Week 9: At the End...

At last, this day has come: the last day of this course. Especially, since the end of this term means the end of my sophomore, I really can't believe it!!

To finish up my learning experience of this course, I would like to recall our group's  final presentation...

So, we had Mai, Raku, Yuta, and me in our group. At first, it seemed almost impossible to merge our personal themes together as a group but somehow we found our way at managed to tie ourselves by "history". To be honest, I was a bit worried about group presentation because some of our group member were still working on their paper and actually didn't come up with their conclusion. But that worry was needless, they finally managed to finish and moreover, worked hard on making slides or making great packaging of the presentation. The result overwhelmed my initial expectation. 

In ICU, lots of courses require students presentation. What is required there is of course, contents and presentation skill. But as same as these two, team work ability is the hidden requirement. This is the point which can make presentation activity either interesting or tiring. 

Luckily at this course, all of our members were hard workers (I can say that for sure) but in other courses, that's not always the case....haha

Well, anyway, learning in LILTDY was really, an awesome experience. To me, it was more like a time to deeply confront myself. Knowing about oneself is definitely necessary to make one's life more decent. It was lucky enough for me to have some time for that during my university life.

Thank you, Shackleton,

Thank you, all the people who had learned together,

and of course, 

thank you, Ken:)

23, Feb. 2015   

Week 8: Brent's Guest Lecture

Week 8, we had a guest lecture by Brent A. Conkle, who has been consulting, training and coaching executives on leadership. At first, executive leadership seems not so much relevant to we university students' life but actually, he told us that being a good executive leader and having happy life as an individual is fundamentally same thing. And I think he's right: I do think skills necessary for good leaders can be interpreted as essential skills for ones' good life. 

I'll write this post just to share my result of the chart because it looks somewhat unique.

So, this is my result. Basically high scores in three areas: Integration, Development, and Baser...Baser is a little bit higher than other two, and extremely low score in "Results". One thing interesting was, Mai, who has spent lots of time with me in club, expected me to have highest score in "Results" but in fact, I didn't. 

To me, this result partially seemed convincing but at the same time, surprised me a little.
I expected myself to have high scores in Baser because I really love systematizing everything. You can hear how much I love using Excels in marshaling datas from my fellow members. I myself am aware of my this kind of tendency. Also, I think yes, I tend to come up with flexible ideas....sometimes lacking the feasibility.

However, I thought, and actually still now I think, I am not so good at integrating. Rather I though myself have more "Results" tendency. In fact, many times I was told from my friends or (Japanese) teachers that I am being too strict and harsh to others. Since that experience was not only one time, I've been trying to change that tendency. (Actually, to be honest,  to be said about this thing has now became trauma for me)

But as I spent almost one and a half year in Debating Community, which is really a competitive community, I came to acknowledge myself do not like such a competition so much and rather, I came to know that I prefer more "equality" or "peace". 

I dealt with Machiavelli in my essay, and his argument was one of the most convincing one for me. I do think that one sometimes has to be a fox in order to survive or in order to avoid being eaten by others. In that sense, I'm a realist. However, same as Machiavelli, I do not like doing this and if it's possible, than I would rather don't. But in order to live like that, precondition is all members of our community should share same peaceful view. 

I wish I can believe someday it will be possible in the entire world.

Week 7: The Marshmallow Challenge

"Marshmallow Challenge" - till last Monday, I've never heard of this name. Therefore, the moment I heard this term, I was like "....WHAT???" Actually, it was quite an interesting game that made me be aware of my role and behavior within a group once again. 

[What happened and my role within a group]

At the first challenge, our group made kind of success: at least we built a highest tower in the class. But this was just an average height. So, if we see this as a success, that may be due to our relatively quick start. On the other hand, if we see this as a failure, that may be due to our hesitance before we get started. Now, particularly my role in my group was generating the movement, I think. For instance, I tried to provide some ideas of the structure of the tower or tried to take an initiative in starting to build the tower. However unfortunately, I'm not so good at geometry so I couldn't make my proposal with strong confidence. But that didn't become a huge obstacle because other team members supplemented each other. This should be the largest reason of our success at our first try.
At the second challenge, we didn't really make any progress. I personally think this might be due to the decrease in the collaborative mood in our group. We kind of focused on our own working this time. I guess this has things to do with our boredom to this game...(omg, I might get in trouble lol) Well, in other words, I guess we lacked "stamina". 

[Lessons I got]

Actually, I thought myself do not  hesitate so much before taking an action but noticed that especially in the sphere I do not have much knowledge, I DO. Also, I, again, noticed my problem of lacking "stamina". So, from now on, I should one, intentionally try to have activeness in starting the action especially in the field I'm not familiar with and two, try to keep my motivation in team activity....

Week6: Chapter 8 "Lighten Up!"

"Find something to celebrate and something to laugh about."

Being realistic is of course necessary to survive, but at the same time, having optimistic view is necessary to keep one's motivation. And in order to be optimistic, tactics shown in this chapter are quite workable: find something to celebrate and to laugh about.

I think, celebrating something or laughing about something means sort of teamwork that nourishes the feeling of fellowship. The best moment people start to have the feeling of fellowship is that they do something together, especially something with big impact. That can be in the form of extremely hard work or ultimately exciting moment. The case dealt here is the latter one. And I guess everyone commonly has this kind of experience, such as school festivals. 

The notable thing of Shackleton is, I think, he was not only aware of this law but also intentionally utilized it by artificially creating or finding something to celebrate or laugh about.
In that sense, we can find the tactics of "enhancing" here again. (Please remember the two scenery pictures I posted before)

Now, reflecting back my personal experience, I'm not sure whether I was doing it intentionally or not, but I did have lots of moments of celebrating and laughing together with the members of org comm. For example, when I succeeded in making some kind of contract with party, I shared that incident with the members by the words of kind of mood-elevating. Also, quite often members shared things to celebrate or laugh about which is completely irrelevant to our group's worklol To be honest, I don't want to think that as a "tactics" of leadership, instead, I prefer to think it as just a natural incident between "friends", but from the academic view, yes this episode involved the component useful to talk about leadership tactics...

Week 6: Introduction

　　　 As long as human is human, people make families, groups, and societies. In other words, people live with people. In that sense, the concept “Leadership” has always been with human history. It can be dated back to ancient times such as argument of aristocracy made by Plato. “The Prince” by Machiavelli written in 16th Century, is also one of the most notable books regarding this theme. At 18th Century, the time when industrial revolution emerged, the fundamental structure of human society started to change. Unlimited arguments can be made regarding this age. The point relevant to the theme of this paper is, this was the very time where the concept of “Management” was given its birth (Bjerke 1999). These days, this word is mostly used in a business sphere. Numerous books regarding management have been published every year. One thing which is interesting is in these books the word “Leadership” and “Management” are often used as synonyms, or sometimes the implication of the word “Management” includes the concept of “Leadership”.

When we look back at the historical background of these two words, there is a distinct  fundamental difference in the essential concept of each word. It is predictable that this difference between the notion of leadership and management has a lot to do with the difference in the form of human aggregation between modern period and pre-modern period. It seems that being aware of the difference in leadership and management is useful and necessary for today’s leaders in terms of awareness of the difference prompts carefulness for both, neither can be forgotten,  and carefulness prevents forgetting.

This paper aims to clarify first, the difference between the concept “Leadership” and “Management” by tracing back the historical background of each. Next, it will explain the change of the form of human aggregation by mainly dealing with the Max Weber’s argument. Then, merging these two parts by setting the chapter that argues the difference between Leadership and Management. Chapter Ⅵ, the last chapter, will try to establish the lessons for today’s leaders followed by concrete case studies.

Week 5: Chapter 7 "Conflict"

" Master conflict - deal with anger in small doses, engage dissidents, and avoid needless power struggles."

Conflict - whether it appears in direct way or silent attitude, it is certain that this is the most difficult moment for the leaders. Also, it is true that for the group's sustainability, knowing how to manage the conflict is significant.

Dealing anger in small doses

I think it is a leader's role to be a "cushion" between the members. So in this sense, a leader not only has a role at the front but also at the back. In order to catch the germ of the conflict at the very first stage, leaders should regularly and carefully, watch the group. The book says, "...his keen awareness of the difference in people's personalities and needs was vital in minimizing destructive conflict among the crew." (p. 107) True, one's keen awareness do matter here. I think especially regarding this kind of ability, one's natural personality matters a lot compared to other sorts of skills introduced in this book. Because, I can't explain really, but one thing I can say is that, what leaders doing here is based upon feeling, not on something logical. 

Well, but leaving aside the question of whether we can capture the "moment" to take proactive action, at least we can scratch our noggin on "what concrete actions can we do?" I guess, again, knowing the personality of every single member of the group is important here and also, keep being informed of the current situation of the members: is he/she facing personal problem outside the group? is he/she feeling sick? Also, I guess having a member that tells you the situation about other members is also beneficial. As long as you are boss, it's hard to be at the completely same position as other members probably because of the emotional barrier. Therefore, having the friend with another level of perspective works. 

Engaging dissidents

One of the advises on book says "keep your personal opinions about people to yourself- and your closest advisers" I really feel that this is the point I have to improve. I think this is a matter of self-control - especially inevitable skill at political arena. The book showed us that you can "individually" talk to the person when you have him/her something to correct in their behavior. Now, I know its implication but once, I hated this kind of individual contact because to me, it appeared something like "lobbying". To clarify, I have negative image toward political lobbying because the image accompanying the word "lobbying" is "bribe". In fact, I heard lots of dirty things going on through lobbying in the debating community, which is really alike political arena. But now, I became more like realist, and do understand the necessity of individual contact - especially, the necessity to have a individual contact with the person who is at the confrontational standpoint: necessity to have a individual contact with dissidents.

Avoiding needless power struggles

I haven't experienced the situation like Shackleton such as being challenged of the authority, but do have an experience of severe conflict on vital issue that wasted lots of energy (endless quarrel that lasted for 3 hours till the 1 am) and bore almost nothing. Ever since that moment, I think I learned the choice of "retreat" or "truce".  

These tactics to confront conflicts helps us a lot. Nevertheless, it is still true that even with this tactics, leaders role in conflict situation is really heavy.

Leaders need to anyway creep the bumpy road with patience, determination, and passion...!

Week 5: Outline

So, this is my outline so far but it's tentative.
I'm going to especially develop more of the part "Ⅳ. Lesson's for Today's Leaders".

＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊

Ei Miyauchi

Professor. Ken Enochs

RW Formal Outline

21 January 2015

Leadership and Management: Two Different Skills for Today’s Leaders

Ⅰ. Introduction

A. Back ground info (Leading to theme)

B. Show the structure of the essay

C. Thesis statement

Ⅱ. History of Leadership

A. Before Enlightenment

a. Plato's "Republic"

b. Plutarch's "Lives"

c. Sun Tzu's "The Art of War"

d. Machiavelli's "The Prince"

e. Hume's "Political Discourses"

B. Enlightenment

a. Hobbes

b. Locke ―English Revolution

c. Rousseau ―French Revolution

d. Result of Enlightenment： traditional authority of monarchs, lords and

bishops had begun to wane

C. Trait Theory

Ⅲ. History of Management

A. Industrial Revolution: Specialization

B. "Owner" and "Administrator"

C. Scientific Management: Frederick W. Taylor

D. Fayolism: Henry Fayol

E. Bureaucracy: Max Weber

F. Development of Management Theories

Ⅳ. Lesson's for Today's Leaders

A. What:  Leaders should be aware of the difference

a. Case Study

B. When: Smaller the group is, the more leader should be aware of both

a. Case Study

Ⅴ. Conclusion