Don’t put out the Fires, Prevent the Fires (blog 6)

Article 1

I have realized that when I write blogs about the specificities of articles, I write like I’m still in my RWS classes. Many apologies, my professors conditioned me apparently. Anyways, in the article “Seven Transformations of Leadership,” David Rooke and William R. Torbert categorize leadership into seven types of action logic and then give advice on how to transform and evolve as a leader in regard to being that specific type. For this summary I classify which are transactional or transformational leadership.

Transactional:

· Opportunists want to win and will do whatever it takes to win.

· Diplomats want to keep the peace.

· Experts solely focus on logic, the hard facts, and expertise.

· Achievers strive to reach the goals they are given.

· Individualists lead in more unconventional ways and tend to break the rules if they feel they are not important.

Transformational:

· Strategists create organizational and personal change by being collaborative, challenging the status quo, and being able to lead the way through communication of the visions. They can generate long and short-term transformations.

· Alchemists generate social transformations that significantly reinvent a company. They are the big picture kind of leader that ends up leading a society-wide change.

The authors then give information on how go from a transactional leadership to transformational leadership. For example, an achiever trying to become an individualist, look at the worth of the goals given and how they would help the organization in the future. And an individualist should stop focusing on just oneself and develop their peer to peer engagement in order to become a strategist. Transformation leadership, the strategists and the alchemists, have already developed those personal skills and now have to focus on “exploring the disciplines and commitments entailed in creating projects, teams, networks, strategic alliances, and whole organizations on the basis of collaborative inquiry.

Article 2

In the second article “transformational leaders in the hospitality industry” by J. Bruce Tracey and Timothy R. Hinkin, their main topic is about how the “manager who fights the fires (transactional leadership) may need to be replaced by threat of one who focuses in fire prevention (transformational leadership).”

They talk about the traditional, classical way of

leadership being “by the book” has little room for “individual freedom, creativity, and innovation.” But the thing is, life doesn’t happen by the books. The hospitality industry is the same in that manner. This style of management is outdated and only effective when “outing out the fire”. They argue that transformational leadership is a way to advance efficient use of human resources and time and to create continuous improvements that will essentially “prevent the fires” from happening in the first place. The picture above shows the basic concept of each one. However, to simply put it transactional is based on rules, bureaucracy, tasks, daily operations, and influencing employee compliance through punishments and rewards. Whereas, transformational is composed of the leader’s ability to focus on the future by aligning the vision, values, and behavior of the team, by communicating such and getting that buy in from everyone within the organization. This essential leads to major changes organizational-wide. This type of leadership is incredibly important because the hospitality industry is always changing and finding that competitive advantage is getting more and more challenging. Organizations have to proactively adapt in order to survive and stay ahead. Which they can’t do that if their leaders are leading by an old rule book.

Me

Now (after reading my essays. Sorry! I just think everything is important.) how does transactional and transformational leadership apply to my life? Do I put out the fires or try to prevent them? I guess it really depends on what aspect of my life I am dealing with. At work, whether it be at catering or at banquets, the leadership style I experience there is very much transactional. We are operations and everything we do concerns that day and what needs to happen. I am not too sure how management themselves go about making the company better in the long-run since I go there to do my job then leave. We are given tasks, there are standard procedures, and if there are mishaps we go to management. There is a procedure for everything and they tend to want us to stick to those procedures. There is definitely nothing wrong with it. A lot of us are there just to get paid, since there isn’t much room for growth in our positions. I 100% put out more fires then prevent them when I am there. That doesn’t mean I’m bad at my jobs. I get my stuff done effectively and efficiently and am always learning. However, if there was more self-responsibility and freedom, then the situation could be different. On the other hand, at school, I take more of a transformational approach or at least I try to. Since I see school as a means to get me to a happy and successful future. I come up with weekly game plans, so I can stay ahead, I plan out monthly and yearly opportunities of where I would like to be and come up with the game plan to get me there. My vision, values, and behaviors to get me to my future are solidly connected. I work hard and have an a, b, c, and even a d plan. I am also open to change, since I know I can’t predict everything and that adapting and overcoming are impossible if I am stuck in accomplishing one plan. When it comes to my personal life I try to prevent the fires from happening, however stuff happens and though I try to proactively adapt, sometimes a bucket of water is needed. I am still learning how. I am still growing. Which is essentially what transformation is about, right?