Category: Leadership

Please respond thoughtfully to the discussion post below regarding this individuals CliftonStrengths.
A descriiption of each CliftonStrength can be found at the link below.
Link: https://www.gallup.com/cliftonstrengths/en/253715/34-cliftonstrengths-themes.aspx
Discussion:
Describe where you made the cutoffs and why you chose those talent groups.
When looking at my list of strengths from the CliftonStrengths assessment, I went down the list from my top strength and read through each theme to understand what each one meant and to reflect on where my cut-offs might be. This was an interesting exercise for identifying the separation of dominant and supporting talents, because I had to think to myself about what came naturally and what I had to be aware to utilize or engage. I think my cut-off was my seventeenth theme of self-assurance. While I do feel like this theme can be dominant in situations where I have a good foundation of personal knowledge and experience, I do notice that when there is a degree of uncertainty, I must lean into my other strengths for this one to surface.
Briefly describe a situation that demonstrated how you use your dominant talents.
My number one dominant talent is analytical, a strategic strength where I can think through reasons and causes while identifying what factors might affect situations. I use this talent daily as a production control leader. For example, we are seeing a coating quality issue on one of parts where some of the coating is chipping. Since it is a new coating structure there was concern on the integrity of the coating itself. In the meeting where we had several engineering groups discussing what next steps were, I spoke up to have everyone pause and talk about what was happening and the timeline before we made any decisions. As we talked through the timeline from the new coating design release, we highlighted that this part used to be dual sourced up until the end of our first quarter. The chipping issue surfaced in the second and third quarters. I asked the team if there was potential that the primary supplier was causing the chipping during their process post coat rather than jumping to the conclusion that it was the coating itself. This concept drastically changed the course and approach to the next steps but would have been missed most likely if I had not reeled everyone back in to talk through the problem methodically.
Briefly describe a situation in which you leaned into one of your supporting talents.
Empathy is one of my supporting talents from the relationship building category. This talent is where one can sense other people’s feeling by imagining themselves in their shoes. This is a talent I have become more aware of and understood more about how to utilize it as I have gained more experience. While I think I was generally good at reading situations and people most of my life, I did not necessarily express that well to facilitate the relationship building aspect of the talent. As I have mentioned in other discussions, I have undergone a great deal of turnover within my team recently and that has brought many challenges since my organization does not have a robust training program and the new hires all came into their position as external hires. I have been able to lean into my empathy talent to help read when a new team member is becoming overwhelmed or discouraged to be able to defuse their negative feelings and provide support, encouragement, or resources to alleviate their stressors. I must step in when necessary and be that support by remembering what it was like for me two years ago when I came to my organization.
Briefly describe how you used your dominant or supporting talents to make up for a lesser talent.
Maximizer is one of my lesser talents. This is described as someone who focuses on strengths to stimulate personal and group excellence. While I am not someone who naturally thinks in this manner, my individualization and developer dominant strengths are able to bridge the gap. Individualization is a talent where you can figure out people’s talents and/or strengths to be more productive and developer is a strength where one can recognize and cultivate potential in others. I can use these strengths to facilitate a team towards a common objective or to find resolution. For example, we recently went through our yearly physical inventory. Having new team members made it tough for my area to go through reconciliation between physical and systematic counts to ensure inventory was put on hand at the right levels and cycled off if it was not found. I was able to discuss the process and talk through how we should approach the task based on our different knowledge and strengths while also teaming certain people up so they can gain understanding in areas where they are not so familiar. This helped people understand what went well and what did not while also focusing on task completion so we could use it as a learning experience instead of a terrifying financial exercise and get it done quickly.
How have you cultivated your top talents into strengths?
Fifteen years ago, I feel like a talent such as activator and deliberative would have been switched in their position in my assessment. Early in my career I was more apt to just jump to action and get into the thick of it right away. Throughout the years I have worked on taking moments to pause and reflect to assess the assumptions, risks, consequences, and alternatives. These exercises play into my deliberative talent that is now in my top ten. While at times I feel like a group could be going into “analysis paralysis” and I want to rush them along, I have learned the importance of listening and letting people be heard in certain situations to ensure that the best resolution is found. Usually, I engage my activator talent when decisions have been made and people are still lingering to start engaging people to execute, implement, and/or start moving forward.
Describe if the shadow side of your dominant or supporting talents have occasionally become weaknesses.
There are times where a shadow side comes into play with my dominant and supporting talents to the point where they become weaknesses. One example is within my achiever talent. While I possess a strong drive and stamina within the chaos and uncertainty from constant change in my organization’s environment, others do not have this same disposition. When under stress, the intensity of my achiever strength can take over and that can be too much for some. This is the weakness I bring up when asked in interviews because not all work cultures or teams are effective with that intensity. I would not be the right fit for them and most likely the organization or team would not be right for me. Recently I was dealing with a complex challenge and my direct, intense method and tone during our collaboration made one of the team members take a comment personally because of my delivery. I was able to talk it through with the person and mention that I was focused on the process and trying to probe for information to gain context so I could figure out how to proceed and apologized if that offput them. In a less stressful situation I would have seen that person’s facial expressions and body language change and adapted my approach, but I was too focused on the task at hand in this instance to take notice.
Describe if you consider lesser talents as weaknesses.
I do not consider my lesser talents as weaknesses. I think I am just generally pre-disposed to not naturally use them. For instance, woo was my dead last talent. While I am introverted and do not care to be in social situations, especially where I might have to win people over, I can do it. It just drains me, and I must prepare myself for it accordingly. I know when I travel for business, do large work events, or other similar social situations that are usually over-stimulating that I need to prepare for what I am going into mentally, rest, and have downtime to myself afterwards. I think it is important that we are aware that the lesser talents are just ones we have to work at and understand more than our dominant or supporting talents.

Now that you have your video concept, it is time to construct a storyboard that outlines the concepts and methods you will use in your video (see attached).
Your storyboard is a graphical frame-by-frame plan for the scenes that will be in your video. The content of your storyboard relates to each change of venue, aspect, or story within your video. For example, you may decide that you will start your video with some b-roll of you giving a presentation to your organization. Your first board in your storyboard would then have a graphic that illustrates a person giving a presentation, along with some text that describes what is happening in the graphic. Developing the graphic (i.e., creating rough sketches) is known as thumbnailing. You can draw your own stick figures and illustrations, or you can use graphics from PowerPoint or Word to thumbnail your storyboard. Follow this link for some free templates for storyboarding.
Link: https://community.articulate.com/downloads/course-design/storyboards
Requirements:
The requirements for your storyboard are as follows:
– The format should be MS PowerPoint, Word, or PDF
– If you are familiar with advanced programs such as Articulate Storyline or Adobe Captivate, you can use their built-in storyboarding functions, provided you submit your Storyboard as a PDF.
– Things to consider:
— Have a clear outline
— Make sure your sequence makes sense (i.e., is logical)
— Create compelling visuals (e.g., video, photos, text)
— Create compelling audio (e.g., stories, music, dialog)
— Ensure that your video will meet the assignment objectives
— Ensure that your project will be the appropriate length (neither too short or too long)

There are two parts to this discussion. In your response, you do not need to cite sources outside of your CliftonStrengths report.
Please read: Unlocking the Power of the CliftonStrengths (See links at bottom of instructions)
Your CliftonStrengths report ranks 34 talent groups based on how you responded to the questions. Read through the descriiptors for each talent group.
(My CliftonStrengths are ranked below and separated into the three below mentioned categories)
*Dominant Strengths*
1. Activator
2. Achiever
3. Learner
4. Strategic
5. Developer
6. Command
7. Futuristic
8. Maximizer
9. Deliberative
10. Individualization
11. Positivity
12. Focus
13. Arranger
14. Responsibility
15. Intellection
16. Communication
*Supporting Strengths*
17. Self-Assurance
18. Analytical
19. Belief
20. Restorative
21. Adaptability
22. Consistency
23. Woo
24. Includer
25. Empathy
26. Context
27. Ideation
*Lesser Strengths*
28. Input
29. Significance
30. Discipline
31. Connectedness
32. Relator
33. Harmony
34. Competition
Part 1 – Dominant, Supporting, and Lesser Talent Groups.
– Is there a natural cut-off where you think that the talents are your strongest? This cutoff often occurs between the 10th and 15th strengths.
– As you continue down toward your lesser talents, is there a natural cut-off near the bottom where you start to think that the talent group doesn’t describe you at all? This transition might happen near the bottom 5-10 talent groups.
Once you have identified these cutoff points, your talents will be broken into three groups: dominant, supporting, and lesser talents. You probably find it very natural and comfortable to use your dominant talents. You may find that you can use the supporting talents when necessary, but it is not your normal way of operating. Finally, you probably don’t use your lesser talents very often, or it is uncomfortable to do so. You might rely on some of your dominant or supporting talents to make up for those lesser talents. For example, if Focus is a lesser talent, you might find that you use Achiever or Discipline in situations where Focus is required.
1. Describe where you made the cutoffs and why you chose those talent groups.
2. Briefly describe a situation that demonstrated how you use your dominant talents.
3. Briefly describe a situation in which you leaned into one of your supporting talents.
4. Briefly describe (in CliftonStrengths terms) how you used your dominant or supporting talents to make up for a lesser talent.
Part 2 – Strengths and Weaknesses
According to Gallup, a strength is “the ability to provide consistent, near-perfect performance in a given activity.” As you think about your talent groups, are there any areas where you feel that you have really worked hard to make the best of how you use that talent? You might consider those talent groups your strengths. For example, if you naturally lead with the Focus talent group, you might have worked hard to ensure that you keep your team prioritized on its most important tasks. Therefore, Focus has become a strength for you.
Gallup defines weakness as “anything that gets in the way of your success.” There may be areas where you sometimes lean too hard into a talent group or don’t really know how to use the talent group. Every talent or strength has a shadow side, which can be thought of as too much of a good thing. For example, too much Focus can lead to a lack of ability to zoom out to see the big picture.
1. How have you cultivated your top talents into strengths?
2. Describe if the shadow side of your dominant or supporting talents have occasionally become weaknesses.
3. Describe if you consider your lesser talents as weaknesses.
Links for reference: https://www.gallup.com/cliftonstrengths/en/249809/unlocking-power-cliftonstrengths-results.aspx
https://www.gallup.com/cliftonstrengths/en/253715/34-cliftonstrengths-themes.aspx

Transactional leadership, while quite different from transformational leadership, has its place in leadership practice. As you continue your application-based SLP journey in this course, conduct research to find a team or organization that primarily uses transactional leadership. Use the research you conduct to determine your best judgment regarding the organization or team’s tribal stage.
SLP Assignment Expectations
Once again, acting as an outside consultant, create a 2- to 3-page report (not counting the title page or reference section) for the organization’s leadership that addresses the following:
A brief overview of the way transactional leadership is employed within the organization.
A brief explanation of the impact of the way transactional leadership is employed on the tribal stage of the organization.
A clear, research-backed recommendation addressing which changes should be made (based on the selected tribal stage).
An action plan for implementing those changes.

For this case, you will fully discuss transformational leadership theory, using credible sources to back your work.
Case Assignment
1. Perform research and describe a team or organization that uses a transformational approach.
2. Compare the transformational environment you outlined above to a non-leadership environment (laissez-faire).
3. What are the key differences between the two approaches?
4. In terms of morale, productivity, and overall commitment, what do you think the key differences are between organizations that use a transformational approach and those with non-leaders?
Assignment Expectations
Write a 4- to 5-page paper (not counting the title page or reference section) covering all these topics, using proper APA formatting, source selection, and citation.

title page
Michael E. Downey
Trident University International
MGT 506
Dr. Prakash Menon
August 31, 2023

Complete evaluation activity 11.6 (on page 362 in the physical book). Evaluate yourself with regard to each of the practices listed in the table, total your score, then review the advice provided below the table.
Write three goals you have for constructively delivering bad news in the workplace. Provide a summary of how you plan to achieve those goals.

The encouragement of diversity is a necessitated aspect in organization culture. Workplace diversity can create a productive workforce and it’s beyond equal employment opportunity.
1. Do you think diversity is a strategic initiative?
2. Please review the following article which discusses about the Importance of Diversity.

Why is Diversity Important?

Please only use the article and textbook chapter for reference. The chapter and source information is uploaded. No other references are needed. Only cite the reference once since this is only one page.

Select a leader you believe successfully led an organization through a crisis or challenge (e.g., public relations crisis, marketing mishap, shift in market demand, reorganization). Identify the leader and the company with which the leader is affiliated. Provide a brief context for the crisis or challenge. Identify the leadership models and approaches that were employed in the handling of the situation. Finally, explain why you think the leadership was particularly effective in this context.

Please respond to the discussion post below.
Discussion:
There have been times throughout my education journey I wonder if my brain works slower than others just due to the complexity of the materials at times. When reading this article, although not the most complex we have read, I was not 100% sure I fully understood. I thoroughly appreciate the explanation given with the prompt for this discussion. This helps place what I read into a real-world situation, especially since I am dealing with a child who is not a big reader/speller. In my professional life, this is a great topic to be discussed, as well. This year we have underwent some platform changes when working and communicating with the Department of Veteran Affairs (VA). Before going on with the example, I do want to explain and simplify my job. I do data entry for the university and send that data to the VA so students receive payments and tuition is paid for. This platform change has thrown our department for a loop (pun intended). We have had to learn a whole new system, along with the quirks that come along with it. This brings me to single loop learning, double-loop learning, and triple look learning Jensen (2005) discusses.
Single Loop Learning-Upon initial release of the new platform for use, we continued to do the job the same way we did previously, with the old platform. We waited to see how things processed on the VA side. We quickly realized that our old way of relaying information to the VA would no longer work in the same capacity it did before. We realized we needed to make some changes to what we were doing.
Double Loop Learning- We realized that with this new system we would have to change the ways we reported material to the VA. We quickly learned that time was needed to be added between submitting multiple bits of information on the same student. We had to add that information into our processing time, because it significantly increased the amount of time it took for work to be completed. We realized that in many ways that we send the information to the VA will need to be broken up into individual pieces, so the system would process it a certain way. Otherwise, the system would clump the information together leading to inaccurate information.
Triple Loop Learning- This is where I struggle with applying this to my job and maybe my classmates can help. The only way I can think of a trip loop learning, is by working with the VA when it came to learning of an error we receive when reporting for our students located overseas. We were made aware of an error that was occurring for some of our students located overseas. While the error did not impact the student, it impacted the university. A coworker has spoken and brainstormed with someone who runs this new platform on ways to create a work-around for the situation, but we currently do not have a solution to the problem with this platform but merely a band aid for the time being. I believe this would be theory in use.
This directly relates to me as a leader. When encountering new or different situations we have to be able to take these changes and learn how to continue on with the job. We cannot avoid them by any means. We have to use the chain of learning that Jensen (2005) mentions in the article.
Data -> Information -> Knowledge -> Action -> Learning -> New Knowledge

References:
Jensen, P. E. (2005). A contextual theory of learning and the learning organization. Knowledge and Process Management, 12(1), 53-64. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.libproxy.db.erau.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/contextual-theory-learning-organization/docview/215188366/se-2

There are two highlighted headings in each of the attached documents. Please review both documents and comment on all four highlighted headings. Please differentiate between each comment.