The blog site is a requirement of a non-thesis research class (CSM582) at the University of Alabama. One of the most crucial challenges for a 21st Century Navy is developing appropriate maritime strategy that fosters leadership through resource optimization. This blog will discuss how technology effects leadership in the Navy. Postings will begin September 21, 2009 and run for one month.
Saturday, September 19, 2009
How Technology Affects Leadership in the Navy
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An interesting idea for a blog. I have certainly experienced many of the effects of technology on leadership. For instance, it's often easier to send an email telling someone to do something rather than walking by, yet it's very difficult to manage tone in an email, let alone get the full story about an issue. In this case, technology seems to distance leader and follower. It's worse when rebukes are handed out via email, rather than face to face.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, email provides a record of correspondence. Rather than saying, "I've told Petty Officer X this 20 times," one can print out emails, which provides a record of telling Petty Officer X.
The key, I think, is to realize that technology provides tools that are only useful if used wisely. Wisdom, then, dictates that the ease with which technology can overtake one's leadership style should foster suspicion, and leaders should conduct frequent self-evaluations to determine if technology has morphed from a tool to a crutch, or worse, to a wall between oneself and one's subordinates.
How technology affects leadership in the Navy is dependent on where you draw the line between leadership and management. Management is not leadership and vice versa. We lead people and manage resources. Advances in technology are often created to aid us in our ability to manage our resources. There are tools to tell me how many hours people worked and how long a project took and from that I can determine the effectiveness of my subordinates and in a dangerous way view that as a reflection of my leadership. Effectively managing people is not the same as effectively leading them. The end result of a finished product might be the goal on both sides if the idea of leadership and managment are considered the same. However, I feel that managment cares more about what the benefit of the end result is for the organization. Leadership should care more about how each individual member benefited from the task regardless of the outcome. I feel that if each subordinate is focused on for success then the end result of the project will be a success no mater the outcome. If you focus on the end result and drive your subordinates to a desired goal then you are managing a project, not leading a group.
ReplyDeleteBased on this I feel that advances in technology force leaders to "manage projects" more and lead less. The deployment of self-paced training systems also removes another key component: mentorship. I'm sure there will be time for me to elaborate on that later.