Month: November 2017 (Page 1 of 3)

This is in response to Tim DeHaan’s post “My Leadership Story

My Leadership Story

First of all kudos to Tim for creating a very impressive presentation in this format which for me has been a struggle. It has been very beautifully done with the sound-editing and the background music. His style of delivery is very poignant. As for the story, I sensed an ongoing struggle which I think I can say is not foreign to any one of us. We are constantly discovering things about ourselves, fighting our private demons, doubting ourselves in this journey of growth. If we are honest with ourselves, we will all admit that at some point we doubt ourselves, question where we are going and why we do the things we do, struggle with our individual ‘vices’. Part of the concept of growth is the recognition that this struggle is a part of life, it is everyday. Writing this I am having a sense of deja vu, as I remember a recent conversation with my daughter who is 19. She was complaining about ‘adulting’ being hard. I am in the process of guiding her through the process of accepting that ‘adulting’ is not a one time thing; you don’t ‘become’ an adult at 19 and then get done with growing. Growth is a constant learning process;  in addition to learning about the world and its ways, whats more important is that we learn about ourselves, our responses to people and situations. Self-reflection is very essential for growth and evolution of a personality. Tim seems to have got down the art of reflection. As for “the vortex of personal inaction”, I hope he finds a way out of this; as he says himself “there is hope”.. “always another time”.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Tim.

This is in response to Riggisolinap’s leadership story

My Leadership Story

I am very impressed by how he knew from an early age that he wanted to pursue leadership, and worked his way forward to make it happen. The insight and discipline required to achieve this is commendable. There are lessons to be learnt and passed on to young people about how dedication and discipline are the primary drivers for success. His journey is also a testament to the tried and tested institutions like the cadets, and also to the importance of involvement in clubs and organizations in the development of a rounded personality. I agree with him when he says that a  leader is also sometimes a follower. It is all about context and the people you are working with at the time.

What is also commendable is that he is trying to make an impact on others by his involvement in community and church. Leadership should not be selfish; a good leader is one who in addition to their own growth also focuses on growth of their followers. Giving back to the community is an altruistic investment which brings fruits down the line – this could be personal gratification at being involved in something beyond yourselves, and also in terms of influencing future generations into selfless service.

Thanks for being the leader you are. Hope you continue to be involved in training and impacting our future leaders.

I will admit that in my line of work, I didn’t think that leadership training was absolutely necessary. I started it for my own personal betterment. I always admired great leaders, and thought one is either born a leader or not. In my limited knowledge of this field , I looked at leadership from the trait approach, rather than the skills approach. Over the last couple of years though, I have witnessed some colleague and superiors who have exhibited leadership skills in situations where ‘designated’ leaders have failed to live up to the expectations. This prompted me to think that maybe there is more to leadership than being born with a set of characteristics. Also, there are no fixed set of traits that maketh a leader. This has been confirmed to me with the knowledge I gained abut servant leadership and transformational leadership.

This biggest take away for me from this course has been that there is no one-size-fits-all in leadership. A leader can be a follower and vice versa depending in the circumstances. Also there is no right or wrong approach, as long as it is applied in the appropriate situation. Now that I am more aware of the different leadership theories/ approaches, I have noticed that  I myself change my leadership approach depending on the situation and the circumstance; sometimes depending on the people I am working with. There are some people with whom a transactional approach works better, while with others the transformational approach is more effective. At the end of the day leadership is all about people, and understanding what drives them.

I have enjoyed reading posts from my colleagues; they have been very insightful and informative. I have learned a lot from reading their interpretation of the course material. I also found it very interesting that there were different things that inspired us in the book “Light from many lamps”! We all picked up different authors and stories to reflect on and take our life lessons from. I am grateful to our Prof for helping us navigate through this doorway into the leadership learning process.

This is in response to the post

Unit 9 – LA2 – BP1

Indeed technology has made life easier in a lot of ways, for example his experience of not having to carry cash in a foreign country. I think he also meant that there is also less need to interact with people. While this is convenient in some situations, it is also heralding a change in how the newer generations interact with others. The marked reduction in the need for everyday one to one interaction is concerning. The new generations while more adept at getting things done quickly in their digital world, are losing the social skills that in my view are one of the cornerstones of society. I agree with William when he says that monitoring the impact of this change on the ‘millennials’ would be crucial. The supporters of digital interaction on the other hand could argue that people are still communicating, its just that the method has changed from direct face- to-face communication to a more digital platform. Maybe in the long range this would count as one of the turning points in the evolution of human language and communication.

I am writing this in response to the post by RiggiSolinap – https://create.twu.ca/riggisolinap/2017/11/23/unit-9-learning-activity-2/

He summarizes lessons from Jack Ma’s philosophy. There is one thing that I would like to add. Jack Ma say ‘ forget regret’. but prior to that he did mention some regrets that he had. So this was a contradictory statement to me. I think we all have regrets in life. Instead of ‘forgetting’ about them, what would be more fruitful is converting them into life lessons. If we can transform our mistakes into learning experiences, we can move on and grow in the process. If one dwells too long on a mistake without learning from it and moving on, they risk converting it from a ‘learning experience’ to a ‘regret’.

Reference

“Keys to Success from Jack Ma”. (2016, June, 23). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WjHZ5wLe6w

Unit 9

We are going through a time of accelerating change; in some aspects the change is faster than some can fathom keep up with. The things that are changing the fastest are “technology, communications and computing technologies” (Smart, 2015). When we think accelerating change, the one area that comes to mind is technology. I think technology is the driver for accelerated change in all these other fields. I believe we are all witnessing this acceleration in our respective fields. In the filed of medicine the advances being made in research are sometimes mind boggling, from neuroscience to organ transplants, to laser and robotics in surgery, as well as disease research. In daily clinical practice, there have been changes in the way we deliver care, and how we maintain our records. Telemedicine is being employed to provide care to patients in remote areas. Our patients have the capability to communicate with us through the internet, they can also check their labs, visits etc through online patient portals. Conferences are streamed via skype or teleconference. Technology has also made easy for management to conduct their meetings; it is no longer necessary for people to be in the same room, they can hold meeting through virtual meeting rooms, or conference calls.

I am not sure this ties with the topic of our activity, but Jack Ma had some very wise words. He seems to be the kind of leader who follows the transformational-servant leadership- “Customers are number 1, employees number 2, shareholder number 3” (Ma, 2016).

As per Shadraconis (2013), “During a crisis, information, plans, and structures that were once relevant may no longer be applicable. Strictly transactional leadership is not sufficient to meet the new demands of a rapidly changing environment. In times of uncertainty, transformational leaders clarify roles and provide guidance to followers. Furthermore, transformational leaders guide followers through the sensemaking process during a crisis by developing a compelling vision that emphasizes transcending self-interest for the overall benefit of the collective that may ultimately mean the survival of the organization.”

Businesses big and small have had to integrate technology into their strategy to keep up with competition and maintain their standards. Lets take Walmart for example. As per Smoak (2016) Walmart were pioneers in bar code scanning and analyzing point of sale information; they launched their own satellite systems in the mid 1980s to manage their supply chain processes. From Smoaks article I also learned that Walmart has a ‘build rather than buy’ approach, and they apply this to their IT development as well. They are also investing in development of their online presence to keep up with changing customer preferences. When Wal-Mart is looking to develop new systems it dispatches its top engineers to perform “regular” operations jobs so they can gain working hand knowledge of the challenges that line employees face (Boyer, 2003)

I am not very technologically savvy to be able to comment on how big businesses or service organizations could have managed their technology use better or differently. What I can comment on is that there is a very big scope for technology in improving how health care is provided. This is a topic that requires a bigger platform, as there are many moving parts and ramifications, with a lot of players involved. One thing I feel very strongly about is how use technology can be used to make health care more affordable and more widely accessible.

References

Boyer, J. (February, 2003). Technology Helps Stores Order Only As Much As They’ll Sell. Albany Times Union. Retrieved from Factiva

Shadraconis, Sophon (2013) “Organizational Leadership in Times of Uncertainty: Is Transformational Leadership the Answer?,” LUX: A Journal of Transdisciplinary Writing and Research from Claremont Graduate University: Vol. 2: Iss. 1, Article 28. Retrieved from http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1027&context=lux

https://anthonysmoak.com/2016/07/21/more-than-you-want-to-know-about-wal-marts-technology-strategy-part-1/

Theory of change. John Smart- Leadership or Tech Change. (2015, April, 8). Retried from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhdWqLNUJns

“Keys to Success from Jack Ma”. (2016, June, 23). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WjHZ5wLe6w

I am writing in response to Sadie’s post https://create.twu.ca/sadiethompson/2017/11/18/unit-8-la-1/

I am glad she brought to light the issue women in the workplace who are contemplating motherhood. I was fortunate in having had plenty of help bringing up my children , and having a supportive family that I could rely on  before I moved to the North American continent.

I have seen a lot of friends and colleagues struggle with this. As I wrote in one of my previous responses, women ( and women alone)  have the gift ( some call it responsibility ) of being the bearers of our future children. In my opinion this should automatically out them at an exalted position, instead women are thought of as liabilities or disadvantages. It is a well established fact that in addition to child bearing, most of the child rearing responsibilities also fall upon women. I don’t claim to have answer to this issue that leaders and women’s advocates have grappled with for decades. What I do know that society needs to rally around our women and make them feel supported in their struggle to fulfil family and work responsibilities. As Sadie points out that to bring about a change in values, education has to begin in childhood. The current generation of leaders in hiring positions were brought up with different values, but with new awareness and education, hopefully the next generations will appreciate the role of women in the workplace better.

This is in response to Timothy DeHaan’s post

U8 – LA2 – BP1

It is heartening to hear that there are some men who are very comfortable with women holding leadership roles alongside them or sometimes above them. On the other hand Tim also brings to light the point that traditionally and also in some religions men have been considered to be the leaders and women as the supporters. I am not a religious scholar, but from what little I know of all religions, this is the basic premise of all of them. While this was a well accepted model which worked for in those times, the present times are markedly different.  There were no roles for women in the hunter-gatherer side of community life, and women were relegated to the home and child care responsibilities. We live in very different times . And changing times need change in rules and perceptions. The debate around whether women have a place in the workplace is a very archaic one  and I believe has been settled a couple of generations prior to us . Women are key players in the workplace and everyone seems to have come to terms with that, to a more or less extent. What we as a society now need to think now is whether we are going to give the women equal opportunities or we are going to be roadblocks in their progress, with the futile hope of regressing to past times ? Being a woman with leadership aspirations, to me this is a very simple matter of choice. If a woman wants to be a home maker , then society needs to applaud her for her contribution, If she chooses to be in the workplace, then all anyone needs to do is give her a fair and equal opportunity. Women do have an added biological responsibility ( or gift ) of being the bearers of the next generation. If anything, this should afford them an exalted position, rather than them getting penalized for it.