A520.6.5.RB_McNerneyLeighAnn

In order for a team to be effective the members must work together encouraging each other along the way in order to cross the finish line. The members of the team must also have an equal balance of task-facilitating and relationship-building roles in order for the team to be successful in completing the task at hand.  Task-facilitating members will be focused on accomplishing the objectives. Relationship building members will be focused on keeping the group’s morale up and the member’s relationships in good standing. Members of the group will usually be one or the other, but as long as there is a balance of both the team will be more effective.

Personally as a team member I feel I take on both roles as a task-facilitator and relationship-builder, but I will favor one or the other depending on the assigned task. If I am extremely interested in the assignment I find myself being more intuitive and working as a task-facilitator. I will give others direction, research information and ask others for information. I really enjoy learning and I always want to accomplish my tasks to the best of my ability. I am really good at analyzing and elaborating and encouraging others to do the same. If I am enjoying the task I will usually become encompassed in it until we finish it.

However if the task at hand is something I find little interest in I find myself being more on the relationship-building side. As a psychology major I have found my skill is helping people understand and relate each other better. So if I see the group start to butt heads or argue over different ideas I am always the one who will step in and try and mediate. I believe that supporting and encouraging others is extremely necessary while they are struggling in order to achieve a goal successfully. When the group I am involved in starts to feel burned out I will try and give a pep talk and or try to pump the group up with lots of energy to remind them why we are all there.  Everyone needs that support or else they will go insane! When I have been apart of a team in which the members start to become tense with each other over a disagreement of opinions I will either crack a joke or do something silly so that they will laugh and release some endorphins to lighten the mood.

I try and always actively engage within my team in order to accomplish a mission or goal. While in the group I will always pay attention to what others are saying or I will ask questions to help get people thinking more critically about the topic. I really enjoy being apart of a group because I feel I am provided with a broader perspective and given different outlooks that are very helpful in my learning process. Being apart of a team gives me the chance to understand the topic a little better because no one thinks the exact same. When everyone comes together with their ideas about why something is the way it is the solution to the problem becomes a lot richer in that a collective solution has many outlooks all in one.

When working in my group I will always try my best to be a necessary factor, meaning I will try my best to be useful to the group. Whether I am providing support, recognition, information or direction I will do whatever I can to positively enhance the team. I believe in order to function effectively we must all work together cohesively and collaborate in order to accomplish the over

A520.5.3.RB_McNerneyLeighAnn

Empowering an individual isn’t giving them the power to do what you think they should do but instead it is giving them the power to do what they want to do (Developing Management Skills P 443). In reviewing the text as well as the article Empowerment: Rejuvenating a potent idea by Russ Forrester research has shown that individuals empowered to do what they want to do are more satisfied, innovated and produce more desirable results than that of those who are not empowered. To empower employees to want to want to do their work and motivate them to complete the task efficiently a manager will have to relinquish control and let their employees make their own decisions, accomplish the task and then allow them to receive recognition. In order for this to happen there are a number of things that must be attained, such as having a stable environment for the employees to do their work. If the environment is free of unnecessary chaos and drama then the employees will not be distracted and will be able to remain on task uninterrupted. Employees will also feel empowered when they can find an empowered manager to follow. A manager who can lead by example will provide his or her employees a better sense of how this can be a very effective way to accomplish tasks.

In our text they identify five core dimensions of empowerment, as well as how these employees will feel when they are empowered. The five core dimensions are self-efficacy the feeling that you are capable of completing the task successfully, self-determination this is the feeling that you have a choice in your own actions, personal consequence which is the feeling of being able to make an impact or produce a result based on the choices you have made, meaning which is the feeling employees will have when they can value the task they are completing and trust which is the feeling you will have that allows you to feel confident in your employer that they will treat you fairly. These will all exist if an individual is empowered. Empowered individuals are “ more confident, feel more freedom, feel more important, feel more comfortable in their work and work setting” (Developing Management Skills P 447), thus everyone wins.

Empowering employees is not a “one size fits all” solution (Russ Forrester 2002). In this sense an organization will need to develop a system to empower employees based on their abilities if they want to efficiently motivate the employees to take on new responsibilities. I feel a good way would be if an organization practiced in a more family friendly atmosphere so everyone was able to get to know each other and feel as though they are apart of an organization that cares about their employees. This would allow the correct employee to receive the correct task. When it is time for the manager to delegate the new responsibilities they would have a better idea of who could handle what tasks, and if no one was able to they could then properly train the employee chosen to do the job. Employees would feel more confident knowing their managers believed they could appropriately handle the task at hand.

 A lot of the reasons empowerment can fail are because the employees receiving the power to make decisions are not equipped with the skills needed in order to make good decisions. Another reason empowerment can fail is because a lot of organizations are not able to correctly implement the power in a timely fashion. Some companies will move too quickly while others will never move at all, but instead “say” they are.  If the company moves too quickly then no one is able to adapt to the sudden change and this can breed a bit of hostility among those affected directly. Moving too slowly will also result in discouraged employees that feel they cannot depend on their organization to give up any of their power to trust the employees to do the job. If a company wants to successfully empower their employees they need to make sure they are moving at the right pace determined by their organization.

In conclusion empowering can be easily attained through setting clear goals for employees to follow. These goals need to be specific, measurable, aligned, realistic and time bound in order for them to be successful. Another way to empower employees would be to set up a “small wins strategy”. This can be accomplished by taking a large task and breaking it into smaller tasks in order for it to be completed in a building block fashion. Modeling as stated before is a great way for a manager to empower employees because they can follow examples of previous success. Supporting employees will be helpful in providing the emotional support they will need throughout the processes. A manager could also evoke enthusiasm through a charismatic form of leadership and create a sense of confidence in order to empower them. Managers will need to provide employees with all the information and resources needed in order for the employees to remain empowered and successfully complete the tasks. When all of these have been completed you should have a more successful organization filled with empowered employees willing to take on new responsibilities.

Whetten, D.A., & Cameron K.S. (2011). Developing Management Skills (8^th ed.).

Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Forrester, R. (2000). Empowerment: Rejuvenating a potent idea. The Academy of Management Perspectives, 14(3), 67-80. http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.libproxy.db.erau.edu/docview/210518384?accountid=27203

 

A520.4.3.RB_McNerneyLeighAnn

The Three Things We Work for (Money Isn’t One of Them) by Andy Mulholland discusses the motivations behind every employee in the work environment. He determined the three motivators are: to do interesting work, expand skill sets and to be recognized or actually to be valued. I have to agree with his findings.

As an employee myself I want to be interested in what I am doing every day, especially since the working day consists of eight hours equaling out to forty hours a week. This is a very long time to be away from my family and the comfort of my home doing something I do not enjoy. If an employee can go to work and find some enjoyment within their daily tasks then they will want to go back to work the next day and the next because it won’t feel like work. Having a job where you are doing something you find interesting and or challenging helps the employee stay curious and involved.

I am a financial aid counselor and I find my job to be very interesting. Every day is a new experience and a new challenge. The Federal Guidelines are always changing year to year and we have to stay up-to-date with all of the Federal Regulations. We attend conferences yearly as well as receive emails daily on the ever changing laws. Knowing that I play an important role in my student’s education makes me feel accountable and encourages me to strive to succeed for their well being. I am compelled to stay on task at my place of employment as I am the Eastern Region Financial Counselor and have roughly 1500 students depending on me. Feeling like these students need me also helps me stay interested to learn and complete my daily tasks. I feel like every day I am up against a time clock and I have to be on "top of my game" in order to win or complete my assignments because I know the next day I will start all over again.

The next motivator Andy discussed was the need for employees to expand their skill sets. To me this means the need for the job to challenge the employee every day. This motivator is extremely important to me and everyone else in the working environment. In order to succeed employers must push their employees to work hard. If the employees do not feel like their work challenges them then they will not be motivated every day to think critically and the outcome of the organization will suffer.

I go to work every day to learn something new and that is why I love my job as a financial aid counselor. Every day presents a training opportunity for me to learn something. I cannot think of a day in my year and a half of employment that I went home without discovering a new process or law that in turn changed my job responsibilities or routines. My skill set that I believe is improving the most is my adaptation to change. It is becoming second nature to adapt to change everyday. As I am advancing throughout my master degree in the Science of Leadership it is becoming more and more obvious that change is the inevitable. I look to learn this ability in how to adapt through my education as well as my job. 

The last and most critical motivator Andy discusses is the need for the employee to feel recognized. Recognizing the employee is not just acknowledging their presence, it is more than that. The employee needs to feel as though they are valued within the work place. Feeling like you matter helps you feel like if you were not there then things would be affected. I completely can relate to this motivator. I have experienced a job where I was one of many and then a job where I was the one. Feeling like you do not matter or feeling like you do not exist makes you feel like it would not matter if you came to work or stayed home because no one would care. Having a leader make you understand your worth will motivate you to succeed. This is a great form of positive reinforcement.

In my current job I am reminded of my worth and I feel as though I matter. I know people depend on me and my Director makes it well known to me when I do a good job. He helps me stay involved by reminding me that I am very important part of the team and without me things would suffer. I am informed of my worth through fellow employees as well which keeps me very interested in doing a good job everyday because I know we are a team and everything we do affects one other. Having a positive leader and team helps me want to do a good job because they make me feel like I matter every day.

The three motivators Andy identify: to do interesting work, expand skill sets and to be recognized go hand in hand with many other underlying motivations that are involved in the overall process of success of the organization and the individual. Some other motivators I feel encourage me are feeling challenged every day, staying up-to-date by being educated or trained through attending workshops/conferences, positive reinforcements and feeling as though I am part of a team all striving towards one common goal. I really enjoyed watching Andy’s video and would recommend it to others.

A520.3.5.RB_McNerneyLeighAnn

In my present position as the Eastern Region Financial Aid Counselor I have many opportunities to integrate supportive communication in order to become a more effective communicator. I do not currently have anyone under my direct authority; however I do have the ability to participate in many of the behaviors. We are a close knit team in the Financial Aid Department and try to have each other’s back. Some of the ways I could partake as a more supportive communicator would be to first identify some of the behavioral characteristics I already posses and then recognize the ones that I need to work on.

I consider myself a very great friend and coworker. I will lend a helping hand when it is needed and give my undivided attention to listen when someone needs to talk. I feel I am pretty good at determining when I should be coaching a coworker or when I should be providing advice. When I am upset I am also good at speaking my true feelings without acting them out. I have good control over my emotions and remain calm even in stressful situations. For example I was on the phone with a student who was becoming very irate with me because he did not understand why he was not approved for a portion of a Grant due to his documentation he had provided. He began to cuss and talk down to me in a very belittling tone. Instead of losing my cool I asked for another coworker to come and assist me with the call, and we handle it in a professional manner. Although the student blamed me for his loss of financial aid the situation was resolved.

When dealing with coworkers or students I feel as though I am also able to give recognition where it is due. I believe in positive reinforcement and I practice this whenever I have the opportunity. If someone has the ability to improve a process or comes to a better conclusion I give credit where credit is due. Even if I am just admiring a person’s ability to be witty I will call them out and let them know how I feel. This will be a necessity when I am a leader one day because it not only strengthens the trust between coworkers, but it also strengthens the morale. Another quality I posses would be the ability to own my mistakes, statements and encourage others to do the same. In order to be a great leader one must be able to take responsibility for their actions. Blaming others will not solve the situation, but instead make it worse. People will not respect and believe in someone who is always making excuses.

Some of the things I need to improve or start to incorporate is to be able to use descriptive statements rather than global. Learning to focus on things that can be changed rather then things that cannot. Since I am not currently able to manage anyone I do not have the authority to correct someone’s behavior. When I have a situation I am not happy with I have to go to my Director in order to have the issue resolved. I need to learn to use problem-oriented statements. A problem-oriented statement is a statement that refers to a chain of events. I will also need to learn how to be better at describing my reactions and suggesting alternatives. I am pretty good at analyzing things and thinking through my options so I feel this behavioral improvement should be simple.

Finally I will need to be better at ensuring equal speaking opportunities. I am not always great at this because I tend to talk a lot and sometimes I will talk over people. Learning to listen more and talk less will be my first way to discipline myself in order to integrate this behavior. I will also need to learn how to take more initiative in taking on projects in order to better prepare myself for situations such as implementing a personal management program. I lack confidence but I feel as I continue to work on discovering my core self I will improve my confidence.

In conclusion after reading over some of the behavior guidelines in how to develop good supportive communication I feel that I posses many characteristics but still have a lot to learn. With practice these are things that I can improve on now before I take on a management position.

A520.3.1.RB_McNerneyLeighAnn

In reviewing my assessment results I am more creative in my thinking then I am analytical. These results identify with my personality well. When I’m making decisions it seems as though I tend to use the investment approach the most. I have to agree with the skill assessments findings in that I do tend to be a very competitive person meeting challenges head on. If I am not challenged either mentally or personally I do not feel the drive to achieve my goal in solving a problem. I scored the second highest in the imagination approach. I am a risk taker and feel that I am pretty creative when presented with any situation. I like to push the envelope and try to experiment with different options that might not have been considered. Thirdly I scored in the improvement approach. I do like to look things and begin to question how they could be improved. For example if something catches my eye such as the layout of a store I will begin to imagine how they could better sell their merchandise with a couple tweaks in their floor plans. I will identify problematic areas and think about how I would do things differently and how they might be more efficient. The final approach I scored the least amount in was the incubation approach. I can see how this approach would be my lowest as this encourages teamwork and I tend to be more competitive. I feel as though I do enjoy working on a team, however I find as I am working with others I use this opportunities to provide many alternatives or solutions from my point of view. Although I am competitive I really do enjoy working with others because it gives me an opportunity to see things from other’s points of views. All of these approaches are very useful and depending on the situation depends on the one I will use.

I chose the following words when completing the assessment survey: good-natured, helpful, determined, sociable, understanding, observant, open-minded, curious, impulsive and energetic. Some opposite words would be bad-natured, helpless, undetermined, antisocial, incomprehensive, oblivious, close-minded, cautious and lazy.

I usually use the investment approach and the opposite of this is the improvement approach. If I tried to approach problems more from the improvement approach I can see some benefits such as more time to brainstorm and review alternatives in order to develop improvements to a problem. However I do not see enough benefits from using this approach to drastically change my thinking processes unless the problem calls for improvements.  The improvement approach encourages oneself to be better where the investment approach encourages to be first. Being first is not always the desired outcome so somewhere in between the two is probably the best approach depending on the situation at hand. I also usually approach problems with the imagination approach and the opposite of this is the incubation approach. I believe the imagination is the better approach overall because I feel it can be used in any circumstance. However incubation can be very valuable in any situation as well because it encompasses outlooks from others which could be more successful in the long run. Again if addressing issues somewhere in the middle I believe is the best alternatives will arise, in that the imagination approach encourages new ideas where as the incubation encourages sustainability.

A520.2.6.RB_McNerneyLeighAnn

After assessing my time management skills I am in need of many improvements even though I am already practicing many efficient skills. Some of my skills are that I am a very organized person and create to do lists that are number by priority. I am great at multitasking and always meet my deadlines. I use any free time I have to be productive and tend to break up larger projects so that I can always have a fresh outlook. I usually try to attack my busier work in the morning right after a nice coffee with my phone on silent.

Although I have many efficient strategies I am still very inefficient as time is my greatest stressor. I am in need of many improvements in my current approach in managing time if I want to become a successful manager, as the textbook explains this can be a manager’s greatest source of stress. After reading about efficient and effective time management I have learned an effective way of managing time is to keep a calendar or to do list which I currently do. Using these resources has helped me throughout my life stay on track and get the things I need to accomplish, however I have realized that I tend to focus more on urgent matters rather than the important ones. I also learned that I tend to procrastinate spending too much time in “never never land” temporarily relieving my stress.

After learning the difference between what is important and what is urgent I have began to reevaluate my current to dos. Becoming more aware of my core values has helped me become more aware of my actions I take when addressing an issues at hand. I have a problem saying “no” to people and usually like to please others instead of pleasing myself. This is a tendency I need to continue to work on as I still to this day find myself thinking “no”. but not actually saying it aloud to people. This is also why I focus more on what is urgent whether it be to others, or me and not on what I find important. If I could address the important issues I feel I would greatly reduce my stresses I am faced with everyday.

Since reading the chapter in Developing Management Skills I have become more aware of some of my flaws and ways to improve them. One way I am going to improve is to become more of a selective reader. Before reading about efficient time management I always thought reading every word on the page was better, however in managing my time I have learned to be more of a selective reader when the sources are not of great importance.  I have also decided to procrastinate less by setting smaller goals to enable myself to feel small wins. I feel this will help eliminate some of the overwhelming feelings I get when I know I have a major project to accomplish while in return also motivate me as I accomplish these smaller tasks. I will also learn to say “no” if the issue at hand doesn’t seem important to me.

After assessing my current time management I have learned that although I currently posses many skills in efficiently managing my time I am still very far from managing it efficiently. In order to become a better leader one day I need to develop better strategies now. From now on I will prioritize each goal according to its importance to me and not others. I will then break the goal down into smaller goals to reinforce myself with small wins along the way. When urgent matters arise I will not jump to resolve them instead incorporate them within my current to dos according to their importance to me. Finally I will continue becoming more aware of my core values. These skills will take practice however the end result will be a better outlook on life with a better way in managing my time reducing my level of stress.

A520.2.3.RB_McNerneyLeighAnn

In my first year at my current place of employment I was involved in a conflict with another co-worker within my department. We are a small group of about nine and we work very closely together. We were a sharing a suite comfortably with a lot of privacy from all of the other departments, however top management decided it would be best to move us out onto the main floor with the other departments. This was not something our department was in favor of as we were very content in our personal suite, but the move was made. When we were in the process of being arranged into our new spots our Director was open to any suggestions on where we would like to be placed. I requested that I would be moved away from one of my co-workers as I felt she was a distraction. He granted my request by placing me exactly where I wanted to be which was next to a quieter co-worker.

The conflict happened when another co-worker, who was sitting next to my distracting co-worker, realized she wanted the space I requested. Switching her spots would defeat the whole purpose of where I requested to be placed. My co-worker began to cause a disruption, as we were all unpacking making comments about how unhappy she was. She thought my space would be a better fit for her because the air conditioner would not blow on her as much, but she never actually asked me to move. While I was at lunch that day the same co-worker continued complaining about how unhappy she was and then made a commotion that caused top management to come and see what was going on. Once they saw her crying they were trying to calm her down and asked what they could do for her. That is when she replied she wanted them to move my space so that she could have it. Since I was not there to defend myself another co-worker stepped in to say they needed to wait until I was back before making the move as they needed to have my side of the story. My Director was then notified of the disruption my co-worker was causing.

Once I returned from lunch my Director let me know what had happened while I was out and asked me if I wanted to move. I explained I was happy with my spot especially since I had requested it in the first place because of the distractions I was having before when seated next to certain people in our group. He respected my decision and then decided that I would be allowed to stay in my spot and they would work on getting a deflector for the air conditioning vent. This was a way for both of us to win. As time went by the co-worker continued causing a commotion and soon she affected others because the extra air was blowing harder on them so they too began to want their Directors to order them deflectors. This continued on and finally I realized that she was not going to be happy until she moved to my spot even though the air was blowing the exactly same. I finally went to my Director and requested to switch spots with her, but I also requested the distraction move with her.

In the end my quieter co-worker and I were moved and my distraction and problematic co-worker were also moved. My Director was very grateful for my decision to switch as this had been going on far too long. He negotiated with me and I felt there was a “win win” in this outcome. I was able to make my co-worker happy by letting her have my spot and he was able to make me happy by moving my distraction as well. I can see room for improvement in this situation, but only because I feel my co-worker was causing the commotion because she is the type to do this when she isn’t getting her way. She tends to pitch fits and “stir the pot” at any chance she can. I believe that my Director could have addressed this on going issue she has with this situation by bringing her down and really getting the root of her problem, but instead the issue at hand was resolved, which was moving her because she was unhappy. I tried to make the best of this situation by using it as an opportunity to show my Director that I can be a team player working to establish a common goal of a successful department.