Week 4 : The Social Innovation Forum
This week (#4) at the Social Innovation Forum has been the busiest yet! There are two theories I have predominantly seen in action throughout my time at SIF: task-oriented and relationship-oriented. Task-oriented leadership focuses on the completion of organized tasks to meet a specific goal. Relationship-oriented leadership models a priority of the well-being of a team member. The task-relationship model is highly evident at SIF.
Task-oriented leadership is evident in one of the main projects I am working on. For the SIF 2018-2019 Accelerator, we use a large excel document to hold the different organizations nominated and their contacts. There are columns labeled email follow up and phone follow up, to track who has been contacted. The goal is to contact all organizations and speak to them about their intent to apply and to remind them of our information sessions/ application deadline. There is also a weekly program meeting, in which we review our number goals for nominations, applications, and RSVPs for the information session. Our Program Director prints a sheet with each track’s numbers, and we discuss the ways in which we will meet the goals we set at the Accelerator’s launch. I believe that by using task-oriented leadership, we are remaining organized and reaching our goals quicker than we thought we would!
Relationship-oriented leadership is the most present theory at The Social Innovation Forum. As previously mentioned in my blog posts, there is a huge emphasis on co-working and self-care. The first co-working luncheon was focussed on mental health, and last week our Executive Director took the team to play with puppies and treated us to ice cream. This week, there were two exemplary instances of relationship-oriented leadership. Thursday, SIF hosted an event titled ‘Coffee & Donuts’ in which we invited funders and nonprofits to take a break from their busy schedules to get to know each other on a personal level. There was no agenda, and no pitching allowed. It was a chance to relax, break the power dynamic, and bring together a group of people that share similar passions. The event was a great success! On Friday, the SIF team closed the office and attended an Innovator Celebration to end the 2017-2018 Accelerator. We drove as a team down to the Community Boating Center in New Bedford, MA near Cape Cod. The entire day was spent on the water learning how to sail and racing. It was great to further strengthen the relationships I’ve built with my co-workers and separate ourselves from the fast paced environment in the city.
Sounds like a really engaging office, both in terms of the work that you do as well as the organization’s focus on employee wellness. Would be interested to hear where the overall leadership (and or the immediate leadership you work with – e.g. supervisor) fall on the Leadership Grid (Blake, Mouton, McCanse). Or in regards to situational leadership, which is also task and relationship grounded, how the leadership assesses follower readiness and employs different styles. Will be interesting to see if you ever encounter an instance where the two styles undermine one another (either in terms of productivity or collegiality).