A511.3.3.RB-Directive and Supportive Behaviors- Trey McNeil

This week I had the opportunity to learn about Rotter’s Locus of Control scale test. A follower’s desire for control is a factor in path-goal theory. The internal and external dimensions are the two divisions of the desire or locus of control. Northouse (2016) stated that followers who possess an internal locus of control believe that they are in charge of the events that happen in their life, where followers with an external locus of control believe the opposite. These individuals believe that fate and chance are the major factors determining what happens in their life.

Rotter (1966) found that an event perceived as a reward to one individual could be seen differently by other people. One factor of a person’s reaction is the degree to which they think their behavior defined the reward’s basis compared to the level that it was an outside force or fate (Rotter, 1966). This thought process led to Rotter developing the Locus of Control test to determine if a person’s control is internal or external.

I had the opportunity to take the test this week, and as I was reading the questions, I had an idea where I would rank. After completing the test, my suspicions were correct as I scored an internal locus of control. I have always had the mind-frame that I can control most things in my life. There have been some cases that were just bad luck or fate, but those were rare occasions. I have never lived by the motto “If it happens, it happens.” If I want something to happen in my life, I do whatever I can to put myself in the best position I can to succeed.

In reflecting if this style of control affects my leadership behavior and my responses to others leadership behavior, I would have to say it does have an effect. Recently, an individual in another department caused a report that was due to the state to be late. When I went to talk to this person, the excuses started to flow. My co-worker said they were out of the office for a couple of days before the report was due. Then when they returned there was an emergency that came up. After that, the individual had computer problems that hindered the report’s completion. On the day the report was to be e-mailed to the state, I believe there was a sick family member. My co-worker had an external locus of control and felt that all of these unfortunate things just happened, which caused the report to be late.

I have written many times about my obsessiveness with preparation and fear of failure. In this instance, I do not believe it was a series of unfortunate events that led to the report being e-mailed to the state a day late. In my opinion, the tardiness was caused by lack of preparation. The report is due each year around the same time, so the due date was a shock to nobody involved in the process. Having an internal locus of control, I would have done my portion of the report before going on vacation, or stayed late one night after getting back from vacation. Fortunately, the report was accepted a day late without penalty. I am not the leader or supervisor of this individual, but I did have a chat with them about why we have to stick to deadlines and prepare for all events that may affect our work.

After determining that I have an internal locus of control, I thought about how it affects my responses to others leadership behaviors. The state of Florida recently changed the process of how they award funds to the twenty-seven state colleges. The process now involves examining criteria from previous years, where the college did not perform at a high level. The new measures caused the college to be awarded less money from the state. The conversations around the college (mostly from the upper-level management) revolved around how unfair it was that the state looked at criteria from past years where our performance was not great. 

In my opinion, all the colleges were judged on the same period, so we should admit that we did not perform well and vow to correct our performance. I never agreed with the notion that fate or luck played a role in the college losing funding. We were not awarded our full amount by the state because we did not do our collective job as a college. The employees at the school took the unsatisfactory performance to heart and increased production in the judged areas. This year we moved up in the rankings and were rewarded more money due to our improved performance.

As long as I can remember, I have always felt that I had control over most things that happen in my life. After taking the Locus of Control test, I realize that I have an internal basis of control. Observing how this control affects my professional and personal behavior moving forward will be interesting.

References

Northouse, P.G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and practice (7^th ed). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage

Rotter, J. B. (1966) Generalized expectancies for internal versus external control of reinforcement. Psychological Monographs: General and Applied, 80, 1-28.

A511.2.3.RB-Reflecting on Leadership Traits-Trey McNeil

The trait approach to leadership or “great man” approach concentrated on characteristics or qualities that make up a great leader (Northouse, 2016). There are certain traits that I possess that improve my ability to lead, but there are also several characteristics I have that hinder my ability to lead. First, I will discuss the qualities that are unfavorable to my leadership ability.

One characteristic that has held me back for as long as I can remember is self-doubt. Northouse (2016) defined self-confidence as the capability of being assured in one’s skills and abilities. Self-confidence is something that I do not possess. I always doubt myself when entering something new. When I started college, I was convinced that I would not be able to catch on to the material and would be forced to leave school. When I began my current position as an accountant, I believed that I would never grasp the new concepts and would end up getting fired. When I started my journey toward obtaining my MSLD degree in April, you guessed it; I was scared my writing was so poor that I would not make it out of MSLD 500. Even as I write this blog, I doubt myself a bit.

In all three examples, I was able to succeed, so I am not sure why I always doubt myself. When I face an anomaly at work, I will usually go to my supervisor with a half-hearted solution on how to fix the problem. Most of the time my manager will tell me that is a great solution, so why am I so self-confident about my thought process? I know that self-doubt is something that I must overcome to become an effective leader, and is something that I have worked on over the last couple of years. How can I lead a team if I do not believe in my abilities? Why would anyone follow a person who does not believe in themselves?

In my blog last week, I described how my preparation was a trait I possess that improves my leadership. While this is true, preparedness can also be a quality that hinders my ability to lead. I rely so much on preparedness that when something unplanned comes my way, I get flustered and bogged down. When I get flustered, I lose the ability to articulate my thoughts and it is very messy and unprofessional. I lack the capacity to improvise, and this causes the previously discussed self-doubt to creep in. According to Sabourin and Pratt (n.d.), improvisation in the business world is a great trait in dealing with unexpected challenges in the workplace. For me to be a good leader, I must learn how to adapt to situations when they do not go as planned.

A trait that I own that improves my ability to lead is integrity. Northouse (2016) described integrity as honesty and trustworthiness. I have mentioned in prior blogs that, in my opinion, people are the most important thing in an organization and life in general. I have a solid moral compass and believe that people deserve fair treatment. Mintz (2013) discussed a survey asking CFO’s what traits were most sought after when grooming a future leader. Integrity beat out interpersonal skills, initiative, motivation, and business knowledge as the number one skill needed. I believe that if my followers trust that I will be fair and honest with then, then they will also be trustworthy and honest with me. Trust must be a two-way street which will lead to a better relationship.

Another trait that improves my ability to lead is determination. Northouse (2016) defined determination as the drive to get the job done. I do not like to leave things unfinished and will work tirelessly to make sure work is complete. To complete all work by the deadline, I will stay late when necessary. I also take great pride and responsibility in my job, so I do not want to leave projects unfinished or incorrect. I believe this will trait can increase my ability to lead because my followers will witness that I will not give up and hand it over to someone else to complete. If my followers are able to feed off of my determination and persistence, then the team will be closer but also more successful.

In describing sociability, Northouse (2016) stated, “Social leaders have good interpersonal skills and create cooperative relationships with their followers” (p. 28). I am ambivalent towards the trait of sociability. I have always been able to establish collaborative relationships with all of my coworkers. I have a great working relationship with all of my current workers, and I believe that is grounded in the respect and integrity I mentioned earlier. The one area I fall short regarding sociability is strong interpersonal skills. As a Millennial, I tend to rely on social networking, texting, and emailing as my preferred forms of communication. To develop stronger interpersonal skills, I must break away from my reliability on computer-mediated communication and get back to the trend of face to face communication. To build a stronger connection to my followers and be considered sociable, I must find a way to strengthen my interpersonal skills.

For me to be the most effective leader that I can be, I must learn how to let go of the self-doubt and constant reliability on being prepared. These traits detract from my ability to lead. On the other hand, I must learn how to strengthen my integrity, determination, persistence, responsibility, and sociability. If I can find the appropriate mesh between the skills that hinder my leadership ability and the skills that increase my leadership ability, then my followers will be following a much more efficient leader.

References

Mintz, S. (2013). Integrity: The most important trait of leadership. Retrieved from http://www.workplaceethicsadvice.com/2013/02/integrity-the-most-important-trait-of-leadership-.html

Northouse, P.G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and practice (7^th ed). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage

Sabourin, R, & Pratt, R., (n.d). Attentional and interpersonal characteristics of improvisation professionals vs. business executives: What executives can learn from improvisation professionals. Retrieved from http://www.anderson-sabourin.com/Characteristics_of_Improv_Professionals_vs__Executives_Biz_Improv_v2.pdf

A511.1.3.RB-Two-Way Street- Trey McNeil

I was not in the boy scouts for long as a child, but the one thing that I took away was their motto always to be prepared. Taylor (2010) stated that preparation is the number one foundation for business success. I credit the obsession of preparedness with my fear of failure. Taylor (2010) also said, “You must take responsibility for everything that can impact your preparation and performance. To ensure that you are doing everything you can to achieve your goals, you must take responsibility for everything that might influence your efforts” (para. 9).

I am always thinking of obstacles that may get in my way as I attempt to complete a goal or project. I want to do my best in every situation, so I try to think of everything that could hinder my performance. I also always try to have things completed early in case anything unplanned does come up that affects the project. Northouse (2016) stated that leadership is a process in which the leader affects and is affected by their followers. My preparedness is one of the areas where I have influenced my current leader.

I work as an accountant for a college and our books are in a fiscal year, so June 30^th is our “new year’s eve.” All of our journal entries and transfers must be made by June 30^th to be in the right fiscal year. Being the prepared and worried person that I am, I always try to have the journal entries that I know must be entered each year completed the week before June 30^th. Some of the information needed to complete the journal entries comes from other departments of the college, which worries me every year. My supervisor always told me to finish the journal entries when I get the information, and everything would be okay because everyone in the college knows we must close the books on June 30^th.

A couple of years ago my fears were realized when problems arose while closing the books, and we were not able to get everything in by June 30^th.  The IT department had to recreate a corrupt file which presented a problem. The recreation process took a couple of days, so the funds were not able to be moved on time. Another problem occurred due to computer complications where a journal was not able to be input on time. We received the information needed for the journal entry late in the day on June 30^th, so the computer problems pushed us past the deadline. I reference this uneventful accounting story to say this instance caused my boss to begin to listen to me about preparedness.

She now seems to be more prepared in all aspects of the job. I noticed that she will now ask me a couple of weeks before the due date about the progress of a report due to the state. We just went through another June 30^th last week, and my supervisor was able to help me get all of my journal entries in a couple of days before the deadline. She contacted the other departments and made sure they were prepared in getting the accounting department all of the pertinent information needed to close the Fiscal Year. We have even had conversations discussing what we would do if some unfortunate event were to take place to plan around the event.

The relationship between my leader and me has developed nicely. She understands my need to be prepared and has taken steps in not only making sure I am prepared, but her other employees are also prepared. We get along great and work together as a team nicely.

One way that our relationship has impacted me is by knowing that I did have some influence in the department. I feel accomplished that I was able to help the organization in a positive way. It is a small thing but preparedness has always been crucial to me, and it is nice to know that my passion for being prepared influenced my leader.

Another area I am passionate about in the workplace is ethics. I think that we as humans should always do the right thing when it comes to work and life in general. Horton (2016) stated “Building on a foundation of ethical behavior helps create long-lasting positive effects for a company” (para. 2). When I began working at the college, my previous supervisor asked me to alter some numbers while preparing a board report.

She was not asking me to change the bottom line but just some of the categories shown on the report. The request floored me. I remember going home and thinking to myself “what am I going to do?” I was new to the organization and did not want to go above her head or cause friction between us. I convinced myself that since I was not changing the bottom line, I would do what she asked of me this time.

To my dismay, this was not the only time she would ask me to do this type of thing. The following quarter, I was also requested to change some numbers in the board report. This time, I had to have an uncomfortable conversation letting her know that I did not believe this was an ethical thing to do and did not feel comfortable making the requested changes. I told her that the board should see the correct numbers and not the altered numbers that show what they want to see. I believe her fear was that she did not want to answer to why the figures were not what they were seeking.

Eventually, I was able to influence her to show the accurate reports each quarter. If the board had questions, then they could be addressed at that time, but the numbers should not be skewed even if it was not changing the bottom line. This relationship was never as friendly as the relationship I have with my current leader. I honestly could never trust or respect her due to her unethical actions. I believe my supervisor hired me because she thought I was young and would do what I was asked. When I did not feel comfortable, she was never pleased with my disobedience. Unfortunately, she was let go a couple of years ago due to disagreements with the new CFO of the college.

The one thing I did take away from this relationship was self-confidence. I was in my mid-twenties, and this was my first accounting job. I was terrified to have a conversation with her about not agreeing with her request. In this instance, I was forced to stick to my beliefs and was not sure about the outcome. In the end, everything worked out well, and my confidence began to grow.

When I first read the prompt for this blog, I thought I am a follower and have not influenced any of my leaders. After contemplating the assignment a couple of days, I realized that my belief in ethics and being prepared did have an impact on my leaders.

References

Horton, M. (2016). Why are business ethics important? Investopedia. Retrieved from http://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/040815/why-are-business-ethics-important.asp

 Northouse, P.G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and practice (7^th ed). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage

Taylor, J. (2010). Business: Ten laws of prime business preparation. Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-power-prime/201009/business-ten-laws-prime-business-preparation