Essay Example: Reflection and Experiences on Culture and Diversity

Ramon Escobar gave a detailed look at the importance of culture and diversity in an organization and how they can be tapped to ensure the success of the organization. There are various lessons that I learned from watching Escobar's lecture and discussion of culture and diversity. First, I have understood that culture is a crucial component of the organization. Specifically, I learned that without a strong organizational culture, everything could go wrong in an organization, and goals won't be achieved. The speaker noted that "even with great strategies and great ideas, the absence of strong organizational culture results in organizational failure." Therefore, a leader should strive to ensure that all the followers have a shared set of values and beliefs that act as a unifying factor rather than a dividing one.

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A line that captured my interest in Escobar's lecture is that "culture eats strategy for breakfast." Therefore, I understood that no matter how the strategies laid down in a company are suitable or practical, the only way to ensure that the strategy work or a company realizes its goals is the culture. That is, what the employees believe in and how they behave determines performance. Because of this, in my leadership position, my first focus is to ensure that my subordinates have norms and values that are aligned with the company's goals. After I have inculcated the norms and values, the next step is to share the strategies needed to achieve the organizational objectives and goals. This is attributed to the fact that the employees are more likely to implement the strategy required to achieve the objectives and goals if they have norms and values such as honesty and hard work.

I also understood that a leader must show the 4Es of leadership if s/he is to succeed- energy, edge, execute and energize. Regarding energy, I learned that an organization could achieve its goals. A leader should show enthusiasm and high stamina in their job. My understanding of 'energy' is that as a leader, one can set whatever course s/he wants the organization to take if s/he has boundless energy and wakes up every day ready to accomplish tasks at hand. Enthusiasm, an essential component of 'energy,' implies that a leader should manifest intense love and interest in what s/he is doing. On the other hand, I learned that 'edge' is demonstrated by a leader's tenacity, ability to take risks, boldness, and decision-making. This means that as a leader, a person should show determination and persistence in all the undertakings. This implies that a leader has no room for giving up even when s/he encounters near-insurmountable difficulties and challenges.

Apart from culture, I learned that diversity is a crucial aspect of leadership. Diversity is a full range of differences (and similarities) that make an individual unique, some of which are visible while some are invisible. Regarding variety, I understood that a leader should be all-inclusive. That is, s/he should bring onboard employees from diverse backgrounds, recognize, value, and leverage on diversity to create an atmosphere of equality and one that delivers results. That is, s/he should utilize people's differences to the benefit of the organization, not merely tolerating them. This is because diverse teams bring better results when led well compared to homogenous groups. Lastly, it is worth noting that in the inclusion scale, appreciating the employees is vital for the success of any company. Consequently, I learned that a leader needs to see people's differences as positives and to consider them to have the traits you value.

Reflection and Experiences on Observing Emotional Shifts

One of the essential aspects of leadership is emotional intelligence - being aware of our emotions and their impact on ourselves. In Michael's lecture on emotional shifts, I learned that a leader should not only be mindful of his feelings and how s/he is affected by them. Still, s/he should also be aware of others' emotions and how s/he can adapt his or her interactions based on the feelings. I also learned that it is essential for a leader to read emotional shifts in people. This is because, in every 10-minute conversation, people lie 60% of this time. Regarding lying as a behavior, I learned that lying is not detrimental to the success of a leader or the organization. This is because, most of the time, an employee lies to avoid some consequences but not to hurt a leader or the organization.

I also understood that emotions could be classified as comfortable or uncomfortable. Comfortable emotions refer to emotions that an individual like experiencing. They can be described as 'ok' emotions or pleasant emotions. For example, when an employee feels that he or she is respected in a company, there is a high likelihood that s/he shows happiness or joy. Conversely, uncomfortable emotions are emotions that individuals do not like to experience, e.g., shame and guilt.

I further learned that changes in verbal and nonverbal behavior are attributed to internal emotional shifts. Therefore, when a leader realizes that an employee's verbal or non-verbal behavior has changed in a conversation, s/he should investigate the internal factors attributable to the changes. Therefore, knowing my subordinate's feelings, intentions, and motivations creates a strategic advantage. This is because by understanding the internal triggers of emotions, a leader can alter the conversation to ensure that the subordinate does not experience uncomfortable feelings. Specifically, it is crucial to understand what triggers a behavioral change in a conversation. Upon realizing the cause, one can adjust communication to take care of the other's feelings and emotions.

Moreover, I learned that when a leader wants to understand why an individual is lying, context is king. This is attributable to the fact that behavior change may be linked to environmental factors such as the presence of other people. Furthermore, an emotional message can be understood by examining how it is expressed. Michael noted that when evaluating communication, it is crucial to realize that 55% to 65% of an emotional message is carried out by non-verbal behavior, 30-40% is by the tone of voice, and less than 10% by words spoken.

Reflection and Experiences on Team Work, Decision-Making, and Motivation

Dr. Bert's "Mt Everest" was an eye-opener on the importance of teamwork and mentorship in achieving organizational goals. Specifically, I learned that mentors provide the support needed to facilitate success in a particular activity. In a corporate setting, a leader must ensure that experienced employees to provide on-job training to newly employed individuals to ensure that they learn the knowledge and skills needed on the job.

Dave Zielinski highlighted that delegation is one of the crucial aspects of leadership. However, even when a leader delegates duty to subordinates, s/he is still responsible for the results and outcomes of the project. Consequently, a leader should not blame subordinates for not doing the delegated job to my expectations. Because of this, I will ensure that whenever I transfer a task, I will follow up to ensure that the task is carried out properly. This is because accountability cannot be shared between a leader and a subordinate. The former remains accountable for everything that happens in an organization.

Dave further emphasized the need for a leader in understanding the difference between accountability and responsibility and how the two concepts are also related to each other. Upon listening to the lecture, I understood that the key difference between the two terms is that the latter can be shared but the former cannot. I believe that accountability implies that a person is responsible for something and also answerable for his or her actions. For example, as a leader of a company, I may choose to delegate my responsibility to my subordinate. However, if the subordinate does not perform the expected tasks, I will be held accountable or answerable for any wrongdoing.

Dave's lecture has also enabled me to understand the importance of motivation in an organization and ways of improving employees' morale. Before watching the lecture, I considered money as the key motivator in an organization. However, I have understood that even though money can make an employee work harder to reach goals, it is not an effective motivator. This is attributed to the fact that if an employee is capable of meeting his or her needs with, let us say, $10,000 per month, increasing the monthly income to $15,000 will not motivate him or her.

Application

As a Sr Global manager for product management, sales, and business development, there are various topics discussed by the speakers that resonated with my current job. First, the concept of delegation is critical in my current leadership position. I hope to delegate more to my subordinates to empower them. Specifically, through delegation, I provide my juniors the opportunity to flourish their abilities and skill. Delegation is also important because it will free me up whenever I have a huge workload. This is because by sharing some of the work with my juniors, I will be freed up to attend to more important and critical tasks. Consequently, I will become more effective in my work and accomplish objectives and goals faster. However, I have understood that before delegating, I need to assess whether the subordinate possesses the knowledge and skills necessary to complete a given task.

Second, the training of employees resonates well with my current responsibility. Specifically, when new employees are enrolled in my organization, they must be trained on what they will be doing. Through training, their knowledge and skills regarding their jobs are improved. Additionally, I believe that by training the recruits, their motivation will be improved- hence more likely to meet the organization's objectives and goals. This is because an employee who has undergone training has a sense of job security and job satisfaction. When an employee feels satisfied with his or her job, there is an increased likelihood that morale will be boosted. Because of this, such employees are more likely to contribute to the success of an organization because of improved productivity, decreased absenteeism, and reduced turnover. I also hope to retrain senior employees from time to time. This is attributed to the need to ensure that they maintain and update their job-related knowledge and skills, thus helping the organization to move ahead.

Third, diversity resonates well with my current position. I believe in the need to recruit individuals from diverse backgrounds into the organization regardless of their race, religion, socio-economic background, gender, and religion. This is because people from different backgrounds bring onboard diverse knowledge, skills, and experiences that benefit the organization through improved productivity and better delivery of desired results. I believe that appreciating employees' differences rather than tolerating them is vital for the success of an organization. Therefore, in my leadership role, I hope to see subordinates' differences as strengths and tap them to propel the company forward. Specifically, in senior management positions, I hope to ensure that there is equal gender representation and that all of them should come from diverse ethnic or racial backgrounds.

Moreover, the power of motivating employees in meeting the goals of the organization resonates well with my current leadership role. Improvement of employees' morale can be accomplished through monetary or non-monetary means.