Leadership diary tag:blog.lib.umn.edu,2012-09-30:/syedm001/leadershipdiary//16694 2012-12-09T04:12:10Z Movable Type Enterprise 4.31-en Leadership 11 tag:blog.lib.umn.edu,2012:/syedm001/leadershipdiary//16694.380213 2012-12-09T03:17:47Z 2012-12-09T04:12:10Z syedm001 Previous week definitions:

  1. Leadership is a collection of essential personal skills that are to be learned in an ongoing basis; versatility is one of them. 
  2. Leadership helps a team to accomplish specific goals efficiently through the collaboration between individuals.
  3. Leadership can also be choices of actions made consciously and unconsciously from one's personal values and beliefs, which can affect other people in positive ways as well as be inspirational.

This week definitions: 

  1. Leadership is a collection of essential personal skills that are to be learned in an ongoing basis; versatility is one of them. 
  2. Leadership helps a team to accomplish specific goals efficiently through the collaboration between individuals.
  3. Leadership can also be choices of actions made consciously and unconsciously from one's personal values and beliefs, which can affect other people in positive ways as well as be inspirational.
  4. Leadership is made

Analysis of the differences in the definitions:

Quoting Lomas (2011), the author wrote,"He believed in listening to instinct and rarely lacked an opinion. He knew where he wanted to get to - and more often than not how to get there too", when describing about Steve Jobs, the man who was largely responsible for Apple Inc successful domination in the technological field. Besides that, Lomas also wrote,"Jobs structured and aligned Apple under the same principles he used when designing products - fashioning the company as an integrated whole, not a series of siloed functions. This structure was crucial to giving Apple the ability to both tightly focus and move quickly.". As a leader, Job made his actions to parallel with his beliefs,  helped units under Apple to become one strong team, and he inspired people with his management skills. His leadership, which fascinates me, is an example that supports both my second and third definitions of leadership.

References:

Lomas, N. (2011).  "Ten leadership lessons from the Steve Jobs school of management." Silicon.com.  Retrieved fromhttp://www.silicon.com/management/ceo-essentials/2011/11/18/ten-leadership-lessons-from-the-steve-jobs-school-of-management-39748225/

]]> Leadership 10 tag:blog.lib.umn.edu,2012:/syedm001/leadershipdiary//16694.378377 2012-12-02T04:07:05Z 2012-12-02T05:35:56Z syedm001
Previous week definition:

  1. Leadership is a collection of essential personal skills that are to be learned in an ongoing basis; versatility is one of them. 
  2. Leadership helps a team to accomplish specific goals efficiently through the collaboration between individuals.
  3. Leadership can also be choices of actions made consciously and unconsciously from one's personal values and beliefs, which can affect other people in positive ways as well as be inspirational.

This week definition: 

  1. Leadership is a collection of essential personal skills that are to be learned in an ongoing basis; versatility is one of them. 
  2. Leadership helps a team to accomplish specific goals efficiently through the collaboration between individuals.
  3. Leadership can also be choices of actions made consciously and unconsciously from one's personal values and beliefs, which can affect other people in positive ways as well as be inspirational.
  4. Leadership is made

Analysis of the differences in the definitions:

I revisited the article written by Terry (2001) and I decided to take stand that leadership is made.   In my opinion, Kezar (2000) supported this definition through her positionality theory. The theory states that individuals' leadership perspective emerges from their unique experiences. Also, according to Clifton, Andersen, and Schreinder (2006), the inner self talents of a leader could only become strengths once pertinent knowledge and skills were "acquired". These ideas are acceptable for me; therefore I refused to think that leadership is born.   

References:

Clifton, D., Anderson, E., and Schreinder, L. (2006). StrengthsQuest: Discover and develop your strengths in academics, career, and beyond. New York: Gallup Press. Pages: 26 - 70.

Kezar, A. (2000). "Pluralistic Leadership: Incorporating Diverse Voices." The Journal of Higher Education, 71(6), Nov. - Dec., 2000, pp. 722-743. http://z.umn.edu/kezar

Terry, R. (2001). "Deciding what you believe." Seven zones for leadership: Acting authentically in stability and chaos (pp. 20 - 40). Mountain View, CA: Davies-Black Publishing, Inc.

]]> Leadership 9 tag:blog.lib.umn.edu,2012:/syedm001/leadershipdiary//16694.377237 2012-11-25T05:08:21Z 2012-11-25T22:10:11Z syedm001 Previous week definition:

  1. Leadership is a collection of essential personal skills that are to be learned in an ongoing basis; versatility is one of them. 
  2. Leadership helps a team to accomplish specific goals efficiently through the collaboration between individuals.
  3. Leadership can also be choices of actions made consciously and unconsciously from one's personal values and beliefs, which can affect other people in positive ways as well as be inspirational.

This week definition:

  1. Leadership is a collection of essential personal skills that are to be learned in an ongoing basis; versatility is one of them. 
  2. Leadership helps a team to accomplish specific goals efficiently through the collaboration between individuals.
  3. Leadership can also be choices of actions made consciously and unconsciously from one's personal values and beliefs, which can affect other people in positive ways as well as be inspirational.

Analysis of the differences in the definitions:

Komives,Lucas, and McMahon (1998) defined a group as "three or more people interacting and communicating interpersonally over time in order to reach a goal". In the article, they also made a distinction between group and team in which a team was considered to be a group of people collaborating while possessing five meaningful characteristics. (Komives et. al.,2008). I decided to agree with their definition of team and make no change to my second definition of leadership. While my definition does not change structurally, its perspective does change significantly.

References:

Komives, S. R., Lucas, N., & McMahon, T. R. (1998). "Interacting in Teams and Groups." Exploring Leadership: For college students who want to make a difference (pp. 165 - 194). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

]]> Leadership 8 tag:blog.lib.umn.edu,2012:/syedm001/leadershipdiary//16694.376593 2012-11-18T05:08:15Z 2012-11-18T06:15:46Z Previous week definition: Leadership is a collection of essential personal skills that are to be learned in an ongoing basis; versatility is one of them. Leadership helps a team to accomplish specific goals efficiently through the collaboration between individuals. Leadership... syedm001 Previous week definition:

Leadership is a collection of essential personal skills that are to be learned in an ongoing basis; versatility is one of them.
Leadership helps a team to accomplish specific goals efficiently through the collaboration between individuals.
Leadership can also be choices of actions made consciously and unconsciously from one's personal values and beliefs, which can affect other people in many ways.


This week definition:
Leadership is a collection of essential personal skills that are to be learned in an ongoing basis; versatility is one of them.
Leadership helps a team to accomplish specific goals efficiently through the collaboration between individuals.
Leadership can also be choices of actions made consciously and unconsciously from one's personal values and beliefs, which can affect other people in positive ways as well as be inspirational.


Analysis of the differences in the definitions:

Whether leadership is positional or collaborative, one aspect of leadership that does not change to my opinion is other people are involved in the process that their importance is irrefutable. Therefore, I believe it is important that a leader acts in such a way that the surrounding people are able to respond positively such as by treating people equally and with respect. An example of such leader is Golomb who had successfully refrained himself from committing the Warden Harring error. The results were a group of customers who were satisfied with his customer service and the fulfillment of his leadership role as a salespeople as he managed to sell a lot of cars. (Gladwell,2005) Based on these considerations, I decided to modify my third definition to be more specific than the previous one.

References:

Gladwell, M. (2005). "The Warren Harding Error: Why we fall for tall, dark, and handsome men." Blink: The power of thinking without thinking (pp. 72 - 98). New York: Pushkin Enterprises.

]]> Leadership 7 tag:blog.lib.umn.edu,2012:/syedm001/leadershipdiary//16694.374404 2012-11-04T04:08:33Z 2012-11-04T14:09:24Z Previous week definition: Leadership is a collection of essential personal skills that are to be learned in an ongoing basis; versatility is one of them. Leadership helps a team to accomplish specific goals efficiently through the collaboration between individuals. Leadership... syedm001 Previous week definition:

Leadership is a collection of essential personal skills that are to be learned in an ongoing basis; versatility is one of them.
Leadership helps a team to accomplish specific goals efficiently through the collaboration between individuals.
Leadership can also be choices of actions made consciously and unconsciously from one's personal values and beliefs which can affect other people in many ways.

This week definition:

Leadership is a collection of essential personal skills that are to be learned in an ongoing basis; versatility is one of them. 
Leadership helps a team to accomplish specific goals efficiently through the collaboration between individuals.
Leadership can also be choices of actions made consciously and unconsciously from one's personal values and beliefs, which can affect other people in many ways.

Analysis of the differences in the definitions:

This week, I would like to discuss my third definition of leadership that is "Leadership can also be choices of actions made consciously and unconsciously from one's personal values and beliefs, which can affect other people in many ways ". According to Heifetz and Linsky (2002), a leader must "take action, step back, assess the result of the action, reassess the plan, then go to the dance floor (go back to the situation) and make the next move". There is a need to be aware of the nature of a situation through the realization of the non obvious aspect of it (Heifetz & Linsky,2002). There are two things that I found interesting in the article and it is also very related to my definition of leadership. First, subtlety is a result of unconscious action of people from their own values. For example, in the case of Amanda, people around her might believe in superiority based on their overwhelming reaction towards Brian's idea and they might not even realize that they have such belief (Heifetz & Linsky,2002). Secondly,I believe balcony perspective is a guide to improve with decision-making for leader so that they are more conscious than they are with their own actions. In a nutshell,article by Heifetz and Linsky (2002) supports my third definition of leadership for this week. 

References:

Heifetz, R. A., & Linsky, M. (2002). "Get on the balcony." Leadership on the Line: Staying alive through the dangers of leading (pp. 51 - 74). Boston: Harvard Business School Press.

]]> Leadership 6 tag:blog.lib.umn.edu,2012:/syedm001/leadershipdiary//16694.373358 2012-10-28T02:47:51Z 2012-10-28T04:46:48Z Previous definitions of leadership: Leadership is a collection of essential personal skills that are to be learned in an ongoing basis; versatility is one of them. Leadership helps an individual to accomplish specific goals efficiently. Leadership can also be choices... syedm001 Previous definitions of leadership:
Leadership is a collection of essential personal skills that are to be learned in an ongoing basis; versatility is one of them.
Leadership helps an individual to accomplish specific goals efficiently.
Leadership can also be choices of actions made consciously and unconsciously from one's personal values and beliefs, which can affect other people in many ways.

This week's definition:

Leadership is a collection of essential personal skills that are to be learned in an ongoing basis; versatility is one of them. 
Leadership helps a team to accomplish specific goals efficiently through the collaboration between individuals.
Leadership can also be choices of actions made consciously and unconsciously from one's personal values and beliefs, which can affect other people in many ways.


Analysis of the differences in the definitions:

Previously, my definition of leadership was to enable an individual to accomplish a goal effectively. However, after careful thought, I redefined my definition of leadership with focus on team rather than individual. I think interdependency between people is unavoidable as an individual will have a lot of limitations in which can be balanced with the support from other individual. I agree with Astin and Astin (1996) that, "leadership involves collaborative relationships that lead to collective action grounded in the shared values of people who work together to effect positive change". Another statement that I agree upon and does support my new definition is found in Heifetz, Grashow, and Linsky (2009), which says "Individual executives just don't have the personal capacity to sense and make sense of all the change swirling around them. They need to distribute leadership responsibility, replacing hierarchy and formal authority with organizational bandwidth, which draws on collective intelligence."

References:

Astin, H. S., & Astin, A. W. (1996). A social change model of leadership development: Guidebook (version III) (pp. 4 - 27). Los Angeles: University of California Los Angeles Higher Education Research Institute.

Heifetz, R., Grashow, A., & Linsky, M. (2009). "Leadership in a (permanent) crisis." Harvard Business Review, 87(7), 62-69. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=keh&AN=41997981&site=ehost-live


]]> Leadership 5 tag:blog.lib.umn.edu,2012:/syedm001/leadershipdiary//16694.372379 2012-10-21T03:39:12Z 2012-10-21T04:01:12Z Previous definitions of leadership: Leadership is a collection of essential personal skills that are to be learned in an ongoing basis; versatility is one of them. Leadership helps an individual to accomplish specific goals efficiently. Leadership can also be choices... syedm001 Previous definitions of leadership:
Leadership is a collection of essential personal skills that are to be learned in an ongoing basis; versatility is one of them. Leadership helps an individual to accomplish specific goals efficiently. Leadership can also be choices of actions made consciously and unconsciously from one's personal values and beliefs, which can affect other people in many ways.

This week's definition:

  1. Leadership is a collection of essential personal skills that are to be learned in an ongoing basis; versatility is one of them. 
  2. Leadership helps an individual to accomplish specific goals efficiently. 
  3. Leadership can also be choices of actions made consciously and unconsciously from one's personal values and beliefs, which can affect other people in many ways.

Analysis of the differences in the definitions:

The article written by Heifetz, Grashow, and Linsky (2009) supports my first definition of leadership, that is leadership is an ongoing process of learning new skills. Every day is a new challenge that can be unpredictable, demanding as well as risky (Heifetz et al.,2009). Therefore, a leader needs to be skilled at "fostering adaptation", "embracing disequilibrium", and "generating leadership" (Heifetz et al.,2009). 

Reference:

Heifetz, R., Grashow, A., & Linsky, M. (2009). "Leadership in a (permanent) crisis." Harvard Business Review, 87(7), 62-69. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=keh&AN=41997981&site=ehost-live  



]]> Leadership 4 tag:blog.lib.umn.edu,2012:/syedm001/leadershipdiary//16694.371201 2012-10-14T04:10:55Z 2012-10-14T05:00:05Z Previous definitions of leadership In my opinion, leadership is a collection of essential personal skills that are to be learned in an ongoing basis. Leadership helps an individual to accomplish specific goals efficiently. Leadership could also be inspirational and philosophical.Goleman's... syedm001

Previous definitions of leadership


  1. In my opinion, leadership is a collection of essential personal skills that are to be learned in an ongoing basis. Leadership helps an individual to accomplish specific goals efficiently. Leadership could also be inspirational and philosophical.
            1. Goleman's reading has improved my previous view of leadership. It helps me to define my "essential personal skills" to become more specific. With that being said, I think leadership is versatility. ...my new perspective will hopefully guide me to be able to respond to a situation appropriately
      1. This week, I have a new perspective on leadership after I went over self evaluation as provided by Lee and King (2001) and Terry (2001). I think leadership is choices of actions made consciously and unconsciously from one's personal values and beliefs.
This week's definition: Leadership is a collection of essential personal skills that are to be learned in an ongoing basis; versatility is one of them. Leadership helps an individual to accomplish specific goals efficiently. Leadership can also be choices of actions made consciously and unconsciously from one's personal values and beliefs, which can affect other people in many ways.

Analysis of the differences in the definitions: From Terry (2001), I was thought-provoked if I think leadership is ethical or both ethical and unethical and my answer was the latter. I think leadership can be divided into two general kinds; 1) good leadership and 2) bad leadership. Both kinds affect people in various ways and clearly not being ethical affect other people in a harmful way as suggested by Paul and Elder (2006). Leader can believe and practice dictatorship but if in any way it harms the people governed by the idea, it is a bad leadership.

Lee, R. J., & King, S. N. (2001). "Ground your leadership vision in a personal vision." Discovering the Leader in You: A guide to realizing your personal leadership potential (pp. 31 - 54). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, Inc.
Paul, R., & Elder, L. (2006). "The Function of Ethics -- and Its Main Impediement." Understanding the Foundations of Ethical Reasoning (pp. 4 - 36). Dillon Beach, CA: Foundation for Critical Thinking.
Terry, R. (2001). "Deciding what you believe." Seven zones for leadership: Acting authentically in stability and chaos (pp. 20 - 40). Mountain View, CA: Davies-Black Publishing, Inc.

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]]> Leadership #3 tag:blog.lib.umn.edu,2012:/syedm001/leadershipdiary//16694.368286 2012-10-06T19:21:49Z 2012-10-06T20:19:13Z This week, I have a new perspective on leadership after I went over self evaluation as provided by Lee and King (2001) and Terry (2001). I think leadership is choices of actions made consciously and unconsciously from one's personal values... syedm001 This week, I have a new perspective on leadership after I went over self evaluation as provided by Lee and King (2001) and Terry (2001). I think leadership is choices of actions made consciously and unconsciously from one's personal values and beliefs. When I discovered my personal core values and belief, I could relate with how I acted in my previous leadership experience. Apparently, one of my core values is family and I believe that leadership is spiritual. I was once a youth group leader for a kids program and I motivated them to put their best effort to excel in the academic field because God will eventually reward it with success.

Despite having a new definition of leadership, I still believe that my previous definitions are valid.

Lee, R. J., & King, S. N. (2001). "Ground your leadership vision in a personal vision." Discovering the Leader in You: A guide to realizing your personal leadership potential (pp. 31 - 54). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, Inc.
Terry, R. (2001). "Deciding what you believe." Seven zones for leadership: Acting authentically in stability and chaos (pp. 20 - 40). Mountain View, CA: Davies-Black Publishing, Inc.

]]> Leadership? #2 tag:blog.lib.umn.edu,2012:/syedm001/leadershipdiary//16694.368256 2012-10-05T21:55:40Z 2012-10-06T19:25:29Z Goleman's reading has improved my previous view of leadership. It helps me to define my "essential personal skills" to become more specific. With that being said, I think leadership is versatility. Reflecting on myself, I have yet to be a... syedm001 Goleman's reading has improved my previous view of leadership. It helps me to define my "essential personal skills" to become more specific. With that being said, I think leadership is versatility. Reflecting on myself, I have yet to be a versatile leader. I find it hard to use coerciveness style of leadership because I prefer harmony environment. However, my new perspective will hopefully guide me to be able to respond to a situation appropriately.

Other than that, "Understanding why people follow" is a very inspiring discussion. It is an endorsement to my view that leadership is inspirational as I read through stories of leaders who prioritize the needs of their followers.

Goleman, Daniel (2000). "Leadership that Gets Results." Harvard Business Review, 78(2), 78-90.
Rath, T. & Conchie, B. (2009). "Understanding why people follow." Strengths based leadership: Great leaders, teams, and why people follow. (pp. 79 - 85). New York: Gallup Press.

]]> Leadership #1 tag:blog.lib.umn.edu,2012:/syedm001/leadershipdiary//16694.367414 2012-10-01T18:38:38Z 2012-10-01T18:39:23Z In my opinion, leadership is a collection of essential personal skills that are to be learned in an ongoing basis. Leadership helps an individual to accomplish specific goals efficiently. Leadership could also be inspirational and philosophical.... syedm001 In my opinion, leadership is a collection of essential personal skills that are to be learned in an ongoing basis. Leadership helps an individual to accomplish specific goals efficiently. Leadership could also be inspirational and philosophical.

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