Theories in Action – Caroline Corry

During my time interning at the Virginia Holistic Justice Initiative, I believe one theory that explains well the style of leadership I have experienced is Blake and Mouton’s Leadership Grid. (9,9) on the grid or Team Management is exemplified by a leader that is committed to their work and does the best they can to motivate their followers to be passionate about it as well. These leaders show their own commitment to the organizations goals and succeeds in motivating others toward the desired goals of the organization set forth by the leader. Team management leaders use both task oriented and relationship oriented behavior to create mutual trust and respect that allows followers to want to deliver on the organization’s goals. These leaders help the followers fully understand the purpose of the organization and involve followers in the determination of the collective goals or product of work efforts.

Tom is clearly seen by his followers as a person that is committed to and believes in the mission of his nonprofit. He recently has taken on a new full-time job in addition to this nonprofit and has shared that the reason for this is because it will allow him to devote even more time and money to his nonprofit. This has shown us as followers that he will go to great lengths to continue the mission of the organization. Tom is very clear in communicating consistently what steps we should be taking in order to achieve the overall goals of the interns for the summer and articulates both the short-term and long-term goals. However, he does not simply just assert tasks he always asks for our confirmation and input on the tasks he assigns. He is always looking to see if anyone has a better idea as to how to move forward and if we all agree on the best way to do so. Tom also takes the time to gauge the intern’s interests in certain activities that are both related to the work product and in general. Tom develops both individual and group relationships by inviting us to sit in on his daily work as a defense attorney and provides us time to ask questions and get to know more about him as he gets to know more about us. Tom does not simply assign tasks to people but asks for people to volunteer on the tasks that we have decided upon collectively. This creates a feeling of ownership and vested interest in the outcome of the task. For example, when deciding upon who would present to different users for our user adoption phase Tom asked for volunteers. Additionally, Tom has recently expressed that he has a high level of trust in us as interns to carry out the goals of the operation and wants us to drive the actions taken to our fullest capacity. This does not feel to the followers that he wants us to complete tasks on our own because he is a lazy leader, but rather because he believes in us and our ability to execute tasks well.