MSLD 641 Module 9 - Becoming a Resonant Leader: A letter to myself

Becoming a Resonant Leader

A Letter to Myself

          Dear me,

            I hope by now you understood what being resonant means, and that slowly you can start putting in practice all the learning outcomes of the past eight weeks. Do not lose track of “our” vision, which, ultimately, is to live the world a better place. Bellow follows “our” learning agenda to ensure we positively impacting on people’s lives as we cross paths with them. What I want for “our” future is to be able to help people develop themselves, cognitively and emotionally, in their personal, social, and professional scope. Do not forget to achieve our milestones following the action steps in this letter, even if it is necessary to adapt them along the way. Be alert, be attuned, and be connected to yourself (or should I say ourselves?) and with the world around you! Since we are one, I will speak to you in the first person.

Professional Learning Goal

            My professional learning goal is to develop and implement leadership programs for organizations (including non-profit). This goal requires a lot of financial support, therefore most of the milestones will involve saving money and looking for funds to make it possible. The first milestone will be getting an MBTI® (Myers & Briggs Type Indicator) certification. The action steps to achieve it involves include the certification in my budget within the next six months and register for it.
            The second milestone is getting an executive coaching certification. It will require saving money for that within the next year, and to analyze which coach institute (certification) will better fit my needs. When these two action steps are completed, I will then register for it.
            The third milestone, to be achieved in the longer-term, is to complete an Executive Strategy course. The greatest challenge is the financial requirement, as this course is way beyond my budget. If I manage to get the funds to do so, then the action step would be to register for this course.

            A fourth milestone is to have a strong network. This milestone is to be achieved throughout the process of change, and not being the last one, in this particular order. The action steps involve using a professional social media account (LinkedIn for instance) to start with. I have created the account on the past week, which was the first action step. Further, I consider doing an internship in organizations that provides this type of service or working in projects alongside experienced professionals.

Community/ Social Learning Goal

            Open a charity for neglected teens and elders in Brazil is my community goal. To start with, I need to have a network to support me in the process. The steps to achieve this milestone is to connect with people currently working in projects and charities and to have supportive relationships as governmental and local corporations. Initially, this step would be taken virtually, as I currently live in another country. Then I plan to get personally in touch with the networks, in my trips to Brazil, and when returning permanently to the country, build a strong supporting network to make it happen.

            Another milestone is to learn the laws, regulations, and policies to have a charity or organize non-profit projects, in the country and the city I plan to have my initiative. An action step is to start researching it online (empirically and practically with experienced people). The first milestone is a supporting step for this one, as being in touch with people already in this field, could work as guidance and mentorship.
            The milestone is to have a deeper understanding of the situation (inventory of charities and people in need). For that, one action step would be getting in the field in existing initiatives. Once again, broadening my network is a helpful first step for this one. Getting in touch with government departments to collect data is another action step. This milestone will be possible, mainly, when I return to Brazil, for good.

Personal/ Family Learning Goal

            This goal is a continuous process and probably an endless goal. My personal objective is to build a mental and emotionally healthy family, by contributing to my knowledge. The first milestone is to be a mother. It goes without saying that one action step is to get pregnant, which does not depend only on me. I have stopped birth control one year ago, to allow my body to function naturally. The next step is to be able to live with my husband, as we are in a long-distance marriage. This step was supposed to be taken already but is delayed due to the pandemic. By mid-July, I, along with my husband, will reevaluate how this step will be taken since it involves other variables now. Independent, this step is expected to be completed by August.
            Another milestone is to have a more balanced life. One action step is finding a routine and build up a daily agenda, including physical, mental, and spiritual activities, which will all contribute to my emotional state. I have been working on this step already, but I am planning to improve by tomorrow, with the end of my master’s degree classes. I believe balance to be crucial to achieving my personal goal.
            A third milestone is to read books and articles about marriage, motherhood, and parenting. The first action step to start research on it. The first book I want to read is “How to Talk so Kids will Listen & Listen so Kids will Talk” by Faber and Mazlish. I and my husband usually read the same book about marriage, at the same time. The last one we have read is the popular “The Five languages of Love” by Gary Chapman. We plan to continue on this action step continuously.

Supporting Relationship

            There are key people to help me to achieve my learning goals. They play a different role in different goals, either holding me accountable, helping me to see another perspective and deeper points of view, and assisting me in seeing my blind spots. One person that I chose to assist me emotionally, and who is an intrinsic part of my life is my husband. He is always cheering for my dreams to come true, so this relationship is crucial to help in achieving my goals. My father is another key person, as he is a typical critical thinker and always encouraged me to think through. My best friend is a huge supporting relationship, as she helps me with resources of whatever subject I mentioned I am interest on. She also has a strong scientific network, since she is a scientist herself, being employed at Cornell University and working on her post-doctorate degree.

            More neutral relationships are three colleagues I have in my organization, which I bond with for their strive for personal development. With them, I can share ideas and short-term achievements to celebrate small wins and get ideas. My current operational manager is another relationship I can count with, as she often coaches me and pushes me to develop myself.
      
            Dear me. The most important relationship is ours! Without it, no goal will be achieved. Let us keep our bond strong, let us keep aware and stick to the positive picture of our future. Together we can make it happen!!!

MSLD 641 Module 5 - Intentional Change Theory at the Team Level

Intentional Change Theory (ICT) at the Team Level

            Group development and transformation take place based on multi-fractal interaction; intentionality; and positive emotion, as follow (Akrivou, Boyatzis & McLeod, 2006):

1. Intentionality and shared ideals are the drivers of change and group transformation.
2. Positive emotion becomes critical for intentional group development, alternating activation of positive and negative emotional attractors (PEA and NEA), with PEA being the emotional anchor and NEA seen as functional to change.
3. Iterations must be grounded in positive emotion, enhancing the group’s conscious awareness, or mindfulness, the salience, as well as the coherence of its ideal.

To analyze the content of ICT in teams, Olympic US Women’s Soccer team and United States’ men’s basketball will be used as illustration.

            The US women’s soccer team has been an international force since the FIFA Women’s World Cup began in 1991 (The Washington Post, 2019). According to Klenke (2011), contact sport is not, socially speaking, a women’s strength. Women, to get to show their value in soccer and a to get chance to be in the spotlight, needed to strongly fight for it. This is the first reason, I believe, women soccer in the US succeeded in the past years. They had a positive vision of their shared ideal self, as a group, which was a driver for change and transformation. Their desire for equality in the field is a driver to this day (Spiggle, 2020). However, the team was aware of the reality and the challenges up ahead. They did not neglect the NEA. Negativity had its functionality purpose on the team, pushing them to their ideal, which was still grounded in the PEA. (Akrivou, Boyatzis & McLeod, 2006). Moran (2015) and Burke (2019) highlight the team’s perseverance, resilience, tuned to opportunity, humbleness, and hope as leadership lessons from US Women’s Soccer team, which goes in liaise wit Akrivou, Boyatzis and McLeod (2006) components of ICT in a team level.

            Another point important to make is that transformation at the group level can be catalyzed and facilitated by (1) formal or informal positive emotional leadership in the group, and (2) interaction on other fractions of the complex systems (Akrivou, Boyatzis & McLeod, 2006). This team has been influenced by former players, active players, coaches, as stated by Lisi (2010), apart from communities with the same beliefs and ideals, brands linked with the public tendencies, media, government support, so forth. All these factors contributed to the US Women’s soccer team performance along all these years, being considered a quite young group (independent of individualities), comparing with the US Men’s Basketball team.

            The latter has created high hopes, due to its media attention and previous performances. For the purpose of this paper, let me just consider the Olympics. Until the year 2000, the US Men’s Basketball team has won 11 Olympics, out of 14 (USAB, 2016). Chang (2016) lists the US point differential to show the team’s performance independent of winning. In 2000 the team won a gold medal, but its differential was in decline. 2004 was the worst year for the team, taking home a bronze medal (low profile for the “Dream Team”) and with the worst point differential in history. Grounding the analysis in ICT, the main reasons I believe the US Men’s Basketball Team did poorly in 2000 and 2004 were (Maisonet, 2017):

1. The disconnect/ dissonance between leaders and players and leaders with leaders.
2. The lack of union (shared ideal self) of the entire team.
3. The gap between the experiences between coaches and players.
4. The large gap between reality (real self) and vision (ideal self).
5. The lack of a learning agenda with time to experiment, as players were not used to playing together.
6. The negative tone/ approach from leaders to get results by threatening “motivators”

             Desired, sustainable change within the team occurs through the cyclical iteration of the group (Akrivou, Boyatzis & McLeod, 2006). While the US Women Soccer team intentionally self-developed, based on sustainability aiming the long run and having a higher purpose than just scores, the Us Men’s Basketball team was like boiling frogs, not seeing the warning signs, comfortable in their past and their illusion of the future, maintaining its status lacking awareness in the present. While all five components of ICT and prescription of group development, listed by the authors, were present in the former team, the same components were absent in the latter. 

References

Akrivou, K., Boyatzis, R. E., & McLeod, P. L. (2006). The evolving group: towards a prescriptive theory of intentional group development. Journal of Management Development 25(7), 689-706. doi: 10.1108/02621710610678490

Burke, K. (2019). 5 Lessons on leadership from the U.S. women's soccer team's second world cup Win. Retrieved from https://www.inc.com/katie-burke/5-lessons-on-leadership-from-us-womens-soccer-teams-second-world-cup-win.html

Chang, A. (2016). One simple reason the USA men's basketball team is struggling. Retrieved from https://www.vox.com/rio-olympics-explainers/2016/8/19/12524532/team-usa-basketball-struggle

Klenke, K. (2011). Women in leadership: Contextual dynamics and boundaries. Midlothian, VA: Emerald Publishing

Lisi, C. (2010). The U.S. Women’s Soccer team an American success story. Lanham, Md: Scarecrow Press.

Maisonet, E. (2017). The Miseducation of the 2004 U.S. Men's Olympic Basketball Team. Retrieved from https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2731575-the-miseducation-of-the-2004-us-mens-olympic-basketball-team

Moran, G. (2015). 6 leadership lessons from the U.S. women’s soccer team. Retrieved from https://www.fastcompany.com/3048231/6-leadership-lessons-from-the-us-womens-soccer-team

Spiggle. T. (2020). U.S. women’s soccer suffers setback in fight for equal pay.

Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomspiggle/2020/05/12/us-womens-soccer-suffers-setback-in-fight-for-equal-pay/#25d4cdc06107

USAB (2016). Men's Olympic games all-time results & standings. Retrieved from https://www.usab.com/history/national-team-mens/mens-olympic-games-all-time-results-standings.aspx

The Washington Post. (2019). The USWNT’s World Cup history: Eight tournaments, four titles. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/sports/soccer/usa-women-world-cup-history/