Running head: MANAGING ORGANIZATIONS 1

Managing Organizations and Leading People Task 2

Wendy Decker
MANAGING ORGANIZATIONS 2

Abstract

Leadership is a high calling to give direction to a person or group of people so that goals can be

accomplished to achieve an overall vision for a group or organization. Internationally known

leader Stephen Covey presented seven habits that produce successful leaders. This paper

discusses the results of a self-evaluation of the authors leadership habits uses transformational

leadership theory to evaluate strengths, weaknesses, proposals for improvements.

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Managing Organizations and Leading People

Leadership is a high calling that some avoid because of the responsibilities while others

embrace because of some innate quality that compels them to help others be better. This calling

has its own unique set of qualities and characteristics. Leadership is the collective group of

people who lead an organization and it is also the activity of leading a group of people or an

organization or the ability to do this (Business Dictionary, 2017). In addition, it involves

establishing a clear vision, sharing that vision with others so that they will follow willingly,

providing the information, knowledge and methods to realize that vision, and coordinating and

balancing the conflicting interests of all members and stakeholders (Business Dictionary, 2017).

A leader is someone who leads, which is to show others the way by going ahead, or direct an

operation or activity (Merriam-Webster, 2017). Author and leadership expert Leroy Eimes once

said, "A leader is one who sees more than others see, who sees farther than others see and who

sees before others see" (Taylor, 2015, p. 1). The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the authors

leadership style on the basis of a self-scoring Seven Habits Profile, and using transformational

leadership theory, identify leadership strengths, leadership weaknesses, changes, short-term

goals, and specific actions relevant to the authors leadership practice.

Personal Leadership Evaluation

I recently started making weekly visits to the local library and was drawn to the large

collection of audio books. Aware of my struggle to find time to read through books other than my

college material, I pulled three audiobooks that immediately attracted my attention. One of those

audiobooks was Stephen Coveys 7 Habits of Highly Successful People. I listened to the book in

my car. Although I heard of these seven habits many years ago, they seemed more relevant to my
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life now. However, listening to the book was a different experience than completing the self-

scoring Seven Habits Profile.

Scoring myself on the Seven Habits Profile was one of those soul searching activities that

left lingering guilt and motivation for self-improvement. My outstanding scores were in being

proactive, thinking win-win, seeking first to understand, and synergizing. At first look, I would

say that these categories are true to my personality. I have always been the one that would

fearlessly take the initiative to start projects or activities that are new to others. I would have

ideas for how to improve the performance of an individual or organization so that they move to

the next level. However, through this exercise I learned that being proactive also means taking

responsibility of my moods and actions rather than blaming others and circumstances. While I

never blame others for my moods and actions, I sometimes blame circumstances.

Also, as a leader, I focus on bringing groups of people together, working through

differences, and coming to mutual agreement to accomplish goals. This quality was reflected in

my higher scores for thinking win-win, seeking first to understand, and synergizing. Listening,

allowing others to share their thoughts and ideas, and understanding others perspective and

viewpoints are most important to me in both personal and business relationships. Identifying

these strengths in the Seven Habits Profile helps me to know the areas that makes my personal

brand. This does not mean that I focus less on the areas that need improvement.

The areas of life balance, beginning with the end in mind, and sharpening the saw were

rated as good. I think of the needs of others but need to work harder at maintaining an

appropriate balance between my work and my life. I am a self-confessed workaholic who easily

forgets or sacrifices family commitments to complete work assignments. This has caused me to

suffer burnout in the past and even now, I am aware of times when I am on the brink of burnout.
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Although I have dreams, visions, and life goals I want to accomplish, I am not as efficient in

planning, organizing, and preparing so that I do not function in crisis mode. I often work in a

crisis mode and do not take the time for self-care and enjoyment. Putting first things first is the

area that needs my greatest attention. This means I must learn to plan and follow through with

my plans, avoiding distractions and the tendency to procrastinate. So often I would plan on

things I want to accomplish in a particular day but at the end of the day I do not get everything

done. These are certainly areas for which I not only need to have strategies and plans for

improvement but also have an accountability partner that will help me to accomplish my goals.

Transformational Leadership

Transformational leadership is a style of leadership that encourages followers to strive for

excellence by continuously reaching for higher performance levels to accomplish personal and

organizational (Flynn, 2015). Transformational leadership is people-focused. Dubrin (2010)

identified four characteristics attributed to this type of leadership that help people to (1) have an

increased awareness of the importance and value of rewards, (2) look beyond self and consider

the overall goals of the team, (3) reach beyond small achievements and search for self-

fulfillment, (4) understand that change is important the need for change (p. 84-85). Dubrin

(2010) also identified transformational leadership characteristics that help to transform

organizations. These characteristics are instilling in leaders the urgency for change, committing

to personal and organizational greatness, having a long term, broad visionary outlook, building

trust between leaders and subordinates, and strategically utilizing resources to achieve the overall

goal (p. 85-86). These characteristics show that transformational leaders are selfless visionaries

and motivators whose main focus is the overall goals of the group. Leaders who possess or can
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develop these transformational leadership characteristics will be successful at transforming

groups, teams and organizations.

Strengths of Leadership Practice

My self-analysis of Stephen Coveys Seven Habits of Highly Successful People and an

analysis of the characteristics of transformational leadership revealed three personal leadership

practice strengths: the ability to help others to look beyond self and focus on the overall goals of

the team or organization; commitment to personal and organizational greatness; and having a

long term, broad visionary outlook.

As a visionary person and one who often sees the bigger picture of any situation, I

encourage others to do the same on a personal level and organizational level. I coach nursing

students for academic success and so often students panic when a professor gives one assignment

a low grade. Often, students do not give much attention to the syllabus and how the final grade is

calculated. So, the student interprets one assignment with a failing grade as failing the course.

This leads some students to fearful thoughts of failure and to focus on the consequences of

failing the course. The focus is not on how to achieve that overall goal but on what would happen

to them if they failed. As a coach, I redirect their thoughts and help them to see that the goal is to

succeed in the course. Understanding that one assignment is only a certain percentage of the final

grade and that there are other assignments that will contribute towards the final outcome helps

students to refocus and be successful at the end of the course. Working with organizations, I stay

focused on the vision and mission statements as they give meaning to every role, function, and

task. Some jobs can seem redundant and meaningless but if the employee can see the importance

in light of the organizations vision and mission there is more motivation and engagement.
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Helping others to focus on the overall goals and consequent benefits is one of my leadership

strengths.

Another one of my leadership practice strengths is my commitment to personal and

organizational greatness, which DuBrin (2010) refers to as having an attitude of greatness. This

attitude encompasses a desire to achieve business success as well as a culture of ethical

behaviors at all levels within the organization and excellence for customer service. This strength

is closely related to the focus on the organizations vision and mission. I believe that the purpose

of any business is to achieve success particularly financially. All activities and attitudes within

the organization influence the success of the organization directly or indirectly. So, I am

committed to pursuing excellence in the things I do as well as in my attitude. I also believe that

team work is absolutely essential for success. As a transformational leader, my personal

commitment to an attitude of excellence helps me to encourage others by my personal example

and together we can achieve greatness for self and the organization. This transforms the

individual and the organization.

Another one of my strengths as a leader is the ability to adopt a long-range perspective of

the organization. Unless many people think with a future orientation, and broadly, an

organization cannot be transformed (DuBrin, 2010, p. 85). My natural visionary way of

thinking aligns with the long term thinking for change within an organization. Similar to the

previous two strengths, the vision and mission of the organization guides the long-term view of

the organization. Regardless if the organization is service or product oriented, each task and

function is part of a process for achieving its goals. Embracing the long term goals of the

organization and allowing them to become a natural way of thinking makes it easier to share with

others and encourage them to do likewise.

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Weaknesses of Leadership Practice

Three transformational leadership characteristics that I need to develop and strengthen

are building trust between leaders and subordinates, investing managers with a sense of urgency,

and strategically utilizing resources to achieve the overall goal.

Building trust between leaders and their team members is critical to the success of change

but is challenging as it is easy for employees to become suspicious, distrusting, and skeptical

during the change process (DuBrin, 2010). If information is not well managed misinformation

can be spread throughout the organization. Trust will only develop with good communication. I

often get busy with other leadership that sometimes effective, timely communication suffers.

Changes may be happening and managers and team members might not be updated in a timely

fashion. Becoming more effective in my communication is an area that I need to strengthen so

that I can build trust with staff and subsequently empower managers to build trust with their team

members.

Another leadership practice that I need to strengthen is investing managers with a sense

of urgency. This means identifying a group of managers who are committed to the vision and

will serve as champions of change. It is easy to use managers who hold the title and position of a

manager but later find that they do not have the same passion for the vision and no urgency to

see change. According to DuBrin (2010), the transformational leader must capitalize on

available opportunities (p. 85) if there is to be any success in managers capturing the vision for

a better organization. As a transformational leader, I must learn strategies for choosing the right

managers, sharing the vision with them, selling the vision, and transferring the sense of urgency

for improvements within the organization.

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The most important area of leadership practice that I must develop is knowing how to

strategically utilize available resources to achieve the organizations vision and goals. No

organization makes unlimited finances, staff, and resources available to a leader who is tasked

with bringing about change. So, the most strategic plan is to identify and concentrate resources

on an area that is in most need of change and whose change will bring the greatest benefit to the

organization at that point in time (DuBrin, 2010). The focus on the big picture can sometimes

highlight several areas that need change and I have a tendency to try to address all of the areas.

However, based on DuBrins leadership practices of a transformational leader, I must learn to

focus on one strategic area for transformation. At the same time, I must ensure that other areas

are not so adversely affected that their poor performance undermines the work in the

transforming area.

Theory-Based Changes

One change that I can make to maximize my success in managing organizations and

leading people is to develop my listening and observation skills. Successful transformational

leaders listen to employees feedback, encourage their input of innovative ideas, and have fair

reward systems (Flynn, 2015). Therefore, it is important to actively listen to employees verbal

and non-verbal communication. Often, an employee might be sharing their thoughts about an

issue in the organization and I am not listening as actively as I should; my thought may stray to

something I need to do. Being an active listener means that I have to make time to listen to that

employee. Rather than listening on the go, I need to encourage the employee to make an

appointment to sit with me in my office or over coffee so that I can listen and clarify what the

employee is actually trying to communicate.

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A second change I can make to maximize my success in managing organizations and

leading people is to be more proactive in encouraging staff to become leaders with

transformative mindsets. Transformational leaders take the time to encourage the personal

development of their staff (Dubrin, 2010, p. 86). Appropriate personnel development is critical

to the success of change, growth, and development in any organization. This means that there

will be more staff who are prepared to be change agents and transformational leaders, having an

understanding of the importance of embracing the vision for change. I will also liaise with

human resources personnel to identify the potential leaders, existing leaders who need to

strengthen their leadership skills, and relevant training resources.

A third change I can make to maximize my success in managing organizations and

leading people is to promote a culture of empowerment in the organization. Empowerment is

one of the mechanisms used to promote employee development in an organizations long-term

plan (Sang Long, Chin Fei, Adam, & Owee Kowang, 2016, p. 5). Some leaders and managers

oppose empowerment of employees fearful that the empowered employee would now be in a

position to access certain classified information or may not relate to subordinates in appropriate

ways. This cause feelings of insecurity in some leaders and managers. As a leader, I can help

other leaders and managers to understand that empowering an employee need not cause fears.

Empowerment does not necessarily mean giving an employee unlimited power. It can be as

simple as allowing employees to be part of brainstorming session for new ideas for a change that

will affect them. If managed effectively, empowering employees can strengthen the

organizational structure and boost employee morale.

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Short-Term SMART Goals

Goal #1. Within seven days, I will create and adhere to a daily schedule that includes

time for family, meditation, study, exercise, and eight hours of sleep so that I can have a better

work life balance, avoiding distractions, procrastination, and time wasters.

Goal #2. Within four months, I will successfully complete the masters degree in

management and leadership at Western Governors University so that I can reinforce my years of

leadership experience, teach leadership courses in an academic setting, and help leaders identify

their leadership strengths and weaknesses.

Specific Actions

Two specific actions for accomplishing my first goal are to discuss my plan with my

family and engage an accountability partner. My first goal involves making adjustments to my

time that would affect my family. Creating a plan that will change the times when I am available

to my family is beneficial to them. However, an important success factor is that they are part of

making the new schedule. This way they will have a sense of ownership and even hold me

accountable when I may be tempted to get distracted into other unscheduled activities. I will also

seek the support of a friend who will agree to be my accountability partner. As an accountability

partner, I will discuss the plan with her and we will have an agreed time each week when she will

contact me to check if I am adhering to the plan.

The success of my first goal will determine the success of the second goal. I already have

a course mentor who calls me every week to follow up on my progress. I will share this goal with

her so that she can also hold me accountable. In addition, preparing a set study time and place

where I can study without distractions will ensure the success of this goal.
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