1/16/22, 1:40 PM 3-1/4-1 Discussion: Adaptive Leadership Toolkit – MBA-530-X3526 Leading People & Organizations 22TW3

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3-1/4-1 Discussion: Adaptive Leadership Toolkit

MBA-530-X3526 Leading People & Organizations 22… TM

This discussion topic will span two weeks to Module Four.

First, you will need to review the employee engagement survey assessment that you completed

in Module Two by implementing the grow, reality, obstacles, and way forward (GROW) model.

Based on the findings, you will visualize and discuss what you plan to include in your adaptive

leadership toolkit.

Think from the aspect of the tools found in a toolbox in many homes, such as a hammer,

wrenches, pliers, saws, and screwdrivers. A single tool does not work in all situations. If you use a

wrench to drive a nail instead of using a hammer, it might work. But it won’t work as well as a

hammer.

Now consider things from the perspective of leadership skills and behaviors. For adaptive

leadership to be effective, it is imperative that leaders use different tools in different situations.

Equally important is developing a metric, a means by which the desired behavior can be

periodically assessed. The measure you set determines the behavior you get, so effective leaders

first determine the desired behavior, and then develop a metric to periodically assess progress.

In Module Three, you will post your initial response, while in Module Four, you will assess other

learners’ posts and provide them with your input. This allows you additional time to make your

initial post strong, robust, and well supported. For your initial post, you should consider the

following questions:

What leadership behaviors are needed to improve the work environment, determined via

your assessment of the employee engagement survey?

What leadership skills would you recommend including in your organizational leader’s

toolkit to develop the identified leadership behaviors?

How will improvements in the recommended leadership skills and behaviors improve

organizational performance?

Post your initial response by Sunday evening of Module Three.

In Module Four, review the initial posts of at least two of your peers, addressing the following

“Stop/Start/Continue” feedback questions:

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MBA 530 Multiweek Discussion Rubric

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Stop: What are the leadership skills and behaviors the learner has selected that you

recommend be stopped, i.e., not pursued? Provide the rationale as to why you believe a

leadership skill they have selected may not be the most appropriate focus area based on

your review of the employee engagement survey results. If you don’t identify any

leadership behavior focus area to stop, then how would you suggest one or more of the

targeted leadership behavior areas be modified to better address the outcome desired?

Start: What leadership skills and behaviors do you recommend the learner add as a focus

area? Provide the rationale for your recommendation as well as one to two suggested

ways this leadership skill/behavior could be targeted for improvement.

Continue: For the recommendations that the learner has made that you fully agree with,

provide commentary as to why you believe the selected leadership skills and behaviors

area is appropriate to be addressed.

To complete this assignment, review the Multiweek Discussion Rubric.

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Discussion 3-1/4-1: Adaptive Leadership Toolkit
Maureen Dionne posted Jan 16, 2022 1:03 PM Subscribe

The employee satisfaction survey results show that in the four-year period the percent of

favorable results dropped significantly in several categories and that overall job-satisfaction has

decreased amongst employees. Employees report less favorable results overall, and significant

decreases were noted related to the amount of recognition and praise from supervisors, the company’s

use of employee’s skills, the amount the company cares for employees, training and development plan

creation with supervisors. During the four-year period employees reported a 10 percent drop in positive

responses when asked about overall job satisfaction. Based on the survey results it is clear that the

organization must improve in the leadership behaviors of enabling others to act, encouraging the heart,

and challenging the process.

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When specifically asked if employees feel encouraged to come up with new and better ways of

doing things employees reported only 35 percent positive responses in the current year. This specific

question speaks directly to the company’s ability to challenge, innovate, improve processes, and shows

a decrease in their willingness to do so. Based on employee’s response the company is lacking in the

behavior of challenging (and enabling employees to challenge) the process, the company also is

limiting instead of enabling others to act.

Within our textbook James Kouzes and Barry Posner identify the importance of challenging

existing processes as it is this leadership behavior which looks for opportunities for growth,

innovation, improvement, and progress (Kouzes & Posner, 2017). Kouzes and Posner also note that

enabling others to act is important because it fosters “collaboration by building trust and facilitating

relationships” (Kouzes & Posner, 2017).

Finally, the company is lacking in the amount of recognition and praise that supervisors provide

employees. When asked if supervisors take the time to praise those who do an excellent job employees

reported only 35% percent favorable responses (down from 44% four years ago); and when asked if

people that work extra hard to meet goals are rewarded accordingly employees reported only 31%

favorable responses (down from 40% four years ago). Based on these responses it is clear that the

company is not ‘encouraging the heart.’ Regarding this leadership behavior Kouzes and Posner say that

it is important “leaders recognize contributions by showing appreciation for individual excellence”

(Kouzes & Posner, 2017). Encouraging the heart creates a positive community culture in which

people’s individual contributions are celebrated.

Based on the responses, there are a number of skills that I would add to the company’s

leadership toolkit in order to develop and grow the identified lacking leadership behaviors.

Enabling Others to Act:

Build trust with employees (work to improve emotional intelligence, advocate for

employees’ skills and talents)

Cultivate talent (supervisors should meet with each resource to identify skills, abilities,

goals, and growth plans for each)

Empower constituents to take on further responsibilities

Identify ways to increase self-determination and develop competence amongst all

employees

1/16/22, 1:40 PM 3-1/4-1 Discussion: Adaptive Leadership Toolkit – MBA-530-X3526 Leading People & Organizations 22TW3

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Challenge the Process:

Collaborate with team members to identify new ways to solve problems

Cultivate talent (improving and building on employee skills will bring new ideas to

light)

Identify ways to experiment and take risks to consistently generate small wins and learn

from experience (successes and failures)

Encourage the Heart

Recognize contributions by showing appreciation for individual excellence (establish

formal and informal employee recognition programs)

Celebrate victories by creating a spirit of community (create regularly scheduled

opportunities to establish community building amongst employees)

Improve communication regarding employee successes (practically speaking this could

be done through regular employee emails, bulletin boards around the office, or a

company newsletter)

Building on each of these three leadership behaviors would vastly improve overall job satisfaction

amongst employees. Developing the company’s behavior regarding ‘Encouraging the Heart’ would

improve the overall organizational performance as it directly relates to the employees belief that the

organization is not invested in them, their wellbeing, and the lack of recognition and praise. Improving

employee recognition and praise has been shown to improve company morale, overall job satisfaction

and productivity.

Enabling others to act and challenging the process would go a long way in improving the

organizational performance related to continuous improvement and innovation. By limiting the amount

of skill utilization and minimizing the amount the encouragement of employees to come up with new

and better ways of doing things the company is not forward thinking and is entrenched in existing

processes and methodologies. Improving the number of skills and abilities they capitalize on for each

employee and the amount by which they are encouraged to think of new ideas this too would improve

overall employee morale, satisfaction and productivity. As Kouzes and Posner stated, “when

you strengthen others by increasing self-determination and developing competence, they are more

likely to give it their all and exceed their own expectations” (Kouzes & Posner, 2017). Challenging the

process has been shown to identify new processes, improve efficiencies, create new opportunities, products

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and services; improving the company’s behavior in this area would significantly improve overall organizational

performance. Each of the leadership behaviors are interrelated, and the results from the employee survey

indicate that developing the skills in one area would benefit the overall satisfaction employees have within the

organization.

References

Kouzes, J. M., & Posner, B. (2017). The leadership challenge. Wiley.

Leadership toolkit Leadership at UF (n d ) Retrieved January 16 2022 from
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Rafael Sanchez posted Dec 16, 2021 11:35 AM

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All discussion posts are due by Thursday’s 11:59 PM and your responses to two peers

using APA, Citations, and References. Assignments are due on Sundays at 11:59 PM. Please

use Citations and references in all of your posts! This course rubric for our milestones requires

that we have citations and references in our papers your discussion post is an opportunity for

you to research and find citations and references for your milestones. This is a two week post

so please be active for both weeks.

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1/16/22, 1:40 PM 3-1/4-1 Discussion: Adaptive Leadership Toolkit – MBA-530-X3526 Leading People & Organizations 22TW3

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