My reflection blog this week is to reflect on Northouse (2015) identification that leadership is a process and leaders affect and are affected by their followers. Leadership is a process that involves influence. I will use this reflection blog to reflect on a leader who I have worked for, who I was able to influence and in return influenced me as a leader. The relationship development between myself and this leader was a two-way street.

Leaders Influence

According to Peter Northouse “Leadership is a process whereby an individual influences a group of individuals to achieve a common goal.” (p6) Additionally, successful leaders and followers “build relationships” to reach those common goals. From my personal perspective, a leader is a person who can establish relationships to influence by being accountable, trustworthy, and except feedback. Leaders have to be able to make decisions even when it is not a comfortable thing to do.  Additionally, a leader and follower success depends on the positive bond in their relationships. A leader needs a team to lead, and followers need a leader.  (Northouse, 2016)

Over the last twenty years, I have experienced good and bad leaders. I have experienced leaders who were concerned with my success and some that just cared about their personal gain within the company, which usually allows the leader to trample over people in their path of destruction. In this blog, I will reflect on a leader who was affected by the followers. I will also reflect on being the follower who was affected this leader.

The Leader

            The leader is a senior manager of an aircraft sustainment program, who excepted a role as a program manager over the earned value management process. The process includes managing cost, schedule, and technical integration of the program. This leader was known for his aggressive approach in dealing with people, which came across as a bully. The program was responsible for reporting performance metrics to executive leadership and the customer. The program manager expected presenters to be exemplary and perfect. There were event dry runs of the presentations prior to the reviews. Although there were several dry runs with the leader, the leader would ask questions in a way that would embarrass the presenters. The affect this leader had on his followers was very negative and most employees disliked this leader. The leaders’ behavior created animosity and distrust within the team.

            As a new leader supporting a team of twenty retrofit engineers, I was able to witness this leaders’ actions, which made me furious, but at the same time gave me a challenge to change this behavior toward my teammates. During a review, I had a retrofit engineer who was older and was not very savvy at presenting information in front of large groups and stumbled over a question from the program manager. I gave the engineer a few minutes to try to answer the question. The leader looked at me and I gave him the answer. The leader, in front of everyone, alluded to say that this was the information he was looking for, with sarcasm. I agree with him, and asked that we move on since the data was provided, but my tone was no stern. My response shocked the leader, customer, and my team. I was determined to not let this leader be abrasive to me or define me as a leader. He demonstrated the type of leadership approach that I do not prefer. A leaders  “behavior affects the attitudes and actions of the followers” and by not allowing the leaders bully behavior to occur in another meeting, I gained the trust and respect from those on my team. (Gottschalk, 2016)

The follower

            As a follower, I encountered another rough interaction with this same leader. I was responsible for a very complex project that I inherited from another employee who left the program. The project had some issues that I was having a hard time understanding and providing a corrective action. On one particular day, I spent a couple of hours in email communication with the leader.  I felt the information relayed was clear and to the point. The leader was having issues understanding what I was trying to deliver in the communication. After a few hours of emails going back and forth and not gaining any ground on getting help, I asked the leader for an in person meeting. In this meeting, I proceeded to go over all the information that was previously sent to him via email. I remembered in the past that he mentioned to me that hope was not a strategy, so I knew I was stuck without a resolution. He stopped me about half way through my regurgitation of information and identified that I just needed to say “I need your help.”  I had the same fears as my followers did because I wanted to appear to be prepared, having all the answers. I didn’t want to ask for his help, I just wanted him to approve my ideas. I judged the leader based on his previous performance. Once I relaxed and listened to what he was saying, I gained the help I needed. Our relationship started with animosity based on other people’s interactions. The trust was not yet defined in our relationship.  (Rath & Conchie, 2009)

Two-Way Street

            In the two examples of my personal interaction with this leader it is clear a relationship was not established from the beginning. The leadership process requires leaders and followers.

 In an organization, leaders “build relationships, influence others and make things happen, while followers require trust and stability.” (Rath & Conchie, 2009) Based on the interaction history with the leader there was a perception that he could not be trusted to create stability in the workplace.

            After I had the interaction with the leader as a follower, the leader asked me directly why everyone is so tense when he is around. I took the opportunity to explain that his aggressive behavior towards people in meetings makes people feel they are being bullied. I took a big risk relaying this information to the leader, but it was my opportunity to allow him to understand his individual impact on morale, confidence, and respect. Employees did not trust that he would not go off on them in front of their peers or the customer. This leader broke down in silence and relayed to me directly that the feedback hurts and he was not aware that he was perceived as a bad leader. He asked what he could do to change the dial on the perception of those around him. He also felt that he was honestly helping those perform better by pushing them to achieve higher standards.

            The leader held some team working meetings, where he applied more listening skills verses talking. He provided some monetary incentives to employees who had been doing extremely well. The leader also came out of his office more to just talk to people. He wanted to know more about their families, hobbies, and let them know if they needed help, his office door was always opened. Over a few months, I overheard my team talking about how this leader has changed, even suggesting to other people to go to this leader if they needed help. I finally started to see the relationships rebuild and trust being restored.

Conclusion

The leader I worked for was influenced by my ability to be honest with him about how his interaction with the team was not positive. This leader influenced me in teaching me what not do do as a leader, but most importantly have the confidence to provide feedback and ask for help when it is needed. The relationship building is a two-way street as it requires leaders and followers.

With the leaders change in behavior due to my direct honest, I gained respect not only from my team, but the leader as well. Two years ago when I left the program, the leader came to my going away party. This was a shock to some but it was not to me as we had built a positive relationship.

References

Gottschalk, M. (2016). How a Leader’s Behavior Affects Team Members. Retrieved August 13,

2016, from Swift And Shift: http://switchandshift.com/how-a-leaders-behavior-affects-team-members

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

Publication.

Rath, T., & Conchie, B. (2009, January 8). What Followers Want From Leaders. Retrieved August

13, 2016, from Business Journal: http://www.gallup.com/businessjournal/113542/what-

followers-want-from-leaders.aspx