Leadership Skill-Building Exercise 3-3
I took upon myself to exhibit a lot of charisma this past week. The type of charisma leader I chose to practice is socialized charismatic. A socialized charismatic is a leader who often tends to restrain the use of power in order to benefit other members of his group or his community. Another characteristic of this leader is that he often tends to formulate and pursue objectives that fulfills the needs of fellow group members and offer intellectual stimulation to them. I believe being such a charismatic leader impacts positively on those I serve. It also reduces the tendency for me to engage in activities like dishonesty, corruption and selfishness that would have otherwise corrupted my society. (DuBrin, 2013).But then how do I build on this?
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This week I engaged positively with fellow group members. I am in a group that is often discussing research material and ways of improving society. During one of our meetings, I was able to provide insight and shared positive ideas on how to improve our economy. Through this meeting, I was able to sensitize my fellow group members on factors that led to the recession and suggested practical ways on how they should improve their financial management and avoid getting entrapped in this calamity. I believe through such an initiative I was able to convince my group members to change their perception towards money and their expenditure. I believe I offered intellectual stimulation to them on finances and how to inculcate better financial behaviors. If they are loyal to this advice then, they might avoid the negative effects of the recession, and that would lay a smile on my face since I would have helped another member of society remain relevant and stay afloat in the current economic situation.
I believe there are various opportunities that might present itself next week for me to exhibit leadership. We have organized weekly meetings within the group that discusses the economy and gives suggestions on how the situation can be improved. I see this as an occasion to do research and offer intellectual insight on remedies and improvement. Through such a stand, we are able to stimulate financial discipline and discourage recession.
Leadership-Skill Building Exercise 4-6
This week in order to strengthen my leadership portfolio, I took part in four leadership task-oriented behaviors. Our group is charged with researching on how the economy can be improved. There have been adverse effects of the recession on the current society. It has had a very depraved effect on the economy and has negatively impacted on the quality of life people live. I felt that this was the knowledge that was widely shared by the group. The delinquent was that people didn’t appreciate how gross the problem was. I raised this concern and asked my fellow group members to do more research on its effects and get fully to understand how negatively it has affected families. Such research would involve conducting interviews and visiting those who are greatly affected by this calamity.
I made another suggestion that we needed to divide ourselves into smaller groups consisting of three members who would investigate specific topic questions. The first topic involved bank visits where this team was to visit specific banks and get their opinions on the cause of the recession. The second group was to visit government agencies and to investigate how they contributed to this problem. The third group targeted consumer goods and institutions so as to investigate how prices were changing and how they fluctuated. The final group interviewed individual citizens so that we fully understand and relate to the problems they face due to the recession. Such research culminated into better understanding by group members and motivated them to find real solutions that are practical. The group loved the initiative and through this we are able to eradicate recession in our economy.
Leadership Skill-Building Exercise 5-3
Analyzing how we would react with regard to various leadership situations that we have witnessed — as this exercise calls for — on the personal level, which we have read about, or have watched on television or in a film, is arguably beneficial for two main reasons. The first reason is intuitive: we place ourselves in a leadership situation and speculate as to how we would react. The second is perhaps somewhat more complex: in performing this exercise, we have to first identify instances which clearly call for the utilization of leadership concepts.
With regard to the requirements of the exercise, I would like to isolate two moments, one from a film, and the other from current events. In the case of the former, I recently watched the award winning French film, “A Prophet.” The film is a prison drama, which depicts the vicissitudes of existence experienced by the lead character Malik in the French prison system. Malik enters prison as a teenager with no acquaintances in prison: he is immediately faced with a series of conflicts that he must resolve. Certainly, these conflicts are extreme in their character: Malik must perform various violent acts, for example, to gain protection of established criminals in the prison. After committing these acts to gain protection, he is faced with choices that could easily be said to transcend the prison paradigm.
For example, he must decide how to deal with his relationship to a former prisoner, a friend, who has been released from prison, namely, whether to implore this friend to continue with a criminal life on the “outside”, running errands for the influential gangsters inside the prison, or whether to omit the friend from this life, allowing him to lead the normal life of a free individual. What complicates this situation is that Malik’s friend, in need of resources, is in need of the work that can be provided to him. In this case, the leadership concepts that may be applied are, of course, complicated by the fact that this is a criminal environment. However, from another perspective, arguably such situations provide valuable contexts for thinking through leadership concepts, in so far as they are extreme instances of being forced to make a quick decision. In this situation, I myself would have utilized a “laissez-faire” approach to leadership: in situations where there is a certain desperation being faced and actors within the situation express clear intents and goals, it is perhaps not prudent to oppose these goals, when the situation is so fluid and contingent.
An entirely different example is from current events. In Iraq, the Islamic State of Syria and Iraq (ISIS) has gained considerable grounds in Iraq, occupying large swathes of the country. American foreign policy has been faced with a critical decision: either to intervene on behalf of the Iraqi government which the U.S. helped establish or stand by and let the Iraqis sort out the situation. American intervention has been minimal, only promising the Iraqi government a few minimal resources to help avoid the conflict, curiously siding with the latter option. From my perspective, however, this is a clear instance of when autocratic rule should be applied: to the extent that the U.S. has committed itself to the Iraqi project and is responsible for the current situation in Iraq, it must act in an autocratic manner, attempting to realize its promises to the Iraqi people of a better life after the Hussein regime.
I understand that I have chosen two fairly extreme examples of leadership, which do not fit within the normal conceptual range of what leadership entails, especially in the business area. However, perhaps by analyzing such extreme situations we can better understand situations that are somewhat more normalized.
Leadership Skill-Building Exercise 6-4
The example I have chosen with regard to this exercise is fairly mundane in comparison to my previous examples: it is a consumer example. Nevertheless, it does reflect on how context informs the decisions we make. A few days ago, I purchased a calling card for my mobile phone. By mistake, I received a calling card from the incorrect telecom provider. I returned to the store, hoping to be able to exchange the calling card for one from my provider. I was informed by the store that they were unable to do so. Instead of opposing their decision, I said that I would go to the bank machine, withdraw money and purchase the correct calling card.
When I returned to the store, the worker informed me of another option: they would attempt to sell the calling card to a a customer who has the same telecom provider and then they will contact me and refund the money. This is a clear example of how one’s approach to others can inform their decision-making process. If I had furiously objected to their initial decision of being unable to refund my purchase, it would be unlikely that they would have provided me with this option. However, I took an ethical stance: I was guilty for purchasing the wrong calling card and, therefore, the fact that they could not refund me was not their fault, but my fault. By accepting their decision, they then offered me a compromise, which as a consumer, saved me money and corrected my previous mistake. From this fairly banal scenario, I learned how, in certain contexts, we should approach others: when the fault is clearly our own, it is best to admit this mistake. With this honesty, other options may open up.
Leadership Skill Building Exercise 7-5
The textbook defines political tactics largely in terms of a “Machiavellian” approach to politics: politics is about gaining or acquiring power. (Durbin, 2013, p. 220) Accordingly, tactics are used to fulfill the strategic ambition of the gain or acquisition of power; yet at the same time, they are diverse, ranging from building of relationships to avoiding pitfalls which may damage the overall goal. (Durbin, 2013, p. 220) The exercise in question asks us to reflect on past experiences, where we employed such tactics, so as to more accurately understand the link between tactics and strategy. The underlying importance of this exercise to leadership I interpret as follows: in certain situations can we act in a manner which does not compromise our greater goals? This is a crucial step of gaining knowledge in leadership, insofar as it links particular situations in terms of this greater ambition.
A recent example of this point illustrates this aim perfectly: I attended an academic lecture recently on business practice. After the lecture, there was a “meet-and-greet period”, where various academics and other students were present. On such occasions, conversation sometimes spills over, and a group of academics and students went to a nearby bar to discuss further. I also joined them and had a few drinks. After awhile, however, I noticed that some were inebriated and they intended to go to yet another bar: I was asked if I wanted to join them. As I almost never drink, I kindly declined the invitation, citing the fact that I had obligations the following morning, although I did not: I acted in this manner because I felt that I would perhaps behave inappropriately in such a context. Therefore, I employed a political tactic of avoiding a potential embarrassing situation, which could have led some of my peers and other academics to view me in a negative light. I therefore viewed the particular situation from the perspective of my larger goals.
Leadership Skill Building Exercise 8-4
At first glance, influence tactics in leadership may seem somewhat manipulative, to the extent that they ultimately entail, to paraphrase Durbin, shaping the behavior of others. (2013, p. 267) However, as Durbin (2013, p. 265) also stresses, influence tactics should be thought in ethical terms. Namely, affecting the behavior of others can also be achieved, for example, by leading by example. In this case, one does not ask of others anything other than what one asks of him or herself.
A recent example of where I applied such influence tactics was when I wanted a friend to re-format my computer. I knew that my friend would say that I already knew how to do this, and would merely conclude that I was being lazy: this was not the case, as I had recently downloaded by mistake a malware program that I did not know how to remove. Instead of approaching my friend and asking him to take time out of his busy schedule to fix the computer, I contacted him and told him about the situation, but also offered my own services in return: I knew that my friend on the weekend had to run an errand on the other side of town and this would take an enormous amount of time for him because he has no car. I therefore offered to run the errand in his place, suggesting that he could fix my computer in the interim. Here, my example of providing assistance affected in an ethical manner his own behavior, as he agreed to my suggestion: when he saw my own sincerity and offer to help, this also led him to assist me. This is an ethical influence tactic, to the extent that I did not expect my friend to merely help me, but led by example, offering my own assistance with regard to his own obligation.
- DuBrin, A. (2013). Leadership research Findings, Practice, and Skills. Mason: OH: Cengage South-Western.
