rpl_lead1

Assignment Details:

Your responses should show that you have given thought to what the original post said. They should also push the conversation forward, offering insights or (if necessary) asking clarifying questions. While responding, please consider the following questions:

· Is leadership style a binary choice, i.e., one or the other? Or do all leaders have a mixture of both styles to some degree?

· Think about the worst leaders you have observed or worked for. What are the greatest lessons you've learned from their poor leadership traits?

Deliverable Length: 250 words (minimum) per reply

ONE:

Experiences of working with a leader.

 

1. Was this person an inspiring leader or more of a command-and-control style leader?

 

My current leader has been my best leadership mentor. His style is a combination of inspiring leader and command and control. He actually describes his leadership style as tight loose tight. It is a style that supports and develops leaders to ensure they are set up for success by mentoring them in a closer manner in the beginning of their leadership role and the slowly loosen so there is no micromanagement. If the leader becomes to loosen in their management, he mentors more closely so they feel supported but yet move back to be what he calls the effective leader zone.

 

 

2. Lessons learned from my experience with this leader.

 

First, I learned that having an inclusive leadership style leads to a high level of engagement throughout the organization. This high level of engagement lets leaders’ question without fear. A top-down approach stifles innovation and the development of all leaders. I have many departments that report to me and this lesson of inclusion has really led to my leaders not being afraid to give their input. It isn’t the person with the highest title that always has the right answers.

 

Second, I learned that establishing a strategic plan each year is critical to achieving a high level of success in quality, engagement, financial, and customer experience. It sets the foundation for the culture needed for success.

 

Third, I learned to be a servant leader. Each person working for the organization is part of making the organization successful. They need to feel that they are part of that success through recognition. In a hospital there can be volatile volume fluctuations on a daily basis. I may be a leader but I have cancelled meeting to help in overwhelmed departments.

 

 

 

 

3. What are the positive skills the leader demonstrated that you may incorporate into a leadership training program?

 

Strategy:

My current leader develops a strategic plan each year to ensure there is a structure directing the initiatives that will lead to a successful year.

 

Inclusion:

Establishing a culture of Inclusion is critical for the organization to be able to adapt to change very quickly. The vision may come from the tope of an organization, but how it is achieved may come from many sources within and outside the organization.

 

Establishing a culture of Safety:

 

Establishing a non-punitive culture of safety is critical to improving organization processes and improving engagement. An employee must feel free to report a safety incident so that the process can be looked at and hardwired so that incident can’t be repeated. The process must be looked at before the human element is considered. We should always assume good intent on an employee’s part until there is reason not to.

 

 

How would you describe, in a few short sentences, the ideal leader to work for in today’s VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous) environment? Please provide a brief rationale for your response.

 

The ideal leader to work in today’s VUCA environment must be able to establish culture of inclusion as part of the leader’s strategic plan to achieve goals. It gets everyone involved and the more brain power in a VUCA environment leads to better results. This leader must be humble and give recognition to the entire team rather than taking credit for their organization’s success. The leader must be forward thinking as change is constant and what you did in one year may not give the same results in the next year. Development of all levels within the organization I believe will be a key for this leader in a VUCA environment. Employee growth will help in both the long and short term overall success of an organization.

TWO:

Q.1) Was this person an inspiring leader or more of a command-and-control style leader?

 

The person that I will be referencing for this discussion post, is an inspiring leader. While working for my current airline, this leader (I will refer to him as John Doe), has always been focused on innovation and inspiring the future of the airline, terminal, customer and employee experience. 

 

Q.2) What lessons did you learn from that experience?

 

Using a specific experience, John Doe was responsible for generating an employee shift schedule for all check-in, gate and baggage service office employees. Every few quarters, John Doe would seek to find on average three-four employees to join him on his team to create three-six-month employee schedules. When it came to employee schedules, employees would ‘bid’ for the shift they wanted in preference order, and it would be assigned to each employee, based on their seniority within the department. I worked on the team for about eight months. I have learned so much during my time on the team; it changed my perspective on how scheduled shifts were generated. John Doe would thoroughly explain how the schedules would generate and would diligently work to make as many revisions as possible to each shift schedule, to further meet the needs of his employees and the operation. As much as the employees would be disappointed with the shifts that were available and the constant revision to shift start/end times, I learned that John had to focus on ensuring the operation was always fully staffed and shift start/end times had to be consistent with constant changes to departure and arrival times of all of our flight within our base.

 

Q.3) What are the positive skills the leader demonstrated that you may incorporate into a leadership training program?

 

John Doe had a few positive skills that I would incorporate into a leadership training program. Please see below.

Communication- John Doe always held a Q&A after he would release every new shift scheduling bid. He would provide in-depth detail on his decisions with each shift schedule and he would share the possibility of these shifts changing or remaining the same within future shift scheduling bids. Employees would be less hesitant toward the new schedule, following John Doe’s thorough information that he would provide. Thus, communication is key to success, and leadership should always go the extra mile to communicate as much as effectively possible.

 

Critical Thinking- John Doe would continuously think of new ways to improve the scheduling bid, based on prior feedback from the employees. John Doe has found ways to provide the revisions to the schedules, per the employee’s request, while also still ensuring the operation has the staff it needs at all times. Thus, critical thinking can assist with solving complex problems. 

 

Teamwork- In my experience, it is easier to learn how to lead a team rather than working within one. John Doe would be involved with each task and would ensure that we are working as a team, rather than just taking direction from him. This would allow us to feel that we are being led by a leader that understands the task on hand. Teamwork would be beneficial to be learned in leadership training as it would allow leaders to understand the importance of teamwork and not just team leading.

 

Time Management- Due to operational needs, we would have limited time to generate an entire bid for more than two-hundred and ninety employees. However, with the due diligence of John Doe, he would always find a solution with providing us more than enough time to generate the bid, even when we were limited on time. Thus, it is critical for leadership to know how to manage time to ensure that tasks are completed on-time.

 

Problem-Solving- There has been several times when the schedule would call for more staff than we needed at a given time. This would create us to have more employees on shift at a time, with no assignments for some of the employees to follow, due to now being over-staffed. Thus, John Doe, would quickly think of solutions, such as checking the daily schedule a day in advance and if the operation day the following day was overstaffed, he would offer the employees a voluntary day-off. John Doe would do this day to day, instead of advanced time off for a specific period of time because, if irregular weather conditions were to occur, and we experience delays or cancelations, having the extra staff on per day would then benefit operation. Thus, on those days, time off would not be offered. Problem-solving using the example above, should be offered in leadership training, as for every problem, a solution can be used to benefit the organization in one way or another.

 

Q.4) How would you describe, in a few short sentences, the ideal leader to work for in today’s VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous) environment? Please provide a brief rationale for your response. 

 

The ideal leader to work for, would be a person who can adjust to, and encourage others to be comfortable and wiling to experience change, where change is necessary. In addition, with times being uncertain, the ideal leader would always be transparent and optimistic toward the future. Their optimism can motivate their employees toward the future. An ideal leader would also ensure that the complexity of every situation is clearly outlined and explained thoroughly. This can avoid further problems from arising later in time. Despite all odds, the leader should always ensure their expectations are clear and their team is always aware. (“Managing in a VUCA World”, 2021). Thus, despite the VUCA environment today, an ideal leader would be someone who could practice the exact opposite trends of VUCA as outlined above. Effective and efficient leaders contribute to the overall success of the company. If I had to choose a leader, that could meet my above stances, I would choose the CEO of JetBlue, Robin Hayes. He is a leader that has been building an airline from the ground-up. Since he had taken position, he has introduced first-class seating, otherwise known as “Mint”, and he took the responsibility on, of expanding into Europe. During the current global pandemic, the odds are against him, and even with every airline experiencing loss from these unprecedented times, he is still opening new cities, expanding their routes and continuing with the current plan to begin service in Europe (London, United Kingdom). Thus, despite all odds, Robin Hayes continues to lead his company and expanding as planned, while also addressing the concerns of the world and global pandemic, all at the same time. 

 

 

Thank you.

 

                                                                                  References:

            MindTools. (2021). Managing in a VUCA World.  https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/managing-vuca-world.htm