Leadership Practice Growth:
Capitalizing on Self-Reflection and Learning

Assignment 3: Reflective Essay

Kimberley A. Ilott

Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Athabasca University

MAIS644: Adult Education, Community Leadership, and the Crisis of Democracy

Professor Paul Kolenick

August 6, 2023

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Adult Education and the Leadership Practice

Introduction

A dominant theme across all units of the course was communication and how leaders or organizations can capitalize on this oral and mental skillset to foster a learning society. Furthermore, it was clear that communication was multifaceted, and the course introduced the importance of conversation, conveying that communication does not equate to conversation but conversation equates to communication. Given this learning and the overlap with my career in leadership that heavily relies on conversation and initiative championship, I chose to reflect on the idea of leadership in relation to personal growth surrounding conversational tactics to cultivate a rich dynamic rooted in learning.  The three-course readings that were selected allow for reflection on, in my opinion, the natural progression of a leader.  The first selected reading of Welton’s (2005) Ethics and Empowerment in Organizations article from unit two speaks to the impacts of leadership on, or toward, a learning society; focusing heavily on a leader’s authenticity concerning the empowerment that they communicate.  The second reading, from unit four, is also from Welton (1986) and highlights the importance of an evolving leadership practice through the case study of Thomson. Thomson’s inability to morph his leadership practice based on situational awareness showcased how leaders need to be constantly striving for personal growth through learning to remain relevant; relevancy through learning provides a leader with a presence that conveys a sense of trust during times of communication, such as in instances where employees are being enabled and empowered. Finally, the last selected course reading is Isaacs’ (1994) article on the Field of Conversations. Isaacs’ writing provides foundational knowledge for leaders (including myself) that communication and conversation are not the same. Leaders need to cultivate safe spaces for conversations to foster dialogues that create growth, understanding, and knowledge. The subsequent discussion on the three selected course readings, with supportive other literature, will provide insight into the reflective journey that occurred as I navigated through the course as well as how the course learnings have impacted my leadership practice.

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Impacts of Leadership on a Learning Society

In Welton’s (2005) ethics and empowerment in organizations article, Welton discusses the complexity of the term empowerment and how the reality stemming from the term’s use largely depends upon the morality of the leader or individual expressing the sentiment. As Welton relays, “empowerment does not appear to signify a stable, coherent reality. It can mean many different things to many different thinkers and actors in the world” (p. 127). The unit two course materials spoke to the variation of the empowerment term as it relates to the organizational lifeworld. In Welton’s case, the belief is that a “conceptual framework… might enable practitioners to test empirically any claims made on management’s part that employees have been empowered” (Athabasca University, 2023a, para. 8).  In the initial unit two conference post, I spoke to how the creation and cultivation of a learning organization rely on the people involved and their intentions, which can lead to learning initiatives with successful outcomes or completely missing the mark. The potential impact of an individual’s negative underlying intention was summarized by Welton when he stated that

[A] real contradiction exists between the interests of those exercising power and the real interests of those they exclude. Those playing the game may not even know that the game is rigged and [that] the gambling table [is] cunningly designed to the opponent's advantage. (Welton, 2005, p. 130)

 

Welton’s (2005) sentiments are deeply rooted in how strategic or communicative action can establish a foundation of trust or skepticism. Amy Jen Su and Muriel Maignan Wilkins (2013) provide an excellent visual of Welton’s sentiment in their book, Own the Room. By bringing authenticity to an individual’s leadership practice, and ensuring that, as a leader, their focus, or rather their learning, cultivates self-reflective practices and growth, one which covers mental, skill, and physical attributes of their leadership practice. Successful learning environments are cultivated through the building of a foundation of trust stemming from a leader's authenticity. While Welton, in the ethics and empowerment in organizations article, spoke to the merit behind the implementation of a standardized framework for consistent measurement of an organization’s ability or sense of empowerment, perhaps, one of the reasons a standardized framework to measure an organization’s level of empowerment has not materialized is due to the complexities and variation of the individuals involved. Perhaps, the key to a standardized approach to organizational empowerment measurement is by looking at the individual leaders and encouraging a self-reflective learning approach for the honing of their leadership skills. With that being said, Welton does establish a flaw with a purely self-reflective model, stating that they

present [to] us a critical humanist vision of the self-efficacious individual who is enabled to be such by leadership or supervisory practices that design the procedures that foster this deep sense of personal and collective mastery. What is missing from their normative model is a serious confrontation with power, interest and greed in organizational life. (Welton, 2005, p. 136)

 

While I believe that self-reflective leadership learning and practices are key to organizational empowerment and overall success, these same leaders must be comfortable with stepping outside of the organizational culture of silence that can often arise when power, self-interest, and greed are present in an organization. Habermas (1989) raises that self-reflection, as a leader, is only effective if the leader can see themselves objectively in a situation, context or learning, that they’re open to self-criticism if warranted; Habermas highlights that “analysis takes symptoms and deciphers unconscious motives present in them… in so doing, it transcends the dimension of the subjectively intended meaning of intentional action” (p. 65).  Senge (2006) seconds the thought that analysis of action is an important determinant of a successful learning organization, one that challenges the status quo; as Senge highlights “articulating… values [is] but a first step. While some confuse value statements with cultural change… impressive words[are] not enough” (p. 172) to elicit sustainable change through learning, ultimately leading to incompetence at achieving success or producing the organizational results desired.

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The Importance of an Evolving Leadership Practice

The idea that words are not enough carries through to Welton’s (1986) conflicting visions and divergent strategies article about the politics of adult education in Saskatchewan in the mid-1940s. Senge’s (2006) thoughts overlap with Welton's when Welton wrote that Watson Thomson believed that

revolutionary change in the external structures of oppression would be impossible without [a] change in individuals; masses could not bring about fundamental change. The co-personal group had a crucial role to play here: individuals had to choose freely to be initiators of a new revolution and had to learn, in face-to-face interaction with others, to break with egoistical individualism and become personally allied with others in mutual love and care. One had to both be and build the new world. (Welton, 1986, p. 112)

 

The thought that an individual must both be and build the new world suggests that in addition to the learning and employment of self-reflective techniques, there needs to be an awareness of how the external situational environment is changing, thus requiring a shift from the individual leader or rather an evolution of their leadership practice. Nearly eighty years ago, Watson Thomson was campaigning for a humane socialist and just learning society alongside Tommy Douglas in Saskatchewan (Athabasca University, 2023b, para. 4) one which capitalized on an individual’s movement or championship, enabling the movement of the masses. In the conflicting visions and divergent strategies article, Welton (1986) discusses the trials and tribulations of Thomson, however, Thomson’s sentiment toward individuals bringing about change in their external environments continues well into today’s societal thought process; as Welton highlights, Thomson “saw his task as catalytic: helping people clarify their goals and achieve their ends through critical dialogue” (p. 116). Ultimately, Thomson’s vision missed the mark, causing political fodder, but the case study posed by Welton reiterated the importance of choice, continued skill growth and or reflection, as well as the necessity of having situational awareness. Senge (2006) writes that the removal of a person’s personal choices on their outcomes can undermine leadership efforts, regardless of a leader's intention; Senge writes

It must always be remembered that embarking on any path of personal growth is a matter of choice. No one can be forced to develop his or her personal mastery. It is guaranteed to backfire…What then can leaders intent on fostering personal mastery do? They can work relentlessly to foster a climate in which the principles of personal mastery are practiced in daily life. That means building an organization where it is safe for people to create visions, where inquiry and commitment to the truth are the norm, where challenging the status quo is expected. (Senge, 2006, pp. 161-162)

 

In Lynda Gratton’s (2022) book, Redesigning Work, Gratton speaks to how leaders must continually adjust their practice based on the external environment. While Gratton’s book is largely focused on helping organizations transition to hybrid work post-COVID-19, there are moments of leadership enlightenment, suggesting that not only is the working environment changing from a pandemic but also from a workforce that is no longer ‘typical’; employees are working longer, age variances are growing in organizations, sabbaticals for education or travel are becoming more frequent, to name a few, all highlighting the fact that life very rarely follows the full-time education, full-time work, full-time retirement pattern that was once the norm. As Gratton states

What makes a good leader in terms of human skills is a small set of things they do that builds up the best in colleagues… those that do it well [are those] who engage in really active listening, are able to de-escalate emotional tension in a group situation, can yield for the sake of getting to yes and are able to manage the diversity in the group. They are also good at drawing out extreme introverts who can be really deep thinkers. They create space for them and recognize their talents [as being] unique. (Gratton, 2022, p. 153)

 

As seen by Gratton’s (2022) sentiments above, today’s leaders are operating in complex, convoluted, and diverse environments. The balancing of these elements requires extensive personal growth, knowledge, and reflection on the part of a leader. Welton (1986) suggests that Thomson’s downfall was his inability to see the proverbial forest through the trees in the political hotbed of the mid-1940s; his desire as an adult educator was to motivate individuals and communities to become participatory citizens, but his passion for his cause created blind spots in his ability to adjust with his external situational environment (p. 26), leading to Thomson’s lack of personal growth in leadership practice.

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Leadership Presence: Communication versus Conversation

Welton’s (1986) case study of the rise and fall of Thomson in the political arena highlights, albeit theatrically, how communicative action can lead to success or culminate in failure. Similarly, Welton’s (2005) ethics and empowerment in organizations article showcases how a leader's ability to communicate effectively can invigorate or stifle organizational learning societies.  How a leader communicates with those around them (laterally, downstream, or upwards) has a substantial impact on that leader’s presence.  As Isaacs (1999) states in his fields of conversation article

For many, the experience [of conversation] represents a pinnacle, a goal to be achieved, even an end in and of itself. Yet one of the more important ideas about dialogue that we have discovered in recent years is the notion that the process of movement through different fields or spaces of conversation is much more important than trying to produce a particular outcome. It is the creative motion itself, more than any single feeling or insight, that I have come to associate with dialogue. (Isaacs, 1999, p. 253)

 

Isaacs’ (1999) article conveys the importance of conversation, separate from communicative action, with no overt end goal identified other than to spark innovation and openness, building trust and allyship between the conversational partners or group. Isaacs goes on to express that individuals often become stuck in their conversational styles, such as “terminal niceness” (p. 254), instead of bringing their authentic selves to a conversation. For leaders, their ability to bring their authentic selves to a situation or conversation enables them to build foundations of trust with their target audiences, ensuring that their reputation, or presence, allows their target audience to receive an automatic sense of trustworthiness when communications, especially in an organizational setting, occur. 

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Senge (2006) supports Isaacs’ (1999) views on the importance of dialogue.  Senge believes that dialogue allows individuals to grow through gaining insight into complex or difficult situations via different points of view; insights which would not be obtained if the same situation were looked at by a sole individual. For a leader, the ability to cultivate safe containers or spaces for free-flowing authentic dialogue based on the individuals involved and that takes into consideration the external situational contexts reiterate the requirement that leaders lean into learning societies to evolve and grow their leadership practice. Through understanding both Isaacs and Senge, it becomes evident that conversation is the gateway to a learning society, as Senge highlights that

dialogue is a way of helping people to “see the representative and participatory nature of thought [and]… to become more sensitive to and make it safe to acknowledge the incoherence in our thought”. In dialogue, people become observers of their own thinking. What they observe is that their thinking is active…[and] people in dialogue [begin] to observe the collective nature of thought. (Senge, 2006, pp. 224-225)

 

When reviewing communication or communicative action versus conversation, Isaacs’ (1999) and Senge’s (2006) sentiments on dialogical conversations allow practitioners to understand the difference when comparing Isaacs’ and Senge’s literature to that of Cooke (1994). Cooke, in the review of Habermas’ theory and practice of communicative action, suggests that it is “a form of social interaction in which the plans of action of various agents are coordinated through an exchange of communicative asks… oriented toward an understanding [or consensus]” (p. 9). As previously raised, the fundamental difference, as discussed by Isaacs’, is that conversation has no specific end goal, dialogue is had purely for knowledge, openness, understanding, and growth. In organizations, and generally, individuals can become unnerved in silence, often needing to fill the void with directives whether to divert the limelight, stake their dominance, or place themselves back into a space of comfort. It is a leader’s duty to foster dialogue that creates discomfort for a deeper, more meaningful, conversation that results, through organic growth, in learning of oneself and others.

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Conclusion

The reflective journey that has occurred as I navigated this course has been one of personal growth, quiet contemplation, and critical thinking stemming from the conversations had with fellow course participants and leaders. When embarking on this journey, at the end of unit one, the course materials were confusing, and I was not able to see the value within. As the weeks passed, I began to observe undertones of different themes and interestingly, the understanding that the course material learning takeaways were subjective depending on the individual. This understanding reminded me of the unit one commentary on Habermas, which stated that

Habermas’s work is not easy to grasp because he [crisscrosses] many disciplines and has precipitated influential scholarly thinking in so many different domains of thought…and the language is sometimes dense, some might even say convoluted. His ideas are also constantly evolving in dialogue with others. Yet, at its heart lies a simple intuition. Our ability to use language contains the secrets to our freedom. (Athabasca University, 2023c, para. 2)

 

Using my career experience along with course materials enabled me to be reflective throughout the course's duration, and much like the ideas of Habermas, my thoughts evolved through the dialogue I had with others each week. As suggested at the beginning of this paper, communication is multifaceted, and rather than having a specific outcome or goal, the intention of conversation is for the gaining of learning and understanding. As a leader, I gravitated toward the theme of communication and how leaders can foster a learning society through self-reflection, self-learning, and holding space for others to engage in dialogue, and the three selected course readings flow, or connect, in this manner. The key takeaway from this course is that one’s learning journey is a continual, life-long pursuit of enlightenment and evolution, as well as openness and understanding. As a leader, and as echoed by Isaacs (1999), I need to create space for dialogue, bringing those around me with me into the open space. The challenge though is how can I continually institute space for dialogue if I become stagnant in my learning, becoming stuck in a misguided, misinformed, biased state. The knowledge that, as a leader, I need to understand how I impact learning societies through the evolution of my practice, which ultimately enables my ability to lean into my leadership essence or presence when it comes to creating space for others, is a fundamental piece of learning stemming from the chosen reflective literature and participative structure of the course.

 

References

Athabasca University. (2023a). Unit 2: Designing the Just Business Organization. Study Guide. MAIS 644 Adult Education, Community Leadership, and the Crisis of Democracy.

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Athabasca University. (2023b). “No study without action, no action without study”: Watson Thomson in Saskatchewan. Unit 4: Adult Education Leadership for Social Reform: Three Case Studies. Study Guide. MAIS 644 Adult Education, Community Leadership, and the Crisis of Democracy.

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Athabasca University. (2023c). Navigating the Intricacies of Habermas. Unit 1: Basic Conceptual Building Blocks. Study Guide. MAIS 644 Adult Education, Community Leadership, and the Crisis of Democracy.

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Cooke, M. (1994). Communicative action: An overview (PDF). In Language and reason: A study in Habermas’s pragmatics (pp. 1–28). MIT Press.

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Gratton, L. (2022). Redesigning Work: How to Transform Your Organization & Make Hybrid Work for Everyone. Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

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Isaacs, W. (1999). Fields of conversation (PDF). In Dialogue and the art of thinking together (pp. 252–290). Currency Press.

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Habermas, J. (1989). Self-Reflection as Science. In S. Seidman (Ed.), Society and Politics: A Reader (pp. 55 – 76). Beacon Press. 

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Su, A., Wilkins, M. (2013). Own the Room: Discover Your Signature Voice to Master Your Leadership Presence. Harvard Business Review Press.

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Senge, P. (2006). The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of the Learning Organization. (Rev. ed.). Doubleday.

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Welton, M. R. (1986). Conflicting visions, divergent strategies: Watson Thomson and the Cold War politics of adult education in Saskatchewan, 1944–6 . Labour/Le travail, 18, 111–138.

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Welton, M. R. (2005). Ethics and empowerment in business organizations (PDF). In Designing the just learning society: A critical inquiry (pp. 127–149). National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (England and Wales).