A521.9.3.RB - A Different Kind of Leader

In Chapter 12, Denning discusses his dimensions of leadership. Create a reflection blog that discusses how you will become a transformative leader, one who is interactive and actively connects and participates with others. Include specific examples of how at least three of Denning's dimensions manifest in your own application of leadership.

An interactive leader 'adds and subtracts elements from the leadership palette' that helps to build on 'personal integrity and authenticity' (Denning, 2011, p. 269). This means that a leader is able to orchestrate a team through certain actions and decisions to achieve an objective or mission. This element of leadership is also based on the values of a leader in being genuine to who they are while inspiring and motivating others to action.

Interactive leadership can be considered transformational because it involves an exceptional form of influence to motivate followers to accomplish the task at hand. The use of interactive leadership can work with the innate qualities of the leader along with the leadership tactics to best reach a goal. By selecting the most effective leadership styles in a scenario can help to enlist followers to follow through up to the point that they will go above and beyond. Northouse (2016, p. 161) considers transformational leadership as one that is visonary concerning emotions, values, ethics, standards, and long-term goals of follower's motives and needs as full human beings. There is a charismatic quality as well in being able to communicate effectively in order to make the vision feasible through the perspective of the follower. For my own approach in developing an interactive and transformational leadership style, the qualities that I tend to lean towards are in terms of conversation, feelings, and beauty.

Leadership that is like Conversation

In my current position as a deputy branch chief, I have learned that the most effective way in relating to my subordinates on a deeper level is by conversing with them just like any other person. For example, on Mondays I usually ask how their weekend was while sharing in return. This brings a bit more intimacy because it breaks down the 'professional' barrier and allows a more interpersonal connection. By getting to know my team by having regular chats about their life and well-being allows me to have insight and a pulse on how they are doing while allowing me the leverage as a leader by being respected and trusted not only as their boss, but as a friend as well. Denning (2011) explains the conversational aspect of leadership as the relationship between storyteller and listener as being symmetrical. This means that the conversation is a two-way street rather than one-sided. This approach gives the ability of the listener to respond and give their own inputs in the conversation.

Leadership that has Feeling

To assert my ability as a leader to inspire, I try to invoke positive and energetic feelings into the work atmosphere in my briefings, discussion, and conversations. Work can be stressful and can be seen as something that people do just for their livelihoods. In my position as a boss, I aim to make the workplace enjoyable by relating our jobs to the greater mission on behalf of my organization. I aim to build camaraderie and morale by showing my passion for the job. By doing so, I am able to incorporate passion into my leadership style. Denning (2011, p. 283) emphasizes that passion in leadership is 'another ingredient that is missing from the traditional mode of management.' The passion that I am able to convey helps to motivate others in seeing the vision of what they are supporting and can end up being contagious in making a pleasant atmosphere.

Leadership that includes Beauty

On a similar vein to the feeling aspect of leadership, I aim to depict a narrative that is beautiful as well. Denning (2011, p. 288) relates this to a narrative that is told that reaches the many levels of the self in an aim to reach the 'deeper coherence of the world.' For me, when I talk to my team or the organization at large, I tend to reach out to the deep and rich historical aspects of my organization. The legacy that our organization stands upon is on the shoulders of giants and this is reflected in our story. Romano (2017) notes that our location in Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado is named after an influential researcher in the field of nuclear forensics, Mr. Michael Harkins. He was able to develop innovative techniques in gas analysis that helped to increase our analytical capabilities. I use stories such as these to show my employees the beautiful fabric of our organization's history and that they are part of it as well.

These three focal points that I convey in my leadership in terms of conversation, feeling, and beauty are what I use to communicate. This way of being interactive has helped me to build a stronger relationship with my co-workers and has been beneficial by allowing me to develop the rapport necessary to become an effective leader. From what I learned, professional communication skills takes time and practice to develop as with anything else. To further develop my leadership potential, Northouse (2016) discusses five fundamental practices that enable leaders to get extraordinary things accomplished:

1. Model the way by being the example
2. Inspire a shared vision through guiding people
3. Challenge the process by step into the unknown
4. Enable others to act through building trust and collaboration
5. Encourage the heart by being attentive to the needs of recognition

From these practices and what I know about leadership communication, I will continue on my career path with these in mind in order to hone my leadership skills. Learning about all of these leadership concepts are wonderful in theory, but the true power of it is being able to apply it in the world. Let's see what change I can bring about.

References

Denning, S. (2011). The leader’s guide to storytelling: Mastering the art and discipline of business narrative (Revised and updated edition). San Francisco, CA: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Northouse, P.G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and practice (7th ed.). Los Angeles, CA: Sage Publishing.

Romano, S.A. (2017, November 17). AFTAC names lab after 'giant' of nuclear forensics. United States Air Force. Retrieved from http://www.25af.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/1375243/aftac-names-lab-after-giant-of-nuclear-forensics/

A521.8.3.RB - Cornerstones of Speaking

Have you ever felt like you're talking, but nobody is listening? Julian Treasure in his video, “How to speak so that people want to listen” demonstrates some useful vocal exercises, shares tips on how to speak with empathy, and offers his vision for a resounding world of listening and understanding. He discusses his seven deadly sins of speaking.

In the video about comedian Kevin Hart, the presenter claims, “anyone can learn to tell a good story”.

Using the information from the Treasure and Hart videos, as well as Whalen’s’ Chapters 4 &19, write a reflection blog sharing what useful information you will take with you to perform future presentations. Describe any particular things you do to capture attention.

The emotional feelings of anxiety and fear are common to when about to engage in communication with other people. Whether it is giving a speech in front of a large audience or confronting a team member about an issue, variations of these feelings are bound to happen. The symptoms that can result include increased heart rate, sweaty palms, dry mouth, or blanking out (Whalen, 2007). However, the uncomfortable nature that communicating may give us can provide the opportunity to grow and learn from the experience. By taking the risk of communicating with others, we are able to gain a reward in interpersonal relationships as well as developing our way in effective speaking.

Treasure (2016) gives a method to craft our message through H.A.I.L. which is honesty, authenticity, integrity, and love. By focusing on these guidelines in the way we communicate, we can improve our message by being more direct and genuine to the listener causing them to be more responsive to our message. By being honest with our message, it allows the speaker to the point rather than beating around the bush. This can help to keep the message simple and straight preventing any confusion or misinterpretation of the message. By focusing on authenticity, it allows the speaker to be who they are in terms of speaking from what the message means to them. This can allow passion to arise because it relates to the speaker on personal level rather than superficially. This ties into to the next component of integrity. This can translate to saying what you mean and meaning what you say. You want people to trust what you are saying instead of taking it as a lie. Lastly, by love, this focus is on wishing people well in that you want them to hear the message and to hopefully agree or adopt the viewpoint as well. This is to allow positive discourse and room for constructive criticism if it arises as well. We are all entitled to our opinions so just because a message is not agreed upon does not mean it is the end of conversation. If you allow people to hear your message, then you should be able to let them respond with their thoughts as well. By using these key components in developing a presentation can help me to give an effective presentation by staying focus on my message while doing so in a professional and responsible manner.

To engage an audience, Hart (2016) uses three tactics to get people to listen. The first one is to develop a more personal relationship with the audience by directly acknowledging them. In order to tell a good story, you need to have their undivided attention first. Without the attention from the intended audience, we are not able to fully relay our message. Secondly, when the attention is received, it is vital to maintain the engagement by staying fully committed to the story. This is in the form of expression or actions that give depth to the message. This also relates to the use of vocal techniques such as register, timbre, prosody, pace, and volume (Treasure, 2016). By varying our intonation, sound, and inflection of our voices, the message can be more impactful by adding to the emotional aspect of the message. These additional expressions help to maintain attention to the conclusion of the story. Lastly, practice makes perfect. By constantly refining our way of communicating, we can figure out what works and what does not work. This will ultimately give us our voice and can give us the charismatic persona to be an effective speaker.

For my presentation, I will focus on crafting my message through the perspective of the intended audience while thinking of the tactic and advice given by Hart (2016) and Treasure (2016). By focusing with who will be hearing my presentation, I am able to perform an audience analysis which will allow my message to be given in an effective manner. This will help to ensure that while defining my purpose I am able to break it down into manageable pieces that are memorable and relatable to the audience. McKay, Davis, and Fanning (2009, p. 301) notes that 'choosing the appropriate language, examples, jokes, and overall tone' are all important considerations to have in communication. My other focus will be to record myself and listen to how I sound to ensure that the intonations and inflections are natural rather than robotic. This will help me to be more self-aware and knowledgeable of how I sound to others. Lastly, while crafting my message, I will ensure that I will not commit any of the sins of speaking according to Treasure (2016):

1. Gossip (i.e. speaking ill of somebody not present)
2. Judging (i.e. very hard to listen to somebody if you know you're being judged)
3. Negativity (i.e. not enjoyable to listen to negative things)
4. Complaining (i.e. simple spread of misery)
5. Excuses (i.e. nobody appreciates someone who can't take responsibility for their actions)
6. Exaggeration (i.e. cheapens language and can feel like outright lying sometimes)
7. Dogmatism (i.e. confusion of facts with opinions)

By focusing on the structure of my presentation, layout of slide content, delivery of speech, and overall message with the methods mentioned above, I should be able to give an effective presentation with these items in mind.

References

Hart, K. [Charisma on Command]. (2016, February 22). Kevin Hart's 3 secrets to hilarious storytelling [Video File]. YouTube. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vn_L4OPU_rg

McKay, M., Davis, M., & Fanning, P. (2009). Messages: The communication skills book (3rd ed.). Oakland, CA: New Harbinger Publications.

Treasure, J. [QuickTalks]. (2016, May 18). How to speak so that people want to listen | Julian Treasure (TED talk summary) [Video File]. YouTube. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEkEAFaV818

Whalen, J.D. (2007). The professional communications toolkit. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

A521.7.3.RB - Secret Structure

Watch the TedX Talk by Nancy Duarte titled, “The Secret Structure of Great Talks.” In the video, Duarte describes a few different structures / outlines. She also discusses techniques used by Steven Jobs and Martin Luther King, Jr. For your reflection blog, share what of Duarte’s techniques you might use in your upcoming presentation and how you might use them.

In the lecture by Duarte (2012), the big message is that an idea from the human mind is the most powerful force known to man. The reason being is that it has the potential to change the world. However, the caveat is that the idea has to spread and become accepted by others in order to be effective. If an idea is kept inside the mind of an individual, then that idea has no way of being heard. The differences in the way that an idea is communicated can determine whether it is successful or rejected by the audience. This ties into the discussion that we have discussed in class in terms of message strategy. According to Whalen (2007), there are five effective speaking tools that are used in helping to convey a message being the tone of voice, facial expression, body language, word selection, and delivery. These components help us to communicate not only what we say, but what we intend to do as well. This can be further tied to the ideas of McKay, Davis, and Fanning (2009) in paralanguage, metamessages, and transactional analysis that also can determine the intention behind communication. For my presentation, it will be important to have the messages given for my idea to be as direct as possible so that my vision can be conceived by the audience in a clear way.

The most effective way to convey idea is through a story. Duarte (2012) asks the question why is it that a story is engaging, but typically fails during a presentation? She looks at various examples of story telling to include Aristotle and the three-act structure that includes a beginning, middle, and end and follows up with heroic storylines. In this case, she points out that most presenters take it upon themselves to be the hero of the story. What she found out is that it is actually the audience that has that role because they are the one that has the ability to adopting the idea given by the speaker. The goal of the presenter is to be the mentor for the audience in helping them become the hero of the dialogue. This idea can be used with my presentation as well. My goal will be to provide information on how automation technology in the home can help environmental sustainability, but it is up to the audience on whether or not they will take that call to action.

Duarte (2012) notes that at the beginning of every presentation there needs to be an establishment of the status quo or 'what is' followed by 'what it could be.' The gap between the two should be as big as possible in order to make a compelling case to the audience. This reminds me of the need to develop trust with the audience. According to Denning (2011), we should tell our story to others in order to stop being strangers and move toward becoming acquainted through a bond of trust. This allows a more personal connection to be made that makes the message more relatable because they can trust the message that the speaker is giving. After the initial bond is made, then it is in the capability of the speaker to traverse between these two ideas of 'what if' and 'what could be' to depict a call to action. Every presentation should have a call to action with an ending that describes what could be if the state is attained. For my presentation, the use of a future story helps to share a vision that can be adopted by the listeners. It will be important to tell a story that allows the listener to think about tomorrow's possibilities and to take action from this influence. This story will entail the current technologies that we have today and what it can do if people were to adopt automated technologies to save energy, time, and money. My focus on having a plausible story that is evocative will be an important feature to have in order to have listeners adopt this vision.

References

Denning, S. (2011). The leader’s guide to storytelling: Mastering the art and discipline of business narrative (Revised and updated edition). San Francisco, CA: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Duarte, N. (2012). The secret structure of great talks [Video File]. Ted Conferences, LLC. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/nancy_duarte_the_secret_structure_of_great_talks/transcript

McKay, M., Davis, M., & Fanning, P. (2009). Messages: The communication skills book (3rd ed.). Oakland, CA: New Harbinger Publications.

Whalen, J.D. (2007). The professional communications toolkit. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.