Leadership 262: Frailty thy name is ....

Leadership 262: Frailty thy name is ....: "I know I have posted my last blog topic but I have had an incident in the last couple of days which I think reflects the weakness in the lea..."

Final (Class Related) Blog

I definitely found the "predictably irrational" and "drive" books/topics to be quite interesting. Motivation was a subject I wasn't very familiar with and the circumstances involved in performance results around motivation through compensation and independent development was very informing.

My resulting conclusions were not to use the carrot and stick approach unless the tasks were simple and routine. My work uses this for nearly every task for 1/2 of the task force, but does allow a lot of self-directed work time to the other 1/2. I belong to the non "carrot and stick" group and the self directed work time is probably my favorite part of this job. I noticed that the bosses are pretty good about being cheer leaders to their group's accomplishments, and was even called up myself to the stage for an award in front of the entire company.

In following the "Drive" group's presentation, it made quite a few things clear to me about how corporations develop reward programs and where we can learn to improve our own. If I were to request that we add a particular book to the lineup, it has got to be the Army Manual on Leadership. It would be very very interesting to learn through concise statements what they will need to know (at the least) about taking a group into a life and death situation. How do you motivate someone when compensation is not an option!?!!!!!

:)

I love this class.. and I'm sad to have it end. I guess the blog will live on though. As a final lesson, I learned not to depend on what you may have seen from someone before.. they have the ability to suprise you when you least expect it!

Groups and Leadership- oops, this is out of order :)

In class, we talked about adjusting your leadership for different kinds of groups - volunteer groups, paid groups, etc. Take this time to reflect on your leadership in the different types of groups of which you are a member (even if you didn't see them all this week). How does your leadership style change? Are you more effective in one group versus another? Do you fall into a pattern such that you are in the same role in all groups? Or, as is typical in family groups, do you find yourself regressing to the same role in the family that you've always played, regardless of other accomplishments? Think about other leaders in these groups. What do they do that is effective and how can you learn from them?

Its funny... I thought about this for a bit, trying to reflect on my recent behavior when going out with friends, interacting with my team at work, and spending time with my family... and the funny truth is, I think I am pretty consistent across all of those areas. I'm going to talk through this though, just rationalize why there would be so many similarities in my style... there is a good chance that I have not delved deep enough into thinking about this, so maybe a new truth will come out as I write... :)

Within my family, I am the oldest of the 5 kids, so I while I am by no means the strongest personality, I have a kind of default position of power just based on the fact that I am the oldest amongst my siblings. Do I run the decision making... absolutely not. To be honest, my next youngest sister, who is 28, is the one who I think is the most dominant and controlling personality within our family... and I would say that more often than not she is the one who will forcefully vocalize her opinion and often get her way when it comes to group decisions. I think this is partly because she is very aggressive, which translates into being driven in her outside world, a quality which has served her greatly. But additionally, I think this is also because several of my other siblings, myself especially, have a very laid back personality when it comes to making decisions that we don't consider "vital". Whereas my sister has a voice for virtually everything and anything that comes up, trivial or not, I tend to not mind just going wtih the flow on things that don't really effect me negatively one way or another- such as choosing a location for a family dinner, deciding what group gift to get my parents for Christmas, choosing a menu for my parent's anniversary dinner that we cook them every year, etc. Additionally, aside from the fact that I genuinely don't mind just taking the back seat sometimes, I also don't think some things are worth fighting or debating over. If it is an issue or topic that matters to me, then of course I will stand my ground and fight for what I think is best.

Groups Leads

I think my leadership style changes dramatically from work to school, and from there onto family. In the family, we have strong independent folks that all have a good head on their shoulders and are used to running things. I have to use consultation and rational persuasion. Rarely is pressure, exchange, inspirational appeal, etc. going to get you anywhere. In school, you are starting usually from a blank slate for an assessment from your peers, especially when it's a group in which you aren't really friends with any of the members. You are driven to establish a standard for yourself and you may push forward consultation and ingratiation, perhaps some coalition building and rational persuasion. It's tough to use pressure in either of the previously mentioned situations, for me, but it applies perfectly to work situations. I use upward appeal in addition to the aforementioned tactics. At work, however, what you are able to push for leadership is dependent on your ranking, environmental factors (age vs. the person/people you are working with), and perception based on past work history. Here, I believe, your transformational leadership skills apply especially.

I can learn from applying particular tactics with my closest relatives (parents/sister) and move those over to application at work (since I see them, in many cases, for more hours than my own family... they somewhat resemble a second family to me). The work lessons can then be applied to class related groups, as in my opinion, it is tougher to influence those of a older generation than our peers.

I feel I am usually in the same role with family and work. And do find myself, more often in the smaller collaborative groups for school, in the same roll. As the groups get larger, however, I begin to step back more to allow more time for the appropriate skills needed towards the task and those involved to be assessed. It's useful as people that would like to take the lead volunteer more often, but I have also found the opposite to be true (blind square) when the appropriate questions are not asked and people remain ... uninvolved.

I have found that one of the most effective bosses I had at work always kept his schedule, or did his best to keep it no matter what was going on around him. This give him a consistent image that seemed approachable to most of the people working with him, and his organizational skills even championed him as being capable of taking on time to hear out his subordinates. That is probably the single most relevant observation I have made about an effective leader in our group, and something I would like to work on evolving myself.

Suprised the heck outta me

I can start this post with a simple statement - I'm very much out of tune with how I see myself and how others perceive me. There were few categories in which I wasn't even close. The people doing the assessing included my ex, my boss, my ex boss, my buddy (with a critical view of myself), my customer service lead, etc. People that have seen me in action anywhere from 2-5 years. I underscored myself entirely in EI by nearly 2 points, on average. My reasoning for picking the scores I had, for example 5.75 in Regulating my own emotions, was because I am near a stone wall with most things but (I believe) you can tell sometimes that I am overloaded when I'm running around like mad to keep up. Apparently I am a stone wall to everyone that has known me for sometime, ranking ~6.7 for regulating my own emotions.

I do not believe the ranking is because I regulate my emotions or use the correct emotions, I believe it's because I disengage from emotions easily... especially in tough situations. I may have received a 6.88 because I could use the appropriate emotion to continue the design concept moving forward, for example, not for necessarily using the correct emotional response for the situation (girl showing signs of sadness, reciprocating with empathy).

As for Influence tactics, I was more so in line with at least the skills I expected to be used more often... but then again there were some exceptions. I was quite surprised that I seemed comfortable with use of Inspirational Appeal. I'm in agreement with more use of Upward Appeal, Coalition Building, and Rational Persuasion... Not really much of a tit for tat guy when it came to work that was supposed to get done anyway, unless it's necessary.

This feedback helps me identify where I need to focus to help move my leadership skills forward/develop my leadership skills. It was obvious that I do not communicate my vision clearly enough, set a good example, push for consensus, or do well in any specific category for Transformation Leadership. I don't get good feedback at all really, the performance reviews sometimes end up really to see how well you did with routine tasks and outlanding goals. They don't really get into development as much as an assessment of this sorts would. I expect to be able to identify what I need to change about myself through this kind of review and understand these categories and their applications a bit better (when I find the key!)

Final Blog...

We've reached the end of this part of your leadership journey - and hopefully you are ready to continue on your own! In this posting, please write about what activity, topic, or reading you found the most interesting and useful. It may be interesting to see how others saw the class and what they found of value.

For me, the most interesting group activity that we did was the one on managing your emotions/emotional intelligence. I have always felt I am very keen at reading and being in tune to the emotional state of others through their facial expressions, tone of voice, etc. And likewise, I have always felt that I am fairly good at identifying and communicating my own emotions accurately through my tones, expressions, etc. However, when tasked with the challenge of reading random phrases verbatim from one slip of paper while expressing a selected emotion as listed on another slip of paper, I found this was quite a challenge for me. I think this speaks to how much of a tie there is between the words we choose to say and the genuine emotions we are feeling at the time we are saying them, as it was extremely difficult for me to try to express "sadness", for example, while reading a phrase that didn't actually evoke that emotional response from me.

Also, please briefly describe which book - other than your own - you think was most useful to learn about and if you know of other books that you think would be useful for a future class, please provide the title!

As for the books that we read/discussed throughout this course- if I had to pick the 1 with the most interest to me it was definitely the one that my group read and presented on, Social Influence. I guess we picked that book for a reason though, as I knew that it sounded interesting from the first week when we were presented with the options. If I was to choose another book aside from our's that really had an impact on my as far as what I can apply to my leadership behavior, I think it would be the book about motivation- . I think understanding what can motivate others and also what motivates one's self are vital skills in being an effective leader. I have personally learned through the years how to re-motivate myself on several occasions when my job work or school work has become stagnant or boring and I feel myself losing focus... I have struggled with the challenge of becoming bored easily my whole life, which has forced me to figure out tricks for how to re-stimulate myself and get excited and back on track rather than just giving in to my lethargy and changing jobs or doing the minimum to get by in a class.

As far as suggestions for books to read going forward... there was a book that my last company actually required the entire staff to purchase and read- it was called Raving Fans. The company was a media publisher, and we were all working in various capacities, from sales, sales support, customer retention, client services, etc. The book was sales/customer service inspired, but it could be a good one to put on the list for the class to choose from next semester- I though it was a really interesting read and appreciated being "forced" to read it as part of a company directive, as I have never been asked to do something like that before by an employer.

Motivate, eh?

In retrospect, our discussion of What do you think motivates you? Are there times when you are just trying to get by and are there times when you are striving something really great? When do you experience each kind of feeling? Which feeling are your more comfortable with?
The translation of theory in the first video most definitely struck a chord here. I think it just helped me figure out why I make simple tasks more challenging by combining other tasks with it. What he was referring to as "flow," I believe is often referred to as being in the "zone." This is also what you may have noticed in the movie "Facebook" where he puts on his headphones and just flows code. We do this in design as well as assignments sometimes. If something doesn't seem challenging enough, we may wait off and group it into a slot where it suddenly rises in priority and now has peeked out interest as a challenge (well, at least that's how I seem to sort things for now). I'm much more comfortable with the feeling of arousal and flow. It should be challenging enough to require thought, and it should require enough skill (be it the completion of a thought, within a limited period of time).

Having considered what motivates you, think about how you might motivate others. Can you shift gears between different styles and types of motivation when working with your followers? Can you use fear? Can you use anger? Can you use inspiration? How can you improve your motivational repertoire?
Hmm.. now I can't quite apply this with others. More often than not, they are buried. I have to describe the importance of something for it to be raised in priority level with them. Usually it's based on the consequences of what may happen if we do not take care of something right away, which is in the end, a form of fear. I think this would target my need for defining how I can better collaborate with my coworkers than try to inspire more so than create a task oriented, fear driven, unscheduled chaos that somehow works out in the end. I maybe overstating this a bit, as it's not really chaos, but it does not come through as a finely defined and specific requirement. Perhaps trying that and creating a more through environment will help inspire them to complete the task that was given to them with a clear definition?

I've gotta try that soon.

Final Blog Topic

I think the most important and useful aspect of this class for me personally has been a realization of my strengths and weaknesses. This course, I hope, have set me on my leadership and self-improvement journey.

The course reader I think has lot of good articles and I did have chance to go through some of them including "Ten Tips for Effective Leadership Communication: Rules of the Dance", "Understanding Communications in One-To-One Relationships", and "Managing Your Boss". I am going to admit that I have not been as diligent on the reading assignments as I should have been (Hope I will not be penalized for being truthful), and as I result, I was unable to take hundred percent advantage of the available material.

I think each of us have different learning style which suits us the best, so while each activity might have varying level of effectiveness, I think overall all the activities were useful and productive.

One book that has been on my bookshelf for quite a while now (still not finished reading it) is "7 Habits of Highly Effective People" by Steven Covey. Habit 2 (Begin with the End in Mind) discusses mission and personal charter, Habit 4 (Think Win/Win) and Habit 5 (Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood) are interesting.

Cultural Mindset

Have you had experiences which, in retrospect, didn't go well because you had different assumptions about causality or use of logic than your interaction partner? What is the geography of your thought and can how does it affect you in your interactions with others? What are the elements of your cultural mindset?

In my PAA, I recall touching a bit on this topic. There is a huge differential in the mindset of a younger generation as well as having grown up in India the first few years vs. the US or England. I know I take on more than I should sometimes.. while my counterpart will not take on more than one activity and doesn't believe much in checking something again. If he did it, it's got to be right and not worth looking over again. I don't mind this as much, but I'm also willing to do things without having to tell him and avoid him where needed. This may not be the best approach, but culturally... I think in general we don't like confrontations. We will do what we can to avoid them, especially with elders. This leads to accepting a lot of behavior from others or avoiding dealing with it directly, rather than finding creative ways of bringing it to the person's attention (if at all).

In our culture, we respect the thoughts of elders and we usually do not confront problems directly. Beating around the bush is expected until the other understands it for themselves. I don't like to do the latter, probably due to the part of my personality that relates to my upbringing in the US. Now, how to avoid doing this is the interesting portion that I have yet to look at.

Predictably Rational

The bit about the economist and similar example between Paris and Rome (with and without coffee) are darn close to how I recall a lot of negotiations taking place. The fact that you place a completely useless decision next to a decision that normally would look nothing out of the ordinary, suddenly makes it extraordinary in comparison. We do this unconsciously when making our first offer to a client - you can have this produced within the time frame and shipped ground - in which case the item would not arrive in time for your production, or you can have this shipped 2nd day air and pay the same shipping rate. This statement would make the buyer loose track of looking into additional ground in the negotiation and focus on making what would seem the rational decision in the offering, instead of requesting a different set of terms.

I just recently tried something in regards to social influence - I dressed up with a tie and suit when I had to assist with putting on a show overseas. The next day I didn't wear the jacket, just the shirt and tie. I had a sudden increase in the number of people asking me for directions on how to get to particular booths in the show, even if I was in the middle of a conversation with someone else! They somehow felt I was .. less important and approachable for information? My job was not to give directions, but deal with the technical content and organization/controls for part of the event. Those that were asking knew this as I was no where near an information desk... I answered anyway as the number of people doing it was around 4-5 / hour in a 8 hour day vs. 1 / hour in the previous day having worn a jacket.

Anish

Final Blog Topic

Personally I really liked the online surveys that we received from those around us. I think that is essentially feedback, because it very rare to get a snapshot of what those around you think of your leadership skills and abilities, but also compare those to how you view yourself.

Also, I really liked the activity where we tried to project a certain emotion using a statement from one of our cards. This was interesting because it showed most of us that the sender/receiver relationship in any type of communication can sometimes be easily misconstrued no matter how hard we try or earnest our intentions are.

I really liked the presentation on emotional intelligence. I thought this group did a good job of explaining the book and content, and this is one of the more important topics of the course. Many people in our MBA background, such as myself, come from an engineering educational background. Never in any engineering classes is emotion brought into the intellectual environment, so it definitely fills a void for those of us who have a more technical background.

Lastly, I would say that if I could change the course slightly, i would add a selected book by each student on a leader to which they aspire. They should be able to select a book and learn from that leader and understand what are the core principles. I think all students look up to some well known leader as an example of what to become. It could be leaders from any aspect of life, not necessarily business. It would give a concrete role model for a student to aspire to be, so after when the student is faced with a leadership challenge in the future, he or she can ask, "what would _____ do....."

Couple of title Ideas:

Sports: What It Takes to Be #1 : Vince Lombardi on Leadership

Politics: The Leadership Secrets of Colin Powell

Social Movement: A Higher Standard of Leadership: Lessons from the Life of Gandhi

Just an idea.....

It became easier to notice that the perceptions I had of others morphed as I got to know them overtime, usually for the better. In a similar fashion, I would imagine that many others that I meet may, at first, have a similarly abrogating perception of myself or my personality. Sometimes we get a chance to change their minds, sometimes that chance is never presented... From my end, I try and not fixate on my first thoughts of a person and stay neutral when possible for as long as possible. In order to pull the same treatment from others, I again try and stay (although I haven't taken the opportunity to ask if I succeeded at this) until both of us are familiar with what is and is not acceptable of each other's personalities. They at least lets the both of us lay down a foundation of understanding for each other and get time to gain respect of each other's abilities.

Those two tables definitely are close, but not exact. They were likely freehand drawn/modified lines that made it look slightly off, but if they were measured off the original and placed at an angle.. they would be the same. :)

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Or times when others perceptions of you have been erroneous and perhaps harmful to you? How do you deal with other's misperceptions of you? Do you still think those two tables did not have the same surface area?

Power - and possibly the reason for the lack there of.

I believe I have some power to influence in my immediate circle of friends and usually in smaller work groups, but in a grand scale affecting many many people... if I have the power, I do not exercise it. I know I do not do enough to empower others in the area of influence either. I have been conscious of this in the recent past (say, year or so) where I used to just take over a job and finish it because I deemed the other person involved would not be able to finish in time. I have maybe improved 30% on this trait and learned to pass on some more responsibility, but it's not where I would like it to be just yet. 

One particular weakness of mine that seemed to come through on the self assessment was my ability to influence via collaboration. I must relate this to what I previously stated as well, since I do like to work independently (in particular at work). I would need to break away from this by suggesting that goals required at work are best achieved with collaboration. There are not many achievements in the world without the support of a group, team, partner, or co-worker. I will likely have revise any development plan after seeking council from leaders that excel at this in the workplace. Starting with my own workplace would be ideal.

Negotiation

I believe I did fairly well in the negotiation, but I may have prepared a looser strategy than my opponent but I came prepared with what I wanted to walk out with and was not going to budge much from there. I had looked at the scores ahead of time and let my partner take the first step of suggesting the location he had in mind. He assumed I wanted to go to a particular city, which happened to be in my best interest anyway, and I just ran the negotiations based on what seemed like my concession towards his first suggestion... That city would have been my first choice anyway. :)

I believe I know what may have influenced my tactics in the negotiations we did in class. I have been easily "manipulated" by the skilled salary negotiators in my work place in the past few years. I was hardened early in this year with negotiations when my company's managers themselves admitted I was well below where I should be on salary and they were willing to make up for it by helping "influence" HR with accepting the terms of the negotiations. This may have been yet another tactic, but it allowed me to reflect on what I had done incorrectly in the past for negotiations... I always was told what I should be doing for the year, and I didn't ask what parts of the plan were negotiable. I would assume that this was all mandatory and that I had no say in the plan, and they would gladly accept my signature and I would work away. When I let it be known I was offered a job by an associate company with a salary well above my current range, my manager had seeked guidance from upper management and they stated they wanted to talk. I had some grounds to stand on when requesting what was negotiable and let them start the talk... they revealed that nearly everything on the plan was "adjustable." One would need to ask to know this, and few had.

I believe this is on the borderline of ethical, but each manager has their own style of negotiations. Some choose only to reveal what is necessary and only when asked. This changed my tactics with customers as well. I would let them kick out their own numbers first in negotiations, and when I knew they didn't have any references to draw upon or alternative choices to compare to, I would reveal just enough cards to let them see that the figure presented was the best that we could do.

Blog 4- Influence vs. Manipulation

I believe there is a fine line between manipulation and influence. In my definition, manipulation would be the back ended/back door way of pushing someone towards a decision by putting direct effort into making the victim think only the presented path is correct. For influence, you would need to only state your point, and perhaps alternatives that you foresee affecting the decision, and let the person make their own conscious (critical awareness of alternatives) decision.

Unfortunately, this battle is a daily activity at work. I have been asked to get my contacts to go down a certain path because particular solutions or products are more in the company's overall interest than others. As I am pushed into specific categories of product by work, I then need to do the same with the end users. It didn't come to mind until now, but this may have become a normal process that I haven't taken much thought of. I do present some alternatives, but I know I have not done so in all situations. This may have been easier since I had not defined my core values just yet, which allowed for flexibility in decisions. It will be quite hard to continue doing this consciously when I have the LDP completed with a clearer vision of this core values.

I would be curious to the writings of Presidents that have struggled with this conflict and the ethics related to it. They have the abundantly difficult task of influencing a nation to accept a policy, a law, a decision, and the like... without always having the charm.

Final Blog Topic

We've reached the end of this part of your leadership journey - and hopefully you are ready to continue on your own! In this posting, please write about what activity, topic, or reading you found the most interesting and useful. It may be interesting to see how others saw the class and what they found of value.

Also, please briefly describe which book - other than your own - you think was most useful to learn about and if you know of other books that you think would be useful for a future class, please provide the title!

Topic 12: Groups and Leadership

My leadership roles have varied depending on the group and also within group, depending on the task or topic on hand. For example, at work my leadership role has been pretty consistent within the context of given responsibilities, but the role could vary based on specific objectives of a group meeting. In my typical role, I would lead a group towards accomplishing our project and objectives but there are also group meetings where we share the current state of things, current projects, and brainstorming on ideas for improvement. In this meeting, I think I play a more equal role rather than a leadership role and each group member shares ideas and suggestions on equal footings.

Similarly in a family group setting, since I am one of the youngest among my brothers, my influence is limited. In my friendship circle, I think I just play an equal role and all friends share the same space without regards to any prominent leadership position.

I think being an effective leader demands different skill sets in different groups. In a work group, knowledge, communication skills, creativeness, dependability, etc might be more relevant whereas in friendship or family circle skills such as liking, social skills, interests, hobbies, etc might be more important and pertinent. I believe one should not be restricted to anyone particular role or leadership style in every circumstance. Rather, one should dynamically adjust oneself based on one’s association with different part of the society, different needs and different responsibilities.

Blog Topic 12: Groups and leadership

The leadership style or position within these different groups is different. For this blog, I think it would be best to align them to Kurt Lewin's three main styles: (from the web)

The authoritarian makes all decisions, independent of member's input. The authority figure dictates direction, leaving members in the dark about future plans. The authority figure selects which members will work collaboratively and determines solely the work tasks for the teams. This leader type is very personal in his praise and criticisms of each member, but does not actively participate with the group, unless demonstrating to the group. The authority figure is friendly and/or impersonal, but not openly hostile.

The democratic leader welcomes team input and facilitates group discussion and decision making. This leader type shares plans with the group and offers multiple options for group consideration. Encourages members to work freely with each other and leaves division of tasks to the group. This leader is objective in praise and criticism, and joins group activities without over-participating.

The laissez-faire leader allows the group complete freedom for decision-making, without participating himself. This leader type provides materials and offers to assist only by request. The laissez-faire leader does not participate in work discussions or group tasks. This leader does not offer commentary on members' performance unless asked directly, and does not participate or intervene in activities.

My leadership style definitely changes within the groups of friends, work, family, and even classmates that I am around. For example, I would say that with regards to family, I am more "laissez faire" and only lead when either delegated upon or if there are no senior or elders present. I think that our family culture is mainly this type, we do not try enforce things on each other.

At work, since it is a small business, and employees are always asking for direction, I tend to be more of the "democratic" type. Many times employees have better idea's than I may, since they are the ones in that position and have a deeper knowledge of the weaknesses of our current processes. Also, from the perspective of motivation, people tend to be excited and engaged if they are the originator of a good idea. Sometimes at work, I think I can fall under the more "authoritarian" type of leader if a situation is serious and action is need quickly to address an urgent problem.

Within my group of friends, I definitely go back to the "laissez faire" model. I obviously try and influence them in a positive way, as with the family, but do not dictate or direct how they choose to live their lives.

I definitely do not fall into the same role, it is nice to switch between models. They all have their advantages under different scenarios. With regard to family, I think my role is changing, as my parents, aunts, and uncles get older they tend to influence less. After finishing school and setting an example for all my younger cousins and brothers, I think because I am inherently the oldest of the new generation, I sense that many of the younger people in my family could possibly look for family leadership from a group of us.

I think the best thing that they do that is effective, is layout a simple ideology that says: "opportunities are endless, resources are available to accomplish goals and dreams, the family will support you in your endeavors, but nobody will chase, dictate, or push you to do anything, it must come from within."

Blog Topic 12: Groups and leadership

It is likely that over this long weekend, you are finding yourself interacting with friendship groups and family groups more intensely than you usually do. The holidays and celebrations typically bring people together - which is sometimes good and sometimes bad.

In class, we talked about adjusting your leadership for different kinds of groups - volunteer groups, paid groups, etc. Take this time to reflect on your leadership in the different types of groups of which you are a member (even if you didn't see them all this week). How does your leadership style change? Are you more effective in one group versus another? Do you fall into a pattern such that you are in the same role in all groups? Or, as is typical in family groups, do you find yourself regressing to the same role in the family that you've always played, regardless of other accomplishments? Think about other leaders in these groups. What do they do that is effective and how can you learn from them?

Seeing ourselves as other see us

I definitely liked this idea of getting external leadership assessments and getting real world feedback from those who are around you most of your week. I was surprised by a few things, the first one being that under the emotional intelligence scores, I gave myself lower scores in all categories, but for the most part, were close. I heard someone in the class ask if it was a reflection of our self esteem or how we value ourselves, and that question still remains in my head a little. I am also wondering that there must have been some slight margin of error since those taking it may have felt that it was possible for me to see their individual surveys. As for the section on influence tactics, most of everything was pretty similar, with the exception of upward appeal and exchange. In the last section for transformational leadership, I mostly scored in line or slightly below the external assessors.

With regard to leadership goals after receiving the assessments, I believe that with upward appeal, I definitely perceived myself as being lower on the scale with regard to this tactic... My peers, subordinates, and superiors all believe that I use the tactic of trying to convince them that if they accomplish their task, it will appease those in higher positions. I think I need to be more clear and express that my inspirational appeal and rational persuasion, which are my highest score categories are my true motivating factors...

Normally, because we are so busy, and working everyday up until the end of the day, feedback is very limited for our team. Also, for myself, I do not get feedback regularly, most of the time I should be the one trying to give regular feedback.

I think that acquiring honest feedback is important, because it can be a directional indicator in how we need to change our own internal behaviors as managers to allow us to motivate those around us more effectively. None of us are perfect, and the people around us are constantly changing, so it is important that we read this feedback (normally without the need for an online survey) and understand how we are misunderstanding those around us, and especially in which area's so we can tune ourselves better when it comes to situations that may lead other to perceive ourselves as being out of tune with those around us.

Seeing ourselves as other see us

I think getting genuine and honest feedback from people around ourselves can be very helpful in helping achieve our leadership goals. Sometimes there can be a mismatch between our image of ourselves and how other perceive us, and hence it is very important that we work on our leadership building skills considering the feedback provided by others and not just our own self-analysis. Though, there was nothing really that surprising about the survey result, there were some areas where there seemed to be a disconnect.

I have identified few areas that I would like to improve myself and I will be working on my leadership plan keeping these areas in mind.

Article on What Women Need to Succeed in their Careers

http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=2629

Pfizer's Amy Schulman on What Women Need to Succeed in their Careers

It was the early 1990s and Amy Schulman was a young lawyer about to conduct her first deposition. She arrived an hour and a half early for the appointment. She readied her Post-It notes and an outline, in case she got nervous and forgot what to say. But when the deposition started, she sat on a chair and promptly fell backwards with her skirt over her head and her legs in the air.

Schulman had to pick herself up and move on, with a partner from her law firm watching her every move. In her quest to exert greater influence over witnesses by appearing taller and more imposing, Schulman had adjusted the chair seat to a higher position. But she rotated it from the base so much that the seat became completely unscrewed. The lesson she learned was a simple one: Be yourself. Schulman, now senior vice president and general counsel of pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, shared this and other career insights at the 12th Annual Wharton Women in Business Conference held recently in Philadelphia.

An attorney and former partner at DLA Piper, she joined Pfizer two years ago and led the legal team in the drug maker's $68 billion acquisition of Wyeth Pharmaceuticals in 2009. The National Law Journal named her to its list of the "20 Most Influential General Counsels" last year whileForbes magazine included her as one of "The World's Most Powerful Women." Such a career trajectory might imply that Schulman had it easy, that she always got things right. By her own admission, however, Schulman has made her share of mistakes but said she learned to accept and learn from them. Along the way, Schulman rose to a position she never imagined she would attain when she was starting out.

As a teenager in 1979, Schulman thought she would spend her life organizing farm workers. But her path to a successful legal career was paved a little bit at a time by two generations of women in her family. Her grandmother's family did not have enough money to send the women to school, so Schulman's grandmother became a legal secretary and ended up marrying her boss, a federal judge. Schulman's mother married at 20, had two kids, divorced and went to law school at 45. Schulman attended Yale Law School at 28, and about two decades later achieved her current position at Pfizer.

While rising through the ranks, she has learned valuable lessons about success. For one, she stressed that men and women don't need to strive for perfection to do well because no one gets it right all of the time. The key is to acknowledge the missteps and use them to grow, without being paralyzed by the fear of showing flaws. Still, Schulman noted that ambitious women tend to operate in a "dutiful daughter" mode and do everything the employer wants, perfectly. Schulman admitted she felt the same way early on as a young attorney. "I was so scared that if anybody learned I wasn't perfect I was immediately going to get thrown out," she said. "We had to get it right. 'Right' meant you didn't make a mistake."

But such a perfectionist mindset can be constricting to one's career, Schulman pointed out, because there is no chance to learn and mature from the experience of getting things wrong. When a mistake is made, Schulman said, the tendency of many people is to either ignore it and hope no one else has noticed, or to think the error so glaring that it is all anyone can see. Instead, she advised the audience to strive for a balance and see the mistakes for what they are -- and remember that everyone makes them. "The ability to say 'I've made a mistake' ... requires a certain level of maturity that I think is particularly hard for those of us who grew up succeeding, because we were really good at making sure everything we did was perfect," Schulman noted.

According to Schulman, women also tend to internalize the dynamics of a situation more than men, and moderating this mental attitude is critical as well. She should know: Not only did she rise up the ranks with more male than female colleagues, Schulman also has three sons at home. This experience helped her observe that when men lose a ball game, they say the field was wet or the referee was outrageously unfair. But women say, "'I let everybody down. I can't believe I didn't handle better the fact that the field was so slippery,'" she noted. "It's the difference between internalizing and externalizing."

Women and men interpret the same message differently, she said, and being aware of this difference can be critically important to thriving in the workplace. Schulman recalled that at one law firm, bosses were less than effusive with praise because that was their style. So at partnership reviews, mid-career female lawyers would be told they were doing OK. Women would react with surprise and disappointment. "[They would say] 'OK? It's just OK? What do you mean just OK?'" Schulman said. But the men saw the same message more positively and believed that "Everything's OK! I'm on top of the world!" Later, when both sides compared reviews, Schulman noted, the men would brag about their stellar evaluations, while the women told the group that they had been judged as mediocre. In fact, they had both received the same message.

Schulman suggested that such misinterpretations of messages by women contribute to many female attorneys leaving law firms a few years before they come up for partner. Companies tend to attribute such departures to a female employee's desire to have a better balance between work and family -- something a busy law firm cannot always provide. But Schulman said this pat response to such resignations lets the company off the hook, when instead they should be examining all the reasons behind the exodus. She cautioned that firms should not assume that the choice to leave "takes place absent social context and that women are all happier at home having balanced lives."

No Perfect Balance

Besides, striking a perfect balance between work and home is an illusion, Schulman maintained. At different points in life, one side will have more pressing needs than the other. "They are never in [balance] because they are not equally and perfectly weighted at any given moment," she noted. "If you try and juggle them that way, then you are the proverbial parent on the soccer field on her Blackberry, and all you're doing is cheating both."

Women should recognize that whatever choices they make at any given point -- be it to spend more time with family or to accept a promotion even if it means working longer hours -- are not necessarily set in stone for all time, Schulman said. Be open to non-judgmental conversations about choices between family and career, and realize that these choices may change. Once a decision is made, be at peace with it. "There is no doubt that I am not the parent or the mother I would have been had I been home full-time or even part-time," Schulman noted. "I'm not sure I would have been a better parent or mother or wife.... I just would have been a different one."

But choosing to focus more on one's career than family does not mean making unnecessary sacrifices for work, Schulman pointed out. When Schulman had her second baby, she was a mid-level attorney at a big Wall Street law firm and hoped to make partner. She took her 13 weeks of maternity leave, but became anxious that she would be forgotten because of her absence. So when Schulman finally went back to work, she was determined to impress. That is why she quickly agreed to go to the Philippines on behalf of her client, Del Monte, which had some cases involving banana plantations. "I didn't have to do it, but I didn't know that. I thought I had to show that I was completely back in the game," she said. "'Hey, send me to the Philippines. No problem! It doesn't matter that I'm still nursing.'"

Schulman said if one of her staff offered to make a similar sacrifice today, she would tell them to spend time with the new baby. Only if the situation was absolutely critical would she ask them back to work before their leave was over. Schulman advised women to strike that balance as well: Give yourselves permission to take a break.

By the time she had her third child, Schulman already was a partner at a law firm. She also could afford a nanny, so she took her youngest on the road with her. But then, something else bothered her: "I actually couldn't see the next 10 years. It just felt like more of the same," Schulman noted. "So when the Pfizer job became open, I decided that this was something that was going to be more fun than what I was doing. Fun was the operative word."

Whatever one chooses to do, Schulman said, a career ultimately has to bring satisfaction and evoke a sense of passion. When Schulman interviews candidates for a job, one of the main qualities she seeks is enthusiasm. Lawyers who do not show much passion give the impression that they just want to beef up their resumes by working at Pfizer. Schulman prefers applicants who can show genuine interest in the company and the work. "The willingness to challenge and reinvent yourself and to say that fun matters is the biggest driver," Schulman said. "Find those things that excite you and don't be afraid to show it."

Blog Topic 11: Seeing ourselves as other see us

Last week, you received feedback on how other people see you in a leadership roles. Was anything surprising to you? You've had a few days to digest the feedback, how can the information you received move you towards your leadership goals? How frequently do you receive authentic feedback in your everyday life? How can acquiring honest feedback help you achieve your goals?

Motivation...

What do you think motivates you?
Personally, I think what motivates me is the need to feel accomplished and balanced as an individual. This plays into all areas of my life- my job, daily activities, and relationships. I have a constant self-motivation to stay in shape and active, to have a career I am proud of, to keep myself challenged at all times, and most recently I have been feeling the motivation to figure out a way to use my MBA degree to give something back to the community. I think the latter motivation is stemming from a new sense of obligation to take the knowledge that I am acquiring through this program and figure out a way to use it in a way that will not just make me more successful financially, but that will also help others in a self less way.

Are there times when you are just trying to get by and are there times when you are striving something really great?
There are definitely times when I am just trying to "get by", and other times where I am actively pushing myself to be better and accomplish things that I have set out to accomplish. For me, I have noticed that the times when I am just getting by are usually times when 1 or more factors in my life are feeling particularly out of control, whether it is struggles I am experiencing in my personal life, at work, financially, or elsewhere. It is during these times when my emotional and intellectual energy are being drained in excess in a particular area of my life that I have found that I just settle with getting by day to day in the other areas of my life. In contrast, when I am feeling at my best and all of my ducks are in a row in all areas of my life, at least for the most part, those are the times when I feel the most motivated to take on new challenges and push myself to accomplish more and take on more.

I am definitely more comfortable wtih the feeling of being on my game and in control of all the different areas of my life- that is for me how I prefer to exist on a regular basis. Of course, there are always exceptions to this, and everyone goes through rough and trying times in their life. For me, I like getting things accomplished and having the mental and emotional energy to come up with new ideas and challenges to take on... that is what keeps me going. I also like being in control in general, so I have a very difficult time when certain circumstances push me into a corner or make me feel like my hands are tied and I am just trying to stay afloat.

Having considered what motivates you, think about how you might motivate others. Can you shift gears between different styles and types of motivation when working with your followers? Can you use fear? Can you use anger? Can you use inspiration? How can you improve your motivational repertoire?

Motivation

I think my motivation varies depending on the type of work or project I am involved in. For example, if I am doing something really exciting and challenging, the intrinsic motivation drives my efforts, whereas if a task is required to be done regardless of its challenging nature, then extrinsic motivation dominates the actions. I think both types of motivation have its own place and usefulness.

I think we would need different tactics to motivate others depending on the type of motivation. For intrinsic motivation, we can focus on the satisfaction and joy of accomplishing a challenging task whereas we can focus more on rewards when motivating others on extrinsic motivation. Fear and anger can be part of the extrinsic type of motivation, depending on the followers.

I think custom strategy , in terms of motivation, would make more sense as one size does not fit all. Depending on the nature of task at hand, we need to choose the right motivation type, and then based on individual personality types, customize our tactics, incentives and fears.

Blog Topic 10: Motivation

I think my motivation mainly comes from within. Because of the freedom I have in working in a small business environment, most new initiatives, problem solving, and other things need to be done by a small group of people, since our resources are limited. Working in this kind of environment with more freedom also means more responsibility to be motivated to get things done and not fail our customers. I would say my main form of motivation is my fear that my team and I will fail in meeting our customer's expectations.

Most of the time I try and make sure we are running at peak performance. The only time I try and just get by would be around Friday after 4pm. :)

I am a firm believer in Andy Grove's, "only the paranoid survive" mentality. I am comfortable with the pressure of making sure sources of failure are prevented.

Yes definitely, when motivating others you need to understand what makes them tick and what motivational techniques they respond more to. I have used fear, anger, and inspiration in trying to motivate those around me. I believe if you have more of an overall "inspirational" approach, others around you don't want to let high expectations of themselves or the team down.

Blog Topic 9: Geography of Thought

I think there tends to be a major mismeeting of the minds, especially in business when people use different types of tools and philosophical perspectives for making decisions and analyzing problems. Some people use emotion, some people use logic, some people think from a utilitarian perspective... etc...

Looking back on my experience, I was looking through a logical perspective while the person who I had a mismeeting with was looking at things more from an emotional point of view. I think you have to be dynamic and adapt to understand the person with whom you are having a mental mismeeting with. Normally, I do take a more logical approach to problem solving. Depending on type of person I am working with, I try to understand their geography of thought because it is important to understand someone to work with them. If you understand someone, you can understand their assumptions, needs, and viewpoint in order to negotiate with them to create a new agreeable mindset.

I was born here in northern California, and have lived here my whole entire life. I think the mindset of myself is largely driven by my upbringing and values that my parents instilled in me. Also, I believe the media creates a lot of the "perception" and influences all of us here even if we do not think it does. I try and always treat each person on an individual basis. Growing up here in such a multicultural environment has helped in making me more perceptive and understanding of different cultural mindsets.

Blog Topic 10: Motivation

In retrospect, our discussion of motivation in class went in two directions: how to motivate others and how to motivate oneself. The two aren't necessarily unrelated, but it is helpful to consider them separately before combining them. The videos below concern self-motivation, but could also be applied to understanding your followers.

What do you think motivates you? Are there times when you are just trying to get by and are there times when you are striving something really great? When do you experience each kind of feeling? Which feeling are your more comfortable with?

Having considered what motivates you, think about how you might motivate others. Can you shift gears between different styles and types of motivation when working with your followers? Can you use fear? Can you use anger? Can you use inspiration? How can you improve your motivational repertoire?

Geography of Thought

I think I would say that two aspects of cultural differences that I noticed when I came to US were the "Power Distance Index (PDI)" and "Uncertainty Avoidance Index (UAI)", as defined by Hofstede.

In terms of Power Distance Index, back home in my native country, we have reserved words in our language that we use when we address someone who is older than us or is in higher position. The words are different depending on the relationship such as family member or someone at work. Here in US, I noticed that people call each other by their first name, no matter how old the other person is, what is the relationship or in whatever position. It took me a while to get use to this cultural aspect.

Similarly, in terms of Uncertainly Avoidance Index, I noticed that people in US were more tolerant of different views and opinions than people of my cultural background. In my cultural background, we are suppose to stick to the rules or expectations laid down by senior member of society whether it is a family member, someone senior at work or in other senior position. Our individual opinion is subservient to the group's or other senior member's.

These differences translates to different mindset in daily interactions. We behave and interact with people within these cultural constraints and our thinking is molded by such norms.

the geography of thought...

In this post, think back to a time when you have had interactions where you experienced a "(mis)meeting of the minds." Have you had experiences which, in retrospect, didn't go well because you had different assumptions about causality or use of logic than your interaction partner? What is the geography of your thought and can how does it affect you in your interactions with others? What are the elements of your cultural mindset?

A time when i have had a "mis jmeeting" of the minds with another individual(s) was actually about 2 years ago at my last job. I was working closely on a team with 2 other co-workers. While they were both close to my age, they had been working together for years at the company and had several mutual friends, which instantly put me on the outer circle when i was hired to join their team. I tried to fit in and we all got along alright on the surface, but about 6 months after i was hired our company was purchased by an East Coast company, phasing out the jobs of most of the employees and forcing the rest of us to move to another downsized building down the street in downtown San Jose.

About another 3 months after moving into the new building, the company decided to move one of the teams currently residing on the west coast in our office to the east coast in the main office, which left just myself and my 2 other co-workers in the West Coast office. It was at this point that i began feeling more and more like the 3rd wheel- they were constantly talking about birthday parties and evenst that they were both invited to or attending, and i started getting more and more resentful that they were not being sensitive to the fact that they were making me feel left out. I got more and more distant and unengaged, and they did as well, until one day we had a huge blow out. It turns all of us were acting on our defenses as things had started to spiral, and they thought i didn't like them or want to get to know them because i was not interacting or joining them for lunch- while i thought they didn't want me to join them or to engage in their conversations because of how i was perceiving their interactions with me.

While it resulted in a heated conversation between the 3 of us, it was a good thing in the end because it taught me to not always jump to assumptions about situations, especially under circumstances when i might already be extra sensitive to the group dynamics, like this one. I went into the situation knowing that there was a close tie between my 2 team mates because of outside connections and an established friendship, so when the entire company was relocated except for the 3 of us, i immediately was moved to the mind set that i would naturally end up being left out and feeling disconnected and like the 3rd wheel. This assumption/expectation fueled my further sensitivity to the situation as things unfolded in the following months leading to the confrontation.

I hope to keep this situation top of mind should a similar one come up again in the future.

Blog Topic 9: Geography of Thought

Last week, we talked about rationality and irrationality. I asked you how you might use "irrational" thinking as a leader and still manage and create change and progress towards goals. This week, we talked about different ways of thinking - that cognitive processes are not universal but may also be affected by culture. So, now leaders not only have to deal with appearing irrational, but also have to deal with ways of thought (mind bugs) that may vary by country, ethnicity, religion, etc. This could easily be overwhelming. But, we've sought to make this manageable by describing the principals that underlie cultures (Hofstede's 5 characteristics), and the principals that underlie rationality.

In this post, think back to a time when you have had interactions where you experienced a "(mis)meeting of the minds." Have you had experiences which, in retrospect, didn't go well because you had different assumptions about causality or use of logic than your interaction partner? What is the geography of your thought and can how does it affect you in your interactions with others? What are the elements of your cultural mindset?

Predictably Irrational

I think the significance of our actions and decisions, whether predictably rational or irrational, depends on the context. In our personal daily lives, as we discussed, we commonly make predictably irrational behavior all the time, everything from judging the best price bargains based on our anchor or reference point to our physical perceptions of objects in a comparative situation. In a business context, however, things need to be looked in a little bit more analytical way. We cannot tell the company's stakeholders and shareholders that we made a certain decision because things looked a certain way, as such arguments would not be received very warmly. We need to base our decisions on facts and data instead.

There have been many times when I have seen pricing information of a product presented in such a way as to influence the decision making, just like the example of a magazine subscription options with expensive option put next to a similarly priced item but less appealing package. I have never paid close attention to such techniques, and after discussing the material in class, I have become more aware of it and realize that such psychologically based methods are in fact quite commonly used in real world.

Predictably Irrational Thoughts....

I think when you are put in a situation where you are acting predictably irrational, as a leader is important to communicate and reassure those around you to trust you. Sometimes explaining more clearly why acting irrational for that window of time or for that specific decision makes sense. Sometimes irrational situations require irrational looking solutions, but after trying those solutions, maybe they will become more rational looking. The best defense is communication and tapping into previous trust that has been built.

Yes, definitely, I think information has been distorted in a way that was over estimating or hyping certain products or efforts. In hindsight, when I have been pulled into situations that are irrational, but are presented in a way that makes them seam rational, normally it is best to step back, and use fundamentals to verify or make sure that everyone on board is not on a boat getting ready to go over a waterfall because of irrational exuberance.

BTW: I really liked the posted movie and the points it made. Especially how the speaker explains how when it come to the physical world, humans are good at understanding their limitations, but when it comes to the abstract, we definitely think there are no limits. I like how he referenced the construction of stock markets are being inherently flawed because we do not know our limitations and inherent mental shortcomings.

Blog Topic: Predictably Irrational

We are continuing our discussion of the human brain with last week's topic of irrationality. These findings suggest that humans are not rational, but are still predictable. This idea has two implications for you as a leader. First, people tend to expect leaders to be rational, to obey certain laws of physics, so to speak, yet, they themselves may act in ways that are not rational. This presents leaders with a conundrum: when you know your actions and decisions make sense, in the predictably irrational sense, but that they do not make sense in the traditionally rational sense, what do you do? How do you explain your decisions? How to defend them?

The second implication has to do with followers and their decision-making strategies. Following on the heels of our discussion of social influence, it seems that you could present information in ways to influence decision-making. Can you think of specific times that this has been done to you, or that, if you had known about it, you'd have changed how you presented information prior to a decision-making situation?

Thoughts on Perception...

I don't think anything that we covered in class last week "surprised" me, per say... but it was interesting to see how my mind played into the perception concepts being demondstrated. Even though we have all seen those eye trick pictures before, and we "know" what the correct answer is when asked if a set of objects are the same size or if the lines are parallel, i still couldn't force my eyes to see those truths in the table picture, no matter how hard i tried. It was interesting to see how regardless of fact that the professor and a couple students measured and prooved that they were in fact the same size, i still couldn't train my eyes to see that.

It is interesting to see how even the rational, logical brain can not always combat what we are perceiving through our eyes... it kind of plays a new angle on the whole "seeing is believing" concept. It is hard to argue with what the mind has been trained to perceive and understand, even if you are seeing the truth with your own 2 eyes. We watched the students take measurements of the tables on the screen, and then watched the professor digitally move the perimeter of one table and place it over the other, clearly showing that the 2 were the exact same size and shape. however, this was still not enough to force our brain to be able to conceptualize that they were in fact the same because of how they were positioned in the picture and what we are trained to perceive about the size and comparison of the 2 based on those positions. It was really weird for me to watch everyone be clearly disproved about our insistance that one table was bigger than the other, and then to listen as everyone continued to struggle to be able to accept that proof... myself included.

Perceptions

Perception , in terms of human behavior, is essentially how we perceive, understand and process information about the other person. Our perception itself depends on multiple factors such as our past experiences, level of social interaction, cultural background, etc. All these factors can play an important role in how are our brain's neutral connections are wired.

In terms of how my past perceptions could have misled me, I would say that would depend on what particular context we look at. For example, from a stereotypes point of view, there have been incidents in my life where the stereotypes played a nonconstructive role in understanding other person's behavior or that in some cases those stereotypes were proven wrong. Similarly, from the point of view of just understanding a certain behavior of a person, my immediate perception of the other person have proven to be wrong multiple times because of coming to conclusion too fast or not interpreting the physical clues properly, among other factors. Also, I think there have been times when others have not perceived my actions or behavior properly because of miscommunication, lack of cultural understanding, and so forth.

If were to draw a graph between perception on vertical axis, with higher values showing better perception, and the duration of relationship (length of time persons have known each other) on a horizontal axis, I think what we would see is a line that goes from the lower left corner to the upper right corner, in other words, a direct proportional relationship. This means time is a very important element of removing barriers to misperception. Other important factor that could facilitate perception is level of communication; the more open and candid communication we have, the lower the chance of misperception.

Perceptions (Blog #7)

Did anything covered in class surprise you?

I was definitely surprised at how on some of the examples, I was completely tricked.

How does these insights into human perceptual processes change your views of your own behavior, past and present?

Well It is definitely a good thing because these insights tell us that we are human, and our own behaviors could be skewed by the way we are hardwired or programmed to see certain things. It also means that we don't see the world from some perfect or "better" perspective even though it is the only perspective we know. Definitely looking at these biases, understanding them, and then trying to account for them as being sources of error or bias before we make any decisions to say, do, or stand behind certain things is important.

Have there been times in your life when your perceptions have led you astray? Or times when others perceptions of you have been erroneous and perhaps harmful to you?

Yes, definitely, I think that because a lot of my undergrad and grad training was in engineering, it forces you to take a very quantitative and logical view at situations, problems, decisions, etc... I find myself trying not to get locked into a box of using logical reasoning as the only tool or way to perceive and solve a problem. I have times where people perceive me as being too "cold" or "logical" because I am an engineer... I think because of that perception, it also makes some people hesitant to come to me with problems that may be solved by another problem solving approach.

How do you deal with other's misperceptions of you?

I really try and get to know people one on one. Sometimes we don't have a lot of time to meet or work together, but it is important that during that time, that small window, that we break down those misperceptions because it may be our only chance. I also believe that humor is a great way to break down misperceptions if used at the right time...

Do you still think those two tables did not have the same surface area?

I believed the two had the same surface area. After being beaten up by the previous experiments on my brain, I felt more open to the idea, then after someone measured it, I was sold on it.

Thoughts on Power (Blog #6)

Do you think about yourself as a powerful person?

Relative to my work environment I enjoy a large amount of influence because it is a small business, and someone has to make the decisions. I have the ability to take on or dismiss workers, or decide pay increases, etc. Make new capital investments in equipments, plant, etc... I believe my freedom at work, could be viewed as power, but I view it more as freedom to make changes that affect the company in a positive way.

Relative to everything outside of work I feel like I am a normal person, I don't have any more or less power than an average everyday citizen would.

Do you think of yourself as someone who empowers others?

I sure hope I do... I always try to see when a persons abilities are not aligned with their tasks. A good example is that we had an employee who was in a certain position who performed poorly but worked really hard. I remember many some other managers thought he just wasn't good enough, I thought about it and realized that because he had glasses and that the environment he is was dusty and required heavy lifting, and he was a smaller guy with glasses. I thought about it, a and said to myself that this guy is in the wrong position. I wanted to move him and teach him how to be a machine operator, where pneumatic equipment can lift the heavy parts and dust is minimal. I made the change, which made sense for this employee and our company. He is working harder than ever and happier I can tell, because I think this new opportunity is working out very well for him and will allow him learn even more an program the machinery soon. Short answer is: I try.

We talked about how to be powerful, how to look powerful, and how to exercise power over the past few weeks...and many of you will be graduating in a couple of months...what kind of power do you feel ready to exert and what kinds of power would you like to cultivate?

Well, I want to definitely become better at delegating out the right functional area's and tasks to people that I believe will excel because what they are doing is more in line with who they are and their talents. I don't really believe in the whole dressing up to show power thing... "perception is reality"... I think this is an area that I am terrible in... I have a hard time giving up my jeans and t-shirt/polo relaxed work image. I chose not to have an office, but a cube like everyone else on purpose... I just don't like to stand out based on image, I believe peoples action and contribution to the company is more important. But it is an area I could work on if I want to create a more powerful image for myself.

How are going you to meet these power goals?

I definitely want to keep my eyes peeled in watching how people work, and using any power to realign them with things they want to do, or things they may be better at. I need to speak with employees more to collect more information on if they think they could empower themselves in any ways possible. I don't like to admit it, but I really should dress a little more formal for work to give me an image which would be perceived as more influential. I am going to try after I graduate... ;)