Individual Leadership Self-Assessment Project
Reframing My Leadership Performance
Dr. Kenneth Allard’s Conceptual Foundations of Management course has improved my performance as a manager and future as a leader. I have learned the distinction between managers and leaders and what skills are required to fulfill each position. As a result of this course, I have made plans to continue my development as both a great manager and leader.
The lectures and assignments in this course have already affected my management performance; these improvements have built a foundation for me to continue my development as a successful manager and leader. Richard T. Pascale, Mark Millemann, and Linda Gioja ‘s Surfing the Edge of Chaos changed the way I manage people and processes at my current job. My first assignment in Dr. Allard’s class was to write a paper about this book and how it relates to an organization I have associated in. This assignment helped me realize that the president of my company is expert at guiding change in an increasingly networked world. It also aided me in understanding many of the decisions my company, Key Insulation, has made, thus allowing me to participate in decision making processes. Examining alternative conceptual frames for understanding and analyzing organizations provided another conceptual lens for me to apply to Key Insulation. I now understand that leaders operate under more than one behavioral mode, and I try to integrate Lee G. Bolman and Terrence E. Deal’s four frameworks to managerial situations I encounter. For example, I have used Bolman and Deal’s frames at the planning stage of a change initiative at my current job to diagnose company needs, identify challenges, and devise appropriate actions. My company currently does not have the budget to hire more employees but is expanding operations to other cities in Texas. We hope to use this statewide expansion as a model to serve markets in other states. I found that the human resource, symbolic, and structural frameworks
Dr. Kenneth Allard’s Conceptual Foundations of Management course has improved my performance as a manager and future as a leader. I have learned the distinction between managers and leaders and what skills are required to fulfill each position. As a result of this course, I have made plans to continue my development as both a great manager and leader.
The lectures and assignments in this course have already affected my management performance; these improvements have built a foundation for me to continue my development as a successful manager and leader. Richard T. Pascale, Mark Millemann, and Linda Gioja ‘s Surfing the Edge of Chaos changed the way I manage people and processes at my current job. My first assignment in Dr. Allard’s class was to write a paper about this book and how it relates to an organization I have associated in. This assignment helped me realize that the president of my company is expert at guiding change in an increasingly networked world. It also aided me in understanding many of the decisions my company, Key Insulation, has made, thus allowing me to participate in decision making processes. Examining alternative conceptual frames for understanding and analyzing organizations provided another conceptual lens for me to apply to Key Insulation. I now understand that leaders operate under more than one behavioral mode, and I try to integrate Lee G. Bolman and Terrence E. Deal’s four frameworks to managerial situations I encounter. For example, I have used Bolman and Deal’s frames at the planning stage of a change initiative at my current job to diagnose company needs, identify challenges, and devise appropriate actions. My company currently does not have the budget to hire more employees but is expanding operations to other cities in Texas. We hope to use this statewide expansion as a model to serve markets in other states. I found that the human resource, symbolic, and structural frameworks
Cited: Surfing the Edge of Chaos, Pascale, Milleman & Gioja, (NY: Three Rivers, 2000). Reframing Organizations, Bolman & Deal, Jossey-Bass, 3rd Edition, 2003. “Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail,” Kotter, Harvard Business Review, 2007 January 1. “HP at a Strategic Crossroad,” Farhoomand, Asia Case Research Center, 2005 August 3.