Discuss what you believe to have been the impact of the preferred leadership orientation of members of the group on the work of the group for assessment. How did this support or hinder the work of the group? Use an example to support your answer to this question.

Discuss your own preferred leadership frame and how this may have changed and why?

Discuss how your preferred leadership frame may have impacted the work of your group. Use informal feedback from others in your group to support your answer and give an example.

Give an example of a time when you used reframing, that is when you viewed or tried to make sense of a situation using more than one frame.

Discuss what you learned about yourself and working with others. What aspects of your leadership do you want to develop and how? What you might do differently/or do again when working with others in a group in the future?

Leadership Orientations Self-Assessment

The Leadership Orientations assessment is keyed to four different conceptions of organizations and of the task of organizational leadership.  Lee Bolman and Terry Deal in Reframing Organizations present these orientations as four frames — a distinct way of thinking about leadership and organizations.

STRUCTURAL LEADERS: emphasize rationality, analysis, logic, facts, and data. They are likely to believe strongly in the importance of clear structure and well-developed management systems.  A good leader in the structural leader’s view is someone who thinks clearly, makes the right decisions, has good analytic skills, and can design structures and systems that get the job done.

HUMAN RESOURCE LEADERS: emphasize the importance of people. They endorse the view that the central task of management is to develop a good fit between people and organizations. They believe in the importance of coaching, participation, motivation, teamwork, and good interpersonal relations. A good leader in the view of a human resource leader is a facilitator and participative manager who supports and empowers others.

POLITICAL LEADERS: believe that managers and leaders live in a world of conflict and scarce resources.  The central task of management is to mobilize the resources needed to advocate and fight for the unit’s or the organization’s goals and objectives. Political leaders emphasize the importance of building a power base: allies, networks, coalitions. A good leader to political leader means an advocate and negotiator who understands politics and is comfortable with conflict.

SYMBOLIC LEADERS: believe that the essential task of management is to provide vision and inspiration. They rely on personal charisma and a flair for drama to get people excited and committed to the organizational missions.  A good leader in their view is a prophet and visionary, who uses symbols, tells stories, and frames experience in ways that give people hope and meaning.