There is a vicious cycle many leaders face today in their current organization as follows:
The reason this cycle continues to rotate around is because the leader is disabling their employees and the employees are disabling the leader, both parties are involved in a relationship that feeds one another. If this charade doesn’t end soon the organization will face many challenges that could inevitably lead to failure. In my current organization I have witnessed this vicious cycle defined by Nick Obolensky and I identified the negative effects and now understand why it will continue after this weeks readings.
There are multiple departments within Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Worldwide that make the success of our organization possible. We have a Marketing Department, Admissions, Advising, Financial Aid, IT, and many other specific departments that I am unaware of all working together in a sort of streamlined way of doing things. We all have our reference points and we all center on making it possible to remain in line with one another. When changes occur we all sense and respond accordingly, so that we can realign and continue functioning. During the recent changes it has become apparent to me that the bubble I have been living in while working in the Financial Aid Department is that not everyone has the same benefits we have and do not work for the same type of leader that we do.
In one department I will not name, I have learned that they are in constant fear of losing their jobs. Their leaders practice a more micromanaged leadership strategy and in doing this all the employees are scared to make independent decisions for fear of the backlashes they could face if the decision was wrong. A normal day constitutes with the vicious cycle pictured above. An employees is given an issue to resolve that they may be unfamiliar with; they then go ask their leader for some guidance on how to resolve the issue at hand. The leader becomes concerned in the employee’s ability to resolve the issue and starts to go behind them and check their work thinking the employee doesn’t know this is happening; however all the employees know it happens because it happens a lot. The employee knows the leader doesn’t trust them and will be going behind their back causes them to over think and over analyze the situation and they become stuck and unable to critically think effectively because they are too busy thinking about their boss coming behind them. They continue to second guess themselves so their leader takes a more hands on micromanaged approach and completes the task for them. Instead of training them they baby them and the employee’s leaves the assignment feeling more confused and less confident in their ability to complete the next issue. When presented with another issue they continue to over think and ask for help and their leader lacks even more confidence and continues getting more involved than necessary. The leader’s own responsibilities fall behind and then they are asked why the department is not operating efficiently.
This is a horrible way to live and I would not want to be a part of this department because the stress alone would make me unable to perform at my best. There’s not empowerment and no motivation and a lack of trust throughout. All the employees continue to feed this negative behavior and same for the leaders. If no one stops this charade then they will never change and get out of this cycle. I feel in order to change, they needs to create a new circle.
With the new circle I have created, I based it off the leadership I am influenced under currently. In the first block I have the follower asking for advice and the leader is able to recognize he/she skill or will level is low and assesses the issue by taking the time to train and motivate. Within this section the leader will recognize the follower is either unmotivated to perform their job and try to find a solution. They will either engage with the employer and find out if they are having a rough day, or are unable to connect with their responsibility or any other challenges. Once they have identified the issues preventing the employee from feeling motivated they can then try and either work with the employee and get them to a more motivated level, or allow that employee to work on a different project that would better suit them. If the employee’s skill level is not up to par they can train and educated them so that they can complete the assigned task successfully. The next section involves having the leader following up with employees and to obtain feedback on how the task was completed and determine if the employee could use some more training. If the employee feels more confident then the leader can move to the next section which involves the leader allowing the employee to learn from process and then the if necessary they can adjust the process to what the employee feels necessary allowing for a bottoms-up role to unfold. Working hand-in-hand allows the leader and the employee to develop a stronger relationship and trust to be earned by both parties. Once this relationship is developed on a solid foundation on trust the leader can then move to the next section in which they let go of the responsibility allowing the follower to take the lead. The employee feels a sense of empowerment and confidence with the new found freedom. Now the next time the follower feels like they need help they will be more encouraged to take the initiative before asking for help because they will feel more confident in their decision making, and if they need the help they will be more inclined to speak up when the opportunity arises. I feel the only way to break the vicious cycle is for someone to step out and be the first to try. If they can gain the support of their leaders then the leaders will also gain the support from their followers and the department will become more successful.
References:
Obolensky, N. (2010). Complex adaptive leadership. (1st edition.). London, UK: Gower/Ashgate
|
No comments:
Post a Comment