Thoughts on ch7 "lighten up"

In chapter7, "lighten up!", the importance of finding something to celebrate and to laugh at was mentioned. Before reading this chapter, I thought laughing in a hard situation is not only difficult but also inappropriate because then others might think you are not taking that situation seriously.

However, the chapter gave me some good reasons to have happy celebration in tough situation and that is...
It can break the spiral of depression and stimulate creativity.
It can give people the chance to step back and look at the issue with wider perspectives.
It can reduce such emotion as fear and tention.
It can reorganize the team.

These great effect of celebration could be seen from the many company that was used as examples in the chaper and also from the story of Endurance which successed in doing "celebration" in tough situation and overcoming that hardship. It seems "celebration" really works but I still think it is definetely not an easy thing to do especially in an tough situation.

Thoughts on conflict solving and a book

Today in class we talked about conflict. We did an questionaire by which we were divide into five type of handling conflict, problem-solving owl, smoothing teddybear, forcing shark, compromising fox, and the withdrawing turtle. I was classified into the owl, who put emphasis on both goal and personal relationship when handling conflict. I agree with this result. When I had conflict with friends or family in the past, I always tried to confront the problem directly, and tried talking or even exchanging letters wit that person when the situation is worse, to meet the best goal and also to preserve the good relationship.

What I do not understand is why owl represents problem solving in this questionaire. So, I did a little research on "animal symbolim" and found this page.
http://www.whats-your-sign.com/animal-symbolism-owl.html
(I only researched about owl so if you are interested in other four, I think you can look for them too in this website)
According to this website, owl is often used to symbolize wisdom, intelligence, foresight and many other attribute mainly because the owl is a great foreteller of weather conditions and because it can see in the dark. So I personally think owl was used for problem solving because it can seek light or a way(goal and relationship) even in the dark situation (conflict).

So that is my hypothesis. What is yours for your own animal? Thank you for reading.

Leading at the edge ch4-ch7 review

Today I would like to do the review of what I have read in the leading at the edge from chapter4 to chapter7.

In chapter 4, Stamina, the importance of taking care of not only other people but also yourself, was stated. I think this was the first time the author mentioned the leader characteristic Shackleton failed to have, which was also interesting to read. It was also stated how important it is to have outlets for our feeling, be it friends, family, or diary. I think these are all we can things we can also apply to our daily lives to relieve our stress, so I found them very helpful.

In chapter 5, The team message, the importance of having shared identity as a team, communicating well, performance evaluation of the followers was emphasized.

In chapter 6, Core team values, it is stated that hierarchical style shold be avoided, and leader should maintain an enviornment where courtsey and mutual respect is conducted. Everyone, including leader himself, should be treated equally. It was also stated that by understandin each individual's talent and assigning work that suits the personal talent, that individual can feel the meaning of his/her existence in a team can become even more productive.

In chapter 7, Conflict, it is stated that conflict is inevitable, but how leaders stay proactive to it and how they handle it is the key element in leading the team successfuly.

So that is it. It seems kind of short for each 15-pages chapter, but I hope it will help grasping the basic content of each chapter. Bye.

Negotiation wrap-up

Today we did wrap up of our negotiation skills studying in class. I feel the time went by so fast, but at the same time, looking back, we learned a lot of things from the lecture and several negotiation trials we did in class, and in each class, we learned things we did not realize before and it was very interesting.

For win -win solution, we learned how important it is to collect information by yourself and also from asking questions to the other party, having a back-up and sharing your feeling and information. The last one, sharing our own information was something that I would never do in the past when negotiating. Before, I thought a negotiation is like a fight and you should get but never give any personal information to the other party. But now, even though there may be certain information that we should keep to ourselves, we learned that sharing information is beneficial in building trust and good relationship with the other party. This was the biggest gain that I earned from the negotiation class. We also looked at the skills that are used by great negotiators, which was also very beneficial.

In the last class, which is today, we learned about how to win, not win-win, in a negotiation. Not only to win, but also knowing those skill for a win negotiation will help us not to lose, when other party use those skill for their benefit.

So this is the end of this post. Many of you have posted interesting video clips and images in your blog, so I will post my favorite video clip today. Some of you may know this boy :) I think he is very good at sharing his feeling, even though I am not sure if he got more cookies from his mom eventually :p

Guest Speaker, Michelle

Today we had a guest speaker in our class, Michelle Juhast. She did interesting activity outside the class which divided us into four different types of leaders, an Analyst, a Relation-master, a driver, and a spontaneous leader. As for me, I was the spontaneous leader according to her way of dividing, which I totally agree with . I cannot help but stating my own opinion when we are working in group and making something together. I'm not sure if I am a good motivator but some of my friends actually have told be that I have inspired them to start something or do challenging things so maybe I am :)

 I learned a lot of things from today's lecture but especially, it made me realize that even if there are people who do not speak out their opinion that much in a group work or even if there are people who seem too calm and not excited about the work, they may be analysts who are waiting for the right moment when they get enough information or they maybe relationship-masters who are trying to reach consensus. So, I, spontaneous leader, should not judge people only by visible and quick action shown in a group work, but listen and pay attention to the talents my teammates have, and make the best use of them together. Now that I know my type and both strength and weakness, I think I can do great team work :)

Thank you very much Michelle for the wonderful class, and thank you Ken for creating the opportunity for us to have this class.

Good night everybody, see you on Monday :)

ch3 optimism

Wednesday's lecture and the chapter we focused on really really affected  me. In chapter three, optimism was the theme. What I found very interesting was that optimism is not always something innate, but you can actually learn to be optimistic. When I first read this chapter, I thought this leadership tip is not for me. Believe it or not, I am totally opposite to optimistic. I tend think the worst case scenario for every future events, be it test, interview, or anything stressful, even when there is little possibility of that scenario to actually happen. So, for me who cannot be optimistic in those situation, to be optimistic especially in a more difficult business situation, was impossible, I thought, until I finished reading the entire chapter.

The idea that you can learn and cultivate optimism in yourself was very new to me and also very promising. I especially liked the part that suggest us to have a positive conversation within ourselves. Until I read this part, I was unaware that I actually often have negative conversation in myself unconsciously. Now whenever I found myself having negative talk in myself, I said to myself, "STOP!" and try to think of the bright side of the thing, even if it doesn't make sense to pessimistic side of me. this may sound stupid, but actually, this makes me feel good and less worrying so it actually works!

I am so glad that we can apply what we learn in class to our outside of class life and become even a better person :) Can't wait to read next chapter too, bye !

MY research proposal

The purpose of leading a small team, organization or big company may vary, but regardless of it, a leader must find a efficient way to control the led. This paper will analyze how leaders in the 21st century can motivate their followers to reach the ultimate goals of teams, using not only newly found fact about truth of motivation but also examples of successful companies in the world such as the South-West Airline whose president leadership technique made it possible  to the expnsion of the company nation-wide. These days, it is a given fact that good motivation should not be extrinsic, which is created by verbal and nonverbal stress from the commanders to the followers, but should be intrinsic, which involves teammates active participation to contribute to the team. In what environment can the team be instrically motivated and how can leaders create such environment? Paarlberg’s article, “Transformational Leadership and Public Service Motivation: Driving Individual and Organizational Performance” will talk about how managers can take advantage of their employees intrinsic motivation to benefit the overall organization. Wilsey, Michael D’s article  “Leadership and human motivation in the workplace” will go deep enough to discuss what is it that drives intrinsic motivation of an individual. John Milliman and Jeffery Ferguson’s article  “Spirit and community at Southwest Airlines: An investigation of a spiritual values-based model” will focus on south-west airline as a successfully intrinsically motivated company.

Reflection on "Leading at the edge" ch1-ch2

Good evening everybody. I know we are supposed to make an weekly post by Friday each week, and it's already Saturday, but let me do a brief summary of the Leadership strategies in chapter1 and  chapter2 of Leading at the edge, so that I can always come back here and remember what I had learned from there.

Chapter1
The main point of chapter 1 was about having vision and keeping and attaining both short and long-term goals. When the endurace was stuck int the antarctic sea and there was no hope of the team crossing the continent, Shackleton, the leader, quickly changed the long-term goal from crossng the continent to going to their home. The vision he had helped making best decision that eventually saved the lives of the entire team. Also, not only did he gave long-term goal to the team, but also he gave many short-term goals or tasks to the team so that they will never lose sight or get depressed from unfamiliar environment, and can keep to the long-term goal through small evryday tasks.
"Never lose sight of the ultimate goal, and focus energy on short-term objectives "

Chapter2
In chapter 2 symbolism and personal example was the theme, and there were many vivid examples of that in the chapter, such as Shackleton throwing away and leaving his gold in snow to show the team that they need to leave things that would only take weight and be useless for the survival. Also, when one of the member lost his mittens, Shackleton also throw away his own mittens and put himself into the same position as that member. Shackleton also made speech that spoke to the heart of the team and gave them hope. However hard the situation may be, leader should never forget that they are the boss and be accountable to the led.
"Set a personla example with visible memorable symbols and behaviors"

This is the end of this post. It's almost 12:00 am so I'm gonna go to my bed. Good night guys.

Happy New Year 2014 !!!

I know it's kind of late to say this but Happy New Year everybody! Kotoshimo-yoroshiku :)
Entering a new year always make me feel refreshed and as some of you guys have already done in your blog, I also made my new year resolutions. I think sharing them with other people are great because that way I can feel like other people are monitoring me, just like when you are on a diet lol, and I can cling to my resolutions. So, let me share some of my new years resolutions with you guys.

1. Stay positive
This looks very simple and easy to do but for me, this is so difficult. Actually this is not the first time that I came up with this resolution but every year I have this one. So staying in positive mood, trying to look at the bright side of things, and stay away from negative mood is one of my resolution this year.

2. Don't get bored, keep entertaining myself!
Hima(I have nothing to do and I am bored) is my taboo word this year. Make plan to go somewhere, find, do, and learn new things. Always keeping myself entertained is another my new year resolution.

3.Stay healthy
This is the most important. I cannot remember How many times I got cold and cancelled my plans last year. (Most recently, this winter break X( ) so this year I will eat healthy, sleep a lot and be a super girl so that I can live both my school life and life outside of school leffectively.

So that is the end of this post. Hope you like it and like Ayaka said, What is your New year's resolutions？