Primal Leadership
The concept of Primal leadership
Primal leadership is the emotional dimension in which leaders operate. Goleman (2004) argues that the primal task of a leader is an emotional one. Leaders articulate the messages that relate to their followers’ emotions and move them towards a positive direction.
Leadership does not involve a single individual hence departmental heads should have the self-awareness to understand their own emotions. Understanding one’s emotions help in handling emotional needs of their followers. For a goal to be reached , then followers’ emotions must be understood. Understanding the roles of emotions helps in completion and perfection in the workplace. Emotional intelligence helps a leader to acquire the right skills that can be embraced, with the leader ensuring that a good relationship between him and his employees (Goleman 2014). It is also very important to seek guidance from literature to be enlightened on employees’ emotional needs.
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Interpersonal relations are essential to maintaining and developing trust and feelings that are positive in any given organization. Emotional contagion happens within the relationships in the workplace. According to Goleman (2014), work productivity cannot entirely depend on motivation and communication alone, interpersonal relationships based on emotional intelligence is a significant contributor to this. In their bid to attain good supervision and positive returns, leaders must their best to refrain from favoring individual subordinates, making very difficult and often unpopular decisions, misuse of power to their subordinates and even showing more concern to the juniors in a nosy way. These acts affect the feeling of the followers of an organization.
How do people's moods affect their work performance?
Employees tend to transfer their moods from home to work. In case one has had a bad encounter back at home in the morning, then the anger and resilience are carried forward to work and is exhibited through my actions toward fellow employees during the day.
According to Goleman (2014), teams easily catch their leaders’ moods. “When one’s mind is full of anger followers can catch it like flu.” Leaders affected by moods in the organization can wrongfully punish employees which affect their productivity at work. Moods also affect the communication between leaders and employees creating unnecessary suspicions at the workplace . This is a form of toxic leadership and is very also very dangerous as it pulls down the productivity of work on that particular day.
Positive mood can also influence good performance in the workplace. Employees who understand emotional intelligence can understand the emotional needs of their leaders and fellow employees when working with them to have a positive outcome (Goleman, 2004). Positive moods also create positive emotional cultures that improve performance within an organization.
Leading at the edge
Discuss what you found to be the most important leadership aspects of the Shackleton adventure.
Understanding the needs of the people
Shackleton is widely credited for penning the Antarctic expedition. Men and women replied to his ad because he offered more than just employment . He recruited comrades to join him for an experience that would change their lives and challenge their character. According to Giannantonio & Hurley-Hanson (2014), Shackleton is a visionary, intelligent and charismatic leader. He is talked of as a leader who values effective communication as a means of sharing goal achievement initiatives.
Keeping team members focus in adversities
When adversity struck, Shackleton and the rest of his team endured to the end. He influenced them to stay focused on the expedition despite the crushing of the shop by ice. Their ship became immobilized by ice at a one-day distance from the Antarctic continent. They had to wait for some months, and Shackleton kept their spirits up by helping them keep their duties such as taking a scientific measurement, hunting for food and swabbing the decks. Shared relationship quality improves the outcomes of employees and managers who share responsibilities. Shackleton’s idea of leading from the front improved his relationship with team members and enhanced agreement during the expedition (Giannantonio & Hurley-Hanson, 2014). Lack of agreement between leaders and their followers cause impoverished relationship. This leads to inconsistency in the expectations that leaders and followers would have about each other. He never seemed to waver on his belief that the ice would release the ship and they would continue with their journey.
Leading from the front
Shackleton’s life was on the line during the expedition. Servant leadership theory is natural feeling to serve first. This conscious choice causes a leader to aspire to lead. This theory states that a leader should ensure that high priority needs of his or her flowers are served first. It is based on the notion that true leadership comes from serving others. Shackleton applies this theory in his expedition as the head of the team (Humphrey & Aime, 2014). The ship sunk taking away the relative safety, stores and shelter that the expeditors depended on . Shackleton changes the goal of the team from being the first to hike across Antarctica to “ships and stores are gone, so now we go home” (Perkins, Holtman & Murphy, 2014). He devised a rescue plan and executed it. Leaders face challenges when it comes to shared responsibilities. He departed by the sea in 1916 through a 17-day journey to Georgia Island. He then made a 5-day journey through the mountains to go back and rescue the members he left behind.
Having unwavering spirit
It took months for Shackleton’s team to get access to a rescue ship. Despite the three failed attempts to reach the ice, Shackleton kept his commitment to the 28 members A Chilean steamship made it, and they survived the months of waiting (Giannantonio & Hurley-Hanson, 2014). They were all waiting for him in bitter cold when he returned as he had promised. They may not have reached their expedition goal, but he delivered them home safely which a great accomplishment.
As you look at and think about the things, your team needs to do to reach the edge, what are the most critical priorities?
Motivation
Employees’ motivation and possibilities are conditioned to how they think about themselves and the corporation in which they engaged in . Shackleton affected his team’s possibilities and motivation positively. He promised his team honor and recognition upon the success of the expedition which inspired them to join him on the expedition (Humphrey & Aime, 2014). Motivation, therefore, helps teams to reach the edge.
Open communication
Open communication between management and employees in teams is one of the facets of internal communication that helps a team reach the edge. Shackleton openly communicated to his team members his vision before the expedition (Humphrey & Aime, 2014). He also communicated to them when the vision changed to going back home after they got stuck. Open communication boots team morale since different employees would consider some of the facets as more significant than the others. However, there is an order of preference for such internal communication features.
Unity and cohesion
Team unity and cohesion build more trust needed to take the team to the edge. Trust is one of the considerable issues that define the culture of a team or organization. It is variedly implicated by the various situations of internal communication, of which open communication between management and employees is an entity (Humphrey & Aime, 2014). Despite the observation that unity and cohesion, as a whole, affects trust building in an organization , it may be realizable that not all the various circumstances that may constitute a team’s unity affect trust building in the organization ; some of the issues may be insignificant.
References
Giannantonio, C. M., & Hurley-Hanson, A. E. (2014). Extreme Leadership: Lessons from Ernest Shackleton and the Endurance Expedition.
Goleman, D. (2004). What makes a leader? Harvard business review , 82 (1), 82-91.
Goleman, D. (2014). What makes a leader: Why emotional intelligence matters ? More Than Sound, LLC.
Humphrey, S. E., & Aime, F. (2014). Team microdynamics: Toward an organizing approach to teamwork . The Academy of Management Annals , 8 (1), 443-503.
Perkins, D. N., Holtman, M. P., & Murphy, J. B. (2014). Leading at the edge: Leadership lessons from the extraordinary saga of Shackleton's Antarctic expedition . CNIB.
