Topic 1: Contextual Awareness
“It over simplifies the situation in large organizations to assume there is only one culture… and it’s risky for new leaders to ignore the sub-cultures.”
Rolfe Winkler
We have observed and read about numerous leaders who were hired because of their enormous success in one organization only to be quickly fired because they failed to meet expectations. Leaders do not suddenly forget how to lead, but they can forget to consider the context in which they are leading. Reflect on the value of understanding the context (i.e., culture, forces, situational parameters) in which you are now leading or considering leading.
Question 1: Reflect on a time when you found yourself unhappy in a job or organization. What things did you learn in the early months of your tenure that you wish you had known before accepting the job? What did you learn to do before accepting your next job to avoid these kinds of surprises?
Question 2: Consider your own beliefs about collaboration and teamwork? Next consider how your organization’s structure positively or negatively impacts collaboration and teamwork. How might this knowledge impact how you lead?
Question 3: Consider how your own leadership behavior has historically prioritized the needs and expectations of employees, customers, and other stakeholders. Compare this to the priority your organization places (or fails to place) on employees, customers, or other stakeholders. How will this insight influence your leadership choices and behaviors, or even your choice to remain with the organization?Bottom of Form
Topic 2: Leadership and Values
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“Transcendent values like trust and integrity literally translate into revenue, profits and prosperity.”
Values are an important currency in institutions. Today’s business leaders are expected to reflect personal values in their daily behaviors and to clarify and build collective values in their teams and organizations. For this topic, you will explore your values, your organization’s values, and how they help to ground your leadership approach.
Question 1: What do you do to promote both organizational and personal values in your area of responsibility? How do you acknowledge the protection or promotion of values by your employees or co-workers? What other methods can you consider adopting or adapting to more clearly and more consistently support and reinforce the demonstration of values-centered behaviors?
Question 2: Think about employee, supervisor, or co-worker behaviors and attitudes that you consider deal breakers with regard to your personal values. Why do these particular behaviors elicit such a strong response? How have these prior experiences strengthened why you view these behaviors as deal breakers?
Question 3: Think about a time when the behaviors that you observed in employees or co-workers were inconsistent with your values and yet you chose not to intervene or speak up. In a values-centered workplace, is there room to have two categories of values violations – those situations where we will intervene readily and those where we won’t at all? Where is your line in the sand?Bottom of Form
Synthesizing and Applying Theme
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Consider your entries for this theme. What insights did you gain? Is there anything you will seek to do more of, differently, or less of because of your reflection on the topics in this theme?