Is there More than One Alpha

We recently explored the notion of the “alpha” and felt that the assigned definition was too one-dimensional. In fact, we believe that there are sub-classes of alphas. I came up with two: the “alpha-a” type (alpha alluring) and “alpha-b” type (alpha brutish). I personally realize - through some further thought and research - that this subject is way more complicated than even narrowing alpha down to two categories, but in my mind, I had to start somewhere. Here’s how I define the distinction. Both are highly intelligent, competent, competitive, opinionated, somewhat fidgety, attention-getters. What distinguishes alpha-a from alpha-b is that alpha-a has greater emotional intelligence (EI) and, more importantly, has a higher degree of social intelligence (SI). What is the difference? Daniel Goleman says that EI has to do with “self-mastery” and, I would add, seeking personal betterment; SI has to do with “empathy” in communication, i.e. how a person relates to other people, aspires them and is tuned into them (2008).

Not many of us in our doctoral class labeled ourselves as alphas. And, by the definition given in the article we read on alphas, I am not convinced that any of us would want to define ourselves as alphas. And I would argue that we are not alphas. I would even venture to say that you wouldn’t find too many of those alphas in such a higher learning space unless it had direct ROI on their career position (and, I mean career position, specifically; I am not talking about career path, on which we are all traversing). However, I think the definition from which we were all working was one based on alpha-b and if I shift my perception to an alpha-a definition then I think actually many of us do qualify! And it is a compliment!

What I do want to point out is findings about 5 types of individuals in the context of resource control theory: bistrategic controllers, coercive controllers, prosocial controllers, non-controllers, and typical controllers. “Controllers” is defined by the strategy used to influence. Bistrategic (1) controllers use both prosocial strategies of reciprocation and cooperation as well as coercive strategies of aggression and intimidation, to a high degree relative to peers. Coercive (2) controllers rely only on coercive strategies to a high level; prosocials (3) rely on those social strategies. Non-controllers (4) are low in both areas. Typical (5) controllers form the largest grouping and are average in both areas. Bistrategics have the highest level of social dominance status and are able to work the social elements while also bypassing or confronting them. (Hawley, Shorey and Alderman, 2009.) I am just guessing but I correlate bistrategic controllers with alpha-a types and coercive controllers as alpha-b types, both successful but different. And to really go out on a limb, I think prosocials are tier 2 management: the kind that gets to a certain, fairly successful point, is well-liked and appreciated in the organization, but who don’t quite make it to the top.

Wait, there’s more! Hawley et al. developed their research to identify how confidence and anxiety relate to these types. Ironically, they found that bistrategic controllers run average on confidence and have a high propensity toward anxiety and avoidance (of intimacy)! Coercive controllers have high levels of anxiety and avoidance and run low on confidence. Proscials experience high confidence, low avoidance and modest anxiety, but do not have high achievement orientation. (Hawley et al. 2009.) To me, this does not compute, at least if we operate on the assumption I made above correlating these types to alpha material.

An entirely other forum could be devoted to the similarities and differences between the sub-categories within alphas as they relate to gender. For example, Nancy Briton and Judith Hall developed research on the gender differences in nonverbal cues. They found that women were rates higher than men at interacting with people and recognizing facial expressions, gestures and expression in voice. “Women were perceived by both male and female participants to be fluent, skilled, and involved communicators” (Briton and Hall, 1995). Some would argue that these predispositions lend themselves to greater SI. They could be the reason why alpha females are labeled less overly aggressive. Gill Corkindale, Executive Coach, also believes that alpha females are less likely to run in packs than their male counterparts (2008) and that there are less alpha females than males. So, here is my question: is there such thing a thing an alpha-a female and alpha-b female, assuming you agree with the alpha-a and alpha-b definitions? Or, do we stereotype alpha-a and alpha-b, in thinking that alpha-a is more of a female definition and alpha-b is more male? However, we can envision male leaders of the alpha-a qualities, can’t we. And certainly we can envision those in our past who are alpha-b. I find it hard to come up with female alpha-b type. I don’t think they make it. I think that they are shut down because they push the envelope too far on societal norms.

Briton, Nancy J. and Hall, Judith A. (1995). Beliefs about female and male nonverbal communication. Sex Roles, 32, 1 / 2. Department of Psychology: Northeastern University, p. 79-90.

Corkindale, Gill (2008). Keys to working with alpha personalities. Presented by Harvard Business Review, as seen on YouTube. Retrieved from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JP3KkAdT25I&feature=channel

Goleman, Daniel (2008). Social intelligence and Leadership. Presented by Harvard Business Review as seen on YouTube. Retrieved from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Qv0o1oh9f4

Hawley, Patricia H., Shorey, Hal S., and Alderman, Paul M. (2009). Attachment correlates of resource-control strategies: Possible origins of social dominance and interpersonal power differentials. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships: 26:1097. DOI: 10.1177/0265407509347939.

IVAWA Must Pass - Show Your Support TODAY

There are windows of opportunity in life that pass us by unless we seize them. WomenThrive is working hard to push I-VAWA (International Violence Against Women Act) through Congress during this month's lame duck session. Now -this month of November- is that window and there is every reason in the world to support this, with no down-side. And it takes LESS THAN 5 minutes... http://www.passivawa.org/takeAction.html
Be sure to scroll down the page and click on "contact your representatives" to fill out the online form. Then pass along to friends and family!


Members of Congress have a unique opportunity to stop violence against women around the world. They can pass the International Violence Against Women Act before they adjourn for the year!

The I-VAWA, which was introduced in the House and Senate in the 111th Congress, presents a critical opportunity for the United States to protect, defend, and empower the world’s women. It is a comprehensive piece of legislation that will integrate violence prevention in US foreign policy and support innovative programs that have been shown to effectively reduce violence against women and girls.

For many of us, recent reports on international violence against women seem distant and incomprehensible. On any given day, horrifying stories about such violence appear in the news: the systematic rape of women in the Democratic Republic of Congo, increasing assaults on women and girls in Afghanistan, violence against women and girls in Haiti whose lives are already devastated by the earthquake. Sadly, this violence is not isolated to a few women in a few places. In fact, approximately one out of three women worldwide has been beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused in her lifetime with rates of domestic violence reaching 70 percent in some countries. No country is immune – the violence crosses all borders and affects women of all ages, social groups, religions and classes.

The United States Congress now has an opportunity to address these horrifying abuses. Senators Kerry (D-MA), Boxer (D-CA),Collins (R-ME) and Snowe (R-ME) and Congressman Delahunt (D-MA), Schakowsky (D-IL) and Congressman Poe (R-TX) introduced the International Violence Against Women Act, landmark legislation that can have a real impact for women all over the world, earlier this year.

Congress should move quickly to make the I-VAWA law and pass I-VAWA before they adjourn for the year.

In a world where tensions and violence within communities can jeopardize national and international security, it is critical that the United States take action to end atrocities committed against women and girls in their homes and in their communities, during times of peace and times of conflict.

Violence takes the lives of millions of women and girls, and denies countless others their dignity and the chance to live safe, productive lives. Constituents now have the opportunity to let lawmakers know they want more to be done to address violence against women globally they can take action to end the suffering by urging their Members of Congress to pass I-VAWA.

Click on the link, scroll down the page and click on the "contact your representatives" link for the online email to your Member of Congress, urging them to co-sponsor the I-VAWA and thanking those who have already co-sponsored! All you need to do is add your contact information and submit. Everything else is automatic.
http://www.passivawa.org/takeAction.html

It takes LESS THAN 5 MINUTES to support I-VAWA. Why wouldn't you?

LinkedIn Supports E-Learning

LinkedIn.com is an online database of members to connect professionally with one another and through each other. Similar to facebook in a sense that it is a repository for individual information and a portal to stay in touch with people whom you select and invite and with whom you mutually agree to be "linked in", its basic premise is to connect with on a professional and expertise level. As of September 2010, there are 80 million members of LinkedIn from all over the world (LinkedIn, Frequently Asked Questions, 2008). It is a site that is designed to capture your credentials, job experiences and qualifications, of value for people to learn more about you and important for job searches in today's market. Not only can prospective employers find you, but you can conduct research on interesting positions, by viewing people's profiles who are in the same field or subject matter experts, or find out more details about companies that interest you from the Company Pages. Through connections, you can go one step further by asking to be introduced to someone of interest and having an informational discussion with that contact. It is completely acceptable to reach out to a stranger through a common friend for the purpose of career progression! As a business getting off the ground, linkedin can be a platform for marketing, locating business partners, identifying service providers, and post employment opportunities. Finally, it is a place where people can "gain new insights from discussions with likeminded professionals in private group settings" (LinkedIn.com, About Us, 2008).

Connectivity and networking are important elements today in e-learning as team-based projects rival individual efforts (Robbins & Judge, 2011). We see this in the advent of other e-tools that facilitate partnership and group learning, such as wikis, skype, and (the dreaded) googledocs. But the networking components are merely conduits. Let's examine how LinkedIn facilitates additional learning online. Through the polling feature, members can obtain valuable data. One member used the poll to gather ideas for a webinar and then marketed the webinar on LinkedIn to connect with the members who worked in her industry or were interested in the topics (LinkedIn, Success Stories, 2008). Post a question in the Answers section of the website and your connections and people within the entire community respond. Theoretical, practical, subjective, objective queries are free-game. Find experts who are hosting a webinar or keynoting a conference of interest and contact them to gain their insights or subscribe to their training or tools. With the discussion forums, people can help worthy causes. After visiting India, one woman wanted to help the children there. She started a discussion on LinkedIn which resulted in the creation of a "wish list" on Amazon.com, from which LinkedIn members purchased books for the children in India (LinkedIn, Success Stories, 2008).

I am personally testing the Answers section of LinkedIn for a school paper on tenure. In addition to compiling research, I have posed the following question to some of my connections. "Why was tenure originally established at the elementary and secondary school levels? I can appreciate that tenure at higher levels of education give professors intellectual freedom to explore/research topics that may not always be popular, but when and why did tenure become firmly entrenched in Americas early years of education?" I will blog further about the result. I am also working with a non-profit organization, womenthrive.org, and I noticed that they do not have a "group discussion" going on LinkedIn, unlike many of their counterparts. So, I suggested that they increase their band-width on this website, particularly now as they are working on Capitol Hill to have IVAWA (International Violence Against Women Act) passed and they need to get their message distributed and people writing to their Senators. They use Facebook and Twitter, but they are not as active on LinkedIn. Being a professional community, support coming from a business perspective through the LinkedIn network will surely help the cause.

To learn more about LinkedIn, watch the quick video: http://press.linkedin.com/about.


PS. Within 4 days of my question on LinkedIn, I had 4 answers, 2 of them with valuable information and 1 of them with a link to a useful article.

Trust and Leadership

When writing on the subject of engendering trust for a school paper, I feel as though I brainstormed a litany of characteristics for a leader to possess. Among the key ingredients for a leader in a corporation, on which I settled, are: integrity, emotional intelligence, knowledge, fairness and thoughtful decision-making, communication, and reliability. Without these qualities, trust is hard to come by.

In order to build trust, it is paramount that the leader first and foremost want to earn trust and that they are trustworthy. Once trust has been established, it is easy to grow its roots. However, just like the expression goes, “one cannot rest on laurels,” so one cannot let trust go unnourished. The risk lies in taking for granted the partnership a leader has with the constituents. It is important for the leader to be knowledgeable, to develop business acumen and to have quality expertise. And building a culture of learning and sharing promotes trust among the team, trust in leadership and trust in the individuals. But trust is delicate and can erode if care is not taken to be fair and make logical decisions, even if they are unpopular decisions. Communication is key and leaving an open forum for diverse contributions creates new opportunities, a sense of accomplishment for individuals and interdependence. Part of this engendering trust among multi-facets within an organization is to focus on talent development, diverse contributions to success and thoughtful promotions. Finally, trust cannot survive if a leader does not follow-through on their word.

A Skip in My Step

A couple of friends and I attended Day of Transformation at Maria Shriver's Women's Conference. We heard "amazing" people speak to us about the power of harnessing the moment. Tony Robbins wrapped up the day and wow'd the audience, even the skeptics in the crowd. The message that resonated the most was his talk about training the mind like a muscle to get in the habit of celebrating and rising above people's interest in commiserating. He made a valuable point at how much "state of mind" makes a difference in how we make decisions. And, he has also observed that people tend to temper their enthusiasm and their excitement for life. For some reason, it is often easier to connect over misery! Train the mind away from negative thinking because "celebration creates sustainable energy". From good energy, great decisions are made.

Did everyone walk out of that conference day with a skip in their step and a natural high? You bet most of us did! I skipped, until I tripped on my platform shoes and nearly twisted my ankle - waaaa! Just kidding! Hey, I didn't break anything. Maybe I'll try a cartwheel tomorrow!

Show Me the... Change

I have a peeve. It's not a life-affecting peeve, but like all peeves, it gets under my skin every time it happens, churning the wheels in my brain to think about how I want to fix this, until 1 minute later, I am out the door and the moment passes. At any store, grocery or otherwise, there are two ways the cashier can hand you the change: first the coins then the bills, or the coins piled on top of the bills. The former -first the coins in the palm of your hand then the bills into your fingertips- makes sense to the customer, though it requires two steps for the cashier. To the customer, who is juggling bags, wallets, and trying to grab the purchases to move swiftly out of the way of the next customer, this is the most efficient. It allows you to drop the bills into your bag, pocket, wallet and not drop the coins all over the ground.

The latter approach makes no sense to me, whatsoever, and is completely inefficient and unhelpful to the customer. I personally don't even get it from the cashier point of view, but that it looks tidy. To fold the bills long ways, delicately to hold a pile of loose change, and pass it steadily over to the customer seems like it should be an act in the circus. You can even see the look on the cashier's face as they push their hand (an act of one hand) forward, nervously, and let out a small, silent sigh of relief once it has changed hands and now is the responsibility and under the care of the customer. The act can be likened to the game of passing the orange from chin to chin. Once you've passed it, if it gets dropped, wasn't on your watch!!!

I will admit that other people may be more coordinated than this author, but 5 out of 10 times, in trying to grab it all, coins fall all over the place- on the floor, in my bag, in my purchases -and my hands are twisted in wildly artistic ways trying to catch them, take hold of the bills, juggle my bags and step aside for the next customer. Yes, I look like a clutz, and the cashier just stands there looking dumb-founded at how much of an idiot their customer could be! Isn't that just peachy, my eyes implore. You figured it would be a nice, neat package to hand me bills with a mountain of loose coins and I look like the idiot. Next time, don't do me any favors. Take the extra minute to hand me the coins first, then the bills. I'll smile and be on my way.

My Boss is So Annoying...

I have had a couple of annoying bosses. It actually goes deeper than that. They have had a greater impact on my career and me than they ever should have, but they were in a position of authority and I was stuck, liking my job otherwise. Let's share our rather humorous stories of ridiculous things that go on in corporate America, without getting ugly, angry, using profanities or naming names.

I am fortunate that I never had the kind of boss Meryl Streep depicted in Devil Wears Prada. Yikes! Scary! No, I was unfortunate enough to have a worse kind (in my mind). Meryl Streep, intimidating as she was, wore it all out there. She called it like she saw it and, while that can be harsh to hear, you know where you stand.

I had the kind of boss who smiled when you walked in the room, sat you down, cajoled you into a false sense that there was a trust building between boss and employee. He would talk of lofty visions for a promotion, notice and compliment my skills, and confide in me about others. No sooner than I would leave the room, he was onto his next prey, manipulating people like pawns on a chess board. Getting his pieces in order so that he always emerged as protected king was his triumphant skill. He did this at the expense of people, relationships, emotions and trust. And, he was a smooth talker so he never confronted me about anything awkward. We never had a real conversation. We always had pleasantries. But behind the scenes, he was able to sabotage a career with a deathly slice of presuppositions, unsubstantiated claims, heresay, rumors and playing the popularity games that we all experienced in middle school. The kicker for corporate America is that his peers bought what he said!! Why? As adults, why weren't more of his level seeing through this charade? Is it that they wanted to be "liked" by this person or they didn't have the time to deal with it? I witnessed this boss ruin a career of a colleague merely by bad-mouthing him at leadership conferences. It was toxic. Not only did he block any future growth for this employee - a manager at the time, but he tainted opinions towards the entire department, as people were questioning how this department could be any quality if they follow/work for this manager.

The worst part about a story like this is that this boss continues to wake up every day patting himself on the back for being "the leader" that he is. He proudly dresses for work and shows up thinking he is on top of the world and any "tough" things he has done are a result of him being effective. This type of person has no emotional intelligence. My boss is so annoying... he doesn't think he does anything wrong.

Tech Heck

Does anyone else get beyond frustrated with technology? Does anyone else think that it is completely ironic that a basic user of tech tools should be able to do something basic, like posting a comment to a forum or uploading something. And yet, how many times has something that should take "just 5 minutes" turned into an hour's project, riddled with profanities, foot-stomping, and key-pounding? Isn't this basic functionality that you are trying to complete part of the program's CORE competency?

Well, look. I remember working way back when in the day withOUT the computer - ha! Can you imagine. Then, one day our department of 25 people received 2 computers. Yay! We were ecstatic because they also came hooked in with 2 dot-matrix printers. Talk about s - l - o - o - o - o - w! Then, came the fax machine, with rolly fax paper, then came email, then came cell phones (the big clunkers), then came an AT&T calling card to use overseas. Then came a computer on every desk, the internet, dot.coms, real paper for the fax machine. Log-on time went from 5 minutes down to 1 minute. Where did I go? I grew impatient. The faster things worked, the more I increased my demands on them. It's not fair, but that's life, isn't it? The better you work at something, the more you are tapped for other similar situations. So, we place greater and greater demands on our technology to work faster, easier, problem-free, glitch-free, hassle-free. But that just isn't practical...

Lower our expectations? Not necessarily. With consumer expectations comes the innovation. But, we should strengthen our resolve. Andrea Lee in the ezine article, "Overcoming Frustration with Technology" counsels us to take a step back from time to time. Next time, the universal remote is not clicking through the search functionality quick enough, remember the days when a television set came with 3 channels, a dial and rabbit ears that needed to point in different directions for each channel.