A633.5.3.RB - Reflections on Chaos

The chaos exercise revealed to me that a leader can manage or lead. A manager and a leader can be the same person with different hats. Managing an organization or group of people can be done by taking part in each action and decision. This may be an effective way to run an organization but the manager will be run ragged by the time the day is done. Every decision and action carefully planned out by the manager takes a lot of time. However, in the end it will be exactly how the manager wants. Inevitably, when something goes wrong, it will only be the managers fault. Employees will resent not being asked for input and will start to be callused toward helping the manager. After a time, the employees will let the manager fail because they resent the position.

A leader, on the other hand, lets people make their own decisions. While giving objectives and clear boundaries, a leader gives the freedom to act (Obolensky,2014). Even though it may look chaotic, a leader needs to weather the storm and see it to the end. One of the key differences is the feedback(Obolensky,2014). If the leader can organize positive and negative feedback while keeping in mind the psychology of who they are talking to, the leader can effectively give feedback. Employees all have different personalities and psychology. Some employees need just the facts while others need reinforcement that they are doing a good job.

 After reading about the chaos exercise, I found myself relating the chaos to my toddler picking up toys. If I tell her what toy to pick up next, it will eventually get done but I had to give all the direction. If I let her do it, she will learn that you have to put the lid on the puzzle pieces before you can put it away. This is the same for leaders. A leader can micro manage all the details or can let employees do it. With clear objectives and feedback, both employees and toddlers can be more effective.

The main thing I learned from this is clear objectives. Without any objectives, employees will come in and do a job and leave. There is no progression for employees who have ambition and free will. There is a waisted potential if there are no objectives for employees other than just do as much as you can. On the opposite side, micro managing won’t work as effectively as freedom to act. The freedom to act combined with skill will not give clear objectives and what is left is a frustrated employee.

References

Obolensky, Nick. Complex Adaptive Leadership: Embracing Paradox and Uncertainty. Gower, 2014.