Active learning 2.2 response 2

(Kayla Betts)Tricia is the human resources (HR) team leader in the regional headquarters of an international bank. A few months ago, she began thinking of how she could improve her leadership effectiveness with her team. After reflecting on feedback she received from her boss, she considered that maybe she is too business-like and task-oriented (Dubrin, 2018). She decided to become Facebook friends and have Twitter exchanges with her staff. She became friends with each staff member on both Facebook and Twitter and began by only writing about strictly work-related topics and posts. These posts looked like: “Our new group interview program seems to be working,” “I feel good about the response we are getting to our proposed wellness program,” and “Did you catch how the regional VP of administration said in her monthly intranet post that our team was doing a great job” (Dubrin, 2018). After a couple of months of these posts, she didn’t feel like the group was developing a better personal relationship, so she began sending posts more personal posts. These posts looked like: “How about you and I spend a little quality time at the shopping mall this weekend,” “Your outfit at the office today was stunning. The way you dress picks up morale,” “You are warmly invited to my two-year-old nephew’s birthday party,” and “my boyfriend was mad at me last night” (Dubrin, 2018). Tricia received a few positive responses from these posts, but she also received responses that suggested her team members were not comfortable with the personal messages.
I think the key issue is that Tricia tried to become more personal with her team by using social media. Tricia could become more personal with her team in many other ways, such as more appropriate and personal conversations during work, trying to get to know her team members more or even proposing to have lunch with them. Social media can be tricky itself because many people may view it as unprofessional, or they may try to keep their work-life and private life very separate. Also, some of the more personal comments that Tricia made could’ve been viewed as unprofessional or uncomfortable if she didn’t already have a personal connection with that coworker.
I would not recommend using social media to gain personal connections with her workers. It does allow them to share their personal lives, but it can be uncomfortable to share your personal life with your boss. Her team members may also have felt obligated because she was their boss. I would advise Tricia to be careful and to keep her posts semi-professional. Some posts were kind or compliments, but some were too personal, like her boyfriend issues. I would also make sure that the posts she makes are suitable to the relationship that she has, I wouldn’t invite someone to my nephew’s birthday if I wasn’t close with them, and I definitely wouldn’t tell them about my boyfriend’s issues. She needs to maintain a level of professionalism and respect while creating these personal connections.
I think that Tricia is exaggerating giving emotional support and encouragement, as she is trying to be too close of friends with her team members. She is also trying to align her members on social media and as friends. I feel like Tricia’s last post “Don’t let the fact that I’m the team leader interfere with us being friends” puts a lot of pressure on an employee. This post would make me very uncomfortable and would make me feel obligated to be their friend, even if I didn’t want to be, regardless of them being my team leader. I wouldn’t know how to respond, and would either not respond, or would tell them that I didn’t think the post was appropriate.
Respond to this persons discussion and no less than 100 words