Respond to Discussion Post

 

Please read and respond to students posts in the 1st person- simply give your opinion to their posts

the original question was this-  What personal characteristics help make a person exert more influence over others? Do you have these personal characteristics, or do you need to develop them more fully? 

 Student responses- answer all three with a short response 

Angelia
1 posts
Re: Topic 6 DQ 1
Most leaders today tend to emphasize their strength, competence, and credentials in the workplace. However, I feel that this is exactly the wrong approach. Leaders who project strength before establishing trust run the risk of eliciting fear. Additionally, it causes a host of other dysfunctional behaviors. Fear can undermine cognitive potential, creativity, and problem solving, and cause employees to get stuck and even disengage.  Personal characteristics that I believe help make a person exert more influence over others effectively include trust, honesty and confidence. I feel that I do have the ability to establish trust and I always strive to demonstrate honesty. One area I feel that I can develop more fully is confidence. Even though I can portray confidence in my decisions to exhibit and foster the perception of confidence to teammates and colleagues, I often second guess myself. I feel that this can cause indecisiveness in decisions that I make. I must work on this quality because Cornelissen (2017) suggests that effective decision-making and strategy implementation is directly related to the “values and beliefs of managers in an organization (p. 199).” Reference: Cornelissen, J. (2017). Corporate communication: A guide to theory and practice,5th ed. Los Angeles, CA: Sage Press.

Tiffany
1 posts
Re: Topic 6 DQ 1
Personal characteristics that involve values play a significant role in management and leadership, which involve the need for exerting influence over others. Managing is a combination of sustaining the status quo and leading change. Communication is a large part in making employees feel as though they are valued. When “employees feel valued” and when values are shared, winning results can be realized (Cornelissen, 2017; p. 189). We have all heard the expression ‘actions speak louder than words.’ Building influence is a challenging and worthwhile goal. More influence means that you can obtain followers, win promotions at work, have more positive relationships, and have more opportunities in general. When exerting influence over others as a leader, personal characteristics that play a factor include integrity, accountability and decision-making. Someone that believes in all three of these values on a personal level typically will have success as a leader. This is because displaying these behaviors will come naturally in a leadership role if there is already a foundation for such beliefs in a person. I already possess these qualities because I was raised by a family that held me accountable for my actions and instilled in me the value of integrity. While I struggled with decision-making as a young adult, I have chosen to work on this quality and I feel that I have made drastic improvements as an adult. I allot an amount of time to make a decision, weigh the pros and cons and stay consistent with my decision. I refrain from wavering back and forth once a decision has been made. Cornelissen, J. (2017). Corporate communication: A guide to theory and practice,5th ed. Los Angeles, CA: Sage Press. ISBN-13: 9781473953703

Joe  
1 posts
Re: Topic 6 DQ 1
“To be a good leader, you have to be a good communicator. As a leader, you have to communicate your intent every chance you get, and if you fail to do that, you will pay the consequences.”-William McRaven, former Admiral of the

United States Navy

The personal characteristics that a good leader must have are the ability to listen, be transparent, and be trustworthy.  Being a good listener shows employees that they are valued and that their opinions matter.  Being transparent shows your employees that you have no underlying motives, that you work to ensure the communication flow from management to employee is understood and clear.  Being trustworthy is the most important, employees need feel that they can trust their management, once trust is lost it may never come back.I feel that I have these qualities and have proven them many times in my career in the military and civilian jobs.  I feel that you need to have these characteristics in order to bring together men and women from different backgrounds and cultures.  Because the one thing they all have in common is the need to follow a leader they can trust and learn from.  Most leaders learn by watching other great leaders.  Leadership qualities can be passed down, so is being a great communicator.  https://transparency.kununu.com/compelling-qualities-of-great-leaders/

Please respond to all three with your opinion for each student post – respond in the first person like you are talking directly to the student.