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Individual Reflection Paper
Cody Warner
Sandermoen School of Business, University of Fredericton
EMBA 7005 - Leadership Theory and Practice
Dr. Carol-Anne Faint
February 1, 2021
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Individual Reflection Paper
My goals for this course were to identify clear strategies and approaches to leadership
moving forward in my career and have specific tools and strategies to utilize. The three main
takeaways I learned from this course were the importance of vision, the importance to set strong
expectations and to listen closely and collaborate with followers. There are many concepts that
all work together to contribute to these three main takeaways for me. This course helped me
identify strengths that I did not acknowledge I had before and weaknesses that I can improve
upon. The other important lessons from this course are the methods for execution or tools that I
can utilize. Many of the tools came in the form of theories, graphics or paradigms, which help
organize my strategies. They do not provide a step by step guide but act as a great initial step for
developing a leadership plan as well as communication plan for all operations. Some of the
concepts I implemented and others I am planning to implement in the future. Other concepts
have helped me categorize the leadership team that I report to, which helps me empathize with
them and develop strategies for working with them more effectively.
The concept of new paradigm and old paradigms of leadership resonated with me. I did
not feel confident in my leadership style. I have read many books on leadership, behavioural
psychology, and management. Despite these containing many of the concepts mentioned in this
course, it is more validating to learn them through an official Master’s Degree program. My
boss is not the leader I want to be, she has many of the traits in this course that are losing their
effectiveness. Before this course, I thought that her style could be the right answer and I was
simply making excuses, I would even try to emulate her style of leadership. She is self-centered,
enjoys the role of hero and wants control over as many aspects of the business as possible.
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While these traits were already apparent before the course, understanding this style of leadership
more allows me to empathize with her position and respect the mindset she operates from.
She also suffers from the five fatal flaws that cause derailment (Daft & Lane, 2018). She
regularly fails to fulfill promises and is not reliable to complete any project that she indicates she
will do. Most of the organization recognizes this and even operates in a way to compensate for
it. She will say that she will take on a task and immediately the team will make plans on what to
do in the likely event that her portion remains incomplete. She has also struggled with
relationships with the team. Our Marketing Manager, the other manager in our department who
reports to her at the same level as myself, said to our boss that the team fears her in confidence.
Now my boss repeats this to all of the members of the team, “can you believe that? I am not
scary.” This shows she struggles to learn from feedback or show trustworthiness when given
sensitive details. She has never had a role where she was managing subordinates prior to starting
the company, so I think this lack of experience has limited her understanding of how to build a
team or how to lead. I believe the company’s success instilled a confidence in these abilities that
does not align with reality. I recognize her strengths as a communicator in sales contexts and her
ability to synthesize ideas. Of the fatal flaws, I believe that I avoid these flaws in my current role
with a more empathetic approach. I regularly meet in one-on-ones with my team and listen to
their concerns. I ask what ways I can help the team and then execute on these requests of me.
When I see an opportunity to help with my expertise on our products, I maintain a helpful tone
and try to assist where I can while being considerate of others perspectives and roles in the
project. I believe that I represent much of the new paradigm traits for leadership.
The importance of optimism within your own mindset was something I believed strongly
in prior to this course. From reading Norman Doidge’s “The Brain that Changes Itself” and
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William Glasser’s “Choice Theory”, among many other books published more recently, there are
many strong arguments for the positive impacts of optimism and positive psychology on your
own life and physiology. I never drew the conclusion that similar benefits for leaders on their
followers, despite it being obvious to me now. Optimism from leaders helps show followers the
possibilities for their future and give people hope. Hope is a powerful motivator, it gives people
the sense of purpose and drive to overcome setbacks, take risks and perseverance. Optimism
gives people the self-confidence to reach their full creative potential and to contribute effectively
to the company’s main objectives (Daft & Lane, 2018). I identified a few areas where I was
showing pessimism during meetings or discussions with my team, such as expressing doubts in
the engineering team’s ability or making jokes about our product quality when we were
struggling with quality and support issues. While these were moments that I bonded with the
team because I showed the challenges that they were facing were recognized by their leader, I
also could have shown them the positives of our team. By focusing on an optimistic future, the
team could have gained more resolve through our quality challenges. More recently, we are
working from home due to the pandemic. The team morale was down about being isolated away
from each other and only seeing each other once or twice a week on virtual meetings. I
implemented some more informal interactions, such as game times and calling them more
frequently to discuss certain points, even if they could discuss by email. This has helped
maintain comradery as well as preserve optimism that the lockdowns will not impact the team
atmosphere to as great of an extent as they initially predicted.
The various leadership theories are interesting concepts and tools to utilize as well.
While evidence to advocate for the use of any theory in particular is inconclusive, I believe as a
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leader I can use them to guide my behaviour and processes. I do not need to follow each theory
exactly. It is a great starting point for approaching certain employees or situations. For example,
Hersey and Blanchard’s Situational Leadership theory provides a framework to work from for
evaluating their team’s readiness and best practices based on their tasks that they need to perform
(Daft & Lane, 2018). I used this framework when evaluating my team and determined that some
of the sales representatives were unable but willing to prospect and others were able and
confident. For the confident and able, I have delegated to them to make their own prospecting
plan and I focus on encouraging them when they have successes and allow them to report on
their work rather than dictate their work. For the representatives that are willing but unable, I
have constructed a more specific plan for their prospecting work and participate in their process,
showing them how I prospect and communicate, to help them learn and understand. As they
gain more skills, I ease off my participation and leave more for them to handle. When
identifying sales representatives in the hiring process, I look for high enthusiasm and willingness
to work hard, since these traits are more difficult to influence than task readiness. My role is to
identify a person’s task readiness and tailor a development plan that is suitable for them.
Evaluating follower readiness is one important part of leadership. Another is to evaluate
followers’ personalities to understand best ways to interact with them. Actively listening and
engaging people throughout the day is a great way to uncover more about them. This strategy
will be at the mercy of your emotional intelligence and could leave blind spots (Daft & Lane,
2018). A tactic that I use is to have every new employee complete a 16 personalities quiz and
share their personality type. Along with that personality type, the program we use provides a
few pages about what this personality type is likely to behave like in various situations including
work. I ask each employee to share what about the personality profile they think matches them
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and what about the profile does not and why. This exercise helps them understand themselves
better and helps me understand how they prefer to interact. I have very different personalities on
my team and this exercise has helped me to use the correct channels of communication to
connect with them. Some of the team prefers more rich communication methods such as face-toface and phone conversations while others prefer to have stretches of time to themselves to work
on their own and want simple, fast, less rich communication methods. Depending on the
importance of the message, I will often utilize many different communication methods to convey
the same message in ways most suitable for the various recipients. For example, for new product
release information, I will often have a verbal conversation with the team members, send an
email summarizing the information and send a reminder message on our instant messaging
platform.
Understanding the different personalities is not only about communicating properly with
followers. It is also about understanding and cultivating positive emotions. Some have
suggested that emotion drives our thinking and decision making and relationships, instead of our
cognitive ability. I agree with this, it aligns with the advantages of optimism for an organization.
If you are experiencing negative emotions, it is difficult to reach your full potential since you are
spending more effort toward emotional survival instead of toward the work itself. Understanding
people and their personalities and emotions is the first step to determining what motivates them
and keeps them happy. Satisfied employees are better performers (Yukl, 2013). A leader’s job
should be to cultivate high performance and a highly enjoyable work environment because that
will lead to subordinate growth. It will improve retention as well. A good example at our
company is one of our technicians who started the same day that I started. He has no formal
education but he has shown the skill to be able to perform all assembly jobs throughout the
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company, along with more cognitively intensive diagnostic tasks. Unsatisfied in his role, he
wanted to learn design and considered leaving our company. Despite us needing his skill set in
assembly, we paid for his college diploma to become a mechanical designer. He still contributes
throughout the company as an assembler when needed and completes some design projects as
well. By focusing on his desires and how to keep him satisfied, we retained his skillset and
upgraded it. It is easier to move on from an employee that is unsatisfied and find a replacement,
as this cost us the education amount and required us to still shift the roles similarly to if he had
quit. However, now the morale for the team is better because they recognize the opportunity for
growth if they desire it.
Google’s mental model for leaders is also an excellent paradigm for other organizations
to consider emulating. I also believe it is important to utilize as part of maintaining a high
performance culture, particularly if innovation is a competitive advantage. If a leader’s sole
concern is to develop a positive work atmosphere, that does not necessarily produce results. It is
important to create a culture that is conducive for achievement. By setting lofty goals and
visions, it can be motivating to a team since it inherently shows faith in the team that is currently
working toward that vision. As long as the mission, strategic planning and execution also pushes
for high performance. Google’s mental model for leaders focuses on pushing out of comfort
zones, conventions and traditional management styles at the risk of some failures in order to
achieve more in less time (Daft & Lane, 2018). I think this approach is excellent when
combined with a servant leader. Creating a fun yet high achievement atmosphere simultaneously
creates a greater purpose while feeling satisfied. If leaders put the growth of their followers first
and maintain optimism and positivity, this leaves them the room for creative problem solving
and having ownership over their work. The struggle is if you do not hire the right personality
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types for this culture. Someone who prefers stability over change will struggle in this culture.
We see this now with some of our marketing team. They are timid, kind, and enjoy doing good
work. They do not enjoy speaking out on topics and struggle in creative problem solving
exercises. They are better in execution roles than strategist roles. Undefined scenarios with little
guidance cause them stress and they are unable to perform. If I do implement this type of culture
in any organization, it has to match the team. When building a team, I would aim to bring in
members that thrive under these types of conditions if innovation is the key factor to look for,
members who do not require well defined task definitions to succeed.
When pushing for great performance and being open to all solutions for achieving
objectives, some solutions or decisions push to a point of being unethical in order to achieve the
objective faster or easier than the more traditional methods. Since ethics are subjective and are
determined by each individual, it can be hard for many to realize when they are even in an
ethical dilemma until it is too late. Ethical violations can create legal risks or major public
relations concerns, or it can harm your reputation within your team. Questionable ethics in
leaders can result in their followers carrying out similar decision processes, which permeates
through an organization’s culture. When an organization gains a reputation as unethical, it is
difficult to recover from it. Leaders set the standard for what is right and wrong in an
organization. Social norms do not provide a clear understanding of ethics. It is the leader who is
responsible for developing their core values and embodying those values every day to set the
example for their employees. It is also the leader who must train employees on these values and
ethical principles (Daft & Lane, 2018). From our ethical audit in this course, it was clear from
the responses to our survey scenarios that each person differed in how they would handle each
situation. It is not clear for people what they need to do, so it is better for the leader to prepare
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them for as much as they can, or accept the risk that people will not act from the same values that
you have internalized but not enforced. Enforcement is an important part of operating ethically.
Leaders should hold offenders accountable for their actions. Without punishment for policy
breaches, the policies carry no weight. We had an incident where a sales representative booked a
flight and demonstration trip without getting approval first. We wrote him up officially and held
a reprimand meeting as soon as he returned, drawing his attention to the policy . We did this
swiftly to reduce the possibility of a repeat offense and to show others on the team that we do not
tolerate policy breaches. We made the feedback timely and focused on the action and not the
personal traits of the representative, despite us feeling that he was deceptive and coy about the
trip prior. We reiterated the importance of the policy and of communication with the team in
general and now he is one of the most productive members of the team.
Some ethical dilemmas happen slowly over time. Accounting frauds are a great example
of this, there is a misconception around accounting fraud that there is a single decision that leads
to financial fraud. I believe that these decisions likely build over time, in a culture that accepts
utilizing creative accounting to maximize financial positions. It could be inflating expenses to
reduce taxes payable or reducing cost of goods to inflate profitability to appear more attractive to
investors. Accounting frauds are one of the major reasons for downfalls (Rao, 2019). Setting a
clear standard of what is right and wrong, what is acceptable within the organization, is the only
way to prevent these types of issues from creeping into an organization. Creative accounting is
something my company utilizes. There is nothing illegal about expensing lost equipment for its
full value or having a separate holdings company for the property and building and then having
the company itself as its own corporation that pays the holding company. These are well within
the law and are strategies commonly used by accounting firms. These decisions under close
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scrutiny from some individuals could question the ethics. Some could consider the spirit that the
decisions are made within as deceitful or self-serving. The trouble is that these decisions are
easy to make and when opportunities come to push the ethical risk further, it is easier to make
incrementally more unethical decisions because you have already exposed yourself on the
previous occasions. Having a hard line set where you would feel comfortable with everyone
knowing is a good place to start from when building core values and ethics policies.
Punishments can be effective for influencing and motivating people to operate ethically.
They instill fear that if they conduct themselves ethically, they will receive negative feedback or
risk embarrassment. Threats and punishments, otherwise known as extrinsic negative motivators,
are not the only method to ensure followers reach objectives and follow rules. I typically save
this type of motivation tactic for serious offenses or breaches of well-known policies. Too much
focus on negativity will impact the culture and morale of the organization. Positive extrinsic
motivators are typically easy to identify and execute on as a leader (Daft & Lane, 2018). We
have commission for our sales people and increase pay for employees who perform well in their
roles. I regularly make a point to praise even small accomplishments, as part of creating an
optimistic atmosphere. When I initially started managing the sales team, I believed that too
much praise would be demotivating for people and cause them to relax. In reality, I withheld
praise during opportunities for building rapport, with the intention of keeping them on course.
This likely was demotivating for my team rather than motivating. Intrinsic positive motivators,
motives that help people enjoy their work and get a sense of accomplishment, feel the hardest to
execute as a leader. It takes an intimate understanding of employees to then create these
motivations for them. There are a few general methods that I utilize to motivate people to feel
good about their roles. Any time we receive a positive customer review, I post it on our
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company instant messaging platform, Slack, to a channel that all employees see. It would be
easy to let them accumulate without employees being notified or to just share with the service
team, but it is difficult for them to sing their own praises of their value to the rest of the
organization. If I post it, then they do not have to seek their own praise, the whole company can
see their value and the employees in the review can feel appreciation and a sense of
accomplishment. We also have a slack channel that shows every new opportunity as it opens
and every product that is sold. This is visible to the whole company as well, which allows us to
celebrate as a company and praise salespeople automatically without them needing to show their
value themselves to the company. Everyone wants to feel appreciation for their work but it can
be more difficult for them to show their work to their peers. It is better to show their work for
them and create a culture that praises accomplishments without boasting. Negative intrinsic
motivators are ones that I stay away from. It feels malicious in its intent to use someone’s
insecurities as a method of reaching their goals. Once exposing these insecurities in a way that
the employee is now explicitly aware that you know about them, it can reduce their confidence.
Praising strengths and working with weaknesses is the ongoing approach I implement.
Part of implementing motivation tactics are ensuring that you maintain consistency.
Leaders can maintain consistency with policies and procedures, as well as with regular
communication. Setting clear objectives and standards for employees is not micromanaging or
wrong. I believe it is important to leave flexibility for people to find their own paths to reaching
their objectives, however without some guidelines on how to best operate and engage with the
team as well as objectives to strive for, people will find their own course that leads to other
objectives than yours. Even with clear policies in place, such as an employment contract and
production testing documents, they are only as effective as the communication of them to the
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team. Leaders define the communication climate and what rules are important to follow, as well
as the rules that are not important to follow, by what they communicate. It is up to leaders to
determine whether communication is open or suppressed, whether people are aware of what is
going on in the organization and whether listening is valued within the organization. Leaders
can set the standard for communication by setting meeting ground rules and following them
(Daft & Lane, 2018). We set rules for virtual meetings that everyone keeps their cameras on and
engages in only the meeting, not on their phone or other windows during the meeting. The goal
is to recreate the atmosphere of an in-person meeting where the expectation is to focus and be
attentive. This helped maintain relationships with our co-workers as well. It is easier to
disengage when you disengage from your co-workers. Leaders can also keep people informed
about developments in the organization. Working from home is very difficult to have informal
conversations. I relied on informal conversations to engage with production, marketing and
engineering to understand what happened throughout the company, so I could share with the
sales team and help them feel a part of the whole company. Now, if virtual meetings are not
possible, I will exchange messages on Slack with different department heads. Even these small
exchanges help me stay informed for my team.
Communication is never more important than during a crisis. Leaders need to be calm,
visible, honest and supportive. Perhaps most importantly, leaders need to communicate a vision
for the future. During a crisis, uncertainty arises and stress can be debilitating for a team (Daft &
Lane, 2018). Depending on the crisis, job security may be a primary concern for employees.
Job insecurity is very stressful on most individuals, especially if they are responsible for others in
a family. Michael McCain, CEO of Maple Foods during a listeria outbreak in 2008 that resulted
in 23 deaths, said one of the keys to steering the organization was their leaders daring to be
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transparent (Silliker, 2013). Transparency and honesty takes courage. The risk with telling the
truth is that you cannot control the narrative about yourself or the organization. People are more
likely to acknowledge honesty and transparency, likely leading to more trusting relationships.
Some people will not respond positively to the truth but more over time will trust you if you are
forthcoming with them. At the beginning of the pandemic, we were struggling for sales. My
boss indicated that we would need to lay people off if sales did not come, but that my job was
safe. A week after that conversation, she had to lay some off and reduced me to half of my pay.
This was after she had recently purchased a multi-million dollar estate for herself. The part that
still sticks with me and affects my trust in our relationship was the conversation where she said
my role was safe. If she had indicated that my role or salary was at risk, I would have felt less
blindsided. While I have forgiven it, these types of instances are unforgettable. The same goes
for other followers. In moments of crisis, followers interpret how leaders handle the situation as
how they will always handle important matters. Without confidence in your ability to lead in a
crisis, there is little confidence in a leader in general.
The pandemic represented a crisis for many organizations. One of the biggest impacts is
decentralizing knowledge workers. 42 percent of the U.S. labour force is working from home
full-time (Wong, 2020). This new reality for many employees is challenging for teams to remain
accountable and in regular communication. For employees, it is a period of significant stress.
They may work in an unsuitable space and may share it with children and significant others. It is
important for virtual leaders to be supportive and understanding of the stresses of these
circumstances. This does not mean that objectives and goals are not attainable or that strong
performance is not possible. It might come in different forms. For myself, I have kids at home
doing online learning and they need help throughout the day. I am unable to do high focus
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projects during the day, so I take time in the evening when it is quieter to focus on these. My
job’s flexibility allows me to use the time I need to perform at my best. If I had a strict nine to
five routine, I would not be able to produce high quality work. It is also virtual leaders to
identify the right team members for the tasks in the new reality. Some employees may shift their
responsibilities. One employee’s role pre-pandemic was trade show coordination. With no trade
shows, his role was obsolete. He had other skills, such as graphic design. We shifted his role to
handle more design projects as well as develop other skills on our team so he could contribute
more.
What rules and processes to have in place at an organization, whether transitioning into
virtual or taking over a new role or shifting the focus for your organization, it is important to
understand the culture of that organization before making decisions. A great tool for measuring
the culture is to use the dimensions of cultural values. The dimensions are power distance,
uncertainty avoidance, individualism or collectivism, and masculinity. Evaluating these
dimensions help determine what policies will work well and how to best engage the team. I used
the dimensions to help define the organization I work for. A high power distance means people
accept inequality. They expect that leaders will have certain advantages over the followers (Daft
& Lane, 2018). Our organization has a relatively low power distance due to the small size of the
company and the stated values of the shareholders. The shareholders state that the company
operates as a meritocracy, where title does not mean anything, it is those with the best
performance and best ideas who get the praise. When big decisions happen, the shareholders
will often take a stance of “we are the bosses so listen,” which can upset some of the followers.
Understanding that there is a low power distance, I avoid statements as a leader that followers
could interpret as “because I said so.” Uncertainty avoidance is a dimension that focuses on the
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extent that people value security and conformity (Daft & Lane, 2018). High uncertainty
avoidance cultures should focus on reiterating job security, have policies and procedures in place
for as many aspects of the business as possible. My boss craves change and chaos. She does not
like policies and believes that everyone should operate in autonomy. The lack of definition is
challenging at times and is debilitating for other members of the team that have higher
uncertainty avoidance beliefs. Individualism is a cultural belief where individuals expect to take
care of themselves, whereas collectivism is where individuals expect to help their community
(Daft & Lane, 2018). Our company’s projects involve many functions, so we do function as a
collective. Expectations at the company are to work well with others and help, to the best of
your ability, the team around you. This expectation works because of the collective culture that
has been built. Masculinity is the last of the dimensions of culture. Highly masculine cultures
prefer achievement, heroism, assertiveness, work centrality and material success (Daft & Lane,
2018). Our company has a mix of this, the marketing manager and myself try to instill less of
this culture on our teams.
One area that I struggle with in my career is understanding my power. I do not feel
empowerment from my boss because when it comes to hard power, hiring decisions, issuing
rewards, or issuing punishments, it happens through her. She prefers to have final say on these
decisions, despite me holding a management title. While I hold soft power in my product
expertise and enthusiasm and passion I bring to the team, I do not feel fully in control or that my
subordinates truly see me as their authority. They may see me as a leader but not as one that
holds any power over their role. The lack of hard power limits my ability to implement some of
my strategic decisions. After seeing how other confrontations go with my boss, them losing
status in her eyes and her temper tantrums, I prefer not to speak up. I know it is the right thing to
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do, if I want something I must go for it, but I do not want to risk my job currently. Part of
getting this degree is to bolster and legitimize my knowledge to prove that I am ready to take on
the authority role that my boss currently holds.
When I think about having more power and control over any organization, I would want
to install creativity and communication standards first. After getting to know the team and the
stakeholders well, I would develop a vision. The important themes of vision are that it has broad
appeal, deals with change, reflects high ideals and defines the destination and the journey. For
my company, I envision us making the world’s toughest tasks easier with our robotics. I
envision us collaborating with the market leaders in various technology categories to combine
into intuitive solutions that anyone on the planet could operate. Part of our mission is to listen to
customers and take their problems to heart, as if they are our problems to solve. Every product
we develop has to have the customer’s interests in mind, every marketing asset to support the
customer’s journey from finding our robots to learning how to use them. To make sure that this
vision and mission remain on task, I would regularly meet with as much of the team as possible.
Senior executives spend less than 3% of their time focused on big picture thinking (Daft & Lane,
2018). As part of making time for strategic thinking, it would leave time to interpret trends,
anticipate threats and opportunities and continue to create positive change that brings hope to the
company. Making hope and optimism the driving reasons behind keeping a strong vision, along
with utilizing the communication and setting strong expectations and strategic plans would be
the three pillars of my successful organization.
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References
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Glasser, W. (2001). Choice theory: A new psychology of personal freedom. New York:
HarperPerennial.
Rao, M. (2019, November 11). Corporate governance and ethical leadership. Retrieved February
05, 2021, from https://unpost.net/ethical-leadership/
Silliker, A. (2013, February 11). Leading through crisis at Maple Leaf Foods. Retrieved February
05, 2021, from
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Yukl, G. A. (2013). Contingency Theories and Adaptive Leadership. In Leadership in
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