I have held the position of president for a student organization for the past six months. During that time, I've slowly but surely developed a reputation for being a demanding leader. The organization have always ran a surplus and large amounts of funds are leftover each year. Although this is a good thing, it also means officers are nearly as proactive and concerned when it comes to issue of funding from sources such as SORF and sponsorship. This has landed me in trouble quite a few times with the SORF board in particular due to late forms which has resulted in missed funding opportunities. This is also largely a consequence of me being friends with a few of the officers. During the start of me taking over the organization, I let a lot of their poor performances slide. However, it quickly became apparent that the organization would be run to the ground should the situation continue. To remedy this, I started cracking down on deadlines and threatening removal from the organization should an officer miss a deadline.
To build upon this reputation, I've demanded mandatory meetings with the officers. During meetings, individuals who have not been meeting deadlines or have been performing poorly (bad poster designs, forgetting to send emails) are called out on the spot. While this method is likely not the best approach in the long run as it will lead to tension, my goal is to keep a surplus to hand down to my successor as has been the case for the past decade or so in this organization's history. I'd say, in the short run, this approach has definitely worked. Deadlines these days are submitted early, our SORF funding form for the coming month was submitted three days before the deadline and emails are sent out on time. I haven't adopted this approach for a long period of time (roughly three months) so I've yet to deviate from the reputation I'm building and I don't see myself doing so in the near future.
It would be really good for you to take your story and juxtapose it with Argyris and Schon's Models 1 and 2 from Chapter 8 in Bolman and Deal. From the way you wrote this, you have the distinct possibility of being perceived as a Model 1 leader. It might produce some near term gains, but it could create fracture within the RSO after that.
ReplyDeleteSo, as an outsider reading this, I would ask whether you know why some of the other officers have been slacking. I wonder if you've had any open discussions about that.
What's done is done, but there can be unanticipated consequences from actions and in some cases if you better understand the circumstances you might actually find that you could have anticipated them. The way you told the story, I wouldn't be surprised that your RSO has a tough time filling the various positions next year. After all, even if the slackers don't explain themselves to you, they might very well talk about the situation with others in the RSO, and possibly do so in a less favorable light than you are representing here.
It is of course a judgment call as to what the priorities for the RSO should be. But as we are talking about reputations here, let us note that reputation of the RSO as a whole is itself an asset, even if it is less tangible than than cash on hand. It's probably not possible to do this here, but if you could monetize the reputation asset, a good measure of your won performance would be the combination in value of the tangible and non-tangible assets of the organization. It is something to consider as you continue in your role as president.
I have not discussed the issue with officers, but I believe their slacking is due to the fact that they know me personally and as such I don't command as much authority as I would have if I were a stranger to them. Secondly, the organization is very comfortable in terms of saved funds which creates very little pressure on them to secure funding. The organization has a large enough membership so that we don't have to worry about filling positions for officers, but reputation of the organization as a whole has definitely taken a hit as members have complained about missed emails or too short a notice. Whatever the case is, I still maintain that my job is simply to not hand my successor an organization that is in the red and to make sure officers do their jobs this year.
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