Blog Post #5 – Tasks and Relationships
As you reflect on what has been discussed in this chapter and your own leadership style, how would you describe your own style in relation to task and relationship orientations? What are your strengths and areas you can improve?
Between tasks orientation and relationship orientation leadership styles, I personally tend to be more task focused. I fall along this side of the leadership spectrum because I am consistently focused on what needs to get done and I prioritize my time in order to accomplish my tasks. For instance, I am always cognizant of schedules, due dates, times, assignments, as well as other work related activities. I am very detail oriented, structured, and organized. I also make sure to carefully plan out activities or work in advance. Basically I know what needs to be done and I do it. These are all strengths of mine that I value and they help me succeed whether in regards to work or school situations. Even though I tend to be more of a task-oriented leader I also value relationships as well. It is important to establish genuine connections with peers. Business would be meaningless without relationships. The people of a business are a core feature and need to be valued and it is important that they understand their value. The relationship aspect of leadership is one area which I could definitely improve upon.
Reflect on the article. What were the most interesting elements? Which did you agree with? Hope to learn more about?
What I found interesting pertains to how every category was considered more important in the virtual sense more than face to face. Our society continues to become more technologically advanced and operated over time and businesses will also follow this trend. These changes are going to have a significant impact on businesses as well as their leaders. As the results show, leaders will need to be technologically savvy in order to face the challenges that virtual communication presents. They will also need to be exceptional communicators. Additionally, with businesses growing and becoming global, this provides further challenges to individuals in leadership positions due to time zone differences and cultural differences. For instance, an excerpt from the article reads, “finding a proper balance between virtual and face to face communication poses a challenge for leaders of global teams. In line with Shell’s global ‘Diversity and Inclusiveness’ program, our respondents indicated that their leaders should show sensitivity to cultural diversity among team members . The present data suggests that this is even more desired in virtual settings than in face to face team settings”. With expansions in technological communication as well as global business practices, leaders must improve upon the skill sets that they are already expected to have.
I agree with the fact that relationship oriented leadership is more important in the virtual setting. Seeing as how team members are removed from each other, this presents another challenge for leaders who must get everybody involved and situated. Especially if team members are across different time zones, creating a sense of unity would seem difficult with virtual communication. Another challenge would be to sustain relationships over telecommunication whereas that is easier to do in person. Virtual communication seems like it would be detrimental to teamwork but seeing as how society’s future is reliant on technology, we must adapt.
I would like to learn more about the steps being taken to make virtual communication more effective and efficient.
