Being Supportive

Take the opportunity to reflect specifically on Yukl's material on pages 63 through 72, Supportive Behavior.

Assuming that these leadership behaviors are appropriate at all levels of organizations, do you use these behaviors in your work with others? Subordinates? If so, how are they effective in producing results? If not, could they be added to your personal repertoire of leadership behaviors?

            During my time as a leader I have always been the kind of person that has not felt like I am a natural leader, yet many times I have been called upon to be in the leadership role. As a very young person in the military I never knew why I was constantly asked to be a leader, I almost used to dread the fact that I would have to be in charge of others and have that responsibility weighting on my shoulders. I would almost start to get mad at some of my Chiefs who would choose me to lead smaller teams, I felt as if they were purposely coming after me to see if I would be able handle it. I never understood why this was the norm in my military career until one day I came out and asked my Chief why he would continue to choose me as a leader. He paused for a second, took a deep breath and told me “well if you must know, people like working hard for you”. He told me that I had a certain compassion which was hard to find in people, he thought that I always knew how to find the good in people.

            This was an important discovery for me, I then began to look at my leadership roles from a different point of view. I could see what my Chief saw in me, it was true that when I would ask someone to complete a task they never gave me a hard time about doing it. The amount of consideration, acceptance and concern that I would show for others made them feel like they were working with me and not just for me. I felt that I was really good relating to my subordinates, I think that when I showed them sympathy and support in my own way I was at my strongest. If someone was feeling disgruntle about their job instead of arguing with them about it I would show them that I could in many ways agree with what they were saying. People like someone that can relate to their problems and after listening to my subordinates get what they were thinking off of their chest; they would then give me some quality work. Not only would I listen to my people talk, I would then turn things around and shine a positive light on what they were doing and this would “bolster the person’s self-esteem and confidence”(Yukl 2012 pg.67). By doing this I have now indicated to the person that they are important to the team and I showed them that I have confidence and I believe in them.

            Another form of supportive leadership that I would practice is showing concern for each person’s development. I would do this by creating a book which tracked all of the good things which my team was doing and create a point system which could be kept track of everyday. Every time my team would reach a certain goal which was placed by me, I would provide praising and recognition. On top of praising and recognition I would come out of my own pocket and by lunch for my over achieving team. At this point in my career I felt a bit strange because I could feel that I was proud of what we were accomplishing, I did not know that I could possess the power of making people better.

 By having a good, positive and supportive attitude I was able to create a lot of change. I see now that I have left the military that there are some managers which could really learn from this portion of our text. Sometimes a bit of kindness and compassion towards your subordinates can go a long way. I never felt that I would have to keep a short leash on any of my subordinates, I think that letting your employee’s show you how good they can be is very different compared to a manager being forceful. I think that as a leader we have to see what people are made of and then push them according to what their personalities can handle. Not every employee is built the same mentally and it is our job as leaders to spot these different characteristics from the beginning. Once we have begun to understand who and what we are working with then we can support our team accordingly.

References:

Yukl, G. A. (2012). Leadership in organizations. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice-Hall.