In Chapter 12 of his text The Leader's Guide to Storytelling, Stephen Denning describes "a different kind of leader," specifically, one who practices an "interactive mode of leadership." Basically, they get involved and have an understanding of how everything around them relates to each other.
Denning describes a number of dimensions involved in interactive leadership, several of which are quite similar to several I've heard in the past from other texts on leadership and have been attempting to integrate in my own leadership style. Certainly, the dimension of working with the world evokes a strong image of collaboration on overcoming challenges in a team effort or, as Denning suggests, channeling the energies of others towards a particular end. Collaboration I'm familiar with, but this idea of channeling energy is something I hadn't thought of in the leadership context, and one I may well experiment with.
The idea of adding and subtracting elements from the leadership palette gives, in a certain sense, another means of expressing the ways in which one emulates positive leadership techniques while rejecting the negative. An interactive leader will add to the general formula of management by adding the other dimensions, and will dismissed manipulation or otherwise. Knowing this gives me some flexibility in not necessarily sticking to a set formula and setting my out to develop my own style of leadership.
Active interest in promoting integrity and authenticity seems to have become more of a norm for leadership lately, and certainly one that can have an impact. For my leadership, integrity will remain a standing rule, but I think being more explicit with what I stand for and represent could lend well to being more of a distinct personality rather than just a name with a rank. Other dimensions that might tie well to this are those on not depending on hierarchical authority and understanding different narrative patterns. Being flexible with how the organization is directed and where the next big idea comes from, as well as being able to see different patterns, seems to me best suited to someone that practices authentic leadership and has subtracted negative elements from their leadership palette. The ability to lead without the formalized authority and with the ability to recognize patterns would, I believe, lend the greatest opportunity for fresh ideas and methods with the broadest range of execution patterns.
Regarding how Denning's dimensions manifests itself in my present leadership style, I'd say that the dimensions of working with the world, adding and subtracting from the leadership palette, and not depending on a hierarchical structure. Much of this comes through the nature of my working environment and from the benefit of past study. I learned early in my communications degree about the idea of horizontal communication and giving members a say when it was feasible, and it's something that gets practiced around my office. Every so often there's a project for the unit that solicits thoughts and ideas from the unit as a whole, and hardly a meeting goes by where there isn't an "around the room" to allow anyone present to get in their two cents.
On the note of palettes, young officers are reinforced on the basics regularly but are also just as often given anecdotes (or first hand experience) in leaders adding in positive (and on occasion less than positive) twists to leadership. I make an effort to add in what I can of being available for my subordinates and getting their needs taken care of, and being very conscious not to play any rank games if I can help it.
Finally, although I work in an organization with a very well defined hierarchy, I'm in a stage of my career where there's a great deal of crossover between myself as a junior leader and my most senior subordinates. There is a very strong expectation that senior enlisted members help teach new officers what it means to lead, and we're often told to learn well about what we work with from our experienced enlisted members. This creates an environment where although there is a formalized chain, one might say there's leadership happening at the top and bottom halves in parallel, and as funny as it may seem from the outside it's a system I make strong efforts to heed (particularly since they're the technical experts!)
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
Sunday, December 9, 2012
A521.8.4.RB_SienkiewiczRaymond
Bottom line up front: When it comes to striking up conversation with someone I've just met, although becoming much easier in recent weeks since I've learned some communication concepts such as the FORD acronym, is still a very difficult undertaking for me. This especially gets to be an issue if the person I'm talking to also isn't the most conversant type and gives little feedback.
Working a room is even more difficult. At least if I spend enough time with one person, usually there's enough small talk to keep things from being especially awkward, but in a group I always find myself unable to get a word in edgewise unless we're taking turns...even then, I don't have a lot to say. It becomes much easier, rather, to melt into the background and listen to the conversations that people are having. Generally speaking, I've found from experience that I converse optimally with either one very talkative person, or within a group of three, as it's intimate enough to speak easily but there is enough feedback and opportunity for triggering further conversation.
Examining my personality, my lack of ease in conversation can probably be attributed to the number of ways I've acted out the role of the quiet studious type. I've always been rather shy with new people, more often preferring to be spoken to rather than initiate speaking. Frankly, I also still have issues with thinking too much about how I'm being perceived, which is compounded by my tendency to not think well on my feet. A lot of this, perhaps, might be tied to my upbringing and experiences. Being an only child, I didn't spend much time with my peer group outside of school and my parents tend to stick closer to home more often than not. When I did finally get out to school, the combination my own attitudes about the school experience and being subject to much of the slings and arrows of dealing with other kids throughout middle school and high school left me feeling that social interaction was more often than not a stressful rather than fulfilling experience. Finally though, I got into college and made a conscious decision to practice this sort of thing with a significantly more polite peer group. Studying the topic full time certainly went a long way towards at least making the communication experience more pleasant.
Much of the material from Chapter 14 of the Messages texts lines up with what I've seen in communication classes and a book or two on dating, especially the parts about framing your attitude in making the approach, utilizing good body language, and some of the basic ice breaker methods. But, there was some interesting material in the section on the levels of self-disclosure. I also thought the explanation on active listening went into greater detail than what I've heard before, and tied together earlier thoughts on listening nicely. I wouldn't mind sometime trying out some of the basic icebreaker questions and techniques to gauge their effectiveness (I'm admittedly just a touch skeptical), and I might put some thought into the levels of self-disclosure at play in my various day to day relationships. Certainly, I'm already shifting some of my thoughts just slightly on a few of my regular interactions and evaluating where on each level I might be with people I know.
Working a room is even more difficult. At least if I spend enough time with one person, usually there's enough small talk to keep things from being especially awkward, but in a group I always find myself unable to get a word in edgewise unless we're taking turns...even then, I don't have a lot to say. It becomes much easier, rather, to melt into the background and listen to the conversations that people are having. Generally speaking, I've found from experience that I converse optimally with either one very talkative person, or within a group of three, as it's intimate enough to speak easily but there is enough feedback and opportunity for triggering further conversation.
Examining my personality, my lack of ease in conversation can probably be attributed to the number of ways I've acted out the role of the quiet studious type. I've always been rather shy with new people, more often preferring to be spoken to rather than initiate speaking. Frankly, I also still have issues with thinking too much about how I'm being perceived, which is compounded by my tendency to not think well on my feet. A lot of this, perhaps, might be tied to my upbringing and experiences. Being an only child, I didn't spend much time with my peer group outside of school and my parents tend to stick closer to home more often than not. When I did finally get out to school, the combination my own attitudes about the school experience and being subject to much of the slings and arrows of dealing with other kids throughout middle school and high school left me feeling that social interaction was more often than not a stressful rather than fulfilling experience. Finally though, I got into college and made a conscious decision to practice this sort of thing with a significantly more polite peer group. Studying the topic full time certainly went a long way towards at least making the communication experience more pleasant.
Much of the material from Chapter 14 of the Messages texts lines up with what I've seen in communication classes and a book or two on dating, especially the parts about framing your attitude in making the approach, utilizing good body language, and some of the basic ice breaker methods. But, there was some interesting material in the section on the levels of self-disclosure. I also thought the explanation on active listening went into greater detail than what I've heard before, and tied together earlier thoughts on listening nicely. I wouldn't mind sometime trying out some of the basic icebreaker questions and techniques to gauge their effectiveness (I'm admittedly just a touch skeptical), and I might put some thought into the levels of self-disclosure at play in my various day to day relationships. Certainly, I'm already shifting some of my thoughts just slightly on a few of my regular interactions and evaluating where on each level I might be with people I know.
Sunday, December 2, 2012
A521.7.4.RB_SienkiewiczRaymond
Back in the Spring of 2009, my ROTC detachment was completing preparatory training for a group of our sophomore cadets due to attend summer field training in Alabama. This pre-training experience itself wasn't exactly a walk in the park, bringing the same time management demands of being a cadet and a student, but adding in arriving earlier than the rest of the unit, being subject to have scrutiny in extra inspections and marching drills, and being given something of a simulated boot camp experience with much terser instruction techniques and greater expectations of independence.
I saw my peers just one year behind me going through this, and although I wasn't directly involved in their training other than being an assistant to the senior cadet that oversaw the training flight, I wanted to do something extra for them. Not that long ago I was in their position, and that experience plus the summer encampment was indeed difficult, but very empowering in 20/20 hindsight.
When it came time for the last session for last thoughts and questions, I asked my supervising cadet for a few minutes to tell my story. Looking back, I'm not too sure if it focused on any particular anomaly like Denning notes stories should do, but it did have something of a "things working out better than expected" tone that is a touch anomalous and mostly just a positive message.
Without immediately telling these sophomores who the protagonist my story was, I shared the fragment's of one cadets experience...forgetting their hat when they flew off, fumbling through parade steps, and their attempts at trying to play the leader on command. I shared an experience of what seemed like a rather bleak and less than ideal situation given how they'd been trained. The kicker though, was the fact that in the end all these less than ideal experiences turned into an opportunity to really learn what it meant to stop thinking so much and to have some basic confidence. On top of that, the protagonist in question not only found themselves to be relatively successful as a cadet, but they were from our detachment...and it was I, the one who was telling the story. One might say I stalked the potentially sensitive topic of "what if it's just not my month out there?" Rather than simply saying a platitude, I presented an account of this happening as well as what happened next.
That talk ended up being received with great ovation, and our Commandant said outright he was quite challenged to follow that up. It became something of a subtle legend within our class year. While I didn't necessarily impart any specific skill or technique, I did impart the knowledge of an experience to show that people with a very broad range of success at this one particular snapshot in their cadet career could still come out in very good shape over their junior and senior year of school. I shared the key value of confidence, and the good that can come of simply never quitting.
I saw my peers just one year behind me going through this, and although I wasn't directly involved in their training other than being an assistant to the senior cadet that oversaw the training flight, I wanted to do something extra for them. Not that long ago I was in their position, and that experience plus the summer encampment was indeed difficult, but very empowering in 20/20 hindsight.
When it came time for the last session for last thoughts and questions, I asked my supervising cadet for a few minutes to tell my story. Looking back, I'm not too sure if it focused on any particular anomaly like Denning notes stories should do, but it did have something of a "things working out better than expected" tone that is a touch anomalous and mostly just a positive message.
Without immediately telling these sophomores who the protagonist my story was, I shared the fragment's of one cadets experience...forgetting their hat when they flew off, fumbling through parade steps, and their attempts at trying to play the leader on command. I shared an experience of what seemed like a rather bleak and less than ideal situation given how they'd been trained. The kicker though, was the fact that in the end all these less than ideal experiences turned into an opportunity to really learn what it meant to stop thinking so much and to have some basic confidence. On top of that, the protagonist in question not only found themselves to be relatively successful as a cadet, but they were from our detachment...and it was I, the one who was telling the story. One might say I stalked the potentially sensitive topic of "what if it's just not my month out there?" Rather than simply saying a platitude, I presented an account of this happening as well as what happened next.
That talk ended up being received with great ovation, and our Commandant said outright he was quite challenged to follow that up. It became something of a subtle legend within our class year. While I didn't necessarily impart any specific skill or technique, I did impart the knowledge of an experience to show that people with a very broad range of success at this one particular snapshot in their cadet career could still come out in very good shape over their junior and senior year of school. I shared the key value of confidence, and the good that can come of simply never quitting.
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