The goal of this Discussion will be to establish your own alignment between your Life Mission and Vision Statements and your Capstone Project and to help other group members do

Discussion 1: Affinity Group Checkpoint #1

Throughout this course, you will have the help and support of your peers by way of various Affinity Group checkpoints.

You should be purposeful in distinguishing between “mission” and “vision” in your posting. The goal of this Discussion will be to establish your own alignment between your Life Mission and Vision Statements and your Capstone Project and to help other group members do the same. You will also assist each other in increasing the clarity of the alignment of the statements.

Assignment:

Respond to two of your colleagues’ postings that contain a perspective other than yours. Your response will typically be 2–3 paragraphs in length, as a general expectation.

· Share an insight about what you learned from having read your colleagues’ postings and discuss how and why your colleague’s posting resonated with you professionally and personally. (Note: This may be a great opportunity to help you think about passions you share with your colleagues who could become part of your Walden network.)

· Offer an example from your experience or observation that validates what your colleague discussed.

· Offer specific suggestions that will help your colleague build upon his or her perceptions as a leader.

· Offer further assessment from having read your colleague’s post that could impact a leader’s effectiveness.

· Share how something your colleague discussed changed the way you consider your own leadership qualities.

· No Plagiarism

· APA citing

1st Colleague – Natasha Mills 

Research Paper Track – Week 2

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Despite the growing knowledge of the importance of effective leadership, many organizations are still struggling to find the right leaders to guide their workforce toward the realization of organizational goals. Simply put, the workplace is still filled with tyrants who think they are liberators. According to Wiseman (2017), liberators foster bold and best thinking and effort among their followers by creating an intense environment founded on these tenets. Tyrants, on the other hand, cause people to only bring up safe ideas or hold back by creating a tense environment. Many organizations are still characterized by the latter. This calls for a change, which forms the basis of my capstone project.

Life Mission Statement

My life mission statement is to become an empowering leader, the kind of leader I wish I had in the respective organizations I have worked for, by creating a conducive environment that allows my followers to maximize their potential and become leaders themselves.

Life Vision Statement

My life vision is to ensure the world has better leaders that are not discriminating or imposing, but work toward creating a conducive environment for everyone to enable their growth and success.

Description of Capstone Option

My capstone option is a research paper that seeks to investigate the leadership styles of organizations and how they are affecting Gen Z employees. The focus of the research paper was inspired by the current widely reported poor relationship between Gen Z and their leaders in the workplace. The poor relationship is caused by the misunderstanding of this group of employees by their leaders. The contemporary workplace is highly diverse, which requires leaders to apply best practices to ensure inclusion for every group of employees. Norbash & Kadom (2020) argue that despite many leaders understanding the important of diversity and inclusion, they still fail to see the value of such investments. The statement above is reflected in the way leaders treat Gen Z in the workplace. Leaders mainly interact with their Gen Z employees based on prejudices and misconceptions. This makes the work environment unconducive for Gen Z, thereby explaining the high turnover rates (Bredbenner, 2020). For instance, Gen Z have unique communication preferences and behaviors, such as the use of text messages as opposed to the commonly used emails. Leaders must factor in these aspects into their interactions with Gen Z as a form of inclusion because communication effectiveness is fundamental to collaboration and realization of goals. Without collaboration, it becomes challenging to tap on the innovativeness of Gen Z and maximize fully on their potential.

Hence, by researching on the relationship between Gen Z and their leaders, I hope to find the underlying issues that makes it difficult for them to work together, particularly in a world where leaders understand the concepts of diversity and inclusion, as well as their subsequent impact on the organization. McCrindle & Fell (2019) state that preparing for the future by leaders involves keeping up with trends and focusing on shifts in technology. As a generation described as digital, having Gen Z employees can be termed as an asset. Therefore, leaders have the responsibility to ensure the needs of this group of employees are met, just like those of any other group. This is because demographic and social changes have a more profound effect on the success of business than technological shifts (McCrindle & Fell, 2019). Demographic changes affect the ability of the organization to keep up with the technological shifts.

In other words, my research project will have an extensive impact on the conduciveness of the work environment by highlighting areas where leaders are failing in their interaction with Gen Z, as well as how that failure is impeding the potential of this generation of employees, and the achievement of remarkable goals by enterprises as a result (McCrindle & Fell, 2019). This focus relates to my mission and vision because addressing the areas where leaders are failing Gen Z employees, combined with investigating what Gen Z really expect from their leaders, has the potential to create a conducive work environment with better leaders. Therefore, the research project will help me realize my vision.

References

Bredbenner, J. (2020). Generation z: A study of its workplace communication behaviors and future preferences (Doctoral dissertation, Wichita State University).

McCrindle, M., & Fell, A. (2019). Understanding Generation Z: Recruiting, training and leading the next generation. McCrindle Research Pty Ltd.

Norbash, A., & Kadom, N. (2020). The business case for diversity and inclusion. Journal of the American College of Radiology, 17(5), 676-680.

Wiseman, L. (2017). Multipliers: how the best leaders make everyone smarter.

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2nd Colleague – MT discussion post

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Life Mission Statement

My life mission statement is to help people to either help themselves or to help others, so lives or current circumstances improve. Throughout my entire adulthood, either personally or professionally I found myself in positions to use my strengths and natural affinities to improve situations or circumstances for individuals, programs, departments, and organizations.

Life Vision Statement

My life vision is to find ways each day where I can show a caring heart and offer support to individuals in need. Both in my professional life and personal life I will support those around me so that their circumstances might be improved, even if only in some small way. I also want to identify ways that I can develop competent future leaders and bring out the best in them (Wiseman, 2017) as they begin their own leadership journey. I will begin each day with a renewed sense of positive energy and face every challenge present on my path. Throughout each day I will look for individuals that need to be lifted (or managed) up so I can offer support and guidance. I will not shy away from conflict but will embrace each as an opportunity to do better, be better, or lead better. I will work hard each day so that every member of my team or family, no matter relationship, tenure, or title, feel valued and appreciated. I will consistently show others grace and kindness so they might pay forward the same.

My Capstone: Research paper connects it all

Throughout my journey in this program, I have been steadfast in my desire to identify ways to better support the leaders that are supporting everyone else specifically when a crisis strikes. With leadership comes great responsibility.

My research study will show that there is a gap between how leaders support their employees and how the leaders themselves are supported in times of crisis. Leaders go to the utmost extremes to support their teams and yet there might be very little specific support to the leaders themselves.

 Leaders are educated on how to support employees through a crisis, including the 5 strategies Wei Zheng (2020) discusses: showing appreciation, providing individualized support, involvement in decision making, hand out new responsibilities, and organizing team building/bonding time. There are endless resources for leaders to draw from on how to support their employees in time of crisis. My research paper will explore if there is a need for more focused, specific support for leaders following a crisis.

My research will explore what organizations do to support leadership in a crisis or is they do anything at all specifically for the leadership team.  What did we miss? And why did we miss it? Should there not be swift and thorough support for the people who are tasked with care and support all others? I intend to research and explore all these questions.

I will explore if the strategies and techniques offered to leaders as they lead through crisis, can or should be revised and specialized specific to leaders. In an article How to Lead Through a Crisis, for example, discusses that most leaders need to stretch themselves and think differently when leading through a crisis. Should not the same be said for the executives charged with supporting leadership?

And finally, as part of my vision to live daily with a caring heart and offer support where needed, I hope to suggest or develop strategies that executives can implement even in the first hours following a crisis that will best support their leaders. Leaders should not be an ‘after thought’ in the support department. If executives demand that leaders be selfless and servant leaders (Spears), then they themselves should prioritize the care and support of their leaders to the highest priority. I hope through my experience and insight while staying true to my life mission and vision statement, I can guide executive leaders to best help their leadership team through crisis.

References

Zheng, W. (2020). 5 Strategies to support your employees through a crisis. Harvard Business Review, October 6, 2020.

How to lead through a crisis.  https://www.ccl.org/articles/leading-effectively-articles/how-to-lead-through-a-crisis/

Spears, L. C. (n.d.). Servant leadership and Robert K. Greenleaf’s legacy.

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