First, forgive my ramblings as my brain has been on vacation and has not fully shifted back into school mode.<\/p>\n
As a social work professor, I have the privilege of teaching a course called Social Work Practice with Organizations and Communities.\u00a0 As soon as I picked up Humble Leadership,<\/em> I immediately recognized Edgar Schein\u2019s name.\u00a0 Schein is an expert on organizational culture and featured in the course textbook.[1]<\/a>\u00a0 He suggests there are three levels of culture found in an organization.<\/p>\n Understanding culture is important for my students to understand as they, as social workers, go into an organization to assess and intervene with the goal of improving the organization\u2019s health. It is also important for any leader of an organization to understand its culture as they seek to lead. Edgar Schein and Peter Schein in Humble Leadership<\/em> also suggest that it is important for a leader to know and understand the importance and power of relationships within an organization.[3]<\/a> They suggest that there are 4 different levels of relationships that can be found.<\/p>\n \u201cLevel Minus 1: <\/strong>Total impersonal domination and coercion<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Level 1:<\/strong> Transactional role and rule-based supervision, service and most forms of \u2018professional\u2019 helping relationships.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Level 2: <\/strong>Personal cooperative, trusting relationships as in friendships and in effective teams.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Level 3:<\/strong> Emotionally intimate mutual commitments.\u201d[4]<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Because how people relate to others has power, the level of relationships found within any organization will greatly impact that organization\u2019s culture. Schein and Schein state it this way \u201cAs socialized humans we cannot step outside our culture, but we can begin to understand our culture and see how leadership as a relational activity is both shaped by and shapes culture.\u201d[5]<\/a><\/p>\n As I was browsing through the book I began to reflect on two things. First, I reflected on my own experience in the various organizations for which I have worked. I mentally assessed the leader relationship level I exhibited and what those above me exhibited. I reflected on how those relationships impacted the culture found within the organization. I also reflected on a conversation I had with my son this summer on leaders versus dictators. My son said that dictators are not leaders because they use fear to control people. I believe that if you consider Schein and Schein\u2019s definition of leadership this is true.\u00a0 \u201c\u2018Leadership\u2019 is wanting to do something new<\/em> and better <\/em>and getting others to go along.\u201d[6]<\/a>\u00a0 Something better <\/em>I believe excludes the presence of fear.\u00a0 In our conversation we proceeded to name various people and assess where they fit, leader versus dictator and we named our current President. We saw attributes of controlling people with fear in President Trump\u2019s behavior. This in my mind would place him at Level Minus 1.\u00a0 Wanting a nonpartisan opinion, I asked Microsoft Copilot to use Schein\u2019s four relationship levels and suggest where people would assess President\u2019s Trump\u2019s relationship levels to be.\u00a0 Here is what Copilot presented.[7]<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Mapping Trump’s Style to Schein’s Relationship Levels<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n\n