Reflection #4 Theories in Action – Blake and Mouton’s Leadership Grid at The American Cancer Society.

During my time at the American Cancer Society as a remote intern, I have used my background in leadership studies to analyze the leadership environment at the organization. I have identified that using Blake and Mouton’s Leadership Grid, the team management (9,9) leadership style is very accurate in describing and understanding the operations and effectiveness of the organization, as well as the general culture and day to day mindsets and activities.

For context, as I have mentioned in previous posts. I am interning with the American Cancer Society (A CS), this summer. Within the ACS, I am working with the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN). This subset of the American Cancer Society works on government relations and lobbying, communications and advocacy, and volunteer recruitment and engagement.  I feel this context is important to add to this post because the nature of the work is so important to the everyday mission and actions of everyone in the organization. 

The team management style is a 9,9 on the leadership grid, meaning there is a high concern for results as well as a high concern for people. I find this to be very true at ACS CAN because the mission is so important to everyone so the work really does get a lot of emphasis and focus, and everyone understands why, but this does not take away from the people in the organization and the overall value of the people, their lives, and overall well being. 

The leadership grid is used to help organizations understand their goals and understand how to reach them inline with their purpose. It is also very helpful to use when analyzing organizations. They focus on the two major factors concern for production and concern for people, which basically means how much is the leader concerned with outcomes and goals, and how much do they help and attend to the people achieving these goals. Team management, the style of leadership I have identified at ACS CAN, focuses on a high emphasis on both work and outcomes as well as the people and the means to completing a task including teamwork, cooperation, and commitment from team members. 

The nature of ACS CAN and many nonprofits lends to this type of leadership because people go into and stay in this type of work because they care about others. This means they are extremely dedicated towards the mission but care about the personal efforts of getting there. I have identified this leadership style as a general norm in the organization on levels throughout and in everyone, not just one specific boss. 

Some general observations that have led me to see this are as follows. Everyone is very passionate and this passion can get intense because everyone wants the best for the mission. This often means people are very honest about the way they are feeling and speak their mind about what they think is best. It is clear that even if this can cause disagreement in meetings and on tasks between a few employees, it is not for any reason other than every party involved wanting what they believe will be best for the organization, not because of their own personal egos. This also has been shown in the way that many people are very open to new ideas and suggestions, even from me as an intern. This shows how there is this combination between high outcome and high person focus. I hade also definitely observed a strong concern for the well being of everyone. Members of the team often applaud other members for taking paid time off and encourage everyone to have restful times when they are not working. The idea is that everyone will get sufficient time to rest and relax so when they are working they are giving it their all. There is a mutual respect here between the person and the work that I think really lends to the effectiveness of the organization. 

Lastly, there is definitely a strong focus on the common purpose in the organization, everyone has personal reasons for their involvement in the organization and it shows in hard work. This builds strong relationships and mutual respect and trust that lead to an effective and purposeful work environment with a lot of teamwork and collaboration.