Week 4

Although technology can be a great tool that can increase efficiency and communication, sometimes too much technology can be a distraction and reduce productivity. Leader who effectively utilize technology recognize its strengths and its weaknesses, however if a leader becomes too dependent on technology, then other things begin to slip too. An example of this that I have seen at my internship is in relation to Microsoft Teams, a platform designed for posting information, revolving work and some non-related topics. While it can be helpful, ultimately between email, Skype, and outlook calendars it becomes more of a nuisance to have additional communication platforms, leading to confusion and wasted time. Leaders who are more direct will use face to face communication or email to quickly and effectively communicate their message. If a leader is seen as too reliant on redundant communication their effectiveness as a leader weakens.

I have witnessed some very hands-off style leadership, and while I ultimately think this is often the best form of leadership, sometimes hands-off means independent work which involves less collaboration, missing valuable opportunities to throw ideas off colleagues and grapple with problems together. It definitely strengthens the individual to work through these things on their own, however sometimes I wish the relaxed leadership style made room for more teamwork. My hypothesis is that when working on teams things can often take longer as opposed to simply having one person get something done, however for tasks that are less about efficiency and more about thinking outside the box, collaboration is the most valuable tool a company has. Often when doing market research, writing recommendations, or even playing with numbers in excel charts, I wonder if someone else might have a completely different way of thinking about the task at hand. I understand that due to logistical issues, a company cannot afford to have workers constantly switching tasks to help on different projects, yet I think a good balance could be struck between independent grinding and final collaboration to make sure no key points were missed. Overall I think the leadership, especially the individuals, all exhibit crucial characteristics of good leaders, however I wish the structure of work was slightly altered to allow for more conversations.