The “Seven Habits Profile” is an enlightening tool for evaluating one’s leadership skill set. I discovered my three strongest habits were “Seek First to Understand,” “Sharpen the Saw,” and “Emotional Bank Account.” I was weaker in the habits of “Put First Things First,” “Life Balance,” and “Begin with the End in Mind.” Upon reflection, my strengths are dependent upon one another. My weaknesses too share a similar theme. I received a score of 16 on my first strength of “Seek First to Understand.” Throughout my life, I have frequently been told that I excel at listening to others and in showing empathy. I find it is a simple task for me to put myself in the in the position of others, especially when they are experiencing some hardship at the moment. This strength is evident when I am traveling, especially internationally.
I have studied, worked, and lived in a few different countries and while I have experienced the unavoidable culture shock, I have mostly thrived off of these experiences. My motto when traveling is “do what the locals do,” and I accomplish that by staying with residents of that city. I ask questions and learn from them what makes their, albeit different, culture so appealing to me. At the office, I am usually the one chatting with patients about who they are and their history.
Learning about a person makes it a simple task to empathize with a variety of positions. The second category I received a score of 16 in was “Sharpen the Saw.” Nearly fifteen years ago, when I was finishing up my undergrad program, I had a professor stress to us the importance of knowing the order of our priorities in life. That lesson has stayed with me throughout my professional career. I take the time I need to reset mentally, physically, and socially. I make it a priority to run a few times each week to stay healthy and relieve the stress that builds up during the day.
Most importantly for me, is my passion for traveling and exploring the world. I take time away from the office to completely reset at least once a year, if not a few times a year, even if it is just a weekend trip to another island of Hawai’i. I encourage my subordinates to do the same. I talk to them about what they do to unwind and rejuvenate themselves from their time at work. Our staff works twelve-hour shifts. Consequently, the time away from the office is precious. The staff observes that it is acceptable to take care of themselves and are encouraged to take the time they need so that our team might be healthy.
I demonstrate strength in the category “Emotional Bank Account,” in which I received a score of 14. I believe this relates closely to the first strength I possess. I believe that kindness can make a world of difference in a person’s life. With the rise of social media, I people have become much more critical and condescending towards one another, especially when their identity is unknown. We have forgotten that a kind word can change the trajectory of a person’s day, if not their life. I am also repeating, “just be kind,” at the office and in many social settings. I strive to live by example with honoring commitments made to my friends, family, and co-workers. In the office, I desire to build that atmosphere of trust and mutual respect, and being a leader who keeps her promises is essential to establishing that reputation.
It is vital to creating a culture that does not tolerate speaking negatively about co-workers when they are not around. It is easy to get caught up in blaming one another or pointing out one another’s short-comings when working in a setting that requires all roles to depend upon one another. By giving everyone the benefit of the doubt and showing grace when faced with a mistake, the team learns to extend that same courtesy amongst themselves. I am weakest in the category of “Put First Things First” with a score of 11. I am a relatively spontaneous person and can find myself easily distracted from doing a more tedious task when a simpler and more enjoyable event is also available. While I know what I need for a healthy work-life balance, I often find myself unable to leave the office and my subordinates because there are many tasks left to accomplish. My assistant is often telling me to go home for the day so that I might get to the other events I have scheduled.
My second weakest category is “Life Balance” also with a score of 11. Surrounding myself by people I care about rejuvenates me and I recognize I need to be in their company. I am relaxed by the time spent by the ocean and by allowing my brain to unwind by reading a book for pleasure. My job demands a lot of me, and when I do not regularly allow myself the time to do these activities, I suffer for it. My work also suffers for it as I begin to experience burn-out. I believe I am getting better at giving myself the time I need to refresh and reset my mind, but it will always be an area I struggle with. I have difficulty in not taking on every task presented to me. My third weakest category is “Begin with the End in Mind,” in which I received a score of 12. I am not an excellent planner.
Due to my spontaneous nature, I naturally reject routine tasks. I have a vague idea of what I would like to accomplish in the future; however, with my husband in the military our life is so transitional that I am continuously adapting to a new setting, a new job, a new culture, and even a new country every few years. I thrive on the change, but it makes it difficult to plan too far in advance, especially with such little notice of where the next move will take us. I find that this reflects in how I prepare for daily duties whether at home or work. I can create a high level of stress by putting off various tasks because I did not adequately plan nor prepare for what I needed to accomplish on a given day.
Three Leadership Strengths Within the theory of leadership, I identify as a situational leader. I have identified three of my strengths within this theory, the first being adaptability and flexibility in regards to change. As a spouse of a military member, I am adept at adjusting to changing circumstances at a moment’s notice. This skill reveals itself as I supervise various employees daily. As the Assistant Manager for a busy dental clinic, our daily routine is often interrupted by the current patient’s chief complaint. Depending on which staff members I am supervising that day, I can either focus more on my Managerial tasks or I will be relied upon to lend a hand with the front office duties, like treatment planning. Daft (2014) identifies the four styles of leadership for a situational leader.
These include: directing, coaching, supporting, and entrusting employees and are based on the readiness of the employee, not the employer. I have demonstrated strength in changing from one leadership style to another as I work with several individuals during the day. My second area of strength is my ability to assess how quickly a new hire can proceed with their training and given duties. I am responsible for much of the onboarding and the training of new staff and can adjust the training schedule to fit the needs of the new hire. We have been fortunate to have hired several bright young women for both our front office and back office staff, and they quickly required little to no monitoring to assure they were able to complete all tasks correctly. In fact, in less than a year they were promoted into Lead positions which included taking on additional responsibilities.
We also have staff who take longer to pick up the details of their job and I must progress at a slower pace with them, often finding repetition is their key to success. Depending upon the abilities and the maturity of my subordinates I can move from a leadership style that is dependent upon tasks to one that is more relationship based. As my staff matures into their roles, I will eventually give them complete independence to complete their assigned tasks. Aligning duties with maturity and a hunger for more responsibility and independence is a critical element of situational leadership (Hersey, Blanchard, & Natemeyer, 1979). My third area of strength is knowing which of the seven power bases identified by Hersey, et al. (1979) I should implement with each employee as the specific circumstances direct the interaction. Our management team strongly relies on the reward power to influence the staff’s motivation.
Occasionally, when a staff member is difficult or even insubordinate, I must depend on legitimate power to achieve the desired results. With an employee that is a mature and fast learner, I can rely on referent power and expert power when supervising their work. Three Leadership Weaknesses I have discovered three weaknesses as they pertain to my role as a situational leader. The first weakness is my instinct to take over for an employee who is unable to complete a task versus adapting to their current leadership style requirements. Waldman and Bowen (2016) describe this as one of the paradoxes situational leaders face as they aim to both maintain and relinquish control to developing employees.
I am a controller by nature, and it is difficult for me to fight that instinct when I am working with an employee that takes a longer time to develop a skill or perform a task. When a patient needs an immediate answer, it feels natural for me to step in and answer all of their questions instead of letting my staff figure out the solution on their own. I hinder their development when I act on this instinct. My second weakness as a situational leader is my predisposition to avoid confrontation. Shaw (2014, Chapter 3) identifies twenty blindspots with one being a “tendency to avoid difficult conversations.” When a staff member is underperforming, it puts stress on the other members of the team. They become frustrated that the same basic standards are not applied to everyone equally and eventually become less motivated to perform their tasks.
Due to my dislike of confrontation and my empathy towards people in difficult situations, I can stray from leading from a position of legitimate power and instead coddle the ineffective employee to the detriment of the entire team. My third weakness as a situational leader pertains to my propensity to overwhelm my mature, competent staff members with extra duties because I believe them to be capable of handling them. The development of newer staff is hindered as they are trying to figure out how to balance their life with their new job when I task them with too much responsibility too soon.
When staff members show a natural knack for picking up the nuances of the position, I can forget that they do not have the benefit of time and experience on the job to know all of the specifics for completing the task. I forget about the readiness aspect of my subordinate to be able to accomplish a duty to the company standards. Daft (2014) defines readiness as both the willingness and the ability an employee has for doing a task. In focusing on the employee’s eagerness to please and perform a role, I find myself ignoring their lack of ability and forget to define the parameters for accomplishing the task. I will leave the employee frustrated if I continue in this manner.
To maximize my success as a leader, I have identified three theory-based changes. The first change is adopting the correct leadership style that compliments both the situation and the learning curve of my new hires. I need to systematically process through the four leadership styles Daft (2014) identifies. The less a staff member knows, the more I must act as a director or a coach. As the employee gains confidence in the task they are undertaking I can move into the role of a supporter or even a leader who entrusts her staff with full autonomy to complete a project. Doing so will prevent me from both taking control away from an employee and overwhelming my new hires with too many tasks or too much information.
The second change I can implement is pausing to reflect on my employees’ perceptions. I can even survey them to rate myself as a leader. Zigarmi & Roberts (2017) examine initiating structure and consideration and how staff perceives these task-oriented and people-oriented leadership behaviors. I can apply these theories to the challenging conversations I must have with members of my team who are underperforming. By showing consideration to my employees who are executing given tasks at or above expectations, I must, in turn, initiate a structure with specific guidelines for my employees are not yet willing or able to produce results as expected.
The third change needed to succeed as a manager is to become more person-centered as I enable the growth of my employees. Lynch (2015) found that a situational leader’s role is to facilitate the development of what she calls “followers,” or in my situation employees, in gaining an understanding of their capacity for growth and development. Encouraging my staff to do their own self-assessment of their learning styles, current growth and knowledge, and willingness to learn will allow the employee to take on more responsibility for their personal growth and development. My staff will feel empowered and will potentially increase their drive to succeed in their respective roles. SMART Goals to Improve Leadership Practice I have two SMART Goals to improve upon my leadership practice and skills.
My first goal is having my assistant fully trained up to take my place when we open a new office. My goal is specific because it involves one-on-one training with a designated employee and involves a series of logical steps for us to take together. I will measure the goal through a tracking system of all the tasks she must learn. I will have weekly check-in meetings with her, and the progress will be overseen by my current Office Manager. This goal is attainable as my assistant is an intelligent employee who is capable of taking on the new information and the new duties she will be expected to learn. The process will be facilitated by the use of knowledge checks, webinars, and on the job training. This goal is relevant as I am working on becoming a better trainer of the leadership roles within our company.
Our practice has also identified a future opportunity arising for a second location, at which point I will leave the current office and my assistant will take over. I will accomplish this goal in seven-and-a-half months, or by October 1 of this year, which gives us the time needed to prepare her for running the office. My second specific leadership goal is improving my understanding of the financial side of the company for which I work. It is essential for my role as Assistant Manager to understand how and why we forecast our daily, monthly, and annual goals in the manner we do.
I will measure my progress in learning and applying these new skills by meeting with my Office Manager weekly as we go over the previous month’s numbers and the current month’s goals. I will also measure my progress by taking on the task of forecasting the goals for the monthly staff meeting and having my manager confirm whether or not my work is correct. It is an attainable goal as it aligns with my duties as the Assistant Manager. It is also achievable because my Office Manager is encouraging my development in this area and is supplying me with the tools and the assistance that I require. The goal is relevant to my role as the manager who is running the daily operations of the office. It will allow me to lead my team to a better understanding of how and why we operate the way that we do. The time frame I plan to accomplish this goal in is six and a half weeks, by April 1 of this year.
Actions to Reach My SMART Goals I have developed two actions that will assist me in having my assistant fully trained up to take my place within the seven and a half month timeframe. The first action is compiling a checklist of every task she will need to learn within the set deadline. It will be organized by tasks and built out in a way that evenly distributes the duties she must learn in an order that makes sense in the light of the business. The second action consists of a weekly thirty-minute check-in with my assistant to discuss any problem areas and to find the solutions based on her skill set. It will also include a monthly hour-long meeting with our current Office Manager as she will be overseeing the entire training process. I have identified two actions that will coordinate my development in understanding the financial aspects of the company by which I am currently employed.
My first plan of action is to schedule an hour-long meeting with my manager. In this meeting, she will teach me how to forecast annual goals. During this session I will practice forecasting goals for various hypothetical situations that could affect our company. The second action step is meeting with my Office Manager at the end of every month as she prepares and forecasts the goals for the upcoming month. I will take on the task of doing the actual goal setting, and she will check my work for accuracy and offer any insight and additional training as needed. I look forward to the challenge of applying these action steps to my current role of Office Manager. I believe that they will encourage me to become a better leader of my team. Examining my personal style of leadership has created the opportunity for reflection on how I currently mange my team and has made me aware of any changes that need to be made so that I might be a more effective leader.
