Assignment for Module 12: Observing Leadership

By: Amelia (Yingda) Li

Question 1

1) I consider my supervisor to be an excellent leader. He shapes the culture, facilitates decisions, and is willing to
take risks. He predominantly uses a directive style of leadership as he is the person at my company who can
answer all inquiries and questions in order to make decisions and do the work. He’s always working to meet
deadlines and he sometimes will stay till midnight just to get urgent tasks done. Yet, he is calm and collected and
does not yell at people or boss them around. He’s relaxed, easy-going and sets a motivating atmosphere for the
employees. You think of him more as a friend than a “boss.”
My supervisor sometimes will alter his leadership style to the delegative style to match a situation. For example,
when he gives out tasks to people he trusts, he will not badger them everyday to find out when they will be
finished. He fades out gradually to allow people to finish their work, but yet he will confirm commitments.
As mentioned above, I’ve observed that my supervisor treats his coworkers as his friends and not his “workers.”
We report and receive tasks from him but we do not feel like we’re “working for him,” but more “working with
him.” It is motivating to work alongside an individual who you feel considers you as an “equal” and not a
“subordinate.” He will also take time to chat with you about non-work related topics, as opposed to adhering
strictly to discussing about work. The latter I described builds a robotic relationship in which the employee does
not feel valued.
2) b) Situation 1) Your manager assigns a task to you with a specific method to do it. You ponder the task for a few
minutes, and you come up with another idea that you feel would be more effective and efficient. You pose the
idea to your manager, and your manager appears offended that you even wanted to “challenge” his “authority”
and “leadership.” He blasts your idea down firmly. You walk away disappointed you even decided to take a
stand and offer a better solution. An alternative behaviour could be to listen with all ears to your employee, and
discuss this solution with them. Encourage them to continue to ponder how to solve tasks more effectively and
efficiently, and see if you can come to a consensus. Take the time to really figure out whether your employee’s
method is better, and show them that you value and care about their opinion, and about them as an equal
member of your team. Embrace ambiguity. Be willing to set aside personal bias and to seek and accept
feedback from others.
Situation 2) Whenever you talk to your manager about something even remotely non-work related, they quickly
change the subject to something of work or quickly wrap up the conversation. This leaves you feeling like a
robot as a part of a team, a creature with no substance that can be easily replaced. As an alternative, talk and
get to know your followers, treat them as friends rather than followers. This makes a more positive company
culture and people will be more motivated to work harder as they feel like they’re important and valued.