My leadership has changed throughout the course as I have learned more about different leadership styles. From taking many self-assessments like the Print assessment and managerial grid, I have realized that these 4 elements are what I value the most in a leader. When a leader genuinely cares about you and your well-being, you build a relationship with them. I personally have a better work ethic when I am doing tasks for a leader that I genuinely care about and appreciates my work. On the other hand, a leader who is impersonal and does not recognize an employee's hard work in the work place is the complete opposite of my leadership style.
I was surprised at how painless it was to work on our blogs over the semester. I find that every week, I’ve been spending more time on each blog and focusing on the content. Blogging definitely has its pros and for me personally, it helped me learn what kind of leader I want to be in the future. It has also taught me about different leadership styles, and by learning the different styles, I am less judgemental of how certain leaders manage people. Different styles are effective for different people and different work environments. I think that my favorite assignment/blog post so far was analyzing the different leadership styles depicted by characters in our preferred choice of film. I would have never thought of watching the movie “Crash,” but there were many great actors who I recognized from other movies that portrayed very strong characters. Overall, the movie had a great message and dissecting the film actually made it more interesting than how I would normally watch it. I had a better understanding of the morale of the movie.
I also found that learning about the Great Man Theory/Trait Based Theory was interesting, because I had always envied those who possessed leadership qualities and never thought that I could see myself as a leader. However, I believe that nature vs. nurture plays a huge role in leadership more than I used to. Now that I’ve read many articles and forums, I’ve realized that the Great Man Theory can be extremely biased. Lastly, being required to do blogs can be effective because it helps me to be proactive and update my blog every week, however, I think I would enjoy writing a blog more on my own time. When there is a deadline to do 3 whole blog posts in one week, it can get a bit stressful with all the other projects and school work going on in other classes. Nonetheless, the knowledge I have gained from doing the blog posts is worth all of the effort put into it every week. The Hedgehog Concept is a widely known concept created and explained by Jim Collins in his book, "Good to Great." The concept is visualized by 3 overlapping circles based on what you are deeply passionate about, what drives your economic engine, and what you can be the best in the world at. However, the goal of the concept is not to be the best, but to gain an understanding of what you can be the best at. The Origin: I’ve known about The Hedgehog Concept for many years, but I never knew why or how they named the concept. As Collins explains in his book, it is based on an ancient Greek parable, where the world is divided into two things; hedgehogs and foxes. “Foxes pursue many ends at the same time and see the world in all its complexity,” but “Hedgehogs, on the other hand, simplify a complex world into a single organizing idea, a basic principle of concept that unifies and guides everything” (Collins, p. 143-144). No matter the situation, the hedgehog always wins. Isaiah Berlin used this to divide people into groups of hedgehogs and foxes. “Hedgehogs see what is essential, and ignore the rest,” one reason why the ones who built good-to-great companies were at one point classified as hedgehogs (Collins, p. 144). Examples of Hedgehogs: Starbucks Corporation is a very successful American coffee company that currently has thousands of stores located worldwide. The Starbucks Case we studied in class helped us learn that they are successful due to their company vision, structure, and the strategies they used to get to where they are now. One of the strategies that Starbucks uses is hiring employees who are very friendly and welcoming, which gives them an overall positive reputation for customer service. They focus on the customer’s wants and needs, as Howard Behard encouraged the workers to “just say yes.” The examples given in the article are free-drink certificates for dissatisfied buyers, using other whole bean coffee brands that customers would bring to the store, etc.
My Experience: I always struggled to find what my passion was, but when I spoke to Carl Winston about my career path, he really dug deep and helped me get a better sense of what I wanted to do. I have always had a passion for the food and beverage industry as well as the events industry, but never realized I could combine the two passions. I have worked in the restaurant business ever since I was 15 years old because I enjoy it and I am good at it. After realizing what my personal hedgehog concept was, I applied for a catering job in San Diego, a mix between F&B and the events industry, and I absolutely loved it. Leadership: I believe that transformational leaders pay close attention to the hedgehog concept because of their deep passions and endless efforts to be the best at what they do. For instance, Steve Jobs. As I have mentioned in an earlier blog post, Jobs had a deep passion for changing the future through technology. He never settled for anything less than perfect because he wanted Apple to be the best in the world. Their economic engine runs on the fact that there is a high demand for the products that no one else can produce, which allows them to have high priced products and swim in a blue ocean. Transactional leadership and transformational leadership are two very different types of leaderships that are both effective in their own ways. Transactional leadership focuses around operations and the day-to-day tasks that need to be done in order for a company to stay on task and run smoothly. It is a very simple concept where the follower follows instructions from the leader in what they want them to do, and there is very little "coloring outside the lines." This type of leader is by the book and focuses on what needs to get done through appropriate instructions, guidelines, and deadlines.
On the other hand, there is transformational leadership. This type of leadership is much more needed in the workplace today, as it is more common for managers to have a transactional leadership style. The difference is that transformational leadership focuses on the bigger picture such as building relationship and making positive changes in the workplace, or even outside the workplace. Examples of this type of leadership are famous businessmen like Howard Shultz and Steve Jobs, who focuses on the vision of a company and the difference they can make. This style is more than just the day-to-day tasks that need to be done. which is why it is less common to find managers who possess transformational leadership. Many people go to their jobs and put in their 8 hours for the day and go back to their personal lives unlike a person who possesses transformational leadership qualities, where you might take work home with you in your mind. An example I think about is my old boss at Bekker's Catering in San Diego, who was a transactional leader. When I first got the job, I was given a 20-ish page list of guidelines for the company and all the consequences if an employee were to not follow them. My manager was very strict on doing things her way, which I respected because she has owned the company for many many years and has organized hundreds of events. If she were to give you a task and you didn't complete it by the time she saw you next, you were on thin ice. Early on, I noticed that the office/kitchen itself was pretty outdated and had made a comment to her about my ideas and the changes we could make, and they were shut down very quickly. Although it wasn't my preferred type of leadership, I always knew what had to be done because I was given detailed instructions and was not asked or needed to think outside of the box. Personally, I hope to become a transformational leader who can focus on the bigger picture and be able to make positive changes. For this blog post, I took the opportunity to look at my classmates blogs. I was surprised at the improvement in some of the blogs. Now that we've had quite a few, it's starting to fill up the page more and it seems like some individuals are showing a stronger voice on their blog. It makes me think that I could definitely use some improvement in my blog and somehow make it more interesting or visually pleasing. Emma Sumitomo's "Behind the Words" blog is very visually appealing to me because of its simplicity. Her posts are very consistent in voice and not too lengthy. I am also enjoying reading Nineth Salazar's "To the Moon" blog for the same reasons as Emma's. I think that I would like to change my theme to a lighter theme and change up the color schemes. Overall, I'm surprised at how much I have enjoyed having a blog and it seems like others are too. I've actually learned about my classmates more through the sharing of their own experiences. Not all students interact even if they're in the same class and when they do it can be very surface level conversations. I think some people feel more comfortable writing and sharing their experiences rather than talking about it in person. Personally, I can dig much deeper when I sit down at my desk with my computer in a quiet room. I am hoping that my blog gives enough voice for my personality to shine through, but I will definitely try to open up even more in my future posts.
There is a bunch of great blog websites, but here are my top 4:
Courage Award: Katie Carroll A lot of personal information is shared in her blog posts, especially in "application to self," which makes the blog more personal and enticing to read future posts. Coherence Award: Zoe Gonzalez I really enjoyed reading Zoe's blogs because she always provides references and examples in her posts, which make it more personal and gives it a "voice." Crafty Award: Nineth Salazar This blog is very visually appealing due to its simplicity and lightness in color. It's straight to the point and easy to navigate. I like that she includes photos with every blog post. Clever Award: Sean Cornell Sean's blog posts are short and simple, but also include cleverness and humor, which makes it enjoyable to read. I enjoyed reading his "Prison Mike" blog post with the picture of Michael Scott. We all strive to be a level 5 leader, which is the highest degree of leadership on the level 5 leadership model in Jim Collins' book "Good to Great." At this level, an individual possesses all the qualities and abilities at each level PLUS personal humility and professional will. Humility is an essential trait as a great leader rather than having a big ego because it isn't just about yourself, it is about others and something that is bigger than yourself. Level 5 leaders are also able to adapt to specific situations, which is known as situational leadership. I've heard a guest speaker once say that as a leader, you have to be a "chameleon," because you have to be able to adapt to the environment. Not every situation can be dealt with the same way, it has to be approached in different ways. At the moment, I find myself at level 2 as a contributing team member, as we have worked in groups for almost every HTM class. I have learned how to work with all different types of people and I have definitely learned more about situational leadership and how each person is different in how they lead.
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