Leadership Communication Case Assignment

As with all of the assignments for this class, first make sure to thoroughly review the required background materials. Make sure you fully understand the concepts of the Johari Window as well as Transactional Analysis. You need to have a solid understanding of these important concepts in order to successfully complete this assignment.

We will once again be applying the concepts from this module to your own experiences as a way of finding potential ways to develop your leadership skills. For this assignment, choose a current or former supervisor or subordinate and think carefully about how the concepts from the Johari Window and Transactional Analysis applies to this current or previous supervisor/subordinate relationship. Think carefully about the flow of information and communication between the two of you, and also times when either of you behaved as "adults," "parents," or "children" in your dealings with each other. Don't worry, this assignment will be purely between you and your instructor so feel free to be as honest and self-reflective as you can.

More specifically, write a 4- to 5-page paper answering the following questions below. Make sure to cite at least one of the required readings in each answer, and to cite at least three sources total from the background readings in your paper:

1. Using a Johari Window analysis, what do you think some of your supervisor's or subordinate's blind spots are? What do you think some of your potential blind spots might be?

2. Also using a Johari Window analysis, what kind of hidden spots did you keep between you and your supervisor or subordinate? Did you suspect your supervisor or subordinate of having hidden spots?

3. Based on your answers to Questions 1 and 2 above as well as the required readings, how might Johari Window analysis be used to improve this supervisor/subordinate relationship that you wrote about in the above two answers?

4. Using Transactional Analysis, give some specific examples of when you and your supervisor or subordinate acted like "parents," "children," or "adults." And be honest-we all act like "children" sometimes in the workplace.

5. Based on your answer to Question 4 and the required readings, how do you think this supervisor/subordinate relationship might have been improved using Transactional Analysis?

Assignment Expectations

• Follow the assignment instructions closely and follow all steps listed in the instructions
• Stay focused on the precise assignment questions, don't go off on tangents or devote a lot of space to summarizing general background materials
• List supporting references and cite sources in proper format
• Use appropriate writing style in essay form (organization, grammar, and spelling).
• Include both a bibliography and in-text citations. See the Student Guide to Writing a High-Quality Academic Paper, including pages 13-14 on in-text citations

For this assignment you will be applying the concepts of the Johari Window and Transactional Analysis to some specific scenarios that you might face if you were a leadership development coach. Of course make sure to thoroughly review the required readings before starting on this assignment.

For each of the scenarios below, use at least one reference from the required readings to answer the specific question. Your paper should be two to three pages in length:

1. An employee shows up late for work. The supervisor says "I'm really disappointed in you. This is the fifth time this month you've been late for work!" The employee responds "I'm tired of you singling me out! Bob, Carol, and Ted are also late for work sometimes but you never chew them out!" Based on Transactional Analysis, what roles are the supervisor and employee playing?

2. An employee receives a performance review from the supervisor. The supervisor points out several areas where the employee has performed well and where the employee's performance needs to be improved. The employee responds, "Thank you so much for the feedback. How would you suggest I go about improving my performance?" Based on Transactional Analysis, what roles are the supervisor and employee playing?

3. A leadership development coach is brought into a company to try to improve communication between supervisors and subordinates. The coach asks everyone to write down areas where their supervisor or subordinate has a blind spot. Everyone writes down a lot of complaints about areas that they think their supervisor or subordinate is clueless about. The coach shares what everyone wrote with the whole group. A lot of finger-pointing and arguments ensue, with a lot of feelings hurt. What additional steps do you think the coach should have taken based on the Johari Window that might have improved the outcome?