HRM606 – Leadership,
Ethics and Change
Summarization of all Lectures & Articles
Usman Muhammad Nooruddin
Student ID: 252261
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TABLE OF CONTENTS:
LECTURE SUMMARIES:
Lecture 01 – January 18, 2020
Lecture 02 – January 25, 2020
Lecture 03 – February 01, 2020
Lecture 04 – February 08, 2020 – cancelled class
Lecture 05 – February 15, 2020
Lecture 06 – February 22, 2020 – post 1st hourly
Lecture 07 – February 29, 2020
Lecture 08 – March 07, 2020 [LMS] – Assignment Submission Only
Lecture 09 – March 14, 2020 [LMS]
Lecture 10 – March 21, 2020 [LMS]
Lecture 11 – March 28, 2020 [LMS]
Lecture 12 – April 04, 2020 [LMS]
Lecture 13 – April 11, 2020 [LMS]
Lecture 14 – April 18, 2020 [LMS] – Presentation Conducted Only
Lecture 15 – April 25, 2020 [LMS] – Presentation Conducted Only
05
06
08
09
11
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
n/a
n/a
ARTICLE SUMMARIES:
Article 01 - Blue Ocean Leadership
Article 02 - The Four Pillars of Blue Ocean Leadership
Article 03 - Veja - Sneakers with a Conscience
Article 04 - The Secret - What Great Leaders Know and Do
Article 05 - What Makes a Leader by Daniel Goleman
Article 06 - Who Moved My Cheese?
Article 07 - Developing and Sustaining an Ethical Corporate Culture - The Core Elements
Article 08 - A Tale of Two Moralities
Article 09 - Change Through Persuasion
Article 10 - The Perils and Pitfall of Leading Change
Article 11 - What Leaders Really Do
21
22
23
24
25
27
29
32
34
35
37
38
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LECTURE SUMMARIES
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LECTURE 01:
Leadership can be explained using the example of an iceberg.
The part that we can see on top is the DOING PART of
leadership, but since most of the iceberg is underneath the
water, or not visible to the naked eye, that is the part of the
leadership called BEING. The BEING part of the person
dictates what kind of leader is the person actually.
Human beings are versatile creatures, hence social sciences
cannot pinpoint a single universal law.
Anything that can be solely dependent on human skills is art.
And the simplest example can be that making a violin is a very
calculated science, but playing one to please the crowds is
nothing else than art.
Hence, Leadership can be defined as the art of ‘influencing people’.
Prakash Iyer simplified the roles of a leader by his short article Leadership through a Teabag:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
What counts is what’s inside the Teabag.
The real flavor comes through only when the Teabag gets into hot water.
Good teabag looks forward to getting into hot water.
A Teabag must be porous.
Teabags work, never mind where they are in the cup.
Sometimes, one Teabags is just not enough.
Sometimes, you need to add some sugar and milk.
Someone else hold the string always.
It’s all about how good the tea is. Not the Teabag.
Eventually, Teabags need to make way and get out.
Like a teabag, it’s important to see who we are actually inside instead of just pretending to be a better
person than who we are actually. True leaders look forward to utilize their skills, and they show what they
are capable of at the time when they are needed the most in the most desperate of time (Quaid e Azam
Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Winston Churchill). But for everyone to benefit from a leader, it is necessary for that
leader to be approachable. As like the teabag, the leader works on a servant level, never mining where
he/she is in a company’s hierarchy. They find partners or colleagues who complement their skill sets and fill
in the missing pieces. This helps ensure that the result meets the objective always.
A leader also knows that like a teabag, no matter how strong the teabag is, it recognizes that someone else
holds the string in his or her hands. And they can pull the teabag out and throw it away any they like. No
questions asked. That’s a humbling thought which leaders must never lose sight of. No matter how powerful
a leader becomes, he must remember there is a string tied to him that’s in the hand of some other
stakeholder or the board- or just some other more powerful force. The realization of this truth can help
ensure that leaders don’t let power go to their and begin seeing themselves as lords and masters of all they
survey.
In the ultimate analysis, leaders get remembered not for how good they themselves were, but for how good
their teams and the institutions that they built were. Too often, leaders get caught up with looking at
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themselves in the mirror rather than turning the spotlight on their teams, their organizations-and their
results. Good leaders never forget – ‘it’s not about me. It’s about them’.
Teabags recognize that once the brew is ready, they need to move on. They don’t worry that if they were to
move out of the cup. Alas, too many leaders see themselves as being indispensable and overstay their
welcome. They get so taken with their own abilities and greatness that they start believing that if they were
to leave, the organization wouldn’t survive.
So, how do we define a leader? A leader can be defined as the following:
Leadership is the process of social influencing which maximizes the efforts of others towards an achievement
of a goal. When referring to a leader and leadership, it is always taking VISION into consideration, since a
leader without a vision, is very shallow.
Leaderships is also the key to change in any organization. Change is a transition from one form to another, a
new stage from the previous one. And adaptability is the key when dealing with change.
True leaders anticipate and drive change. They are trendsetters.
Leaders are also Ethical, which dictates that what is right and what is wrong, and what to do in those
situations.
The seven traits a leader should always have are:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
VISION - Leadership is about making the future happen in world where no one can see the future.
COMMUNICATION SKILLS – A very compelling vision is worthless if it is snot communicated well.
PEOPLE SKILLS – How can the leader capitalize the best out of each individual.
CHARACTER – People follow a person when they find that you are not insulting them.
BOLDNESS – A leader should be capable of taking calculated risks.
COMPETANCE – A leader should be very good at his/her job.
A SERVING HEART – A leader is there to serve their employees, instead of serving their own purposes
and personal goals.
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LECTURE 02:
Herbert Spencer took the theory of evolutions one step beyond biology and applied it say that societies
were organisms that progress through changes similar to that of living species. If was Spencer’s philosophy
that societies (like organisms) would begin simple and then progress to a more complex form.
He was also the person to coin the term ‘Survival of the fittest’.
Arnold Schwarzenegger – The speech that broke the internet:
1. The first goal is VISION. You’ve got to have a purpose whatever happens.
2. Don’t listen to nay Sayers.
3. Work as hard as possible.
4. No plan B. No safety nets. No going back. People perform better if there is no safety net since if
there is one, the resources from the main point are then slowly transferred to the safety net, making
the main struggle less impactful. One should not be afraid of failing.
Genetic Determinism – every person that comes in this world comes with all the genes of all his ancestors,
but he/she can
Environmental determinism – the belief that the environment, most notably its physical factors such as
landforms and climate, determines the patterns of human culture and societal development.
For all leadership qualities:
• Vision
• Self-awareness
are the most crucial and important
Everything is subject to change, except principles and values. They should never change irrespective of the
consequences. And a lack of principles leads to ‘impulse reactions’ which are bad for the leader and his/her
followers alike.
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LECTURE 03:
VIDEO – FOUR PRESCRIPTIONS:
1. Listen Carefully
a. Get out of your private life
b. Venture out into the unknown
c. Slow down to take a break
d. Explore your inner deep self
2. Try reaching back
a. Start thinking about the past
b. Remember the good times that have occurred – a reflection of the past
3. Reexamine your motives
a. What is my vision?
b. What is my core?
c. What are my values?
d. What are my principles?
e. What makes me tick?
f. Am if selfish or selfless?
g. Contrast between your private life and public life
h. Am I improperly centered?
i. Do I allow other people to determine who I am?
4. Write your troubles in the sand
a. And see them wash away. From this point forward change yourself for the better. For
yourself and everyone else.
Lessons learned:
• Don’t start writing your vision and mission yet.
• Take your time and evaluate and analyze.
• What principle do you want to work upon?
• Your missions should be timeless.
• Reorganize, reinvent, reorder, restructure, repeat.
VIDEO: 1843 – BEGIN WITH THE END IN MIND:
•
•
•
•
•
Find yourself and reinvent yourself
Find the passion in the work you do.
One should be principle centered instead of being money centered
Break the social mirror
Stay in the company of people who evolve thinking instead of people who limit them.
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LEADERSHIP STYLES:
1. Autocratic Leadership
a. Leaders retain power
b. Sole decision-making power
c. Do not consult subordinates
d. Subordinates are expected to obey orders without questioning
e. Subordination is made through structured rewards and punishments
2. Bureaucratic Leadership
a. All about leading by the book.
b. Everything must be done according to the rules
c. if something is not written, the manager will refer to the manager above.
d. If an authority has not signed, the process will not move further.
3. Democratic Leadership
a. Ownership of decision is done
b. Often is referred to as participative leadership style, in which employees are kept informed.
c. Employees/Followers share decision making and problem-solving responsibilities.
d. Information from employees is gathers making any decision.
e. Democratic Leader is like a coach, who has the final say but he/she has to consult first.
f. It helps employees to establish their own goals.
g. It encourages employees to have a sense of recognition and achievement.
h. Hight quality and High quantity production is possible for a longer period of time.
4. Transactional Leadership
a. Overlapped with the autocratic leadership
b. Employees are motivated aby appealing their own self interest
c. They are motivated by an exchange process
d. The focus is on the accomplishment of a task in exchange for a deliverable reward.
e. It is normally application in circumstances where the relations are of short-term nature.
5. Lassie fayre
6. Transformational Leadership (4 Pillars):
a. Idealize influence or charisma
b. Inspirational motivation.
c. Intellectual Stimulation.
d. Individualized Consideration.
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LECTURE 04/05:
Servant Leadership was coined by Robert Greenleaf in his seminal essay ‘Servant Leadership’ in 1970’s. His
inspiration was a novel ‘Journey to the East’ which formed the basis of the essay.
Servant Leadership differs fundamentally from the contemporary leadership modes in such a manner that
leader is a servant first and the drive to lead comes later. The leader 1st and servant 1st are two extremes and
all other models come between them. The best test and difficult to administer is:
1. Do those being serve grow as a person?
2. Do they while being served become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous and are most likely
becomes servant leaders themselves?
Examples of Servant Leadership:
- Nelson Mandela
- Mother Teresa
- The Prophet of Islam Muhammad ‫ﷺ‬
So, servant leaders are ethical and lead in a way that serve the greater good of the organization, community
and society at large. The big takeaway is that anyone can become a servant leader
Spears & Lawrence (2002) identified 10 characteristics of a central to a servant leader:
1. They listen.
2. Empathy.
3. Healing.
4. Awareness.
5. Persuasion.
6. Conceptualization.
7. Foresight.
8. Stewardship.
9. Commitment.
10. Building Communities.
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LECTURE 06:
Level 5 Leadership, a book ‘Good to Great’ by Jim Collins mentions that the leadership is the most important
in an organization.
-
Level 5 Leadership = Top most person in an organization.
He/she will have humility and Will power.
Big Personalities are not required for a L5 Leadership.
Authentic Leadership, the leader will be ethical.
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LECTURE 07:
DISCOVERING YOUR AUTHENTIC LEADERSHIP BY BILL GEORGE:
There is no universal formula for leadership because there are no universal human traits common
throughout.
1. Learning from your life story – your leadership will emerge out of your wone life. No one can
augment the traits of leadership into anyone if he /she lacks the seed.
2. Knowing your authentic self - most important trait of a leader is self-awareness.
3. Practicing your values and principles at all times.
4. Balancing your intrinsic and extrinsic motivations – one is supposed to be an authentic towards your
own self. If you are employed where your passion doesn’t go parallel, you won’t grow.
5. Building your support team – nothing can be accomplished alone, hence collaboration is the key.
Choosing the right person for the job is highly crucial.
6. Integrating your life by staying grounded – A personal life and professional life should be the same
person, irrespective of the role a person is.
7. Empowering People to Lead – Authentic leaders recognize that leadership is not about their success
or about getting loyal subordinates to follow them. They know the key to a successful organization is
having empowered leaders at all levels, including those who have no direct reports. They not only
inspire those around them, they empower those individuals to step up and lead.
WHAT IS AN AUTHENTIC LEADER?
Authentic leader is confident, hopeful, optimistic, resilient, transparent, moral/ethical, future oriented and
gives priority to developing associates to the leaders while always hopeful and optimistic. He/she is based on
5 pillars:
1. Self-aware – what is the source of your desires and impulses?
2. Self-regulated – freedom from being a prisoner of our own feelings.
3. Motived – they are devoted to achieve beyond expectation. They achieve for the sake of
achievement.
4. They are empathetic – they put yourself in someone else’s shoes. They also are aware how to tackle
situations in the organization since when good talent leaves, it takes good knowledge with them.
5. They have social skills – the person has a skill to move people in the direction he/she wants. They are
great persuaders and are able to manage teams of varying sizes.
CAN EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE BE LEARNED?
People who already have the seed of emotional intelligence can expand on their skills and nurture it to grow
it to a proper skill. People who lack the seed unfortunately cannot be emotional intelligent.
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LECTURE 08 (LMS) – ASSIGNMENT 02:
Write down the summary of the following:
• Simon Sinek – How Great Leaders Inspire Action
• Level 5 Leadership – The Triumph of Humility and Fierce Resolve
• Influencing: The Key to Successful Business Relationships
Submitted on March 08, 2020; Sunday.
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LECTURE 09 (LMS) – DISCUSSION ON “WHO MOVED MY CHEESE?”:
What are the types of Ethical Dilemmas?
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Saying things are that not true
Giving or allowing false impressions
Buying influence or engaging in conflict of interest.
Hiding or divulging information.
Taking unfair advantage
Committing acts of personal decadence.
Permitting organizations abuse.
Discussion on the article ‘Who Moves My Cheese’ – see page 29
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LECTURE 10 (LMS):
Incremental Change: A step by step process to bring about the change. Productivity rises while uncertainty
falls.
Quantum Change: A huge change suddenly, a revolution. During ta quantum revolution, productivity falls
and uncertainty is very high.
FORCE FIELD ANALYSIS BY KURT LEWIN:
-
Force Field Analysis is a development in social sciences.
Whenever a change is implemented, there are two forces acting – one with it and one against it.
It is the responsibility of the top management to cater and help the change and make sure that it is
as seamless as possible with minimal distortion s and disruptions.
The change agent is one wo is responsible to implement the change. He/she can be a form of an
organization such as a manager, a CEO or can be hired from outside as an expert to implement the
change.
It is the responsibility of the change agent to patronize the forces that which are por the change and
minimize the forces which are against the change.
3 DIMENSIONS THAT CHANGES NEED TO BE IMPLEMENTED:
1. Knowledge: when it becomes obsolete, you need to upgrade.
2. Skills: if the skills are becoming weak and need polishing or acquiring new ones.
3. Attitude: sometimes the e norms or the culture need changing.
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LECTURE 11 (LMS):
Discussion on the article ‘A Tale of Two Moralities’ – see page 34
Discussion on the article ‘What leaders really do? – see page 38
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LECTURE 12 (LMS):
Continuation of Discussion on the article ‘What Leaders Really Do?’ – see page 38
Discussion on the article ‘The Perils and Pitfall of Leading Change’ – see page 37
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LECTURE 13 (LMS):
Continuation of Discussion on the article ‘The Perils and Pitfall of Leading Change’ – see page 37
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ARTICLE SUMMARIES
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ARTICLE 01: BLUE OCEAN LEADERSHIP
The concept of BLUE OCEAN LEADERSHIP was first penned by W. Chan. Kim and Renee Mauborgne where
they discuss different ideas, among them focusing on the role of leadership in a company.
A survey done by Gallop estimates that in any given workspace, out of 100% only 30% are actually
committed to their work, while the other 50% are just there from 9 to 5, while the remainder 20% are
counterproductive. The research done points to a single source of issue, being the Leadership of the
organization needs to bear the blame of these figures.
Blue Ocean Leadership expands its model of the Blue Ocean Strategy by assuming the role of the leaders and
their subordinates as buyers and sellers. So, a Leader must make sure that their subordinates ‘buy’ into
whatever they are working to achieve, and for that Leaders need to sell their ideas to the best of their
abilities.
The above dictates, how sharing the Vision of the organization has a huge importance in the way the
employees in an organization behave. The a well communicated vision is a very powerful vision which helps
the subordinates of any leader buy into their leadership.
Blue Ocean leadership is different from traditional model because it focuses on three aspects:
1. Focus on acts and activities – It is easier to change people’s acts than their values.
2. Connect closely to market realities – feedback on how their leaders are holding them back.
3. Distribute leadership across all management levels – everyone can and should be a leader.
The Four Steps of Blue Ocean Leadership are as follows:
1. See your leadership reality – without the shortcomings of the leadership technique, there can be no
efficient leadership. If a leader is self-invested, he/she cannot perform his leadership duties till his
main point of focus becomes the people that he server.
2. Develop alternate leadership profiles – think beyond the bounds of the company and focus on
effective leadership acts as they have observed outside the organization, hence bringing fresh ideas
to nurture a better leader through four different aspects referred to the Blue Ocean Leadership Grid:
a. Eliminate the acts and activities that waste the leader’s time, effort and resources.
b. Raise the acts and activities that the leaders should focus on most of the time and should be
their concern.
c. Reduce the acts and activities that take useful relevant time of a leader, and probably
delegate them to the subordinates.
d. Create the acts and activities that should in fact be in the leader’s portfolio and he/she
should be responsible for them.
3. Select to-be leadership profiles – after going through the above matrix, the three types of managers
(senior, middle, frontline) should have their duties and responsibilities to be properly noted.
4. Institutionalize new leadership practices - informing other managers above and below the hierarchy
to make sure that everyone is on the same page, and can do their jobs to the bet of their abilities.
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ARTICLE 02: FOUR PILLARS OF BLUE OCEAN LEADERSHIP
To have a much better employees, and to help them be better at their jobs, it is the job of the leader to have
a have strong set of skills in addition to having ethical awareness and empathy towards his/her subordinates.
For that, the article mentions four key pillars:
1. Focus on acts and activities – Blue Ocean Leadership is actions based; hence it focuses on what acts
and activities leaders need to do to makes sure that the motivation of all employees and the
business itself soars. So, a leader needs to indulge themselves in activities that can bring out the best
in people and help them change their behaviors.
2. Connect leadership to market realities by engaging people who confront them – the leaders should
make sure that the tasks that are given to their subordinates do not make them feel demotivated or
‘set up for failure’. Hence a leader should be familiar with the work and should have gone through it
him/herself to make sure that he/she fully understands the limitation of the job being performed.
3. Distribute leadership across different management levels – Blue Ocean shuns the concept of top
leadership by stating that everyone can be and should be a leader. But specifically speaking, if we
consider the senior, middle and the frontline levels, they need to have leaders in them to make sure
that the employees are always motivated and focused.
4. Pursue high impact leadership acts and activities at low cost - Blue Ocean leadership recognizes that
leaders need to streamline the workforce by eliminating and reducing while at the same time raising
and creating to utilize a high potential and energy and engagement of their employees. By
streamlining the processes, the total cost is reduced while the efficacy of the work being produced is
raised substantially.
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ARTICLE 03: VEJA: SNEAKERS WITH A CONCIENCE
Veja Sneakers is the brainchild of Sebastien Kopp and Francois-Ghislaine Morillon who wanted to start a
business that was close to their hearts.
In 2005 they settled in Brazil and founded VEJA – the first ethical sneaker company in the world. In VEJA’s
entire story, we see the word ethical repeatedly since the owners made sure that everyone and everything
was treated fairly as possible, which was also the reason why the company was propelled to success and to
fame.
In VEJA’s story, the owners settled in Brazil since the Amazon is a source of wild latex, and were transferred
to their factories via boats and used vegetable tanning solutions to mitigate both air and water pollution.
During their story and progress, other companies, new and old, started working as an ecological friendly
shoe/sneaker manufacturers but despite that, Veja was the company that gave voice to the ever-growing
concern that Earth needs our care and love, and they set out a business model to achieve it.
Both Kopp and Morillon were sneaker addicts, and wanted to create sneakers that look good, are
comfortable to wear and at the same time, manufacturing those will not have a negative impact on the
planet. Hence VEJA was built on tree fundamental values:
1. USING ECOLOGICAL INPUTS
a. Making sure that the transport that is used does not create pollution, hence boat
transportation was relied upon, which also became a source of income for the boatmen.
b. Researching and developing a new tanning technique that overcame pollution due to
chrome.
c. It only produced the amount that was ordered. No stocks whatsoever.
d. No advertisements
2. USING FAIR COTTON TRADE AND LATEX –
a. Farmers would decide the rate, which made sure that the farmers would retain their dignity
even though the rate was higher than the market.
b. Started working with families to grow cotton without pesticides.
c. Started with rubber tapping families, again paying a fairer price and better salaries to make
sure of their dignity.
3. RESPECTING WORKERS DIGNITY
a. The company arranged transport for all the workers so that all the employees can travel to
the factory on time and comfortably.
b. The average wage was 16% higher as compared to other factor workers.
c. All factory employees were entitled to vacations, overtime and annual bonuses.
d. Maximum overtime of 2 hours per day.
e. A balance between work and private life is a necessity.
f. New employees were given the opportunity to travel to Brazil and meet the producers to
make sure that they realize the Vision of VEJA to the max.
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ARTICLE/NOVEL 04: THE SECRET – WHAT GREAT LEADERS KNOW AND DO
Quoting from the foreword from the book:
“EVERYTHING RISES AND FALLS ON LEADERSHIP”
This book, although a comprehensive take on Servant Leadership translates it into a well narrated story, so
that it makes sure that the reader understands the implications of the servant leadership model and
embraces it, with the characters mentioned in the books.
Keeping the story of the novel aside, which makes us follow a young lady who thought that she was doing
everything correctly, but not succeeding in her day to day tasks. Initially she believes that the team she is
leading has the issue. But due to some events, she gets to be mentored by her company’s President Jeff
Brown, who over a period of several weeks and sittings transformed her to first look at her and help her to
‘bring the change from within her’ and made her realize that the problem does not lie with her team, but lies
in her leadership. She needed to become a strong leader, but not just any kind of leader, a SERVANT LEADER.
Her regular meetings with Mr. Jeff Browns reflected on her actions and inspired her to change her ways till
she followed in the path of being a servant leader, where he starts with drawing an iceberg and showing
Debbie that like an iceberg, any leader is can be made up of two crucial parts – the doing part and the being
part. The doing part is visible to everyone, but the hidden part, the being part is where the traits of a good
leader lie and need to be worked on.
The main message in the book can be summed up as:
S – SEE THE FUTURE
For every leader, the vision of the leader should be crystal clear. And based on that vision, the leader
should be able to see the future of any organization, or his/her team with exceptional clarity. When
this vision is properly communicated to the team, or subordinates – the people who listen
successfully make it their own vision and become a force to be reckoned with.
Once the path is clear, the leader and his/her subordinates should also be able to see any obstacles
and opportunities in achieving that vision and can figure out a trajectory to make the future happen.
E – ENGAGE AND DEVELOP OTHERS
A leader’s job when he/she considers him/herself as a servant of the people is to bring out the best
in them, which is always easier said than done. A leader must also make sure that after finding out
the best of their abilities, they should also make sure that they are capitalizing on their abilities and
using them to their maximum potential.
The leader must also be aware that if anyone cannot perform in a team, the entire team will suffer.
So, either that person is not the correct person for the job and needs to be let go off or replaces, or
needs to be trained further.
And in the end, everyone should be comfortable working within their core competencies.
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R – REINVENT CONTINUOUSLY
The leader must understand that innovation is a key to success. Old methods will only last for so
long, so the leader must see how to reinvent the business techniques, either to make them easier, or
to make them less painful to go through.
Just by doing this, the performance of the employees increases, since they are also aware that they
can focus on their activities since everything is either streamlined, or going to be eventually.
V – VALUE RESULTS AND RELATIONSHIPS
Leaders need to understand the ecosystem of their employees as best as possible. They also need to
realize that the employees are not machines and have a life of their own outside work, with
difficulties and responsibilities embedded in them.
A leader should be empathetic to make sure that if an employee is underperforming, he/she should
be asked if everything is fine and if not, can the leader ease it. In the most unfortunate events, a
small gesture of kindness or a helping hand makes the difference between a dedicated and
irresponsible worker.
But aside from the above, once the workers have been realigned, results should speak for
themselves. If the leader gets too invested in the personal lives of his/her workers, the performance
of the entire team will suffer excruciatingly.
E – EMBODY THE VALUES
So, the leader till now has communicated the vision, instilled engagement and developed the
employees, looking to a prosperous future and taking care of the needs of their employees. What
remains is that the leader should make an example of the core values and principles and setting the
benchmark for performance.
One thing is exceptionally necessary that the words and the vision of a leader should always coincide
with their actions, otherwise the team will feel demotivated and moreover feel that the leader is
acting hypocritical. And once the team doesn’t trust their leaders, the entire exercise will be null and
void.
And when looked together, these are the traits that make a SERVANT LEADER.
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ARTICLE 05 - WHAT MAKES A LEADER BY DANIEL GOLEMAN
The key difference between an ordinary leader, and a great leader is the Emotional Intelligence Trait. The
emotional intelligence (EI) of a leader has five aspects, which are proven to outperform yearly earnings goal
by almost 20%.
1. THE LEADER SHOULD BE SELF-AWARE:
A leader should be well acquainted with one self’s emotions, strengths and limits, internal desires,
core values and principles and most importantly, their impact on other people that surround the
leader.
Shortcomings in anyone is how the human being works. Everyone has one, but the triumphant of the
human beings are the people who are aware of his/her short comings and are willing to make the
effort to make sure that they try to eliminate it, or reduce it to an extent that it doesn’t affect
anyone around them.
People who are self-aware are confident since do not have anything to hide, and are exceptionally
trust worthy since they will also accept their mistakes and make an effort to constantly correct
themselves.
2. A LEADER SHOULD BE SELF-REGULATED:
A leader should not be driven by emotions and negative impulses, and show redirection of emotions.
It is human nature to feel happy, sad, angry, frustrated, etc. But how a person manages to use these
emotions makes the difference. If a person is happy, does he/she celebrate alone or share his
happiness with the people around them, raising the mood and morale of people around that
person? If a person is angry regarding something, does he/she call the person responsible and start
screaming at him/her or does that person calm himself down and then approach the responsible
person with a strict but subtle tone and understand why something happened? May be the task was
misunderstood since it was not communicated well and that person is caught in the middle of it.
This self-regulation then expands on to teams, and dealing with any underperformance issues. The
leader in this case will take a step back to see what went wrong in the first place instead of jumping
to conclusions to naming names and pointing fingers.
3. A LEADER SHOULD BE MOTIVATED:
A leader should be motivated, not just to achieve a task, but to achieve beyond expectations
especially when the odds are stacked against them. The people with this trait show exceptional pride
and passion in their work, while also showing a passion for learning and aim for perfection even in
their day to day activities. These people also share a high optimism trait even when they see the
odds stacked highly against them, and usually know how to tackle a task when everything goes
south. They set the benchmark for performance, and usually outperform their own set benchmarks
and set them higher.
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4. A LEADER SHOULD SHOW EMPATHY:
A leaders should be intuitive in feeling the emotions, fears, anxiety of the people around him/her or
subordinates. An empathetic leader puts the needs of others in front of his/her own needs. Hence
an empathetic leader also takes decisions based on considering others’ feelings (walking a mile in
their shoes) and grasping what are their issues, and how the leader can restore performance by
addressing those issues.
Another issue that empathy addresses is globalization, since for business leaders it is imperative that
they understand cross culture references and be tuned in as to what is happening, and to
understand the messages cloaked under words being spoken. Hence empathy is crucial in minimizing
cultural and ethnic differences.
5. A LEADER SHOULD POSSESS SOCIAL SKILLS:
A leader should be capable enough in managing or influencing people to move them in a collective
direction towards the ultimate goal. This skill also makes sure that a message is communicated
effectively to the person at the bottom of the hierarchy to the top most person in a company in a
language and vocabulary that they are familiar with. Thus, a leader which has social skills are great at
managing teams since they are well aware of how to communicate their ideas successfully to
different personalities and mindsets.
This trait also makes the leader in making sure that the relationships between employees and even
as far as departments are maintained, so as to say, they play along nicely together.
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ARTICLE 06 - WHO MOVED MY CHEESE
The book “Who moved my cheese?” was written by Dr. Spencer Johnson to make the masses understand
what is it like to undergo change, and especially how to accept change and move on with it.
In the book, he tells a story of two pairs of mice:
• The Mice:
o Sniff
o Scurry
• The Little People:
o Hem
o Haw
A point to be noted here is that all the four characters in the novel are actually mice. The difference between
the two pairs is that the ‘little people’ think that they are better than the other pair.
They all used to look for cheese in a maze, and one day, the little people found a stockpile of cheese and
instead of running to and fro to get it, they build their entire homes, their lifestyles around it, and got
settled. The other pair, used to constantly do the same routine which was running through the same maze
day in and day out to find their respective cheese and return back.
The little people got lazy, and stopped searching for cheese since they thought that they had enough, till one
day it ran out. Here, Hem and Haw the two little people started having different views about the situation,
Hew never accepted the change, while Haw wondered why he hadn’t he got up sooner to find new cheese
sooner.
Cheese, in this entire story can be considered as either your ultimate goal, your business model, your
lifestyle and things contained withing. Change is necessary, and change is required to make sure that
everything in this world doesn’t become stagnant. Haw accepted that they had to change his ways, while
Hem never accepted that and remained in denial till the end.
The underlying point is that Yes, it is very difficult to accept any change, but it needs to be done, and in the
humblest way as possible. Everyone has their own idea, habits and personality and asking them to change
their ways is usually an exceptionally difficult task, if not an impossible one.
The main takeaways from the books are as follows:
1. HAVING CHEESE MAKES YOU HAPPY.
Having an aim in life is always great. An objective, a possession, etc. These are the things that keep
up hooked.
2. THE MORE IMPORTANT YOUR CHEESE IS TO YOU, THE MORE YOU WANT TO HOLD ON TO IT.
As mentioned above, the more someone gives an importance to something, he/she will be as much
compelled to not change. It is sometimes wealth, sometimes family, sometimes a combination of
both and several other aspects of life.
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3. IF YOU DO NOT CHANGE, YOU CAN GO EXTINCT
Here is the most important part. Change is a necessity. In today’s fast changing world, one needs to
constantly update themselves with the skills needed to cope up with everchanging technology. If
someone for instance doesn’t change, or update themselves, they risk getting themselves out of the
loop, and out of a job further down the line.
4. WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF YOU WERE NOT AFRAID?
Fear of change is a very natural instinct. And it comes from our very animal instincts of survival.
What would happen if someone ventured out in the unknown and didn’t get the result, he/she was
expecting? Instead of asking this, one should ask, what would happen if he/she would stay in the
same place till eternity?
5. SMELL THE CHEESE OFTEN SO YOU WOULD KNOW WHEN IT IS GETTING OLD.
We as human beings tend to stay happy with things ‘as they are’, which is not a bad instinct of
survival. But there comes a time when those same things/beliefs/skills start becoming stagnant. If
someone doesn’t take out necessary time to evaluate the scenario from time to time, to see if it
needs a directional adjustment, it will be very harmful in the long run, either in this case a loss of
personnel, a loss of revenue, or a loss of jobs.
6. WHEN YOU MOVE BEYOND YOUR FEAR, YOU FEEL FREE.
To achieve the first step, once needs to overcome his/her own fear, which is a huge obstacle in most
people. But no change can even begin if fear had not been overcome. And once a person overcomes
his/her fear to venture out into the unknown, the world becomes their canvas, and they can paint
however they feel they like it.
7. IMAGINING MYSELF ENJOYING NEW CHEESE EVEN BEFORE I FIND IT LEADS ME TO IT.
To any change, motivation is compulsory. If a person cannot see that ambition, feel it in their hands
their struggle to achieve that will be very minimal, and has high chances to revert back to its original
form.
8. THE SOONER YOU LET GO OF THE OLD CHEESE, THE SOONER YOU WILL FIND NEW CHEESE.
Now we have overcome our fears, we have to let go of our ‘safety net’ – if things don’t work out I
will just go back to what I was doing. The concept of a safety net is a deadly one since the resources
that that safety net consumes comes from the main plant that has yet to be implemented. Once
anyone makes a decision, the best way to the destination is to power on through.
9. IT IS SAFER TO SEARCH IN THE MAZE THAN REMAIN IN A CHEESE-LESS SITUATION.
When there is a problem, the best way out is to search for alternative and immediately start working
on them without any waste of time. Suppose a person is let go off on a short notice. Instead that
person living in sadness and hopelessness, that person should consider this an opportunity and start
working on his/her passion, and in that way find a much better solution to the joblessness that
he/she previously had.
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10. OLD BELIEFS DO NOT YIELD YOU TO NEW BELIEFS
This is the toughest aspect of a change – changing beliefs. If someone (for an example) has been
completely convinced that the earth is flat (and not round), it will take a great deal of effort to
actually convince the same person to change his belief, by either showing him/her the scientific
research and data, or taking that same person to outer space and then showing the shape of the
earth. This analogy is similar to changing the core beliefs of someone (money is everything,
employees are disposable, training is a waste of resources, etc.) and if a person believes on those
wrong core principles, he/she will not be able to succeed in their lives.
11. WHEN YOU SEE THAT YOU CAN FIND AND ENJOY NEW CHEESE, YOU CHANGE COURSE.
After all the motivation, when a person sets out and starts seeing the fruits of his/her labors, that
makes that person believe in the fact that if he/she struggles hard and be consistent, they can
achieve what they set to achieve.
12. NOTICING SMALL CHANGES EARLY HELPS YOU ADAPT TO THE BIGGER CHANGES THAT ARE TO
COME.
Suppose a company recognizes that the market is changing and their product might become
obsolete in 5 years’ time. A better approach to changing it all in 5 years is that too slowly bring about
the change so that till the time period is complete, a slow and steady change has been made instead
of an instant huge one. Small changes are convenient to manage and they help people navigate their
issues easily instead of being overwhelmed.
13. MOVE WITH THE CHEESE AND ENJOY IT.
After all the change has been done, one should give themselves a good pat on their and others
backs, and look at the future and plan accordingly. So, when the time for the next change arises,
everyone will be ready taking in to consideration all the mistakes in the current change.
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ARTICLE 07 DEVELOPING AND SUSTAINING AN ETHICAL CORPORATE CULTURE - THE CORE ELEMENTS
In every business, there are always some unethical corporate activities that range from a bare minimum to a
plethora of activities. The main issue isn’t that these activities might be illegal in nature or not, but they
create regular dilemmas throughout the organization’s operational history of whether a legal activity might
be ethical or not. As always, every person tends to have their own personality and opinions regarding the
‘ethicalness’ of a certain matters, but to better tackle these situations, an organization need some sort of
elements to rely upon to help the organization to develop and sustain an ethical culture.
1. FIRST PILLAR – CORE ETHICAL VALUES
A firm must at all cost have the following ethical elements to begin with: Trustworthiness, Respect
for one another, Responsibility and Accountability, Fairness and Equality, Caring and Sensitivity
towards others, and lastly Citizenship which involved obeying the laws, assisting the community and
protecting the environment.
Irrespective if the above mentioned core ethical values helps towards a business’s profit generation
or not, they should be a critical part of that organization and it’s culture. These elements should be
infused into the following aspects of a business:
a. Policies – Ethical values should be made clear in an organization’s policies.
b. Processes – Infusing the processes with the ethical values make sure that they are acted
upon regularly and help become the norm of the organization. The ethical values should also
be a crucial part in the orientation of new employees to make sure that every new employee
understands them and know that they have to come to terms with those values if they want
to thrive in that organization.
c. Practice – if a firm claims and writes its ethical values on the wall, it should also lead by
example and show that it adheres to it strictly.
2. SECOND PILLAR – FORMAL ETHICS PROGRAM:
There should be formal ethics training programs within an organization to make sure that the entire
organization focuses on these core elements while at the same time, the managers can
communicate the information about any ethical dilemmas they faced and how they resolved them
to their subordinates to increase the overall experience and knowledge of the organization.
Knowledge transfer and frequency of these kinds of knowledge transfer strengthen the ethical
culture inside an organization.
3. THIRD PILLAR – ETHICAL LEADERSHIP:
The first two pillars are important basis of the ethical culture, but the most important piece of the
puzzle is the leadership being ethical in the first place. Even if an organization has a formal ethics
program, and its core ethical values plastered all over the walls of the office, if the organization is
lacking ethical leadership, it will just not work as it is supposed to.
The people at the top of the organization need to take ethical cornerstones very seriously, and
unless they don’t, the employees acting their subordinates will not pay too much attention to them.
One needs to set an example to make sure that the benchmarks and standards are set for ethical
conduct. The ethical values of an organization, must at all times and cost, take priority over all the
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decisions of the leadership to emphasize the weight of those values. If they are not emphasized,
they will quickly lose value and become hollow.
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ARTICLE 08 - A TALE OF TWO MORALITIES
What is under-invoicing?
When a product is being imported, the value of the said product is reduced on the invoice so that
the tax would be paid a lot less as compared if it was mentioned correctly.
For people who want to do an import export business, this is an ethical dilemma as to if the decide to shun
this, they would be out of the market since their products would be more expensive when compared to the
market.
But a bigger question arises, that should one do it because everyone is doing it (and go with the flow) or step
in to start a change, set an example and make others consider their decisions. It is a lot easier said than
done.
Legal implications aside, the issue is that if all the rules and regulations are followed, the cost of the business
will be so great that by the time a product gets to a market, it cannot be sold even for a breakeven since the
cost to bring a product to a market is severely high. But on the other hand, if the taxes are casually skipped,
everyone goes home happy and with money in their pockets.
The ethical dilemma can be solved by a single statement: If something is wrong, trying to justify it to make it
seem right is not going to make it right. If a business model in a country is not being run correctly, there are
two choices:
1. Set an example by creating a model that works and ask others to follow it.
OR
2. Select another business that use the same skillset (or somewhat modified ones) where a person
does not have to do so much wrong.
Based on the person’s personality, he/she can opt for any one of these, if they think that their efforts are
good enough to put a dent in the world.
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ARTICLE 09 - CHANGE THROUGH PERSUASION
This article revolves around the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) in Boston, and how CEO Paul
Levy managed to breathed new life into a failing hospital. This article takes us through four phases that
occurred in the timeline of BIDMC from a failure to an established institute.
1. SETTING THE STAGE FOR ACCEPTANCE
Paul Levy was not a doctor; thus, he wasn’t the kind of person who one would imagine being a CEO
of a hospital and a medical center. And especially BIDMC who was a merger of two hospitals Beth
Israel and Deaconess, where the merging of both the renowned medical institutes was the source of
the issue. BIDMC was losing 50 million every year due to inefficiencies in its operating procedures
and lack of focus on backroom integration (how activities run that are crucial to the organization,
but cannot be seen by most).
What Paul Levy did was that when he was successfully hired as the CEO of BIDMC, he made sure that
the board of directors understood that they would have to give him autonomy and hence cannot
interfere in day to day operations.
So, on the first day of the job, he sent out an email to everyone of the staff but structured it so that
he would praise everyone and the institute to soften the blow, and then shifted to the harsh reality
that to recover and get back BIDMC to its glory this is the last chance and need to count otherwise it
would have to be sold since it was close to bankruptcy. He then shifted to the subject signaling that
there would be changed which included the change in the staff but he would try his level best to
make sure that everyone can reach him by lunching with the staff and having direct conversations
everywhere with the staff to learn about their concerns directly from them.
After the Hunter Report (an audit report of the hospital) was published and made public by Paul
himself, he started receiving a lot of emails with suggestions and improvement since the veil of
ignorance was lifted from the staff. The staff now knew that things were worse that what they
expected and a change is necessary to make sure they survive.
2. FRAME THE TURNAROUND PLAN
Now that knew that there was a problem, a leader (Paul Levy) in this case knew that the change that
will be coming will be drastic and complicated to understand. Hence, he ‘framed’ the changeover
plan in more common legible terms to make sure that the plan was well communicated to everyone
at BIDMC and everyone understood it perfectly. For this purpose, Paul chose to email a very detailed
memo comprised of hundreds of pages, further divided into sub sections to make sure that everyone
can go through it and understand it. Once all the employees were on the same boat, Paul knew that
he was successful in convincing them that it was now their plan and the email memo was used as a
reference in meetings as well as presentations to make sure that everyone knew that things are
changing.
3. MANAGE THE MOOD
The issue with turnarounds is that whenever it takes place, it is a deeply depressing event. Friends
see friends leave and it is a morale hit on an organization. This also makes the same organization
very sensitive and one wrong move can make or break it – the organization needs to know that their
sacrifices were not in vain and at the end of the road, there will be a reward for everyone involved in
this.
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What Paul Levy did was first he gave the employees a moment of respite, to make sure that they
grieved for the loss of their friends since grieving is a part of the healing process. He then asked
them and reassured them to look forward to the future and make sure that they do not stop working
towards the goal that has been set. And finally, he made sure by showing everyone that the
turnaround of the organization has started to bear fruits and hence he did it by showing them the
numbers. The financial numbers were way ahead of the expected results and this brought new life
into the morale of the remainder workforce and made them realize that the plan to reshape the
organization, to make it better is working and thriving.
4. PREVENT BACKSLIDING AND REINFORCING GOOD HABITS.
Backsliding into the old system is by far the greatest challenge of any leader heading any
organization, and needs a huge magnitude of effort to make sure that firstly it doesn’t return back to
where it was otherwise all the efforts to this point have been wasted, and secondly to get back to
the same point in time before the backsliding occurred would take a lot more time and a lot more
energy.
Hence, Paul Levy decided to make a general guideline and give autonomy to the heads of the
respective departments. And to make sure that rules are diligently followed, he even publicly
criticized a fellow chief of a department held his views during a meeting and approached Paul in
solitary to discuss it. This made sure that it set an example that whatever happens, the guidelines
are to be followed by everyone and no one is exempt from not following it.
He also noted that there are some people in every organization that fail to work cooperatively, and
these guidelines were set to make sure to allow a ‘grace period’ to help people find and hone their
abilities as per the standards being set.
Paul Levy also thought of himself as an appeals courts, so if the administration below him cannot
resolve a matter, it would be sent to him to decide upon, hence making the departments below him
autonomous and giving them free will to make decisions and run their department, but always
sticking the guidelines. In this way, Paul encouraged debate and settlement of matters to make sure
that employees can work out their problems by their own.
Based on this, Paul Levy knew that he had to prepare an organization for change, and then act upon that
change slowly and with a steady pace. If it was thrusted upon them, it will almost always fail to work out
since organizations cannot and will not change impromptu. And for that, the tool he used was PERSUATION.
He persuaded everyone that a change was a necessity at this point otherwise everyone will be out of a job
compared to the few that need to be let go. He also knew that during when the change is taking place, he
needed to a make sure that firstly it moves forward to its final destination and secondly and more
importantly, it will not go back from where it came from – square one.
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ARTICLE 10 - THE PERILS AND PITFALL OF LEADING CHANGE
Daniel Oliveira – was a young store manager who had a thirst for challenge, and was a part of very
respectable company ‘Clothes & Accessories’.
Brazil – Was an emerging economy, where there is a tendency to transform the middle or lower middle
classes to the upper class.
Q1 – Was Daniel Oliveira ready for the job or not?
There is a difference between a leader and manager. And people have to choose their roles and techniques
to tackle those issues. Yes, Daniel Oliveira was ready for the job as a manager, but as a leader he
underperformed.
Q2 – Why Daniel Oliveira was asked to talk to Douglas Fischer?
So that in the end would fail (in a good way) and emerge as a leader. A shock is necessary to make sure that
a person who has the seed of leadership embedded inside him/her to emerge and bear fruit.
Q3 – What changes should be implemented & how?
- Why is Sara leaving the company? She is the best resource of information of telling Daniel Oliveira
what is actually wrong and what did she do in order to resolve them?
- What are the staff’s actual needs and are they being fulfilled?
- Daniel Oliveira should have implemented the ‘I & We’ culture instead of the ‘You’ culture. He should
have taken ownership of the issues that that store was facing and should have properly sat down
with the employees and should have taken their input on how to solve them.
KOTTER’S 8 STEP PROCESS TO CHANGE:
1. Establish a sense of urgency.
2. Create a guiding coalition to identify a broker in
the situation.
3. Develop a changed Vision, which should be much
better when compared to the current one.
4. Communicate the vision well for the buy in.
5. Empower broad based actions to make sure to
enable progress to remove the barriers.
6. Generate short term winds. This will help in
keeping employees highly motivated.
7. Never Let Up – never relax since real change
requires a lot of patience.
8. Incorporate changes in the culture. If it is a part
of their culture, t will free the change in place.
Q4 – Why did Prado not fire Daniel Oliveira after the issues?
Prado knew that Daniel Oliveira was given a much more difficult store. He was a good performer in other
stores and he also knew that the core values of the store were that leaders should learn from their mistakes.
Q5 – What should Daniel Oliveira do now?
He should be more people forward than being operation focused. He needs people to understand the issue
first while at the same time he needs to earn their trust. If people still do not listen, he then should fire those
people and replace them. Debate the issue till everyone in that store can comment on it.
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ARTICLE 11 - WHAT LEADERS REALLY DO
MYTHS ABOUT LEADERSHIP:
-
‘A leader should be mystical and mysterious.’
Leadership has nothing to do with either of these properties. Anyone can be a leader.
LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT:
-
These are two different, distinctive and complimentary actions.
Most organizations have the issue that it has a huge management but are very low on leadership.
Red Challenge is to combine the strong leadership with strong management.
Management is there to tackle the completion so modern-day business especially in complex
enterprises and to cope up with their complexities.
Good management’s duty is to bring order to all their complexities.
The leadership in a business is there to deal with change.
SETTING THE DIRECTION:
-
is the job of the Leader towards the company’s VISION.
Management will manage the resources in order to achieve this and the leader will see how to
dispense them.
Leadership also motivates and improves the personal to commit to the change.
Most frequent mistake is that they accept long term planning a s away to plan. But they have to
insert short term strategy to make it work.
ALIGNING PEOPLE VS. ORGANIZING AND STAFFING:
-
Aligning the people is the leader’s role.
Organizing and staffing is the manager’s role.
Managers create/organize the workforces and implement systems that monitor them.
Leaders involves communication and communicating with everyone in order to get a people to
comprehend and implement changed.
Aligning people means communicating with staff, managers till the end consumers; aligning different
stakeholders to help/block the implementation of the vison/missing.
Getting people to believe the message - Credibility and Track Record of the message and the content
of the message being delivered AND reputation and consistency between actions and words.
MOTIVATING PEOPLE VS. PROBLEM SOLVING”
-
When there is deviation from the main KPIs.
People respond to motivation to achieve thee organizational vision, instead of using control
mechanisms.
Articulate the vision in such a manner that emphasized on the core values of the employees and is
identical to their core values.
Provide the employees with training and a role model for everyone below.
Rules should be the same for the leader and the employees.
Motivated employees own a company’s vision.
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CREATING A CULTURE OF LEADERSHIP:
-
-
There is a lot of enthusiasm early in the career of people.
These enable people to make mistakes and harm from them.
When career broadens, those skills and knowledge gained from these jobs make that person a good
leader -> complete leader.
When people get opportunities like these, the relationships that are built also help recreate the
strong informal network needed to support multiple leadership initiatives.
Promoting Vertical Growth + Horizontal Growth.
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