Video Transcript: Week 3

hello everybody. Welcome back for lecture number three, and today we are talking about the behavior approach, which is always fun, right? Because now we're getting, you know, we talked about traits, we talked about skills, and now we're talking about behavior. So all of these kind of made up, kind of the early theories, the leadership theories. These are, you'll sometimes you'll hear the word in research where they say something is foundational, and this is kind of the foundational leadership theories. And behavior approach is certainly one of the foundational theories. So we will or one of the foundational framework. So let's be correct the foundational framework. So so we're going to talk about this one, and then, and then, after this one, we start to get into more of the emergent theories. And then we're going to start talking about things like transformational and authentic and servant, and terms that you may be already familiar with. So those are leadership theories that we'll be talking about in future lectures. But for now, we're talking about behaviors, the behaviors that make up so before we get to that, we are going to do what we always do, and we're going to open in prayer. So please join me in prayer. Dear Heavenly Father. Thank you so much for this class. Thank you for helping us get to this third lecture, Lord. I mean, it's, it's a journey, and we're three in, and that means, after this, this week will be a third of the way done with the class, or, I'm sorry, a fourth of the way done with the class. And that needs to be celebrated, Lord, and and we give you all the glory for that. So Lord, as we, as we talk about this lecture, we talk about behavior, let us, let us not only learn what the theorists have to say, but let us also make sure that we are applying it in a way that that will be glorifying for you in Jesus name we pray amen. All right, so then this lecture, we're going to talk about task behaviors and the relationship behaviors that make up this approach. We're going to talk about how this approach works, and we are going to talk about some of the strengths of the approach, and we are going to talk about some of the weaknesses of the approach. So this, like most of our classes, will follow a very, very similar format. So remember that we talked about traits, that was week one. And in traits, there's certain innate qualities, right? So you're a good leader because you're tall, right? Was the traits approach. We also talked about skills. So you are a great leader because you have you're in a role, the CEO of a company, and you have really good conceptual skills, and as the CEO, you need to have conceptual skills. And now we're moving on to behavior. So what is your behavior? So there's two types of behavior, according to the researchers, in the behavioral approach to leadership, and those are task behaviors, and I'm just going to pause for a second. I want you to think about what you think task behaviors are before I tell you the definition. So read chapter already, then you know this, but I'm going to pause for a second. Okay, so I hope you said that task behaviors are ones that help with goal accomplishment and helps people achieve their their objectives, so your group members and others, and then there's also relationship behaviors. So those are behaviors that help people feel comfortable with themselves, with others and their situation. So task and relationship, some degree of each of these categories is required in each situation. So you can't be all task and you can't be all relationship. There has to be a structure in the middle, and then each leader has their unique tendencies. So there are those task oriented leaders who are doers, they're very much doers, and they only care about task accomplishment. And then, and then there's the other side, right, which are those relationship ones which are not goal directed. So, I'm I was thinking about which one I am, and I'm not sure. So there is somebody that's off camera. You may recognize her voice from other classes, but I'm going to ask her what she thinks I am, task or relationship. She thinks. I'm more task oriented than relationship oriented. See and I would have, and this is social desirability bias, which you see a lot research, which is you, you tend to look at yourself when you're answering questions in a favorable way. I thought I was more relationship based, so I'm really glad that I asked that question, and I'm getting a look, which, if I could turn the camera, I would show it to you that says I clearly I'm not relationship oriented. So that's going to blow my whole lecture out of the water, and we're done here no. So as a task oriented leader, you want to get the job done. You want to get things accomplished, and sometimes you do that at the expense of relationships. I like to think of myself as a relational guy. Guess I'm being told I'm not, but I like to think of myself as a relational guy. And as a result of that, you know, I would like to think that I put others first before task accomplishment, but that that that isn't always the case, and I know now that that is what was said there was accurate. But you know, some elements of a task oriented leader would be organizing work, defining roles, determining policies and procedures, getting to task accomplishment, where a relationship oriented leader would focus on building camaraderie, respect and trust with followers, as well as valuing their uniqueness and attending to their personal needs. So actually something now, this is what was said here. Was actually correct. Thank you for the compliment. She said, I do that too, but she didn't really mean it, and that's okay. I know she didn't, because what happens is I'll go into a meeting, and if the task of the meeting is to to build this little device right here, I'll walk into meeting, and instead of starting 15 to 20 minutes talking about how people's days are doing, what's going on in their personal life, I'll say, All right, we need to build this. Let's come up with a plan. Let's get it built. That is very much me. She is right. That is very much me, as opposed to a relationship focused person. They are more about building that that trust with followers, building that camaraderie, building that respect and and they might come into a meeting and say, Okay, let's spend the first 20 minutes talking about how your weekend was. It's not that I don't care how your weekend was. I absolutely, I promise, from the bottom of my heart, care how your weekend was, but I care more about getting this this made that's what I care about. So I can see now that it was pointed out to me how I am a task oriented leader. So what? Where did this behavioral approach come from? There's these, there's these little crazy things called the LBDQ, and that's the leader behavior description, error, question, error. And this happened out of Ohio State. There was an Ohio State study where in where the researchers, a made a list of more than 1800 items that describe the different aspects of leadership, desire, behavior, and we're going to go through all 1800 of them right now. Number one, what? No, I'm just kidding. We're not going to do that. But it was the but it was administered to hundreds of people in a variety of backgrounds, and it showed that there were certain behaviors that were typical. So remember our old friend Stodgill from the first one? Remember he said, Hey, it's not a bunch of traits that exist. It's a bunch of behaviors. He came up with the LDDQ, seven. No, 12, 12, and that's one of the most widely used instruments in Leadership Studies. I've actually used it myself quite a few times. It's pretty good. So there are different kinds of behaviors. There's initiated structure behavior. So that's kind of like task behavior that's in organizing, how you organize instructional work, how you define role responsibilities, how you schedule activities. So there's those kind of behaviors, and then there's the other side, which is consideration behaviors, which is similar to the relationship ones. So it's how you build camaraderie, how you build respect, trust and liking, and remember that these two behaviors are not two points on a continuum, but they're totally independent. What that means is in different situations, one might be better than another. So in the workplace, I would say I'm very task driven. Now I would say that with some elements of relationship building. Remember, you're not one or the other, but in different situations, I would say I'm probably tend to be more relationship driven than task driven. Is that correct? Yeah, good. I'm glad I'm getting validated again. So overall. Best leader. Are high in both behaviors? Am I the best leader? My high in both behaviors? I got the thumbs up so I am good at both No, I am joking a little bit, but there is Thank you. But there is research that says that you are high in both of those and and I would say that I tend to be more task than relationships. So not to be outdone, if you are in America, then you know, there's a big rivalry between Ohio and Michigan. The University of Michigan came out and said, Ohio did that. No, we're going to do it better. So there's this University of Michigan study that came out, and they did it at the same time, and they said that there's employee orientation and there's production orientation. So the behavioral leaders who approach followers with strong human relation emphasis, remember from task theory, the skills approach human is important. Take an interest in workers and their unique as a unique human beings and give them special attention related to their personal needs. So there's some employees that are some leaders that are really good at employee orientation, and there's some that are more about production orientation, and they stress the technical and productive production aspects of the job and view workers as means of getting work accomplished. And what I'll say is, I work for a very production oriented person right now one of my jobs, and I will say it is very not whenever I give an example, by the way, assume I'm never talking about CLI, because I will never talk about CLI in this context. So my examples, when I say that, don't think, Oh, I wonder who he's talking about, because you don't know these people, I promise. But with production orientation, I work for somebody who's very production oriented, and that person is extremely hard to work for, because I don't feel like he really cares about me as a human being. I don't think he cares about me, and I think I'm a tool. I think I'm a tool to him, and I'm used to viewed as such. And you know, when researchers at University of Michigan, they looked at these two orientations and they thought, well, you could either be employee or you could be production, but then they came to the same conclusion that Ohio did, and that that these two are kind of independent of each other, and you could be both, right? So, so the results, they were hoping would be universal, but instead, the results showed, hey, we can't prove that one type is better than the other, because it depends on the situation, which eventually we're going to get to situational leadership. And we'll talk about that, which is, by the way, one of my favorite leadership theories. I have a few and situational is up there. So there's this person, Tom Blake and Mouton, and they came up with this leadership grid. And we're gonna talk about that, and I'm gonna, actually, if I can find it, I'm gonna pull it up. Give me one second to bring it up on the internet. Here it is, yep, this one's better. We're going to bring up this one. Just give me one sec to bring this up. Okay, now I'm going to make it big so everybody can see it, and we're going to discuss what all this is. But I just want you to see this real quick. Yep, so this is Blake and Mouton. And you can see here there are different types of managers. And we'll go through what country club is in team management, authority compliance, and middle of the road and impoverished. But what Blake and Mouton said is that there are these different and and you are somewhere on the where you're somewhere on here, so your concern for people, or your concern for production, fall somewhere on this, this chart that you can see. So let's talk about what that chart is, and then maybe I'll bring that back up. But of course, in doing that, no, I lost Okay, here we go. So concerned with production, so that's your concern for organizational tasks, and then your concern for people is your attendance to the people in the organization and and achieving your goals. So if you look at this, remember, we're talking about the concern for production up here, which we just defined as being concerned about the task, and the concern for people, which is the people that are part of it, part of the task. Then you know, there's these different different kinds, which is authority compliance, and we'll show that again and now, what that is saying that you're a person who has a heavy emphasis on job and task requirements and less emphasis on the people as unique individuals. So leading, if you're a leader, you may be seen as controlling, demanding, hard, driving and overpowering. And I would say that my leader in my organization is 100% the authority compliance person and that and so he would fall somewhere down here, probably, I would guess. In addition, there is the country club manager, which is low concern for task accomplishment and high concern for interpersonal relationships. So the leaders de emphasize production and are agreeable, agreeable, eager to help, comforting and non controversial. So that would be somebody that would be somewhere up here. I think I've ever worked for a country club manager, to be honest with you, but that would be somebody that is up there. Maybe I did. I think I did. There's this gentleman, one of my favorite managers of all time, and his name was Frank, and I think Frank would be up there. All right, then we have the impoverished Manager, which that's somebody who just doesn't care about either, and that's somebody who has low concern for both tasks and interpersonal relationships. And leaders merely go through the motions, but they're uninvolved, which wrong, indifferent, non committal, resigned and apathetic. I did work for somebody wrong screen. I did work for somebody who was like that. His name was Brad, and he would definitely be down here in the impoverished manager, for sure, and working for somebody like that is incredibly frustrating, as you can imagine, as somebody that does care about task accomplishment, then you have the middle of the road manager, and that's somebody who has roughly equal concern for tasks and people. So they're offer, often described as expedient. They soft pedal disagreement, and they swallow their own conviction and convictions in the interest of progress. That is not me at all. I know that, but that would be somewhere here. So there's somebody that's kind of in the middle. They kind of represent it all. And then we get to the team management, and they have a strong emphasis on both task and interpersonal relationships. They promote a high degree of participation in teamwork, which satisfies the employees need to be involved and committed to the organization. And you might consider them as stimulating, acting determined, getting issues out in the open, clarifying priorities, following through, being open minded and enjoying work. So most people have a dominant on the grid and then a backup style that they that they revert to when things are not going well. So let me go to the voice off camera and say, Where would you say my dominant style is, and where do you think my backup is? The voice off camera is not paying attention. So I would feel that I am a team management person. I would like to think I'm a team management person, and that I have both high concern for people and high concern for production. You think so, but probably more towards here, right? I would say, and then I would say my backup would definitely be authority compliance when I'm under pressure, I would not like to admit that about myself, but I would say that's probably true. So I would like to think that I have high concern for people or high concern for production, but when there's a deadline, my concern for people generally goes out the window and I'm just concerned with getting the task done. If I'm being perfectly honest, so that is Blake and Mouton, and that's kind of a cool grid. I like that one. They did add some stuff to it paternalism and maternalism. So that's somebody that uses both the one nine and the nine one styles. So these are people who are considered the Bevan benevolent dictator. They act graciously, gracious for the purpose of goal accomplishment. So they will disassociate people from their tasks. They will be described as father or fatherly or motherly, and they regard the organization as a family, and they reward loyalty and obedience and punish non compliance. What's wrong screen, so that person is not on this chart, but. That would be somebody who's either a country club management in authority compliance management, and kind of combining those two, and then you get the benevolent dictator. So moving right along. So, so there has been a some recent studies that look at this, but Blake and Mouton are really the leaders in this area, and all these recent studies really haven't assimilated this information in a positive way yet. So how does the behavioral approach work? It's not prescriptive, so remember, it's a broad framework, and it's talking about people's behaviors. It's not talking about their tasks or their skills. And so remember that one of the great things about this is it shifts away from a trait and it talks about behaviors, and whether that's whether that's task oriented or relationship oriented. It's validated by two main, or three main studies, Ohio State University of Michigan and Blake and Mouton. You know, some of the problems with it is, it's not adequately linked to performance outcomes. So what that means is, you know, if you worked for that benevolent dictator, that doesn't mean you're going to be a better follower or not. And I think we're going to find out about motivation as we go through all these series. It's just because somebody's a certain theory doesn't mean it's going to work or not. Now remember also that there's not a universal leadership style that that that matches up to this. So why is this? How can we apply this? Well, I think it's pretty easy to conceptualize this in our own workplace. And we can kind of look at that Blake and Mouton's chart, and we're going to do that now. You can kind of look at this like Mouton chart, and you can say, Yeah, I'm this kind of leader in my backups this one. So I knowing that my backup is authority and compliance. I think that means that I'm going to have to be very careful when I start to get under pressure and I start to default to that authority, authority compliance model that I need to back off a little bit and recognize that I might be burning out my team, and I might be burning out my followers, and That's certainly not something I want to do. So so let us, let us pray, and after we pray, we will move on to the next module. Heavenly Father, thank you so much for your time today, our time together today, Lord, I pray that as we talked about the behavioral approach that people were that our fellow classmates were able to think about those in terms of their own lives and their own workplace, Lord, and that we're able to assimilate this information as we continue on with these weeks tasks. I pray that you'll be with us, Lord, and that will help us to focus on you in Jesus name. We pray. Amen. Thank you so much everybody, and have a wonderful day, and we will be back with number four.