Week 2 Theories in Action

After working as an intern on the Corporate General team at Guidepoint I have noticed many different ways in which our team leader, Jackson, leads our team and manages us with an effectiveness and organization oriented mindset. His leadership style reminds me a lot of Blake & Mouton’s Leadership Grid that we learned about in Theories & Models. Blake and Mouton’s Leadership Grid is used extensively in organizational training and development and the purpose of the grid is designed to explain how leaders help organizations reach their purpose by taking into consideration 2 factors, concern for production and concern for people. This reminds me of my team leader Jackson because he definitely has shown a direct concern for production and concern for the team members under him. On the Blake & Mouton Grid, I believe that Jackson would rank as a 9,9, Team Management. A Team Management oriented leader is someone who accomplishes work through committed people and interdependence via a “common stake” in the organizations purpose which leads to relationships of trust and respect.

I believe this very much aligns with the environment Jackson has created on the Corporate General team as he has a strong emphasis on both tasks and interpersonal relationships. Jackson has certainly created a feeling of interdependence on the team because we all feel as though we have a common stake in Guidepoint’s purpose to connect our clients with industry experts to helo our clients make better business decisions. Jackson deals with overseeing and managing the corporate clients who come to our team with business questions and research they want answers to. Jackson makes everyone under him feel integral to achieving this mission of connecting the clients with subject matter experts.

This is especially apparent in our weekly Wednesday morning meetings in which he reviews the demand for our services with the clients, the biggest clients that month, and reminders us of best practices and of our tasks that need to be completed in order to fulfill our organizations purpose of connecting clients with SME. By doing this he motivates us to keep up and successful with our tasks. He also stimulates participation in these meetings opening the floor for updates and acts determined in his delivery of the business updates, all of which are characteristics of a 9,9 leader. He also makes priorities very clear by reminding us who is on the biggest projects with the key clients we need to please, another characteristic of a 9,9 leader. Because of the COVID restrictions making the internship and most work with the team remote, I would say Jackson definitely tries to still make an emphasis on interpersonal relationships and team building relationships through planning events for the team to socialize outside of work and build relationships. However, because of the remote working environment this included a virtual escape room which did not have exactly the same effect. So I would say he definitely satisfies the basic needs of an employee to feel involved and committed to our work, a characteristic of a 9,9 leader, but there is room for improvement to make his employees feel more devoted to their employees and their work.

I think the remote nature of the work has certainly made the team feel less cohesive and able to collaborate efficiently because we are all in different places. However, it is clear that for the employees on the team who have been there long enough to work in person with each other there is a very supportive and team player spirit that definitely trickles down to those who haven’t experienced in person work which is positive and solidifies that the team has a strong foundation under Jackson’s lead.