Review all of your previous Learning Journal entries (from Weeks 2, 4, 6, 8). Then answer the following questions:
- How have you grown as a leader during this term?
- What aspect of your leadership style do you see as an area of improvement? Why?
- If someone asked you in an elevator to tell them what leadership is and you only had thirty seconds to answer, what would you say?
WK 2 – The WSJ article that I chose was called the ‘CIOs’. The soft skills together with the Digital Demands Political Savvy was concerned about chief information officers (CIOs) ability to not only embrace technical skills but also softer skills in achieving the goals of the businesses. The author is concerned about effective leadership where CIOs need to employ their softer skills to manage employees by offering them advanced models in business and manage their stresses too. According to Mehta Harmeen who is the digital head of Bharti Airtel’s limited and global CIO, employees should be given an opportunity for experimentation to perfect their tools (Welch, 2005). This was discussed in the MIT Sloan Symposium that was held in Cambridge.
Mehta admits in an interview that for the past half a decade, she came up with a competent IT staff just from scratch. This significantly reduced the outside staff that was hired to do the IT work in the company (Nash, 2018). Mehta is keen on inflicting the mission mindset of her staff. She could engage each department and discuss their contribution to the entire business. Mehta says that the business will only achieve if it is working with a clear purpose. Under the leadership of Mehta, the Bharti airtel has achieved tremendous results. This is according to the author. Among the achievements of Bharti under the leadership of Mehta include the music app that was launched in the past two years. Netflix Inc, mobile education and popular TV app responsible for civic education are also underway.
The reason I chose this article is that it has the spirit of empowerment to employees to achieve business goals. According to Winning Jack (2005), ‘4E+P’ outlines the framework responsible for employees hiring. ‘E’ represents the ability to ensure things are done in order. According to Jack, the above formula gives eight rules of ensuring that employees can get business goals done correctly (Charn, 2004). Mehta was the winner of MIT CIO Leadership for the year 2018 has been at the helm of Bharti for the past 6 years. This indicates a relentless drive of her to always settle for what is best for the company.
WK 4 – I chose this journal because it focuses on discussing how leadership can help solve the issue of dysfunctional teams. The article gives strategies that leaders can apply to solve the three common dysfunctions, which include lack of commitment, lack of accountability, and conflicts in a team. For the conflict dysfunction, it states that leaders can come up with ways to mitigate conflicts such as advocating for respect. The conflict of commitment can be solved by motivation. The dysfunction of avoidance of accountability can be solved by collective delegation, whereby members are given activities and held accountable for the outcomes. I have chosen this article because I can use these strategies to solve dysfunctions in the future. The article states that commitment can be boosted by giving motivation to employees by awarding them or just acknowledging their efforts. I really liked this point because I know everyone likes their efforts acknowledged (Kambil, n.d).
WK 6 – The reason why I selected the report on “making decisions under pressure” is because it addresses leaders and decision making in crisis, which is a critical concern for all leaders across different organizational structures. The article notes that a leader is evaluated with their ability to make decisions in crisis. The material is related to leaders and decision making because it highlights the steps a leader should utilize to ensure effective decision making in a crisis. A leader should focus on gathering information, distilling it to have the essential information, and then process the information that has an immediate concern for the situation at hand. The steps make the decision-making process to be more direct and have swift actions. The article also relates to leadership and decision making because it highlights aspects such as acting with integrity, building trustworthy relationships, and keeping a cool head, which is essential for effective decision making.
WK 8 – The article contains the argument about leaders how they work and how they implement their strategies. Some leaders are mentors and can have effective leadership skills that helps them attain the goal or mission with the help of their members. Leaders are the individuals who have a mass influenced over an organization and it’s people, they have the art to do work with full attention, dedication, and decisions to get the job done, they influenced their departments and teams with their decision making and the way of work they adopt. The cooperative approach is necessary to face the problem with the selection of core employees who can face it. This step helps the company to grow in a leading way. It helps the team to increase loyalty when they feel their contribution is necessary for the work, it will boost confidence. Good leaders have more influence on their team when he/she works with the team not only for the growth of company but also betterment of the position of the employees. Pearce, C. L. (2008, July 8).
PART A – PLEASE RESPOND TO CLASSMATE DISCUSSION WHETHER YOU AGREE OR NOT & A DETAILED WHY: Share your best story of a time you applied something you learned in this course at work. What happened? What did you learn? While at work, I was able to apply the topic of voice and dignity that we covered in class. In order to avoid resorting to differentiation, I have found myself speaking up and asking questions of my coworkers where I am unsure. An example of this was during my weekly team meeting. As I was a newcomer, I had not been speaking up much about team topics. After learning about the importance of voice and dignity, I found myself asking questions and offering information more freely. I no longer feel as if my input does not matter. I learned that by voicing my opinions more freely, others will listen and respect me more.
How have you grown as a leader during this term? During this term, I have grown by working toward learning about my personal leadership style and how I need to grow in order to become a better leader. From my DiSC assessment, I found that I was a goal oriented, strategic, leader. I learned that while a great style for achieving results, this style could cause dissension amongst teams as they don’t feel valued (1). I am now much more comfortable with the thought of managing a team effectively and effeciently.
What aspect of your leadership style do you see as an area of improvement? Why? As an area of improvement, the way in which I view the opinion of others has changed. I used to view teammates as simply others working to achieve the same organizational goals as me. With such a results-oriented focus, by focusing on my teams and working to get to know and encourage them as well, I can achieve even greater results. By advancing my teammates and working to build them up, they are more apt to contribute more to the team (2).
PART B – PLEASE RESPOND TO CLASSMATE DISCUSSION WHETHER YOU AGREE OR NOT & A DETAILED WHY: Share your best story of a time you applied something you learned in this course at work. What happened? What did you learn? Recently I encountered a situation at work wherein one of the projects I am leading, the target date to complete one of the major project deliverables got moved to a much earlier date and on top was asked to complete it with much lesser resources. I questioned my manager to understand the reason behind it. Once I got a satisfactory answer, immediately, I communicated this to my team and they appreciated my candor and as a team, we came up with a game plan to finish the project sooner to meet the early deadline date. One of the main lessons learned from this experience for me was that you always need not sugarcoat messages with regards to awkward subjects, being candid and transparent with your team will help you reach higher goals. (Welch,1).
What aspect of your leadership style do you see as an area of improvement? Why? As mentioned in some of my earlier posts, I definitely see opportunities for improvement in my leadership style by improving my EI competencies. With my DiSC style of iD ( Disc,2), I have this urge most of the time to persuade others to adopt my vision, in doing this I feel I can be more empathetic and less authoritative. Also with my DiSC style of an Influencer Dominating, I need to be aware of the fine line between being self-confident and overconfident.
If someone asked you in an elevator what leadership is and you only had thirty seconds to answer, what would you say? I would mainly reiterate what Jack has been preaching for years, Leadership is not just about you, it’s about elevating people around you by coaching them to succeed.It is leading and inspiring by example,making bold decisions and most importantly establishing trust by being candid and transparent.( Welch,1).
