I don't know about you, but all this talk on the POHDCC PodCast - just seems to beg for more conversation! Carl, Warren and Serena have whet our whistles with tidbits on various hypotheses and theories, but we'd like to go further! Right? Right!!
So...we are opening up this blog for some greater conversation.
Our first topic will be about leadership. Gulp... that's a biggie isn't it? Any of us who have taken Warner Burke's class know that it takes a least 8 weeks just to cover where we've been and get caught up to the present on this topic. However we also know that leadership is a fascinating topic - for a reason. It's just so darn important!
A couple of questions to get us started...
It seems like the recent project leaders on The Apprentice have had a tough go of things (perhaps that's par for the course given the set up of the show). Even when they win - they don't win the hearts and minds of their teams (can you say Surya)?
So how come?
3 questions to ponder:
Is Surya failing to inspire because he has the wrong style for the situation (a la Fiedler)?
Or is the team unwilling to be led by Surya for other reasons, perhaps related to something like Bion's Basic Assumptions (related to group dynamics)?
What other theories or hypotheses are out there to consider?
Looking forward to hearing your thoughts, opinions and ideas. There is no "right" answer - but it sure is fun to hear what others think!
POHDCC is the official podcast of the Organizational and Human Development Consulting Club at Teachers College, Columbia University.
Hosted by Warren Kimmel, Whitney Cook and Paul Hanvongse, this series explores issues related to organizational behavior and leadership.
Special topics have included POHDCC: The Apprentice, our analysis of Donald Trump's popular reality show.
What's in store for this season? Keep checking in to find out!
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About POHDCC
- POHDCC (and POHDCC: The Apprentice)
- New York, NY, United States
- POHDCC is the offical podcast series of the Organization and Human Development Consulting Club at Teachers College, Columbia University. Season 2's hosts are Warren Kimmel, Whitney Cook, Paul Hanvongse, and Serena Shulman. All of us are Masters or Ph.D. students in Social-Organizational Psychology at Teachers College, Columbia University.
2 comments:
Thanks for the post, Amy!
I have to wonder if the teammate sent over from Kinetic (could have been anyone, happened to be Surya) was set up to fail from the beginning.
Think about this-- Arrow is losing right up to the point where Aaron pulls out a decent win for his half of the team. Trump sends a "shining star" from Kinetic (my words, not his)over to save the "losers" at Arrow, as if the teammate from Kinetic is Emilio Estevez about to coach the Mighty Ducks into being a winning peewee hockey team. (Use your own hokey sports analogy - that's the first one that came into my head.)
In reality, what you have in Arrow is a group of strong-minded, self-motivated, and very social people who have established a particular team culture that they all like-- and now the "new guy" is sent over and is feeling a lot of pressure to take the reins. They don't know him, and he doesn't know them. Why should they listen to him?
Hindsight being 20/20, maybe Surya would have been better off hanging back for a couple of tasks and playing a strong support role, rather than speaking up and attempting to influence the team culture right off the bat-- a leader is only as good as his (her) teammates will let him (her) be, and since any change to the status quo was going to be met with resistance, it could have worked in Surya's favor to build a bunch more trust and social capital with Arrow, the way he clearly did with Kinetic.
Any thoughts?
Warren
Warren -
I think you've hit on something here - joining a group takes some "finesse" - if you will, and Surya was set up to fail in many ways due to the way he joined (your loser/hockey comments). Many leaders face this same situation everyday. So I wonder is it that at age 24 Surya just doesn't have the maturity to match his smarts. Meaning - he hasn't been here before, so doesn't realize that building relationships come before building strategies? Or is it just that his "task structure" orientation is better suited to a different type of situation - and even if he were 40 years old he wouldn't do anything differently?
Amy
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