RW response to chapter 3 and Sept. 27

 According to Perkins, leaders should instill optimism and remain self-confident while accepting their current situation. Cultivating optimism in them, leaders could expect a ripple effect to their adherents and eventually it would lead to the spread of optimism. Thus, empowered mates could exert their maximum potential. As Perkins stated the decision whether to be optimistic or not under adversity depends on the leader hence he must judge the right timing to sound optimistic. In my opinion, the extreme case of Shackleton could not be compared to cases occurring in corporations as the book introduced. In Shackleton’s case, their final destination was death or survival and the odds to incline in either side was incalculable. In his situation, spreading optimism may have worked efficiently as it helped the group to forget about the worst, and concentrate on survival, thus mobilizing their performance. However, in the cases of corporations where thorough estimations and calculations of their current situation and further risks could be made, being overconfident may cause leaders to be reflected as ignorant and fatuous.

 Moving on to the negotiation task we had on Friday, it is getting more difficult to achieve a win-win relation every class. More people and options were involved in the hotel reservation negotiation which made it more complicated. More questions were necessary to achieve the best deal and as both sides thrived to benefit more, negotiations lasted longer. I believe in real-life situations, a win-win relation is difficult to achieve and occur infrequently, thus in most of the cases either player has to compromise, just as the hotel negotiation we had. As the number of stakeholders, rivals, and decision makings increase, negotiations become more sophisticated and intense. Probably the rise of the intensity is one of the factors that separate the superior negotiators from the mediocre ones, as it is when people tend to lose their calmness and start to decide things based on their emotions.

RW response to chapter 2

Chapter 2 dealt about the importance of leaders to share their visions and ideals to their adherents through visible gestures and symbols. Perkins also illuminated that the presence of a leader itself is “a unique source of energy” that keeps a group mobilized. I thought that in Japanese or other Asian societies where people are used to strict hierarchies, it is vital to instill this idea of a leader, as the one who provides “a unique source of energy” to the group, as people adopt the sympathetic type of leaders we had discussed so far. Particularly in Japan, being respected is an important quality of a leader as they often stand in the highest point of the hierarchy. Mike Bloomberg’s style of symbolizing sympathy with his group which was introduced in class today may not be appropriate in Japan where people value the traditional culture of hierarchy. I agree that adherents may feel more sympathy from the leader this way, however expressing the idea of equity within a group through Bloomberg’s style may cause confusion or in worst cases, leaders may be underrated as a co-worker rather than a symbol of authority. To avoid this from happening, Japanese leaders should not forget to sustain their role as “a unique source of energy” simultaneously while showing more sympathy to their adherents. 

Response to handout "Developing effective negotiation skills"

 The fact that the writer of this article, Richard Graham, finding his educational background as a Business Studies graduate to be non-practical when he actually entered the world of management, which in most cases require to interact with people, is intriguing because his experience displayed that business schools may be preaching impractical propositions. Going back to our first class, no matter how much excellence a student may show in his/her studies, the knowledge they obtained would do miniscule help unless they are able to implement those in their group through communication, which can rather be acquired through nurturing social intelligence than scholastic proficiency. However, I still think knowledge taught in business schools are meaningful because in most cases they are based on thorough examinations of case studies, which are practical things that are authentically happening. As in this article, the average negotiators have the potential to improve if they become aware of the differences between mediocre and skilled negotiators that were revealed through researches and scrutiny. In this case, we can observe the importance of scholastics in order to strengthen human relationship. When knowledge acquired through education meets with profound social skills cultivated through experience, great managers/leaders are born.

The Shackleton Saga respone

  Shackleton’s adventure was far more arduous than what I expected. We could take a glance at Shackleton’s excellence in leadership in keeping his large team of 28 people united under severe conditions. It requires great leadership to be trusted by such a big group of individuals from various backgrounds thus it displays how much Shackleton’s decision makings were trust-worthy. We can also conclude that these people who gathered up possessed tenacious endurance to keep up with the intense conditions, as they deliberately volunteered to join the adventure after looking at the job description in page 2. It feels dreadful if I were to stay in an environment marking -128.6 degrees Fahrenheit, but the landscape covered with ice described on page 3 seems really beautiful. However reckless and physically exhausting this adventure may be, I feel little sympathy with Shackleton’s attempt to challenge a frontier that remained untouched. Although Shackleton failed to accomplish this journey, we still can conclude that he exerted admirable leadership to save his crew from death or keeping them from causing chaos during the entire adventure. I’m looking forward to examine what qualities he had that made him a great leader.

RW class response 9/11

 A new semester has started and I'm all excited to work with a whole new lesson about leadership. Currently, I have plans to work as a business consultant in the future and I believe that I can apply what I learned in this leadership class to the business management field too. We started off by discussing the importance of a first impression. We then moved to lessons of doing a proper handshake (brief, firm, warm!) and exchanging cards, which are important in making a positive impression not only in business scenes but in more informal situations as well. I found the assigned reading very intriguing because considering its facts; employers may be able to motivate their employees more effectively by having more social interactions rather than increasing pay. Managers and employers often invest a great deal of money to keep their co-workers motivated but by adopting the methods introduced in the article, much of this expenses may be saved or spent for alternate usage. However, if this article goes viral and people in business scenes start to practice similar positive attitudes simultaneously to improve their social intelligence, that may prompt suspicion among people such as separating genuine positive gestures and calculated smiles, rather than fostering attunement in a particular group.