I spent my free time this week reading Marjorie Hass’ A Leadership Guide for Women in Higher Education. The book brought up some of what I am worried about in terms of influence and people expecting women to behave in specific interpersonal ways. One of the key takeaways from the book is how leadership can be thought of as a triangle—with its sides identified as business operations, culture, and mission. I would put the mission at the base of the triangle as the foundation for the other two to develop, but I don’t know that all the leaders I know would. I also think that in the organization I am in right now, culture does not get much attention and is often overlooked, or at least not as much time and development is placed on this. I wrote in my last post about where my higher education leadership niche could be—and developing culture was my line of thinking there, and focusing on this could create a more uniform triangle and stronger leadership.
Throughout the book, there were pictures of this triangle, and in all the pictures, an equilateral triangle was seen. I wonder if the goal is equal time and energy spent in all three domains (mission, business, and culture), if organizations go through times where a scale triangle is the ‘norm’, or even if it’s not just timing, but the organization looks for leadership to emphasize one domain over the others. Is this dependent on an organization’s purpose? For example, in higher education, should the goal be an equilateral triangle, but say in an e-commerce organization, the goal is to focus more on business? This line of thinking, had me purchase the newer version of Boleman and Deal’s Reframing Organization: Artistry, Choice, and Leadership. I read the 4th edition of this book when I was pursuing my doctoral degree. The 4th edition was written in 2008, and this newest version was written in 2021, so it considers how the pandemic affected organizations, and just general changes society has had in the last decade. I am only two chapters into the book thus far, and it’s a good reread for me, as I think about leadership a little differently. I am immersing myself in leadership literature now as I think about how to lead best. Sometimes analyzing information about how to lead, however, may make me question my action steps and next move. I am someone that likes to process before responding and do this to simply steer away from solely reacting to information. If my goal is to work on culture, I think responding in appropriate time frames is important because I have seen reactive decisions ruffle feathers and not be openly accepted. If the mission is the foundational common ground between all individuals within an organization, then this should be leaned on to construct culture. Maybe this is the best way to influence and inspire people as a leader.
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February 2023
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