Leadership Communication as Citizenship

John O. Burtis (Ph.D., University of Minnesota) is a Professor in the Communication Studies Department at the University of Northern Iowa. He has taught courses in leadership, management, group communication, argumentation, persuasion, and communication theory at the undergraduate and graduate levels. He has been a consultant, trainer, and speaker on related subjects in both the private and public sectors. He has been the director of the Concordia Leadership Center and of the West Central Minnesota Leadership Program and the head of the Communication Studies department at the University of Northern Iowa. He has been the Director of Forensics at Kansas State University and Concordia College, where students in the programs won numerous individual and team championships in speech or debate including more than twenty national championships. Paul D. Turman (PhD, University of Nebraska) is the Vice President for Research & Economic Development for the South Dakota Board of Regents. His scholarly research focuses on the role of communication in the coach-athlete and parent-child relationship within a sport context. Prior to his time with the Board of Regents, he taught courses in communication and sport at the University of Northern Iowa. His scholarly work has been published in journals such as Communication Education, the Journal of Applied Communication Research, the Journal of Family Communication, and Communication Studies.

UNIT I: UNDERSTAND YOUR POWER AS A DIRECTION-GIVER 1. So, You Want Other People to Work Well Together? Groups Can Create a Community, Calm a Complex Organization, or Move Millions Grouping, Group Direction, and Direction-Giving Are Human Responses to Exigencies Direction-Giving Types Include the Work of a Doer, Follower, Guide, Manager, and Leader Everyone Has the Obligation to Help His or Her Group to Thrive: The Social Contract of Citizenship 2. Distinguish Between Three Direction-Giving Options: Doing, Following, and Guiding Specific Exigencies, Credentials, and Competencies Frame Each Type of Direction-Giver Giving Direction as a Doer Requires Competence Credentialing as a Doer Requires You to Accomplish Something Competently Communicating Competently Blends Your Act as a Doer Into the Group's Needs Giving Direction as a Follower Requires Affiliative Receptivity A Direction-Giver's Initiative Creates an Exigency for a Follower Credentialing as a Follower Requires Showing You Offer an Able and Desirable Affiliation Communicating Competently Blends Your Followership With a Direction-Giver's Efforts Giving Direction as a Guide Requires Credibility Every Group Needs Direction at Many Points in Time, Creating the Guideship Exigency Credentialing as a Guide Requires You to Create and Impression of Credibility Communicating Competently, Your Guideship Ought to Take Care With a Group's Attentions In Conclusion 3. Understand That Other Direction-Giving Options May Be Needed: Managing or Leading Well There Are Many Names for Leadership: Definitions Too Giving Direction as a Manager Requires the Ability to Marshal Resources The Odious, the Complex, and the Everlasting Provide Exigencies for a Manager Credentialing as a Manager Is Based in the Stories You and Others Tell of Your Experience Doing and Interpreting Your Management Work for the Group Requires a Variety of Skills Giving Direction as a Leader Requires Articulating a Group-Transformative Vision A System-Threatening Crisis or Opportunity Provides the Exigency for Leadership Credentialing to Be Seen by Others as a Leader Requires You to Articulate a Salient Vision Your Effective Leadership Is Not Necessarily Tied to Specific Communication Skills Beware Easy Misconceptions About These Five Types of Direction-Givers In Conclusion UNIT II: DEVELOP YOUR OWN STRATEGIES FOR GIVING DIRECTION WELL 4. Use Leadership Theory and Research to Prepare Yourself to Give Direction The Traits Perspective Focuses on Who You Are to Explain your Effectiveness Developing Emotional Intelligence and Resilience May Matter More Than Your IQ Self-Monitoring and Rhetorical Sensitivity Orient You to the Resources Around You Situational, Styles, and Contingency Perspectives Focus on Behavioral Choices You Make Great Leaders During Times of Crisis and Hemphill's Work Show That Situation Matters The Styles Perspective Says Pick the Right Way to Treat Those With Whom You Group The Contingency Perspective Says You Need to Adjust to Recurring "What Ifs" of Grouping The Functional Perspective Focuses on What You Can Do for Your Group Benne and Sheats Say Every Group Must Serve Task, Relational, and Individual Functions Blake and Mouton's Managerial Grid Says You Need to Balance Those Functions Your Grouping Choices Also Need to Earn You at Least Once Process Prize From Grouping Explicit and Implicit Theories of Effective Grouping and Direction-Giving Are in Play In Conclusion 5. Develop a Framework and Position Yourself for Giving Direction A Direction-Giving Framework Should Have a Philosophy, Exemplar Model, and Guidelines Taylor's Scientific Management Is One Framework for Giving Direction Well Mayo's Hawthorne Effect Shows the Need for a Different Framework Develop Your Own Effectiveness Framework for Each Type of Direction-Giving You Provide Your Philosophy Should Put Your Values Into Your Framework and Then Into Action Your Exemplars Provide Aspirational Stories and a Sense of What "the Best" Can Be Your Guidelines Animate Your Philosophy and Exemplars in Your Own Direction-Giving Position Yourself as a Key Direction-Giver in the Story of Your Group A Process of Residues Helps Us Decide on Whom We Will Focus Our Attention Take Stock of the Credentials You Have and What Can You Do to Help Your Group Thrive Recurring Types of Situations Can Help Put Context to Your Direction-Giving Preparations Some Advice That May Be Useful as You Position Yourself In Conclusion UNIT III: DEVELOP YOUR COMMUNICATION SKILLS TO ENHANCE YOUR DIRECTION-GIVING 6. Figure Out How to Communicate Effectively Communication Is a Tool Used to Transfer Information and a Process for Making Meaning Accurate Transfer of Information Requires Fidelity Making Meaning Involves Finding the Utility Involved People Communicate for Purposes of Inquiry, to Influence Others, and to Build Relationships Inquiry Is the Imperative to Make Sense of What is Happening to You Influence Is the Imperative to Get Others to See Things Your Way or to Do What You Want Relationship Is the Imperative to Have Social Contact and to Get Along With Others Attaining a Symbolic Convergence of Terms, Meanings, and Stories Requires Effort and Skill Create Messages That Gain Attention, Enhance Understanding, and Encourage Identification Receive Messages Reflectively, Oriented Toward Understanding Ideas and Finding Utility In Conclusion 7. Shape Effective Experiences and Expectations for Citizenship in Your Group Help Shape Stories of Effective Group Experiences for Your Group A Human Experience Is a Constructed Understanding of What Is Meaningful Stories of Past, Present, and Future Experiences Are How You Give Direction to Your Group Constitutive Rhetoric Is How You Co-Construct a Sense of Your Group and of "The Others" Help Shape Stories of Experience That Create an Expectation of Citizenship in Your Group Citizenship Experience Stories Stimulate Participation, Criticism, and Reasoned Conformity How Groups Perpetuate Themselves Shapes the Experience of Citizen-Members Play Your Part as a Citizen of Your Group In Conclusion UNIT IV: USE STORIES TO UNITE YOUR GROUP'S EFFORTS 8. Help Shape the Story of Your Organization, Team, or Community You Can Use Stories to Unite Your Group and to Give It Direction Find Coherence in Co-Constructed Stories of Your Group's Experience Narrative Provides a Potent Tool for Shaping Effective Group Experiences Seek and Shape Stories That Show or Start Something Special in Your Group Making Accounts, Sensemaking, and Defining Stories Are Foundations of Narrative Characterization, Ideographs, and Rhetorical Depiction Are Potent Forms of Narrative The Master Narrative Is the Overarching Story of Your Group's Experience Create Coherence in Memorable Messages, Critical Incidents, Teaching Tales, and Nuggets Figure Out What Others Will Hear in the Experience Stories You Tell and Help Shape In Conclusion 9. Develop the Framing Skills Needed by Every Direction-Giver Framing Is Basic to All Communication: Your Frames Shape Your Direction-Giving Accounts Frames, Like Definitions, Are How We Attach Meaning to Things Frames Show Motives, Shape Experience, and Provide Authoritative Weight in the Group Develop the Framing Skills You Need to Use to Be Effective as a Direction-Giver Naming, Framing, and Blaming Are Basic Aspects of the Process for Making Meanings Frame Your Group's Purgatory Puddle, Way/Process, Vision/Outcome, and Savior Complex Claiming and Taming Are Elaborated Constructions of What Is Meaningful In Conclusion 10. Leadership Vision Can Be a Crisis-Based Direction-Giving Story Do You Need Vision as a Planning Tool or Do You Need a Vision that Transforms Your Group? Are You Prepared to Give Direction During a Crisis? Vision/Outcome Represents All Your Group Products and Purposes Conceptions of Vision Range From Low- to High-Intensity Forms of Direction-Giving Action What Is the Relationship Between a Vision and a Direction-Giver? Crisis Is Different Than the Typical Pitfalls and Problems You Face in Every Group Rhetorical Resources (and Your Responses Should) Vary Across the Circumstances of Crisis You Can Prepare for Crisis That Resemble Fires Needing to Be Put Out You Should Understand Direction-Giving Communications During Transformative Crisis Do Not Misuse Crisis: From Mistakes to Faux Crisis, False Pretenses, and Manipulations In Conclusion