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.