Posted: April 13th, 2023

Respond To 2 Colleagues essay

Respond to at least two of your colleagues’ postings “see listed below” that contain a perspective other than yours.

• Share an insight about what you learned from having read your colleagues’ postings and discuss how and why your colleague’s posting resonated with you professionally and personally.
• (Note: This may be a great opportunity to help you think about passions you can share with your colleagues.)
• Offer an example from your experience or observation that validates what your colleague discussed.
• Offer specific suggestions that will help your colleague build upon his or her perceptions as a leader.
• Offer further assessment from having read your colleague’s post that could impact a leader’s effectiveness.
• Share how something your colleague discussed changed the way you consider your own leadership qualities.

1st Colleague – Cara Telleysh
Cara Telleysh
RE: Discussion – Week 6
COLLAPSE
This week we focus on Ethical. Dilemmas. What is an ethical dilemma? To me, it is when we must act contrary to what we know or feel is right. It involves analyzing different options and choosing the best ethical alternative. Ethical dilemmas are complicated challenges people face that are not quickly solved. They also occur in almost every aspect of our life, including professional and personal.

The ethical dilemma that I encountered in my career was when I was a Sales Director. Every year we were given our goals. Often, I found myself conflicted between our mission and the resources needed to achieve the goals. For me, the dilemma created a very stressful environment and a sometimes toxic culture. As the leader, it was my responsibility to support the organization no matter what. I found this challenging because I was a young professional at the time. I worked in the most prominent branch, which was constantly modeling the way for the association. Therefore, I knew everyone would evaluate me. The plan required a steady and cautious approach that was inspiring, achievable, and held people accountable. It encompassed the following:

1. A study of our target market
2. The prior years’ actuals
3. The budget
4. Annual goals
5. Monthly goals
6. Individual team member goals
7. Program plan

As each month came and went, we met with each team member individually. We set new goals and expectations, provided training, and I empowered the team. As the leader, I concentrated on strategy and made sure it aligned with our mission. I gained respect from my team, peers, and the senior leader because I was honest, flexible; I included myself in the plan and worked alongside my team to reach our goals.

Throughout the program, I quickly learned that every team member needed to be motivated and appreciated differently. There were challenges and sometimes tough decisions made, but I realized the importance of being transparent. Whether I agreed with some of the execution strategies required of me, I never bad-mouthed the organization. I knew I could not change the culture, and as the leader of the department, I made a choice and learned to navigate in it.

We know one leadership style is not best; however, I believe all leaders must understand how to create trust. Beddoes, 2014 states, a leader is judged equally by what they say and what they do. Crucially, these must match, or a leader will not be trusted. (Beddoes, 2014 p. 45). In my dilemma, I describe the culture of the organization at times as very toxic. Everyone walked on eggshells. I remember going as far as posting a daily report that showed exactly how many sales we had every minute of the day. Leadership was all about the numbers. Great companies give their people a purpose or challenge to develop ideas rather than instruct them to make a better mousetrap. (Sinek, 2009, p. 108). Although I did not ethically think a high-pressured sales environment should overpower our mission, this experience helped me grow as a leader by understanding how to develop trust. By delivering on the promises I made, taking responsibility for my actions, telling the truth, and including others in the process, we achieved success.

References

Beddoes-Jones, F. (2014, August), Authentic leadership: The key to building trust. People Management, 44–47.

Sinek, S. (2009). Start with Why: How great leaders inspire everyone to take action [PDF version]. New York, NY: Penguin Group. Retrieved from http://www.mgtcoach101.com/uploads/7/3/5/2/73523011/start_with_why__how_great_leaders_inspire_everyone_to_take_action.pdf

2nd Colleague – Natasha Mills
Discussion – Week 6
COLLAPSE
The ethical dilemma that I experience involved a case of discrimination, where a leader in a senior position made racially discriminating remarks about one of the members of my team during a brief on a project. I was the supervisor of the team at the time, a factor that put me in a tight position when the issue escalated. The team member who was discriminated against decided to file a report with human resources and cited me as a key witness since he viewed me as the only person whose testimony would be credible to the determination of the case. At the same time, all the other team members that he had requested to bear witness declined due to the fear of losing their jobs.
I faced a dilemma concerning this issue because bearing witness equaled me risking a bad review or even the loss of my job due to the position and influence of the person we were going against. Therefore, I had to choose between doing the right thing, which was to testify for the case of discrimination against the team member or to stay on the safe side of the senior leader to shield my role and job.
Upon consideration, I decided to bear witness to the racial discrimination case. I empathized with the team member for the probable psychological impacts that the racial remarks must have had on him and how this would affect his productivity and performance. At the same time, I feared that there would be a repeat of such discrimination by the executive if I failed to testify in the case, which would only affect the performance of the team even further. Lastly, the fate of team member who was the victim of discrimination was on my hands because without my testimony the case would be thrown away for lack of evidence, particularly since the team member had mentioned that there were witnesses during the incident. All these factors replaced the fear that I had of brushing shoulders with the executive and all the potential repercussions, and pushed me into testifying.
The outcome of the dilemma was unexpected. Whereas I was waiting for a negative turn of events as was always the case for filing any cases against people in senior positions in the organization, the decision I made to bear witness brought about positive outcomes. First, after I agreed to testify on behalf of the afflicted team member and followed through with it, the rest of the team members that were present and witnessed the incident gained confidence and agreed to testify. This aspect immensely solidified the case and left the senior executive almost defenseless. My testimony as the team leader at the time, combined with the testimonies of the rest of the team, left human resources with no option but to take the necessary action for the executive’s behavior. This was also fueled by previous cases that had been filed against the executive under similar claims of discrimination but did not go through because of his influence, which instilled fear in anybody who thought about it.
The winning of the case was a first for junior employees in the organization who went against executives on any matter. Also, it was rare to find a junior manager who was willing and actually took action against executives in the organization as most preferred to protect themselves and their jobs. Therefore, my actions led my team members to trust me immensely. My experience presents an example of how ethical dilemmas shape the perceptions of others about an individual based on the decisions that the individual makes during the dilemma. In my case, the team members, who were my followers, viewed me as trustworthy after the dilemma because I remained authentic to the values that I had been selling to them before the incident. This confirms Beddoes-Jones (2014) supposition that admired leaders are those who are compassionate, self-aware, authentic, ethical, and honorable. Such qualities in a leader significantly contribute to their trustworthiness.
On my ability to understand how trust is developed, I share the same view with Beddoes-Jones (2014) that authenticity is critical. This is because authenticity allows individuals to be true to their values and self. Being true to oneself and one’s values, in turn, makes it easy for others to trust an individual by making that individual dependable. Other elements such as bravery and compassion then follow this aspect of authenticity. Further, my understanding of how trust is developed is that it stems from crucible experiences. As defined by Thomas (2009), these are experiences that alter an individual’s sense of identity. The ethical dilemma that I went through qualifies as a crucible experience because the outcomes altered my identity. Hence, the critical foundations of trust are authenticity and crucible experiences.

Beddoes-Jones, F. (2014, August), Authentic leadership: The key to building trust. People Management, 44–47.
Thomas, R. J. (2009, January). The leadership lessons of crucible experiences. Journal of Business Strategy, 30(1), 21–26.

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