A common assignment on Application of Leadership Principles is as follows:
Apply the principles of leadership to an actual work situation and prepare a 2-page paper describing the project. Discuss the application of leadership principles to actual work situations where principle-centered leadership would enhance the work environment, employee productivity, service quality, and improve the business margin.
Principles:
1. Primary laws of Love: Patience, Kindness, Contentment, Humility, Respect, Selflessness, Forgiveness, Honesty (pg.5)
2. Trustworthiness: Integrity, Maturity, Positive Relationships, Emotional bank account, “Compelling trust is the highest form of human motivation” (pg.6)
3. Personal Character/ Characteristics of Superior Leaders: Honest-83%, Competent- 67%, Forward-Looking 62%, Inspiring-58%
4. Characteristics of Values: The worth we place on people and ideas, self chosen beliefs and ideals – our map, or the lens in which we see the world – Paradigm (pg. 9)
5. Proactive: choose your attitude – vs. reactive (pg.10)
6. Self Deception and Self-Betrayal: you see justification in your actions, your view is distorted, you enter the ‘box’, and you carry it with you and collusion ‘sets in’. People
are either objects or people. (SD slides)
7. Principles of Responsive Leadership:
1.) I am the servant,
2.) I honor the agency of others,
3.) I see greatness in each subordinate,
4.) I will build community, Dominant principle HONESTY (SD pg.10)
8. The Circle of Influence: Having a strong strength of purpose (pg.13)
9. Beginning with the End in Mind*: Personal Mission Statement – state of purpose
10. Put First Things First: Self Management (pg. 16)
11. (Habits 4-6) Think Always Win-Win (pg. 21-22), Seek First To Understand, Then To Be Understood (pg.23), Synergize (pg.25): Instead of compromising and caving in, seek to understand and take time to build trust and a relationship then come up with something better than either individual idea: 1+1=1 ½ Compromise; 1+2=2 Additive; 1+1=100 Synergy
12. Sharpen the Saw: Daily spend time doing activities that are- Physical, Mental, Spiritual – ‘Strengthen the fire within’ (pg.18-19)
—Proposed Schedule—
-Tuesday, January 29: team meeting
Discuss principles and our own work experiences. Choose a specific situation and define an outline for the paper/presentation using the principles. Choose writer – CT?
-Tuesday, February 5: class
From original draft each team member begins editing the paper individually.
-Tuesday, February 12: team meeting
Work on presentation slides. Maybe meet later in the week to practice.
-Tuesday, February 19: Presentation Day
Background Info:
Test Engineering Department objective- develop and sustains testing systems, processes, and equipment.
(Jose = John)
John- Test Development Engineering
Scott- Test Development Lab Supervisor
John is supposed to develop and work on test systems, while Scott supervises the technicians that work in the fabrication lab. John (the engineer) brings schematics and to the lab to build equipment and prototypes for new tests, etc. Many times John doesn’t do his homework and get enough information to Scott, so Scott has to track people down and hunt information – which isn’t his job. Scott, because of his experience with fabrication, is a valuable resource for many of the test engineers; but John abuses his wisdom and expects Scott to ‘fill in the blanks’.
The consequences are that Scott often can’t get work done for other engineers because he is helping John meet strict deadlines that he isn’t prepared for.
Scott usually finds a way a to get the work done, but get very frustrated and gets angry with John- calling John lazy and non-productive to his colleges.
Some Thoughts:
John-
-Treats Scott as a means to an end, not a person -Has no respect for his job, takes no responsibility, no initiative, has no motive -His paradigm: he is most important, and as long as his work is done- he gets credit
Scott-
-Compromises by just doing the work himself, caves in
-Paradigm: it has to be done, he is the only one that can do it -He grows his circle of influence with other engineers by helping them out and having experience unlike many technicians- but stays in the box with John.
Book Used for Principles: The 7 Habits of Highly Successful People
Basically Show how the principles could be used to improve the work situation stated above.