Final Reflections
Over the past few weeks we have reviewed a number of concepts regarding leadership and change. Looking back at my first blog post for this course (Joubert, 2021a), however, I don’t believe that my view regarding leadership traits has changed. In general, I still struggle to see the value in concepts that venerate one person above others. As noted then, some of the so-called “desirable traits” are in conflict with one another while others require a lifetime to gain (Julien et al., 2010, p. 116). While there is value in these ideals, I do believe that the concepts of reflective leadership (Castelli, 2016) combined with those of Indigenous leaders (Julien et al., 2010) allow for a richer experience for all involved.
Currently, the organization I work for has a number of noted values, including concepts of giving more than you take, being accountable and creating an environment where all individuals can be open about their whole self (Making a Difference in the World, n.d.). These ideals in particular align nicely with a more reflective learning and work environment. As such, while we do not currently have a training department or policies concerning training, this leaves room for leadership to reflect and direct change to introduce internal training based on these leadership ideals.
While this is true, one difficulty in my effecting these changes is my current position. As a QA Analyst, without a training department, and with no current training policies, no current mechanism exists through which to introduce training changes. There are, however, monthly surveys used by the company to better understand employee needs. As a result of recent and consistent feedback, our department has had one meeting thus far regarding developing our own departmental training to be hosted on our current HR Platform (Ultimate Software – UKG Pro Services, n.d.). At this meeting it was decided that, as fits the platform, training will be self-contained video and slide-based modules that new team members may work through, with a goal being to bring team members up to speed quicker, thus increasing efficiency. In this regard, I have been working on creating scripts for some of the training modules.
One potential difficulty with this proposal is that, while we have gathered feedback from team members in one department, we are basing this training solely on qualitative data. It will be helpful for future purposes to gather further data in order to ensure that the training achieves its goals. Beyond creating and editing the training resources, this is ideally something that I can help with going forward. In this way we will hopefully be able to create and prove the case that training is not only needed, but that a more centralized training department creating and monitoring such training may be useful overall for the company. Once that has been proven we can, ideally, work on creating policies regarding data collection, learning resource creation, and putting together or modifying existing toolkits. These tasks should put us in good stead to move forward in creating not only a department but also unified training resources and programs. It does require this initial training to be documented and provide useful insight, especially data collection on the effectiveness of the training. But it is a way forward.
References
Castelli, P. A. (2016). Reflective leadership review: A framework for improving organisational performance. The Journal of Management Development, 35(2), 217–236. http://dx.doi.org.ezproxy.royalroads.ca/10.1108/JMD-08-2015-0112
Joubert, J.-P. (2021, February 7). Activity 3: Leadership Reflections – Jean-Pierre Joubert [Blog]. Jean-Pierre Joubert: A MALAT Student Blog. https://malat-webspace.royalroads.ca/rru0157/activity-3-leadership-reflections/
Julien, M., Wright, B., & Zinni, D. M. (2010). Stories from the circle: Leadership lessons learned from aboriginal leaders. The Leadership Quarterly, 21(1), 114–126. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2009.10.009
Making a difference in the world (n.d.). 360insights. Retrieved March 20, 2021, from https://360insights.com/about-360insights/
Ultimate Software—UKG Pro Services. (n.d.). Ultimate Software. Retrieved March 20, 2021, from /UltiPro-Services