Lean In

 Welcome to my 5th blog post!

I must admit that blogging gets easier the more you do it but that first step outside my comfort zone was a big one. If it was not for the leadership class I am taking through Troy University online, I don't think I would have ever tried blogging.

One of the requirements in my leadership class is to select a book based on leadership, read it, and write a review on it. Luckily, I really enjoy reading and I found a book that I find interesting and want to read.

The book I selected is Lean In - Women, Work and the Will to Lead by Sheryl Sandberg. I must confess that I had not read this book, heard of this book, or heard of Sheryl Sandberg prior to this class assignment. Where have I been???

This is not a book written only for female audiences. It is a book that men would benefit from reading since the subject matter relates to any man's mother, sister, wife, or daughter.

I was only a few pages into the book when I realized that Sheryl Sandberg had valuable experience and insight to share and what she had to say needs to be heard by women and men. It is not a book that beats up on men or the treatment of women in the work world. Instead, the author provides insight into the roles women find themselves in the workplace, why they are viewed the way they are, and offers sensible advice on what needs to change.  Sheryl Sandberg describes experiences she has had and the lessons she has learned as a result. Her goal in this book is to educate, encourage, and hopefully, empower women.

In the chapter titled It's a Jungle Gym, Not a Ladder, Sheryl Sandberg suggests having two concurrent goals: a long-term dream and an eighteen-month plan.

•  The long-term dream does not need to be realistic nor specific. It is there to provide direction and to serve as something to move towards.

• The eighteen-month plan should address two separate areas: professional goals to accomplish and personal goals for learning new skills.

Makes sense, doesn't it? Have something long-term that you are working towards but identify things to accomplish or work on within the next eighteen months. Setting goals for the next eighteen months is less intimidating than trying to figure out the rest of your life based on where you are right now. Having a long-term dream allows you to change your direction and pursue other interests or opportunities that may come along.


Gone are the days of going to work for and retiring from the same company. The climbing of the "corporate ladder" is a thing of the past. In her book, Sheryl Sandberg mentions that "As of 2010, the average American had eleven jobs from the ages of eighteen to forty-six." Eleven different jobs in a span of twenty-eight years. Wow, no single company ladder climbing!




Instead, Sheryl Sandberg describes working and advancing in today's work place as more like a jungle gym. The jungle gym concept works well for women because it considers the reality of being a working woman today. Women today start a career, switch careers, have their chosen career path blocked by external factors, and reenter the workforce after taking a break, sometimes more than once. Viewing a career path with the jungle gym approach lets a person set a path that is unique for them and fits the events in their life. When I look back over my career path, it has been a jungle gym and it works for me. Do you agree with me that this is a terrific way to look at a career? I don't have to feel discouraged because I am not climbing a ladder. The path a started many years ago is no longer the path I am on and I do not have to feel bad about changing the course.

In her Ted Talk Why we have too few women leaders, Sheryl Sandberg gives three powerful pieces of advice to women that want to remain in the workforce:

1. Sit at the table.
2. Make your partner a real partner
3. Don't leave before you leave.

The video clip is just under fifteen minutes but, in my opinion, it is worth those fifteen minutes.

What do you think? Do you have the courage to "sit at the table"?

Leadership Theories: Path-Goal & Leader-Member Exchange (LMX)

Welcome back! This week in my leadership class, we studied the path-goal theory and the leader-member exchange (LMX) theory of leadership. Both leadership theories relate to the leader - follower relationships with respect to each individual relationship.

Path-Goal Theory

The path-goal theory is about how leaders motivate their followers to accomplish different tasks with the stated goal being to enhance the performance and satisfaction of each follower. This model of leadership is very practical, but, in order for it to work, the leader must be attentive to the followers.

The basic idea behind the path-goal leadership theory is illustrated below:

A key part of motivating followers is to determine what would be rewarding to each follower and make those rewards available to the follower. Leaders also motivate by:

• Defining clear goals, 

• Clarifying the path to take, 

• Removing obstacles, and 

• Providing support. 

Followers will be motivated if:

• They think they are capable of doing the work, 

• They believe their work will be appreciated, and

• That the payoff at the end is worth it.

Four leadership behaviors have been identified with the path-goal theory and how each leader leads their followers.

• The directive leader gives instructions, explains what is expected, how to do the task(s), and when the task should be completed.

• The supportive leader is friendly and supportive to his followers and is concerned about their well-being and needs.

• The participative leader encourages the followers to play an active role in the decision making process.

• The achievement-oriented leader challenges his followers to be the best they can be and to strive toward high goals. This leader has high standards and expects continuous improvement of his followers.

Curious as to what type of path-goal leader you are? Here is a link to a path-goal leadership questionnaire that you can complete: Path-Goal Leadership Questionnaire

Leader-Member Exchange (LMX)

The leader-member exchange theory is interested in the interactions between the leader and the follower. Early studies of this leadership style identified two follower groups based on the interaction of the leader and the follower: the in-group and the out-group. The personality and personal characteristics of the leader and the follower are a significant factor in this relationship.

In the 1990s, additional leader-member exchange studies identified a concept referred to as leadership making. Leadership making is an approach to leadership which emphasizes that leaders should develop high-quality exchanges with all of their followers rather than with just a few. There are three phases in leadership making: 1) the stranger phase, 2) the acquaintance phase, and 3) the mature partnership phase. 

Want to find out what type of leader-member exchange theory leader you are? Here is a link to a questionnaire for you: LMX 7 Questionnaire

I am very interested in hearing from you as to what you thought about the path-goal and the LMX 7 questionnaires. Were your results what you expected? Please share your thoughts in the comments section.

Have a great week!

Kathy

I'm thinking...

If someone asked you to give them an example of a leader, who would you think of? Would it be a business leader? A community leader? A politician? What about a school teacher? School teachers are definitely leaders. They are the people that motivate, challenge, and educate children around the world.  Teachers make a tremendous impact on our kids. Wouldn't that qualify them as leaders? I definitely think so.

In 1995, Daniel Goleman wrote a book titled Emotional Intelligence and in it he defined emotional intelligence as "the capacity for recognizing our own feelings and those of others, for motivating ourselves, and for managing emotions in ourselves and others."(p. 33) Emotional intelligence quickly became the new buzz word in the business world.

If you are not familiar with emotional intelligence, watch this short YouTube video:

Emotional intelligence has to do with our emotions, the way we think, and how the two interact.

It should make sense that emotional intelligence would definitely be an important skill for a school teacher. Teachers have the responsibility of communicating information clearly to students in such a way that it is understood by the students. Think about how stressful this would be. Imagine that you are a teacher and you have the responsibility of motivating and educating your students.  At the same time, you need to maintain control of the entire classroom, address discipline issues, manage the interaction between your students, deal with parents and complete all of paperwork that you are required to do.

Teachers are role models to their students. Emotionally intelligent teachers are able to recognize the impact their words and actions have on the feelings and behavior of their students. Teachers also need to be in control of their emotions so that anything negative that occurs during the day does not adversely affect their ability to teach.



Emotional intelligence is not something you are born with but is a skill that you can learn. There is research that shows a positive relationship between emotional intelligence and leadership. Individuals with higher levels of emotional intelligence are more successful at work. If this is a skill that can be taught, why are we not teaching emotional intelligence to students?  Before you can teach students emotional intelligence you would first have to train teachers but could be done. YouTube has plenty of videos on this subject. There is a plethora of books that have been written about emotional intelligence.

I wonder, considering the recent school shootings, if teaching emotional intelligence would make a difference and maybe these shootings could be avoided. I think the majority of people in this country would agree with me that we put a tremendous amount of pressure on ourselves. Students have a tremendous amount of pressure on them and that is not including peer pressure.

What if we taught emotional intelligence to students as part of their education? The five areas of emotional intelligence are:

• self-awareness - know your emotions
• self-regulation - regulate and control your emotions
• internal motivation - having a sense of what is important in life
• empathy - understanding and relating to the emotions of others
• social skills - the skills for building social connections

Think about it - teaching kids how to be in tune with their emotions and to have skills to manage their emotions in a positive way. At the same time the students would be learning how to respond to the people around them and to be more sensitive to what others may be feeling.

There are different ways to measure a person's emotional intelligence. Google "emotional intelligence test" and look at all the choices. Psychology Today has an online emotional intelligence test that anyone can take. It has 146 questions and at the completion of the test, the test taker receives a summary and a graph based on the individual's responses. If you do not know what your emotional intelligence level is, now is your opportunity to find out. I have included the link to make it easier for you: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/tests/personality/emotional-intelligence-test.

What is your level of emotional intelligence? What are your thoughts on teaching this skill to students as part of their education? Do you think teaching this skill would make a difference when it comes to school violence? Think about it and let me know.

Thanks for reading this week's blog and I look forward to reading your comments.

Kathy

References

Kelly, B. (2017, April 3). 5 Signs You Are Emotionally Intelligent [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adN6IJVAPiQ

Kneier, A. (2016, April 11). Inside Out - Emotional Intelligence [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdhjztWMnVw&t=36s

Naqvi, I., Iqbal, M., and Akhtar, S. (2016). The Relationship between Emotional Intelligence and Performance of Secondary School Teachers. Bulletin of Education and Research, Vol. 38, No, 1, pp. 209 – 224. Retrieved from http://pu.edu.pk/images/journal/ier/PDF-FILES/14_Imtiaz,%20Iqbal%20&%20Akhtar_v38_1_2016.pdf

Northouse, Peter (2016). Leadership: Theory and Practice (7^th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE

What makes someone a leader?

What makes someone a leader?

 

Have you stopped and thought "What makes someone a leader?" Look around and you see people in leadership roles but what is it about them that makes them a leader? What differentiates them from other people? From you?

In the introduction to the textbook being used in my leadership class, Leadership: Theory and Practice, the author Peter Northouse mentions that "bookstore shelves are filled with popular books about leaders and advice on how to be a leader." (p. 1) Obviously people are asking the same question that I have named this week's post: what makes a good leader? Maybe being even more specific, they may be asking what would make them a better leader?  In his textbook, Northouse covers eleven different approaches to leadership. Yes, you read that correct - eleven. Did it ever occur to you that there may be that many different thoughts on what makes someone a leader? I hadn't but now that I am aware of the different approaches I am looking forward to learning about them.


This past week in my leadership class, we studied two different approaches to what makes someone a leader - the trait approach and the skill approach.  The trait approach suggests that there are characteristics (traits) that people are born with that makes them good leaders. The skills approach suggests that a person can learn the skills to make themselves a leader. Two very different thoughts on what makes someone a leader. Can it really be that cut and dry? You are either born with the traits or you can learn the skills. I think what it takes to be a leader is more complex.

 A significant amount of research has been done to determine what specific traits separate leaders from followers. The research has yielded lists of traits but the top five are: intelligence, self-confidence, determination, integrity, and sociability. Okay, so those are traits a person can be born with but couldn't a person also learn and adopt those same things as skills? Maybe you cannot increase intelligence but you can increase your knowledge in a subject. A person can learn to be more self-confident, more determined, and more social. Think about all of those books on the bookstore shelves. The Oxford dictionary offers the following as one of many definitions for integrity, "the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles." Can someone decide that they want to be more honest, more moral? Wouldn't this make integrity a learned skill as well as a trait?

The traits approach and the skills approach both take a leader-centered approach to leadership. The traits approach emphasizes the personality characteristics of the leader and the skills approach emphasizes the leader's capabilities. (p. 71) In order to be a leader, wouldn't you need followers? Would it seem logical that the followers would have some sort of influence on the way a leader leads?

In the weeks to come, I will be learning about nine additional leadership approaches or styles. I look forward to learning about each and looking at different individuals that most people think of as leaders and seeing if I can determine what makes them a leader and what type of leader are they.

How about you, the reader? What are your thoughts on what makes someone a leader? What makes someone a good leader? What type of leader would you follow? I invite you to join me on this journey to learn more about the different types of leaders and identify men and women that have been called leaders and determine what style of leadership they have. 

Below are 7 different leaders, past and present, and the leadership style associated with each. Do you agree?

Thanks for reading my blog and I would really like to read comments about what you think.  Until next time, have a great week!

References

Northouse, P. (2016). Leadership: Theory and Practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE

Oxford Dictionary. Retrieved from: https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/integrity

Welcome to Taking Liberty!

My name is Kathy Liberty and I am a graduate student at Troy University working on a Master in Public Administration. Over the course of the next eight weeks, I will add a new blog each week about leadership, public administration, and related subjects as I progress through my Leadership in Public Administration course through Troy University. I plan to keep my blog relevant to the world today and, with so much going on, there is plenty to blog about.

 So why did I decide to pursue a master in public administration?  I have always loved learning and being actively involved in my community. I am currently employed with the Louisiana State Senate, which provides me with an excellent opportunity to see what goes on behind the scenes and the process of taking proposed legislation from a proposed idea to law. Too few people understand or get the opportunity to experience this very interesting process.

In addition to my work in the public sector, I have had the opportunity to serve on the boards of directors of two wonderful nonprofit organizations: The Junior League of Baton Rouge, Inc. and The National Charity League - River Road Chapter. Both of these organizations, which I am proud to say are very successful, are volunteer organizations with goals of serving and positively impacting the community. As a board member for both organizations and having served one year as the president of the National Charity League, River Road Chapter, I have been able to experience the leadership, cooperation and foresight needed to have a successful volunteer organization. 

 

I look forward to blogging each week, sharing my thoughts, applying what I am learning to the world around me, and hearing from you.  Check back each week to see the latest in my blog, Taking Liberty.

Kathy

The Louisiana State Capitol