Instructions: Write a response to both Larry and Mary’s post of the 3.2 assignment
Larry’s post:
How does your understanding of social influence helps explain why leaders and followers make decisions and behave as they do? My understanding of social influence rests on the basis that nothing, in reality, is real and everything on social media is! It is hard to comprehend how society can elevate one over the other but it has become the norm. It affects leaders because they have to keep up with the trends on social media by promoting their business and praising their team. I experienced this not so long ago. I coach a high school basketball team at a small school in Gary, Indiana. We all know that growing up in Indiana besides corn, high school basketball is the next biggest thing. My CEO originally was not very fond of sports, but once we begin to win and the school begin to get more publicity from the basketball team, he begin to give us public praise. As the head coach, I had to begin to keep up with that the social media. I understood at that moment just how important it is that a team is to the complete success of the company.
Leaders must possess certain attributes to foster a positive environment. Those attributes are trustworthiness, hard work and communication skills. Leaders who possess these lead by example and promote positivity socially.
Mary’s post
Leaders and followers make decisions and behave like they do to feel accepted. People are influenced by authority figures, peers, and followers. It is easy for people to fall under social influence to a point where they are no longer forming their own opinions, but are letting the group dynamic dictate their stance on issues. It is dangerous to develop groupthink. It causes the loss of objectivity and debate in decision-making at the leadership level.
The leader competencies that are most useful for positive social influence are positive attitudes, temperance of emotion, strong communication skills including active listening. By cultivating a positive environment, they avoid the pitfalls associated with negativity. These pitfalls include, hostility, lack of productivity, resentment, and in-fighting. Tempering one’s emotions is important to maintaining objectivity. If a situation is emotionally charged, the leader should wait until they are in a place where they can evaluate and respond by leaving emotion out of it. Strong communication skills cause strong collaboration. Strong collaboration leads to strong innovation. Innovation leads to success.
Typical behaviors with social influence are agreeableness. Someone who hates conflict will go with the flow to avoid an argument. Compliance can occur without conformity but usually because the source of the instruction is person of authority. It is best for leaders to practice active listening and work toward collaboration to avoid blind compliance. Compliance has the ability to become resentment which breeds negativity. Negativity is a weed that decreases profitability and productivity. I have always kind of marched to my own beat. I don’t care if people like what I have to say or what I do. I am there to do a job and do it in a manner that reduces incidence of fraud and keeps our partners out of trouble with regulatory violations. I refuse to compromise my reputation because of someone else’s choice to offer a different opinion. Reputation is everything in the work environment.
