Groups and cohesion

Good day and welcome back,

Tuning in this week for my leadership course we discussed the importance of cohesion and group aspects which entail this. First off, the concept of cohesion is attraction meaning there are two underlyers; individual and group attraction. Individual attraction can be described by simply each member of the group has their own likes, interests, and ‘hanging out’ if you will. This, compared to group attraction is the group has very close views on likes and dislikes, thus it can be known as group pride. I believe this can relate to me in past experience when designing a template for a health company my group and I had to complete. We all agreed on the formatting, structure, word choice, and so forth coming up with the finished product, in fact this can relate to unity. Cohesion is unity. Entailed is the thought of group ‘one-ness’ and the sense of ‘we’. The last related definition of cohesion is team work. It is the member’s commitment to team goals and their belief in the capacity of the group. Concluding, cohesion can be summed up by the driving force that keeps a group together keeping out ‘outside’ detracting forces which can harm the group effectiveness.

In turn, we dive into the next topic of collective efficacy being the belief of most, if not all, group members that the group can attain its goals. It was actually in my Blue-Chip Leadership Program on Field Day that is the most recent example of this term. My group shared the common goal of being the best team out there dominating the competition. No one had the lack of faith in the others and in the end we did come out on top overall winning all the physical competition games. On behalf of my group, I would say we had high collective efficacy to say the least. A side concept discussed in class was Tuckmans Model of Group Development. In a brief overview it was divided by an ordering sequence of ‘phases’ including: Forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning. Here is a breakdown of each:

-Forming: Group comes together and gets to know each other (very nice at this point)

-Storming: Group hits a ‘bump in the road’ by trying to create processes

-Norming: Group gets back into routine and starts solving problems

-Performing: Group goes beyond and actually gets into rhythm and synergy with each other

-Adjourning: Group comes to an end and lets go of structure in effort to move on

The relevance of this can only be done by utilizing each person’s assets for the benefit of the team. We all have assets, some being more important than others and it is crucial to use them and not let them go to waste given the right situation. I have been in a group where one of them members did not say he had access to a van to get us from point A to point B and this caused time and money to bring two vehicles instead of one. Have you been in a situation where you held back a certain asset that could have proved beneficial?

Mission and vision: "I have a dream......"

Welcome back,

Today I will be discussing some key aspects of leadership in which directly relates to what the leaders values are and how he or she views a certain situation they might be in. This is broken down into mission and vision. These two concepts in fact are something that many companies have including, but not limited to, Southwest Airlines, McDonalds, Delta Airlines, and many more. You may ask, well what’s the purpose of having these? It’s simple, essentially these two factors will tell the person, follower, potential customer, what that company or leader has in mind for future business and to obtain as much support as possible along the way.

First, we look at the mission statement. This entails a statement of purpose/core values. This is important because a person or organization can refer back to these to encompass the decision making. Not only this but, as mentioned above, this can clarify to others what is important to the leader or the organization. Also, there are a couple types of mission statements including organizational mission and personal mission (explains itself). The organizational mission is a statement of the purpose/core values of an organization; simply, what the organization does. For example, my work which is Sears, their mission statement is: To grow our business by providing quality products and services at great value when and where our customers want them, and by building positive, lasting relationships with our customers. I can agree with this because our store carries large amounts of different consumer goods and we offer shipping on select products to give the customer what they want and where they want it. My (personal) mission statement would go somewhere along the lines of expanding my horizons by living and learning; building bridges to success and not burning ones that cant be rebuilt. This holds value to me because it is what I have lived by for quite sometime and defines who I am as a person.

When I talk about vision this means ‘foreseeing’ the future picture of an organization or cause. The purpose of having this is to allow a person or organization to stay focused on the future and set goals to reach the vision. Also, it can motivate and inspire individuals and groups of people. This again contains two types vision being organizational and personal. How this relates to me and for example Sears vision: To be the preferred and most trusted resource for the products and services that enhance home and family life. At our location it is very evident to me that the managers care about the customer and show that through many interactions with them. My organizational vision would be: I imagine myself graduating college in the next few years, where I have my degree, where I will pursue a career in the medical field benefiting others in the long run. This will be done through hard work and dedication, sacrificing time to apply myself to education, and taking advantage of opportunities when given. What do you think Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s vision was? Did his vision become reality?

Are you under the illusion?

This just in,

A new form of leadership has been introduced in our class. However, this isn’t your average ‘normal’ leadership concept. No. This is in the form of ‘toxic leadership’. The term says it all in the sense that no one likes toxic products in which they are bad for you and can be bad for your health. The concept(s) I will be discussing goes into toxic leadership and the different characteristics that accompany the leader. First off, there are to sub categories of this and they are intentional and unintentional toxic leaders. These people are bad news; let’s hope you haven’t run into any recently.

In this world there are good leaders and bad leaders to say the least. Unintentional toxic leaders engage in careless and reckless actions, including incompetence, nonetheless causing negative effects. On the other hand, intentional toxic leaders deliberately injure others or enhance themselves at others’ expense. For example, take Hitler and though some argue he was a good leader in the way how he poised himself in front of people (followers), but behind the scenes he was taking people out who got in his way to success as being the dictator of Germany. Now when we describe these types of leaders keep in mind that many of these ‘toxic’ leaders display not just one distinguishable trait, but many. They are as follows but not limited to:

-incompetence
-malfunctioning
-maladjusted
-sense of inadequacy
-malcontent
-irresponsible
-cowardice
-egotism

and much more. Do note that these are just the characteristics of toxic leaders, but there are different types of leaders that possess these traits and many others. I will only discuss two as they can relate to my personal experience and most likely yours. The first (concept) is the ‘busybody’ leader. The busybody leader is energetic, restless, constantly in motion and full of unfocused vigor. He may give full focus to one project or topic for a period and then jump to another for no apparent reason, leaving those around dazed and confused. This relates to me because my past manager felt the need to get many things done at once and often had his employees starting one task only to start another ten minutes later. This left myself confused on which was more important leaving the other ‘five’ tasks out. Also he felt as though he was perfect and assumed he was the center of attention in the work place. The other form (concept) is the ‘street fighter leader’. This leader is good to those who are loyal to her/him and can help her/him with his “wins,” but can be brutal to those who disagree with her/him or offer a dissenting opinion (also forms gangs to fight the battles they must win). This relates to my life and yours too given the area you live in, that there are plenty of gangs all across the U.S.; some more than others and even in high schools (the ones I went to especially). I have seen plenty of groups and people do things they weren’t supposed to at the leader’s discretion. Given all the above information, are you under a toxic leader and not know it yet?

How the world maintains balance by the other side of the equation.....

Greetings,

Welcome back as today we learn about followers. What is the term for it? You guessed it, followership ofcourse. Without this there is no leader and without a leader there is no follower. Well, what is followership? This concept basically means the capacity or willingness to follow a leader. Simple right? Well, it goes a little further in depth than that because of course we all know that there are different types of followers. This can easily relate to me because, well, we have all been followers including myself such as when I was learning to become a certified EMT and trained fire fighter I had to ‘follow’ with a good attitude and mentally appreciate the leader or whom was teaching me ‘the ropes’ of how to do things. Or take for example, I am in a biology group where there is the leader and she delegates the tasks for us to complete the project by its due date. Well now, let’s take a look at the different types of followers among us today.

First off, these types of followers will either prove to be inhibiting towards effective leadership, positive towards it, or neutral about it; here they are:
-Isolates: Do not care about their leaders, are not aware, are detached, do nothing
-Bystanders: Go along with the status quo (often when it is in their self interest), disengage, are aware but do nothing
-Participants: Invest a little to make an impact, free agents, and care somewhat
-Activists: Eager, energetic, engaged, feel strongly one way or another about leaders and act accordingly
-Diehards: Deeply devoted to their leaders or may want to oust their leaders, all encompassing commitment

All these concepts of followership really explain all types of followers in the given context of how they ‘participate’ in the group. An example of a diehard follower in our assigned reading text was Hitler’s right hand man, who after witnessed the dictator commit suicide, took upon himself and took the life of his wife and children before his own life. What type of follower are you? This relates to my life in the way that in most cases I am border line between an activist and participant given of course, what group I am in and how I feel about the way it is run and by whom.

In the end there are some guidelines as well to becoming an effective follower including: offering support to the leader, take initiative, show appreciation, keep the leader informed, and raises issues or concerns when necessary, and much more. The other concept examined was the “Leader- Member Exchange” Theory in which this includes explanation of quality relationship between the leader and follower. High levels of these types of relationships among the group provide higher levels of support and guidance from the leader and better follower satisfaction and performance. I agree with this as there is no “I” in team, but rather it takes the leader and the follower to make a positive difference.