My reflection blog this week will focus on Rotter’s Locus of Control Scale test, which defined that I have an internal locus of control. This blog will reflect on how internal locus of control affect my leadership responses to others leadership styles. (Rotter, 1966)

Internal locus of control

The internal locus of control is the “belief that you are in charge of the events that occur in your life.” I am not surprised at all that I fell within the internal locus of control as I have always been taught that I am responsible for my own destiny. This was a family norm that was passed on for generations. I do believe that my “behaviors are guided by personal decisions and efforts, which have control over the things they can change.” I do not believe in fate or luck and it has probably because I have never been lucky and I have had to work for what I have received in life. (Nguyen, 2013)

Advantages of Internal locus of Control

Having Internal locus of control, I am continuously improving myself and situations at work. As a leader, who designs and manages a very large integrated master schedule, it requires constant feedback and flexibility. I value feedback as I use it to improve on processes and tool improvement, which improves the quality of life for those on the team. (D, 2012)

An example of improving processes occurred about 6 months in the new role as a scheduler and there was a discrepancy in the metric reporting that I provide to the customer. The customer attended a meeting where the metrics were identified and completely agree with the approach, so I thought it was doing the metrics correctly. A few months later, the customer wrote an official complaint that I was not following correct criteria for metric reporting. The customer was using a regulation that dated back to 2012, and our company was utilizing a new tool that was a pilot program and applied to all programs. I could have taken the role and blamed the person who trained me, but I owned the problem and worked with our customer and tools team to develop a solution.

I provided both sets of metrics to our customer. I did not play a victim of the situation as it was my fault for validating the metrics with the customer in the meeting.  

Today, I have set up weekly meetings with our customer where there is a review of metrics, tools, schedule, and issues. The purpose of the meeting is to remain constant on communication, considering the tasks in the schedule are moving every day. I do not feel that it is fate that we had a situation and it created a better working relationship with the customer. I made a mistake and was providing the wrong information.  The advantage is I had control of the situation and the outcome.

Disadvantages of Internal locus of control

A disadvantage of Internal locus of control is when events are “random and out of my control and I can be neurotic if the internal locus doesn’t reflect my competence.” (D, 2012) As a planner, I have issues when people disrupt my day when multiple changes that cause me to stop what I am doing because they have an emergency. Being a bit of a perfectionist, when I am rushed to get something done it bothers me when the quality of the work has been jeopardized and someone points out the corrections.

As an example, I was on travel last week for the leadership development program to learn presentation skills. Being the only scheduler, I had to finalize and publish our monthly schedule on Wednesday by noon. This process is nothing new as it is something I do every month. However, being away on travel, I was forced to work after hours to update the schedule and run required quality checks. My requirements were not hard, but when our cost team integrator decided that I needed to run additional tests, I found myself being annoyed and pressured. Being a nice person, I tried to accommodate her requests around the training I was attending. I was able to publish the schedule four hours before the deadline. The cost integrator went to our leader and complained. She complained that publishing the schedule so late was comprising her job as a cost integrator, as they have reports to run as well. I chimed in very quickly to let leadership know that I published the schedule ahead of schedule, just like I do every month. It was the last minute reports being requested that through a kink in the process. I come across as arrogant, but I was not going to let someone complain when they were the one messing up the completion timeline and try to define that my quality of work was affected.

Optimizing Internal Locus of Control

The main option to optimize the internal locus of control is “knowing you have a choice” in all situations. I believe that no matter the situation as a leader, you have a choice in the behaviors and decisions that you take. Although a person can endure control, there are some situations where you do not have control of such as corporate downsizing. I don’t have control over who is being laid off or re-leveled, but as a leader I have a choice in my own behavior and reactions.

In 2011, I went through my first corporate change where the company decided to move the entire F22 program from Georgia to Texas. I had just moved to Georgia from Texas just 11 months prior to this announcement. I was upset and I let it be known, as did over 500 employees. Six months after the move, I had my lead position taken away. It had nothing to do with my performance but a reorganization. I was hurt and could have had a bad attitude that reflected into my position. I didn’t go to the negative, I chose to think about the positives and make good decisions going forward. Two years later, I found a job back in Georgia.

In 2015, the site announced that there would be a merger of three major programs, reduction of 1100 employees and re-leveling of jobs. I had an immediate flashback of the 2011 move, and quickly elected to keep a positive attitude and not let this change affect my position as a lead scheduler. I chose to optimize the opportunity to mentor others on the team that had never been through this big of a change.

Conclusion

Although I tested as having internal locus of control, I do believe there are things in life that you do not have control of. Example would be a major illness such as cancer, or an automobile accident caused by another driver. However, I do not consider things of this nature to be lucky or fate, but things that just happen. As a leader, you need a level of internal locus of control and need to be accountable, responsible, and have a choose in your decisions. I do find myself very annoyed with others who blame the world for their misfortunes or lack of accomplishments.

My success of a leader has been cause by my actions of joining the military, getting a formal education, taking on tasks that improve myself, and taking on challenges. I take negative outcomes and learn from them. If I was like my parents who blamed the world for their unsuccessful life based on choices they made, I would not be where I am today. When responding to other leadership styles, I am constant in who I am and I don’t sway from being true to myself. However, those leaders that are abrasive, I tend to stay away from them as much as possible.

References:

D, M. (2012, March 12). The Power Of Having An Internal Locus Of Control. Retrieved September 1, 2016, from Fell Happiness: http://feelhappiness.com/the-power-of-having-an-internal-locus-of-control/

Nguyen, S. (2013, June 5). LOCUS OF CONTROL: Stop Making Excuses and start taking responsibility. Retrieved September 1, 2016, from Workplace Psychology: https://workplacepsychology.net/2013/06/05/locus-of-control-stop-making-excuses-and-start-taking-responsibility/

Rotter, J. B. (1966). Locus of Control Test. Retrieved September 1, 2016, from University of North Carolina: http://www.psych.uncc.edu/pagoolka/LC.html