ethical beliefs, and several of their peers, subordinates and superiors also answered questions about the ethical leadership of the study subjects. Then the leaders each had an hour-long scan, which included an assessment of the brain at rest, or “intrinsic brain.”

Waldman observed brain activity patterns that are indicative qualities associated with ethical leadership, such as self-reflection, perspective taking, and watchfulness of others’ behavior. Specifically, the researchers looked at “connectivity” among the brain regions in what is known as the “default mode network.” Those connections were related to leaders’ ethical ideology as well as their behavior. “There was essentially more and better connectivity between these brain regions for a certain bandwidth of brain waves, the beta bandwidth, for ethical leaders,” he said.

In another study, Waldman found a separate “signature” brain structure, associated with the “executive functioning” of the brain, that could predict whether supervisors have abusive tendencies toward employees.

Neurofeedback is used to treat attention deficit and anxiety disorders, but it hasn’t been used to try to directly change leadership qualities. Waldman believes we can use neuroscience to help improve the functioning in the brains of those with abusive tendencies.

Walden states, “I’m here to do a positive form of leadership development, which is to make people more inspiring and ethical, while becoming less abusive.”

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