Culturally Advantaged?

I know I relate this blog a lot to Human Resources – maybe it’s because it’s the class I have other than leadership on Wednesdays or maybe it’s because it is actually relevant. Either way, I am going to talk about another HR issue as it relates to leadership today.

Today, we talked about the issue of a global economy. We spoke about the fact that we are no longer competing again just the best people in your region, province or country. We compete for jobs with people from around the world and that got me thinking. Do other countries have better leadership cultures than we do?

I would like to think that Canada is a leader on the world scale in leadership because of our diplomatic nature, but maybe every citizen must think the same of their country.

Do we have cultural leadership skills that set us apart from other countries? And more importantly, do these skills give us an advantage or disadvantage when competing globally?



High conflict

High conflict individuals really got me thinking. I decided that I am probably in the 90% of people who are not high conflict and I would like to remain there for the rest of my professional life.
Now, my parents own their own business and have grown it from a 3 person company to 45 plus employee company and I couldn’t be prouder, but they have to deal with so many different personalities and adapt their leadership style to each one.
Shannon is one of their employee’s who I would consider high conflict and when speaking to my parents about how they deal with her they reiterated a lot of what we learned in class today. They would first speak to her emotions saying that they understood where she was coming from, they would use non-verbal cues to help her through and lastly, they try to educate other people in the company on how to deal with high conflict people. My parents also decided that it would be beneficial for Shannon and the company in general, if she was able to learn about high-conflict and they sent her on a course.
I believe that their action plan reflects how leaders should approach this question. Control yourself and your actions towards the individual, and then reach out and help that individual to better himself or herself.


One last unrelated note would be that during a presentation today I saw a quote that really spoke to me. “ The status quo is more dangerous than the unknown”. If everyone could live by that philosophy, I think we would all be better off!

What to do?

This whole Penn State debacle got me thinking. Leadership is a fragile entity with endless boundaries that influences every corner of society. As a future leader, that is a scary concept to try to tackle. If every action has a reaction and following the rules/chain of command can still result in your termination, it is hard to know how big of a wave you want to make with your leadership style. Yet, following your moral compass can result in stepping over tangible and intangible borders, which is not always right. Where do I draw the line in my leadership style?
I hope that strong communication, logical perceptions and resolute conflict management are the addition skills I need to face this problem in the future, because it makes me quite unease not knowing if I have the right tools to deal with situations like this.   

Group Roles

Last week in class, we talked about roles in groups. It was interesting to me that not a single one of those roles were formally assigned. I found it intriguing how many roles you can fall into and when we fall into them. For me, I know that I can be a variety of roles even within the same group.

In my family, I am usually the social specialist and the tension-reliever. This is one of the only groups where I am the social specialist. I was considering why that might be and I decided that I feel most comfortable around my family and therefore it is easy to support them.

In school, I am usually the star, mostly because I need to be actively involved in order to feel like I am contributing. I also jump between task-related roles because it would depend on my depth of knowledge around the subject. If I feel like I know, what I am talking about I will be an opinion and information giver and when I am less confident, I become a seeker. I feel as though I am always an analyzer but that may be more just my personality. I also find myself leaning towards being a tension reliever. I know that it is a thin line between joker and tension reliever and I think that sometimes I walk too closely and end up distracting instead of contributing.

In my group of friends, I am usually the expediter and a harmonizer. I always push my group to move forward and I like keeping a normal pace. I don’t like other people being uncomfortable and I try to minimize these situations by being a harmonizer.

My biggest flaw in groups would be that I become a withdrawer if I feel that my personal standards or goals are being compromised. I know that I should relax and try to engage but it is difficult at times.

Just Add a Bit of Personality

I really enjoyed our last class with Dr. Janet Miller. Her enthusiasm for her work and personality studies made the class extremely interesting. I am someone who truly believes that in order to better understand others, we need to fully understand ourselves, and I felt that the entire class dealt with getting to know what you’re like so that you can lead others more effectively. I also found her practical examples such as job interviews, made the topic hit home because it has this real world application.

 It was not only a few hours later that I was sitting in Human Resources and Dr. Fred decided to talk about selection and how we can be effective interviewees and interviewers. He related our topics about to the type of leader we want to be because good interviewers are unbiased and objective, they listen effectively and actively question. Understanding personality types can also be useful as an interviewer as you can tell what their personalities are like from their experiences.   
   

Karen's Class!

I couldn’t help but think that our experiential learning of last class reminded me of a simpler time... well maybe not a simpler time but a time when Karen ran our show in Community Development. She really focused of different styles of leadership and even practiced many of those styles in her classroom. For some, this experience was less than fulfilling but for me, it proved that leaders in community development need to be diverse and creative.

I feel as though the communication exercise we did in class related to many of topics we covered with Karen. In community development, it is always the first task to try to get everyone on the same page, which was what the first round of the activity was. Second, we needed to expand our knowledge and make sure we understood the same aspects – just like community development leaders have to do. Third, we confirmed and tweaked our designs and ideas to try to make the identical structure. Leaders in community development tweak concepts by brainstorming or World Cafes but it all boils down to the same idea. Finally, we then compared the designs and despite the fact that they we not perfectly similar, both groups felt like they had accomplished something. Community development relies on finding something in common and even if that is the littlest piece of your design.

The communication exercise provided me with insight on the value of communication to any leader but especially to those working in community development.    

The Good Ol' Generation Gap

In human resources we were talking about the generation gap that leaders in every industry are facing. A few articles we read in HR illustrated that this generation gap may not really exist, that the research behind it is actually quite shoddy. The article states that a person’s life stage is what makes them relatable to other people. The Baby Boomers and Generation Y are actually quite alike in their beliefs so leaders should look to mentorship instead of seeing it as a possible conflict. It tied really well into the discussion we were having a week or so ago in class about what our generation was looking for in the work place.

“Conversely Gen Yers, who expect their social lives to be integrated with their work lives, can be educated about the complications of marriage and family experienced by Gen Xers and Baby Boomers.

As future leaders in the Sport and Recreation, I feel as though a strong understanding of the different life stages will greatly benefit us! We can help bridge this generational gap through strong mentorship and coaching programs in the workplace and a little compassion towards people who have more life demands than we do.

Leaders in a time of crisis.

One event that has struck me as important especially when examining leadership would be the tenth anniversary of September 11^th. It brings into question how the current leadership and past leadership have responded and what role they played in one of the darkest days in history.
People tend to look directly at some of the national leaders but we overlook some of the most important people, one being the mayor of New York at the time. His ability to handle the gravity of a situation (excellent contingency leadership) proved effective for the people surrounding him. Some of the traits he used were being visible, composed, vocal, and resilient. The article below gives a good outline of how he acted and why it was successful.  

http://www.teamcaptainsnetwork.com/public/230.cfm

What do we really know about our leaders? That was another question that really struck me as important during this time of crisis. I think as human beings with emotions and memories; we are easily manipulated into believing the “good” in humanity. The article below talks about how some leaders actually are more mentally unstable than we think.

http://my.psychologytoday.com/blog/mood-swings/201109/manic-not-maniac-failures-post-911-leadership

This blog really made me think about leadership and how much trust we give to people, especially political leaders. We trust people with decisions that affect our everyday lives but truly, know nothing about them personally. For most citizens, we assume that our best interest is at heart just as many did when good old George W. decided to invade Afghanistan, and then Iraq. Although this article does revolve mostly around mental health issues, the last portion truly is thought provoking:

“Who is the “maniac” then? The normal person who is constantly going to war? 
Or the manic and depressive leaders who ended wars that others started, or better yet, tried to teach us how to achieve justice without fighting wars?”

I feel as though we try to follow leaders who reflect our personal beliefs and values, which this article makes clear, may not always be the best option. I think we tend to forget that our best leaders have been nothing like us.

For me, you can’t help but to think, how the events would have played out differently with a Democrat in office. Maybe that is just wishful thinking in this blogger’s view. Maybe the U.S. government had nothing to do with 9/11 but I think in the back of everyone’s mind, there is a patch of uncertainty that questions the leaders involvement. But that is an entirely different topic within itself.

(p.s. I know this blog posting does not relate directly to class material as much as I'm sure some are looking for but it was more of a brainstorm introduction to Leadership) 

Culture Change

Culture Change
Just as a refresher to those of you who did not read my blog from a couple few ago, I did my community blog on the Mount Royal Cougars Hockey community, as I am one of the key staff members on game days.
I know we are supposed to discuss the main priorities but we decided there is one pressing issue that needs to be addressed as soon as possible and that is fan support. I realise, that in a city of just under a million people, who has three major league sports team (the Flames, Stampeders and Roughnecks) and a Major Junior Hockey team (Hitmen), it can be difficult to entice fans to support college hockey. (Notice how I said difficult and not impossible). As a whole, our staff members believe that there are significant areas that could improve that would bring in more fan support.

Some of these ideas include: sponsorship, advertizing and creating atmosphere. Sponsorship is easy enough to justify. The more sponsors, the more money you bring in. Ticket sales for college hockey are not enough to cover the costs of running the event, and I don’t think that even a spike in attendance would be able to support the costs so turning to sponsorship makes sense. In Grande Prairie, the Junior ‘A’ team has over 1 million dollars in advertizing within their rink and that is solely banners, boards and ice logos. I’m not saying we go that far, because there are some ethical implications since we are a educational institution et cetera et cetera but we live in Corporate Calgary, this place is a sponsorship gold mine of sorts. Game sponsors instead of the regular old sponsorship could bring in fans from companies around Calgary, which would create excitement for Cougar Hockey outside of the existing community.
 Advertizing relates less to students and more to the surrounding community as they are an untapped resource at this point. We believe that sending out e-mail through MRU could help bring students to games because a lot of people forget that Hockey is not on campus. We also think that compared to the major sports teams in town, we are a bargain for the quality of hockey you are able to watch. Make this a family atmosphere and people will come.   

Creating atmosphere is a little harder to do but it ties into the sponsorship idea. If a sponsor decides to associate their name with a game, than intermissions could be used to further promote their company. One of the most creative ways I’ve seen this used is a Marine Sport Company was the game sponsor and they brought 4 big tubes out onto the ice and made four crowd members play musical chairs with the tubes! It was enjoyable to watch and to participate in! Perfect, clean, family fun. The thing about these ideas is that the people who are impacted most, are the game day staff and we are the ones trying to drive the change.  We are willing to commit to extra work to make this community an even bigger success.

Who needs to be involved in this discussion, well, to tell you the truth, I think we need to go even further than our direct boss (Kimmo) and move towards the head of Athletics and that entire department. We need a culture change so that we can development this stagnant community. Current sponsors should be stakeholders as well as students,  members of the community, Booster club members and even alumni.
The process, to me at least, seems simple. Communicate this belief to whoever will listen within the university and don’t be discouraged. From there, our passion for the game and determination to create a stronger community, will get us the rest of the way. I know this sounds idealistic but, a girl can dream right?

Creating a Cougar Community... get your minds out of the gutter.

So here is a little background on me. I love hockey and for eight years we billeted Junior Hockey players in Grande Prairie. I have experienced almost every aspect of the hockey world: the fan, the billet, the volunteer, the behind the scenes, etc... I have recently joined a new portion of the hockey community, the Mount Royal Cougars Hockey program. I am a member of the game day staff and have enjoyed every minute of the hockey I’ve seen. I feel as though this community has some room to grow and this is why I have chosen it today.
As a working member of the Cougars game day staff, I see a lot of the strengths we have within MRU Athletics.

We have an amazing game day staff. The people that work the clock, judge goals or work admissions have a passion not only for hockey but for Cougar Hockey. They want to see the game run smoothly and professionally and I see that as an extremely positive aspect of the game. Another strength is we have dressed two very talented teams. The Men’s hockey is vying for number one is the ACAC and the Women’ hockey is running away with first overall. The existing resources are listed above. They range from the facilities to the people.

The opportunities are what I am interesting in. I know that moving into the Canadian Interuniversity Sport division is probably the largest opportunity we are facing but  I think there are some major improvements that need to happen before we are able to move there. Three of those things I deem as imperative – entertainment, marketing and consistency. When it comes to entertainment I feel as though between intermissions, we could be doing so much. The games, competitions, live demonstrations, the possibilities are endless but at the moment we have nothing in place. When it comes to marketing, we need to bring out fans, even if they aren’t students and increased marketing could entice more sponsors. Consistency needs to come from the outside in – consistency on the ice and consistency with marketing will increase our profile which is necessary to make it in the CIS.

 

At this point, I  believe that the fans are at the inform stage of empowerment and the staff are in between inform and consult. That is something else we need to improve: empowerment.

According to the athletes in the community, they feel as though the programs strength is in talent. They know that by being close to the top of the standings in the ACAC , they enhance the name and the perception of the team within the community. They have a strong position with the existing resources as they have just received brand new dressing room which are larger and better equipped before. The Mount Royal gym is also a strength as we have some of the nicest facilities and workout equipment in the ACAC.  The opportunities that they see are to continue the trend of pride in excellence and within the next few years to win a championship. The athlete that I spoke to does not believe, at this point, there are any major improvements to make.

 

I even talked to some people who were not a part of the community and tried to see what we could do to improve the sense of identity surrounding Cougars’ hockey. Some of the individuals stated that the fact that there is a physical separation between the campus and the arena kills the feeling of community and makes the hockey portion of athletics inaccessible. Also, one of the major complaints was that the athletes were not visible at Mount Royal. If people knew more about the hockey players and their stories, they would be more compelled to attend the games.

I feel as though the first part of this complaint is not easy to address, mind you, most parts of community development are not solved easily. One way that I would try to solve this issue would be to provide forms of transportation to and from the game for students. I feel as though the cost of transportation would be minimal compared to the creation of a Cougar Hockey community. The latter problem, to me at least, is much easier to resolve. Make the athletes known on campus. Advertize their stories. Make them into a poster boy. If the marketing department believes that people care and deep down I believe that students here at Mount Royal do care about their sports, than the money should be directed into this aspect of marketing.

Wow. That was long winded! Sorry guys! J



Closing the Gap

Nelson Mandela: How do you inspire your team to do their best?
Francois Pienaar: By example. I've always thought to lead by example, sir.
Nelson Mandela: Well, that is right. That is exactly right. But how do we get them to be better then they think they CAN be? That is very difficult, I find. Inspiration, perhaps. How do we inspire ourselves to greatness when nothing less will do? How do we inspire everyone around us? I sometimes think it is by using the work of others.

Closing the gap

Invictus: defines the roles of strength, both personal and national, and the potency of empowerment in community development. Now, I believe we are quite aware that the film uses sport as a vehicle for community development but it is the first time since the start of this course that I have really begun to see that community development is truly building bridges between two people (poor and rich, black and white, etc….). Now, I apologize in advance for the painful symbolic nature of my blog this week and please bear with me as I geek out in the figurative nature of the cinematic techniques.

One of the most powerful scenes for me is right at the beginniww.ng of the Invictus when we see the two extremely different cultures playing rugby.  On one side, you see the young black South Africans playing on a dirt field with no real rules. The fence between them and the road is practically chicken wire and in some spots, is not even stable enough to hold up. On the other side, the white South Africans are running rugby drills on beautiful, lush green grass with a fence taller than most made of steal. The use of fences is something that intrigued me about this part of the movie. Fences, as we all know, define barriers. I like that the fence of the black South Africans is insubstantial compared to that of the white South Africans because it demonstrates the context of the movie. The white South Africans have their guard up ever since Mandela leaves prison/becomes president and it’s funny that it is through rugby and letting down these barriers that the Springboks create their own community. Furthermore, the idea of bridging that gap between the two races is solidified and symbolized when Nelson Mandela drives through the street in his convoy out of prison, as he is truly the one who connections these two nationalities trapped in one nation.

The community development within the team is another aspect of the movie that was almost too heart warming to bear. Taking time out of their busy schedules, the Springboks spend an afternoon teaching rugby to a group of underprivileged black South African children. It is the first time we see the team interacting and having fun with one another. This relates to community development in the sense that one) Community Development is fun and two) Creating a community outside of the team is not only necessary but it develops both a sense of identity in the provider and receiver.  

Team Uniforms and structure such as team runs also manage to build a sense of community withn the team.

This is just a really quick point that I believe is essential to community development. The trip to Mandela’s jail cell is touching, yes, but is symbolizes the idea that in order to build relationships, improve an existing community, you have to  walk a mile in a man’s shoes. I think this is too often overlooked by government agencies and international aid systems as we forgot to put ourselves there and think about the consequences.

Now this had to be my favourite part of the whole movie! The police officers and the little black South African boy at the very end of the film is cute, funny, and defines community development as I see it. At first the boy is chastised for loitering around the police car to listen to the game, soon after he is allowed to sit on the sidewalk and listen quietly but by the end, when the gap between the two races is virtually non-existent and the little boy is hoisted up on their shoulders as South Africa wins the World Cup.

Despite the fact that I thought the movie was slow moving and cinematically could have been better quality, the message was inspirational. It shows that community development can a group of people, like the Springboks, or one man, like Nelson Mandela, and that play, games and sport can unite a nation.

Nelson Mandela: I am the master of my fate. I am the captain of my soul.

Bigger than Us - Sport-for-Development

“... sport has certain wider social ‘functions’ beyond the game ...”

Since I come from a relatively small community in northern Alberta, I wanted to look into our role as Canadians in the international community and how sport can support development in different countries worldwide. The article I found is actually a prelude to the Sport in Society issue on sport-for-development so it touches on each section of the journal as well as the major questions surrounding sport-for-development. The article is called “The social impact of sport: diversities, complexities and contexts” by Ramon Spaaij and he looks at what sport-for-development is, how it can be established, what are the positives and negatives of sport-for-development and summaries of the case studies that are outlined throughout the special issue.

One of the main things that he looks at is “...social development through sport is [usually] imposed on disadvantaged communities in a top-down manner, lacking community engagement and shared ownership.” I too believe that community development cannot be legislated in this sense, that there has to first be some movement from the grassroots level in order for a program or new idea to grow and then succeed. This means for leaders within the international community should work with local governments, as that is inevitable, but community development should be initiated and carried out locally and with the members of the community. Essentially, it is just embracing the idea that how can you help the masses, without knowing the individuals. I believe that that is key to community development whether it’s in Alaska or Zimbabwe.  

 

Another problem that this article addresses is that in developing countries “...the state can be as much part of the problem as the solution.” This is something I had never given much thought to but it makes a lot of sense. Think about it. If you lived in a country with a government that could be deemed corrupted, authoritarian and a powerful military regime, they, in most cases, use sport in order to create a better and stronger army, just like the Spartans did a gazillion years ago. So how do you trust a sport program coming from your government that has proven they only want you as soldiers? The answer is easy. People don’t trust their government and don’t join thus debilitating the sport-for-development process. This highlights the need for organizations like UNICEF and FIFA to get involved, as they are known to unbiased and present for the good of the people.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UozCYu9e65U

 

The last aspect of the article I would like to share with you is that it also looks into the negative effects of sport-for-development. This had crossed my mind because if it was all positive why wouldn’t every country use sport for community development, but I have never really dug any deeper into the issue. Spaaij addresses the fact that sport “often reflects or even reinforces social inequalities.” To me this made a lot of sense. If the problem in the community was that Team Blue thought they were better than Team Red, and Team Blue consistently annihilates Team Red, that would just fortify their sense of supremacy and crush all hopes of the two teams developing into a community. Organizations within sport-for-development must be cautious is making sure their programs do not highlight this dominance, but instead stress the importance of building relationships.  

 

Whether is Major League Baseball in the Dominican Republic or Indigenous participating in Australian football, sport has the opportunity to empower individuals, strength relationships, grow communities and essentially, without being too cliché, change the world.

 “Through sport and physical education, individuals can experience equality, freedom and a dignifying means for empowerment, particularly for girls and women, for people with a disability, for those living in conflict areas and for people recovering from trauma.”