Week 1 (20 Oct)

In the first week, a video of an example of leadership is show. There is massive traffic jam caused by a tree blocking the road, nobody bothers to move it but the kid go and move the trees even under rain. The crowds see it and proceed to gather everyone to help the kid. With the help of everyone and the tree is moved and the traffic is cleared. This video shows a leadership spirit from the kid. A leader influence follower to achieve an outcome. Leader influence by example, the way they speak and the way they do. Leader are needed to have knowledge, skill and right attitude. Being leader by using money and reward are not effective as follower only respect the leader when the leader is still on post.

In this week, I learn about being leader is not only about pointing finger but start by doing it and influence others to follow. 

 

Week 2 (27 Oct)

This week’s lecture is about leadership. Leader is a person who influence follower to achieve a goal and leadership is the process of influencing follower to achieve an objective. A roleplay to illustrate leadership is acted. In the roleplay, Selva is to influence Salman to a dinner even though Salman is busy on assignment. Selva agree to help Salman on assignment and manage to invite Salman out for meal. It is understood that the 3 main point to influence is to communicating ideas, gaining acceptance and motivate the follower. Some leader will use bribe to influence other but once the power of leader is lost, he will lose the respect and influencing. An effective leader has a few characteristics like sharing leadership responsibility, teach follower the leadership skill, influence follower and for continual improvement, set a clear objective and able to work with each other. There is also a difference between managers and a leader. There are 4 different leadership theory which are trait, behavioral, integrative and contingency. Trait theory focus on physical characteristic like height and strength. Behavioral theory is a leadership style that applied depend on the follower behavior. Contingency theory is a leadership style that applied depend on follower and situation. Integrative theory combines all theory mentioned and create a new leadership style.

In this week, I learn about what is meant by leader. A leader is a person who is able to influence other to achieve a goal and there a lot of different leadership style.


Week 3 (03 Nov)

This week lecture was postponed due to Deepavali festival. The week’s pre-recorded video is about leader theories. A leader possesses trait that distinguish them with other. Great man theory is a concept that leader are exceptional born people with good quality. Trait theory research on the trait and quality of leadership but turn out they are difficult to measure. The model of personality categorizes into 5 which are surgency which the leader must be good, agreeableness which leader must be compassionate, adjustment which the leader is able to adapt, conscientiousness which the leader has an objective to success and openness to experience which leader are willing to try new stuff. There are 6 different executive derailment style which are bullying style, betrayed personal trust, self-centered, specific performance problems, over managed as well as cold, aloof and arrogant. There are 9 traits to lead to effective leaders which are dominance, high energy, self-confidence, locus of control, stability, integrity, intelligence, flexibility and sensitivity. Achievement motivation theory attempts to explain and predict behavior and performance based on need for achievement, power and affliction. Leader motive profile is a set of traits that match to typical effective leader. Theory X is similar to autocratic leader and Theory Y is participative style of leader. A leader should develop self-positive. Ethics are standard of right and wrong that govern how to lead. There are 3 step to develop moral which are pre-conventional, conventional and post-conventional

In this week, I learn about great man theory and trait theory. Great man theory judges a leader by physical appearance while trait theory is more appropriate way. A leader should have high value and be an effective leader. There is also Theory X and Theory Y which one assume follower are lazy and one let follower make decision. A misconception is that only one theory is the best but I learn that both are good but depend on situation.


Week 4 (10 Nov)

This week’s lecture is about leadership style. There are many types of leadership style study which is identified by the university that study them. First, University of Iowa categorize leadership style into 3 which are autocratic, democratic and laissez faire. Autocratic style is when leader give order and follower follow without question. Democratic style is when leader ask follower for opinion, there are two-way communication exist in this style. Laissez faire on the other hand, leader give freedom to follower to do their own task, there is no interfere on follower. Next, University of Michigan categorize leadership style into 2 which are Job-Centered and Employee-Centered. Job-Centered style is focus on the follower result and performance while Employee-Centered style is focus on developing and motivating the follower. For Ohio State University, there are 4 leadership style based on 2 dimensions which are low structure low consideration, high structure low consideration, low structure high consideration and high structure high consideration. Structure is similar to Job-Centered by University of Michigan study while consideration is similar to Employee-Centered by University of Michigan study. Hence the 4 style are combination of degree of both dimensions. Blake, Mouton and McCanse have another study that conclude 2 different dimension of leadership which are Concern for People and Concern for Production. This study is similar to Ohio State University study on the degree of dimension but it has 5 different leadership style which first 4 are similar to those from Ohio State University study and the last one is having average Concern for People and average Concern for Production. The goal in leadership is to achieve high Concern for People and high Concern for Production. Furthermore, it is also understood that motivation is a thing that affect behavior in pursuit an outcome. The motivation process starts with need; need leads to motive and motive leads to behavior which leads to consequence. The satisfaction or dissatisfaction of consequence will bring feedback. There are also many theories of motivation which mainly categorized into 3 which are content motivation theory, process motivation theory and reinforcement theory.

In this week, I learn about different degree of characteristic in leadership which can be conclude into relationship and productivity. Different type of leadership is combination of different focus of relationship and different focus of productivity. It is best to achieve high concern on both dimensions.


Week 5 (17 Nov)

This week’s lecture is about influence, power, politics and negotiation. Influence is a process of affecting other’s attitudes and behavior to achieve an objective. There are 9 influencing tactics which are inspirational appeals, consultation, ingratiation, personal appeals, exchange, coalitions, legitimization, pressure and rational persuasion. There are 2 sources of power which are from position which derived from top management and from personal which derived from follower based on behavior of leader himself. Power also categorized into several type which are legitimate, reward, punishment, referent, expert, resource and connection. Politics is a process of gaining and using the power. Politics can be bad when for example gaining more advantages by plotting against other; politics can also be good when for example compete against other for the same goal. There are 3 political behavior which are developing relationship (networking), exchanging things (reciprocity) and temporary alliance to achieve an objective (coalitions).  Networking can be achieved by social, business card exchanged and follow-up. Next, negotiation is a work to reach an agreement between the parties, by the end of the negotiation, both parties should be happy to a same agreement. Negotiation process start with an ice-breaking like a tea, followed by negotiations and postponement.

In this week, I learn about use of power as leader. Power and politics may sound very negative to me but I learn that, there is actually good way to use power, practice politics and bad way to use power, practice politics. The good way actually develops the group and relationship.


Week 6 (24 Nov)

This week’s video is about contingency leadership style. Contingency leadership style is believed that the action is depend on leaders, followers and situation, managing style should be change depend on circumstances, hence, there is no best style. Least Preferred Co-worker Scale is used to determine if you are task-oriented or relationship-oriented. Situation favorableness is also determined to understand the leader-member relations, task structure and position power. Task motivated leader focus on increasing productivity but lack of support while relationship motivated leader monitors the follower to do task but less productivity. Relationship motivated leader can clarify the task to improve effective while task motivated leader will become autocratic. Leadership continuum model is a theory that use boss-centered leadership and subordinate-centered leadership to determine 7 different leadership style which range from decision fully made by leader to decision is permitted to make by employees. Path-goal leadership style is used to select directive style, supportive style, participative style and achievement-oriented style leadership based on the situation that consider employee, task and environment characteristic. There are two main type of contingency leadership which is prescriptive which leader makes the decision before hand and descriptive which leader make decision instantaneous based on factors. There are also model to help leader decide which style to use such as Vroom-Yetton Decision Model, Normative leadership Model. Vroom Leadership styles start with leader making decision alone then leader consult individually, followed by leader consult in a group, then leader facilitate meeting to make decision, followed by the leader let the group discuss and make decision. Normative leadership Model use 7 factor to choose a leadership style which are decision significance, important of commitment, leader expertise, like hood of commitment, group support for objective, group expertise and team competence.

In this week, I learn about contingency leadership. In simple words, contingency leadership is a leadership style that is based on leader, follower and situation. How a leader leads, how the follower reacts and what is the situation play an important role in choosing a right leadership style. There is no best way but the best suited way.


Week 7 (01 Dec)

This week’s lecture is about communication, coaching and conflict. Communication is a process of conveying information between individual or group to reach a common understanding. Communication is one of the important leadership skills. To start a communication, it is vital to plan the message whether it should be delivered in oral or written, the purpose of message, who is the receiver of message, when to deliver and where to begin the communication. After the message is delivered, it is important to check for the understanding as well as follow up. For message receiver, it is important to listen first and analyze, lastly check the understanding. To check the understanding, the most powerful method is to ask the receiver to paraphrase, make sure to get feedback. People may not ask question due to several reason such as receiver feel ignorant, receiver are ignorant, reluctance to point the ignorance of sender or there is cultural barrier. Next, coach is a person who shows others how to improve themselves. There is also difference between coaching feedback and criticism, coaching feedback is based on supportive relationship and via assessment of performance, it makes everyone feel like a winner while criticism is judgmental and makes others feel like a loser. Next, mentoring, mentoring is similar to coaching but coaching is temporary but mentor is a longer-term guide. For conflict, conflict can be managed by 5 different style which are accommodating, forcing, avoiding, collaborating and negotiating. Accommodating is focus on concerning other’s need; forcing is focus on concerning own needs; avoiding is having low concern on everyone’s need; collaborating is having high concern for everyone’s need; negotiating is when both party gain some concern and lose some concern. If the conflict is difficult to be solved, mediator can be called which is a neutral third party to help solving conflict. If the mediator cannot be solved, an arbitrator can be called which is a neutral party who makes decision to resolve the conflict.

In this week, I learn about concept of communication. A formal leader-follower communication should be carefully planned unlike an informal chat. Leader should also make sure the follower had received the message. I also learn about mentoring and coaching. Mentoring and coaching is the way improve the relationship and improve the leader-follower communication.


Week 8 (08 Dec)

This week is mid-term break.

 

Week 9 (15 Dec)

This week’s lecture is about teamwork in leadership. All teams are group but not all groups are team. The benefits of teamwork are having synergy, avoiding major errors, make a better decision, having improvement, innovation, motivation and greater satisfaction and fulfillment. There are also disadvantages on teamwork which create more pressure to conform the group standard, member tends to avoid responsibility, members tend to agree with other even though they aren’t satisfied, teamwork can also cause inter-group conflict. There are 9 team leader’s roles to create an effective team which are emphasizing group recognition, identifying team’s strength, develop trust, develop team capability, empower team, inspire the team, recognize the team, encourage team as well as provide challenge. There are 3 types of teams which are functional team, cross-functional team and self-managed team. Functional team is formed by same department, cross-function team is formed by different field and self-managed team is form by different department who take responsibility of supervisor. A high-performance team require a set of skills including technical skills, problem-solving skills, decision-making skills, interpersonal skills. Training can be done if member is lacking on the skills. To have a good creative team, there must be adequate resource, recognition and reward, flexibility on different member and supportive member. Several practice can be done too to enhance team creativity, the member have to match, there must have autonomy for members, the member must not have creativity restriction and adequate of time and money. Since team decision take longer time to make a decision, the leader have to understand if the decision is important or urgent. To conduct a meeting, the objective has to be identified, the time and venue has to appropriate, the agenda has to cover but not story-telling, the duration has to be punctual and on time, and lastly, a conclusion has to be made. Meeting minute is important and has to be completed by secretary before the next meeting. A leader should also be able to handle member who are silent, talker, wanderer, bored and arguing. To handle the silent, wanderer, bored member, a leader can get everyone to involve, ask question. To handle the talker and arguing, a leader can try to stop them politely.

In this week, I learn about leader-follower is not a boss and worker but a team. Although there are cons of teamwork but most of the time a team leadership always create the best agreed result. Team leadership can also lead to self-managed team which can improve follower leadership skill. If follower is lack in skill, training can also be done to enrich the follower skillset.


Week 10 (22 Dec)

This week’s lecture is about charismatic and transformational leadership. According to Weber, charismatic leadership is when a leader has a divine supernatural quality, known as charisma. Charisma is a process of influencing major change in attitudes and assumption over large number of people. Charismatic leadership start with leader personal meaning, followed by good leader behavior and attribution of charismatic leadership. A charismatic person has to be the same in public and in himself and not split personality. Personal meaning is the characteristic which a leader himself aim to have. Sources of personal meaning can be from self-identity, legacy, culture, religion, political orientation, hobbies and moral values. For a person to be charismatic leader, one should have inspired trust, self confidence in moral conviction, good verbal skills, visionary, self-promoting, empowering other, having minimum internal conflict, relational power base, orienting towards high energy action and orienting towards high risk. A leader should develop a good visionary skill, practice to be a good candid and develop humanistic attitude, enthusiastic optimistic and energetic personality. There are 2 types of charismatic leaders which are personalized charismatic leader which focus on the leader’s own personality such as Adolf Hitler, the other is socialized charismatic leader which focus on organizational goods such as Martin Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi. Transformational leadership focus on what leader accomplish and not their personal characteristic or follower reaction. According to Bass and Avolio, the dimension of transformational leadership are idealized influence, intellectual stimulation, individual consideration and inspirational motivation. Idealized influence is known as charisma. Intellectual stimulation is when the leader provides follower training. The process of transformation starts with recognizing the need for change, then creating a new vision, manage the transition and followed by institutionalize the change.

In this week, I learn about another important dimension of being a leader which is charismatic. Charisma is very important to bring follower to together to achieve a common goal. But a charismatic leader should have a right moral and ethics and focus on organizational goods not on leader’s own self. Adolf Hitler is a great example that is very charismatic but on wrong sides.


Week 11 (29 Dec)

This week’s lecture is cancelled due to flood in certain area.

 

Week 12 (05 Jan)

This week’s lecture is about Level 5 Leadership. Level 5 Leadership is a leadership style that is introduced by Jim Collins. Its goal is to achieve good to great. The first level leader is highly capable individual. To move on to second level, leader contribute to team member. On level three, the leader will become a competent manager. The level 4 is effective leader. But the best leader is level 5 which is executive. In level 5 leadership, the leader is not only high rank but he is also thinking about others. It is a combination of personal humility and professional will, create legacy and produce more leader, humble and produce sustainable future. Level 5 leadership is not show-off but participate in the work. They give credit to others and take responsibility to the poor decision. Level 5 leader don't take credit for good while avoid responsibility of bad. The ideology of level 5 leadership is like Yin-Yang. There are first side and second side of Level 5 leadership, first professional will which the leader creates good result, demonstrate unwavering resolve, having sets the standard and always look out the window. The second side of Level 5 leadership is personal humility which the leader demonstrates compelling modesty, be calm and quiet, channel ambition into company instead of himself and look inside the window. The truth even though it's brutal, has to be told to follower. Hedgehog concept is a concept where one focus on what he does best. To decide the thing to do, it has to match passion, economic engine and if you being best at it. Next culture of discipline is also vital to move from good to great. The though, action and people have to be relevant. Next, do not use technology to follow the trend but be the pioneer of selected technology to enhance the performance.

In this week, I learn about another level of leadership. With concept of level 5 leadership, I learn that being an effective leader is only on the 4th level. To be a great leader, one has to achieve the 5th level which is a high rank leader but also thinking of other, respect other, take responsibility of his own mistake and have a low-ego.


Week 13 (12 Jan)

This week’s lecture is about authentic leadership. Authentic is defined by genuine, original and not a copy. Authentic leadership do not show off and impress other, but they bring people for a common value and motivate them. Authentic leadership can be view in 3 different idea which are intrapersonal which is the value of leader himself, interpersonal which is the relationship between leader and follower and developmental which the leadership develop over a lifetime. Self-awareness, internalized moral perspective, balanced processing and relational transparency are the characteristic of authentic leadership. Self-awareness is when a leader understands his inner and outer qualities and relate them leadership. Internalized moral perspective is when the leader does the right things, follow the ethics. Balanced processing is when the leader lead with openness, fairness, understand the bias and let follower free to speak. Relational transparency is when there is genuineness, no drama, no hidden agenda and the leader and follower communicate and act honestly. In a previous study, Bill George states that authentic leader brings people together around a common purpose and empower them to step up and lead authentically. Most of the authentic leader had been impact by a crucible. Crucible is a single event or challenging situation in one’s life that set one’s purpose. Several examples of crucible are shared. Howard Schultz, owner of Starbucks. Schultz’s father injured in his job and company do not take responsibility. With that crucible event, Schultz enforced insurance on all his employee, so everyone is insured. Next, Oprah Winfrey. Winfrey came from abusive family and when she became successful, she built a foundation for abused female. The lecturer also shared about her friend who can’t afford to attend tuition class, when he became a teacher, he provided free tuition to the poor. Next, Nelson Mandela faced the apartheid issue and imprisoned, when he was release and became president, he did not pay revenge but even hired the white to be his body-guard. A journey of a leader has 3 phases, first is when one study and fulfill what he needs like a person up to age 30. Phase 2 is when one looking after everyone like a person from age of 30 to 60 and phase 3 is when ones give back to society, encourage other leader and not for profit. A metaphor of a compass is used, the compass is always pointing to true north. The center is self-awareness, the north is the values and principles, the south is supportive team, the west is integrated life and the east is motivation.

In this week, I learn about one must also be authentic as a leader. An authentic leader has characteristic of self-awareness, internalized moral perspective, balanced processing and relational transparency. One should not seek revenge but help others from the common unfortunate event. Serve the society.