Supportive Leadership-A511.2.3.RB_MilliganSteven
The
guidelines for supportive leadership presented in the text Leadership in Organizations is a great example of how to develop
strong subordinates that are willing to follow and work hard for a leader. There are four major steps involved in
Supportive Leadership. These are outlined
in the book as follows; “show acceptance and positive regard; provide sympathy and
support when the person is anxious or upset; bolster the person’s self-esteem
and confidence; be willing to help with personal problems.” (Yukl, 2013) While these are not everything needed to be a
good leader they are, in my own opinion significant aspects.
Leadership
is about influencing others while working towards a common goal. That common goal can be achieved in a variety
of ways, not all of which have the good of the people in mind. In my own life, leadership extends beyond
just the goals of the organization in which you work. Leadership is about the building up and
taking care of others. Through
supportive leadership you can do these things.
One example where this has taken place in my own work environment comes
from being willing to help with personal problems. Being stationed overseas in the military puts
most people quite a distance from their closest relatives. Only a lucky few that I know have a parent or
sibling that is stationed or living nearby.
However, in most cases the only people you have are your immediate
family you live with and those you work with.
As a brand new 2nd Lieutenant Flight Commander it was not
easy for me to get involved in the personal lives of those I was supposed to be
leading. I quickly learned that some of
the life experiences I had were able to help them when needed. In talking to some of my airmen I learned I
was able to give advice to one of my airmen whose spouse was diagnosed with a
chronic illness. Their marriage was
struggling because of the pressure of the disease and the frustration both the
husband and wife were going through. I
was able to help them to get counseling when they needed it. I also had a young airman diagnosed with
cancer. I talked with him a great deal
about what was going on with him emotionally and what he could do to help himself.
On other occasions I have had airmen come to me and tell
me that they were thinking about becoming an officer. I was able to discuss with them the benefits
of both the enlisted and officer sides of the Air Force and if they wanted to “come
to the dark side” as they like to call it, and what steps they needed to take
in order to accomplish those tasks. Some
of my best days at work are when I am able to come home knowing that something
I did helped someone else better their life.
Growing up I thought the ideas of supportive leadership
and developing subordinates was normal in leadership. I watched my father throughout the years hold
positions of rank within the organizations he worked in and help others to
better themselves. After reading through
the Guidelines for Developing Subordinates
section in the text I realized he followed these closely. Whether he was coaching others before a
presentation or putting someone in a job that would benefit their experience
and help them to promote or spending time in the hospital with a co-worker’s
son who was in a car accident so the parents could get a little sleep, time and
time again he went above and beyond the normal expected behaviors of a
leader.
To want to develop subordinates takes a leader that first
cares about others. A few of the
specific guidelines that take a special degree of leadership I have found to be
especially useful are as follows: “Promote the person’s reputation.” (Yukl, 2013) In some cases, in
order to do this it requires putting more of the credit for a task on the other
person. I would love to go to a
commander and tell him or her that the significant amount of work done on a
project was accomplished by myself. I
would love to have the “big wigs” at work sing my praises and tell me what a
great 2nd Lieutenant I am.
This however doesn’t help the others that did a large chunk of the
work. In order to help another person to
succeed and excel it is important to sing their praises and make sure others
know what they did. This doesn’t mean
that person is necessarily asking for the attention. As a leader it is important to make other
feels important and to make sure they are recognized for the hard work they do. Robert Stewart discussed this principle in
his post this week in the class discussions.
He suggests that in his many years in leadership that he has discovered that
he is a Blanchard disciple. The Blanchard
principles discuss how to set goals and provide feedback to employees. His five points are; “Create a shared
vision. Show me what good performance
looks like. People that feel good about
themselves produce good results, none of us is as smart as all of us. Feedback is the breakfast of champions.” (Blanchard, 2014) Through these five points Ken Blanchard has
developed a method of leading, teaching and developing well-rounded, employees
that are willing to work in teams. An
understanding of the overall project and goals, while understanding the role
each of us plays within that group and an understanding that the group can be
smarter than the individual can create an efficient and successful organization
and leadership method.
On some occasions, however, the right thing to do is not
always the easy thing to do. Just like a
small child, if we pick them up every time they cry they will not learn to pick
themselves up. They become too dependent
on the parent to fix their problems for them.
Within the guidelines for developing subordinates sections a bullet
listed is, “provide opportunities to learn from experience.” (Yukl, 2013)
Sometimes we want to jump in and help others when it would be better for them
to figure things out for themselves. It
is not easy to watch others struggle through things. However, it is not only important for others
to work through tasks, but it is also important to learn about their own
strengths and weaknesses. It is through
these trials and errors that we learn about ourselves. Yukl states in the text, “Sometimes the best
approach for developing skills is to assign a challenging task without giving
detailed instructions, and allow the person to discover how to carry out the
task and to deal with problems encountered along the way.” (Yukl, 2013) It is when we give others the opportunity to
learn and grow that they often will achieve the most success.
Recognition in the work place is often a delicate
topic. You don’t want to give recognition
for lazy work or for a job half done, however, you want to provide recognition
where recognition is due. I have noticed
in the military that those in the highly visible positions often receive the
most praises while they are often not all they are cracked up to be. When awards and commendations are limited it
can be difficult to award those that deserve it the most over those that only
appear to deserve it the most. Gary Yukl
discusses some of the guidelines for recognizing others. In one bullet point he states, “Do not limit
recognition to a few best performers.” He states that “it is better to award everyone
who exceeds a challenging performance standard rather than to recognize only
the person with the best performance.” (Yukl, 2013) When providing recognition it is also
important to be specific. When those
that are asked to follow you know that you care enough about them to know the
details of their accomplishments they will gain a greater respect and a
willingness to work harder knowing that you care about the work they do. It is also important to recognize others when
their efforts fail. Not every goal given
is obtainable and not everyone can succeed 100% of the time. This does not mean that we should not praise
the effort. The important thing to
remember when doing this is that as a leader we are not giving out free passes
for failure. We are, however, commending
strong efforts and coaching so that success is achievable in the future.
The ideas of supportive leadership, recognizing others
and developing the skills of subordinates should all be able to work together
to create a symbiotic relationship of strong, caring leaders that are willing
to teach and help where they can, while developing a relationship of trust with
subordinates that will allow them to come to their leadership with concerns,
problems, questions and desires to grow and learn. When these guidelines are followed as stated
in Leadership in Organizations a
great deal of success can be seen in both the leaders and subordinates. I will strive to implement these behaviors
into my life and career so that others and myself may be able to benefit from
my leadership skills.
References
Blanchard, K. (2014). wellcoachedconsulting.com.
Retrieved from wellcoachedconsulting.com:
http://www.wellcoachedconsulting.com/tools/
Yukl, G. (2013). Leadership in Organizations.
Boston: Pearson.
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