A633.1.2.RB_SiegmundWayne

Leadership Gap

     Through reflection, I find it amazing how different the leaders I have had in my life were. When I was a child, I began gymnastics classes with an old high school recreation coach. He often began our class with a warm-up of running, a few minutes of stretching, and then skill development with drills. We often finished the classes with the strength conditioning and stretching. For the next 10 years of my life, I would experience similar behavior from other leaders in fitness that carried with them vast amounts of experience and degrees in Human performance, kinesiology and physiology. It was not until I went to college and competed for Southern Connecticut State University's Varsity Men's Gymnastics Team. The head coach was not only a world renowned Olympic gymnast and coach, but was a pioneer of the sport, carrying multiple degrees in biomechanics, and physical fitness, on top of major international recognition. Ten years later, I discovered a whole new approach to physical fitness from those who were seen as leaders in the field.

     After enlisting in the Navy, I volunteered for Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL training where the instructors had a holistic approach to physical fitness and skill development. Instead of telling you what you need to do to accomplish certain tasks, they left it upon each service member to take the initiative to prepare themselves physically, and mentally. With little guidance, many failed due to ill-preparation. Soon, the program's leaders developed informative and assisted classes that would become the transformative turn in increasing recruitment numbers, as well as graduates.

     Through this reflection, while there is value in experience and credentials, there are other traits and beliefs of leadership that come into play. Unfortunately, without something to initiate a change in leadership style, leadership will, for the most part, remain the same. The old saying of 'if it is not broke, don't fix it', I have seen taught from generations prior to mine. However, I feel up and coming leaders, and perhaps even leaders of old, can become more self-aware of their leadership style and make adjustments to their approaches, setting a new example to the rest of the team.

     Listening, and watching the leadership approaches of my grandmother's generation, as well as those of my parents and my own, showed a great difference in their ability to consider a new way of doing things. It seems as time went by, it became more acceptable to try something new. Back then, there was the way that worked, despite any blocks, or potential gains. Nowadays, it seems to be the norm, from my perspective, that there is a treasure trove of effective ways to lead out there, depending on one's environment, the team that is being led, and the goals, mission and vision being held. I feel the future holds more of this behavior, a desire to seek a more effective way, as society offers up the awareness that there are better, and more effective ways of leading.

     I believe this trend of change has occurred out of necessity; the need to reach goals that are not being accomplished; the need to accomplish the mission that has been changing due to environmental factors, and the need to stay on track with a vision. When market and organizational evaluations are conducted, and it shows that progress is not occurring over time, it would only make sense to me that a change is needed, and perhaps that change comes in the way leaders lead. In a review of Gary Yukl's, Leadership in Organizations (2001), the National College for School Leadership (2003) shares that "Transformational leaders make followers aware of the importance and value of the work as well as encouraging them to think beyond self-interest". I feel the primary gaps in leadership effectiveness exist due to our innate tendency to repeat behaviors that have been taught to us from the generation before us, as well as having a fear of change and even some being risk averse. However, it seems this gap would be temporal as we move forward as a global society in competition and a drive to improve performance as a whole.

     As a global society, I believe there will always be gaps as we transition from one generation to another due to knew ideas, and new technologies that will aid and assist us in bridging these gaps, flattening communications, willingness to share through mutual benefit, and becoming more transparent in the way we all do business, inspiring one another (Canwell, Dongerie, Neveras & Stockton, 2014). Brining these new innovative ideas of complex adaptive leadership styles, and the benefits that come with them, to the venues in need of them via the cutting edge technologies that awaits to show them of a new way, is one of many to help bridge this gap (Tessman-Keys, 2015). In the Academic Medicine Journal, Blumenthal, Bernard, Bohnen & Bohmer (2012), explains that in order to develop the requisite skills for tomorrows leaders today, providers must be prepared to take on the complimentary roles of 'clinician' and 'leader' through deliberate, systematic and interdisciplinary efforts.

References:

Obolensky, N. (2014). Complex adaptive leadership: Embracing paradox and uncertainty (2nd Ed.). Burlington, VT: Gower Publishing Company.

National College for School Leadership (2003). What leaders read 1: Leadership in organizations. [Review of the book Leadership in Organizations]. National College for School Leadership. Retrieved from http://s3.amazonaws.com/academia.edu.documents/26015119/media-f7b-97-randd-leaders-business-yukl.pdf?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAIWOWYYGZ2Y53UL3A&Expires=1490529745&Signature=MQELL18kzUUw%2Fuhj62alEi85dzQ%3D&response-content-disposition=inline%3B%20filename%3DLeadership_in_organizations.pdf


Prive, T. (2012, December, 19). Top ten qualities that make a great leader. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/tanyaprive/2012/12/19/top-10-qualities-that-make-a-great-leader/#15db45987754


Tessmann-Keys, D. (2015, October 31). Leadership: Bridging the leadership 'gap.' Retrieved from https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/252350


Canwell, A., Dongerie, V, Neveras, N. & Stockton, H. (2014, March 7). Leaders at all levels: Close the gap between hype and readiness. Retrieved from https://dupress.deloitte.com/dup-us-en/focus/human-capital-trends/2014/hc-trends-2014-leaders-at-all-levels.html