LMOL 605 Pope ldr-flwr-rsrch FINAL
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LMOL 605 Pope ldr-flwr-rsrch
Leader/Follower Communication: Follower Interviews
Todd Pope
LMOL 605 – Organizational Communication, Conflict Resolution, and Negotiation
Dr. Melissa McDermott
September 14, 2023
Regent University
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Abstract
Proverbs 18:21 says, “
The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit” (NIV, 2011)
. Ephesians 4:15 says, in part, “
speaking the truth in love,
we will grow…” (NIV, 2011)
. James, the half-brother of Jesus adds, “
Everyone should be quick to listen,
slow to speak
and slow to become angry” (NIV, 2011, James 1:19). The Bible has much to say on
communication. We can deduct by even this small sampling that communication is important, it
requires honesty, clarity, patience, and listening. That is true in organizations as well. Leadership effectiveness is impacted greatly by the leaders’ ability to communicate effectively
(Johnson & Hackman, 2018, p. 68)
. Booher adds that communication is a
key element for employee’s motivation or discouragement, clarity or confusion (Booher, 2017)
. Leadership matters. Poor leaders compound the stress on an already intense situation (Brandebo, 2020, p. 568)
. A more developed understanding of leader/follower communication can be obtained by interviewing three employees from different companies
regarding their preferences and experience pertaining to communication with their respective bosses. This paper aims to identify three common themes from the interviewees. The paper seeks to answer the research question: ‘What do followers want from their leaders regarding communication?’ The three interviews conducted make it clear that followers want a consistent method of communication,
to feel empowered and to feel cared for personally.
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Introduction
Communication IS leadership (Johnson & Hackman, 2018, p. 257)
. As such, the quality of leadership within an organization has direct ties to the quality and quantity of communication between leaders and followers. Communication is complicated, as words are open to interpretation and there can exist a gap between what was intended and what was received (Eisenberg, Trethewey, & LeGreco, 2017)
. Every organization desire to have employees that are fully engaged, that care, that love their job and want to do their best. That goal has the best chance to be achieved when there is great communication between leaders and followers, where followers feel like they have a voice, are cared for personally, and who understands what their leaders want from them. I interviewed three participants from three different organizations with very different leadership structures. Participant 1 is in law enforcement. Participant 2 is in construction. Participant 3 is an Assistant Principal and Athletic Director in a large public high school. This qualitative study will explore what kind of communication employees desire from their leaders, what makes them feel empowered and what kinds of things lead to them feeling personally cared for. Qualitative Method
Population & Sample
The population sample of the study consisted of three individuals. Participant 1 was a 50-year-old man who works in a city police department as a detective – evidence technician.
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Participant 2 was a 36-year-old man working for a concrete construction company. Participant 3
was a 39-year-old man working in a public school as an assistant principal and athletic director. Convenience sampling was used for the study since it provided more time to analyze the data. Measures
As the interviewer and partner in interpreting meaning, I acted as the key instrument in the study through the interviews with the three participants, collecting the data and discovering and analyzing the themes that came from the interviews (Xu, 2012, p. 14). Since the study’s purpose was to understand better what followers desire from their leaders in regard to communication, open-ended interview questions were developed before contacting the participants. The same questions were asked of all three volunteers. Following the interview protocol, I recorded the interviews on Zoom to transcribe them later and used my laptop to record typed notes to process my thoughts
(Creswell, 2018, p. 190)
. To ensure validity in the study, I used the member checking procedure to verify that the common themes I discovered through the interviews were accurate of what the participants witnessed at their workplaces
(Creswell, 2018, p. 200)
.
Data Collection Procedures
The average time of the interviews was about 23 minutes and consisted of eleven open-
ended questions plus four demographic questions. Two of the interviews took place on the same day, with the third coming the next day. Two were conducted face-to-face in my church office but recorded with Zoom. The third was conducted on a Zoom video call with participant 3
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in his school office. The interviews began with demographic questions, asking their name, age, employer, how long they had been there and how many leaders they had served under. The interview questions that followed were:
1.
Thinking about your role as a subordinate, what are some of the activities you engage in every week? What kinds of tasks do you work on with your supervisor? 2.
How many hours a week do you spend with your supervisor? 3.
Describe your working location in regard to your supervisor? 4.
What kind of communication do you engage in with your supervisor? (Email, meetings, Zoom, phone conversations, etc.)
5.
What kind of communication method do you prefer?
6.
How often and in what ways does your supervisor:
Delegate tasks
Empowers you and others with the tools needed to get the job done
7.
How often and in what ways do you:
Feel heard when you speak to your supervisor
Feel empowered
Feel cared for as an employee based upon your communication with your supervisor
8.
How does the way your supervisor communicates with you fit your communication style
and personality? 9.
If you could change the way your supervisor communicates with you, what would you have him/her do? 10. How do you get along with your supervisor? 11. What could your supervisor do so that you could do your job better?
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These questions were asked of all three volunteers; however, the interviews also allowed me to
ask the participants to expand or clarify some of their comments to understand their experiences better.
Data Analysis
Coding was used to identify the similarities between interviews. As a result of reviewing the participants’ responses, I identified three themes, which I coded thematically. Including multiple perspectives and diverse quotations within the coding provided a more thorough picture (Creswell, 2018, p. 194)
. Color coding the transcriptions provided a more attainable understanding of the common themes in the volunteer’s answers. In the transcription, specific quotes that contributed to the theme were highlighted. This process was duplicated for all three identified themes. Results
Three themes were recognized in the participants’ responses: Their preferred method of
communication, what made them feel empowered, and the level of personal care they experienced. Preferred Method of Communication
Across the interviews, the different followers had different preferences for the method of communication. P1 and P2 preferred face-to-face, whereas P3 preferred email. Interestingly however, P3 is an assistant principal and he and his building principal prioritize trying to have lunch together every day and he considers his boss one of his closest friends. He values email as
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a matter of efficiency. Whereas P1 has been in law enforcement for 25 years and always prefers
face-to-face because he finds that much more helpful in discerning the full communication. P1 also told a story about a couple of detectives from a special operation group whose desks had been in the same room with them and the detectives group he was in was always communicating with them. In his words, “like we knew everything”. Then a decision was made to relocate that group across the hall, and that small change completely changed their communication. His assessment was “it was crazy how much information didn’t get shared then
just by being across the hall.” P3 might say he prefers email, but his office is three doors down from the principal’s office. On the day we talked, he had “popped in his bosses office seven times to ask a quick question”. P2 prefers email for updates on what each other are working on,
but “definitely face-to-face for communication.” Bosses do not have to communicate with everyone in the same way as people respond differently to various types of styles of communication. Our communication skills are critical because as Johnson and Hackman say, “communication IS leadership”. De Vries adds that communication is central in all human-oriented leadership (de Vries, Bakker-Pieper, & Oostenveld, 2010, p. 369)
. Flexibility of communication style is a skill that can be learned which can lead to better outcomes when dealing with conflict (Jourdain, 2004, p. 2)
. Empowerment
The next common theme that appeared in the interviews was how good communication
led to a sense of empowerment, while poor communication often left the follower lacking that
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sense. P1 talked about how his sergeant “is really good about being receptive to things that we need” and added that he was a good listener. He even added that on the scene of a crime, his sergeant often yields to him due to his expertise. P2 does not often feel heard or understood and feels like he walks on eggshells, but he noted that his boss gets them whatever they need to get their job done and trusts them to do it. That makes him feel empowered, though he would really like to have better direction and clarity from his boss. P3 has developed a strong relationship with his principal and both can speak their full and honest opinions about a matter.
His boss will hear him out fully and often takes his suggestions, which makes P3 feel empowered. He specifically stated this about their close relationship, “it also helps when you are dealing with a terrible situation, that you have built this trust that ‘the other guy is going to climb in the foxhole with me’.” That is an amazing sense of empowerment. Researchers have found that leadership comes through communication and good communication builds trust and trust empowers followers (Men, 2014)
. If a leader wants to empower their team, trust is the atmosphere in which it grows best (Johnson & Hackman, 2018, p. 267)
. Bosses need to focus on ways to enhance trust on their teams, including the consistency of their actions and the way they communicate with their staff (Poloski Vokic, Rimac Bilusic, & Najjar, 2021, p. 79)
. There exists a paradox in leadership when it comes to empowerment. You must delegate authority, not micromanage, and yet maintain communication if you want your team to feel empowered (Coleman, 1996, pp. 35-36)
. There were different levels of empowerment felt by my interview subjects and it seems there was a definite correlation of the trust built.
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Want to Feel Cared for
The interview’s last common theme was the level of personal care desired by each interviewee. P1 indicated that his whole department had gotten closer since 2020. All the crises
in law enforcement and pressure from the outside had drawn them closer together, including their supervisors. P2 has a unique situation where he was friends with the owner before coming
to work for him. He feels cared for, yet there are times when the lines are blurred. He does not have a hard time separating business from friendship, but his boss does. If P2 must bring up something the owner does not want to hear, he takes it personally. P3 feels extremely cared for. He shared a story of his assistant getting ill and he was juggling more than normal, and his boss stepped in and met with him and strategized with him to identify what things were necessary, what ones were extra, and what events could do without him. P3 was so appreciative of that care. Experts agree that a culture of personal concern and care impacts how engaged employees are and how positively they feel about their job (Kong & Belkin, 2022)
. The dynamic between leader and follower is so crucial to creating a work environment that is meaningful (Ferrari, 2012)
. Care is simply paying attention and having emotional concern about another’s well-being (Ciulla, 2009)
. When a follower experiences recognition and appreciation at work, job satisfaction is a likely result (Csikszentmihalyi, 1979)
. de Vries adds that support from the leader appears to be the most important variable in style of communication (de Vries, Bakker-Pieper, & Oostenveld, 2010, p. 377)
. Feeling personally cared for by their leader is a difference maker for employees.
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Conclusion
In answering the research question, “What kind of communication do followers want from their leaders?”, three themes were found from the interviews conducted: the desire for consistent communication from their leader in their preferred method, feeling empowered by their leader to do their job most effectively, and to feel personally cared for, by their boss, as an
individual on the team. In identifying and breaking down these themes within the provided literature, some suggestions to leadership can be made. Suggestions to Leaders
Johnson and Hackman (2018) write “Leaders cannot always control what happens in organizations, but they can exert significant influence over how events are understood”. Eisenberg (2017) adds, “language allows us to transfer thoughts and feelings from one person to another”. Leaders of organizations should work to develop the structure and culture of their organizations to not just talk but listen to their followers. Hear their ideas, foster teamwork, increase the flow and quality of information, and improve problem solving. Doing this will develop more trust in the organization and organizations with trusting climates are usually more productive (Johnson & Hackman, 2018, p. 264)
. Leaders need to recognize that their actions can create hope within their organization that change, and success are possible. “Hope instills possibility, and possibility, vision” (Hester, 2019)
. Peter Drucker famously said, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast,” meaning not that strategy was unimportant, but that culture was more important. Thus, leaders should strive to
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create a robust and healthy culture in their organization, which happens best by communicating clearly, empowering others, and showing personal care for each team member.
Biblical Implications
Being a good leader is more than being successful in your career, but instead looking out
for and listening to your followers. One Bible verse that I believe guides leaders well is Philippians 2:4; “Not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of others”
(NIV, 2011)
. As a leader, decisions must be made that affect not only the leader, but everyone tied to the organization. By looking to the interests of others, and abstaining from selfish ambition, leaders can create a healthy culture that the employees want to be a part of for a long time. Another verse that gives guidance to leaders is Matthew 7:12; “So whatever you wish
that others would do for you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets” (NIV). This ties in with Philippians 2:4 in the way that leaders should consider others and their opinions when making decisions. If the leader would want clear, consistent communication with their boss, and would want to feel empowered and cared for, then that should also be the way they treat their followers. Leadership communication can make a job purposeful and meaningful or toxic. Leaders have the opportunity to do what is best for their followers and create an environment where people want to be involved. References
Booher, D. (2017). Communicate Like a Leader: Connecting Strategically to Coach, Inspire, and Get Things Done.
Oakland: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc.
Brandebo, M. F. (2020). Destructive Leadership in Crisis Management. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 41
(4), 567-580.
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Ciulla, J. B. (2009). Leadership and the Ethics of Care. Journal of Business Ethics
, 3-4.
Coleman, H. J. (1996). Why employee empowerment is not just a fad. Leadership & Organization Development Journal
, 29-36.
Creswell, J. (2018). Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative and Mixed Methods Approaches.
Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1979). Finding Flow: The psychology of engagement with everyday life.
New York: Basic Books.
de Vries, R. E., Bakker-Pieper, A., & Oostenveld, W. (2010). Leadership = Communication? The Relations of Leaders' Communication Styles with Leadership Styles, Knowledge Sharing and Leadership Outcomes. Journal of Business Psychology
, 367-380.
Duke, S. (2003, Summer). Review - Managing Business Crises: From Anticipation to Implementation. Public Relations Quarterly, 48
(2), 8-9.
Eisenberg, E. M., Trethewey, A., & LeGreco, M. (2017). Organizational Communication: Balancing Creativity and Constraint.
Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's.
Ferrari, B. T. (2012, February 1). The executive’s guide to better listening
. Retrieved from mckinseyquarterly.com: https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/leadership/the-
executives-guide-to-better-listening#/
Garcia, H. F. (2006). Effective Leadership Response to Crisis. Strategy & Leadership, 34
(1), 4-10.
Hester, J. P. (2019). Values-Based Leadership: Creating a Culture of Hope. The Journal of Values-Based Leadership
, 1-3.
Johnson, C. E., & Hackman, M. Z. (2018). Leadership: A Communication Perspective 7th Edition.
Long Grove: Waveland Press, Inc.
Jourdain, K. (2004). Communication Styles and Conflict. The Journal for Quality and Participation
, 23-25.
Kong, D. T., & Belkin, L. Y. (2022). You Don’t Care for me, So What’s the Point for me to Care for Your Business? Negative Implications of Felt Neglect by the Employer for Employee Work Meaning and Citizenship Behaviors Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic. Journal of Business Ethics
, 645-660.
Men, L. R. (2014). Why leadership matters to internal communication: Linking transformational leadership, symmetrical communication, and employee outcomes. Journal of Public Relations Research
, 256-279.
NIV. (2011). Bible.
Grand Rapids: Zondervan.
Poloski Vokic, N., Rimac Bilusic, M., & Najjar, D. (2021). Building organizational trust through internal communication. Corporate Communication: An International Journal
, 70-83.
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Appendix 1
Coded Key:
Preferred Method of Communication
Empowerment
Level of Care
Participant 1 Interview:
Todd: We'll get started. Thank you so much for agreeing to do this. It will help me a lot. Just so you know, I will be keeping your name private. Is it okay if I record this so that I can transcribe it
later?
P1: No problem at all
T: How long have you been at your current employer? And what is your role there?
So city ______________ Police Department. I was hired there in May of 1998. But ever since I started out as a patrol officer did a lot of different spots between. In 2010 was promoted to Detective. And then in 2019, the next promotion was to Detective evidence technician, which is a lot of words to basically say I no longer have to investigate each and every case. But I'll be handling the evidence for a lot of almost all the cases, I think it's got evidence that with either processing or additional processing, the crime lab would go through me or one other person.
T: Okay. Very cool. P1: And then in addition to that, we have all kinds of responsibilities with all the property evidence that we have. Logging it, and we figure out what needs to be disposed of how its disposed off. T: So it's just so CSI comes to you.
P1: Not quite. The characters are not that good looking? Essentially, yes. Look, what we're doing is the crime scene. investigation on scenes, major crime scenes, we're going to and deal with those..
T: How many superiors would you report to?
P1: Because it is kind of quasi military, there's definitely a lot of chain of command layers. I have
my direct Sergeant on my shift. There's a day shift Sergeant who's kind of would also become a quasi boss, Lieutenant above him, a captain above him that's going to charge that whole unit. And obviously, ultimately, the chief.
T: Ultimately, you report to?
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P1: Typically Sergeant. Second shift Sergeant I’ll usually work mostly everyday with
T: And how many subordinates?
P1: So we're kinda, I guess, technically nobody, we're kind of out on our own island. Okay. So the patrol would kind of look to us for direction when it comes to crime scenes or just questions, evidence, why is it they don't have… So I think we have about 60 sworn depending on three different shifts. Like and we have I don't know, if they have a lot of contact with the other two shifts as much as I would on second shift. If I have to put a number on just the second
shift people, probably about 30.
T: How many different leaders have you served under in your career? So just just thinking of that sergeant?
P1: Quite a few, I would say ballpark 12, one of which is current. He was my immediate sergeant.
T: So what traits of theirs when you think about just communication? Sure. What traits were this kind of the same? Were there traits that were had been very different between different leaders when it comes to communication? P1: Yeah, I think everyone's got a little differences, nuances
. I think the better ones. develop relationships that are just more than work. In the ones that are, I would say on the lesser side.
Probably, probably more rely on the technology and emails and not on direct communication. I think that usually makes things worse. One reason I figured let's do this in person as opposed to
zooms tougher to do
T: Yeah, for sure.
P1: What was the original question again?
T: How many different leaders? What traits are similar, what were different?
P!: I think the most important ones are just the honesty and integrity. So you have that trust, especially in my line of work where the further away from the first line, when you have more than the life and death situation anymore. I think that just having that integrity is important, and that trust is critical
. Trying to think of ones that haven't had that, but we haven't really had any I wouldn't trust. But there's definitely some bosses that would just kind of just hinder the process, maybe I'm not sure if that's necessary communication related, but our way of solving that communication was just “hey, this, we have…” Just letting them know, “everything's under control. You don't need to be here”. Politely saying you're gonna get in the way, if you stay here. “Hey, if you come into the scene, you’re going to be on subpoena list. You’ll have to write reports to come in here. Okay. And then they get the point.
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T: What are some of the activities that you engage in every week when you think of just as your role subordinates? So in your communication line with that, Sergeant?. What are some activities that that kind of engagement take every week?
P1: Well, one of the things that this particular Sergeant started doing, which I think was needed,
and other people mentioned
, it was just having a more regular meeting just to be on the same page. Other bosses didn't know what to do that some did, some didn't, some would meet every
day. So I was like, let's just meet a couple of times a week or just as needed basis. I think it helps just keep everyone on the same page with where things go on what cases or where. I think that helps when there's a question that comes up, the person who is assigned the case, isn't there, like, Hey, I know enough about this to bridge the gap here and build some cases, because we have all met and kind of on the same page with the major cases that are going on. I think that comes up quite a bit. If somebody's not there, they're on a different assignment, or whatever. I think that helps being on the same page.
T: How many hours a week do you spend with your supervisor?
P1: Not many, not many at all. I would probably put it at maybe one hour, a week, it really isn't a whole lot. Not that he's not there, we need something. That's a nice thing about our group that we pretty much to work very independently of bosses. And we've joked a lot that can also lead them there. There are times when we definitely want them. But yeah, a lot of times we can
operate very independent.
T: What is your working location in regards to your supervisor?
P1: So we have an interior part of the building cubicles, cubicle walls, we detectives are in. Then
within that there's a separate room with a door that's usually open. But the two sergeants office is there. The Lieutenant has the adjoining office, it's also open. So they are within the same part of the building. And here's a really good thing that I just thought of from a communication standpoint. We had at one point, a couple other detectives assigned to what was called a special operation group. So they would deal with a lot more drug related cases, but also anything that kind of popped up
that just needed extra attention or surveillance or something like that. They had been in our same part of the building . So we would communicate everyday with them talk back and forth. Like we knew everything. They had an idea to move them just across the hall to a different part of the office. And literally being across the hall changed communication method. We had no idea what they were doing. What cases? Like we just stopped exchanging information. It seemed like that wouldn't make that big of a difference being across the hall. But just not being there everyday sitting next to each other. You missed out on a lot. It was just crazy how much information just didn't get shared then just by being across the hall.
T: Sounds like the old adage out of sight out of mind.
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What kind of communication do you engage in with your supervisor? Email meetings, Zoom, phone?
P:1 Mostly it's going to be in person, some emails, some text. But mostly in person unless we are away from work. I mean, email is big too, especially when it's a group email for the two different shifts, too. So that's kind of all three.
T: What kind of communication method do you prefer? P1: Definitely in-person. And the other thing I thought to in this kind of gets away from those suborder thing, but this goes back to what I was doing more actual detective work and not the evidence part. But our interviews with suspects, we never wanted them over the phone. You have to follow the nonverbal cues, you have no idea. In person's good, is best. At their house, is
the worst. Because, again, we don't have any control of the environment. So there's kids around, neighbors, etc. We want them in our house. We want them in our building, we want them in our room. And we want a room set the way we want it set up, just so that we have all the factors that are going to distract from that under our control.
We want that room, even to the point of like, we don't want them facing the door because then
they can see that's the way out of here. We want you to stay here talk about things you probably don’t want to talk to us about. And you just you can't get that over the phone, the nonverbal stuff is just impossible. And we also record everything. Our interviews are going to be audio and video because we also want to
be able to show those reactions. So when we're getting line by line and also you get the “we know something good is coming the truth is about to come out here” … if we have to play that for the jury, they can see the experience too as opposed to just hearing us say “wasn't what he said?” Well, they can actually see that and our words, they can see all nonverbal, it just it makes
more of an impact. And even zoom can't quite get the same that the two dimensional version 3d It just it's different.
T: How often in what ways does your supervisor delegate tasks?
P1: That usually does go through email now probably 75% Email 25% in person because a lot of it is “here's the report sending this too”. And then if it's other things just kind of come up as the day goes on, then it’s in person. T: How often is that? Daily?
P1
: Probably close to daily. And again, my role is different now because I don't actually get these cases necessarily assigned to me. Other than “this car needs processing,”, “this guy needs
to be processed”. So, again, that's usually, email or in person. But it's simple as this one needs to be done. There's no more direction needed because you know what you're doing and even the bosses really don't know exactly what work we do. Get results and I'll be good.
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T: And that probably leads to the answer to this too. But how does your supervisor empower you and others with the tools needed to get the job done?
P:1 - Our current boss is really good about being receptive to things that we need or are working on. Anything we tell him, he's going to definitely look into and try to get that. Other bosses we've had like “oh sure sounds great”. Like you didn't hear a word I said we know you didn’t. I think our current boss is really good about that span of control. He can't always get it but you he will always try and look into it. T: How often and in what ways do you feel heard when you speak to your supervisor? P1: I think it really depends on the circumstances. I think if it's just the day to day or in the office and they're just complaining maybe not so much. But if we’re on scene, and “we need this” than they realize this is your field, we’re going to yield to you and what you need, we’ll get. So I think it just depends on the story. T: How often in what ways do you feel empowered?
P1: In my job I think it just depends on the case and the results. And I know that probably doesn't really connect to communication quite so well. But yeah, for me personally the times when I've felt empowered is when my case…For example we had our Mall shooting where some people were shot, nobody was killed. It was a couple days into this, by the time we arrested suspect, recovered his gun. I was still pretty new to this spot. So I was like, didn't have as much confidence as I have now. Okay, I developed a fingerprint on this gun. Sure hope its his.
In crime lab call like the next day which normally doesn't happen but circumstances of the case,
they made things happen quicker. They said “yep, it's his fingerprint”. That was like a powerful empowering moment because like, okay, when these cases work out the way it should, but again, that could easily been someone else's fingerprint. So it's like, I don't know if I really had any control over the outcome of them. I just have to follow the process that we do. And let the chips fall where they do
T: How often and in what ways do you feel cared for as an employee based upon your communication with your supervisor? P1
: I think within our supervisors, we've gotten tighter since 2020 as a police department. And as I think that’s true with our bosses too. Like we've all gotten closer now we've had that before. Like outside of police department, with our city, all city officials, those communications are a lot more strained, but it's made us tighter. Good and bad, I guess.
T: How does the way your supervisor communicate with you fit your style and personality? Your
communication style and personality?
P1
: I think because I don't think I need a lot of direction don't want a lot direction I think I've worked better with less guidance. So having that now, works great for me.
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T: If you could change the way your supervisor communicates with you, what would you have him do differently?
P1: I don't know. It's tough one. I don't know. I think at this stage I kind of like the style he has and where we're at . I’m good with not a whole lot of need for the communication. But I suppose if I had to pick anything, maybe this is nitpicky, but, maybe more positive feedback. Because it's sometimes they probably may not even know what we're doing. Not sure but yeah,
I suppose I didn't need it, but if they gave me positive feedback.
T: How do you get along with your supervisor?
P1: Well, yeah, I think I get along with my bosses pretty good.
T: And and this probably is too closely associated with the question before but what could your supervisor do so that you could do your job better?
P1: Right now, we do have it pretty good. I don't know if there's a lot that could. We've had bosses in the past that would you know, stress overtime issues. For the most part the bosses that come to our detective bureau realize that these are the important cases. Just get them solved. If that means overtime, do what you got to do to get these things done. But we only had
one boss, he's been gone a while, that came in very hard nosed. We have to cut overtime. “You have no idea what we're doing.” And that was hard. Like you're paying people for time on the road, just for coverage. You might be seeing a squad car doing nothing for hours or solving the biggest crimes that come through our city. This isn't where you try to save your pennies here. But again most bosses do understand that pretty good. I think our chief’s have been good at getting the right people in those positions to make sure that we do have success. T: Well, thank you. That's it. Thank you so much for your time.
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Appendix 2
Participant 2 Interview:
Todd: Tell me your name and who your employer is.
P2: ______________. I work with ________________ of Wisconsin?
T: And how long have you been at that employer? And what is your role?
P2: I’ve been there 5 years and I am a company manager?
T: How many superiors would you have in your role and subordinates?
P2: 1 superior, the owner and 25 under me.
T: How many different leaders have you served under in your career?
P2: Probably four.
T: What traits of your leaders were similar? And what traits were had been different?
P2: A lot of the traits I would call would be the old school mentalities of loyalty. Three bins. This is how you do things. Hard work ethic. You make it by the sweat of your brow, those types of things. The other were more corporate. So it was more about hitting your numbers. It was more
about goal accomplishment. And it wasn't as personal. It was more…You're a number. And this is what your job is.
T: How many hours a week do you spend with your supervisor?
P2: It really varies. Just because mine is the owner. So he's in and out a lot, I would say probably
between It can range between maybe eight and 14 hours a week.
T: What is your working location? Like in regards to your supervisor, same office?
P2: Same office? We are three doors down from each other?
T: And what kind of communication do you engage in with them? Email meetings, Zoom phone,
P2: Mostly verbal, or phone. There are correspondents that are done via email, but that's just so that the other party knows what's going on. It's more of an informative thing than actual personal correspondence in regards to the company.
T: What kind of communication method? Do you prefer?
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P2: Verbal. Face to face.
T: And how often and in what ways does your supervisor delegate tasks?
P2: So this is a, this can be a problem area, because he's not a very good communicator. So there's a lot of assumption involved. His mindset is, I've hired you to do a job. If you can't do it, then I shouldn't have hired you. So there's not a lot of communication on what you need to do, what your expectations are, as long as you're getting done. He's not a micromanager or someone who's constantly looking over your shoulder. In fact, it's the complete opposite, you actually almost have to nail him down to let him know what's going on. So that's kind of the way that that works.
T: How often, in what ways does he empower you and others with the tools needed to get the job done?
P2: By providing us anything we asked for
T: So he'll just do it if you tell him you need something
P2: He gets it most of the time. He does it and he may ask why. But for the most part, he trusts you to do your job.
T: How often and in what ways do you feel heard when you speak to him?
P2: Um, not very often not, I'm not heard. He is in a state of life in the middle of transition. And so he has got a lot of things going on where his mind is elsewhere. And it's almost like trying to get the attention of, you know, of a wild bird or something. It's been very difficult, just because his focus is elsewhere now. For the company as a whole. It's been, it's, we all have not kind of felt heard, just because of the season he's in personally in his life. T: How often? In what ways do you feel empowered?
P2
: I feel empowered by just verbal approval and attaboys. I also feel approval by correction. You know, if you love me enough to correct me that we're on the right path. So that would be my areas of feeling, that way?
T: And do you feel like he does that very often? P2: No. T: How often and in what ways do you feel cared for as an employee based upon your communication with your supervisor?
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P2: You feel cared for because he is a very caring person. And once you kind of get through that
harsh skin that he has, you realize that he is a soft guy, I kind of have a little bit of a separate situation at my work, because I had been good friends with the owner, even way before I worked for him. I've known him for quite a long time. And so it's a whole different dynamic for me and the owner versus the other employees and the owner. So that dynamic is different. I communicate with him differently than everyone else does. We talk differently with each other than everyone else does. I have a very different relationship than I would say, my co workers or other people that are at my same level, would communicate with him. So a lot of times when I'm talking to the owner, I have to differentiate what's working and what's friendship. And he has a harder time with that. And I do, because I can say, you know, set them personal, it's just business like I can draw those lines, whereas he can't. Everything is personal. Everything is taken to that extreme of a place, so it makes communication or correction me towards him. Difficult.
T: Does that hurt your friendship?
P2: It is slowly beginning to
T: How does the way that your supervisor communicate with you, how does it fit your style and your communication style and personality?
P2: It doesn't fit at all. We're two total polar opposites. He avoids conflict at all costs. I run towards conflict because I know that's what's needed. And I don't view it as conflict. I view it as growth. He views it as conflict. So if he knows he's got a meeting that we're going to have to deal with a certain employee, he won't sleep for two weeks.
T: If you could change the way your supervisor communicates with you, what would you have him do? Not simply communication method. P2: I think I would have him change the way he's viewing the conversations and change the way
that he views himself in the conversations. And it's so hard for him. The older someone gets, the more entrenched they get in their ways.
And people who have not developed a lifestyle of growth in their personal life, it becomes very difficult to try and introduce that mindset to them. But that's what I would do, I would really try
to introduce to him, the mindset of look, you know, you've got to overcome these things in your own personal life to become a better communicator, to become a better business owner. And it's very hard when a person in their 30s is trying to tell a person in their 60s who has, in a very humble way, that you can see things. And that's trust. At some point, you have to trust others more than you trust your own judgment. And that's why it's so important who you surround yourself with. And I think that would be another thing that I would suggest to him is to be a better communicator, he's got to change who he's getting his advice from on how he's to communicate.
T: Probably really have already hit this, but how do you get along with your supervisor?
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P2: As long as there's no controversy? Great. T: And the last one is what could your supervisor do, so that you could do your job better?
P2: Actually, let go of what he's trying to get someone else to do for him. It's very difficult for you to work for someone who's wanting you to take something over, but they're not willing to let go. And it's always the excuse of, “well, you're not ready” or “you need more time”. And it's constantly those types of things that restrict you from being able to do your job. And it's not even the fact that they don't mind you failing. It's not even about that. It's more when their identity is so entwined in what they're doing. When they stop doing what they're doing, they lose their identity. And that's one of the big issues. And so because who he is, is so entwined in his company, he will never be able to let it go on or turning over to someone or let someone really fully do their job and give them the tools needed. Because they know if they do, then they've lost some of their identity. When the truth of the matter is, that's not the case.
T: Thank you so much for your help.
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Appendix 3
Participant 3 Interview:
Todd: Thank you so much for joining me in this project. I appreciate your help. So tell us your name, and what is your role?
P3: My official title is associate principal/athletic director at Waukesha West High School.
T: And how long have you been in that role?
P3: This is my 12th year in this role. And 16th year in education overall. So I started off elementary physical education for three years, I hopped over to Waukesha North High School, and I was part of their physical education department. And at that same time, I was completing my third year as their head baseball coach. And so that's kind of how that led to me getting there in the first place. And I probably would have stayed there a long time, I just happen to be finishing my Masters that year. And the long story short, there was an associate principal opening at North, that didn't go my way. I think I finished number two, right. And that's what happens. But then in that same breath, the people who were leaders over here, including one who's now principal here was AP, like, Hey, I saw you applied over there, why not here. And I really hadn't considered it I thought this was out of my league. And so they said, you know, throw your hat in the ring. And here we are going into 12 years later fooling people. Living the dream job.
T: How many people would be in a position of say superior, like that you report to in some way?
And then how many subordinates?
P3: Sure. So I was thinking about this, because a lot of my leadership is leading from the middle.
And so I report, you know, to our principal, but then above that there's our upper administration that can look pretty widespread on a school district level. It can go straight to our superintendent, it can go to a lot of the assistant superintendents, whether it's teaching and learning, I had a meeting with our business manager today, it could be the technology guy, it could be just a lot of those separate systems, student services. And then ultimately, we answer to our board of education. And so in a big district like ours, we're actually kind of shielded from them a little bit. There's very few times where I have direct interactions with them, there's a lot of funneling, that occurs. So that's kind of what exists above m. Especially in my role as athletic director, it's a little bit of a ping pong between who I'm working with and why I am working with them, at that moment. And then below. So in my dual role as associate principal/athletic director, I do a lot of educational things like I'll be supervising evaluating social studies and student services and some credit recovery. Like last year, I the math department. So we will and deal based off of a lot of factors. But essentially, we've got 75 staff here that in some way, shape or form, 75 teaching staff, but 100 total staff, that answer to me, I guess, in some way, shape, or form,
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depending on the things that I'm in charge of at that moment. And then likewise, in our athletic department, we've got generally 110-115 coaches. So I guess that 200 ish pool would be what's under my jurisdiction, as well as you know, maybe some of the feathering out of when we hire out for things like game workers, and just the event management and officials. So it's all those systems kind of further out from my role.
T: That sounds like more fun than a guy ought to have. How many different leaders have you served in now? I'm thinking just like the direct report type
people, how many different leaders have you served under in your career?
P3: Yep. So you know, as a teacher, I had, you know, building principals in those couple of buildings. And then here at West, ___________ who's our current leader, now, he is the third principal that I've been under. So you know, sometimes, especially when you have like, for us, we have a team of four administrators that's typically here. And it's pretty rare to stay together for consecutive years. There's just a lot of things that happen in any district especially maybe a bigger one. So the first principal was literally here, about six months into my stay, and then changed mid year, which is really odd. There were some interesting factors that led to that. And
then an interim became more than an interim for the next three and a half years and now ________ is going into your eight as principal here. So the stability that we've enjoyed, actually,
one of the other AP’S just bounced up to the district level. But before that, we had had three of us together for nine years in a row. And then there was some changes out with that fourth role.
But we've been really fortunate. But yeah, three principals is direct reports. We've been pretty stable superintendent wise to _________ is in his fourth year now. And before that _______ have been here for a long time. But the eight years before that, and the role I have now. T: What traits of those leaders were similar? And what traits were different?
P3: I mean, I think from the, from the principal lens, you know, I have to share a wall with those guys. I think they're all kid first people, right? Like that I've appreciated. Being able to work with
people of integrity, you know, that's always been something that's really important to me. And even like, in our orientation meetings, I always say like, actually, next year, my oldest will be here. So it's like, hey, if I had to pick a principal for my child's building, I would want a man of integrity and character who, you know, models in a way that that we want our kids to aspire to be. And he's that person. And so when you get to be in like the wickets of all those conversations of how this is gonna go, and you know, this is testing our limits, and this is pushing, you know, do we compromise this versus that. He's, he's just awesome in the way that
he's not really wavering in terms of character and those expectations, and he's a man of faith to
which is awesome. So we're just we're tightly aligned. But so while the other two beforehand weren't necessarily men of faith, outwardly expressively, like into those conversations, I too, I would say that they were people who did the right thing for kids, they were thoughtful, they were really interested in, you know, working to rally people. But I would also say it's kind of one
of our things here. Like, I kind of half jokingly say, this is a place of unapologetically high expectations. And so, like we like that. We want to thrive in that. And the leaders that we've had in place, they've done a really good job of balancing, “hey, this is the bar.” But also, “here's
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the things I'm going to do to help you get up to that level of expectation”. I'm not just going to say go swim, right. And so really being able to challenge internally, and then love and support and hold on a pedestal externally. And finding that way to give value to people. I think they've all been like family first people to right, where Sometimes life happens. And we're just trying to really be there for each other. We've just always, whoever has been in that chair. But especially, you know, again, I probably relate to the second or the third, because they've been here the most. Like we're a team. And even though sometimes we have our specific responsibilities, it's always felt like we were in it together. And that's what makes it such I think a great place to be.
T: So thinking about your role as a subordinate, what are some of the activities that you engage in, like every week?
P3: That's interesting, because no, two days are the same. But yeah, generally speaking. I'm supervising the evaluating staff. So I'm bouncing around into classrooms and giving feedback on
instruction and what that looks like. I work with student discipline. So I have a segment of the alphabet, even though we kind of wheel and deal based on who's around at the moment and what's happening. First day of school I had to suspend a poor kid because he was smoking cigarettes in the bathroom. Hahaha, like, well, first of all, it's day one, and in Second of all, cigarettes, you know, we didn't think that happened anymore. Where do you find those? So, there's just there's, yeah, there's a lot of interesting things. The student discipline piece is definitely part of it. And then there's another angle from the athletic side of things where it's event management, and it's all the angles of getting ready. So like tomorrow is actually our biggest crowd of the year here. So in one night, we play Arrowhead for football, but it's a freshman or it's a football program tailgate. It's our dance teams, kiddie clinic night, it's our youth football night where they'll march. I always kind of say, Fridays are a pageant that happens to include a football game. And we use the platform to hopefully lift up a lot of other programs that don't have that same. So you know, event prep and all of those things like it's I'm
accused of being OCD like I'm highly because I care about all those little details. And so it's the scripting down to the minute for the announcers. And when teams are coming and going, and, you know, the way that our roles and responsibilities are as event workers, and how we structure those meetings, you know, pregame postgame, and just all that has a flow. And so, I have a lot of time that goes into that. I manage a lot of money with the athletic programs overall. If you were to take that plus the activities plus some of the fundraising, I mean, it's, it's a ballpark couple million dollars a year that are flowing through, I'm entrusted with in some way. And so that's, that's no small thing or something I take lightly. So there's just a lot of… I love my spreadsheets, I love all that, right? So there's a lot of the managerial pieces. But then my push is always to try and move into the leadership realm of things and be able to actually create change. And so being able to spend time with people, being able to coach our coaches, being able to have those specific conversations. One of my babies here is our leadership development process. And we have our annual conference, we have a couple 100 kids that come. We have a group that it's kind of my planning group that we meet with a lot of the year and it's it actually becomes their conference. So it's their, their breakout seminars. They're emceeing there, right. So my whole thing is like, it's not my school it is their school. And so
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being able to specifically work, especially in my role to find intentional time with kids, because sometimes you could float away into oblivion and not even know the bells rang. Right? So, you know, being able to build relationships with some of those leaders, being constantly visible and present around events, being able to engage with like, our super fan group, like and Alright, how are you positive? How are you inclusive? What are we doing to, you know, stay out front of some of these things? Right. And so, I challenge them a lot, but actually, it's turned into a great relationship, because in the middle of the game they come to me and say, “can we say this cheer?” Right? Yeah, “sure”, or “no, thanks for asking”. But we've gotten to a point where, you know, there's, there's that trust in that relationship. And, and we can, we can do that. So, it's interesting, because, you know, all of those things that I just described, probably happen before 10am. This morning. And so, you know, it's, it's a lot of, like, I'm sure you get to have, there's 29 plates in the air, and I'm going to grab that and put it back, I'm going to grab that and
put it back. I like that to an extent. I like being efficient and getting things done and whatnot. So
I was even thinking earlier today, I heard a speaker once say that Jesus was one of the most efficient people of all time, and the way that he would just love on and be with, and connect with people. And so I often do think of that is a push back to myself. And how I lead, because I think sometimes I can be a post-it, a checkbox account, or an inbox kind of a guy, just with so much happening. And so it's been a journey throughout, just so no matter what the tasks are being able to kind of slow down and routinely put people first. So it's process.
T: What kind of tasks do you work with, with your supervisor? Is there anything? P3: Yeah, I mean, I think it's a lot of a lot of planning. So when we look at so I really like thinking from from a systems perspective. So when we put expectation A in place, well, what are the unintended consequences of that? How do we ready people to meet that expectation? And so, you know, when we launched our school year, we talked about things like, for example, cell phones and staying in class. Well, we could say till we're blue in the face, but if they don't have good strategies of how to how to do that, we're going to be right back where we were. Like I said, we got about a 75 at teaching staff. 30 of them are in their first three years of teaching. And so it feels like the Green Bay Packers roster. Like we are not taking for granted, the things that we know to be, you know, tried and true. And so we just spend a ton of time as a leadership group. Trying to dissect from those angles and find our blind spots, figure out how we build capacity to ultimately make this place the way that we think it can be. So yeah, it's interesting, a lot of vision pieces and even as I kind of climb the ladder a little bit, maybe not necessarily principal, but including him. But others. Especially lately, it's been a lot of vision casting, like, there's everybody thinks and operates differently. We do the StrengthsFinder, and all that kind of stuff, right. And so the ability to like, see the future, and figure out how to stop just swimming in the whirlwind. But hey, if we look five years down the road, and we put this plan in place…now we can get there, right. And even if getting there is going to be hard, you can
be public about the idea that you have a plan and you have a process and, the idea of getting better is something we can dive into. Versus just like, I don't know how this is gonna happen. I don't know what we're going to do next. Kind of like a succession plan like that. That's a tough road to travel. So not everybody thinks how I think, and I don't think how they think. But that's been, I think, part of where I've maybe found my lane a little bit in our district lately, has been, I
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mean, so I'm the most veteran athletic director by now 10 years. And so there's our, you know, different stages, and we just find ways to spend time with them. But, being able to kind of pave the way a little bit of like, Hey, this is where we have to go. Otherwise, we're going to be right here still a year from now. And that's just not acceptable. T: Yeah, otherwise, you're wishing there's a difference between planning and wishing? Absolutely. How many hours a week do you spend with your supervisor?
P3: That's a good question. Um, I would say in calendered meetings, it's probably five or six. And then in the informal times, like, one of the goals we always have every day is we try to eat together at lunch. And sometimes it's crazy. A lot of times, it's the working lunch. But like, I call it glue time. Our ability to do life together to joke about that funny, whatever that we saw, or heard or just, you know, build that relational time is so important to us. Like, that's what makes it worthwhile. And it also helps when you are dealing with just a terrible situation, that you build and know and trust…”hey, this other guy is gonna climb in the foxhole with me. And I'm not doing this by myself.” So I would say that we try to do most days. But I mean, just today as an anecdote, so _______ office is like literally next to mine. I bet you I popped in his door 7 times. “Hey, what about this”, “Hey, we're good here, right?” And just a lot of cross checking and aligning thinking. We spent part of our day figuring out a new traffic flow plan for after school. Like half of our buses aren't running and so you know, about the practical of like, “okay, well, how do we really want this to look”? And then how do we visualize that for not just mom and dad, but kids, you know, something that they could follow? How do you communicate that out? That was that was like one of what 46 things we did today. But, just getting everybody's ideas into it made it the best that could possibly be today? And maybe we'll make it better tomorrow. But like, so we just, we constantly kind of tie into each other like that.
T: Well, you just answered it, but I'll ask it anyway, describe your working location in regards to your supervisor?
P3: We're literally next door. So our office has basically four administrators and four assistants. And so our really our team of eight is what's constantly going back and forth. So we've all got certain roles and things that we carry them. But we do a lot of sharing, we do a lot of pass the baton. I mean, that's that's how I think we've always worked best.
T: All right. What kind of communication do you engage in with your supervisors? So email, meetings, zoom, phone conversations, obviously in person?
P3: Yep. I think it's all the above. And so, you know, probably the least of which would be something virtual just because of our proximity. But yeah, I mean, definitely the most is the face to face conversation. You know, it's the texting or the quick calls. You know, once in a while, if we're separated, because, you know, a lot of my job actually pulls me out of the building. And so, like, there's three days next week where I know, I'll be gone most of the day, because I'm at this conference, or this meeting or this thing. So, email could come into play too.
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But again, like even on a day where I'm not in the building, and ______ pretty good, he's like, “if
you're not here, you're doing things. I'm not going to bother you. You have these other things to do”. We still engage with each other a handful of times, just pulse checking, you know?
T: What kind of communication method do you prefer?
P3: That's a good question. You know, for better or for worse, I live in my email. And so that's probably the one that's most reliable that I'll see it or I would reply. It's funny because I see every text, but the idea of replying to every text for whatever reason, it just doesn't always happen. And phone calls, boy, to get to a point of making a phone call with someone that it's got to be something right? Like, that sounds terrible. And again, that goes back to the efficiency part. But yeah, I mean, for better for worse. We, we live in our email. T: How often and in what ways does your supervisor delegate tasks?
P3: Yeah, so I think so for example, we're bringing on a new assistant principal right now. And one of the things that we structure is our responsibilities matrix. Looking at all the different categories of need, and then across the four of us, how does this balance out? And so we're taking strengths into account, but also, okay, this job, or this part of the role takes this much time. For example, because of my athletic director duties, I don't have as much of the alphabet when it comes to discipline or students with special needs and their IEP (individual education plan) meetings and things like that. We kind of try to right size or fit that. But we spent a lot of time looking at things like those responsibility charts, so that there's at least some clarity of who's ultimately in the lead for that. So like, _____ will have final say. Like, if there's ever a thing that's kind of percolating there. Like, ultimately, he's the guy. That's why he has that title. But him being able to say, like, you know, more or less ______, you got athletics. ______, you got all the assessments, you got all the activities, you've got this safety thing. And then it's just kind of looping through him to be able to do that cross check. And he's really good to empower us. I've always felt in my job, that I have a lot of autonomy. You know, he is the opposite of a micromanager. Which is probably good because I kind of am a micromanager or I know I can be. And so I push back on that. But he really gives the freedom, while at the same time, like, hey, our team right now has this specific need, who can pick this up? Right and make that happen? But I think our front end planning helps maybe prevent some of the chaotic nature sometimes of like, Oh, who's going to pick this up right now? So it works.
T: And you've sort of alluded to this, and I think, probably answered this already, but how often and In what ways does your supervisor empower you, and others with the tools needed to get the job done?
P3: He knows how I operate, right? And which I think is maybe one of the best parts of our relationship, because we've known each other for long. He knows the things that get me going. He knows the things that will frustrate me. He knows the things that I'll thrive in, or I'll get stuck
in. And so him being able to work me through some of those moments, good and bad is great. Because, like we were talking about the other day, as we were kind of selecting our new team
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LMOL 605 Pope ldr-flwr-rsrch
member, no one really has to tell us to work harder, or to care more, or to do these things. And so, it's really just a matter of, how to use our time best, and how to be maximizing each of our strengths. And so, once in a while be like, “hey, come back on this track, because, you know, this, this is how it's got to be”, but I do feel encouraged by him. I do feel like he values the work that I do. And so being able to feel like hey, when I do these things that I perceive as good and, and I get it the it's not an attaboy, but it's you know, it's it's his, his value placement on it. Well, I'm going to do it better the next time, right? And so it's kind of unique, because we've been friends for 15 years. Like we know each other really well. But still wanting to do a good job FOR him. Right? He's the leader of our buildings, so I feel certainly empowered. I think his willingness to not micromanage and give autonomy makes me want to do more and to do better. I'm in trust of these things. And so it's it It's a good model for us at least right now.
T: How often? And in what ways do you feel heard when you speak to him?
P3: Yeah, I mean, I think kind of to go back what I was saying, I'm not always going to be right. I'm not always going to have the exact response. But, but he definitely respects and takes into account what I'm seeing or what I'm hearing. And even though we know each other really well, like we also we think differently, which I think is good. And so him being able to hear out what I'm thinking and then apply that maybe, to what he already had in place, right. And maybe once
in a while, I mean, boy, it's few and far between where he's got to say, “Okay, I hear what you're saying, we're going to do it this way.” Right? And because I think we are in such lockstep with all of our other things, I know that when that has to happen, there's a reason. There's a process. I've always felt like we've been on the same page. And, and likewise, maybe in the same vein, I don't have to hold anything back. I can say what I think and how I feel. Close the door, unfiltered kind of a thing, because, this matters. And then great, close the door, open it and away we go. A side tangent to that, is just his great leadership. So I started in 2012. And then my assistant Terry, who was here during that time, she actually came down with ovarian cancer, and had to have some time where she missed for a year, she ended up coming back and then ultimately passed away in 2017. And so that was an interesting
process to work through of not only her and her health. But then the person who was here, and
then how do you train that person, and then you transition and then you transition again. So then my new assistant, Kim, I had started after that. And not this last year, but the year prior, Kim was really ill, and unable to eat, hospitalized for a few months. And so I actually went through another entire year, where I didn't have her and she's a rock star. And so I ended up taking on a lot more. And then the AD shifts, that the other schools where the ADs were really young, I ended up feeling more. And so I could feel my balance not not quite there. And so, for him. I mean, if we didn't have that relationship, it could have been “suck it up buttercup”, whatever, right? But he's able to look at it and credit the other guys here to like, “Hey, if you work 80 hours a week, every week, there's not going to work”. Things are going to break, and not be where it should be. And so, being able to kind of climb into my shoes and relate enough and figure out like, and, really gameplan. Let's have a strategy that's looking at everything you're doing. What's absolute? What's kind of extra? What can we get away with not having you at? What can we just kind of build in with some good systems? And that was just super appreciated. Because you know, that I think that helps me be my best me. I can't figure it out
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LMOL 605 Pope ldr-flwr-rsrch
myself. I'm still figuring out balance. I'm still trying to figure out how to do this well, and honor all things. But be dad and be husband and just do all those things the way I think they should be
done. But it's not at all filtered with him, I would say like just Yeah, I can say “this is where it's at
and this is what I need”. Or maybe I can't even tell what I need. But he can kind of bridge that. So that part's been really great.
T: How often and in what ways and I think that last answer probably, certainly at least leads into this. How often in what ways do you feel cared for as an employee based upon your communication with your supervisor?
P3: Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, it's the encouragement. It's the value placed on things where, hey, this is a not about me, but this is a ______ idea. And then the _______ idea is used or valued. I think he does a good job of, when he has the opportunities to publicly praise, he does. And those little recognitions are meaningful to me. “We did put dozens and dozens of hours into that, and it was good for kids.” I think I especially appreciate it too, because I think there's a lot of times when people look at the role of like athletic director, they're like, “what do
they do? Go and watch basketball games, like what do they do all day?” And so to give credibility to a role that's actually pretty complicated and has a lot of nuances to it. I appreciate because I think it allows me to then have a better positioning to lead in the way that I want to lead. If I was just the sweat pants guy who rolled out the ball and turned on the scoreboard, I'm
not sure how much credibility I'd have to try and be the change that I want to create. So, I appreciate that. I think him being able to be intentional with that is awesome.
T: How does the way your supervisor communicate with you fit your communication style and personality?
P3: Yeah, I mean, I don't I guess I know exactly. I mean, I think it's a match. Like, it is kind of funny, because he's probably more to the point more often than me. My wife would say, I'd use
1000 words to say no, but he is probably more to the point. But it's funny, because we, we accuse him of mansplaining sometimes. Alright, we got to back it down. So I think we balanced really well. I mean. You look at two people communicating where sometimes like you'd say the same thing, you're just you're like, missing each other, right? Like, I don't ever feel like we're in that kind of a kind of a situation. And, you know, I probably tend to live on the complex side of the spectrum, where he tends to live first, on the simple side of things, which is probably a good
balance, because then we typically end up in the middle where we should be. So yeah, I don't know if that totally answers that question.
T: I think so. If you could change your supervisor, or change the way your supervisor communicates with you, what would you have him do differently?
P3: The only thing I would say, and this isn't necessarily only true of ______, but I think everybody, that would be above me. I think I tend to operate at a different pace than other people. I want what I want, but I want it now. And so, in the broader system of things, I can appreciate that when my wrestling coach comes and says, I need this, I need it now, or this is
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LMOL 605 Pope ldr-flwr-rsrch
going to be this, state of emergency. Well, I'm looking at from the 30,000 foot view and saying, “I appreciate that, but here's how this falls in.” But then I go and I do the same thing. I want this, right. So my boss is at 100,000 feet saying, you know, kind of… And so yeah, I mean, if I could have what I wanted, and have it right away that that that'd be great. But he it is a good balance. Because when I'm maybe moving too fast, or it's clear in my mind, but it needs more clarity or time to become what we need it to become, you know, he's good at pressing those brakes and all that. So, I mean, yeah, if I had like a, a wish that could eliminate some that timeline then great, but yeah, otherwise? That's a tough one. I mean, I think I've got it pretty good. So I suppose you could talk to others that would change, change a lot of things. I don't know if I have a great, great response..
T: You've answered this through your other questions, but just because it's in the structure. How do you get along with your supervisor?
P3
: Yeah, I mean, I would consider him to be one of my best friends for sure. Like, being able to,
you know, be tightly aligned. I mean, like one of the cool things we got to do for the last seven, eight years, whatever it's been going on No Regrets together right now, pulling a few people along with, you know, from the building or whatnot, like just little things like that. Right, like, be
able to kind of do those things together is pretty cool. So having that that faith alignment first, I think, then brings a deep level of trust in each other in our starting points, right. So even if we're going to, like disagree about something, you know, we're all coming back to the same point of, we're starting with good. So I appreciate that. But, and I also know that full well, that that's not, that's not always the case. So with our team of four, that we had this last year, it was
just a super good team, and then losing ________, I had some anxiety. When you add a new person in, there's always a reshuffle. Well, sure enough, we get to add a great person in so I'm really excited for them. But having _______, and you know, others like him as that rock? Pretty cool.
T: What could your supervisor do so that you could do your job better?
P3: I mean, kind of getting into the answer that I was saying before, with how we've navigated what I would call, like, my imbalance of things. I don't know how much farther you can go from that other than “ ______ go home”, right, like so in, in those balance ways. You know, I always appreciate when people are doing things with me, right? Like, I don't necessarily have to be the king of something, or go and do it on my own. And so if I could change something, I would take things off of his played a little bit, so that we could do more things together. Like, I mean, I'll run
with things all day. But I also think it's cool. The things that we get to do were like…TOGETHER we have accomplished this, or together, we're saying this is a good thing for kids. So that's, that's a roundabout way. Because I don't know if I have a great answer. But yeah, being able to pair with some of those big things would be great.
T: Well, thank you so much for your time.
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LMOL 605 Pope ldr-flwr-rsrch
Appendix 4
Questions for Interviews Project 2
Demographic Questions:
How long have you been at your current employer and what is your role? How many superiors/subordinates?
How many different leaders have you served under in your career? What traits were similar? Different?
Study Questions:
12. Thinking about your role as a subordinate, what are some of the activities you engage in every week? What kinds of tasks do you work on with your supervisor? 13. How many hours a week do you spend with your supervisor? 14. Describe your working location in regards to your supervisor? 15. What kind of communication do you engage in with your supervisor? (email, meetings, Zoom, phone conversations, etc)
16. What kind of communication method do you prefer?
17. How often and in what ways does your supervisor:
Delegate tasks
Empowers you and others with the tools needed to get the job done
18. How often and in what ways do you:
Feel heard when you speak to your supervisor
Feel empowered
Feel cared for as an employee based upon your communication with your supervisor
19. How does the way your supervisor communicates with you fit your communication style
and personality? 20. If you could change the way your supervisor communicates with you, what would you have him/her do? (not simply communication method)
21. How do you get along with your supervisor? 22. What could your supervisor do so that you could do your job better?
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