Week 5 Post 1: From a Follower to a Leader

I am interested in how to improve my skills as a leader, so I read an article on Entrepenuer.com called, “4 Ways a Follower Can Become a Leader”. I liked this article because it explains how you can transform yourself from a follower into a leader. The article starts off by explaining some good characteristics of a successful leader. The author lists qualities such as confidence, decisiveness, respect, communication, and commitment. Which I agree are all important traits to have as a leader. What I liked was that the author mentions how all of the listed attributes are ones that can be developed by any person with the right amount of motivation. The author then goes on to explain four different ways to go about attaining leadership. The four ways are, experience, incremental growth, sheer will, and necessity. Experience is one of the most important and valuable ways to attain leadership in my opinion. The more time you spend on whatever you want to become a leader in, allows you to gain more of an understanding of it each day. You will eventually gain the knowledge, communication, and confidence it takes to be a good leader in the specified area. I also think incremental growth is a good way to look at attaining leadership. It shows that you don’t have to go from being a follower to a leader overnight (even though I wish it was that easy). The author states that if you start seeking intermediary “leadership” roles and inch your way up the ladder, you will start feeling more comfortable in your leadership abilities. I never really thought of sheer will or necessity as ways to attain leadership, however I find it interesting how the author described the two methods. For sheer will the author explains, “Of course, it’s also possible to develop your abilities as a leader through sheer force of will, strange as it may sound. If you spend some time introspecting and evaluating what it takes to be a leader in your industry, you can make a list of all the abilities, skills, or points of knowledge you need to acquire, and slowly work to acquire them. This method takes significant time, energy, and will, but it can lead you in the right direction for development”. I agree that this is definitely a way you could become a leader but I do not think it would be an effective or successful approach. As for necessity the author says, “Sometimes, the best way to learn how to swim is to be thrown into the water. As leadership abilities reliably develop with experience, in some cases the best thing to do is to adopt a leadership role—such as starting your own business—regardless of how “ready” you are. You’ll sink or swim by necessity, and the pressure of the situation will help you develop your necessary skills faster. It’s a scarier method to become a leader, but a faster one”. I found this method interesting based on the fact that the author believes the pressure being put into a situation that you don’t have much experience in will ultimately help you develop the needed skills. I think the method could definitely work but I also think it could result in failure.

Week 4 Post 2: Character Leadership

For our class presentation Colleen and I are presenting on the topic of Character. There are many different definitions of character, however it can broadly be defined as the mental and moral qualities and behaviors distinctive to an individual. I was particularly interested in leadership character so I found a good article on the topic, http://iveybusinessjournal.com/publication/developing-leadership-character/. The article gives the readers ten leadership virtues to consider. 
I believe that this is a good list of essential characteristics to have as a leader, as well as a healthcare administrator. Another thing that I liked about the article is that it goes on to show how these characteristics can be used in a positive way as well as a negative way.

I found this chart very informative and will continue to use it in the future in order to develop my leadership character.

How does one go about developing their character? This is an important question that a lot of people want the answer to. First off some dimensions of character, specifically traits, are inherited at birth. Virtues, values and many other traits are developed during early childhood, and modified as a result of education, family influences, early role models, work and social experiences, and other life events. The article includes a great quote regarding character development. The quote is, “Watch your thoughts, for they become words. Watch your words, for they become actions. Watch your actions, for they become habits. Watch your habits, for they become character. Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny”. This shows that the way you act and the habits that you form are ultimately what your character becomes. If you are not aware of this you could potentially become someone that you do not want to be.

Week 4 Post 1: Reflection on Emotional Intelligence Class

In class yesterday Regan and Caroline gave a presentation on the topic of emotional intelligence and why it is important for healthcare managers and leaders. Before class they had us take a quiz that measure our level of emotional intelligence. The quiz was made by the Harvard Business Review and it evaluated your emotional intelligence based on five different competencies. The competencies are; Emotional self-awareness, Positive outlook, Emotional self-control, Adaptability, and Empathy. Out of a possible 25 points, I scored 17 on emotional self-awareness, 17 on positive outlook, 14 on emotional self-control, 11 on adaptability, and 14 on empathy. I scored below the average on all of the competencies so I was a little discouraged at first, however professor Bonica pointed out that the majority of people who read the Harvard Business Review and also took the quiz were most likely senior managers who have had a lot of experience in the workforce. This made me feel better but I still know that their is a lot of room for improvement, so I am going to strive to improve my emotional intelligence everyday. 

During their presentation they showed us a Ted Talks by Brene Brown on the topic of vulnerability. In the talk she explains how most people see vulnerability as a weakness, however she goes on to say that vulnerability is actually a good thing. Brene says that vulnerability is the core of shame and fear as well as our struggle to find worthiness. However she also says that vulnerability is the origin of joy, creativity, belonging, and love. She say that it all depends on the attitude of an individual, people should learn to embrace vulnerability. People should not be embarrassed to make mistakes and when you do make a mistake you should not cover it up, but rather use it as a learning experience and strive to fix your mistakes. She believes that the most important thing is to believe in yourself and feel like you are enough. This allows people to be more relaxed, gentler, and kinder to themselves as well as the people around them. This will allow us to stop complaining and instead start listening to others. 

I believe that embracing vulnerability is very important as a future manager, because no matter what field you are in you are going to have to deal with vulnerable situations on a daily basis. Accepting the vulnerability will allow you to be more in touch with yourself, as well as the people in your life.

Week 3 Post 2: Empathy

Chris Amijo, one of the class mentor's, posted a link in the google group on the topic of empathy. I knew what empathy was but I wanted to learn more about it so I opened the link and watched the short video. In the video empathy is defined as, an active attempt to understand another person’s perspective, emotions, and reality. I found it interesting that in the video they say the ability to empathize is hardwired into everybody's brain. The video calls them the subconscious empathetic reflexes that everyone experiences without thinking about it. For example you might wince when you see somebody get hurt or you may feel sad when you see somebody else crying. However to be truly empathetic you need to think about the concerns of others. I decided to read another article on empathy that the website recommended. The article gave a list of 11 reasons why you should work on your ability to empathize with others. The list is as follows:

• 1. You will be more likely to treat the people you care about the way they wish you would treat them.
• 2. You will better understand the needs of people around you.
• 3. You will more clearly understand the perception you create in others with your words and actions.
• 4. You will understand the unspoken parts of your communication with others.
• 5. You will better understand the needs of your customers at work.
• 6. You will have less trouble dealing with interpersonal conflict both at home and at work.
• 7. You will be able to more accurately predict the actions and reactions of people you interact with.
• 8. You will learn how to motivate the people around you.
• 9. You will more effectively convince others of your point of view.
• 10. You will experience the world in higher resolution as you perceive through not only your perspective but the perspectives of those around you.
• 11. You will find it easier to deal with the negativity of others if you can better understand their motivations and fears. Lately when I find myself personally struggling with someone, I remind myself to empathize and I immediately calm myself and accept the situation for what it is.

This list has a lot of important skills on it, which would be very useful as a manager or leader especially in a healthcare setting. I personally will work on my ability to empathize with others because after learning about it I realized how important it is. The author of the article said that his ability to empathize with others is the main reason for his success and good fortune in life. He also said that being able to empathize will make you a better leader, follower, and most importantly a better friend.

Link to article: http://lifehacker.com/why-empathy-is-your-most-important-skill-and-how-to-pr-1505011685

Week 3 Post 1: Reflection on First Group Presentation

Yesterday in class we had our first group of students teach their first of three total classes for the semester. The group chose to teach about the topic of motivation and how it relates to the workforce and management. Before the class the group had us take a quick online quiz, which gauged our level of self-motivation. I got a score of 41, which the interpretation at the end of the quiz said, "You're doing OK on self-motivation. You're certainly not failing – however, you could achieve much more. To achieve what you want, try to increase the motivation factors in all areas of your life". I agree with this interpretation and believe that there are definitely times when I need to be more motivated. However there are also other times where I am extremely motivated and accomplish a lot of important things. I guess it just depends on the day and how I am feeling. Before the class the group also asked us to write down the five things that motivate us the most and the five things that are our biggest distractions. Some of my motivators were family and friends, success, and being financially stable. On the other hand some of my distractions were social media, hanging out with friends, and laziness/tiredness. Then at the beginning of the class the group went around and asked everybody what they wrote down and they wrote them all on the board. Not to my surprise a lot of people wrote the same things as I did. I thought this was a good exercise, as well as interesting to see that a lot of us wrote the same things. It was also interesting to see what types of different things people wrote down. The group then went on to discuss a few theories related to motivation, which I also thought was interesting but also informative. One other thing I liked about the presentation was that they showed us a Ted Talks video. The speaker talked about motivation and how the best ways to motivate employees as a manager. He said that money is not the only or best motivator. He also went on to talk about how some companies, such as Google give their employees a period of work time where they get to work on whatever they want to. I found it interesting that during this free time, some of google's best ideas and products were produced.  

Week 2 Post 2: Asserting Yourself

https://www.ted.com/talks/adam_galinsky_how_to_speak_up_for_yourself

I was looking for good videos about leadership, so I went to Ted Talks and searched "leadership". When I was looking through the search results I found one video titled, How to speak up for yourself. This video caught my attention right away because speaking up for yourself is a hard thing to do sometimes, even if you are the most outgoing person in the world. The speaker in the video is Adam Galinsky, who is a social psychologist.

Galinsky describes speaking up for yourself as, pushing one's interests, expressing an opinion, and making an ambitious ask. For example can a person correct their boss when they make a mistake? Can they confront their coworker who keeps stepping on your toes? Can they challenge their friends insensitive joke? Can they tell the person they love the most their deepest insecurities? The speaker goes on talk about the idea that all individuals have a range of acceptable behaviors, which ranges from too strong to too weak. He explains that when you go outside your range of acceptable behaviors you are punished and when you stay within your range you are rewarded. Your range is not something that is fixed, and it is dependent upon your power. When you have a lot of power you have a wide range which gives you a lot of leeway in how to behave, however on the other hand if you have little power you also have a smaller range giving you less options for how to behave. Galinsky then brings up the idea of low power double bind which says that you either speak up and get punished for it, or you don't speak up and you go unnoticed. In order to speak up for yourself you need to expand your range of acceptable behaviors. You can do this by advocating for others, taking the perspective of others, and gaining allies. When people are asked when do they feel the most comfortable speaking up, the number one answer was when they have social support in their audience. People also feel comfortable speaking up for themselves when they have expertise and great knowledge on the subject. Tapping into your passion is also another way that allows you to easily speak up for yourself.

I believe this video is very helpful and gives a lot of tips on how you can speak up for yourself. This is important as a healthcare manager because throughout your career there will be many situations in which you will have to speak up for yourself. If you do not have the ability to do so, you will not have a successful career.

- David

Week 2 Post 1: Nut Island Effect

For this class each student has been assigned a mentor, who has many years of experience in the healthcare industry as well as a great knowledge of organizational behavior. My mentor is Matthew Fandre, he is a Liuetenant Colonel in the United States Army and is currently the Chief Medical Officer at Munson Army Health Center in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. I talked to him on the phone last night for the first time and he gave me a lot of good suggestions for this class. One of the things he suggested was for me to read and article from the Harvard Business Review called, Nut Island Effect: When Good Teams Go Wrong. So I took his advice and read the article today.

To sum up the article, there was a team that operated the Nut Island sewage treatment plant in Quincy, Massachusetts. This team was every manager's dream team of employee's, they performed difficult and dangerous work without complaint and needed little supervision. The team also improvised their way around operational problems as well as budgetary constraints, and were very dedicated to the organizations mission. However, their hard-work eventually led to extreme failure. This is due to what has been come to known as the Nut Island Effect, which has been defined as, "a destructive organizational dynamic that pits a homogeneous, deeply committed team against its disengaged senior managers. Their conflict can be mapped as a negative feedback spiral that passes through five predictable stages. 

The five stages are as follows:

1. Management, its attention riveted on high-visibility problems, assigns a vital, behind-the-scenes task to a team and gives that team a great deal of autonomy. Team members self-select for a strong work ethic and an aversion to the spotlight. They become adept at organizing and managing themselves, and the unit develops a proud and distinct identity.

2. Senior management takes the team’s self-sufficiency for granted and ignores team members when they ask for help or try to warn of impending trouble. When trouble strikes, the team feels betrayed by management and reacts with resentment.

3. An us-against-the-world mentality takes hold in the team, as isolation heightens its sense of itself as a band of heroic outcasts. Driven by the desire to stay off management’s radar screen, the team grows skillful at disguising its problems. Team members never acknowledge problems to outsiders or ask them for help. Management is all too willing to take the team’s silence as a sign that all is well.

4. Management fails in its responsibility to expose the team to external perspectives and practices. As a result, the team begins to make up its own rules. The team tells itself that the rules enable it to fulfill its mission. In fact, these rules mask grave deficiencies in the team’s performance.

5. Both management and the team form distorted pictures of reality that are very difficult to correct. Team members refuse to listen when well-meaning outsiders offer help or attempt to point out problems and deficiencies. Management, for its part, tells itself that no news is good news and continues to ignore team members and their task. Management and the team continue to shun each other until some external event breaks the stalemate.

After reading the article I learned a lot about the importance of the relationships between upper management and its employee's. As the article shows, as a manager you could have a great team of employee's that are doing their job and even going beyond expectations. However, as the manager if you do not show an interest in their work and develop personal relationships with your employee's it could lead to negative outcomes. Therefore I believe that it is very important develop relationships with your employee's early on to show that you actually care about them as a person rather than just somebody who is their to do work for you. 

- David