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APRIL 2, 2020 ARTICLE FOR TODAY'S ASSIGNMENT

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APRIL 2, 2020 ARTICLE FOR TODAY'S ASSIGNMENT

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Executive Summary

The popular media is full of examples of bad leaders in government, academia, and business. But the most common kind of incompetent leader isn't the ranting, narcissistic sociopath that might immediately come to mind. Rather, it's the "absentee leader" - those in leadership roles who are psychologically absent from them. These people were promoted into management, and enjoy the privileges and rewards of a leadership role, but avoid meaningful involvement with their teams. Absentee leaders kill engagement and productivity. Research shows that being ignored by one's boss is more alienating than being treated poorly, and that the impact of absentee leadership on job satisfaction outlasts the impact of both constructive and more overtly destructive forms of leadership. The chances are good, however, that your organization is unaware of its absentee leaders, because they specialize in flying under the radar by not doing anything that attracts attention. Nonetheless, the adhesiveness of their negative impact may be slowly and silently killing your organization.

Jakub Domerecki/EyeEm/Getty Images

A young friend recently remarked that the worst boss he ever had would provide him with feedback that always consisted of "You're doing a great job." But they both knew it wasn't true - the organization was in disarray, turnover was excessive, and customers were not happy. My friend was giving it his all, but he needed more support and better feedback than he received. He wanted a leader who would be around when he needed them, and who would give him substantive advice, not platitudes. As a measure of his frustration, he said, "I would rather have had a boss who yelled at me or made unrealistic demands than this one, who provided empty praise."

Researchers have studied managerial derailment - or the dark side of leadership - for many years. The key derailment characteristics of bad managers are well documented and fall into three broad behavioral categories: (1) "moving away behaviors," which create distance from others through hyper-emotionality, diminished communication, and skepticism that erodes trust; (2) "moving against behaviors," which overpower and manipulate people while aggrandizing the self; and (3) "moving toward behaviors," which include being ingratiating, overly conforming, and reluctant to take chances or stand up for one's team. The popular media is full of examples of bad leaders in government, academia, and business with these characteristics. However, my friend was describing something arguably worse than an incompetent boss. His manager was not overtly misbehaving, nor was he a ranting, narcissistic sociopath. Rather, his boss was a leader in title only - his role was leadership, but he provided none. My friend was experiencing absentee leadership, and unfortunately, he is not alone. Absentee leadership rarely comes up in today's leadership or business literature, but research shows that it is the most common form of incompetent leadership.

Absentee leaders are people in leadership roles who are psychologically absent from them. They were promoted into management, and enjoy the privileges and rewards of a leadership role, but avoid meaningful involvement with their teams. Absentee leadership resembles the concept of rent-seeking in economics - taking value out of an organization without putting value in. As such, they represent a special case of laissez-faire leadership, but one that is distinguished by its destructiveness.

You and Your Team Series

Emotional Intelligence

Having a boss who lets you do as you please may sound ideal, especially if you are being bullied and micromanaged by your current boss. However, a 2015 survey of 1,000 working adults showed that eight of the top nine complaints about leaders concerned behaviors that were absent; employees were most concerned about what their bosses didn't do. Clearly, from the employee's perspective, absentee leadership is a significant problem, and it is even more troublesome than other, more overt forms of bad leadership.

Research shows that being ignored by one's boss is more alienating than being treated poorly. The impact of absentee leadership on job satisfaction outlasts the impact of both constructive and overtly destructive forms of leadership. Constructive leadership immediately improves job satisfaction, but the effects dwindle quickly. Destructive leadership immediately degrades job satisfaction, but the effects dissipate after about six months. In contrast, the impact of absentee leadership takes longer to appear, but it degrades subordinates' job satisfaction for at least two years. It also is related to a number of other negative outcomes for employees, like role ambiguity, health complaints, and increased bullying from team members. Absentee leadership creates employee stress, which can lead to poor employee health outcomes and talent drain, which then impact an organization's bottom line.

If absentee leadership is so destructive, why don't we read more about it in the business literature? Consider a story I recently heard about the dean of a well-known law school: Two senior, well-regarded faculty members called the provost to complain about their dean because, they said, he wouldn't do anything. The provost responded by saying that he had a dean who was a drunk, a dean who was accused of sexual harassment, and a dean who was accused of misusing funds, but the law school dean never caused him any problems. So, the provost said, the faculty members would just have to deal with their dean.

Like the provost in this example, many organizations don't confront absentee leaders because they have other managers whose behavior is more overtly destructive. Because absentee leaders don't actively make trouble, their negative impact on organizations can be difficult to detect, and when it is detected, it often is considered a low-priority problem. Thus, absentee leaders are often silent organization killers. Left unchecked, absentee leaders clog an organization's succession arteries, blocking potentially more effective people from moving into important roles while adding little to productivity. Absentee leaders rarely engage in unforgivable bouts of bad behavior, and are rarely the subject of ethics investigations resulting from employee hotline calls. As a result, their negative effect on organizations accumulates over time, largely unchecked.

If your organization is one of the relatively few with effective selection and promotion methods in place, then it may be able to identify effective and destructive leaders. Even if your organization isn't great at talent identification, both types of leaders are easy to spot once they are on the job. They also produce predictable organizational outcomes: Constructive leadership creates high engagement and productivity, while destructive leadership kills engagement and productivity. The chances are good, however, that your organization is unaware of its absentee leaders, because they specialize in flying under the radar by not doing anything that attracts attention. Nonetheless, the adhesiveness of their negative impact may be slowly harming the company.

The war for leadership talent is real, and organizations with the best leaders will win. Reviewing your organization's management positions for absentee leaders and doing something about them can improve your talent management arsenal. It's likely that your competitors are overlooking this issue or choosing not to do anything about it, like the university provost. Doing nothing about absentee leaders is easy. Just ask any absentee leader.

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The Most Common Type of Incompetent Leader

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Executive Summary The popular media is full of examples of bad leaders in government, academia, and business. But the most common kind of incompetent leader isn't the ranting, narcissistic sociopath that might immediately come to mind. Rather, it's the "absentee leader" - those in leadership roles who are psychologically absent from them.

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Well-planned online learning experiences are meaningfully different from courses offered online in response to a crisis or disaster. Colleges and universities working to maintain instruction during the COVID-19 pandemic should understand those differences when evaluating this emergency remote teaching.

Credit: frankie's / Shutterstock.com © 2020

Due to the threat of COVID-19, colleges and universities are facing decisions about how to continue teaching and learning while keeping their faculty, staff, and students safe from a public health emergency that is moving fast and not well understood. Many institutions have opted to cancel all face-to-face classes, including labs and other learning experiences, and have mandated that faculty move their courses online to help prevent the spread of the virus that causes COVID-19. The list of institutions of higher education making this decision has been growing each day. Institutions of all sizes and types-state colleges and universities, Ivy League institutions, community colleges, and others-are moving their classes online. Bryan Alexander has curated the status of hundreds of institutions.

Moving instruction online can enable the flexibility of teaching and learning anywhere, anytime, but the speed with which this move to online instruction is expected to happen is unprecedented and staggering. Although campus support personnel and teams are usually available to help faculty members learn about and implement online learning, these teams typically support a small pool of faculty interested in teaching online. In the present situation, these individuals and teams will not be able to offer the same level of support to all faculty in such a narrow preparation window. Faculty might feel like instructional MacGyvers, having to improvise quick solutions in less-than-ideal circumstances. No matter how clever a solution might be-and some very clever solutions are emerging-many instructors will understandably find this process stressful.

The temptation to compare online learning to face-to-face instruction in these circumstances will be great. In fact, an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education has already called for a "grand experiment" doing exactly that. This is a highly problematic suggestion, however. First and foremost, the politics of any such debate must be acknowledged. "Online learning" will become a politicized term that can take on any number of meanings depending on the argument someone wants to advance. In talking about lessons learned when institutions moved classes online during a shutdown in South Africa, Laura Czerniewicz starts with this very lesson and what happened around the construct of "blended learning" at the time. The idea of blended learning was drawn into political agendas without paying sufficient attention to the fact that institutions would make different decisions and invest differently, resulting in widely varying solutions and results from one institution to another. With some of that hindsight as wisdom, we seek to advance some careful distinctions that we hope can inform the evaluations and reflections that will surely result from this mass move by colleges and universities.

Online learning carries a stigma of being lower quality than face-to-face learning, despite research showing otherwise. These hurried moves online by so many institutions at once could seal the perception of online learning as a weak option, when in truth nobody making the transition to online teaching under these circumstances will truly be designing to take full advantage of the affordances and possibilities of the online format.

Researchers in educational technology, specifically in the subdiscipline of online and distance learning, have carefully defined terms over the years to distinguish between the highly variable design solutions that have been developed and implemented: distance learning, distributed learning, blended learning, online learning, mobile learning, and others. Yet an understanding of the important differences has mostly not diffused beyond the insular world of educational technology and instructional design researchers and professionals. Here, we want to offer an important discussion around the terminology and formally propose a specific term for the type of instruction being delivered in these pressing circumstances: emergency remote teaching.

Many active members of the academic community, including some of us, have been hotly debating the terminology in social media, and "emergency remote teaching" has emerged as a common alternative term used by online education researchers and professional practitioners to draw a clear contrast with what many of us know as high-quality online education. Some readers may take issue with the use of the term "teaching" over choices such as "learning" or "instruction." Rather than debating all of the details of those concepts, we selected "teaching" because of its simple definitions-"the act, practice, or profession of a teacher" and "the concerted sharing of knowledge and experience,"-along with the fact that the first tasks undertaken during emergency changes in delivery mode are those of a teacher/instructor/professor.

Effective Online Education

Online education, including online teaching and learning, has been studied for decades. Numerous research studies, theories, models, standards, and evaluation criteria focus on quality online learning, online teaching, and online course design. What we know from research is that effective online learning results from careful instructional design and planning, using a systematic model for design and development. The design process and the careful consideration of different design decisions have an impact on the quality of the instruction. And it is this careful design process that will be absent in most cases in these emergency shifts.

One of the most comprehensive summaries of research on online learning comes from the book Learning Online: What Research Tells Us about Whether, When and How. The authors identify nine dimensions, each of which has numerous options, highlighting the complexity of the design and decision-making process. The nine dimensions are modality, pacing, student-instructor ratio, pedagogy, instructor role online, student role online, online communication synchrony, role of online assessments, and source of feedback (see "Online learning design options").

Online learning design options (moderating variables)

Within each of these dimensions, there are options. Complicating matters, not all of the options are equally effective. For example, decisions around class size will greatly constrain what strategies you can use. Practice and feedback, for example, are well established in the literature, but it's harder to implement this as class size grows, eventually reaching a point where it's just not possible for an instructor to provide quality feedback. In the case of synchrony, what you choose will really depend on your learners' characteristics and what best meets their needs (adult learners require more flexibility, so asynchronous is usually best, perhaps with optional synchronous sessions, whereas younger learners benefit from the structure of required synchronous sessions).

Research on types of interaction-which includes student-content, student-student, and student-learner-is one of the more robust bodies of research in online learning. In short, it shows that the presence of each of these types of interaction, when meaningfully integrated, increases the learning outcomes. Thus, careful planning for online learning includes not just identifying the content to cover but also carefully tending to how you're going to support different types of interactions that are important to the learning process. This approach recognizes learning as both a social and a cognitive process, not merely a matter of information transmission.

Those who have built online programs over the years will attest that effective online learning aims to be a learning community and supports learners not just instructionally but with co-curricular engagement and other social supports. Consider how much infrastructure exists around face-to-face education that supports student success: library resources, housing, career services, health services, and so on. Face-to-face education isn't successful because lecturing is good. Lectures are one instructional aspect of an overall ecosystem specifically designed to support learners with formal, informal, and social resources. Ultimately, effective online education requires an investment in an ecosystem of learner supports, which take time to identify and build. Relative to other options, simple online content delivery can be quick and inexpensive, but confusing that with robust online education is akin to confusing lectures with the totality of residential education.

Typical planning, preparation, and development time for a fully online university course is six to nine months before the course is delivered. Faculty are usually more comfortable teaching online by the second or third iteration of their online courses. It will be impossible for every faculty member to suddenly become an expert in online teaching and learning in this current situation, in which lead times range from a single day to a few weeks. While there are resources to which faculty can turn for assistance, the scale of change currently being required on many campuses will stress the systems that provide those resources and most likely will surpass their capacities. Let's face it: many of the online learning experiences that instructors will be able to offer their students will not be fully featured or necessarily well planned, and there's a high probability for suboptimal implementation. We need to recognize that everyone will be doing the best they can, trying to take just the essentials with them as they make a mad dash during the emergency. Thus, the distinction is important between the normal, everyday type of effective online instruction and that which we are doing in a hurry with bare minimum resources and scant time: emergency remote teaching.

Emergency Remote Teaching

In contrast to experiences that are planned from the beginning and designed to be online, emergency remote teaching (ERT) is a temporary shift of instructional delivery to an alternate delivery mode due to crisis circumstances. It involves the use of fully remote teaching solutions for instruction or education that would otherwise be delivered face-to-face or as blended or hybrid courses and that will return to that format once the crisis or emergency has abated. The primary objective in these circumstances is not to re-create a robust educational ecosystem but rather to provide temporary access to instruction and instructional supports in a manner that is quick to set up and is reliably available during an emergency or crisis. When we understand ERT in this manner, we can start to divorce it from "online learning." There are many examples of other countries responding to school and university closures in a time of crisis by implementing models such as mobile learning, radio, blended learning, or other solutions that are contextually more feasible. For example, in a study on education's role in fragility and emergency situations, the Inter-Agency Network for Education in Emergencies examined four case studies. One of those cases was Afghanistan, where education was disrupted by conflict and violence and schools themselves were targets, sometimes because girls were trying to access education. In order to take children off the streets and keep them safe, radio education and DVDs were used to maintain and expand educational access and also were aimed at promoting education for girls.

What becomes apparent as we examine examples of educational planning in crises is that these situations require creative problem solving. We have to be able to think outside standard boxes to generate various possible solutions that help meet the new needs for our learners and communities. In some cases, it might even help us generate some new solutions to intractable problems, such as the dangers girls faced trying to access education in Afghanistan. Thus, it may be tempting to think about ERT as a bare-bones approach to standard instruction. In reality, it is a way of thinking about delivery modes, methods, and media, specifically as they map to rapidly changing needs and limitations in resources, such as faculty support and training.

In the present situation, the campus support teams that are usually available to help faculty members learn about and implement online learning will not be able to offer the same level of support to all faculty who need it. Faculty support teams play a critical role in the learning experiences of students by helping faculty members develop face-to-face or online learning experiences. Current support models might include full-course design support, professional development opportunities, content development, learning management system training and support, and multimedia creation in partnership with faculty experts. Faculty who seek support typically have varying levels of digital fluency and are often accustomed to one-on-one support when experimenting with online tools. The shift to ERT requires that faculty take more control of the course design, development, and implementation process. With the expectation of rapid development of online teaching and learning events and the large number of faculty in need of support, faculty development and support teams must find ways to meet the institutional need to provide instructional continuity while helping faculty develop skills to work and teach in an online environment. As such, institutions must rethink the way instructional support units do their work, at least during a crisis.

The rapid approach necessary for ERT may diminish the quality of the courses delivered. A full-course development project can take months when done properly. The need to "just get it online" is in direct contradiction to the time and effort normally dedicated to developing a quality course. Online courses created in this way should not be mistaken for long-term solutions but accepted as a temporary solution to an immediate problem. Especially concerning is the degree to which the accessibility of learning materials might not be addressed during ERT. This is but one reason that universal design for learning (UDL) should be part of all discussions around teaching and learning. UDL principles focus on the design of learning environments that are flexible, inclusive, and student-centered to ensure that all students can access and learn from the course materials, activities, and assignments.

Evaluating Emergency Remote Teaching

Institutions will certainly want to conduct evaluations of their ERT efforts, but what should they evaluate? First, let's consider what not to evaluate. A common misconception is that comparing a face-to-face course with an online version of the course constitutes a useful evaluation. This type of assessment, known as a media comparison study, provides no real value, for at least three reasons:

First, any medium is simply a way to deliver information, and one medium is not inherently better or worse than any other medium. Second, we need to better understand different media and the way people learn with different media to design effective studies. And, third, there are too many confounding variables in even the best media comparison study for the results to be valid and meaningful.

Researchers who conduct media comparison studies are looking at "the whole unique medium and [giving] little thought to each one's attributes and characteristics, to learner needs, or to psychological learning theories."

Other approaches to evaluation can be useful in this move to ERT. The success of distance and online learning experiences can be measured in a variety of ways, depending on how "success" is defined from a given stakeholder's perspective. From the faculty point of view, student learning outcomes would be of primary interest. Did learners achieve the intended knowledge, skills, and/or attitudes that were the focus of the instructional experience? Attitudinal outcomes are also possibly of interest, for students and for faculty. For students, issues such as interest, motivation, and engagement are directly connected to learner success and so would be possible evaluation foci. For faculty, attitudes toward online instruction and all that it entails can affect the perception of success.

Programmatic outcomes such as course and program completion rates, market reach, faculty time investments, impacts on promotion and tenure processes-all of these are relevant issues related to the offering of distance courses and programs. Finally, implementation resources and strategies are possible areas of evaluation inquiry, such as the reliability of selected technological delivery systems, the provision of and access to learner support systems, support for faculty professional development for online teaching pedagogies and tools, policy and governance issues related to distance program development, and quality assurance. All of these factors can influence the effectiveness of distance and online learning experiences and can serve to inform learning experience design and program development and implementation. These recommended areas of evaluation are for well-planned distance or online learning efforts and may not be appropriate in the case of ERT. Evaluating ERT will require broader questions, especially during initial implementations.

Next, let us recommend where you should focus your evaluation related to ERT efforts. The language of the CIPP model will be used for structure. CIPP is an acronym representing context, inputs, process, and products (see table 1).

Table 1. CIPP evaluation terms

"Assess needs, problems, assets, and opportunities, as well as relevant contextual conditions and dynamics"

"Assess a program's strategy, action plan, staffing arrangements, and budget for feasibility and potential cost-effectiveness to meet targeted needs and achieve goals."

"Monitor, document, assess, and report on the implementation of plans."

"Identify and assess costs and outcomes-intended and unintended, short term and long term."

In the case of ERT, institutions might want to consider evaluation questions such as the following:

Given the need to shift to remote instruction, what internal and external resources were necessary in supporting this transition? What aspects of the context (institutional, social, governmental) affected the feasibility and effectiveness of the transition? (context)

How did the university interactions with students, families, personnel, and local and government stakeholders impact perceived responsiveness to the shift to ERT? (context)

Was the technology infrastructure sufficient to handle the needs of ERT? (input)

Did the campus support staff have sufficient capacity to handle the needs of ERT? (input)

Was our ongoing faculty professional development sufficient to enable ERT? How can we enhance opportunities for immediate and flexible learning demands related to alternative approaches to instruction and learning? (input)

Where did faculty, students, support personnel, and administrators struggle the most with ERT? How can we adapt our processes to respond to such operational challenges in the future? (process)

What were the programmatic outcomes of the ERT initiative (i.e., course completion rates, aggregated grade analyses, etc.)? How can challenges related to these outcomes be addressed in support of the students and faculty impacted by these issues? (product)

How can feedback from learners, faculty, and campus support teams inform ERT needs in the future? (product)

Evaluation of ERT should be more focused on the context, input, and process elements than product (learning). Note that we are not advocating for no evaluation of whether or not learning occurred, or to what extent it occurred, but simply stressing that the urgency of ERT and all that will take to make it happen in a short time frame will be the most critical elements to evaluate during this crisis. This is being recognized by some as a few institutions are beginning to announce changing to pass/fail options rather letter grades during ERT.

Also, given the continued evidence of problems surrounding student evaluations of instruction under typical higher education experiences, we recommend that the standard, end-of-semester teaching evaluations definitely not be counted against faculty members engaged in ERT. If an institution's policy mandates that those evaluations be administered, consider amending the policy, or make sure that the results are clearly qualified with the circumstances of the term or semester.

Final Thoughts

Everyone involved in this abrupt migration to online learning must realize that these crises and disasters also create disruptions to student, staff, and faculty lives, outside their association with the university. So all of this work must be done with the understanding that the move to ERT will likely not be the priority of all those involved. Instructors and administrators are urged to consider that students might not be able to attend to courses immediately. As a result, asynchronous activities might be more reasonable than synchronous ones. Flexibility with deadlines for assignments within courses, course policies, and institutional policies should be considered. For a high-level example, the US Department of Education has relaxed some requirements and policies in the face of COVID-19.

Hopefully the COVID-19 threat will soon be a memory. When it is, we should not simply return to our teaching and learning practices prior to the virus, forgetting about ERT. There likely will be future public health and safety concerns, and in recent years, campuses have been closed due to natural disasters such as wildfires, hurricanes, and the polar vortex. Thus, the possible need for ERT must become part of a faculty member's skill set, as well as professional development programming for any personnel involved in the instructional mission of colleges and universities.

The threat of COVID-19 has presented some unique challenges for institutions of higher education. All parties involved-students, faculty, and staff-are being asked to do extraordinary things regarding course delivery and learning that have not been seen on this scale in the lifetimes of anyone currently involved. Although this situation is stressful, when it is over, institutions will emerge with an opportunity to evaluate how well they were able to implement ERT to maintain continuity of instruction. It is important to avoid the temptation to equate ERT with online learning during those evaluations. With careful planning, officials at every campus can evaluate their efforts, allowing those involved to highlight strengths and identify weaknesses to be better prepared for future needs to implement ERT.

Notes

1. See, for example: "Information for Ohio State University Students, Faculty and Staff," The Ohio State University, Wexner Medical Center; "President Eisgruber Updates University on Next Steps Regarding COVID-19 to Ensure Health and Well-Being of the Entire Community," Princeton University; and Everett Community College. ↩

2. "Coronavirus and Higher Education Resources," Bryan Alexander blog, March 17, 2020. ↩

3. Laura Czerniewicz, "What We Learnt from 'Going Online' during University Shutdowns in South Africa," PhilOnEdTech, March 15, 2020. ↩

4. "Teaching," Merriam-Webster. ↩

5. Robert M. Branch and Tonia A. Dousay, "Survey of Instructional Design Models," Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT), 2015. ↩

6. Robert M. Bernard, Philip C. Abrami, Eugene Borokhovski, C. Anne Wade, Rana M. Tamim, Michael A. Surkes, and Edward Clement Bethel, "A Meta-Analysis of Three Types of Interaction Treatments in Distance Education," Review of Educational Research 79, no. 3 (2009): 1,243-89. ↩

7. Lynn Davies and Denise Bentrovato, International Institute for Educational Planning (2011). "Understanding Education's Role in Fragility; Synthesis of Four Situational Analyses of Education and Fragility: Afghanistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cambodia, Liberia,"↩

8. See "UDL On Campus," ↩

9. "Guidance for Interruptions of Study Related to Coronavirus (COVID-19)," Federal Student Aid, Information for Financial Aid Professionals (IFAP), March 20, 2020. ↩

10. Elin Johnson, "As Fires Rage, More Campuses Close," InsideHigherEd, October 29, 2019; Jenni Fink, "Florida Universities Cancelling Classes, Closing Campus Ahead of Potential Category 4 Hurricane Dorian," Newsweek, August 29, 2019; and Perry Samson, "The Coronavirus and Class Broadcasts," EDUCAUSE Review, March 3, 2020. ↩

Charles B. Hodges is a Professor of Instructional Technology at Georgia Southern University.

Stephanie Moore is an Assistant Professor of Instructional Design and Technology in the Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia.

Barbara B. Lockee is a Professor of Instructional Design and Technology, and Provost Faculty Fellow, at Virginia Tech.

Torrey Trust is an Associate Professor of Learning Technology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

M. Aaron Bond is Senior Director, Professional Development Network and Faculty Digital Fluency at Virginia Tech.

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the difference between emergency remote teaching and online learning

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The Difference Between Emergency Remote Teaching and Online Learning

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Well-planned online learning experiences are meaningfully different from courses offered online in response to a crisis or disaster. Colleges and universities working to maintain instruction during the COVID-19 pandemic should understand those differences when evaluating this emergency remote teaching.

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As the core stakeholders of the education system, we need your feedback more than ever. How shall we proceed following our syllabus regarding the online possibilities of our quarantine period after the Easter Holiday? Please think and discuss about it and leave your feedback down below.

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As the core stakeholders of the education system, we need your feedback more than ever. How shall we proceed following our syllabus regarding the online possibilities of our quarantine period after the Easter Holiday? Please think and discuss about it and leave your feedback down below.

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Key derailment characteristics of bad managers/leaders:

"moving away behavior"

creates distance from others through hyper emotionally diminished communication

skepticism - erodes trust

immediately degrades job satisfaction - dissipate after approximately 6 month

"moving against behavior"

overpower and manipulate people while aggrandizing them self

immediately degrades job satisfaction - dissipate after approximately 6 month

"moving towards behavior"

ingratiating

overly conforming

reluctant for chances

stand up for one´s team

immediately degrades job satisfaction - dissipate after approximately 6 month

Absentee Leader

most common form of incompetent leadership

enjoy the privileges and rewards of a leadership role, avoid meaningful involvements with their team

economical concept:

rent-seeking

special case of laizzez-faire leadership (destructive)

takes a long time to appear and degrades subordinate´s job satisfaction for at least 2 years

role ambiguity

health complaints

increased bullying from other team members

stress                           →negative impact on organization´s bottom line

Considered minor problems ?!

don´t actively make trouble

fly under the radar by not doing anything that attracts attention

negative impact is difficult to detect

dog an organization´s succession arteries

block potentially more effective people from moving into important roles

add little to productivity                  →Silent organization killer

their effect on organizations accumulates over time largely unchecked

rarely engaged in unforgivable bouts of bad behavior

rarely the subject of ethics investigations

"Being ignored by one´s boss is more alienating than being treated poorly !"

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There's nothing worse than a terrible boss. A person who seems to exist for the sole purpose of making your life miserable, the number one reason you dread Mondays, the only reason you experience anxiety on Sunday nights. A bad boss can be really harmful; in fact, the likelihood that you'll even stay in a job if you hate your manager is slim. And while crappy supervisors are the worst, right behind them are all the absentee managers of the workplace.

Do you know what I'm talking about? It's a manager who doesn't act like one, and not because he's too busy trying to be your BFF. This is someone who doesn't know how to lead, doesn't care to or simply can't or won't make time for it. Canceled meetings, unanswered emails, zero feedback-the offenses range from annoying to stunting.

Once upon a time, for a few brief months, I reported to such a person. Not only did it make feeling good about the work I was doing a real struggle, but it made it hard to see a future for myself at the company. If this person wasn't helping me learn, grow, understand my shortcomings and offer suggestions for improvement, and if she wasn't going to pay me any attention at all, how was I going to ever get recommended for a promotion, much less given more responsibilities?

Sure, I'll concede that it was nice not being micromanaged and neat not having someone be watchful of my comings and goings, but that was about the only plus. True, I never worried about getting constructive criticism or negative feedback, but it wasn't the kind of role that merited an absentee boss-though what roles really do, I wonder.

Fortunately, eager to be ever self-aware and turn anything into a learning experience that I can, my time without an active boss taught me a few things. If my boss didn't want to manage me, I'd have to manage her-the fancy, workplace term for this is called managing up, and if done well, it's super effective.

I grew comfortable following up on my follow-up emails, placing a handy and hard-to-miss URGENT (in all caps, yes!) in the subject time when I really needed a response. If I bumped into her in the kitchen or in the hallway on the way to the elevator, I had no qualms about brushing aside her apologies for being so busy and hurriedly stating my case for what I needed. My emails became detailed accounts of what I'd done, what I intended to do by a certain date and what she could do for me before then. I never stopped doing my job; in fact, I often had to make decisions on my own, but because I always made her aware of what was happening, I felt comfortable doing so.

Above all, I learned what kind of leader I aspire to be. It's important for me to be respectful of others' times, and so, on a basic level, that means keeping appointments and answering emails without having people "follow up" with me. I don't want to act like my time is more important or that anyone's questions are a waste of my time-my superiors or otherwise. I'd rather know that I helped a colleague than inadvertently, with my lack of availability or attentiveness, held him back in any way.

I also learned not to take a good boss for granted. This is an important lesson for you if you're questioning your career path, curiously examining the role you're in or the company you work for. If your relationship with your manager's a solid one, that's not something you should take lightly. Continue to foster it. Do what you can to impress him and make him look good to his manager. Take notes on his leadership style and what it is about it that you appreciate. When it's time for you to manage someone, you'll have someone to emulate.

On the flipside, if you despise your manager, examine exactly why that is. Is she really an awful leader and person, or are you just struggling to find a good way to work together productively? Is there anything you can do differently that might make her respond to you in a more favorable way? Do you get your work done in a timely manner and regularly go above and beyond what you're asked to do?

For example, if your boss is a micromanager, there may be a way to turn that around to work for your advantage. Or, if she only ever has negative feedback, demonstrate that you're listening, absorbing it and making attempts to respond to it. But, if you disagree with it completely, make a case for yourself. There's something about being heard when the absentee boss alternative is being ignored. See? Bright sides and silver linings.

Lastly, when you find yourself in a position to be a leader, take a close look at yourself and make absolutely certain that no one could ever accuse you of being absent-instead, aim to be the boss that your direct reports admire and aspire to be.
"What Having An Absentee Boss Taught Me About Being A Leader" was originally published on The Daily Muse. Stacey Gawronski is the Senior Editor/Writer of The Muse.

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What Having An Absentee Boss Taught Me About Being A Leader

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There's nothing worse than a terrible boss. A person who seems to exist for the sole purpose of making your life miserable, the number one reason you dread Mondays, the only reason you experience anxiety on Sunday nights.

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10:00 AM ET Mon, 7 April 2014

To view this site, you need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser, and either the Flash Plugin or an HTML5-Video enabled browser. Download the latest Flash player and try again.

What makes a good leader? Marcus Lemonis, of CNBC's "The Profit," uses Amazing Grapes as an example of absentee ownership and provides four essential qualities that he feels makes a great leader.

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The Profit: Four qualities that make a great leader

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10:00 AM ET Mon, 7 April 2014 To view this site, you need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser, and either the Flash Plugin or an HTML5-Video enabled browser. Download the latest Flash player and try again. What makes a good leader?

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My first action would be to prepare a meeting with all the teachers. The students will have Easter holidays starting next week, therefore we can plan our next steps together.
In the meeting we will create a SWOT for the E-learning period.
In my opinion there is no use of me being autocratic. We have time. Furthermore the chances of getting a good result is better when all colleges search for a solution and share /discuss their ideas with each other. I think this is the most effective way to proceed.

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If I were Mr. Kanthak my first step would be to create a feedback sheet which all students should fill out in order to get their opinion about the E-learning. Afterwards I would plan a meeting with all colleagues in the Easter Holidays. In this meeting we will evaluate the feedback sheets of the students and think about new ideas. Every teacher should talk about the current e-learning program in advance with the students of their class. Together with the colleagues I would think about new possible changes for the E-learning program. After listening to all the teachers' opinions, I would make a decision together with Mrs. Ayvaz, Mrs.Ünal,... At the end I would announce the changes per email.

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If I were Mr. Kanthak my first step would be to prepare a online meeting to discuss the last weeks and the experiences they had. I would get their feedback and some suggestions for improvement. I would prepare a link for feedback and I would ask the teachers to pass it to the students. So I can get a feedback and suggestions about the online classes from the students too. So if they say that it doesn't work that well, I would look for innovative ways to make it better. After that, I would create a summary of the information I received. After I saw all the suggestions, I would make the final decision but with the help of the Schnellvertretender Schulleiterin, so Mrs.Ayvaz because this is a serious issue and we have to make a serious and effective decision. If I would decide to find a solution with all of the teachers and employees, it would take a long time and maybe we would not agree. I can't risk that. After we made the final decision, I would tell everyone over a online conference and per e-Mail.

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If I were Mr. Kanthak I would first take time to myself to examine and contemplate the situation. Afterwards I would ask to have an online call with the other teachers asking them for their opinion on the online learning. The teachers would give both their personal feedback on how it has been for them handling all the marking and setting up of assignments for the students. They would then need to give me the feedback of their registered class as the students are important stakeholders of the school. The school revolves around the teaching of the students so its important to know if the way we are doing the online school is working for them or not. If the feedback is positive, the lessons will continue as per usual. However, if it is not working, I would ask the teachers for suggestions as well as the students. When a new way of teaching has been found I will discuss it with the head of the school board who will give their consent or not. From then on I would tell the secretary to send a email to the parents explaining the situation. The new teaching method would then be reinforced.

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Zerrin - answers to the questions of the article.

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Zerrin - answers to the questions of the article.

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1. Differences and similarities to absentee and laissez-fair leadership:

-Absentee Leadership:

Not recognizing employee achievements

Not giving clear directions

Not having time to meet with employees

Refusing to talk to subordinates

Not offering constructive criticism

And other problems related to a refusal or unwillingness by leadership to communicate with team members

Laissez-fair Leadership:

Very little guidance from leaders

Complete freedom for followers to make decisions

Leaders provide the tools and resources needed

Group members are expected to solve problems on their own

Power is handed over to followers, yet leaders still take responsibility for the group's decisions and actions

The clear distinction here is that the Laissez-fair leaders still provide employee with materials needed to work and give them a lot of responsibility, however they still take control when it comes to decision making. They also fail to provide guidance. Absentee leaders also don't provide input and take hand over responsibilities to others, but they can be even more dangerous to the business as they are completely cut off from the other whereas the Laissez-fair leaders still offer engagement.

2. I would pick up on my manager being absent if he doesn't

other me any input whatsoever, whether its constructive criticism or appraisal. I would also fell very unmotivated or even neglected because not getting any attention from my manager would make me feel unwanted and not part of the company. I would keep an eye out to see if he doesn't take proper action and always hands over his work to someone else.

3. I think the thing that is so striking is the fact the they wouldn't do anything about the absent dean because he technically hasn't done anything. Others in the past have been accused of things like sexual harassment, but since he didn't do anything they just left him to continue to be unproductive.

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If I were Mr. Kanthak I would probably do the same as my classmates. The first that I would do were to try to get feedback from everyone. So it means the teachers, the students and also the parents. This could be in form of a(n) (online)meeting between the teachers with or without students. The parents could do it via E-Mail. After I got all the feedback, I would analyze it to what the current situation looks like. If it is going good with homeschooling than there wouldn't be much to change. I would just look for a possibility to check the study progress of the students. But if the current situation is looking bad, means if the study progress is low, if there're many students who don't really get along with online schooling or if the students are  behind the actual schedule, than I would set up a second meeting where the teachers should find an appropriate solution for the problems.

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Absentee & Laissez-faire Leadership
1.
Similarities:
- gives the responsibility to the employees
- does not guide them
- employees are free to decide what to do, how to achieve it
- leaders don't give much/good feedback

Differences:
- Laissez-faire can be used when the employees are trustworthy and skilled, motivated and educated
- absentee Leaders don't care

2.
Clues might be:
- his inability to make decisions: an incompetent boss will struggle making decisions that should be made instantly
- letting all the work done by the others

3.
The dean who does nothing is kind of ignored, because there were others who had more negative affect. Because he is not doing anything, he is considered as someone who doesn't harm directly. For this reason he was let to continue to do nothing.

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GENERAL FEEDBACK ON IF I WERE MR. KANTHAK

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GENERAL FEEDBACK ON IF I WERE MR. KANTHAK

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Thank you for the great work. Most of what you have written is how this being done but of course with more bureaucracy.

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BRAINSTORMING: IDEAS ON LEADERS + LEADERSHIP REGARDING YOUR WEEK2 LEADERSHIP ASSIGNMENTS

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BRAINSTORMING: IDEAS ON LEADERS + LEADERSHIP REGARDING YOUR WEEK2 LEADERSHIP ASSIGNMENTS

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* Herr Kanthak (To be found on the next column)

* Martin Luther King : Personal sacrifice ( do you find it really necessary to be a successful leader?) /vision

* A sports team's coach

*Hitler : autocratic, non-utilization of creative ideas

* John F. Kennedy: Democratic ( if a leader is totally and fully democratic, how does a challenge end?)(On another perspective: Does being a leader force you to become autocratic at some point?)
" Democracy is too much when there is an urgent decision to make?" : What do you think of such a proposition:

* Moms as leaders: advice, guidance, sharing their life experience, trustworthy, responsible, encouraging, motivating, mentors.

* Bill Gates: Authoritarian but not autocratic?

* Walt Disney: Participative or democratic even paternalistic up until some point in his career but then a total shift to autocratic. Why? Ego boost. Racism which is very dangerous for a leader and his followers.

* Tim Cook - Apple: Democratic, trusting and a bit laissez faire.

* Reed Hastings - Netflix

* Sejin : manager of BTS - a boyband. He has multiple roles and goes beyond his actual responsibilities. Crosses over his job description. Is that a common trait in leaders:

* Fathers (Sina, Cem and Sera gave their fathers as leader models)

* Elon Musk: A visionary, autocratic and has high expectations (of whom? Is being a leader actually being good at managing an equally good team?)

* Nelson Mandela: High level of personal sacrifice as in M. Luther King example

* Kris Jenner: A good example to differentiate between a leader and a manager.

* Steve Jobs: Democratic

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We are diving into a new and very interesting section of our coursebook this week: Motivation. Motivation, as well as being a popular HR and Management topic is also a common denominator of all our lives. The life itself has always been a constant test of motivation for us, the homo sapiens. 

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We are diving into a new and very interesting section of our coursebook this week: Motivation. Motivation, as well as being a popular HR and Management topic is also a common denominator of all our lives. The life itself has always been a constant test of motivation for us, the homo sapiens. 

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We will first try to look at the subject from different perspectives and learn about the basics of motivation. Then, move on to self- motivational issues where we can discuss and comment about our observations.  Please first visit the links and watch the videos one by one and in the end, you can polish the data with the unit info in our book if you feel the need to.

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In this unit, we have 5 different motivation theories and of course, their founders. You can follow them by the book or you can watch the introductory videos; all up to you my sweet sixteens.( this is an old phrase by an old song by Billy Idol in case you haven't heard of it) 

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In this unit, we have 5 different motivation theories and of course, their founders. You can follow them by the book or you can watch the introductory videos; all up to you my sweet sixteens.( this is an old phrase by an old song by Billy Idol in case you haven't heard of it) 

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Billy Idol - Sweet Sixteen (Official Music Video)

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Let's start with this site. Please read and also watch the video. Do not forget to take notes and leave comments to share with us all. In case of any questions, our Whatsapp group is the fastest way to communicate, so just shoot them there.

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Let's start with this site. Please read and also watch the video. Do not forget to take notes and leave comments to share with us all. In case of any questions, our Whatsapp group is the fastest way to communicate, so just shoot them there.

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The term motivation describes why a person does something. It is the driving force behind human actions. Motivation is the process that initiates, guides, and maintains goal-oriented behaviors.

For instance, motivation is what helps you lose extra weight, or pushes you to get that promotion at work. In short, motivation causes you to act in a way that gets you closer to your goals. Motivation includes the biological, emotional, social, and cognitive forces that activate human behavior.

Motivation also involves factors that direct and maintain goal-directed actions. Although, such motives are rarely directly observable. As a result, we must often infer the reasons why people do the things that they do based on observable behaviors.

Learn the types of motivation that exist and how we use them in our everyday lives. And if it feels like you've lost your motivation, do not worry. There are many ways to develop or improve your self-motivation levels.

Press Play for Advice on Motivation

Hosted by therapist Amy Morin, LCSW, this episode of The Verywell Mind Podcast shares an exercise you can use to help you perform your best. Click below to listen now.

Follow Now: Apple Podcasts / Spotify / Google Podcasts

What Are the Types of Motivation?

The two main types of motivation are frequently described as being either extrinsic or intrinsic.

Extrinsic motivation arises from outside of the individual and often involves external rewards such as trophies, money, social recognition, or praise.

Intrinsic motivation is internal and arises from within the individual, such as doing a complicated crossword puzzle purely for the gratification of solving a problem.

A Third Type of Motivation?

Some research suggests that there is a third type of motivation: family motivation. An example of this type is going to work when you are not motivated to do so internally (no intrinsic motivation), but because it is a means to support your family financially.

Why Motivation Is Important

Motivation serves as a guiding force for all human behavior. So, understanding how motivation works and the factors that may impact it can be important for several reasons.

Understanding motivation can:

What Are the 3 Components of Motivation?

If you've ever had a goal (like wanting to lose 20 pounds or run a marathon), you probably already know that simply having the desire to accomplish these things is not enough. You must also be able to persist through obstacles and have the endurance to keep going in spite of difficulties faced.

These different elements or components are needed to get and stay motivated. Researchers have identified three major components of motivation: activation, persistence, and intensity.

Activation is the decision to initiate a behavior. An example of activation would be enrolling in psychology courses in order to earn your degree.

Persistence is the continued effort toward a goal even though obstacles may exist. An example of persistence would be showing up for your psychology class even though you are tired from staying up late the night before.

Intensity is the concentration and vigor that goes into pursuing a goal. For example, one student might coast by without much effort (minimal intensity) while another student studies regularly, participates in classroom discussions, and takes advantage of research opportunities outside of class (greater intensity).

The degree of each of these components of motivation can impact whether you achieve your goal. Strong activation, for example, means that you are more likely to start pursuing a goal. Persistence and intensity will determine if you keep working toward that goal and how much effort you devote to reaching it.

Tips for Improving Your Motivation

All people experience fluctuations in their motivation and willpower. Sometimes you feel fired up and highly driven to reach your goals. Other times, you might feel listless or unsure of what you want or how to achieve it.

If you're feeling low on motivation, there are steps you can take to help increase your drive. Some things you can do to develop or improve your motivation include:

Adjust your goals to focus on things that really matter to you. Focusing on things that are highly important to you will help push you through your challenges more than goals based on things that are low in importance.

If you're tackling something that feels too big or too overwhelming, break it up into smaller, more manageable steps. Then, set your sights on achieving only the first step. Instead of trying to lose 50 pounds, for example, break this goal down into five-pound increments.

Improve your confidence. Research suggests that there is a connection between confidence and motivation. So, gaining more confidence in yourself and your skills can impact your ability to achieve your goals.

Remind yourself about what you've achieved in the past and where your strengths lie. This helps keep self-doubts from limiting your motivation.

If there are things you feel insecure about, try working on making improvements in those areas so you feel more skilled and capable.

Causes of Low Motivation

There are a few things you should watch for that might hurt or inhibit your motivation levels. These include:

All-or-nothing thinking: If you think that you must be absolutely perfect when trying to reach your goal or there is no point in trying, one small slip-up or relapse can zap your motivation to keep pushing forward.

Believing in quick fixes: It's easy to feel unmotivated if you can't reach your goal immediately but reaching goals often takes time.

Thinking that one size fits all: Just because an approach or method worked for someone else does not mean that it will work for you. If you don't feel motivated to pursue your goals, look for other things that will work better for you.

Motivation and Mental Health

Sometimes a persistent lack of motivation is tied to a mental health condition such as depression. Talk to your doctor if you are feeling symptoms of apathy and low mood that last longer than two weeks.

Theories of Motivation

Throughout history, psychologists have proposed different theories to explain what motivates human behavior. The following are some of the major theories of motivation.

The instinct theory of motivation suggests that behaviors are motivated by instincts, which are fixed and inborn patterns of behavior. Psychologists such as William James, Sigmund Freud, and William McDougal have proposed several basic human drives that motivate behavior. They include biological instincts that are important for an organism's survival-such as fear, cleanliness, and love.

Drives and Needs

Many behaviors such as eating, drinking, and sleeping are motivated by biology. We have a biological need for food, water, and sleep. Therefore, we are motivated to eat, drink, and sleep. The drive reduction theory of motivation suggests that people have these basic biological drives, and our behaviors are motivated by the need to fulfill these drives.

Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs is another motivation theory based on a desire to fulfill basic physiological needs. Once those needs are met, it expands to our other needs, such as those related to safety and security, social needs, self-esteem, and self-actualization.

Arousal Levels

The arousal theory of motivation suggests that people are motivated to engage in behaviors that help them maintain their optimal level of arousal. A person with low arousal needs might pursue relaxing activities such as reading a book, while those with high arousal needs might be motivated to engage in exciting, thrill-seeking behaviors such as motorcycle racing.

The Bottom Line

Psychologists have proposed many different theories of motivation. The reality is that there are numerous different forces that guide and direct our motivations.

Understanding motivation is important in many areas of life beyond psychology, from parenting to the workplace. You may want to set the best goals and establish the right reward systems to motivate others as well as to increase your own motivation.

Knowledge of motivating factors (and how to manipulate them) is used in marketing and other aspects of industrial psychology. It's an area where there are many myths, and everyone can benefit from knowing what works with motivation and what doesn't.

Additional Reading

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Motivation is the force that guides behaviors. Discover psychological theories behind motivation, different types, and how to find the motivation to meet your goals.

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Frederick Winslow Taylor's Scientific Management

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MASLOW: I would not miss this if I were you..

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MASLOW: I would not miss this if I were you..

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Frederick Herzberg - a 1 minute explanation

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Frederick Herzberg - a 1 minute explanation

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Daniel Pink, Ladies and Gentlemen.Now, as opposed to all our other motivation theorists who are not with us anymore, Mr. Pink is all blood and flesh. Please make your own research about him and his motivational theory and share with us adding it under this thread. Below is a short video from his TED Talk.

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Daniel Pink, Ladies and Gentlemen.Now, as opposed to all our other motivation theorists who are not with us anymore, Mr. Pink is all blood and flesh. Please make your own research about him and his motivational theory and share with us adding it under this thread. Below is a short video from his TED Talk.

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Task 2: Now you know the motivation theories, what motivates you as a student  and what motivates the teachers of our school to continue doing their job during the Covid19 Pandemie? Which type of motivation is behind? If you were to motivate the staff of DSI more, which theory/theories would you base your actions? Please elaborate on a 5 item list of actions to increase motivation.  

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Task 2: Now you know the motivation theories, what motivates you as a student  and what motivates the teachers of our school to continue doing their job during the Covid19 Pandemie? Which type of motivation is behind? If you were to motivate the staff of DSI more, which theory/theories would you base your actions? Please elaborate on a 5 item list of actions to increase motivation.  

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Written versions to be mailed at me until Thursday morning so that we can discuss them when we meet online.

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TASK 1: Please do the test below and share your result in the comments.

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TASK 1: Please do the test below and share your result in the comments.

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CLICK ON "JOINMYQUIZ.COM"
WHEN READY, PLEASE TYPE IN THE CODE:556037
HAVE FUN!

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Join an activity with your class and find or create your own quizzes and flashcards.

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ACTIVITY 2: Please read the article below and then watch the youtube video related. 

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ACTIVITY 2: Please read the article below and then watch the youtube video related. 

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PIZZA HUT AD

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Pizza Hut Gorbachev TV Spot Commercial :60 International version

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ISSUE 1: Dear Class, as you are well aware we finished Units 1 and 2 and we only covered 4.1 from Marketing Unit. I would like to receive your comments and opinions on how we should proceed first of all here is my suggestion: Unit 3 is a long and dense unit talking about the finance and accounts side of a business. Although it is a very essential unit in putting a lot of things we have learned so far into perspective, it might also be a bit more complex than the previous subjects. My suggestion would be to leave it for the times when we get back together in school, so that it would be easier to tackle probable hardships. I would like to proceed with Unit 4 for now.  What would you like to say about this? Please comment below:

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ISSUE 1: Dear Class, as you are well aware we finished Units 1 and 2 and we only covered 4.1 from Marketing Unit. I would like to receive your comments and opinions on how we should proceed first of all here is my suggestion: Unit 3 is a long and dense unit talking about the finance and accounts side of a business. Although it is a very essential unit in putting a lot of things we have learned so far into perspective, it might also be a bit more complex than the previous subjects. My suggestion would be to leave it for the times when we get back together in school, so that it would be easier to tackle probable hardships. I would like to proceed with Unit 4 for now.  What would you like to say about this? Please comment below:

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TASK2: Please comment below as per the significance of the advertisement depending on the article you have read. In case, you do not feel comfortable with your Gorbachev background info, please do some extra research to put the data and ad into a particular perspective. Apart from your comments to add below, please also write a paragraph connecting the article+the video(ad)+1 of our six core concepts (Whichever concept means more appropriate in this context)

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TASK2: Please comment below as per the significance of the advertisement depending on the article you have read. In case, you do not feel comfortable with your Gorbachev background info, please do some extra research to put the data and ad into a particular perspective. Apart from your comments to add below, please also write a paragraph connecting the article+the video(ad)+1 of our six core concepts (Whichever concept means more appropriate in this context)

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FIRST LET'S REMEMBER SOME BASIC CONCEPTS FROM THE PREVIOUS SECTION:

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FIRST LET'S REMEMBER SOME BASIC CONCEPTS FROM THE PREVIOUS SECTION:

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A marketing plan is a detailed document about the marketing strategies that are developed in order to achieve an organization's marketing objectives.Marketing objectives which are supposed to be SMART, then are divided into key strategic plans (steps that provide and overvie of how the objectives will be achieved) which then spans into detailed marketing actions. This plan has to consider a budget+4Ps+a market segmentation and targeting+product positioning+USP (unique selling point or proposition)

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A marketing plan is a detailed document about the marketing strategies that are developed in order to achieve an organization's marketing objectives.Marketing objectives which are supposed to be SMART, then are divided into key strategic plans (steps that provide and overvie of how the objectives will be achieved) which then spans into detailed marketing actions. This plan has to consider a budget+4Ps+a market segmentation and targeting+product positioning+USP (unique selling point or proposition)

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Now, let's learn more about each of these constituents.

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We must make sure we understand the difference between a business plan and a marketing plan:

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We must make sure we understand the difference between a business plan and a marketing plan:

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Difference Between Business Plan vs Marketing Plan

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Here is a more detailed plan of a strategic marketing planning process:

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Here is a more detailed plan of a strategic marketing planning process:

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4Ps of the Famous Marketing Mix (We actually covered this before but let's polish our knowledge since it is a big part of market planning)

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4Ps of the Famous Marketing Mix (We actually covered this before but let's polish our knowledge since it is a big part of market planning)

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College & Career Ready Labs │ Paxton Patterson

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The 4 Ps of The Marketing Mix Simplified

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MARKETING CONCEPT+MARKET SEGMENTATION+ A SMALL BIT OF ADVERTISING

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MARKETING CONCEPT+MARKET SEGMENTATION+ A SMALL BIT OF ADVERTISING

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At the end of the document there is a doc with A and B columns: Column A has the brands/companies and column B has their advertising mottos. See if you can match them.

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A great site to read about the whole concept of Segmentation+Targeting+ Product Positioning

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How to use Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning (STP) to develop marketing strategies

Today, the STP marketing model (Segmentation, Targeting, Positioning) is a familiar strategic approach in modern marketing. It is one of the most commonly applied marketing models in practice, with marketing leaders crediting it for efficient, streamlined communications practice.

STP marketing focuses on commercial effectiveness, selecting the most valuable segments for a business and then developing a marketing mix and product positioning strategy for each segment.

As Martech continues to develop, so do opportunities for segmentation, targeting, and positioning. So whether you're brand new to STP or a seasoned veteran, it can be useful to take stock and double-check you're utilizing every chance you get to reach, interact with, convert and engage customers.

The STP marketing model

The STP model is useful when creating marketing communications plans since it helps marketers to prioritize propositions and then develop and deliver personalized and relevant messages to engage with different audiences. The three-step funnel consists of market segmentation, market targeting, and product positioning.

Within your research-based market segmentation phase, you are aiming to identify a basis for the segmentation of your target customers, and determine important characteristics to differentiate each market segment.

When creating your targeting and positioning strategy, you must evaluate the potential and commercial attractiveness of each segment, and then develop detailed product positioning for each selected segment, including a tailored marketing mix based on your knowledge of that segment.

STP marketing as a planning tool

Segmentation, targeting, and positioning is an audience-focused rather than product-focused approach to marketing communications which helps deliver more relevant messages to commercially appealing audiences.

STP is a critical strategy and planning tool, featured in our RACE Growth System. Our RACE Growth System supports marketers, managers, and business owners to create a 90-day marketing plan across each stage of their marketing funnel.

So, while STP sits within the planning activities, the benefits of effective segmentation, targeting and positioning can be felt across the types of customers you reach, interact with, convert, and engage.

You can find out more about all the tools and techniques in our RACE Growth System when you download your free growth guide today.

Applying Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning to digital communications

STP marketing is relevant to digital marketing too at a more tactical communications level. For example, applying marketing personas can help develop more relevant digital communications as shown by these alternative tactical email customer segmentation approaches.

This visual from Dave Chaffey of Smart Insights in his book Digital Marketing: Strategy. Implementation and practice shows how Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning apply to digital marketing strategy.

It reminds us how digital channels offer new options for targeting audiences that weren't available previously, but we need to reserve sufficient budget for. For example:

Search intent as searchers type keywords when comparing products they are interested in buying

Interest-based targeting in Facebook, e.g. Prospecting for those interested in Gardening, Gym membership, or Golf

Targeting through email personalization and on-site personalization based on profile, behavior (e.g. content consumed)

There are also new opportunities to make a brand more compelling through offering new types of value to consumers based on a digital value proposition or what Jay Baer has called Youtility. This can be via content or interactive tools on websites or mobile apps.

How to use STP marketing?

Through segmentation, you can identify niches with specific needs, mature markets to find new customers, deliver more focused and effective marketing messages.

The needs of each segment are the same, so marketing messages should be designed for each segment to emphasise relevant benefits and features required rather than one size fits all for all customer types. This approach is more efficient, delivering the right mix to the same group of people, rather than a scattergun approach.

You can segment your existing markets based on nearly any variable, as long as it's effective as the examples below show:

Well-known ways to segment your audience include:

1. Demographics

Breakdown by any combination: age, gender, income, education, ethnicity, marital status, education, household (or business), size, length of residence, type of residence, or even profession/occupation.

An example is Firefox who sells 'coolest things', aimed at a younger male audience. Though, Moshi Monsters, however, is targeted to parents with fun, safe and educational space for younger audiences.

2. Psychographics

This refers to 'personality and emotions' based on behavior, linked to purchase choices, including attitudes, lifestyle, hobbies, risk aversion, personality, and leadership traits. magazines read and TV. While demographics explain 'who' your buyer is, psychographics inform you 'why' your customer buys.

There are a few different ways you can gather data to help form psychographic profiles for your typical customers.

1. Interviews: Talk to a few people that are broadly representative of your target audience. In-depth interviews let you gather useful qualitative data to really understand what makes your customers tick. The problem is they can be expensive and difficult to conduct, and the small sample size means they may not always be representative of the people you are trying to target.

2. Surveys: Surveys let you reach more people than interviews, but it can be harder to get as insightful answers.

3. Customer data: You may have data on what your customers tend to purchase from you, such as data coming from loyalty cards if an FMCG brand or from online purchase history if you are an e-commerce business. You can use this data to generate insights into what kind of products your customers are interested in and what is likely to make them purchase. For example, does discounting vastly increase their propensity to purchase? In which case they might be quite spontaneous.

An example is Virgin Holidays who use segmentation, positioning and targeting to promote their holidays to 6 different audiences.

3. Lifestyle

This refers to Hobbies, recreational pursuits, entertainment, vacations, and other non-work time pursuits.

Companies such as on and off-line magazine will target those with specific hobbies i.e. FourFourTwo for football fans.

Some hobbies are large and well established, and thus relatively easy to target, such as the football fan example. However, some businesses have found great success targeting very small niches very effectively. A great example is the explosion in 'prepping' related businesses, which has gone from a little heard-of fringe activity to a billion-dollar industry in recent years. Apparently now 3.2 million Americans identify as doomsday preppers. A great way to start researching and targeting these kind of niches is Reddit, where people create subReddits to share information about a given interest or hobby.

4. Belief and values

Refers to Religious, political, nationalistic, and cultural beliefs and values.

The Islamic Bank of Britain offers Sharia-compliant banking which meets specific religious requirements.

A strange but interesting example of religious demographics influencing marketing that you might not have guessed is that Mormons are really into 'multi-level marketing'. They're far more likely to be engaged in the practice than any other US group.

Going the extra mile with demographic research can lead to discovering new marketing opportunities and thinking outside the box. For example, did you know the median age of Cadilla Blackwing customers is 10 years younger than that of "regular" Cadillac customers?

5. Life stages

Life stages are the Chronological benchmarking of people's lives at different stages.

An example is Saga holidays which are only available for people aged 50+. They claim a large enough segment to focus on this life stage.

6. Geography

Drill down byCountry, region, area, metropolitan or rural location, population density or even climate.

An example is Neiman Marcus, the upmarket department store chain in the USA now delivers to the UK.

7. Behaviour

Refers to the nature of the purchase, brand loyalty, usage level, benefits sought, distribution channels used, and reaction to marketing factors.

In a B2B environment, the benefits sought are often about 'how soon can it be delivered?' which includes the 'last-minute' segment - the planning in advance segment.

An example is Parcelmonkey.co.uk who offers same-day, next day and international parcel deliveries.

8. Benefit

Benefit is the use and satisfaction gained by the consumer.

Smythson Stationery offer similar products to other stationery companies, but their clients want the benefit of their signature packaging: tissue-lined Nile Blue boxes and tied with navy ribbon!

Market targeting

The list below refers to what's needed to evaluate the potential and commercial attractiveness of each segment.

Criteria size: The market must be large enough to justify segmenting. If the market is small, it may make it smaller.

Difference: Measurable differences must exist between segments.

Money: Anticipated profits must exceed the costs of additional marketing plans and other changes.

Accessible: Each segment must be accessible to your team and the segment must be able to receive your marketing messages

Focus on different benefits: Different segments must need different benefits.

Product positioning

Positioning maps are the last element of the STP process. For this to work, you need two variables to illustrate the market overview.

In the example here, I've taken some cars available in the UK. This isn't a detailed product position map, more of an illustration. If there were no cars in one segment it could indicate a market opportunity.

Expanding on the extremely basic example above, you can unpack the market by mapping your competitors onto a matrix based on key factors that determine purchase.

This chart is not meant to be any kind of accurate representation of the car market, but rather just illustrate how you could use a product positioning map to analyze your own business's current position in the market, and identify opportunities.

For example, as you can see in the gap below, we've identified a possible opportunity in the market for low-priced family cars.

We're not saying this gap actually exists, I'm sure you could think of cars that fit this category, as the car market is an extremely developed and competitive market. However, it does show how you can use the tool to identify gaps in your own market.

An example of a company using STP marketing?

Any time you suspect there are significant, measurable differences in your market, you should consider STP. Especially if you have to create a range of different messages for different groups.

A good example of segmentation is BT Plc, the UK's largest telecoms company. BT has adopted STP marketing for its varied customer groups; ranging from individual consumers to B2B services for its competitors.

Identifying and defining your target audience is key to efficiently growing your customer base. But to fully benefit from your strategy, you need to set objectives and optimize your marketing activities to achieve your goals.

What to watch for in segmentation, positioning, and targeting marketing strategy

Make sure the market is large enough to matter and customers can be easily contacted.

Apply market research to ensure your approach will add value to the existing customer experience, above and beyond competitors.

As Martech continues to become more sophisticated, to support digital marketers' wants and needs, consider the developments in relation to your product/service.

Original reference sources

Lancaster G. and Massingham, L. (1988) Essentials of Marketing. Maidenhead, Berkshire, England. McGraw-Hill.

Smith, W. R. (1956). Product differentiation and market segmentation as alternative marketing strategies. Journal of Marketing. (Vol. 21, Issue 1, July). p3-8.

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STP marketing: The Segmentation, Targeting, Positioning model

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Today, the Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning (STP marketing) model is a familiar strategic approach in modern marketing.

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THE UNIQUE SELLING PROPOSITION/POINT ( This is a term from our first unit that I hope you would remember)

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Marketing 101: The Unique Selling Proposition