Lead Across Principle
- Lead-Across Principle #2: Using either your current/past work setting or your work at UD, discuss the following in detail. You may answer them separately or collectively. [30-points]
- How are you and your peers currently competing with each other?
My peers and I are involved in healthy competition where we focus on completing fellow leaders rather than unhealthy rivalry that affects business activities. Some of the areas we compete in include developing new strategies to sell the product to the public.
- How does this competition contribute to the overall strength of you and your peers? AND how does this competition hurt you or your team?
This competition ensures that every person is working toward success and outdoing the other group. The competition is helping us to build trust on each other and make the right decision in regards to organization welfare. This ensures that the complete strategy in play is a win-win situation. In some situation, the competition would exclude some members hence hurting the group performance.
- Where do you draw the line between healthy and unhealthy competition among your peers?
I draw the line for unhealthy competition where individual’s acts towards a win-lose situation and intend to destroy the trust established between members. This means that the competition at hand is unhealthy and likely to lead to losses.
- Lead-Across Principle #6: What are some pragmatic things you can do in order to create an environment where people are comfortable sharing their ideas? How do you ensure that the people you don’t like or respect is also given the opportunity to share their ideas?
Let the Best Idea Win comes as a results of according equal opportunities and listening to all members and then evaluate the best alternative to put into practice. Some of the pragmatic things that I can do include: creating a favorable environment for information sharing, appreciating contribution and encouraging members to contribute. Through utilization of the above strategies individual contributions will be respected despite their status or reputation in the institution. Rendering equal opportunities to all members in the organization ensures that people who are not liked by the management or persons in leadership gives their contribution which may help the entity move a notch higher.
- Lead-Across Principle #1: In one or two sentences, describe each of the six (6) items in the leadership loop. AND provide an example of how you have met each of these items in the past or how you plan to implement them in the future. You may use work related or UD related examples from your past. If it is for the future, use work related examples.
Understand, Practice, and Complete the Leadership Loop is the first principle. It entails the following items of leadership loop.
The first one is Caring. Listening and understanding the needs of the employees comes along way with caring for them. Thus, a leader will be looking after his/her subject.
Example:
I met this loop by looking and working closely with employees and ensuring that employee issues are dealt with. One of the things that I did is to ensure that management employs flexible working schedule for the employees.
Learning ensues that a leader understands his/her employees. It is also an opportunity to learn their behaviors.
Example:
I was able to study employee’s behavior by monitoring their work. I met this through working hand in hand with junior employees on a daily basis.
Appreciating employee’s efforts comes with first respecting their decisions. Employee contribution also encourages dedication when appreciation accompanies good results.
Example:
I respected my juniors hence they were able to accord me the same respect. Thus, employee would find it easy to contribute and express their mind to me as I treated them with respect as their supervisor.
Contributing to individual life ensures that their lives ensures that individual work and feel at ease. In addition, they work to meet deadline and contribute favorably towards success.
Example:
An example is where I decided and ensured that all employees were medically covered while working at the entity. This would come as a result of their contribution to draft laws that would cover them at work.
Verbalizing is involved with information delivery. Thus, talking and communicating with employees helps understand some of the issues they face.
Example:
I used to communicate with employee by applying an informal system of communication. This would allow me to acquire feedback as well as transfer information from one party to the other.
Leading on the other hand includes influencing people to work and follow the right decision. In addition, it shows coming up with a plan to be followed by others.
Example:
I was in charge of directing employees in carrying out their duties at my previous job. I was able to offer leadership to them hence the entity was in a position to meet its goals and objectives.
- Lead-Across Principle #3, #4 & #5: The author recommends that you maintain close friendships at work, avoid office politics and expand your circle of acquaintances. [40-points]
- Why do you think the author recommends making friends on the job and expanding your circle of acquaintances?
Making friend ensures that a person is able to co-exist with fellow workmate and build trust. In addition, a person will learn a lot from other hence important.
- What are the advantages and disadvantages of developing personal friendships among your peers at work?
The advantages include:
- Encouragement to work hard and increased collaboration
- Improved social life at work where individuals share life experiences hence reduce stress
Disadvantages include:
- time wastage due to grouping at the organization
- Relationship affects performance of an individual due to lack of emotional control.
- Should the level of friendship you develop at work be at the same or different from the friendships you have developed among your peers in class or at home?
Relationship at work should be based on the role and task carried out by different members. The reason behind this is that if the relationship goes beyond work related issues then individual may end up performing poorly at work. They will also spend a lot of time building the relationship rather than concentrating to their work. Thus, the friendship would be different between the two scenarios.
- What are the pitfalls of developing close intimate friendships at work? How do you strike a balance in maintaining close friendships and keeping it professional while at work?
Intimate relationship at work place leads to jealousy that affects personal contribution. Thus, most of the time individual at intimate relationship will be watching their partners an action that reduces their contribution. Close relationship should be treated in a manner that they do not affect organization activities. One of the strategies that would help strike a balance is to treat the partner as a workmate during office hours hence lead to increased productivity.
- Lead-Across Principle #7: Evaluate and Discuss giving examples, some of your own weaknesses, faults or blind-spots? Discuss a minimum of three (3) where you feel you could improve on or strengthen. What kinds of things can you do to strengthen each of them?
My Weaknesses includes, paying no attention to what individual says towards the entity or me and having low interest in socializing with people.
Faults include errors that come about due to ignorance or lack of knowledge. Some of the faults include making business decisions without consultation and assuming the responsibilities of managers while working as a supervisor hence led to conflict of interest.
Blind-Spots on the other hand includes shortcoming such as failing to honor promises made in organization and overlooking employees plight and demands.
Three of the areas I need to strengthen include planning, leading and controlling employees. Planning requires wide consultation and involvement of employees. Leading on the other hand calls for listening and learning from employees. Lastly, controlling employees requires that I develop mechanisms and strategies that allow monitoring their movement and activities.