All right, everybody we are back with ad talking about a speed on that racer take it away. Are you guys doing good? Oh, go ahead take it away, sir. There you go. Yeah, all right So I'm gonna talk about razor today, and there are a lot of razor things to cover So I'm ready to go ahead and switch to my my screen here when you guys are We're all set sir. All right, so hello dot net comf Hopefully everybody's enjoying The show so far. My name is Ed Sharman. I'm a developer advocate for progress And let me get adjusted here. There we go. I'm a developer advocate for progress software and Microsoft MVP And today we're gonna talk about razor into the razorverse razor is an ecosystem that has expanded over the last few years and includes many different razor technologies, so we have Razor the the engine itself the syntax razor views HTML helpers razor pages razor tag helpers Blazer and its razor components. So we're gonna start at the top level But we are gonna deep dive into each one of these things. We only have a short period of time So let's get going The first thing that I want to cover is the syntax itself So razor the syntax is a template markup syntax based on the C shark programming language The nice thing about razor is that we don't have opening and closing tags with razor We use the at symbol to open up our template and it intelligently finds the end for us So if we look at the old way of doing this in web forms, you can see it's a lot more verbose than using razor If we look at something a little more modern like angular We still have this very specific angular language that we're using to define our templates in our markup Where razor is just using C sharp and markup. So there's some benefits to razor here And there's even more with the ability to do complex expressions So we open up an at symbol we can do all sorts of things in this example We're doing some math and just writing out an output Into our HTML. We also have control structures like for each if then statements try catches All of those things are valid within our C sharp syntax or razor syntax Here's an example of an if statement and we can branch out and write out different portions of HTML To our page using razor this way So let's talk about razor execution really quick. It's actually a complex thing happening behind the scenes So razor generates C sharp code from the template and then compiles that code into a dotnet assembly It loads it into memory and then executes that compiled code So that's the razor syntax. That's a quick overview. Let's jump into razor views and HTML helpers next So razor views are streamlined way of writing code focus templates in dotnet They're returned from a controller action as a view result and the content is generally made up of HTML And components that are HTML helpers now other component models are valid here like tag helpers and razor components but typically with views you'll find HTML helpers being used This project template comes from file new project if we click on web application And specifically that model view controller application. We're talking about the view portion Here. So razor views in that template So that's razor views in a nutshell. We're going to talk about HTML helpers next So HTML helpers are the component model for razor views. They're invoked as methods within HTML razor views They encapsulate code and HTML. So we're building components using this this structure At the end of the day these things turn into an HTML string And that's really important to remember here and we're going to get into the reason why it's important Later but the main takeaway here is these things turn into HTML strings. So keep that in mind So this is what an HTML helper looks like and how we use it in a razor view We call at HTML and that identifies that we're invoking a helper And then we call the method on that extension method on the HTML class Now we pass in our parameters and output the type of helper that we were looking for In this case we're doing an action link so we get a nice anchor tag With the path that we're specifying in our HTML helper Creating these is actually fairly simple. We just need to extend iHTML helper as an extension method and we return iHTML content. So let's take a look at what that looks like If we look at the function signature, it's very simple. We take in iHTML helper We output iHTML content and we have an example here of a hello helper We're going to write out a span with a message inside We're actually going to break away here and do a quick demo And we'll view that HTML helper in Visual Studio So let's do that. Let's break over to Visual Studio And in this solution I have three projects and we're going to start with the razor view project And this is identified specifically by seeing that there is a controller model in view folder So this is an MVC application and we have razor views So I'm going to open up the index page here, the index view We'll zoom back out and we can see that we have our razor markup And we've got a couple lines of html markup here And two things I want to point out specifically We have an html helper that is at html.hello and we're passing in the value world And I also have a tag or a piece of razor markup that is at this get type base type So I'm going to discover what the actual type is that's resolved for this view So that's going to be interesting First let's open up our html helper and take a look at how that was built So first of all we're returning an ihtml content And the method name is going to be hello And we're passing in ihtml helper as an extension method So that's what this keyword is for We're extending the ihtml helper interface with a method called hello And passing in the message parameter We're going to write that out into a span, an html span And that gets turned into an html string So this is the basis of an html helper which acts as components in a razor view So let's give this a run I'm going to control f5, we don't need a debug I just want to see what this looks like on the page So we're going to load this up in the browser In our application loads and we have hello world This is our html helper being executed And we also have that segment where I said at this So tell me what this thing is and what is the base type So this is actually the razor view is a razor page of t So a razor page takes some sort of type In this case it's an object That object is actually your model being passed into the razor view So interesting stuff there Let's break out again to a folder view So what I'm going to do next is a little crazy I'm going to dig into the bin folder for this project And inside of the bin folder We're going to find a project.views.dll file I'm going to use a free tool called Telerik just decompile To open up this razor view And let's go ahead and see what was actually compiled from our razor code here So I'm going to dive in if you see me dismissing a window here This is actually trying to decompile any dependencies that are on that object Don't need all the dependencies decompiled I just want to look at the specific razor view So inside of this razor view This is what was compiled from that code that we wrote And we have our class of view home index That inherits from razor page So that's where the razor page came from of T object Also interesting inside of this Is that we automatically generate some properties here So we have an HTML property So remember in our code when we wrote at HTML That's actually where that property is being extended with our extension method But what's really important is at the very bottom here So we have a task at the bottom called execute async And what this does is actually renders the String based on all of the markup that we wrote in our razor library So we have right literal and right And in here you can see our actual HTML helper being executed All of this stuff gets turned into a literal string An HTML string that we can view in the browser So that's very important to know Because later on we're going to talk about Razor components and things are going to be much different So let's go back into our presentation And we will talk about The razor views or sorry razor pages in Tag helpers next So razor pages was introduced with ASP net core It's a page focused approach versus model view controller Like the previous template So pages incorporate their own controllers actions and routings inside It's able to be integrated with mvc So these things aren't mutually exclusive You'll find that's a common trend with all the things I'm talking about today The content is actually made up of HTML and typically tag helpers So tag helpers are new to ASP net core We're going to talk about those next But we can still use HTML helpers and even razor components in a razor page We'll show that last If we do file new project and choose web application We will get a razor pages application This is different from the model view controller application as we'll see in a minute If we look at them side by side The ASP net mvc application has controllers models and views Where a razor pages application has just a pages folder And inside of that pages folder each page has their own code behind file So that's how they're primarily different The razor page versus a view is also written differently So we have an at page directive This identifies that this is a page in a razor pages application We also have an at model directive that ties into the code behind So this is where the code behind comes from This is where the page model is represented So we can set properties and things as you see in the example here We have a message that is used within our markup on the left Now also unique to razor pages is we have an on get method These methods actually correspond to html or http methods So get, post, put, and delete So you'll have on get, on put, on post, on delete And those things are used in place of controller actions So the page concept is more of a vertical slice And we're able to do that The page concept is more of a vertical slice And we're able to do everything in the code behind So the component model for razor pages is actually tag helpers And tag helpers are asynchronously server side processed pieces of html These use tags and attributes much like html does Which helps eliminate context switching between html and csharp They're also designed for unit testing in mind I don't have time to show that today But it is something that is a benefit of tag helpers over html helpers So html helpers versus tag helpers When you're writing them There are some fundamental differences between the two Now one of the things I like to point out When talking about these two types of component models is html helpers are nice They have nice fluent syntax But when you go to add things like html attributes Such as a class You have to do some special things So when we want to add a class Which is a normal thing A normal operation to do in html We have to do something like this We have to new up in a don of this object Then we have to escape the word class Because that's a reserved word in csharp So things start getting a little messy when we have to do this html helpers have this problem Tag helpers alleviate this problem By using tags and attributes directly So this same example below We're producing the same output But with very minimal effort The tag helper portion of this is actually the asp4 attribute So that identifies this as a tag helper And razor knows how to handle this And they output the same thing And what's nice in the second instance here Is our class When we define it We actually get IntelliSense within Visual Studio And we don't have to escape it And create those anonymous objects And those type of things If we look at a more complex example Like a teller at grid We have a nice fluent syntax with the html helper But if you look at the tag helper It looks a lot like html And inside of a big page This doesn't really stick out And there's no context to switch between If we want to control the scope of tag helpers Within our razor pages We have special directives To bring those things into scope Or remove them So we can use the add tag helper directive And there's built-in tag helpers in ASP.NET Core All the things that you need to build a form are there And if you look at something like the Telerik UI For ASP.NET Core There are both ASP.NET html tag helpers And tag helpers for both Sorry, for both razor tag helpers And razor html helpers This is a mouthful, guys There's about 60 UI components there That support either type of model So an example of that would be a date picker And you can see these are very easy to read and understand So let's jump into a razor pages demo And we'll decompile that one at the end as well So I'm going to pull my visual studio project back up here I'm going to switch projects over to razor pages And we're going to dive into the razor pages project And right away you'll notice I only have a pages folder Now the code for our index page Is actually represented in the code behind And we'll look at the markup as well So this is the razor page for our index page The markup is in this cshtml.cs file Behind it And you can see I have an on-get method That's not being used So we're not actually doing a whole lot of work here But it is nice to know that it's there Most of this page is written in html And I also have a tag helper on my page here This is a custom tag helper So we're going to talk about custom tag helpers for a moment So let's jump over to custom tag helpers And we'll take a look there And then we'll go back into our demo Oh, sorry That actually got removed for time concerns We're actually going to dive into the code Instead of some slides here So in our tag helper It's a little bit different than writing an html helper So instead of writing at html We're going to target a specific tag And we do that through html target element This is a directive that we can use to target Something inside of our markup So I have a tag helper called .net-conf That I'm going to be targeting with this tag helper And when we build a tag helper We need to override Or inherit the tag helper base class And override the process method When we do that we're able to take in content And write it back out as html So we're going to take in some parameters We have a property called name We're going to take that in as a parameter And then we're going to write that out to a string And that string is going to say property The name property loves .net-conf We're going to ignore some errors here Visual Studio is not playing along for .net-conf But anyhow, once we're done we're going to say We're going to set that html content And then we're going to render that out to the browser So we're consuming this custom tag helper here You can see it's highlighted It says .net-conf I'm passing in my name And we're going to render that out to the browser So we'll control F5 And again this is the component model for a razor page And we're going to write out Ed Charbonneau loves .net-conf That's our custom html helper Let's take a look with inspect And you can see we're writing out a span in that text That was produced by our tag helper gets emitted there So let's take one more look here We're going to go back into the folder view And we're going to find our .dll file again So we're going to go bin I'm in debug And we have our project.views.dll We're going to decompile that I'm going to ignore any dependencies Once again, I don't need to decompile the entire universe I just want to see the one page that I've written some custom code in Let's see what we get here This is the compiled version of that razor page And in that page we have a static class Or a public class of pages underscore index But notice here it's inheriting from page So a razor view is actually inheriting a razor page A razor page is just a page There are some similar properties in here You'll find html is here So we can still do html helpers And down at the very bottom Once again, we have this asynchronous task Called execute async Which turns everything inside of that razor page Into a literal string So again, keep that in mind That's very important That is the main takeaway that I want you guys to have today So we're going to go back And we're going to close just decompile And next we're going to start talking about Blazor So Blazor brings with it razor components So razor component is the component System for the Blazor framework Now it can still be used in ASP net projects Which we will see in a moment But for the most part, keep in mind that the razor component model came from the Blazor framework Now Blazor and razor components use the razor syntax They are a component architecture versus html generation tools They create what is called a render tree Which is a DOM abstraction I'm going to show you a little bit of that in just a moment Their file extension is dot razor versus dot cshtml And one of the reasons that we have this distinction is because how different they are in execution So razor files are used for code generation And these special dot net classes that implement a render tree So what is a render tree? Well in a typical javascript or jQuery application We are responsible for writing directly to the DOM Blazor does that work for us And it does it through a diffing engine And an example of this would be in a javascript application We use a selector using jQuery in this example We might find some elements in the DOM, remove them and replace them So this is an expensive task for our browser to do So for removing things from the DOM and then scrapping all of that and writing it back There may be some things that were actually unchanged in this process But we've gone and removed it and re-added it to the browser anyway So this is a very efficient model of operation Blazor does something different So Blazor creates a DOM abstraction or a shadow DOM So it has a copy, an object graph if you will And it can operate on this object graph Much like it would directly in the browser So if we remove elements using Blazor It will do it to the render tree first And then when it adds things back and notices that some elements may not have changed It only goes to the browser with those changes So there's a diffing algorithm that runs And says only update the things that have changed in the browser So this is a system that is very efficient And we don't want to circumvent that So Blazor has all of these wonderful features The component model and the render tree Are some of the key features that I want to talk about today So we're going to go into a Blazor application And first I just want to mention that with these components We also have all of these available with Telerik UI for Blazor So let's jump into a Blazor application And see the difference between the Views, razor views and razor pages And now how razor components act within the razor environment So I've got in my project here a razor components project in my solution And again you'll notice that we have this pages idea So we don't have model views and controllers So this kind of is the next step in razor pages But then it does a little more So we have all of our pages and components inside of this folder here Because pages and components in Blazor are the same So I'm going to open the index dot razor file And we'll also open the counter razor file So these are components with page routes So these can act like pages We can call them from a route in our browser But they also still maintain the ability to be components So they are both So if I go back to my index page I can reuse my counter component So I can call it counter here And now I have that counter component Which also has a page route On my index page as well as it being its own counter component and page So I have that reusability there And the counter component is made up of HTML, razor markup and C-sharp There's no JavaScript here So we don't have to write JavaScript to build a component architecture For Blazor and razor components So let's run this application We'll see what it looks like And then we'll do a deep dive again And see what the differences are Between what we saw with razor pages and razor views earlier So we've got this nice component architecture I can use my counter on my index page I can also navigate to it as a route So it's acting as both page and component Let's go back into our application And one thing I want to point out before I do the deep dive Is that our razor application here If we go under pages we have a host cshtml file So this is a razor page That is using And I'm going to focus on this line here It's using an HTML helper In a razor page to render a razor component So we've got all three technologies here Just mashed up together And we're awaiting at HTML Render component async And then we are rendering the app component Which is the container for our Blazor application So we're using razor pages And an HTML helper to bootstrap a Blazor application How interesting is that? Let's go to our source code now I'm going to go open a folder view And we're going to go decompile our application again So I'm going to go under the bin folder And inside of the bin folder, instead of opening the views folder I'm going to open the actual application folder Because the razor components are not views So they actually get compiled into the main application DLL So we're going to open this up with just decompile And we're going to look at the guts of that counter component I'm going to ignore all the dependencies once again I'm going to dive into razor components DLL And under pages, I have counter We'll open this up And this is completely different from razor views And razor pages So what the main takeaway here is We're actually inheriting from a component base architecture And this counter component becomes a class That uses a method called the build render tree method And this build render tree method actually is responsible For building that DOM abstraction that I talked about earlier So it's not writing directly to a string It's not writing this as HTML anywhere So when you're writing components for the Blazor framework You don't want to go in and do manual DOM manipulation A lot of people when they start using Blazor They ask how do I write raw HTML in Blazor You can but you shouldn't So this is why you shouldn't Because you're going to skip past this build render tree method And you're not going to have that efficiency Of the system doing updates for you So the build render tree actually adds the content To this object graph through these methods So we can see add markup open element Add content all of those things And it uses this to keep track of that object graph So we don't really need to know how all this works in great detail Just remember it's there So you're not writing things in your application To go in and manually manipulate that DOM Let's zoom back out here And I am free to take questions And hopefully you guys found that interesting So we got the top level of what all those technologies is And then we dove into the source code And saw what was actually compiled from all of those razor views That's probably something you don't do every day So I hope that you guys found it interesting All right, thanks so much Ed I think we have time for one question One question Okay So a question was asked How do you avoid the bad patterns of web forms with razor pages? How do you avoid the bad patterns of web That's a kind of a broad question I'm not sure what bad patterns we're talking about But I would assume things like view state Which a view state doesn't exist in Blazor The way it does in web forms So there's no view state for us to manage What is held in state in the render tree is managed by Blazor So we don't have any control over that So that's not something that we need to worry about Web forms has the idea of an abstraction around state That doesn't exist in Blazor We handle state in Blazor through dependency injection And plain class objects Just like we would in any other type of .NET application So that concern really isn't There's no parallel for it to kind of make a comparison Okay So then a quick question If you are familiar with web forms And you want to dive straight into razor pages and Blazor Quickly what would your learning path be? So the learning curve for Blazor in my opinion is pretty small Because if you're already a .NET developer It's using all .NET technologies So I'd say go to Blazor .NET And click on get started And just follow the first few examples there On building your first Blazor application There's a nice to-do list app in there that you can build And the component architecture in Blazor is so dead simple That I think people will gravitate to this very quickly All right, awesome Sweet, thank you so much Thanks so much, Ed Thank you guys And enjoy the rest of .NETConf Thank you so much, Jeff Now we're going to get Jeffrey Palermo up Talk about Azure DevOps So we'll be moving things around And really quick We were talking about legacy stuff Check out this Visual Basic 4 That's as you can get a workout Just lifting this There you go Because there's nothing but books That's right See it's a box We still say in the box In the out of box experience That's right All right So we will all see you guys shortly


Full Range Leadership, FRL. Date published, 1 August 2016. Master Sergeant Hagar was recently assigned to a duty section with six military subordinates and three civilians. Since this is a special duty assignment, the military members all come from different AFCs and have various levels of experience in their current positions. Aside from her routine responsibilities, Master Sergeant Hagar receives daily taskings from multiple sources, attends scheduled and unscheduled meetings which require preparation and has an additional duty. Her staff admires the dedication and effort she puts forth, so they come to her regarding many issues, work related and personal. After delegating certain tasks, she often finds it necessary to go over much of their work. This is causing her to delegate less and attempt more of the taskings herself. She is becoming overstressed because there is not enough time to accomplish everything that is expected of her. She feels her staff can contribute more and offset the workload but realizes that in order to refocus their efforts, it will require changes in her approach to leadership. What should she do? Leadership is unlocking people's potential to become better. Bill Bradley. Inside this chapter, Evolution of Leadership Theories. Full Range Leadership Behaviors. Fundamentals of FRL. Transactional Components. MBE-P. MBE-A. Contingent Reward. Transformational Components. Idealized Influence. Inspirational Motivation. Intellectual Stimulation. Individualized Consideration. Common Misunderstandings and Misperceptions of FRL. Unrealistic Expectations. Exclusive Use of Behaviors. Transformational Behavior in Rugged Duty Environments. Impact on Effectiveness. Subordinate. Senior NCO. Upon completion of this chapter, you should be able to terminal cognitive objective, comprehend full range leadership concepts and or their impact on subordinate and senior NCO effectiveness. Terminal cognitive samples of behavior, identify full range leadership concepts and or their impact on subordinate and senior NCO effectiveness. Predict the impact of full range leadership concepts on subordinate and senior NCO effectiveness. Effective Objective. Value full range leadership concepts and their positive impact on subordinate and senior NCO effectiveness. Effective Samples of Behavior. Enthusiastically dedicate yourself to read and listen to all material about full range leadership concepts and or their impact on subordinate and senior NCO effectiveness. About full range leadership concepts and their impact on subordinate and senior NCO effectiveness. Voluntarily complete all coursework related to full range leadership concepts and their impact on subordinate and senior NCO effectiveness. Openly Accept Full Range Leadership Concepts and their Positive Impact on Subordinate and senior NCO effectiveness. Willingly develop a preference for full range leadership concepts and their positive impact on subordinate and senior NCO effectiveness. Strive towards a commitment to apply full-range leadership concepts because of their positive impact on subordinate and senior NCO effectiveness. Why do we continue to study leadership? When it's all said and done, some people just make better leaders than others, right? As U.S. Air Force Airmen, we know influence plays a big part in successful leadership. If you're good at influencing others to accomplishing something they might not have attained on their own, does that make you a good leader? If so, do you think it has more to do with what you say or what you don't say? Since the first cave-dweller got someone else to help them move their rocks around the cave, people have influenced others, but what about when they worked in a coordinated effort to hunt for food or establish a sense of community? Someone had to envision a plan, communicate that vision, and establish the credibility to be trusted or followed by the others, either through respect or fear. Since prehistoric people exhibited some forms of leadership without ever reading a book, does that mean leadership is purely instinctual, or did they gain insight from their experiences by watching others? Learning and leadership are at the core of our profession. Military service must continue to be our nation's preeminent leadership experience. C.J.C.S.I. 1805.01b. For centuries, scholars have studied leadership and developed theories explaining why certain leadership behaviors are more effective than others. As senior NCOs, we continue to study the art of leadership and apply its principles to develop ourselves and our airmen. Leadership theories, such as those based on traits, skills, and styles, were predominantly focused on a person's characteristics. Early development of these theories was accomplished by studying the attributes of successful leaders and identifying which ones were most significant to their successes. These leaders were not only from military or government professions, but from a broad range of fields, such as commerce, transportation, and manufacturing. As the development of leadership studies evolved, theorists began looking at the workers followers and their required tasks, not just the leaders. This awareness gave rise to the concept of situational leadership, which provided a more modern approach to the increasingly complex relationship between leaders and followers, yet some theorists were still unsatisfied with the limitations presented by this concept. When J.M. Burns conceptualized leadership as either transactional or transformational in 1978, it provided a new paradigm in leadership theory. His studies then paved the way for Avoglio and Bass to develop the full range leadership FRL model, which captures many of the valuable concepts found in earlier leadership theories and provides more clarity on their usage. Since utilizing the FRL model is more comparable to having a toolbox, rather than an operator's manual, in order to benefit from this toolbox, a leader must first comprehend how the tools are properly used. You may recall learning about FRL, or FRLD, at the NCOA level of PME. If so, you will already be familiar with many of the principles. But for this level of PME, you are expected to comprehend them to a greater extent. You need to understand how senior NCO can apply these principles in a role commensurate with his or her rank and scope of responsibility. Comprehension of the material, not just memorization, is essential to your success as a full range leader. Identifying the visual differences between a carpenter's hammer, a ball peen hammer, and a sledge hammer only requires memorization. Understanding how each of them works and recognizing when they're not working correctly requires comprehension. When you're studying FRL, or any other lesson in this course, don't just memorize the facts. Strive to understand how the concept works and recognize when adjustment is necessary. This study of FRL begins with a refresher on the evolution of theories that attempted to capture the essence of leadership and establish ways to approach leadership situations. Next, you will explore the fundamentals of FRL and see how possessing a range of leadership behaviors can be beneficial to a leader. Followed by a brief synopsis of some misunderstandings and misperceptions that people have about FRL. The study wraps up with a focused perspective on how proper use of FRL can impact subordinate and senior NCO effectiveness. So let's start off by getting refreshed on leadership. The importance of this refresher on leadership theory is to help you understand how these concepts ultimately led to development of FRL, not how the theories were applied individually. So keep in mind while you're reading, it is not necessary to comprehend these theories on their own, but recognizing their principles will definitely increase your comprehension of full-range leadership. Evolution of leadership theories. Trait-based leadership. The first studies of leadership focused on fixed personal characteristics and innate qualities one possessed known as traits. Back then a person's leadership effectiveness was said to be influenced by their intelligence, self-confidence, determination, integrity and sociability. Trait-based leadership poses a few problems. How does one develop a trait? Apparently trait-based leadership theories favor the notion that leaders are born and not made. Also leaders who share the same traits often times act differently. For instance, throughout history there have been self-confident and intelligent leaders who consistently displayed righteousness while other leaders possessing the same traits led followers down paths of murder and destruction. Franklin D. Roosevelt and Adolf Hitler were both charismatic, confident and intelligent leaders with great public appeal, but the common traits between them were not accurate predictors of their behavior. Although it's true that leaders who have certain desirable traits tend to excel, there is evidence to support that education and training can improve leadership effectiveness which supports the notion that leaders can be made. Psychodynamic theory. Leaders can have a key role in influencing how their followers think, feel and act. Psychodynamic theory assumes that the world can be a hostile, unpredictable and unforgiving environment, and that the followers look for leaders who can make sense of such turbulent conditions and crisis situations. This explanation supports the notion that leaders and followers are drawn to their roles by virtue of personality type. We have all seen certain personality types excel in unique leadership roles in which other types might not have fared so well. Were these leaders successful because they operated within their comfort zones or because they understood their limitations or preferences, overcame challenges and shared lessons learned with their followers? Either way, having the right personality for a particular role is quite beneficial but is not always practical. Skills theory. Skills theory focuses on leaders who can control their emotions and successfully solve problems, since people tend to think and act with emotion. This theory advocates that skill and knowledge are involved when dealing with emotions and trying to manage them properly. For example, let's say one of your subordinates just unleashed some critical but inaccurate comments at you. How would you respond? Would you retaliate right there, defending your pride? Or could you compose yourself to de-escalate the situation and rationally discuss the problem? Problem solving, the second element of skills theory, proposes that leaders are effective if they can assist followers in solving personal, organizational, and career-related problems. In these situations, a leader's cognitive and social skills coupled with their own life experiences influence their leadership effectiveness. Style theory. Style theory focuses on two types of leadership, task-oriented and people-oriented. Task-oriented leadership concentrates on initiating structures and paths for followers to perform effectively. People-oriented leadership considers fostering good relationships between the leaders and followers. Both of these leadership styles influence followers' performance and satisfaction, the actual differences in order of priorities. Leaders who lack or avoid either one of these styles are usually less effective than those who can fittingly apply both styles. Therefore, having such a limited range would indicate why style theory does not provide much flexibility or latitude for a leader. Over time, the shift in theoretical focus from traits or skills to behaviors or styles improve the outlook on developing leadership, since an individual's behaviors are more easily changed than traits. Situational leadership. Situational leadership theory concentrates on two leader behaviors, directive and supportive. The four possible combinations of higher-low directive behaviors and higher-low supportive behaviors were used to establish four leadership styles, directing, coaching, supporting, and delegating. Each style is a different approach to leadership defined by the situation or task and the followers' maturity or development. The leader chooses his or her appropriate behavior after determining a subordinates' level of competence and commitment. Since this method is also task-specific, leaders must readjust their behavior for each task, even if it's for the same subordinate. Although this theory quickly gained popularity in leadership studies and still remains popular, it does not provide the flexibility many leaders require on a day-to-day basis. Authentic leadership. Authentic leadership theory suggests that effective leaders are true to themselves and others, have positive psychological states, and adhere to strong morals and values. It sounds refreshing and idealistic, but the concept of authentic leadership is not new. Think about leaders who are known for great leadership, but exhibited behaviors that indicated questionable morals or compromised their people. Were they authentic leaders? Why are their great leaders, historical and current, who do not meet the criteria for authentic leadership? From a global perspective, we know some leaders rose from cultures or environments lacking in morals or standards of ethical behavior. But what about those who had foundations rooted in ethics and morals, yet still strayed from those values? What sort of moral compass did they use to stay on course? You can see that many of the leadership dilemmas we face each day are not recent developments. People that came before us examined different angles and approaches to leadership and tried to explain why some things worked and some didn't. In addition, practical application of some theories can be difficult and often require a degree of latitude not addressed within the theory. Fortunately, we now have a toolbox of behaviors to engage leadership situations and the flexibility to adapt them, accounting for variations in personalities, relationships, time constraints, and other dynamics in the form of full range leadership. FRL is unique because it requires us to view leadership as a system based on the leader, the follower, and the situation at its core elements. Factors acting upon these elements such as personalities, skills, styles, opportunities, challenges, rewards, and consequences create an ever-changing environment with all components bounded by constraints, resources, and susceptible to change over time. The concepts of FRL provides leaders with ways to navigate this environment by choosing different leadership behaviors based on their assessment of the situation, the follower, and themselves. The spectrum of FRL behavior is broken down into three categories, laissez-faire, transactional, and transformational. In this next main point, you will explore these fundamental behaviors of FRL and see how they apply to you as a senior NCO in the U.S. Air Force. With those earlier leadership theories fresh in your mind, think about what scholars were trying to accomplish to establish some sort of guide or pattern to follow when faced with the changing dynamics and leadership situations. Being familiar with various dynamics that impact leadership situations is essential to comprehending how FRL works. Now let's shift our focus towards the fundamentals of FRL, where we establish the relationship between three basic FRL behaviors. Full range leadership behaviors. Delving into the toolbox, we see that FRL behaviors are aligned on a spectrum from passive, least effective, to active, most effective. This spectrum helps us visualize their relative effectiveness and keeps things in perspective while learning about their characteristics. Fundamentals of FRL behaviors. Laissez-faire. At the passive end of the spectrum is laissez-faire, a French term which describes an attitude of letting things take their own course without interference from others. Theorists believe there are certain leadership situations when this behavior is appropriate. For example, when a worker or team is highly skilled, dependable, and reliable, and the leader has to focus on more pressing issues. The logic behind laissez-faire is to let them do their job without any interference. Now this may sound like a desirable situation. Worker or team does the job well. Supervisor doesn't have to spend much time with them. Everybody's happy, right? Well, maybe this isn't such a desirable situation. The downside is that the leader might not be engaged enough to know when the followers will need intervention in the form of subtle guidance, straightforward discipline, or somewhere in between. Some leaders choose to refrain from intervening even after discovering a subordinates poor performance, relying on the subordinates own motivation towards self-improvement. Whether it is a conscious decision based on trust and not wanting to further punish the individual or a result of leader apathy, refusing to acknowledge the poor performance is laissez-faire behavior and exhibits an absence of leadership. As leaders, we look out for the well-being of our people. We consider not only their duty performance, but their health, their families, and their careers. That's not to say we should interfere with their work in order to look out for them, but adopting a laissez-faire attitude towards an individual or team because they are most competent will lead to neglect. In reality, we know laissez-faire behavior does happen, usually as a result of conflicting priorities. It's important to recognize when you exhibit this behavior, because if it happens often, you can become or be perceived as a laissez-faire leader who avoids or ignores responsibilities, causing detriment and neglect to followers. Transactional. In the middle of the spectrum, you will find transactional behavior. This type of leadership behavior is based on connecting a transaction or social exchange to motivation. In other words, providing compensation in exchange for desired follower behavior or a consequence for undesired behavior. The transaction can involve actual rewards or penalties or be more interpersonal, like providing praise or criticism. It is often compared to the old carrot and stick cartoon, where the carrot represented a reward and the stick represented a consequence, yet they were both motivators. Granted, motivation is important in leadership and the practice of using rewards and consequences is foundational to good order and discipline. For example, some of the general NCO and senior NCO responsibilities found in AFI 36-2618. The enlisted force structure reflects transactional leadership, so it is a required behavior. But if a leader solely relies upon these transactions to motivate followers, he or she is not taking an interest in the follower's personal development. Unfortunately, it's easy to fall into this routine and leaders don't realize their negative impact until after the damage is done. As you can see, transactional leadership is more effective than laissez-faire because it provides forms of motivation, but it lacks opportunities for personal development and true empowerment. So if overutilized as a leadership tool, it limits leadership potential and could be demoralizing for followers. As USAF Airmen, we don't just lead others, we empower them. As senior NCO, it is your responsibility to mentor subordinates and prepare them for greater responsibilities, ultimately replacing you as you move on. This is very different from the corporate world where managers often worry about being replaced by subordinates who demonstrate greater leadership skills. In the profession of arms, we encourage and motivate our subordinates to achieve greater roles and responsibilities and we feel a sense of pride and accomplishment when they are successful. Empowerment is vital to leadership growth and transformational leadership behavior found at the active end of the FRL spectrum is the most effective way to develop and empower your subordinates. AFI 36-2618 directs us to appropriately recognize and reward individuals whose military conduct and duty performance clearly exceed established standards and hold subordinates accountable when they do not meet established standards. Transformational, empowering followers through transformational leadership requires much dedication and effort from a leader but is most rewarding. The leader motivates followers by genuinely caring about their concerns and appropriately addressing these concerns through open channels of communication. They inspire followers by establishing goals and challenging them to reach and exceed those goals. They stimulate creativity and original thinking by respecting and valuing their opinions and perspectives. They positively influence followers by setting an example of high moral character and displaying a strong commitment to organizational values. Some of the general NCO and senior NCO responsibilities found in AFI 36-2618 the enlisted force structure reflect transformational leadership as well. Transformational leadership involves inspiring followers to commit to a shared vision and goals for an organizational unit, challenging them to be innovative problem solvers and developing followers leadership capacity via coaching, mentoring, and provision of both challenge and support. BAS and RIGEO. General NCO responsibilities 4.1.6 Know and understand the wingman concept. Airmen take care of other fellow airmen. Be a good wingman means you share a bond with other airmen. You can be counted on to support each other in all situations both on and off duty. 4.1.13 Take an active leadership and supervisory role by staying involved with subordinates on a daily basis. Use their own experiences and knowledge to mentor others. Guide and instruct subordinates to ensure they are prepared to accept increased levels of authority and responsibility. Assist subordinates in reaching their full potential. 4.1.14 Provide career counseling to subordinates on benefits, entitlements, and opportunities available during an Air Force career. Ensure subordinates understand what is expected to be competitive for promotion and what types of career opportunities exist. At a minimum, counseling occurs in conjunction with performance feedback counseling or during quality review under the Selective Reenlistment Program. Review and provide a copy of the Air Force Benefits fact sheet. General Senior NCO Responsibilities 5.1.6 Be an active, visible leader. Deliberately develop junior enlisted airmen, NCOs, and fellow senior NCOs into better followers, leaders, and supervisors. 5.1.7 Secure and promote PME and professional enhancement courses for themselves and subordinates to develop and cultivate leadership skills and military professionalism. Senior NCOs should complete their CCAF degree, if not already earned, and continue development for self and subordinates through available on and off-duty education, leadership lectures and seminars, and the Chief of Staff of the Air Force Reading Program. 5.1.9 Clearly meet and strive to exceed the standards and expectations levied upon all junior enlisted airmen and NCOs. Epitomize excellence, professionalism, pride, and competence, serving as a role model for all airmen to emulate. 5.1.10 Attain and maintain excellent physical conditioning. Always meet Air Force fitness standards and set a positive example for subordinates. Lead the way by promoting, supporting, and participating in unit physical training activities and the Air Force Fitness Program. Incorporate physical training in their teams, duty schedules, as the mission allows. 6.1.9 Looking at the general responsibilities listed above, we begin to see parallels between the essential elements of transformational leadership behavior and what the U.S. Air Force expects of its senior NCOs. Notice the common terms or themes that appear, challenge, coach, develop, innovate, inspire, mentor, and support. All familiar terms, which are embedded in our culture. As you read about the components of transformational behavior further into this chapter, you will see even more parallels between transformational behavior and Air Force culture. Now that you understand the fundamental relationship between the three basic FRL behaviors, we will break down transactional and transformational behaviors by their components. Transactional Behavior Components The effectiveness of transactional leadership behavior depends on the consistency of reinforcing desired follower behavior through rewards and consequences. In consistency or in activity equates to ineffective leadership. An example of transactional behavior is the use of attention. Just as a child seeks his or her parent's attention, followers often seek the leader's attention and approval. Showing the proper attention, like praise, to a subordinate can reward or reinforce desired behavior, while criticism directed towards a subordinate should convey disapproval of undesired behavior. On the contrary, not showing their appropriate attention, praise or criticism will fail to reinforce desired behavior or deter undesired behavior. Senior NCOs have various means to acknowledge desired behavior, such as permitting comp time, submitting for unit recognition, and fulfilling specific follower requests within reason. As an alternative method of reward when applicable, senior NCOs can remove certain conditions that are unpleasant to the follower, such as altering work schedule by placing the individual on a different shift or team, or discarding an LOC. Transactional consequences can be the opposite of reward actions mentioned above, like denying comp time or administering an LOC, but could also be accomplished via increased oversight and scrutiny of work. The consistency of a leader's presence and involvement indicates how active or passive they are within the scope of transactional behavior and is directly related to its effectiveness. This relationship is categorized into three behavioral components, management by exception passive, MBE-P, management by exception active, MBE-A, and contingent reward, CR. Management by exception passive, looking at the diagram above, MBE-P appears as the most passive of the transactional behavioral components. It's more active and slightly more effective than the laissez-faire behavior because the leader holds subordinates accountable if they fail to meet standards of performance or disregard policies and procedures. Think laissez-faire with a follow-up if there's a problem. The leader does not put much effort into preventing these events from happening, although will occasionally acknowledge or extend a compliment when things are done correctly. Potentially, an absence of earlier involvement could be justified due to time constraints or conflicting priorities, a legitimate intent or purpose like trust or a result of leader apathy. Regardless of justification, if it happens too often, subordinates will be conditioned to focus their efforts on what provokes the leader to react and most likely neglect areas in which the leader shows little interest. People tend to distrust leaders who only get involved when there's a problem and often convey little commitment towards them. Passive leadership behavior usually yields passive follower compliance. Likewise, if a leader is inconsistent when addressing unacceptable situations or specific individuals, the followers will eventually become resentful. Consider this, even if followers do not become disgruntled by the leader's behavior, the non-verbal message communicated is the passive way of doing things is acceptable or perhaps even expected. Unfortunately, when leaders exhibit MBE-P too often, they get labeled by subordinates as finger-pointers or seagull managers, with a latter known as someone who continually critiques the team's efforts without participating, support, or offering solutions. The label comes from a seagull's tendency to drop in, make a lot of noise, leave a mess, then leave. Have you ever seen someone behave this way? Have you been guilty of this behavior? Military members are expected to be actively involved with their subordinates, providing guidance and focus as the norm, so it's important to recognize how and when you exhibit MBE-P behavior. Moving along the spectrum, we see the next component of transactional behavior is management by exception active. Management by exception active. MBE-A, with its more active nature, places it to the right of MBE-P on the spectrum. This leadership behavior is an effort to prevent problems from occurring by keeping people and processes in control. The leader monitors subordinates activities by ensuring compliance with rules, regulations, and performance standards. Effective use of MBE-A reduces uncertainties, avoids unnecessary risks, and ensures important goals are being met. It can also reduce the temptation for employees to shirk their duties or act improperly while providing additional clarity on performance expectations. MBE-A is commonly used in environments where critical, life-threatening situations are expected as the norm, but it can be used anywhere that compliance is a priority. When used appropriately, followers appreciate this leadership behavior as it reduces uncertainties regarding their mission or purpose. Consequently, if used inappropriately or overused, subordinates become regulated by unnecessary control measures in some ways similar to micromanagement. MBE-A can be a double-edged sword within the profession of arms. There are many situations where compliance is a priority, however micromanagement can have devastating effects on morale. Finding the right balance between subordinate control and freedom is essential to your effectiveness as a leader. Leadership responsibilities involve more than just control. What about follower motivation? Up until this point, we have only addressed transactional leadership behaviors that predominantly motivate by consequence. Contingent reward is intended to motivate followers by rewarding them for meeting expectations and demonstrating desired behaviors. Contingent reward. As the third transactional component, CR depicts the most active transactional leadership behavior and is situated to the right of MBE-A. CR transactions are more like agreements where the leader establishes goals, identifies ways to reach these goals, and supports the follower in meeting these goals. The goals are usually task-oriented and followers are required to perform the assigned task, reaching a specific performance level. After a subordinate fulfills the leader's expectation, a reward is provided to reinforce the positive behavior. However, if expectations are not met, the reward is withheld, otherwise it will reinforce substandard behavior. When properly administered, CR is more effective than MBE-A because the leader is setting the follower up with a path for success. Contingent rewards may appear in various forms. Affirmations such as personal compliments, praise in front of peers, public recognition from higher levels, granting agreed upon terms like participation in special events, attending specialized schools or programs, permitting greater autonomy, or even removing unpleasant conditions like changing the duty environment to a different shift location or team. Whatever the reward, it needs to be an incentive for the follower, otherwise it will not achieve the desired outcome. To be most effective, leaders should seek out what motivates each subordinate and establish his or her contingent reward accordingly. By demonstrating more concern for the follower over concern for the task, the leader is providing encouragement and not just motivation. Exercising leadership through CR can be a building block towards strengthening the leader-follower relationship. Based on the follower situation and factors surrounding the situation, we see that any of the transactional behaviors could be an appropriate leader response. Although the components depict more concepts of management than leadership, remember, leaders still have to manage. Transactional behavior is effective when the goal is task oriented, bounded by some constraint preventing a more actively involved leadership approach, or as a part of the direction discipline and recognition, DDR, aspects of progressive professionalism. However, just as frequent laissez-faire behavior can neglect the needs of followers, if you rely solely upon transactions as your normal mode of operation, only managing and not leading, you will fail to develop your subordinates leadership capabilities. Think about the source of motivation. If a follower's environment is limited to conditioning by external motivators, rewards, and penalties, how can she or he become self-motivated? This is where transformational leadership behavior comes into the picture. Transformational leadership not only provides opportunities for subordinate development, it promotes internal motivation among 21st century airmen. Transformational behavior components. At this point, you may still be asking yourself, what does transformational really mean? Or how can I tell if my typical leadership behavior is more transactional or transformational? A key difference that sets transformational behavior apart from transactional behavior is that the leader is genuinely engaged in the follower's personal development and positively influences the follower's self-worth. Subsequently, the follower becomes genuinely committed to the cooperative effort and demonstrates commitment to the leader. Moreover, the leader-follower relationship is further enriched by moving beyond a carrot and stick environment and evolving into an environment of mutual trust and respect. Ultimately, the follower can exceed prior expectations, experience higher levels of job satisfaction, and gain increased commitment to the mission. In addition to benefiting the follower's personal development, the leader's personal development benefits as well. Thus, both are transformed. Since transformational leadership behaviors are reflected in AFI 36-2618, the enlisted force structure, you should already have experience demonstrating them. Senior NCOs are the most experienced supervisors and are expected to personify these behaviors. So how can you improve your skills with transformational leadership? Start with comparing your daily behaviors to the transformational components below. Then honestly ask yourself, is this what I'm already doing? If you're lacking in any of the component areas, prioritize a list for self-improvement opportunities, then focus on developing one area at a time until you feel more natural demonstrating the particular leadership behavior. If there's a behavior that seems too challenging or unnatural for you, try taking very small steps instead of attempting to conquer it overnight. There's an old saying, how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. To see what constitutes transformational leadership behavior, let's look at four components. Idealized influence, I.I. Inspirational motivation, I.M. Intellectual stimulation, I.S., and individualized consideration, I.C. Transformational leaders help followers grow and develop into leaders by responding to individual followers' needs by empowering them and by aligning the objectives and goals of the individual followers, the leader, the group, and the larger organization, BASS and RIGEO. Idealized influence, influence is a key aspect to leadership and idealized influence, I.I., means ensuring we are communicating the right kind of influence, just as authentic leadership theory advocates. As U.S. Air Force Airmen, we exhibit I.I. when we consistently represent the virtues which define our core value of integrity first. Honesty is the hallmark of integrity. It drives us to advance our skills and credentials through our own effort. The service member's word must be unquestionable. According to U.S. Air Force core values, courage is not absence of fear, but doing the right thing despite the fear. Courage empowers us to take necessary personal and professional risks, making decisions that may be unpopular and admit to our mistakes. Having the courage to take these actions is crucial for the mission. The Air Force and the nation. Accountable individuals maintain transparency, seek honest and constructive feedback, and take ownership of the outcomes of their actions and decisions. They are responsible to themselves and others and refrain from actions which discredit themselves or our service. Think about some of the other qualities attributed to senior NCOs, maintaining high personal standards, holding others accountable for maintaining Air Force standards, supporting organizational decisions in words and actions, championing trust in each other, and sacrificing personal gain for the mission and subordinates. All of these attributes as well as others contribute to the strong character of leaders who earn the respect, trust, and admiration of their followers. In turn, followers want to emulate these credible leaders because they personify the qualities that some only speak about. Therefore, when you are communicating with a subordinate, your character and credibility as a senior NCO may have a direct impact on your ability to influence effectively. You may have the best of intentions, but certain speaking habits, postures, or other characteristics can detract from your influence. Many leaders walk the talk and live their lives ensuring all required boxes are checked, yet they're unaware of how they really come across to peers and subordinates. These leaders can benefit from asking their peers and subordinates for honest feedback on how they're perceived. By valuing the feedback and making necessary adjustments, the effort will be noticed and can be a boost to one's influence. Some behaviors that favorably depict idealized influence are instilling pride in others for being associated with you, going beyond self-interest for the good of others, acting in ways that build others' respect, displaying a sense of power and confidence, and reassuring others that obstacles will be overcome. Idealized influence is the component of transformational behavior that portrays the leader as a role model. If you model the core values and set the example as an ideal senior NCO, you will exhibit I.I. to your followers. If you depict a less-than-ideal example, your I.I. will suffer accordingly. While idealized influence is where you set the example, inspirational motivation is where you raise the bar. Inspirational motivation Leaders who use inspirational motivation, I.M., behavior motivate and inspire their followers via the spoken word, although loud and positive words are not enough. The status quo is unacceptable to transformational leaders who present their vision as the must-achieve future. These visions elevate performance expectations and inspire followers to put forth extra effort in achieving the leader's vision. Followers receive a strong sense of purpose from I.M. And it's this purpose that provides energy to drive a person, team, or organization forward. Inspirational motivation Develop and articulate visions that paint an optimistic and enthusiastic picture of the future. Motivate and inspire your followers via your words and actions. Recall someone in your life that inspired you to take action. What did they do or say that evoked an emotional response giving you the initiative to get started or the perseverance to follow through until completion? That person, as an external motivator, inspired you to generate your own internal motivation. Now recall the difference in motivation between transactional and transformational leadership behaviors. Transactional is external, while transformational encourages internal motivation. Inspirational motivation can be the fuse to ignite a follower's internal motivation. An important aspect of I.M. is articulating a clear and compelling vision of the future. So what constitutes a compelling vision? Start by providing an exciting image of what is important to followers and consider values and ideals that are common with Air Force culture. Next, the vision needs to be realizable where you stretch followers out of their comfort zones but keep goals attainable. Finally, the language describing the vision must use superior imagery that touches followers' emotions and be delivered with sincerity and passion. General Mark Walsh III is a transformational leader who motivates through inspiration and articulates his visions for the future. View an example of his inspirational motivation. Another aspect of I.M. is expressing confidence that goals will be achieved. Whether it concerns the goals of your vision or other goals within the organization continue to speak optimistically about the future outcome. When times get difficult followers may have doubt even if they don't vocalize it. They need to hear words of optimism from a trusted leader so they can refocus and face the challenges ahead. Being optimistic about the outcome only addresses part of the equation. You should also speak enthusiastically about the tasks to be accomplished in the short term. To experience a different example of inspirational motivation view this AF clip on excellence. Speaking with enthusiasm doesn't always have to be gentle as Airmen we're all familiar with stern motivation. Oftentimes we get bogged down by tasks or deadlines and feel overwhelmed almost to the point of defeat. If a leader allows that to surface when speaking to subordinates he or she will send a counterproductive message negatively affecting the subordinates motivation. In order to maximize your I.M. remember to remain confident when facing adversity and be that rock of stability for your subordinates. In 1970 Gene Krantz Flight Director of the Apollo 13 mission was faced with the near impossible task of getting the spacecraft back to Earth safely after it was damaged by an onboard explosion. He led a team in a desperate struggle finding alternate methods and innovative resources to power the navigation system before crew life support systems were depleted. Despite the odds he remained steadfast while directing focusing and motivating them towards a solution. If you've seen the movie you will remember the line failure is not an option. Articulating a compelling vision for the future and motivating followers to achieve that vision is remarkable. If you are a leader who inspires others to raise the bar and invigorates them to meet and exceed those challenges then you exhibit inspirational motivation. Changing our focus slightly let's look at how leaders foster innovation through intellectual stimulation. Intellectual stimulation the need for brainstorming ideas and finding creative solutions to problems has been essential in our enlisted culture for decades. Intellectual stimulation IS is the part of transformational leadership that encourages followers to be innovative. Innovation has nothing to do with how many R&D dollars you have. When Apple came up with the Mac IBM was spending at least a hundred times more on R&D. It's not about the money it's about the people you have how you're led and how much you get it Steve Jobs. Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower Steve Jobs. If you look at history innovation doesn't come just from giving people incentives it comes from creating environments where their ideas can connect Steven Johnson. Whenever current processes need to be reviewed for efficiency and effectiveness situations arise that require a new approach or existing paradigms are no longer valid these instances should be opportunities to challenge followers and stimulate their minds encourage them to brainstorm solutions and exercise their innovation and creativity provide them support as needed but let them work through problems and gain confidence in their abilities to resolve issues at higher levels than they already are familiar with. For instance present subordinates with a decision that you would normally make it needs to be a challenge provide them with the same factors or information that you would have available after they work through it discuss the potential solutions or outcomes and provide feedback as necessary it is important to value your followers ideas and solutions just because you encourage subordinates to work through a problem doesn't mean you value their solution so don't let them feel their work was in vain carrying it forward by presenting the solution as a group or individual effort is important to the leader follower relationship if you stand by their solution it not only shows loyalty but that you value their intellect and judgment and are willing to take risks based on their input additionally internal motivation has been elevated because they're trusted and empowered to make improvements and gain increased ownership of processes creating intellectual stimulation for followers by encouraging innovation is a great way to transition their development into more expanded leadership roles it provides bridging opportunities and is most effective in group or team environment next to complete our components of transformational behavior we'll look at the most personalized behavior individualized consideration individualized consideration Air Force culture is strengthened when leaders know their followers goals ambitions concerns individualized consideration supports this aim senior NCOs are expected to serve as mentors which requires supporting each person as an individual and providing guidance that is specific to their needs we care about our people and want them to succeed but how do they know we care individualized consideration I see supports this aim when leaders treat others as individuals with different needs abilities and aspirations and not just as part of a group when the current ops tempo and constant pressure on mission focus maintaining proper consideration for supportants is vital now more than ever one of the ways we initiate I see is by taking time to visit with our people in their work environment or taking them to lunch when appropriate and opening a dialogue allowing them to speak freely in this setting you must be present in the conversation and listen effectively remember to be mindful of any nonverbals that might convey impatience or disinterest if you're genuinely interested in your subordinate then be genuinely interested in the conversation otherwise you will be doing more harm than good you must get to know your subordinates for instance being able to discuss and recall names of their family members certain off-duty activities they enjoy or the degree program in which they're enrolled are examples of showing individualized consideration acceptance of different or unique preferences to social interaction is also a critical dynamic some people openly share a lot of personal information while some prefer to hold back on providing details so you should adjust your dialogue accordingly during these informal conversations you become more in tune with your subordinates needs which leads to increased development and mentoring opportunities IC involves showing empathy and compassion as a result of such attention followers become more willing to improve helping someone to develop their leadership capabilities is not a cookie cutter approach since each person has different strengths and weaknesses each will have different areas of needing improvement by spending individual time with your subordinates you attain a greater awareness of their preferences which helps you to personalize their mentoring and development remember transformational behavior reflects genuine concern for your followers personal development and positively influences their self-worth as a role model you set the example for them with your appearance your character and your leadership therefore your example should be idealized influence through inspirational motivation you inspire them to generate internal motivation and achieve greater accomplishments by raising the bar by challenging them to be innovative and resourceful and valuing their efforts you provide intellectual stimulation lastly by taking the time to learn from your followers their needs and preferences personalizing conversations with them and generally showing that you care you provide individualized consideration if you reflect on your current leadership behaviors and see areas for improvement start working to improve your capability for transformational leadership up until this point we have covered all of the full range leadership behaviors and behavioral components now that you understand how each one is properly utilized in order to fully benefit from full range leadership let's clear up some common misunderstandings and misperceptions the developmental nature of transformational leadership is best illustrated through individualized consideration sosek and yang common misunderstandings and misperceptions of frl some people have unrealistic expectations about transformational leadership thinking to be a transformational leader I must use transformational behavior all the time for the development of your subordinates you should exercise transformational leadership when you can but understand there are many situations when transactional behavior is appropriate or necessary some think that using a less active leadership behavior is a failure on their part based on the passive versus active relationship within the frl spectrum to clarify if you become lazy as a leader and inappropriately exhibit more passive leadership behaviors then yes it is a failure to lead effectively but if you are fully engaged and properly assessing situations using a more passive frl behavior might be what you need to motivate your subordinate another misunderstanding is that these behaviors are exclusive where you can only utilize them one at a time if you did you would be restricting the potential of your leadership the beauty of frl is that you can combine behaviors to suit the dynamics of the situation as airman we know that just because you're mentoring someone does not mean that you can't discipline the person if they're out of line if a subordinate responds better to transactional feedback rather than individualized consideration then use the transactions but that does not mean you have to forego the other aspects of transformational leadership remember the intent of frl is to have a full range of leadership behaviors which can be adapted to your respective leader follower situation and the factors impacting the situation for further clarification let's address using the terms laissez-faire leader versus laissez-faire behavior and the same comparison for transactional and transformational laissez-faire leader does not mean the same as laissez-faire behavior laissez-faire leaders frequently appear disengaged from their followers and do not normally make an effort to provide guidance or support they might demonstrate transactional or even transformational behavior at times but are known for exhibiting and overusing laissez-faire behavior a majority of the time whether intentionally or unintentionally transactional leaders are known for their predominant use of transactional behavior although they may demonstrate other behaviors at times lastly transformational leaders are recognized by their use of transformational behavior yet they will demonstrate other frl behaviors as necessary this final point addresses those individuals who feel transformational leadership will not apply in their duty environment the misperception of transformational behavior being a softer approach to leadership turns some people away from employing it which is unfortunate because transformational behavior does not have to be soft to be effective transformational leadership gets followers to move out of their comfort zones to develop their full potential even though the culture within a career field may require more use of transactional leadership to maintain control measures a resourceful senior NCO can still figure out ways to incorporate transformational leadership within that subculture we cannot cover every misunderstanding within the scope of this chapter let's face it everyone will have their own perceptions reading about each behavior and behavioral component can lead to a compartmental view of frl which is restrictive the takeaway for you to understand is realizing the latitude and flexibility afforded by frl which is greater than any previous leadership theory could provide as we near the end of this chapter let's look at how proper use of frl can impact subordinate and senior NCO effectiveness fundamental to the frl model is that every leader displays each behavior to some amount bass and rigio impact on effectiveness you now have a better understanding of full-range leadership so what's most likely to happen if you use these concepts to align your leadership behaviors why should you use them how have leaders around you applied them as you read the following think about how you can enhance your overall effectiveness by employing full-range leadership subordinate effectiveness remember that transactional leadership can be beneficial when a goal is task-oriented or as part of the direction, discipline, and recognition DDR aspects of progressive professionalism if you're setting ground rules with your subordinates it may be helpful to rely on some MBE-A or CR behaviors to establish a foundation by providing increased clarity, structure, and motivation you are helping your subordinates to become more effective in what they do as the rapport increases and the leader-follower relationship evolves you will incorporate more transformational behaviors to develop the subordinate's leadership capabilities and enhance their internal motivation making them even more effective the primary emphasis of transformational leadership is on subordinate effectiveness although it does benefit the leader to an extent it's more about guiding the follower to a higher level of greatness idealized influence and individual consideration provide the increased connection between you and your subordinates while intellectual stimulation challenges them and inspirational motivation lights the fire through your mentorship followers can exceed their own expectations and generate results beyond their previous capabilities FRL is not just about your subordinate's effectiveness consider your effectiveness as a leader as well senior NCO effectiveness according to AFI 36-2618 the enlisted force structure paragraph 5.1.1 senior NCOs are mandated to provide highly effective leadership they must lead and manage teams while maintaining the highest level of readiness to ensure mission success in addition according to AFI 36-2647 institutional competency development and management leading people is an AFI institutional competency with two sub competencies develops and inspires others facilitates others and guides them in establishing their long-term career goals based on their desires and the needs of the AFI through a combined approach of feedback coaching mentoring and delegating takes care of people evaluates options and selects appropriate actions solutions and resources when confronted with a personal problem or situation emotional physical spiritual and social these competencies are fairly straightforward so when measuring yourself against them you're either meeting the intent or not meeting the intent but to what extent without a more expanded description it's difficult to gauge the degree of your effectiveness the components of FRL provides you with a greater scale like a measuring stick to help you in determining your effectiveness as a leader after seeing where your typical behaviors line up on the FRL spectrum if you have room for improvement you can assess where you would like to be and determine your progress along the way that in itself is a tool which can help you improve your effectiveness as a leader if you find yourself frequently overusing or inappropriately using the less active and effective behaviors you will most likely compromise or limit your effectiveness as a senior NCO on the other hand you may think you're using the more active and effective behaviors correctly but a lack of self-awareness could limit your effectiveness as well remember there's more to FRL than just applying the behaviors using it as a self-assessment tool can positively impact your effectiveness as a senior NCO becoming more effective at leading and managing others is definitely important for your continuous self-development and self-improvement the synergy created by you and your subordinates influences others elevating the overall mission effectiveness summary full-range leadership is a beneficial resource like a toolbox of leadership behaviors to utilize at your discretion for maximum effectiveness you need to figure out what works best for you how and when to use each tool properly likewise these tools can be used separately or in conjunction with each other as driven by circumstances FRL behaviors are not new to a US Air Force senior NCO these should already be familiar to you FRL organizes these behaviors in a way that provides more clarity to their intent and purpose it's up to you the leader to decide how you will motivate inspire and lead your followers remember FRL requires leaders to consider all components of the leadership system when determining appropriate leadership behavior not just the core elements leader, follower and situation but take the factors personalities, skills, styles opportunities, challenges, rewards and consequences and the constraints resources and time into consideration as well this involves getting to know your peers and subordinates staying current on changing dynamics within the organization and duty environments along with identifying areas of improvement for yourself and your subordinates recapping this chapter we began with a refresher on certain theories that attempted to capture the essence of leadership and ways to approach leadership situations next you learned that FRL which grew from the earlier theories aligns leadership behaviors into spectrum with three fundamental categories laissez faire, transactional and transformational laissez faire is the most passive leadership behavior which is basically an absence of leadership transactional behavior comprised of MBE-P, MBE-A and CR uses external motivation in the form of rewards and consequences to influence follower behavior transformational behavior comprised of II, IM, IS and IC is intended to cultivate a follower's personal development and stimulate his or her internal motivation this was followed by a brief synopsis of some misunderstandings and misperceptions that people have about FRL finally we brought it all together by looking at the impact FRL can have on subordinate and senior NCO effectiveness you already have experience as a leader FRL provides you with ways to concentrate your leadership behaviors where there will be most effective make them count key terms contingent reward page 9 idealized influence page 11 individualized consideration page 13 inspirational motivation page 11 intellectual stimulation page 13 laissez faire page 5 management by exception active page 8 management by exception passive page 8 transactional page 6 transformational page 6


Rwy'n edrych ar gyfer y tro. Rwy'n meddwl'r cyfrifiad. Rydw i'n cael ei tawr, mae'n gwybod ar y cwmwyng ac rwy'n credu'r cwmwyng o'r gwleidol ar gyfer y cyfrifiad o'r ddweud mwythio. Mae'n meddwl i'r LMS ac mae'r cyfrifiad. Felly, felly rydw i'n meddwl. mae gennym heddorol o Edward, yn ymwneud. Efallai yma yma yma'r ydych chi'n cyflawn. Felly, rydyn ni'n helpu bynnag y cyflawn strategiaeth, ond fod y cwmaint o'r ymdannig, rydyn ni'n helpu bynnag y clywed o'i cyflawn i'r cyfrifwyr yma. Mae ein proses yma, ond rwy'n gweithio ymdannig, ond rydyn ni'n gweithio yma. Rydyn ni'n rhagwch gydag o'i cyfrifwyr o'r ymdannig, Tytus. Tytus is a premium certified model part, now I think I've got that right, we help create engaging, personalised and integrated learning platforms through our products, solutions and services. So these are some of the key things or slides rather that I'm going to talk through. So when it comes to upgrading, it seems to be a bit of an upgrading afternoon actually, based on what's in this room, but I'll be coming out from a slightly different angle. So what were our challenges when upgrading to Moodle 4? Why did we happen to create a theme? How did we create the theme? So I'll go through some of the tools and processes at a very high level, some of which have kind of already been reflected in Jason's talk earlier from UCL. And then I want to cover but not spend too long on some of the key features, especially around workplace and everything being tenant aware, which is very important for us and some of the clients that we work with. Mobile access and accessibility as well are some key areas, it doesn't matter if it's workplace or LMS, it doesn't matter if it's Moodle, there's still really important areas that we've had to focus on, especially over the last 12 months. And then a little bit about the future, if I have time, lock the doors, no one's getting out. Right, okay. So what were our challenges? So one of the key things that we have come across just like many Moodle partners, I'm sure, is around when we're actually going to upgrade the Moodle. So whether it's LMS or workplace, feel free to correct me if that date is right, I'm pretty sure that's right. The long term support for Moodle LMS is the end of 2025. Oh, sorry, yes, yes, correct. 3.11, sorry, the long term support for Moodle 3.11 is the end of 2025, not Moodle in general, don't worry. Moodle, in terms of, well, someone's attention, so it worked. So in terms of Moodle workplace, I don't think, and that's why I've not put it on here, that there's a specific date around supportability ending. That was enough on the LMS side to get us to need to take action here. So some of our challenges are listed here, not all of them. So the first one is plug-in compatibility. So obviously the plug-ins database is thousands of plug-ins. Some are supported on different versions. This is a key thing for us. As soon as we upgrade a client, if they're using 30 plus plug-ins, for instance, we have to obviously check to make sure that they work. Similarly, I mean a theme is a plug-in, but we've got theme compatibility that's obviously very relevant. A lot of the work that we've done is, in the past, was quite bespoke and custom. That led to quite a lot of technical debt, which I'll come back to. But we needed to make sure that anything that we're going to be providing our hundreds of customers with is going to be compatible, of course, on Moodle 4. And there was a lot of change, a lot of positive changes between Moodle 3 and Moodle 4. And that's for LMS Underworkplace. Testing process. So not only did we need to test things internally at Titus in terms of the plug-ins, the theme, et cetera, but our clients often have their own testing processes. So there's a huge amount of time there. The user training element, if we're upgrading people, it's not just a question of the DevOps team upgrading a platform. Obviously the customer needs to be communicated each step of the way. They might have multiple platforms, test platform, staging platform, separate sandbox production platform. There's a lot involved, and it takes a lot of time. Similarly with the upgrades, there can be a lot of downtime as well. We need to make it as slick as possible with our DevOps team. In terms of customisation, re-implementation, I've got a word of that a little bit better, but that's probably a huge one for us. So any custom development work and huge bits that have been bolted onto the side of Moodle required a really thorough testing process when we're upgrading. All of this does plug into the theme as well, because on 99% of our sites, we have some form of either productised now or previously bespoke theme. Compliance and accessibility. I'm actually going to come around to later. I'm not going to bother my notes. There's a documentation and support side of things. We need to keep everybody informed of the new functionality, make sure people understand what's coming next, how to use the platform. There's so many steps involved. I'm definitely behind on time. Why did we create a theme? I've already mentioned around the need to upgrade from Moodle 3 to Moodle 4. We need these bug and security fixes. We need people to be in support. We wanted to reduce the amount of technical debt that we had from all of our bespoke developments, and that's where at Titus, we've decided to take more of a productised approach. Where applicable? Because it means we can liaise with our clients and understand their needs and what we can potentially build into the theme or a supporting plug-in to the theme and then allow all of our clients to benefit. I'm not going to go into each of these points now just because of time. I'm very aware of it. Some of the key ones, again why we created a theme, was really around the customisation and control and being able to allow organisations to change as much as they want to change. Change as much as possible. The Moodle default theme, the Boost theme, is very, very clean. Massive improvement on Moodle 3. But a lot of our workplace clients in particular needed a lot more. They needed to be on-brand. LMS, we find, people can be a lot more flexible, they want it nice and clean. Workplace ever so slightly different. Some of the other points that are listed on here I will cover on further slides. This is just an example of a couple of the clients that we work with. LMS and Moodle Workplace, Network Rail, Labour Party, UCL, CNN, Superdry, et cetera. You can see that we work with quite a range of organisations, basically. How did we create the theme? The first thing I wanted to mention was the tools side of things. These have been incredibly beneficial. From the product side, I probably couldn't live without any of these tools. The Gira side is really more so for the developers and having our backlog and picking up tickets, adding the user stories in there were applicable, making sure we get everything planned in. Product Board, something I started using this year. Super useful. It allows me to track the cost of things a lot better as well. Anyone that uses Gira a lot, it's a very powerful tool, but it can be an absolute utter nightmare at times to try and customise and configure. Product Board is very specifically focused on products. You can have your own roadmaps, et cetera. I'm not trying to upsell that product, don't worry about it. Mirror, so that's a super useful whiteboarding tool. I actually came across it because the Moodle workplace product advisory group used it first. I'd heard about it, not used it, and they used it in a workshop. I just thought, I need to get on board with this. I need to use this. We use it. You can probably not really tell how we're using it from these screenshots, but to collect our user stories and we share these mirror boards with our clients and we have a collaborative approach to make sure we understand what features they want in the theme and prioritise them accordingly. So, just again, based on time, I will speed through this slide a little bit quicker. So we work in a Kanban methodology, so we'll have a list of tickets and our developers just kind of pick them out as they're prioritised in that area as opposed to working to strict individual sprints. We're now very customer led, more so than we were in the past for sure. So we have a customer portal where people can vote on ideas and submit new ideas. We do that through Product Board, again, because that's why it's super useful. Anyone product-based team is definitely worth checking out. And we collect all of our customer insights through there as well. And that's been absolutely invaluable for me on the product side. Some of the considerations, I have to be very aware because I'm part of the product advisory group. The last thing I want to do is to either design or implement something that's going to directly conflict with what could be released in the main product. So particularly the product advisory group on the workplace side, that's super important. And also, huge consideration is around what versions of Moodle our plugins are going to be supported on, because the more we build, obviously the more testing that needs to happen on these different versions. And obviously Moodle has its long-term support version of 4.1, so there's been a lot of considerations around that. So I will zoom through some of the key features. Huge amounts of customisation. The amount that you can rebrand on the workplace platform is huge. You can see some of the settings on the left-hand side. We've got configurable login pages with different variants. We've got a site home page that allows for marketing tiles and carousel shortcuts, similar kind of features to what you'd expect on a WordPress website. We have... Where's my GIF? My GIF wasn't showing. Pretend you can see it. The ability to choose the order of login options on the login page. So, for instance, a lot of people prioritise Office 365 logins, for instance, so you don't want the manual options at the top. So we move those under a collapsible area. Site home page I already mentioned. That's just a quick example of a screenshot, at least that one's showing. Other key features, simple things like colour gradients that match people's branding. If you want that on the top navigation bar, you can see there's a screenshot there, almost as proof on the left-hand side that our theme is kind of workplace compliant as well. So that's one of our key points, really, is that it's tenant-aware. So all of our set... I'm not going to say that, actually. 99.9 of our theme settings are compatible with multi-tenancy on Moodle workplace. So you can brand up all these different sub-platforms completely differently, which is fantastic. And also a game changer for our sales team as well because it's a lot easier to have conversations with people when you've got a site with someone's branding on. The course library. We wanted to make some initial improvements. This is just two examples of... I'm not going to say dark mode, it's not dark mode. A dark background, a darker theme and a lighter theme. We're aware of the changes that the workplace team are kind of implementing. We've introduced course banner images, activity navigation, changes to the course index menu. Huge one for us was a site-wide footer. A lot of people really missed that, especially people that had some of our older themes at Titus. They had a footer that sits at the bottom of the page. So we have that alongside the standard Moodle footer as well. Mobile access was huge for us. So we are taking a lot more of a mobile-first approach now. The Moodle app isn't always an option due to restrictions around branding, especially with workplace. It has to look in a very specific way. The app can be a little bit restrictive at times. Certain circumstances, the Moodle or the workplace app is great. Other times it doesn't quite work. You can see we've introduced extra navigation banners under certain resolutions as well, just to make the experience on mobile devices more friendly as well. Accessibility, I've got two slides on this and I've only got about a minute left. So there's been a couple of talks on this already. Essentially, we didn't know anything about accessibility. I think it's fair to say really about 12 months ago. But a lot of our clients have been really good in educating us. That includes the accessibility expert at UCL. What is accessibility? It's essentially led by these four guiding principles. Is your website perceivable, operable, understandable and robust? I know Moodle LMS has just been WCAG 2.1AA certified. I think Moodle workplace are looking to do the same as well. Our theme is built with accessibility in mind. So we're making constant changes and iterations to that. What are the end results? Well, essentially creating this theme, especially on the workplace side, has enabled us to simultaneously upgrade our customer base to Moodle 4, while massively improving the personalisation and building on functionality within the platform. In terms of the future, that's just a few extra things that we may consider doing in the future, looking at other technologies to improve the theme and improve performance, like React, potentially having accessibility audit ourselves, and creating a product advisory board with our customers as well as something that we want to do to get even more targeted feedback. That is a quick summary slide that I'm going to leave on there as I run out of time. Thank you very much. I hope you took something away from that.