Below are the 14 most recent journal entries recorded in bryanong's LiveJournal:

Thursday, September 1st, 2005
3:21 pm	Leadership Quotes Quotes about leadership: John Maxwell - "Leaders must be close enough to relate to others, but far enough ahead to motivate them." Norman Schwarzkopf - "Leadership is a potent combination of strategy and character. But if you must be without one, be without the strategy." Donald H. McGannon - "Leadership is action, not position." Vincent Lombardi - "Leadership is based on a spiritual quality; the power to inspire the power to inspire others to follow." George Van Valkenburg - "Leadership is doing what is right when no one is watching." Harold S.Green - "Leadership is practiced not so much in words as in attitude and in actions." Buck Rodgers - "Leadership is the ability of a single individual through his or her actions to motivate others to higher levels of achievement." Dwight Eisenhower - "Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it." Max Lucado - "A man who wants to lead the orchestra must turn his back on the crowd." Unknown Author - "A real leader faces the music, even when he doesn't like the tune." Lou Holtz - "Ability is what you're capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it." Arab proverb - "An army of sheep led by a lion would defeat an army of lions led by a sheep." Mark Twain - "Courage is the mastery of fear, not the absence of fear." Charles de Gaulle - "Deliberation is the work of many men. Action, of one alone." Stephen Covey - "Effective leadership is putting first things first. Effective management is discipline, carrying it out." Edward Hennessy - "Ethics must begin at the top of an organization. It is a leadership issue and the chief executive must set the example." Albert Schweitzer - "Example is not the main thing in influencing others, it is the only thing." John Kotter - "Leaders establish the vision for the future and set the strategy for getting there; they cause change. They motivate and inspire others to go in the right direction and they, along with everyone else, sacrifice to get there." "We know that leadership is very much related to change. As the pace of change accelerates, there is naturally a greater need for effective leadership." "People are more inclined to be drawn in if their leader has a compelling vision. Great leaders help people get in touch with their own aspirations and then will help them forge those aspirations into a personal vision." "Good communication does not mean that you have to speak in perfectly formed sentences and paragraphs. It isn't about slickness. Simple and clear go a long way." "Great leadership does not mean running away from reality. Sometimes the hard truths might just demoralize the company, but at other times sharing difficulties can inspire people to take action that will make the situation better." "Effective leaders help others to understand the necessity of change and to accept a common vision of the desired outcome." "A leader needs enough understanding to fashion an intelligent strategy." "Great communicators have an appreciation for positioning. They understand the people they're trying to reach and what they can and can't hear. They send their message in through an open door rather than trying to push it through a wall." Current Mood: moody (12 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, August 30th, 2005
10:48 pm	Organisational leadership by Sue (DFC) Leadership of organisation as defined by Sue, Chief Executive of the Department of Families and Communities: 1. Define & fitting into the boundaries of what the organisation does 2. Aligning goals and objectives to the work of people 3. Balance scorecard model - work measurement, competitive framework and behaviour but also fostering sharing. (Perhaps it is a competition of sharing) 4. We impose barriers and zones on our ownselves and it is us who can break them down. Action is the remedy to fear. 5. Optimistic 6. Focus 7. Authenticity (No hypocrism) 8. energetic and calm 9. Customer focus Another thing that I have learnt today is that a leader can be quiet, outspoken, aggresive, gentle and of any kind of characters. It is by no mean that leaders have to be outspoken or whatsoever. One thing for sure about leaders is that they have the 'character'. Derek points out that on many occasions, we don't learn or get anything out after a presentation. We should at least get and learn a point from what we have experience or gone through. One thing to learn for today is to aligning goals and objectives to the work of people. Current Mood: sleepy (Comment on this)
Monday, August 22nd, 2005
11:24 pm	6 Hats Thinking 'Six Thinking Hats' is an important and powerful technique. It is used to look at decisions from a number of important perspectives. This forces you to move outside your habitual thinking style, and helps you to get a more rounded view of a situation. This tool was created by Edward de Bono in his book '6 Thinking Hats'. Many successful people think from a very rational, positive viewpoint. This is part of the reason that they are successful. Often, though, they may fail to look at a problem from an emotional, intuitive, creative or negative viewpoint. This can mean that they underestimate resistance to plans, fail to make creative leaps and do not make essential contingency plans. Similarly, pessimists may be excessively defensive, and more emotional people may fail to look at decisions calmly and rationally. You can use Six Thinking Hats in meetings or on your own. In meetings it has the benefit of blocking the confrontations that happen when people with different thinking styles discuss the same problem. Each 'Thinking Hat' is a different style of thinking. These are explained below: White Hat: With this thinking hat you focus on the data available. Look at the information you have, and see what you can learn from it. Look for gaps in your knowledge, and either try to fill them or take account of them. This is where you analyze past trends, and try to extrapolate from historical data. Red Hat: 'Wearing' the red hat, you look at problems using intuition, gut reaction, and emotion. Also try to think how other people will react emotionally. Try to understand the responses of people who do not fully know your reasoning. Black Hat: Using black hat thinking, look at all the bad points of the decision. Look at it cautiously and defensively. Try to see why it might not work. This is important because it highlights the weak points in a plan. It allows you to eliminate them, alter them, or prepare contingency plans to counter them. Black Hat thinking helps to make your plans 'tougher' and more resilient. It can also help you to spot fatal flaws and risks before you embark on a course of action. Black Hat thinking is one of the real benefits of this technique, as many successful people get so used to thinking positively that often they cannot see problems in advance. This leaves them under-prepared for difficulties. Yellow Hat: The yellow hat helps you to think positively. It is the optimistic viewpoint that helps you to see all the benefits of the decision and the value in it. Yellow Hat thinking helps you to keep going when everything looks gloomy and difficult. Green Hat: The Green Hat stands for creativity. This is where you can develop creative solutions to a problem. It is a freewheeling way of thinking, in which there is little criticism of ideas. A whole range of creativity tools can help you here. Blue Hat: The Blue Hat stands for process control. This is the hat worn by people chairing meetings. When running into difficulties because ideas are running dry, they may direct activity into Green Hat thinking. When contingency plans are needed, they will ask for Black Hat thinking, etc. A variant of this technique is to look at problems from the point of view of different professionals (e.g. doctors, architects, sales directors, etc.) or different customers. Source: http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTED_07.htm Continue in: http://bryanong.blogspot.com/2005/08/6-hats-thinking-by-dr-edward-de-bono.html Current Mood: content (Comment on this)
Friday, August 19th, 2005
10:48 pm	Difference between a team and a group & team leadership Teamwork is one of the most important thing in an organisation to work well and is also one of my highest agenda both in work and studies as well as my personal life. There is no point working exceptionally well individually but not in a team (well, excluding maybe salesman, artist, performers etc). Anyway, a successful leader will be able to develop teamwork which is one of the thing I advocate at the start of this journal. I will not go into the difference between what is a team leader and what is a solo/traditional leader. Rather, I will focus on the difference between a team & a group. Why? there is much difference, a team of people who doesn;t get things done is just a group and a group of people who get things done and harmoniously is a team. Understanding, sharing, motivating is all part of a team environment but not in a group. A team is like a family, closed friends but a group is just a bunch of people who get together for the sake of being together. However, not all things requires teams; it really depends on the things that need to be done. In the study pack, it talks about the 5 stages of team development: 1. Forming 2. Storming 3. Norming 4. Performing 5. Adjourning NEVER go past the forming stage when developing a team. This is the most important; this is the stage where we come to know and understand each other as well as the differences which forms the founding stone of our team relationship. So what is the role of the leader in developing teams in the next big question? Durbin & Dalglish state that these are the key roles of a leader: (score is how I fare) - Building trust and inspiring teamwork (1) - Coaching team memebers and group members towards higher levels of performance (1/2) - Facilitating and supporting decisions made by team (1) - Expanding the teams capability (1) - Creating a team identity (1/2) - Anticipating and influencing change (1) - Inspiring the team towards higher levels of performance (1) - Enabling and empowering group members to accomplish their work (1) - Encouraging team members to eliminate low value work (x) Another thing that I have learnt in a team is that we can have different working methods and getting things done (different skills & different departments) but the objective and the outcome is the most important. These are the actions that will foster teamwork: Own resource - 1. defining the team's mission 2. developing a norm of teamwork 3. emphasising pride in being outstanding 4. holding a pow wow - informal gathering 5. serving as a model of teamwork 6. using a consensus leadership style 7. establishing urgency, demanding performance standards, and providing direction 8. encouraging competition with another group 9. encouraging the use of jargon 10. soliciting feedback on team effectiveness 11. minimising micromanagement Using structure and policy- 1. designing physical structures that facilitate communication 2. emphasing group recognition and rewards 3. initiating ritual and ceremony (strenthening organisational culture) 4. practising open book management (implement open systems of communication to provide greated transparency) Current Mood: accomplished (Comment on this)
10:32 pm	Appraisals and performance feedbacks In the lecture last week, there was some discussions regarding appraisals & performance feedbacks mechanism in each individuals' organisation. Some companies have them and some don't. Well, for e-channel there is not a formal one but more of an informal system in place. In terms of feedback and comments mechanism that is in the company; it exists in the form where performance feedbacks are given on the spot where each task or work is done rather than talking about it in another day. If things are done right and a job well done, we are given good comments and applauded immediately. Same as when things go wrong, we are then reprimand. Again, the thing that is important here is not about directing reprimands on the person itself but on the task itself. one more important thing is also that when a mistake is done; correct it immediately, learn from it, not criticise but to improve and make sure that no second mistake is made and move on from there. There are some that comment that doing performance appraisal at the end of the year perhaps is not such a good thing. Why wait till the end of everything and come to evaluate when perhaps most of us have forgot most the things done? Also, it takes 10 good things for people to love us but all it take is 1 bad thing for people to hate us. What happens when you were doing an excellent job for the whole year round and then you made a mistake at the end? You get a negative appraisal?? Studies have also shown that people tend to remember what has happended most recently rather than what has happened in the past. There is one good appraisal system that has been recommended and it is call the 360 degree feedback performance measures by Steve Harvey. I am not sure how it works but is definitely I would like to look at in details later. Current Mood: awake (Comment on this)
Tuesday, August 16th, 2005
5:09 pm	Empowerment Empowerment is one extremely important factor a leader needs to understand and master. In today;s knowledge world, it is not anymore about managing other people but about how to motivate and get people to manage themselves so as to achived organisational goals. Empowerment is one such factor of motivation where leaders used. But do we effectively employ empowerment? The power of empowerment is derived from influence first of all. A leader must have the ability to influence before he/she is capable of giving empowerment. First, we will identify what are the influential tactics and how we can make other people to see us as being influential: 1. Leading by example: Being a role model; this goes back to my previous posting of being able to lead and manage oneself. I guess this is the most basic of influence and is also relevant to personal power. 2. Rational persuasion: logical arguments and factual evidence. Probalby easier said than done as this may derived from personal experience and knowledge one encompass. The thing here is to think big and in many areas rather than small. 3. Expert reputation: expertise and specialise in a field 4. Exchanging favours and bargaining: Giving people the appropriate time to deliver. I don't think this is too effective in the area of influence as people may see this as unassertive. 5. Support from network members: network member for support & endorsement. This requires the ability to get along well with people and socialise as well as network with other people relevant to what you are trying to influence. This is pretty important in terms of rallying votes & consensus and I think it is a important factor in influence. 6. Legitimating a request: Within scope of authority and is consistent with organisational policies. Linked in position power. 7. Inspirational appeal and emotional display: appeal to the groups; emotions. This doesn;t look to me as influence but playing to other people's emotion. However, this can be very powerful when able to execute properly as mastered by charismatic leader. 8. Personal magnetism: Work on yourself most importantly, and this will ooze out. 9. Consultation: Asking people to help motivates them. 10. Forming coalitions: alliances. Extremely important when in a battle of power etc. 11. Team play: One of the most important aspect in today's team play world. If you can team play effectively; there should be a level of influence derived from you. 12. Deliberate Machiavellianism: deception, controlling others. Don't resort to this! 13. Gentle manipulation: untrue statements and faking behaviours. Dont use this! 14. Undue pressure: coercise behaviour. Dont' too! 15. Game playing: where actions have a hidden agenda. Use sparingly and ethically 16. Debasement: Insulting to demeaning oneself. Don't! 17. Upward appeal 18. Silent treatment 19. Ingratiation: getting to be liked for achieving compliance 20. Joking and kidding: used this as necessary to be more approachable. The most important influence tactics as identifies are rational persuasion, inspirational appeal and consultation. For me, the most important are Leading by example, rational persuastion and team play. Once we have establised influential power, we can start to empower. There are 7 types of empowering practices: 1. Foster initiative and responsibility 2. Link work activities to organisational goals - very important: not looking at the tasks but the end of the results. 3. Provide ample information 4. allow members to choose methods 5. encourage self leadership 6. implement team based human resource policies 7. establish limits to empowerment Current Mood: good (Comment on this)
Wednesday, August 10th, 2005
4:34 pm	Power There are 7 sources of power according to the study pack: 1. Position power 2. Personal power 3. Power stemming from leadership 4. Power stemming from providing resources 5. Power derived from capitalising on opportunity 6. Power stemming from managing critical problems 7. Power stemming from being close to power Why do we need to understand these 7 bases of power? the reason is that we can know what source of power do we have on hand, we can then start to find out how we can manage and deal with other team members as well as other people. We can understand the kind of power that we have by going through the questions on pg.181 of the textbook. In relation to this, we also can understand the different applications of power so how we can use it to achieve the objectives of the organisation. Power also indirectly lead to or provide satisfaction in work. People who feels that if they have a certain degree of power; they will feel more empowered as well as leading to job satisfaction? Perhaps not, power does not necessarily lead to job satisfaction. Current Mood: restless (Comment on this)
Monday, August 1st, 2005
1:23 pm	Self Assessment - Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) & The Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument (HBDI The summary of our study pack outlined that the beginning of leadership development is an exercise in self awareness and feedback of many aspects such as personal strengths & weaknesses, values & personality traits. Research has shown that particular general and task personality traits can positively contribute to the dimension of leadership. This lead to the introduction of the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). The MBTI allows you to understand your personality type. You can take a simple test here at http://www.personalitypathways.com/type_inventory.html. However, to gain a better understanding, you will need to take an official test here: http://www.aptinternational.org/. The simple MBTI test reveals that I am a Extraverted; Intuitive; Feeling; and Perceiving person. The study pack has a personal style inventory in reading 5 which I think is a full MBTI test? In the assessment sheet; these are my results: Extroversion, Sensing Feeling - thinking (balance) Perceiving - Judging (balance) hmm, there is different in the intuitive and sensing part (wonder why?) As a leader, perhaps we can use this simple test to find out what are the charateristics of our other team members and this will allow us to know how to better interact and deal with them. One more tool that allows us to self assess ourself and allows a wholebrain thinking is the The Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument (HBDI) which their main site is at http://www.hbdi.com/. The kind of questions in the assessment can be found here: http://www.accsys-corp.com/HBDI_FAQ/hbdi.pdf. You will need to pay to take the whole assessment but there is a free mini HBDI assessment that is available here: http://www.venture-spark.com/Screens/HbdiAssessment.aspx.:> For an individual, you can learn about your own thinking styles and gain insight into those styles that are your strengths and those styles that could use development, thus having a chance to optimize your personal effectiveness. For an organization, the Herrmann Brain Dominance can lead a group to understand its strengths and areas for development. When each person understands their thinking styles and in turn can understand each others a team can reach a new level of performance through this mutual understanding. This is one key to open the doors of communication. A sample of the HBDI can be found here: http://www.e-russell.com/images/sample_report.pdf From my assessment, it shows that I am a very quadrant B, C and D person but not the A quadrant which I score only for logical. This shows that I lacked in the theoretical side and if I worked in a team, a person who is strong is quadrant A will complement me but also conflict must also arise. One of the most important thing for understanding this is that we need to know that what we are lacking and what are people have. Also, with this in mind, we can know how to deal with them, how their working style is, what they are looking for and this will allow us to understand how we can better work with them. Current Mood: okay (Comment on this)
Tuesday, July 19th, 2005
9:33 pm	Managing oneself (Drucker) and my values Okay, well I started this journal simply because I wanted to made a reflection of myself as well as using it both as a learning tool as well as making myself feel good (doing things make me feel good; I feel the worst when I am not doing anything; being lazy!! - gotta remember this) How many times have I mentioned that to myself yet I am still lazy at times especially with my inability to control my emotional instabilty which leads to my laziness and lack of drive and passion in doing things!!) Okay, Derek (you would probably be reading this; of course I am not really writing for you but I wrote this down because something came to my mind). While I am writing this post for my own learning; isn;t it good that somebody or you will give me a nod, a comment or praise that I have at least put in a good effort or say well done? We all want acknowlegement or be heard or praised at times. This leads on the say being a leader or manager or even as a normal person; we should be always ready to praise or give comment to other people when they have done a good job or at least give a good comment or pad on the back to the somebody. But also remember, when things go wrong or the things are not right or someone made a mistake; we must be always ready to give criticism, or correct, or comment at that point rather than putting it back and raising it in the future. Mistakes should be corrected and praise should be given on the spot. Also, these should be made against the task and not on the person itself when a mistake has been made. Okay, lets move on to Peter Druckers reading (managing oneself) - talk about Druckerism.... "Success in the knowledge economy comes to those who know themselves - their strengths, their values, and how they best perform." Some key points: - don;t be complacent or ignorance where you take too much pride in your own specialty and ignore other knowledge areas - Not ideas but actions (the chinese saying of:''bu yao chen wei shi xiang de ju ren er chen wei xing dong the nuo fu") literally means don;t become a thinking giant and become an action weakling) - focus on the strengths; not trying to turn somebody into one where they are not and cannot be - dont try to change yourself, work to improve the way you perform - work with what you think is best (different people work well in different environments: big org or small organisations - Find your own values!!! and pursue them. because what one does well may not fit with one's value systems - Know one strenghts, method of work and values through hardworking and competent. - understnad each other values and how they work (working relationships) - have another second half of your life (don;t just do and focus on one thing; find another thing that you can do) Now this leads me to my values (in reading four)> It shows my values (can this be changed??) 1. Competence - being capable of achieving 2. Ambition - achieving through hard work 3. self controlled - self discipline 4. independence - beign self sufficient 5. assertiveness 6. dependability 7. honesty 8. cheerfulness 9. forgiving 10. helpfulness 11. courtesy 12. open mindedness 13. rationality-being logically consistent 14.imagination-being creative and daring 1. accommplishment 2.recognition 3.happiness and content 4. wisdom and understanding 5.wealth and prosperity 6. mature love - sexual and spiritual intimacy 7. family, taking care of loved ones 8.excitement , an active stimulating life 9.pleasure, an enjoyable leisurely life 10.peace and harmony in the world 11.equality for all 12.lasting friendships 13.security - freedom from threat 14.salvation-warranting eternal life well, this shows that I am quite a selfish person eh? It is funny that i value lasting friendships as last when I can make friends adn have friends easily.perhaps i understnand or think that friendships do nto really last for me? I do cherish friendships though. anyway, time to have a break and eat something:> Current Mood: hungry (Comment on this)
8:48 pm	What a Leader should not have: Part 2 (Final) In my last post last week, I briefly talked about what a leader should not have. So what should a leader or an effective and efficient should not have at least? A few things that come to mind now: lazy, untrustworthy, dishonest, deceptive, incompetent, passionless, say things but do not do them, undiscipline, small and narrow minded, ungenerous, non-assertive (passive - too easy going), no mind of its own, being too nice, unplanned etc. These are the points that came to me when I was reflecting upon myself as well as looking at other friends/people whom I have known. They were some of the things that I did not like about myself or about them which I think refrains one from being a leader. Maybe the word leader might be too small minded as well. Perhaps in being a complete person or at least somebody worthy who can respect oneself. Do I respect my own self right now? Yes but not fully. While I like the way I am now but there are things that I can still improve on especially my discipline, assertiveness, time management, open-ness, emotional instability. This leads to part 2 of the leadership approaches and perspectives. I will look at this posting on my traits, weaknesses and so forth. The opening intro starts with in order to influence others, one must understand or know one's own strengths and weaknesses. Very good point: What are my strenghts for now? Confidence, team-player, warmth, understanding, like to work people, flexible, reliable and my weakness - which I have mentioned earlier. There is one big weakness: doesn;t seem to know when to reject (say yes or no) when things are important at times - my assertiveness. I have a big weakness as well; I am not good in managing expectations!!!! (Veery important, one of the most importnat thing that I need to work on and improve) - all these is becasue of me not being assertive? Lets look at General Personality trait in pg24: What do I need to improve and work on: - Assertiveness (I score low in the textbook as well) - Emotional stability (especially when it comes to love - is this good or bad???) - Derek, maybe you can help to answer this? Do you think this inhibits being a leader or we are all just humans?? - Enthusiasm (Sometimes I am - I think I am really enthusiastic with the things I like to do but no when I don;t like the job or tasks) - So should be okay for this point (1/2half then) Task related personality traits on pg.25 - Passion (1/2) sometimes I am, sometimes I am not - it seems that for work that involves in a team or group, I never mind working for exceptionally long hours or even putting in extra work. I guess this sort of explain why my leadership definition at the start of this journal is; or perhaps this is my personality? - Courage (1/2) sometimes I have the courage especially with things I have strong belief in or which I think is right. However, theere are times where I do not make stance especially when it comes to business. Perhaps it is my lack of experience in the business world?? Cognitive factords on pg.28 - Farsightedness and conceptual thinking: especially in business sense. I reckon it is my inexperience in the business working field - Creativity - there are many times that I work on old ideas or copied others. rarely have I been using radical new ideas and so forth. I don;t make a good designer or creative person thats for sure. I think module 2 of this week is a good chance to reflect on oneself?? This also makes me think outside of this course as well when I have read the opening vignette of Greer in pg28: Is being a leader so important in ones life? or is it making a difference or being a self respect-complete person which is more important? Perhaps this can be argue and can be lead from either ways. Why do I have so many 'perhaps' in my posting? perhaps, ha ha ha, it really shows my unassetiveness!! Or perhaps I am not sure about it anyway. Current Mood: working (Comment on this)
Wednesday, July 13th, 2005
4:00 pm	Technorati Profile (Comment on this)
Tuesday, July 12th, 2005
12:12 am	What a Leader should not have: Part 1 I missed out another point in my previous posting that leader should have: discipline. Now what is it that leaders should not have it them? What are the bad things that one should get rid of in order to be a good leader?? Almost everything seems to talk about what a leader should posesss or what are the characteristics of a leader. But what are the things that people should look at getting rid or minimising in order to become a leader? I will talk more about this in my next posting. Time to rest and sleep now Current Mood: awake (Comment on this)
Monday, July 11th, 2005
10:39 pm	Leadership is more than what I think previously On my previous post, I talked really about leadership more from a team or group's point of view. It was all about teamwork, motivating other people, cooperation and other elements that there were more of a partnership/relationship approach as described in the study guide. It was about getting different people together and inspiring and motivating them so that they themselves can be leader. However, what I think can be only one side of a big picture of what is leadership or perhaps the sort of 'top' level in a modern leadership definition today. This is where my thinking of what is leadership can be too small minded. When I talked about getting people together and be able to made them become leaders themselves and thus be able to bring the organisation to a same vision and direction; it is apparent that I have miss out one very big point! - I could only thought of motivation & inspiration as the 2 words for turning people into leaders or getting a team leadership environment together. Yet, I did not mentioned anything about oneself or a traits or characteristics of a leader that would be able to get this team together or be able to motivate and inspire these people. Yes, having a thinking like I had earlier is good before I understand the importance of relationship and the energy harness as well as the level of synery and great ideas that a team can produce instead of an individual. It is also important for today's world as it is about relationship building and shared decision making especially in very large corporate organisations. What I have really missed out is what do I (an individual) need to have, learn and build in order to become a 'leader' so that people would listen, or be motivated or inspired by me? Even if I have such good thinking; without some specific leaders characteristics or how I am as a person as well as how I manage and lead myself; no one would listen or respect what I have to say (my words are of no weight), let alone in trying to form or 'indirectly' lead a team. One would really need to build his own inner self first before he/she can start to manage or lead other people or an organisation. How can one love others when he/she cannot even love him/herself? How can one deserve respect when he/she doesn;t respect his/her ownself and others and is strong with his/her beliefs as being a strong person? How can I motivate/inspire other people when I can't even motivate/inspire my ownself. Talk about emotional intelligence as the most important of being a successful person. One really needs to understand the important elements of emotional intelligence before one can really become a true leader. We all see in histories and now that leaders are strong, motivated, strong will and determined. As least one must have these basic traits first of all in order to be a leader. If I were to be lazy and wait for things to happen rather than iniative and look for things to do and anticipate change; there will be no ways that I can ever be a leader or even be respected by other people. Real leaders will command respect from others even if he/she does not really have to lead or manange things. How a person is in him will tell perhaps alot whether he/she can potentially become a leader. However this can be argue as well as people will change, and specifics situations and experieces can make people change to fulfill their potential as leaders. Therefore, I will agreed that leadership can be learned but with lots of learning, experience and understanding. Even people who are leadership born can fail as a leader if they do not attempt to made themselves to be a leader (motivate themselves, determine and so forth). In the study guide and book, it talks about (1)leadership is their ability to inspire, influence and motivate others to change and achieve worthwhile goals as well as (2)a leader is one who can lead others ot lead themselves and can unleash the potential and abilities of followers. (3)Able to release the human spirit that makes initiative, creativity, and entrepreneurship possible. Again, like I said earlier a leader must first need to possess the basic elements of a leader before he can has this ability as a leader. There was this question what is the difference between a leader and a manager? well, there is difference of course as we know. However, the most important thing is that a leader must first know how to manage him/herself before he can start to lead other people. A leader must be able to both manage as well as lead. A manager perhaps might not need to lead; however a good manager would be one that is able to lead too. I was writing in my notes where a leader must be open, honest and be able to openly criticise ownself. I think the ability to be able to criticise oneself and is open to mistake is another trait of a leader. This coincides with the level 5 leadership of the reading where a leader is both shy/modest (personal humility) in a way - does not have strong ego. I will further elaborate what is needed for an individual to be a leader (the most important points I think to be) and subsequently leadership styles have to be changed accordingly to different situations, people and different environment and organisational settings (ok, another point leaders must be willing to change and not being stubborn; they are willing to listen to others and therefore care about what other peoples/environment says but of course not losing one's own position) A leader must be: - trustworthy, - be willing to share - confident - outstanding behaviour - capapable and competent - effective and efficient - team member and player - willing to learn,change and adapt (environment sensitivity) - commitment and determination (professional will from level 5 leadership) - self motivated - modest - praised others rather than ownself (organisational or team oriented) - strong minded and willing to make hard decisions (soft at the right time and hard at the right occassion) - result/process/activity focus rather than on personal (mistakes are directed at what is done and not at the person as an individual) - respect others - be able to direct and communicate the vision or the same goal or direction - people oriented, caring and encouraging - Responsible person, admit mistakes and be able to correct them themselves - open hearted and big hearted; willing to accept criticism and do not mind the small minor things - charisma???? lots of book talks about charismatic leader; what i think is that once someone can have the above elements; charisa will come by itself - I like this quote from Leonard Schaeffer: "paying attention to processes and aligning teams so that they are dedicated to fulfilling goals as I am" therefore possible to create something that last longer - this is pretty much the same as the definition above of leadership but without the process attention and team aligning part; I think this is where what a manager and its management role comes into the picture = A leader must both manage and lead. Well, now that I have covered of what is needed for a leader and how a leader should behave and think. Another difficut part is to come: The right kind of leadership at the right kind of situations and environments. For me, I think this is the most difficult part in being a leader. The study guide talks about 4 leadership style but I remembered from my sales management course that there are probably more than 4. Howver, in this case I will consider this 4 first and perhaps this course will give insight to more leadership styles. The 4 styles: directive, supportive, participative and achievement oriented 1.) Directive: task motivated: formal activities such as planning, organising, and controlling, may improve morale when task is unclear - Good for new employees? 2.) Supportive: relationship motivated, concern for group well being and create supportive environment. good for unsure group members, in distress, unhappy etc? 3.) Participative: consult others for suggestions: good for well-motivated people, in a large organisational structure; with highly knowledge people and self ego managers? 4.) Achievement oriented: sets challenging goals, improve work environment, set high expectations. works well with achievement oriednted group members; directive in some business decision.. not good for new members or members who are inexperienced and requires training and coaching? good for experience members?? IT IS IMPORTANT TO KNOW WHEN TO EXECUTE THIS DIFFERENT FORM OF LEADERSHIP AT DIFFERENT TIMES! Current Mood: content (Comment on this)
Tuesday, July 5th, 2005
11:17 pm	My first lesson of Leadership Dynamics Before I start on my first posting for my leadership dynamics course, here is my definition of what a leader and leadership is all about. A leader with leadership is someone with the ability to get different people (or even other leaders) to come together and work for a common goal by means of motivating, encouraging, understanding, supporting and listening. There are many definitions of leadership and everyone will have a different opinion of what a leader is. What is leadership in the different ages in history; 80s; 90s can be totally different of what leadership is of today. Same as with leadership of today may be different of what leadership is tomorrow and the future. Perhaps, leadership in the future is the ability to make people feel good themselves or maybe about other more things as to what leadership is not of today. Leadership changes through time and as how society change and I think what it takes to be a good leader is also about anticipating this change in society's view of what is leadership. Obviously, what works today may not work tomorrow and what works tomorrow may be what works in the past. It is really important if any individual who would like to be a leader needs to know and understand. The reason why I take this course is that I would like to know what leadership is of the past, now and perhaps determine what may be an effective leadership in the future; I don't know if understanding what may work tomorrow is essential or important at this stage of my learning in becoming a better leader or perhaps improving my leadership. I have always believe that my definition of leadership as mentioned earlier is the right form of leadership as in today's modern world. Another reason for taking this course is also to know if my definition is wrong or if anything can be improved as to my understanding and my belief in being a good leader. In todays modern world, we are all knowledgeable and we know that knowledge is king. Knowledge can make or train an individual to perhaps obtain better leadership or becoming a real leader. Perhaps everyone is already a leader in a way where they would have to manage and lead their own self for their own goal. So if everyone can be a leader in a way; what does it take to be a 'real' leader in today's challenging and constantly changing world? That is the reason for my definition of leadership. He or she should be able to get these group of 'leaders' to come and work together for a common purpose and of course work in harmony (I hope). Since everyone is different and therefore we will all have different leadership traits, styles and our own best way of doing things. What I may not be able to do best; perhaps some else in the team can do it. Yes, teamwork and teams; talk about this. Leadership to me is able to create this team or a group of people. He/she doesn't necessarily have to create a team by means of stating or saying 'hey , lets start a team or whatsoever. A real leader to me can by without stating the intention or the obvious in 'magically' create a team from a group of different individual. This can be done by understanding each others strength and weakness; getting each other to bond by means of laughter; get togethers and others (which I can;t think of now); sharing and caring; listening; be willing to lend a helping hand; giving support and even motivate; learn from each other; together with the initiative and be willing to participate. (I think both initiative and the willing to participate, give and take is really the most underlying basic foundaton of what a leader should be - together with the mentality of learning). Also, I think a leader would be willig to make certain sacrifices for the team if deem necessary. I think my definition of leadership is further enforce by these important factors, teaching or knowledge nowadays: 1.) Relationship (TQM, systems thinking is of yesterday; relationship is the key in today's world = thats what most people are talkig about today; all the hype about relationship, ha ha, what about tomorrow?? hmm..the ability to understand and feel for each other??) 2.) Motivation, understanding as in teach in knowledge management (http://bryanong.blogspot.com/2005/06/knowledge-management-systems-thinking.html) 3.) Team leadership and not individual leader (I believe in this personally and my Contemporay management perspective course also hightlight this) 4.) shared decision making Well, I think that is all for today on my own personal reflection without looking through the study pack and my notes as well as what is posted on the lecture slides today. The next time I do this will be about reading through the notes, slides, books and readings and I will comment as to what leadership is about today. I wonder if there is any information on leadership in the past; I think it will be good to know further although I sort of know a little bit of what leadership is in the past = autocratic; work work work; iron fist; individual style leadership and so forth. Current Mood: satisfied (Comment on this)