A511.2.3.RB – Supportive Behavior
Effective
leadership behavior comes in all shapes and colors and one-size does not fit
all. As I was able to learn from this module, leaders can modify their skills
by changing their behavior and making use of better methods for their followers
or subordinates. The importance of learning effective leadership is focused on
understanding the why and the how to make it happen. In other words, this
module reviews the “research on the types of leadership behavior most likely to
influence subordinate satisfaction and performance” (Yukl, 2013, p. 50). Consequently,
leaders that follow supportive behaviors can reach pleasant results at all
levels of organizations, no matter what the job may be.
Moreover, Yukl
(2013) discusses what supportive behavior means and provides helpful guidelines
on how to approach such behavior. “Supportive leadership (or ‘supporting’)
includes a wide variety of behaviors that show consideration, acceptance, and
concern for the needs and feeling of other people. Supportive leadership helps
to build and maintain effective interpersonal relationships” (Yukl, 2013, p.
65). There is so much to learn from this type of behavior and I am aware that
many leaders do not make use of it in their work environment. Anyone who
follows the approach of supportive behavior has a higher rate to successfully
create a sense of community with his or her employees. Additionally, a
supportive leader has the opportunity to inspire and increase their follower’s
productivity and self-confidence.
Assuming
that these leadership behaviors are appropriate at all level of organizations,
I can surely make use these behaviors at work with others and subordinates.
According to Gary Yukl (2013, p. 66) and the guidelines for been a supportive
leader there are four ways to do so: (1) Show acceptance and positive regards;
(2) Provide sympathy and support when the person is anxious or upset; (3)
Bolster the person’s self-esteem and confidence; and (4) Be willing to help
with personal problems. While some behaviors are already implied at my work,
some could be very useful to achieve better results. On a regular basis, I like
to consider myself a person that has manners and in response, I do my best to
be considerate of others. Consequently, I find myself talking to my
subordinates and listening to their daily issues, or sometimes they are just
looking for advice and since I am a bit older, they seem to be confortable with
me. At the same time, I deal with a big team at work and remembering every
single detail of what they tell me is not always easy. Therefore, I think I
could make better use of this trait by trying to “if necessary, keep a notebook
with this type of information about each subordinate” (Yukl, 2013, p.66).
Additionally,
when it comes to providing support in regards to having an upset or anxious
subordinate, I always set time aside to ask if that person is doing alright.
Especially when I see that person’s personality down. I find very essential to
care for your coworkers because if they feel we, the organization, have their
back then they will comply with an excellent quality of work in return. When showing
your support, as a leader you are building trust, which is a strong bond that
not many organizations have. The same goes with helping employees with their
personal problem. A good example I can find is when one of my team members came
to work and I saw how frustrated he was. He was unusually quiet and his mind
was not at work that day. I stopped for a moment and asked him if everything
was all right with him. To my surprise, he told me, he was having a risky
surgery in his back due to a cyst the doctors found close to his spine. The
risks of having that surgery were big, not to mention the possibility of
finding if the cyst was benign or not. To make matters worse, his family is in
New York and he was going to have the procedure alone. I felt responsible for
this kid and I offered myself to take him to the procedure if he needed moral
support. He was very thankful and advised me that one of his roommates was
going to help him out. When he came back to work after his surgery, thankfully
everything went well, but I made sure he was not overworking until he fully
recovered from surgery. As a result, this behavior has provided the company
positive results because he feels he matters, as he does, and he works hard to
show that he is appreciative of it.
Furthermore,
“it appears that, in order to encourage managerial subordinates to devote extra
effort to their work, superiors of middle managers should focus more on how to
help their subordinates generate feelings of meaningfulness, competence,
self-determination, and impact when exercising participative leadership”
(Huang, Iun, Liu, & Gong, 2010, p. 138). Showing appreciation for your
employees is a key factor on how a company will develop. The less satisfied
employees a company has, the more turnovers there will be, the morale of the
company will be low, and employees will not show proactive productivity. Boosting
a person’s self-esteem and confidence can work wonders and bring closeness to
their company. It is imperative to create an environment where leaders show
that mistakes can happen to anyone and where nobody is judge immediately.
Leaders need to step up to their duties and make their followers feel at home
while at work. Providing second opportunities to people that deserve it, is
part of being a good supportive leader. “It is important to indicate a sincere
desire to help someone learn from mistakes and overcome performance problems”
(Yukl, 2013, p. 67).
In
conclusion, the results obtained from applying supportive leadership behaviors
to my work are substantial since I have moved a step forward as a leader. There
will always be new behaviors to learn and adapt to new employees but this four
guidelines will set a good start with anybody. As professor Francesca Gino
(2010) suggested in her interview, keeping your inner leader authentic plays a
big role when it comes to showing what type of leader you are.
References
Gino,
F. (2010), Can introverts lead? Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from
Huang, X., Iun,
J., Liu, A. and Gong, Y. (2010). Does participative leadership enhance work performance by inducing empowerment or trust? The differential effects on
managerial and non-managerial subordinates. Journal of Organizational Behavior,
31, 122–143. doi: 10.1002/job.636
Education, Inc.
