ARE LEADERS BORN OR MADE?

3.) Do you think leaders are born or made?

Which came first the chicken or the egg? To be or not to be? Nature versus Nurture?

 

Leaders are born not made:

The Great Man and Genetic Trait theories believe that qualities are inherited, and therefore people are born to be better at certain tasks and roles than others. This applies itself to a position of leadership. To say that people aren’t born without extra talent in some abilities is to say that everyone is born with an equal amount and level of traits (tabula rasa). There is a predisposition of characteristics that one is born with, different to the experience of “learning” or “mastering a skill”. The same way that individuals are born with natural talents in the arts, music, athletics, sciences etc, some are also born with a natural gift in leadership.

Leaders are made not born:

On the other hand, Behavioural Theorists, believe that we can become great leaders through our experiences and conditioning. This is to say that the skills involved in leadership can be learned, practiced, and developed. “Good leaders seek pout development opportunities that will help them improve and develop new skills.” The military for example, emulates this through its leadership training programme.

So the question is, can a class on leadership  make someone a leader? Is charisma,influence, and the ability to inspire something that can be taught?

I personally think it can to some extent. Although these soft skills and characteristics are often evident naturally, I think its something that can be worked towards when the individual embraces and observes these qualities in others. Perhaps it involves some genetic and innate characteristics, but it can be enhanced through experiences.

BALANCE?

I would argue that leadership is not a science, but an art form; it requires a set of innate traits that can be amplified and refined with the right education, and experience. However, all the books and classes cannot flip a follower into a great leader.

Often times, environmental and situational conditions can contribute to this. Being in the right place at the right time is very important in this case; the right conditions have to be at play in order for a person to demonstrate and shine their leadership talents. A person born into a poor socio economic condition may not have had the same opportunity to lead a school club the way a wealthy one was. His or her educational environment may not have had the proper structure to provide a leadership experience for him.

 

Leaders are also in their position due to choice. A leader is one who takes responsibility and steps up to the plate for a challenge. A follower would never do this, as they would rather be hidden in the crowd. In this way it is to some extent a trait of a psychological characteristic that can both come from an innate predisposition or a quality gained through experiences.

Leadership is often a Choice. A leader is a person who comes forward to take the challenge. If a leader rises up from the multitude, then that person was already a leader to begin with. Should someone have all the best training, nurturing and opportunities, but would rather be hidden in the crowd, an unwilling participant…not a leader.

 

The best estimates offered by research is that leadership is about one-third born and two-thirds made.

IT’S DANGEROUS TO BE TOO OPTIMISTIC

2.) What are the dangers of an overly optimistic approach to leadership?

When risky projects are given forecasts, what often happens is what psychologists call the planning fallacy. This is when leader overestimate positive outcomes, and make decisions based “delusional optimism” rather than rational reasoning and probabilities. They envision the possibilities of successful scenarios and overlook or ignore the potential mistakes, miscalculations and failures. In other words, they overestimate success and underestimate costs.

This type of behaviour can be traced to cognitive biases, errors in the way the mind processes information and organisational pressure. “Delusional optimism” could be considered a coping mechanism. Due to the high amounts of pressure executives and entrepreneurs are under, they are highly susceptible to attribution errors. A study on the success of start up ventures found that over 80% fail to achieve their targeted market share values. Executives may use it to help them feel less pressured to perform. Such a view is like Rose-Coloured Glasses. Studies in human cognition has attributed overoptimism to many source. One of the largest sources is the exaggeration of talents, people who do this believe that their positive traits and abilities are above average or exceptional. A survey conducted by College Board in the 1970s asked students to rate themselves against their peers, 70% of them said they were above the average in their leadership abilities, whilst only 2% considered themselves below average. And when asked how good their social skills were 25% considered themselves to belong to the top 1 %. This is obviously statistically impossible.

This tendency to overestimate our talents is exaggerated by our misperception of events; psychologists call them attribution errors, when we take credit positive results and blame negative ones on external factors. A study of an annual report letter to shareholders discovered that executives typically attribute to positive outcomes to be  under their control, whilst negative ones were attributed to external factors (out of their control) e.g economic conditions or the weather etc.

Leaders are also vulnerable to the ‘illusion’ of control. oftentimes they dismiss the role of chance or luck in their outcomes. They believe that success in risks are purely a result cause by their technical skills. They idealise a self image of accurate forecast makers, therefore downplaying the role the random and uncontrollable outcomes occur when results are desirable.

HOW is this DANGEROUS?

A key factor in influencing the predicting the business outcome is the awareness and analysis of competitors’ behaviour. When making forecasts one should take their competitors into account, however overly optimist leaders usually fail to consider this, and instead only focus on their own company’s capabilities and plans. This is another example of the underestimation of negative events. In this way, leaders who are often overly optimistic tends to neglect taking precautions or making safety nets for unwanted scenarios. This leaves the their company unprepared and extremely vulnerable when external negative events occur.

I am not saying that optimism is undesirable in a leader, in some cases it is. Optimism can show followers that their leader is involved and believes in the great potential; this can also encourage them to adopt a similar positive mindset. Optimism can cultivate a positive work environment and culture, which can improve the overall quality, excitement and creativity involved in the workplace. However, optimism needs to be balanced with realism. A leader’s optimism should not hinder or downplay the importance of realistic forecasts and analysis of the situation. Doing so can be a preventive measure for a multitude of negative possibilities. Optimism serves the visionary qualities a company needs, and a realistic outlook serves the technical aspects involved.

 

 

TRANSACTIONAL & TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP

1.) Compare and contrast transactional and transformational leadership. How are they related to work outcomes?

The Transactional leadership style is more concerned with maintaining the flow of operations. Leaders who utilise this style of leadership sanction their followers with rewards for “good” work and punish when standards aren’t met. Hence, “transactional” refers to the exchange of rewards for performance. In other words it can be describes as “keeping the ship afloat” (HBR). The transactional style utilises disciplinary power and incentives to encourage and pressure employees to work to the best of their abilities. The transactional leadership style is typically one that is suited for a manager; this is because it is mainly concerned with making everything run smoothly, and not leadership responsibilities such as long term strategic planning and their employees emotions.

There are three different ways in which transactional leadership is practiced. The first is a Contingent reward; a method in which the leader makes clear what is expected, and employees are punished for poor work and rewarded for meeting standards. This method is effective when the vision is to reach projected goals, but may not be as emotionally appealing as transformational leadership. The second is Active management by exception; in this approach, a workers performance is observed, and is only interfered with when a problem occurs. This can suit some employees as it can provide them with a sense of freedom and independence. Third is Passive Management; in this approach the expectations aren’t communicated to the workers, and no sanctions are enforced. This is typically a recipe for disaster as there is no direction for the workers to strive towards, and nothing from the leader to keep them on a track.

Transformational leadership on the other hand, also known as Charismatic leadership/ power uses their employees emotions to their advantage. They exceed the task of managing day to day operations, and concentrate on the emotional state, and collaborative energy of a team. Transitional leaders place goals and incentives just like a contingent award, however they push they’re workers to go beyond expected performance. They are able to do this by nurturing and investing in  the personal and professional growth of their employees.

There are four types of Transformational leadership methods. The first is Idealised Influence; when employees follow because they have admiration, trust, and respect for the leader. A leader who has this quality are usually those who share in the risks, and practices consistency in their behaviour and values. The second is Inspirational motivation; this is when leaders provide their employees with a vision and put meaning into their work, creating a culture where challenges are welcomed with enthusiasm. Thirdly is Intellectual stimulation; workers are encouraged to think creatively, contribute their ideas, to question and think critically without criticism. The fourth is Individualised consideration; transformational leaders treats each worker as an individual and tailors their mentoring style to suit them.

Both of these leadership styles are essential in an working environment. The transactional method is effective when small tasks and details need to be addressed. These are things such as quality control, and productivity etc. Transformational leadership is also crucial for the emotional health of employees. This is especially true in a the organisation of a small business, as a collaborative and motivated team can help them and are needed in order to achieve ambitious goals.

The two management styles are best catered to varying types of jobs. For example a transactional method would be more useful for low wage jobs; a worker is more likely to be concerned with the smooth running  than the way in which a product is produced as it is in their best interest to. On the other side of the spectrum, transformational leaders are needed in high positions; this is because they must be able to effectively and diplomatically motivate and communicate to many employees below them. Being a charismatic leader in this position can improve how willing employees are to follow the ‘boss’ and increase their passion for their work.

 

 

CHPT 6: A PICTURE IS WORTH MORE THAN A THOUSAND WORDS

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. This picture however, may be worth far more.

Who would have known that a single image could spur a revolt. The picture was taken during a protest in Birmingham, Alabama in 1963. The image is of an African American student being attacked by a German Shepard of the Police force. This was the time of the Civil rights movement, and this picture “gave them the leg up when it came to fighting equal rights.”

A radical version of Dr. King, Wyatt tee Walker was a trickster by necessity. Walker stated that the African Americans were planning to march in the city. Few people showed up to the march, but as he delayed it, many came to watch. The large crowd resulted in the miscalculation of “true marchers” by the local newspaper. He also used African American students to gain sympathy from the audience, they were directed to go to a church instead of school. As a result he city’s public safety commissioner used firehoses and German Shepherds to control the crowd and students. The civil rights movement leaders used this image to portray police brutality, and draw sympathy and strength to their movement. The photo made strides in the movement in Birmingham, which as the most “racially divided city in America” at the time.

 

CHPT 4: WISHING YOU HAD DYSLEXIA…

“Ask a four year old: can you say the word “banana” without the buh? or say, Listen to the following three sounds: cuh, ah and tuh. Can you combine them into “cat”? Or take “cat,””hat,” and “dark”. Which one of those words doesn’t rhyme? Easy questions for most four year olds. Really hard questions for dyslexics.”

When we think of dyslexia, the first thing that comes to mind is an image of an underdog. Maybe its that kid had a hard time at school because they found it difficult to read. Most children with dyslexia have a difficult time at school. Sometimes when the condition goes unknown, their parents, teachers and peers label them as “not bright” or “lazy”. In fact, most children are diagnosed at the age of 8 or 9, and by that time there are many psychological effects. Imagine taking a 45 minute test with your peers, you see them finishing on time, while it takes you 2 hours just to read it. As you can imagine, this leads to many problems in middle school and high school.

---

TRY TO ANSWER THESE  3 QUESTIONS

(1) A bat and a ball cost $1.10 in total. The bat costs $1.00 more than the ball. How much does the ball cost? 

(2) If it takes 5 machines 5 minutes to make 5 widgets, how long would it take 100 machines to make 100 widgets? 

(3) In a lake, there is a patch of lily pads. Every day, the patch doubles in size. If it takes 48 days for the patch to cover the entire lake, how long would it take for the patch to cover half of the lake? 

This is the World’s shortest intelligence test. Developed by Shane Fredrick, a Yale professor, the CT test was meant to measure cognative ability.

The test was given to 9 different universities with varied ranking

MIT: 2.18 correct

Carnegie Mellon: 1.51

Harvard: 1.43

University of Michigan Ann-Arbor: 1.18

University of Toledo: 0.57

From this we can see that the CRT is considerably difficult. The next question is, how can we make it easier?

THE ANSWER: make it a little harder

Princeton university students were given the same CRT and averaged 1.9 correct. Then the were given the same test with a 10 percent grey, 10 point italic, myriad font, so that it looked like this:

The average score this time was 2.45!

So does this means we are better problem solvers when the idea is presented less clearly? The text here is frustrating to read, and suddenly you hace to “work to read the question”. Apparently making the question “disfluent” forces the reader to “think more deeply and carefully”. .

This test questions the idea of “desired dissablilities”

FUN FACT: 35 percent of CEOs of major companies in the US identified themselves as dyslexic. This is strikingly high when compared to the 10 percent in the general population.

Two questions ome out of this

1.) Are these individuals ones who have just triumphed despite their disabilities?

2.) OR has their disability turned into an advantage

---

David Boies grew up on a farm in Illinois. His mother would read to him when he was young, and because he “couldn’t follow what was on the page” he would memorise what his mother read aloud. Boies was considered slow, he didn’t read until the 3rd grade, he has a limited vocabulary, and uses short words and sentences. As a result he graduated high school with poor grades, and little ambition. He would only find out about his dyslexia much later.

He worked as a construction worker until his wife had a child; they became more concerned about his career prospects. At this point, he remembered his facination with law when he was younger, and decided to enroll in law school.

Boies ended up studying at the University of RedLands. He decided to skip the core classes (heavy reading courses) for Law school instead. In those days you could go to law school without an undergrad. Law school was heavy in reading, but Boies decided to just listen. He says “its something I’ve been doing all my life, because it was the only way I would learn.” So whilst his peers were writing notes, he just listened. At this point, his listening skills was a “formidable instrument.”

Soon after he went to Northwestern Law, then transferred to Yale. Today he is one of the most famous Trial lawyers in the world. Boies became a letigator, a job that requires him to think on the spot. This job was perfect for him.

“If I could read a lot faster, it would make a lot of things that I do easier. There is no doubt about that. But on the other hand, not being able to read a lot and learning by listening and asking questions means that i need to simplify issues to their basics. And that is very powerful, because in trial cases judges and jurors don’t have the time or ability to become an expert in the subject. One of my strengths is presenting a case that they can understand.”

---

Dyslexics are outsiders, “at school thay cannot do the thing that it requires them to do.” In Boies case, his inability to read at a fast pace forced him to count on his listening skills; it can be said that a disadvantage like dyslexia caused him to be so successful. You see, with an obstacle, people must find other ways and develop other skills in order to achieve demands. Dyslexia in this case could be consided a “desired dissability.”

So, do you wish you had Dyslexia?

 

 

STRESS IN THE WORKPLACE

Stress is defined to be any pressure, which exceeds the individual’s capacity to function normally. Occupational stress  is “the adverse reaction people have to excessive pressure or other types of demands on them”.

Stages of stress

1. fight or flight: an increase in adrenaline can result in this type of response. E.g a difficult task is given to an employee, fighting it could be attempting to complete the task, and flight could be resigning, or telling their boss that they simply can’t do it. There is also a third option which is ‘freeze’ the employee does nothing at all.
2. maintenance: a state of resistance. If the pressure persists, the mind can become used to it
3. breakdown: a stage of final exhaustion. The individual often removes themselves form the sources of stress.

Common stressors

• overwork
• underwork
• lack of competence
• lack of employee involvement

catagories

• factors intrinsic to the job
• organisational role: the role of the worker may be unclear, as a result they don’t know what is expected of them. Workers may also feel stress from the hierarchy of roles e.g who is going to be promoted
• interpersonal interactions: relationships in the workplace can cause stress. When a friendship or a peer relationship faces some hardships, it can translate into the workplace
• organisational culture: the employees working environment may not be supportive. The organisation may be one with overbearing performance targets high workloads and a competitive mindset.
• organisational change: a change in an organisation can cause individuals to feel insecure about how they will cope.

Symptoms

• tardiness
• lowered self esteem
• decreased motivation
• emotional responses
• reduced interaction
• job dissatisfaction

some of the more visible signs may be : reduced productivity, low staff morale, increased sickness and absence rates

Behavioural signs: drug abuse, excessive smoking or drinking, withdrawal and shifts in activity level

physical signs: nausea, upset stomach, excess sweating, tremor of lips, feeling cold, rapid heartbeat, poor sleep and general fatigue

emotional signs: anxiety, depression, increased emotionality, numbness, anger

 

 

ORGANISATIONAL CHANGE

Types

Reactive changes: made in response to other changes

Operational changes: concerned with the structure, systems, and technologies

Strategic change: deals with long term organisational issues

changes in states and remoulding

1. unfreezing: show the olds way is no longer available
2. change: show new change is desirable
3. refreezing: stabilise the new state and develop a culture of acceptance

LIKE ICE!

CHANGE MANAGEMENT: how to deal with the reactions and emotions of change

The idea of change can spark up many insecurities in the workers and organisation. People fear the unknown  because they may not know how well they will perform, or feel that it may result in losses.

E.g A school wants to change their curriculum from A-level to IB. The teachers are opposed to this decision. They may feel that they don’t know how to teach the IB curriculum as they have never done it before. The school can do many things to comfort these concerns and persuade the teachers that this change will have benefits.

• education & communication: give seminars and lessons on the IB
• participation: let them make decisions as well
• facilitation & support: Have an IB specialist come in to guide them the first year
• negotiation: lets talk about it and compromise
• manipulation:
• coercion: PUNISHMENTS! fire teachers who don’t adhere to the new curriculum

5 bases of power

 

Power tactics

• consultation: advice-involve them in the process
• rational persuasion: logical arguments
• inspirational appeals: inspire people to follow (usually involves speech)
• ingratiation: create positive atmosphere
• coalition: power in numbers, form a group
• pressure: placing high stakes can be an incentive
• upward appeal: higher status
• exchange: if u give me this I give u that

POPULAR OD TACTICS

• survey feedback
• mediation: lets not judge…this is a safe place
• work redesign
• management by objectives- performance appraisal
• quality circle programs
• business process re-engineering
• organisational transformation

PERSONALITY AND INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES

INTELLIGENCE:
cognitive ability: reasoning, planning, abstract thinking, and understanding complex ideas. Also goal directed & adaptive ability

Closely interacts with personality: how we respond to the world

PERSONALITY:
A complex phenomenon built on a wide range of physical, mental, ethical, and social qualities specific for each individual (McKenna 2006)

Because each individual is different, companies will often administer tests to gauge how well an employees personality will fit in to the company or a given job.

 

There are different varying schools of thought when it comes to how personality and intelligence is acquired. This is the Nature V Nurture argument.  On one side we have the behaviourist approach, and the other the humanistic approach.

The behaviourist approach believes that our behaviour is a result of our environment. This means that our skills are a direct result of instruction and feedback.

The Humanistic approach argues that we are motivated by internal conditions and not by our environment

The natur V nurture is very important to consider during the hiring process. The graphs below show how a empiricist view can result in bias. Things like gender and race come into play when hiring. A study from Yale in 2012 showed that males were viewed as better in terms or competence, hirability and mentoring when it came to a lab manager position. Another study showed that we are 50 % more likely to hire an individual with a “white” name over a “black” one  despite having the same qualifications.

Clip from the movie the big short. scene shows how we can adhere to stereotyping in the workplace

start at 1:53

 

some more example of this are

e.g hiring the more attractive candidate bcs it is associated with intelligence although both applicants have identical qualifications

e.g a teacher favouring a “well behaved” student when marking bcs good behaviour is associated with being “bright”

FUN FACT:

In the U.S. population, about 14.5 percent of all men are six feet or over. Among CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, that number is 58 percent.

 

Employers should be aware of some of the internal prejudices that may effect who they hire.

TEAMWORK WORKS BEST WHEN TOP PERFORMERS ARE REWARDED- Bradley Kirkman

All for one, one for all? This doesn’t seem to be our mindset in business. In a fair world, I think most of us would agree that a meritocracy would be fair. By this I mean, we should be rewarded by how well we perform; so the more accolades, higher grades a person has, the more they should be rewarded. Both fortunately or unfortunately for some of us  this is not the case. Remember those school group projects you had throughout middle school and maybe in high school? You could either dread or love these assignments. If you loved it, you were probably that teammate who does the bare minimum or nothing at all, and if you dreaded it, you were probably the one who did most of the work. If you had a group with people who were all motivated to work, you were extremely lucky, but this is often not the case. The group is usually graded as a whole, and everyone received the same grade no matter how much they contributed. Kirkman asks the question, does it work better when those who perform the most are rewarded?

In the article, Kirkman gives us an example of Levi’s, jeans company that divided their workers into teams. The teams would be rewarded on the basis of how many jeans they produced in x amount of time. The result was that some members would slack, while others carried the workload. As you can imagine, this resulted into a dispute within the groups. Does this mean that team based rewards don’t motivate individuals? This realisation resulted in the team rewarding members of the team instead of the team as a whole.

Another study in the article finds that it is more rewarding and recognising individuals in a team boss both the individual and the teams performance. A group of psychology students in Northern China were given two tasks. The first was to create as many origami cubes as possible in 20 minutes and the second was to make the tallest structure with the cubes they had made, but this time in a group of four. For half of the teams the experimenter acknowledged the top performer in front of their peers, whilst the other half received no recognition at all.  Although it is intuitive to think that recognising a single team member might cause jealousy in the team, it actually motivated other members to “up their game” so that they too could receive recognition.

So if there was an “employee of the month” award available for any member from any team, a team’s performance would increase due to the motivation provided by that individual award, and not the well being of the team. It seems that even when we are in teams, our mindsets our interests are still motivated by selfish reasons.

This article to me explains the truth very bluntly. I too have experienced this mindset when in a group. Although I was usually the one who did a large portion of the work in a team, my goal in a sense was to out perform my own team members for recognition. Although we were awarded the same grades, I knew that recognition was always a bonus reward.

NUTS, BOLTS & NEGOTIATIONS-HBR

Investigative Negotiation

In this episode of  Dragon’s Den, we see Ben pitch for £250, 000 investment for 7.5% equity in his company. After the pitch, we see the Venture Capitalist begin to interogate Ben on the details of his business. They ask questions on his net profit projections, other minority share holders, the cash flow in the business. This is done to gauge the accuracy of the valuation that Ben has given. They point out that his company was first valued at £160, 000  when the minority stake holders invested and now at 3.3 million they feel that it is unfair. This means that the minority stake holders were given 30% for only £50,000. The Dragons find the valuation too high, and therefore would only consider investing if a larger portion of the equity is offered. Ben later increases the equity to 15% for £250, 000 when he sees that there is only one dragon left. The dragon makes the offer for all the money, for a 30% equity. Ben thinks this is too high, and tries to lower it to 20%, but the dragon sticks to his 30%. When Ben consults with his partner, they try to bring it back down to 25% but fail. The deal is made at 30% for £250, 000.

Ask why

2:10-3:30    Duncan asks why the valuation is so high. He then finds out that it is due to the projections. Asking “why” can solidify the “what”.

3:35-5:15    Deborah asks about other investors. She finds that the Valuation was much more reasonable for other investors. Asking why allows use to dig deep and find red flags like these.

mitigate the other party’s constraints

9:36-10:10    Here we see Theo try to increase the equity that was first constrained to a low 7.5%. When we see Ben go to 15% it is a signal that he is willing to go higher.

interpret demands as opportunities

Consider what the demands of the other party say about them?

create common ground with adversaries 

In this deal, it may seem as if the dragons and Ben begin as opponents. By questioning him and attacking his valuation, they appear to be against each other. In reality, by negotiating, they are trying to be allies. As equity holders, it would be in their best interest to make the company grow.

Investigate even when the deal seems lost

Theo (the last dragon) offers a deal and investigates further, even when all the other investors are out. He saw something in the offer, that the others did not.

6 habits of Merely Effective Negotiators

1. Neglecting the other side’s problem: you must understand the other’s perspective, their why’s and wants to make come to a conclusion that satisfies all parties

2. Price bulldoze other interests: there is more to a deal than just price. Some deals can be made because the other party has a resource or different specialty e.g contacts, expertise.

3. Letting position drive out of interest: just because the two parties or more are negotiating, it doesn’t mean that when one gains, the other loses. It can be of mutual benefit.

4. Searching too hard for a common ground: of course it would be lovely to completely agree with the other party, however in most negotiations, it is all about compromising, so that both parties are equally satisfied.

5. BATNA(Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement): If your or your partners negotiated goal isn’t reached, what’s the next best thing? This is something you must know as it shows you how easily you or you opponent can walk away or find the next best opportunity.

6. Failing to correct for Skewed Vision: you must view the negotiation from a neutral viewpoint. When bias is involved, you may miss out on a deal or offer solutions that don’t serve both parties.

Getting past YES

When negotiating you should keep the long term in mind. This means that it is not only about making a deal, but how you are going to deliver and implement the demands of the parties.

1. Start with an end in mind: Keeping a goal in mind can help you strategise the negotiation to your benefit. You have to come into the negotiation with this I’m mind. You should consider what questions should you should ask the other party, what you bottom line is, your opportunity cost (next best thing). With a goal, you are able to make the most informed decision.

2. Treat arrangement as a shared responsibility: It is best if both parties work together. When a deal is made you should also be working to deliver what is expected on both sides.

3. Manage negotiations like a business process: The process should be taken seriously and strategically.