solved In need of (2) substantive replies of 100 words each
In need of (2) substantive replies of 100 words each to (2) different post. Fundamental Leadership Dynamics Peer replies to further the conversation Student replied to at least two (2) classmates’ posts and each reply includes at least three (3) to four (4) sentences relating the classmate’s post to at least one (1) question/point of the Discussion Prompt. Responses are substantive and encourage discussion by proposing a different point of view supported by an attribution to a source, personal example, or personal application. All responses include related follow up questions to promote continued discussion. LESSON 1 ISSUE FOR DISCUSSION #2: How do adaptive and technical leadership challenges differ and provide an example in your career when you have or could have used each? Forum Post 1: Re: Lesson 1, IFD #2 Technical leadership challenges are generally easy to identify and can be solved through existing resources [1]. An example of this might be a company which has software issues that reduce efficiency [Ibid]. Conversely, Adaptive leadership challenges are dealing with the impact of changes such as shifting markets or increasing competition [2, Pg. 1]. While a technical challenge may have an immediate fix, adaptive challenges are often more systematic and complex. Most of my recent leadership is in my civilian capacity where the personnel I supervise produce numerous reports, and between COVID restrictions and now our operational tempo, we frequently communicate through technical means such as email. In one example of a technical leadership challenge, one of my personnel nearly quit our organization. Fortunately, I was able to talk him out of leaving, however, my employee decided to stay on his last day with our agency and his email accounts were deleted by our IT department despite being asked not to do so. The functional challenge was restoring my employee’s accounts as quickly as possible. To do this, I first had to provide a request to our IT office to create a new account for my employee and then I began calling the IT department every day because they took over a week to create his account. This was unacceptable to me because normally a new employee’s email would have been created in several days. However, I continued to interact with our IT department until they finally created the account for my employee. In another instance, shortly after being assigned to my current office, I learned that most of my employees had chronic latency issues with their reporting. Some of these reports were over a month late. These employees just weren’t writing their reports. This systematic lateness was an adaptive challenge and one that required immediate attention. To be fair to my employees, their reports sometimes sat without being published for weeks after being written. Working with my supervisor, I was able to ensure that I had release authority for the reports of my employees. Meanwhile, I had a long conversation with my new employees about the need for everyone to do their part. I explained that our headquarters was very concerned about timely reporting and that we needed to adhere to the standard reporting timelines which were uniformly applied across our organization. I also addressed the fact that sometimes their reports went unpublished for weeks and told them that I wouldn’t fault them for circumstances beyond their control and explained that I would be the one to release their reports in the future and that I would bear the full responsibility for any reports that were not released once they had submitted them to me. My only condition was that they provided me with satisfactory reports. In other words, I implored my personnel to make it a priority to write their reports on time and affirmed that my priority would be reviewing and releasing those reports as quickly as possible. Within one month, we reduced late reporting by over 80 percent. I’ve always found report writing to be a monotonous and thankless task. However, it is something that our agency stresses and places a tremendous value on. The good news for me and my employees was that once we got our latency issues in check, our headquarters left us alone which allowed me to provide my personnel with more autonomy, improving their morale considerably. Sources 1. Video: Technical vs. Adaptive Challenges in Organization; https://study.com 2. The Work of Leadership, Harvard Business Review, Ronald A. Heifetz and Donald L. Laurie, December 2001 Forum Post 2: Re: Lesson 1, IFD #2 First, an adaptive leadership challenge requires an all-around approach to solve a problem or find solutions. It looks and needs an out of the box thinking in order to succeed. A leader engages his or her staff and outside opinion in discussion on the problems and how to fix them, incorporating multiple layer approaches and not being afraid to expose the business or entity to external pressures. In fact, the point is to challenge norms and set processes and ideas which not are productive but resistant to change. A leader steps back and lets his or her staff provide solutions and new standing operating procedures. For an example, in my previous job in the Foreign Service, I served as a Consular Officer in Saudi Arabia; we had a program in which other sections would provide referrals for foreign nationals- often important contacts or sources of information- and give the foreign national an expedited visa appointment. When I arrive it was very chaotic, anyone could walk into the section during the day and drop off the required information, usually not done correctly or within the required timeframe. It was very distracting and time consuming. After I had been at post for seven months and assumed the responsibility to oversee this program, I conferred with my local staff chief who had fifteen years’ experience in her job and other sections on their referrals and why they made them and then made recommendations to my boss on how to improve the process. We changed how we did referrals, only accepting them at certain times of the day and week, and only American staff could drop them off. It improved efficiency and reduced the number of referrals we had to do. Morale in the section improved, and we reduced any possible fraud or national security concerns. Second, a technical leadership style takes a more routine approach. One attempts to understand the mission and personnel and any issues and problems, then seeks to make recommends within the given policies or orders already established. One might make changes if necessary, but the burden is placed on the leader to absorb information and then define expectations and the mission and expects staff to carry those orders out. As an example, when I was an Intelligence Instructor at Marine Aviation Weapons and Tactics Squadron One (MAWTS-1), my commanding officer (CO) wanted to change our entire scenario which we used as the backdrop for the twice-held Weapons and Instructor Course (WTI). The scenario had more or less been the same for a decade, concentrated on counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency operations. However, my CO knew that as the United States moved away from these types of missions, the focus would and should be on more conventional threats. Thus we changed the scenario to focus on operational plans (OPLANS). Since the other Intelligence Officer in my office had experience in OPLAN mission planning and execution as I did, we developed the enemy scenario and order of battle based on current intelligence and then directed our section to build the required slides, maps, and ops/ terms/ graphics to support the scenario. It required much work and focus, but the top down approach worked very well in this example as we had a very short timeline to develop our plans, receive the go ahead from the CO, and then make all the preparations for the next class. It worked well and made the course the better for it.