INTRODUCTION
In professional life, while some tasks may require individuals to work on their own, other tasks may call for collaborative efforts of all group members. In this reflective report, I will delve into the fundamental concepts of servant leadership, agile mindset and psychological safety in the context of a team or group environment. Focusing on this concept, I will share the importance of integrity, honesty and respect for group members in strengthening servant leadership. The report also shares features of agile mindset such as collaborative exchange, empowered self0guidance and psychological safety.
QUESTION 1: SERVANT LEADERSHIP
How team members work ethically
Good work ethics can take an individual a long way in their career, improving their performance and relationships with team members and resulting in growth opportunities and promotions. While this behaviour is developed early in school, there are various ways students can practice ethics to achieve personal growth and development in the future.
Honesty and integrity
Within the context of my group, the majority of my team members tend to adhere to the institution’s regulations for honesty in tests and homework. Through the way my group conducts its projects, there is a clear demonstration of commitment to personal growth by prioritizing learning over short-term gain. The members cultivate a culture of integrity in their academic tests and group work by ensuring that every individual contributes their ideas while working on group projects.
Honouring others’ time and efforts
Besides honesty and integrity in tests and assignments, the team members also show up on time for group work and exemplify ethical conduct by honouring their commitments and respecting others’ time and efforts. In Module 1.2, we learnt that punctuality not only reflects an individual’s responsibility but can also contribute towards the overall effectiveness and productivity of an individual as well as a team (“Torrens University,” 2024). Furthermore, by honouring time, we managed to create a collaborative environment that is conducive to every member’s collective growth and development.
Servant leadership in my group
“Primus inter pares” is a Latin word that denotes “first among equals.” As related to servant leadership, this phrase implies a serving leader whose highest priority is to serve their followers, enabling them to fulfil their needs rather than emphasizing their personal needs (Canavesi & Minelli, 2021). I can relate these traits to Sarah, a group member within my team. Sarah consistently demonstrates servant leadership qualities. She puts other members’ priorities and needs ahead of her own, ensuring that every individual’s voice is heard. She also supports all the members of the team in achieving their best while undertaking project work.
I attribute the success of our group to Sarah’s servant leadership approach because she significantly contributes to the group’s performance and completion of projects by ensuring that all members contribute their ideas. This collaborative and supportive environment Sarah creates tends to enhance cohesion and ultimately improves the performance of group work (“Torrens University,” 2024). Besides that, her actions strengthen team members’ well-being and growth, which motivates everyone to participate actively, resulting in increased productivity and a positive team dynamic.
Comparing servant leadership and transformational leadership
Like transformational leadership, servant leadership puts ahead the fulfilment and needs of followers over leaders’ personal needs. This creates a supportive and empowering environment. According to Canavesi and Minelli (2021), both leadership approaches create value for multiple stakeholders in the internal and external environments of an organization., motivating them to work towards a common goal. Additionally, I can state that servant leadership is favoured as a transformational leadership style because it emphasizes ethical behaviour, helping others to grow and succeed. This helps to create value for the community, which aligns with transformational leadership traits such as charisma, inspiration, intellectual stimulation and individualized consideration (Xie, 2020). Last, a servant leader’s emphasis on serving others and fostering their growth resonates with transformational leadership, which focuses on organizational commitment, job performance and job satisfaction.
QUESTION 2: AGILE MINDSET
Attitude towards learning spirit:
When adapting the agile mindset, the concept of continuous improvement entails a commitment to constantly enhancing processes and outcomes. I have demonstrated this attribute throughout while working within my group by actively seeking feedback from my team members after completing my tasks. I utilize the feedback given by my group members to implement the suggested or desirable improvements in the current and even in the preceding task. Engaging myself in this iterative process in my group work has enabled me to implement changes and showcase my commitment to continuous improvement within the group work settings.
However, one area I need to improve is the attitude of viewing failure and knowledge gaps as an opportunity to learn new things. Eilers et al. (2022) opine that this attitude is essential in a VUCA environment because it offers an array of dynamics. For instance, whenever I encounter technical issues while handling my assigned tasks, I easily get frustrated instead of seeking help or researching to fill the knowledge gaps. Alternatively, I solve the problem on my own without considering that knowledge gaps are opportunities for learning. Improving in this area, therefore, can help me enjoy experiencing and trying out new things for emerging practices that will help me deal positively with uncertainties in my future work environment.
Attitude towards collaborative exchange:
One attribute of collaborative exchange that I see to maximize in my group undertakings is my value for transparency. I encourage group members to conduct their research independently before gathering to get insights from each finding. This gives us an opportunity to share progress and updates, challenges faced and decisions made by each team member. Undertaking group work in a transparent manner helps to foster trust, enhances communication and promotes collaboration during group discussions since every member will bring their diverse experiences.
However, I need to adopt collaborative efforts by actively seeking feedback when working within my group work. According to Eilers et al. (2022), collaboration entails the extent to which an actor can positively value transparent work and share their knowledge to solve problems by swapping information and ideas with colleagues in their team. While working on some projects and assignments, I have worked independently. This likely has scared my team members from asking for assistance on their assigned tasks. To improve in this area, I will work actively by involving others in my project tasks after functions have been distributed among group members.
Attitude towards empowered self-guidance
I am an individual who reflects on my work processes and myself, organizes myself, and takes responsibility for the work I have done. This attitude, which I can refer to as self-guidance, helps me achieve and contribute significantly towards the group’s performance. This has happened in a couple of project work where I have always taken the responsibility to organize my work processes and make decisions proactively within the group. For instance, in the recent assignment, I created the project timeline, assigned tasks to group members based on their strengths, and regularly monitored members’ progress to ensure timely competition for the project work.
Even though I am good at reflecting on my work processes, I tend to be torn against options when making decisions. Eilers et al. (2022) recognize that the ability to make decisions can lead to high levels of sustainable value contribution. For example, in the last project, I hesitated to make a critical decision that could have positively impacted the group work’s performance, leading us to a lower score. I need to build confidence in my decision-making abilities. I will seek relevant sources, analyze potential outcomes of decisions, and take calculated risks when necessary. A more decisive approach will enable me to embrace the opportunity to earn from both success and failure.
Attitude towards consumer co-creation
On consumer co-creation, I recognize myself as a person who has a passion for digital options when solving problems. While working within my group, I place technological solutions as recommendations for solving customer issues within organizations. Integrating new technologies such as 5Gs and IoT when working in organizations can help teams achieve customer satisfaction.
However, being an independent individual limits my ability to seek feedback continuously. This attitude affects group collaborative efforts when working on tasks or projects. I have to improve on this attitude because the trend may prevent me from aligning with customer values and needs in my future work. Therefore, I will begin gathering feedback on project progress and incorporating inputs from colleagues in my job to ensure the final deliverables meet the needs of every group member.
QUESTION 3: PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY
Psychological safety makes employees feel free to ask questions, make mistakes, offer unique insights, and address complex topics while still feeling valued and convicted. Like any individual employee, I would love my manager to support me by treating me as a unique individual and encouraging me to express what is important to me. Rider et al. (2023) define this approach to psychological safety as individuation. This support can remove blockers that cause positive spillover effects on my career development, perceptions, and overall effectiveness.
Based on the article Proven Tactics for Improving Teams’ Psychological Safety by Rider et al. (2023), individuation produced the best results for improving psychological safety. The individuation teams improved their scores by 9% more than the control group. To some extent, I had expected this outcome because, initially, the research had suggested that there was a link between individuation and psychological safety.
Managerial behaviour change likely made a significant difference in improving psychological safety since the individuation approach entailed treating employees as unique and encouraging them to express what was important to them. This resulted in a 12% increment in the team’s psychological safety in comparison to the control group (Rider et al., 2023). Furthermore, the personalized approach enhanced trust and openness within the team. This made employees feel valued and understood by their managers. Therefore, the approach boosted psychological safety and also strengthened the employee-manager relationship, resulting in improved perceptions of career development.
Despite the benefits of individuation on psychological safety, some managers may remain resistant to a change of this nature. Some of the reasons that may contribute to their rigidity include the lack of understanding of the benefits of individuation, the belief that their current approaches are practical and the fear of change in the organization. When manager perceive individuation to entail additional tasks or do not see the immediate impact of individuation on their team’s performance, they are less likely to adopt it (Wood et al., 2014). Resistance to change is also a common issue in organizations. Managers may need additional support, without which implementing approaches such as individuation may not be possible.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, to ensure optimal performance and achievement in the following assessment, focusing on some elements presented in this report will be vital. First, honesty, integrity and punctuality can play a significant role in cultivating a culture of ethical conduct and commitment to personal growth and development. Adopting this culture will enable me to enhance trust, collaboration and respect for group members, leading to improved performance. Second, adopting an agile mindset, which emphasizes continuous improvement and views knowledge gaps as opportunities to learn, is essential. By actively seeking feedback from group members, I will implement suggested improvements and contribute significantly towards group performance.
References
Canavesi, A., & Minelli, E. (2021). Servant leadership: a systematic literature review and network analysis. Employee Responsibilities and Rights Journal, 34(3), 267–289.https://doi.org/10.1007/s10672-021-09381-3
Eilers, K., Peters, C., & Leimeister, J. M. (2022). Why the agile mindset matters. Technological Forecasting & Social Change, 179. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2022.121650
Rider, C., Ferrère, A., Belovai, Z., Guadalupe, M., & Englmaier, F. (2023). Proven Tactics for Improving Teams’ Psychological Safety. MIT Sloan Management Review.
Rider, C., Ferrère, A., Belovai, Z., Guadalupe, M., & Englmaier, F. (2023). Proven Tactics for Improving Teams’ Psychological Safety. MIT Sloan Management Review, 64(3), 1-4. https://learning.oreilly.com/library/view/proven-tactics-for/53863MIT64410/?sso_link=yes&sso_link_from=torrens-edu
Torrens University. (2024). MIS608 Agile Project Management. Module 1.2 – Lecture.
Wood, M. S., McKelvie, A., & Haynie, J. M. (2014). Making it personal: Opportunity individuation and the shaping of opportunity beliefs. Journal of Business Venturing, 29(2), 252-272.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusvent.2013.02.001
Xie, L. (2020). The impact of servant leadership and transformational leadership on learning organization: a comparative analysis. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 41(2), 220–236.https://doi.org/10.1108/LODJ-04-2019-0148
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