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Ashford University Model the Way Management Question

 

Students will turn in a 1-2 page weekly journal due on Sundays. In the journal, you will be asked to reflect on the reading, classroom discussion, and activities from that week. Journals will provide the instructor with evidence of completion of reading assignments and will serve as an additional method of communication pertaining to course issues. Including references.

What are your impressions of the leadership practice of Model the Way? How do you Model the Way in your daily life and leadership work? What are your impressions of the leadership practice Inspire a Shared Vision? How do you Inspire a Shared Vision in your daily life and leadership work? What challenges do you see facing a leader that works to incorporate these two practices in his or her life and work?

Chapter 3-4 http://lindabury.blogspot.com/2012/07/kouzes-posner-chapter-3-4.html

Chapter 5-6 http://lindabury.blogspot.com/2012/07/kouzes-posner-chapters-5-6.html

Recall and explain main themes of Modeling the Way.
Recall and explain main themes of Inspiring a Shared Vision
Apply themes from Modeling the Way to ones own life and work as a leader.
Apply themes from Inspiring a Shared Vision to ones own life and work as a leader..
Model The Way, Chapter 3 & 4 (The Leadership Challenge)

1. Model The Way means to Clarify Values

(A) One has to have a set of values they believe in themselves without outside influence.

We tend to remember those leaders who possessed strong beliefs about matters of principle.
People admire most those who believe strongly in something, and who are willing to stand up for their beliefs.
To stand up for one’s beliefs, one has to know what they stand up for in the first place.
People can’t believe in a messenger if they don’t know that the messenger believes.
We can’t be the messenger until we are clear about what we believe.
People can only speak the truth when speaking in their own voice.
(B) Explore our Inner Territory

We must know what we care about.
Deep within us all there is something we deeply care about.
Sometimes finding our values means challenging ourselves to explore areas that we don’t like to think about.
Clarity of our values gives us the confidence to make tough decisions and to act with determination and to take charge of our lives.
(C) Values Guide Us

In essence we are looking at the importance of values and how they guide us through the good and difficult times we face as leaders.
Values Influence every aspect of our lives:
Our moral judgments.
Our responses to others.
We make decisions based off of our values
Values empower us and allow us to act independently.
(D) Personal Values Clarity Drives Commitment

We won’t stick around at a place or work environment where we don’t feel our values are congruent to those values of the workplace. We simply just leave and find a place we feel does.
(E) We must be able to say it in our own words.

Leadership is a means of personal expression.
Our words must be able to be recognized as our words alone.
We must be true to ourselves and have a responsibility to our followers to be genuine. Nothing is more disheartening than to find our leaders are not genuine.
(F) Our values must be shared!

Everybody will not be in accord on all values within an organization.
Shared Values are an organization’s promises.
Differences over fundamental shared values can result in: (pg. 60).
(G)Unity is forged not forced:

Forged is characteristic of something established through effort and in a collaborative manner while forced is implied to mean something established through dictation.
CAUTION: Shared values should never be used as an excuse for the suppression of dissent.
2. Model The Way means to Set The Example

When one’s values are tested, that’s when leaders have to make sure they demonstrate through personal example what it means to be passionately committed. (Pg. 74)
Setting the example is about execution! “Sometimes the greatest distance we have to travel is from our mouths to our feet.”
Personify the Shared values
Teach others to model the values
Ask purposeful questions.
Seek feedback
Confront Critical Incidents
Reinforce the behavior you want repeated
Inspire a Shared Vision, Chapter 5 & 6 (The Leadership Challenge)

Inspiring a Shared Vision means to look to the future.
A leader’s vision alone is insufficient. Unless it is shared and believed in by others then it will not come to fruition.
By imagining the possibilities and finding a common purpose, leaders can inspire a shared vision.
According to Kouzes and Posner’s research ordinary people make extraordinary accomplishments when they find a passion and a common purpose with others.
It is not possible to find a common purpose without listening attentively and determining what is meaningful to others.
Inspiring a Shared Vision means to Enlist Others.
One must appeal to common ideals and animate the vision. Animate the vision means to “paint a picture” with words so others can see the possibilities as well and to use symbolic language to make images of the future.
To inspire a shared vision requires the expansion of one’s communication and expressiveness skills.