Individual Assignment 1: Stay Current

Stay Current: Leadership

The podcast 592: Why Everyone Should See Themselves as a Leader is very intuitive to leaders in the workforce and in life in general. Sue Ashford is a professor at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business and she talks about her research on leadership. Sue explains how everyone can be a leader and has leadership qualities within themselves. By expanding on the personality traits of a leader, she shows that there are not just certain people that are leaders but everyone is able to be a leader with the actions they choose. Sue explains the qualities associated with a leader such as being sensitive,  intelligent, dedicated, and dynamic. A lot of times people actually have those qualities but still do not see themselves as leaders.

Many people are not comfortable with associating themselves as leaders. One big take away from this podcast is when Sue says, "The more you have a leader identity the less risk you see in leading. And the less risk you see in leading the more you develop a leading identity." The more that individuals see themselves as leaders, the less fearful they are stepping up and actually leading in the world. When those leaders take more risks, then they become even greater leaders and are able to continue growing. With this, Sue talked about how scared employees are taking steps outside their comfort zones. Finding these employees and helping them gain leadership qualities relies a lot on the managers. Every manager could be growing leaders around them and not just leaving it to HR representatives and higher up positions.

There are steps managers should take to enforce leadership stated in the podcast as well as in class, and the textbook. One step includes, granting the identity in a public setting where others are viewing the leadership and that will end up making others want to achieve goals in the workplace as well as be seen as leaders by their boss. This can go along with the Herzberg's Category with motivation and how it is a strong contributor to a jobs satisfaction. Managers should also take steps with mindful engagement that go with an approach to leadership development that empowers individuals to grow their own leadership. If one wants to be more approachable or influential then one has a "learning mindset". Once a potential leader has this mindset, they can then design some experiments with certain situations to actually gain the qualities that they strive for.

In one of her lectures, Dr. Chung brought light to the fact that leaders must seek feedback from employees on how to do things better and be successful for everyone as a whole rather than just the leader themselves. Along with this, it shows what a democratic leader is compared to autocratic, and Laissez-Faire. An autocratic leader has centralized authority and low participation where they basically just tell the employees what to do and how to do it. A Laissez-Faire leadership style is hands-off management and lets employees have free range of how they get things done. But a democratic leader is involved with high participation as well as asks for feedback from others to get the work done the most effective way. Having a democratic style of leadership is very important in the work environment and as a manager, these qualities can go a long way.

In class we also talked about transformational leadership which includes having idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and individualized consideration. These compare to the qualities that Sue mentioned in the podcast, which help managers become great leaders. Without them managers are not truly looked at as leaders but merely supervisors. In chapter 5 of the Exploring Business textbook by Karen Collins, the Management section talks about how managers organize by allocating resources, direct by providing focus for employees and motivating them to achieve goals, and lastly control which helps them compare actual to expected performance and taking corrective action when necessary. All of these qualities can be found in leaders and those that do not consider themselves as leaders. With the podcast, in class discussion, and textbook, leaders can be found everywhere but it depends on people in leadership positions already and individuals themselves to take their leadership qualities and grow upon them to do great things in the world.




APA Citation:

592: Why Everyone Should See Themselves as a Leader [Audio blog interview]. (2017, August 32). Retrieved September 20, 2018, from https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/hbr-ideacast/id152022135?mt=2&i=1000391708686

Collins, K. (2017). Exploring Business(Vol. 3.0). General Business Textbooks.

Link to Podcast:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/hbr-ideacast/id152022135?mt=2&i=1000391708686