Appendix U -- Management Philosophy

Management Philosophy
I feel extremely lucky to have had a plethora of working experiences. The accumulation of which provides me ample context to pull from both in comparing different managers I’ve experienced and formulating new ideas I’d like to integrate in my own self and style.
My first and only position in which I had management responsibilities began with a promotion to “trainer”. I led by example and my boss wanted me to get paid for it, to make it official. From there I began to hold more and more leadership responsibilities. My philosophy at the time was that I couldn’t expect anything from anyone I wasn’t willing to do alongside them. My hope was that they would respect me and therefore my position. I always had an enthusiastic attitude. It let me be consistent and have fun at the same time. I tried to be the type of worker that I wanted them to be, too. I still feel this is a fairly good philosophy and I am already beginning to build on and tweak these skills with new learning and successful reflections. One weakness I see now in this approach is in viewing myself as separate, above… better than the rest of the employees. I recently had a boss that treated me like this. It truly created a feeling I did not enjoy much at all.
This working experience I had has since provided me abundant opportunity for perspective and reflection considering managerial and personal supervisory style. I was working as a personal assistant to the founder of a local non-profit. I learned a lot about what does not work for me in my upper management. My supervisor embodied a lack of communication, guidance, feedback and personal training. There was little use of brainstorming or creativity in my position. It seemed like she was passing down only long tedious jobs that no one wanted to do. Her time was stretched between so many jobs, responsibilities, extras and people that she couldn’t even utilize her assistant who was hired to help relieve some of that bulk. I learned so many things through the ways I felt she was coming up short in her position with me. First, having a team is useless if you don’t make the time to fully utilize their strengths and availability. Also, systems of communication are vital in maintaining the workflow especially in a busy, overloaded workplace. Taking time to train capable workers is worth it. Further, valuing the ideas and creative capabilities of those workers will ease the stress of work for everyone. In this experience, I also found myself observing some traits of a leader that are very good. She had an amazing personality to show strength in conflict. She was not afraid of conflict and had a very articulate voice when she was asserting herself. She also maintained a strong network of professionals and community. I witnessed her calling upon her vast network many, many times. Certainly those were all instances in which she saved time, money and effort. Also, even through stressful and time constraining projects she maintained her priority in family, something I fully intend on doing. My views have been shaped tremendously from the time I spent working in this position, and I am ever thankful for the opportunities for growth it’s since provided.
In the next job I begin, I will thrive with specific guidance initially. This reminds me of the situational leadership model. At the beginning when I’m learning the content of the job it helps to have someone available to provide that. I like to know specifically of what is expected of me. I seek and rely on feedback to improve. Communication is very important to me. The feeling of being under-utilized is something I’ve had and don’t like. I want to be challenged. The best thing I can see for ensuring this is to create and maintain open lines of communication with the next supervisor I work with. I want to feel like I can ask for more or different things at work, and feel I’ve been heard. Opportunities for creative thinking in my work help me thrive. Mundane, tedious, and overly repetitive things wear me tired quickly, so a manager who does not hear my communication on my strengths in creative thinking would not only miss out, but push me away. I contribute to and thoroughly enjoy an open, friendly, inclusive work environment. For me, playful rewards are fun, but fear of punishment does not motivate me. Usually just knowing something is my responsibility motivates me, so if I have a dip in performance, usually just a friendly reminder will snap me out of it. Friendly management was something I most definitely did not experience in my one job that exemplified the X approach.
This top-down, demeaning approach to management was exactly what was practiced during my experience in boot camp for the United States Navy. I feel I was personally able to function in this environment because I have a strong sense of self, and I can follow directions. However, I would have been miserable if I hadn’t known it was temporary. I felt few if any of my strengths were recognized. It was very stifling. I had no outlet for creativity whatsoever, a very important value of mine. I noticed how those people who couldn’t take direction really suffered from this impersonal and demeaning style of management. As miserable and stripped of individuality as we all felt, I personally saw the appropriateness of this approach at least in the context of boot camp. A large number of people need to be trained in a large amount of information. In essence, there is just no time for individual ideas to come through. Some people who were, for whatever reason, unable to see the big picture as to why they were being treated this way, all but went crazy. It was necessary for the supervisors to create the environment that conveys the rule that ‘what the boss sais, goes, immediately and with no question’. This attitude and behavior is necessary both for purposes of teaching in boot camp and for the possible future situations at war in which the top down style can be, while not enjoyable, functional. Having felt the direct effects of this style of management, I do not personally identify with using it. I will avoid ever making those I supervise feel so stifled, unless utterly warranted by crisis. In which case I feel I could and would embody this approach to managing people.
I’d have to say, most of the jobs I’ve had seem to have modeled the Y approach of management. My inherent goodness was recognized, but there was always still a specific line between what the supervisors knew and did for work and what my position was. I’ve always felt like my overall wellbeing was taken into account, but the hierarchy of the supervisor/worker relationship was still readily apparent. Without some real conscious thought and deliberate learning I could see myself quickly modeling this management type if I found myself in that position. However, I do not believe that this approach is the most healthy. Between now and when the time comes that I am holding such a position I’ll be making those necessary adjustments in my thinking and approach to management in attempt to model more of the thinking in Senge’s approach.
While I very much value some of the ideas within the Z approach, namely the continual quality improvement thinking, I do still see the Z approach as a stepping stone to something better, Senge’s Learning Organization. I do feel my gravitation to this thinking is a bit unoriginal given that it is the most current view of what works best as well as its support of many of the concepts that line much of the Human Services courses, yet, I still favor it. Further, I am more comfortable with the reasoning for my pull toward this line of thinking than I am with the reasons I would otherwise default toward the Y approach. First, I value the messages that I’m learning in Human Services coursework and feel comfortable using this opportunity to replace and refine some of my ideas about what a manager’s job is. Also, my tendency toward an approach is now a conscious one rather than the default or modeled behavior from previous experiences. The main thing that sticks out about Senge’s thinking is that of what a leader’s job really is. A designer, a teacher, servant; someone who can do the detail work, but that can also see the big picture. They can make sense of what is happening, what needs to happen and has skills to help pull together all types of resources, including those imbedded in the personalities of personnel, in working toward goals. I see myself as someone who can naturally see the big picture and I look forward to using this class and other opportunities for learning and growth to further mold my managerial capabilities in this direction.
While I may not be heading into the working field immediately, I feel this course provides much context for me to pull together many parts of me and my past working experiences in order to learn more about the kind of person I’d like to be, and start heading there. One small but very valuable thing I’ve already learned is the breadth of job for a nonprofit manager. Before I came into this program I naively applied for a job as the director of a brand new nonprofit. Even after just a few weeks of this class I am so glad they didn’t hire me. I would have done them a huge disservice. I’ve gained respect and perspective for any director or supervisor in the field.