Rachael Lohnes

OGL 200 Paper 7

For the following questions, be sure to connect to the reading material in your book. This is a writing
assignment, so answers should be written in complete and coherent sentences and paragraphs. Answers
in the A range will refer to the text and fully explain how the concepts learned in the text apply to the
question.

Part A: Short essay questions

1. Name and describe three potential problems that can arise in mentor/protégée relationships.

There are many different problems that can arise in mentor/ protégée relationships, three of them
are (1) the mentor taking credit for the mentee’s work, (2) mentors deceiving their protégées, and
(3) sabotage the work for their protégée. A Starbucks example that I have experienced of a mentor
taking credit for a mentee’s work would be when I was running an open shift one of the baristas
and I rearranged the cold beverage station to make it easier and quicker for drinks to be made.
Later in the day after my shift had ended, my store manager (who had been off the floor that day)
took credit for the work we had done on the cold beverage station. The second mentor/ protégée
issue is mentors deceiving their protégés. An example of this is when a trainer trains someone to
do their job incorrectly. Finally, a third issue that can arise in a mentor/ protégée relationship is a
mentor sabotaging the work for their protégée. An example of this from my current job would be
when my store manager had left a long list of projects that needed to get done for the night crew
and left them short-handed (because someone had called off) and didn’t stay to help the night
crew or try to cover the shift of the person who had called off. Thus, they work set up for failure.

2. Which type(s) of developmental job opportunities have you had? How did these experiences help
you develop as a leader or follower?

I have been lucky enough to have had several types of developmental job opportunities in the
short 5 years that I have been in the work force. An example of Socializing company vision and
values that I have experienced was when I participated in a “development day” with Starbucks.
Essentially this was a job interview to become a shift supervisor. For a development day, you are
expected to prepare a coffee tasting by picking a blend of coffee, pairing a food with it and leading
a group of other store managers through a tasting (Smell the coffee, slurp it, locate where the
flavors land on in your mouth, and describe the coffee blend.), then you must discuss the things
you have been taking charge and working on to better your store. This process helped socialize me
with others who work for my company while preparing me for a promotion and socializing myself
with the people who could become my direct peers if I work my way up to their level (from a shift
supervisor to a store manager). Individual preparation is another example of a developmental job
opportunity that I have experienced. Individual preparation that I have experienced was the
development plan that I mentioned in my last example. My personal development plan was
designed for me to step into the role of shift supervisor by taking on the responsibility of finding a
way to bring down the drive thru window times on Sunday mornings (one of our busiest
mornings). This experience helped me to step into my future role and prove myself to my manager
and my peers that I could handle an important responsibility that comes along with being a shift
supervisor.
Part B: Leadership Activity Journal: Reflecting on your leadership skills

1. Take the Continuous Learner Self-Assessment on page 377 of your book.

a. Report on your responses

1. When you receive feedback about your performance from your manager, would you just as
soon not listen?
-I tend to act on feedback about my performance as soon as possible. I want to be the best I
can be and the only way to do that is to take constructive criticisim.

2. Do you tend to compare yourself to how others are performing?

-I do have the tendency to compare myself to others. I do this when I have a strong role
model, it motivates me to become a better version of myself.

3. How often do you think about how well you are doing on the job? Daily? Weekly? Once in a
while?
-I usually reflect on how well I’m doing my job weekly. Each day brings different patterns of
business so for example if we had a bad day on Sunday then I would try to plan better/
figure out what to do better for the next Sunday.

4. How carefully do you look for information about how well you are doing? Do you go out of
your way to seek it, or do you take it as it comes?
-I try to take feedback as it comes to me, to make sure I am not over analyzing things.

5. Are you likely to ask your manager or others to critique your performance? Are you
inclined to ask your manager or others what you can do to improve on the job?
-I tend to ask my manager for feedback on my performance/ what I can do better when an
issue arises. I do this to solve issues as soon as possible.

6. Are you likely to ask your manager for information about the organization?
-I am likely to ask my manager for information about the organization so I am well
informed on things.

7. Do you set development goals for yourself, or do you wait for direction from your
immediate manager?
-I like to always have goals for myself, even if they are small.

8. Are you likely to volunteer for new job assignments, or do you wait for job assignments to
come your way?
-Sometimes I wait for job assignments to come to be because I get overwhelmed easily.

9. Do you monitor your career progress closely, or don’t you spend much time thinking about
your career progress?
-I monitor my career progress but I’m also very focused on school so I’m trying to progress
my career by earning a degree.

10. If you become (or are) discontent with your job or career progress, are you likely to take
steps to change jobs or career directions or are you likely to wait and see what happens?
 -If I am discontent with a job I will make a change. I don’t want to waste my time being
unhappy with a job.

b. Reflect on what these responses reveal about your leadership development behaviors and
their effectiveness

My responses show that I have the drive to develop as a leader and as a person. I don’t like
to feel stagnant at a job. I like to do my job to the best of my ability and grow in my role.
This has been effective so far, I have had an easy time getting promotions because I like to
always be preparing for the next step in my career.

c. Describe how you can build on your strengths and address any weaknesses.

To build on my strengths I think I can continue to self-evaluate and take constructive

criticism from my manager. My biggest weakness is getting overwhelmed so to work on
that I can work on staying calm and really believing in myself to do the best job that I can.

Part C: Course Reflection

Reflect on your learning over the course of this class. Your reflection should be at least two pages long
and in 12 point font. You may also discuss the materials directly and how they contributed to your
learning.
For full points you must discuss:
1. Your self-assessments throughout the course
2. Planet Jockey & The Case of the Missing Cutlery
3. The Hackman & Johnson Text
4. The New York Times in Leadership
5. Extra credit assignments (if you completed them)
6. Any changes that occurred in your leadership styles over the semester and why.
7. How you plan to continue using what you’ve learned for your own personal development.
 Reflection:

I have learned a lot about myself through the self-assessments in this course. I learned that I am a
democratic leader and I tend to “engage in supportive communication” which is something I do at work. I
think that for me this leadership style comes from having had a lot of leaders in my past that were on the
extreme side of authoritarian leadership and I have seen how that can hinder a team. Because of this I
tend to lead in a democratic way to benefit my team. A weakness that I learned I have when it comes to
my leadership type is that my leadership style tends to shift to laissez faire when I feel overwhelmed. I
also learned that I am a low LPC leader/ task-oriented leader. This type of leader finds success in
favorable situations (situations with good leader-follower relationships, highly structured tasks, and
strong leader position power) or unfavorable situations (situations with poor leader-follower
relationships, an unstructured job, and weak leader positon power). I learned that by building my expert
power and referent power will enable me to be the best leader that I can possibly be. Referent power is
being a role model for others and expert power is power based on the person and their knowledge and
not the power the position gives a leader. I learned that I am a conventional communicator and one of the
biggest weaknesses for conventional communicators is that they can be blind to creative ways of
handling situations. I can understand how this is a weakness for me. When in situations where I need to
act quickly it can be hard for me to process the situation quickly and think of the best solution. I tend to
handle similar situations the same way. In terms of my strengths as a conventional communicator, I
handle situations appropriately and per social norms. When discussing diversity, self-reflection helped
me learn that I have had a value for diversity instilled in me from a young age. Diversity is an important
part of leadership and I think that this value is something that many great leaders have. Being a leader in
such a diverse world you need to value diversity to be successful. Finally, I learned that I have a high
sense of integrity and through reflection of myself and my manager I learned that as a leader it is wrong
to get even with people, do not fuel conflict between employees, and exaggerating the mistakes of others
is wrong.

Planet Jockey helped me learn a lot about leadership and leading a company. When it comes to
repeatedly encouraging the same outspoken employee to lead discussions I learned that the right thing to
do is to encourage all employees to participate in a discussion. It is beneficial to make sure that the same
excited employee Naturally I have the desire to encourage people no matter what, but it makes sense to
encourage the other employees to speak up and lead the discussion. I learned a lot about the concept of
urgency and I truly can take what I learned and apply it to my job today. I learned that enthusiasm can
make real ambition relevant, aspirational, and can motivate your team. Something that was surprising to
learn is that money is a de-motivator for people. Some other concepts that I learned from the simulation
were how to address rumors and the importance of taking responsibility, two things that I could apply to
my current job. I learned that sometimes you should just make a decision without second guessing
yourself, especially when you have done your due diligence. I was surprised to learn that a heated
discussion on conflicting opinions is a good discussion. If someone is passionate about an opinion, then
you should hear them out and learn from them. I enjoyed reading The Case of the Missing Cutlery. There
were several concepts from part 2 of the book that relate to my job and my own experiences. The use of
empathy to make people dedicate themselves to you and your leadership to create buoyancy is
something I do in my job. As well as motivating people to work hard instead of demanding them to work
hard. When you motivate your people to work hard with you they will work harder than if you demand
them to work hard, they should naturally want to work hard for you on their own. The last concept from
the book that relates to my is that people will join you when they see that you have a solution. The Case of
the Missing Cutlery and the Planet Jockey simulation broadened my knowledge of leadership.

I learned a lot from the textbook, especially from the various inventories and assessments that I
completed. The Leadership Communication Style Preferences Inventory I scored authoritarian: 7,
democratic: 19, and laissez-faire: 11. These scores showed me that I am a democratic leader. The Least
Preferred Coworker Scale Assessment showed me that I am a low LPC leader through my assessment
score of 30. I learned that power is “the capacity to translate intention into reality and sustain it” whereas
leadership is defined as “the wise use of power”. The use of the word power in the definition of leadership
shows that the interdependence between the two words. Being in a leadership role gives a person power.
With great power comes great responsibility. It is the leader’s responsibility to use their power
responsibly. On the Personal Power Assessment, my scores showed me that I prefer to lead with
legitimate, expert, and referent power and I prefer not to lead with reward or coercive power.
Communication Style Inventory (My scores reveal that I am a conventional communicator. This shows
that I am very aware of social norms and handle situations accordingly). The Perceived Diversity
Perceptions Scale Assessment showed me that I am comfortable with diversity, I believe in organizational
fairness, and I value diversity. Finally, the Perceived Leader Integrity Scale Assessment showed me that I
perceive my manager to have high integrity (the assessment score was 40. These assessments and
inventories helped me reflect and learn not only about my leadership, but the leadership of my leaders
too.

The weekly New York Times in Leadership discussions taught me a lot. Through only working
food service jobs and learning leadership in that field I was given a perspective of leadership in different
fields that I haven’t experienced. The article discussing the happiness of college students showed me that
an effective leader is a well-rounded leader. If you can find balance in your personal life you can easily
find balance in your professional life. The article that discussed Erica Nardini’s interview strategy was
something that I brought to my own job. Erica Nardini’s interview strategy was to determine how
deserving a candidate was for a job by how quickly they replied to her text message. When my boss was
complaining that she interviewed a girl for a barista position at our store and had not heard back from
the girl several days after leaving her a voicemail. I mentioned Erica Nardini’s strategy to my boss and it
helped my boss decide not try and hire someone who could not get back to her to set up a second
interview. I learned about W.E.B. DuBois’ Talented Truth argument, and I agree with it. I believe to be a
good leader there are some basic traits that just come naturally to some people while others must work
at those things, because everyone is different. I learned that people tend to have high expectations for
great leaders such as Mr. O’Malley. Flaws can be disappointing. The portrait of Mr. O’Malley as an
alcoholic should not raise the question of if he was a good leader just because of his personal flaws. After
reading the article about Scott Blackmund and if he should step down I think it was only fair that he
follows Stephanie Streeter’s lead and step down. He failed to look after the wellbeing of the athletes and
that was his job, stepping down shows that he failed at his job and is the right thing to do. Stepping down
would show that he acknowledges that he made a mistake. I could see different examples of leadership
through many different articles that discuss many different people.

Through the discovery of various strengths and weaknesses I changed my leadership style quite a
bit this semester. I learned that a weakness of mine is that my leadership style tends to shift to laissez
faire when I am overwhelmed (and I am normally a democratic leader). This helped me work on myself
and keep focused as to not get overwhelmed and let my leadership style shift. I learned that focusing on
keeping a positive and hopeful attitude I can keep my team motivated. I made sure to bring this to my job
and it seemed to help when I run shifts. As a leader, I learned that I need to feel valuable and using expert
power is important to me. I find value in myself through supplying knowledge, information, and skills. As
a team leader, I do not want my team to not trust me because they don’t know when they are going to get
blamed for something. Taking responsibility and not passing the blame can help this and build a stronger
team. Through reflection of my manager I learned not to get even, don’t fuel conflict between employees,
and to not exaggerate the mistakes of others.

As I have mentioned, there are a lot of topics from this course that apply to my job. By keeping
these things in mind, I can grow as a leader. I have been in my current position for about a year now and I
have become good at the day to day stuff. This course helped me learn how to develop my leadership and
become a strong leader. I think the best way to make sure that I continue to use what I have learned in
the course is to constantly self-reflect and keep in mind the lessons that I have learned throughout this
course. I am always striving to become a better version of myself and I believe that with the knowledge I
have gained in this course I am one step closer to becoming the best leader I can be.