A633.7.3.RB- Leader-Follower Relationship

A633.7.3.RB- Leader-Follower Relationship

Upon completing the exercise in chapter ten of the Obolensky (2010) text, I discovered that when it comes to the four areas of complex adaptive leadership, I tend to lack the S2 “sell” quadrant.  My decisions were very balanced between tell, involve, and devolve, but I only had one scenario where I thought the “selling” leadership strategy was the best.  I am happy with this model because my leadership style has changed throughout this course and I have become much more hands-off, but still kept a balance of taking action when needed. 

What the exercise results say to me is that, though I have progressed as a leader and have mostly well-balanced leadership tendencies, I do need to be aware of my weakness in the “sell” category.  According to Obolensky (2010), the S2 quadrant is high people and high goal oriented.  As a leader utilizing this strategy, I still must be knowledgeable about the solution, but I need to convince people to own the solution instead of just accepting and following it.  This is where the term “buy-in” comes into play.  I need to become a better salesman when it comes to convincing subordinates to support and follow a plan.  In order to become a good salesman, Obolensky says that one must ask questions and listen to subordinates before proposing a solution and just trying to give inspirational speeches about it!

My thinking has changed in that I need to make sure I ask questions and listen to subordinates for solutions to problems.  I need to sell the solutions to them, since that is my weakest leadership area.  If I take subordinate input into account when creating solutions, then the selling part should mostly be taken care of and I will overcome my weakest attribute. 

Finally, my thinking has also changed when it comes to the discussion of the importance of hands-off leadership.  I think every leader has a tendency to want to be involved in the process.  Since most leaders are hard workers, if they feel like they are not working hard, they naturally want to get more involved in order to work harder.  I need to avoid falling for that trap! If an organization is running smoothly and the leadership is not greatly involved and feels like they are not working that hard, then that is a good thing! This means that the organization is performing in the best way possible, and stepping in to do more work as a leader will only make things worse.  

Obolensky, N. (2010). Complex Adaptive Leadership.  Ashgate Publishing. Burlington, VT.