watching movies?

La Vita e Bella- "Life is Beautiful" amazing movie! Why didn't I think of it for IM2?!?!

In light of our talk about movies and then the final class on leadership, I began to think about the movie I chose for IM2 and the main point of the film which I managed to only skim over in my analysis of it. Feinberg claims that one of the greatest leadership films of all time is The Wizard of Oz. I found it interesting that one of the core underlying themes Girl, Interrupted parallelled Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, incorporating many references to the theme. Suzanna, like Dorothy, was stuck in a place she did not to be and trying to get home unbeknownst to her that the power to leave was in her all along.

Decision-Making

The leader must proactively seek out the expert in the group and bring them forward to make the decision. Ideally, a group decision should be better than an individual decision because there is a greater chance of expertise among a pool of individuals. But just because there are more sources from which to draw solutions, that does not mean all members should be included in the decision-making--only those who can offer the best possible solution. There were people in our group that knew more about the survival situation than the rest of us but they were not influential or did not come forth, and the group leader was not able to help them do so.

Tom Peters

Carrigan doesn't make the product...she creates an Environment in which those who do make the product can do so effectively and with a sense of responsibility and pride. She promotes accountability by empowering workers with a feeling of ownership of their jobs. The clip demonstrates something that Kirk Weisler talked a lot about: engagement. Carrigan engaged workers in an otherwise monotonous job by talking to them and making them feel important and appreciated. It also shows that treating your employees well isn't just a nice thing to do, it actually produces results. Carrigan turned a failing auto plant into a successful one; just by opening up the communication and regularly talking to the workers, she instilled motivation in them. She showed them respect and in turn earned their respect.

Creating a vision and achieving goals

Reflecting on the 3-17 lecture and video clips

The Made cheerleader clip shows how a unique combination of goal-setting, perseverance, and excellent resources can make just about anything possible. While having 2 out of 3 of this factors could certainly get you close to the finish line, having all of three of them will get you there almost every time. If you have excellent resources and clearly defined goals but no perseverance, how can you possibly maximize those resources to achieve your goals? If you have clear goals and a strong drive to reach them, but no resources, you could be in for a long uphill struggle on your own--which could eventually leave you frustrated, burnt out, or in despair. Finally, if you have helpful resources, plenty of energy to persevere, but no focus or direction, how will you know when you've achieved anything?

Everyone has a choice. You can either take control of your life and self despite your situation, or you can be a victim of circumstance. You can either defy expectations or fulfill them. Murry did not waste time feeling sorry for herself. She was accustomed to taking anything that came her way--food, a piece of clothing--and transforming it into something useful. She also applied this mentality to her emotions: any emotion that was not useful was either discarded or channeled into something that was. She is one of those people who truly believes that every day is fresh start and a chance to turn it all around. Many people say that, but few of them actually believe in it. It sounds so simple and easy at first...then you start thinking about long chain of yesterdays that have all been added up to put you where you are today, all the mistakes that you may have to undo in order to move forward, and suddenly, turning it all around doesn't sound so easy. It sounds like a whole lot of effort, and for many, it sounds virtually impossible. After considering the amount of effort it would require to change things, many people decide just to sink back into mediocrity and leave things the way they are rather than seize the opportunity to better their situation. When you think of it that way, it makes a lot more sense why so many people choose to settle for mediocrity or worse day in and day out.

Either a pat on the back, or a kick in the butt--whatever it takes to motivate you.

Expectations

I found this when I was doing some job research and thought it reflected some things we have been talking about in class...

At Arcadia we are clear about talent, its importance to us, and how we define it. From experience we know that talented people who have what it takes to progress have a few things in common:

Awareness – they are self-aware and are tuned in to the commercial and people environment around them

Energy – they have the vision and drive to enable themselves and their teams to achieve great things

Judgment – they make sound decisions, balancing intuition with detailed knowledge and facts

Influence – they make things happen by influencing others directly and indirectly

The Arcadia Group does a great job at emphasizing what they think is important, the website is a gold mine for people wanting to know exactly what it takes to succeed at Arcadia. They make sure that it is no secret what they expect from employees and what their criteria for excellence is. It's no wonder why the Arcadia Group is such a success and a leading retailer in the UK; they recognize and promote leadership and thereby becoming a leader in the industry.

http://www.arcadiagroup.co.uk/careers/working/talent.html

Under "Working for the Arcadia Group," the essence, vision, and ideals of Arcadia are reiterated in each section: Culture, Values, Our People, Talent, Environment, Development, Rewards and Benefits, Career Progression.

If you don't know inside and out what Arcadia stands for after perusing this website, you are a complete idiot. It may seem like beating a dead horse, but Arcadia really drives the point home and that's the way it should be. What if all organizations could be this clear about their goals, values, expectations? Expectations are all about Consistency and Persistency: consistency in the message and persistently repeating and reinforcing it. Arcadia gets an A+.

Time Management

Time managment is one of those things that crack me up. Most of the time it seems like I don't have the time to sit down and decide what I have to do before I actually do it. The thought of taking the time to compile a list of things all the things I need to do, prioritizing that list, revising that list, and then systematically chopping off the bottom 5 or so, just seems so...time-consuming!! But strategically managing one's time is nonetheless important, and prioritizing is the essential part of strategic time management.

Taking that 20 minutes at the beginning of every day to figure out a plan of action for that day is so much better than haphazardly doing the first thing that comes to mind at any given moment or trying to do everything at once. Planning is the key to effectiveness and preparation is everything. It's fair to say that sometimes it's not always easy what to put at the top of the list; prioritizing is definitely one of the most challenging aspects of time management. I tend to follow a criteria of Deadline, Importance, and Location. (Location is important to me because I don't have a car and traveling takes up a lot of my time)

Since our discussion on time management I have become increasingly conscious of how I spend (and waste) time. I've noticed that I spend a ridiculous amount of time looking for things. The amount of time and energy I waste stressing out over misplaced or forgotten objects tells me I should be more organized. Being organized saves time.

One point that Feinberg brought up is why we should manage our time. If we plan our day carefully we get more done, and when we get things done we feel good. It all boils down to this: time management is rewarding.

Kirk

Kirk was an enlightening speaker and stimulated some very pivotal thoughts for me about leadership. One thing that he kept saying which stuck in my mind: "The bar is so low!" It only takes such a very tiny bit extra to elevate one to remarkable-leader status because expectations are just that low. Kirk had a lot to say and a lot of different ways to say it--stories, examples, catch-phrases--but all these revolved around a few key themes. A few of the things that Kirk liked to talk about were remarkability, visibility, and engagement.

Memo results

I just want everyone to know that I got a 220 out of 200 on the first individual memo. End of Brag-fest.

Importance of Writing/Exam

Let me just begin by recapping this weeks leadership experiences (for my own sake):
On Monday we received feedback on our individual memo's, which was probably for the benefit of writing the next memo. I only hope that we get the results back before the group memo is due so I can see if I'm on the right track.

Our discussion on Monday caused me to lend some extra thought to the idea of writing. Writing is important--why? Because problem solving is important and writing is problem-solving. The best writers are excellent problem solvers. They masterfully use the tools of rhetoric and an expansive vocabulary to express complex and abstract ideas in a way clear, concise manner for others to read and comprehend. All skillful problem-solvers are also creative, just as good writers are creative. They seek innovative solutions to problems and approach writing using creativity and originality to express ideas in a unique way. Take the author's use of the word "scourged" in the paper and the reaction it ellicited from the reader who would have never thought to use the word in that context. Colorful, creative, unique, surprising. These are all words we want our writing to be described with.

Wednesday was the test. Reading the book, understanding the book, and analyzing and thinking about the book did NOT help me on the test. I would have done much better just to have memorized all the headings and subheadings in the book. But I thought since it was an essay test, mastering the concepts and the spirit of the word was far more important than memorizing the letter of the word. However, that wasn't really the main problem. The main problem was time; and with lack of time, pressure. The test was impossible to complete to a satisfactory degree in the allotted time. But I suppose the point of the test was just to make yet another point. What exactly that particular point is, I am not even going to venture to guess at this moment as I am sure Feinberg will go through it next class. I know he was dropping hints all about it last week.

Finger trap---> Vision.

Just when I think I know it all, Feinberg comes out with some new idea that, for some reason, would never occur to me no matter how painfully obvious it seems. How is there really so much to leadership? I used to think it was all just common sense but it is amazing how much goes right past me. Tonight with the finger trap activity, I thought "Oh here we go, do we really need to drag it out?" I thought the point was obvious from the get-go, simply that all it takes is one weak link to bring down the whole organization or something like that. Wrong! The point was vision: have it, see it, make others believe in it. So I was a little off. Just how off I was became clear to me when we watched the Covey clip. I don't know if I was even lucky enough to graze the tip of the iceberg with my premature assumptions of what direction the lecture was headed in. I knew the Covey stuff was important on Monday (I wrote it down the first time), but I didn't see how real these guidelines are, to me they were just another abstract theory.

Here is what I wrote down in class on Monday from the short clip that watched on Covey's four steps to effective leadership that apply to everyone in an organization:
1. Know the goals
2. Be passionate about the goals
3. Spend time on the goals
4. Understand how to achieve the goals (know your role)

First you must communicate what the important goals of the organization are (you can't have too many goals), the leaders must be clear and then they must overcommunicate what those goals are. The top priorities of the organization are often widely undercommunicated. Once people know the goals they must then be passionate about them (create ownership, involvement, and commitment). Finally, once the members of the organization know and are passionate about the goal, they must understand their roles in achieving the goal (what they need to reach it) and then use their time accordingly. Do their actions work toward achieving the goal? Are their actions relevant to the big picture of the vision for the organization?

This section on organizational goals relates back to what we discussed on organizational values. In this age of market saturation and extreme competition, I think that organizational values have become increasingly important in distinguishing one company from the next. The textbook provides empirical evidence that companies with clearly defined values and direction perform better than those who don't have such a clearly set path or vision. Companies exert more effort to express their values as a part of their image to the public. When I think of where I currently work or companies that I hope to work for in the future, they all try to communicate some sort of message to their employees and to the public. Just looking at some of their websites, it is clear to me what they stand for:

http://www.arcadiagroup.co.uk/careers/working/index.html

http://www.arcadiagroup.co.uk/responsibilities/index.html

http://www.monsoon.co.uk/page/culture

http://www.monsoon.co.uk/pcat/cultureandcommitment

http://www.gapinc.com/public/Careers/car_culture.shtml

http://www.gapinc.com/public/SocialResponsibility/socialres.shtml

Although each company uses some of the same words, each one communicates a separate and distinct message to set itself apart from the others. The focus differs tremendously--for example, Arcadia is commercial-driven whereas Monsoon is people-driven. It is good to know what an organization's values are, especially when looking for employment. As we mentioned in class, you either need to find a company whose values reflect your own, or change your values to reflect the companies. Either way researching company values is a critical step to take before even considering an interview.

Cohesiveness and Goals

Tonight we discussed the importance of cohesion, ways to promote it, and working towards goals as leaders and followers together. As one of the most seemingly obvious commodities of leadership, it is surprising how often it is overlooked. We were so stumped as to why we couldn't overcome the challenge of the second day of class as well as why we failed the tower challenge (and looking back we did in fact fail at that challenge, not even coming close to success). We came up with a plethora of reasons for our inadequacy in these challenges (lack of time, poor instructions, bad leadership, unwilling participants, etc. etc. etc.) and really what it all boils down to is cohesiveness. The answer was right there in front of us all along. On the first day of class we didn't have a goal and if we did, it varied so drastically from person to person that we were all going in a hundred different directions. There was no common purpose for us to achieve, except perhaps the assignment which was to observe and learn from leadership in the here and now. And we accomplished that, although inadvertently through some kind of Catch 22 (I can't really explain this without thoroughly confusing myself so I just won't go there). In contrast, with the tower building exercise, we did have a fairly defined goal but we were unable to coordinate our efforts effectively as a group. What we lacked in both cases is solidarity, or cohesion.

Cohesiveness is not just about getting along (although that definitely helps) it is about having the same goals! Take that a step further and it becomes about taking complementary actions towards those same goals and working together as one goal-reaching machine. The steps we take as individuals towards our group goal must be synchronized with other group members' actions so that we are all one the same track working toward the same goal. This was not the case during the tower building exercise. While we all knew our goal, our individual roles in achieving that goal as part of a group were not clearly defined. I found myself running around trying to help, but only found myself getting in the way until eventually I gave up. I felt helpless and I'm sure other members of my group felt the same.

I would like to revisit the point of having shared purpose because this is something that we talked about extensively last night and I feel that it is important. Feinberg demonstrated how drastically our goals for the class may differ from person to person. From his standpoint of instructor he would like to teach us to be better leaders--that is his goal. For the group leaders it might be for all of their members to come to class or to get an A. Then, as individuals, we may be satisfied with just passing the class while others such as myself hope to get something out of the class and in the process, earn an A. This presents leaders with the huge challenge of trying to meet all of these distinct needs and goals while trying to achieve their own.

Self-entitlement

Last night we touched on the issue of self-entitlement. I was initially a little surprised at the approach that Feinberg took on the matter and its contrast to what I have learned in the past. Last semester I took Human Development with Dr. Calahan who made an observation about self-entitlement from a sociological standpoint. First, he had us take a survey asking us questions like what we thought we deserved in life in general and what grades we deserved in the class, and how we rated ourselves as far as intelligence and performance. He said that studies have shown a high level of self-entitlement in our generation and he has been conducting surveys to test this over the past several semesters. The results always came back with a substantially higher proportion of students who considered themselves above average and who deserved A's in the class compared to the percentage who actually got A's at the end of the semester.

To me, this is not surprising. We have it drilled into our heads from birth that we are special and we deserve nothing but the best and idea usually encouraged by our parents and family members. I even read an article that admonished the Mr. Rogers children's program for teaching kids very early on "you are special just the way you are" implying that you don't have to do anything to be special. This might be a little extreme but it makes a very valid point. I've seen people get really pissed off when they don't get what they think they deserve and sometimes their behavior can be truly appalling.

In contrast, the other side of the self-entitlement says that we need more of it: people need to throw the old values of kindness and fairness out the window and start being more assertive. I was a little disturbed last night when Feinberg reiterated this viewpoint that I would typically expect from some merciless power-hungry hotshot in a suit who wouldn't hesitate to step on as many people as necessary in his climb to the top of the corporate ladder. I think about reality TV shows and the kind of over-confident, self-entitled people that are on them, and the clips that I've watched for this class such as the Southwest Airlines one. I think to myself, "there's no need to tell these people that they need to be more assertive and less polite."

But this message is a tricky one to deal with. You've got people in the class who could do with less and people who could do with more. The key is do you DESERVE it? And that's the hard part. Of course, the ones with low self-entitlement are going to say, "No, I could be doing better, I'm not working hard enough." They have no confidence, what do you expect them to say? On the other hand, the ones with an excess of it are going to say "Hell yeah I deserve it, I'm God's gift to mankind." Also the message is quite gender biased. I agree that a lot of women could do with being more assertive. Men would probably be fine without it.

Branding

This entry is in response to the podcast on Brand You. As a retail management student with a fair amount of background in marketing, branding is a concept that I understand pretty well. Products are branded to keep them from being generic, to stand out against the competition, to distinguish them as something that is unique and unable to be easily substituted or replaced. A brand offers a consumer a unique benefit beyond what is offered by similar products. It is an image and an entire package that translates into the value of the product offering. What a perfect way to describe a person as a candidate for a job, a promotion, or even for a friendship or serious relationship. You "sell" yourself on a regular basis. When you meet a new person, what motivates them to want to establish a friendship with you, what do you have to offer them? Is it your sense of humor, your confidence, your good looks, your kindness and generosity?

My goal over the course of this semester is to find out more about the corporate culture of the companies where I would like to apply so that I can see how my brand is aligned with what they value or if I need to alter it. Currently I would brand myself as highly creative and innovative, adaptive, very outside-the-box and open to new ideas, unfamiliar situations, taking risks, and eager to learn. In my opinion, these attributes would be valuable to any organization but as I have said before, these attributes are not enough on their own. I need to portray them through my actions and my ability to communicate them to my potential employer with examples from my past. That goes back to the lecture about having a story and my last blog entry. My first blog entry was in essence a story demonstrating my past leadership accomplishments. But I need to adapt it to make it more meaningful to my employer and find out what is important to them and explain how I fit the bill with "The Story."

Communication

One of the first lessons I learned in this class was that leaders are people who get things done; they don't just talk, they ACT. But that doesn't mean words aren't important. When the book talks about leaders giving voice to values, good communication skills become critical. One must be able to rally people around a cause and articulate meaning to that cause so that people can make it their own.

But this doesn't just apply to the grand scale of leadership, it applies to leadership on an individual level as well. In class we talked about interviews and more importantly what we say during them. You have 30 minutes to leave a lasting impression on your interviewer, what can you say to make them remember you? It's surely not enough to just rattle off some generic adjectives that they've heard a hundred times before. Save it for your resume; the interview your little window of opportunity to paint a picture of who you are to the person who may be hiring you. Communication is dire here. What good are my accomplishments if I cannot communicate what I've done to other people? It's not enough to say I'm a good problem solver or that I'm creative. I need a story to support these statements, I need to back it up with hard evidence--or at least something believable that illustrates what I mean by such broad and generic terms as "creative" and "pragmatic."

From my experience of interviews in the past, I know that many times the interviewer may give you an opportunity for such a story. Questions that stand out in my mind are "Tell me about a time when you did something special for a customer," or "Tell me about a time that you accomplished something that made you proud" or something along these lines. The problem is the story that you have prepared may not have anything to do with the question they ask you, in which case you can either think fast and improvise completely or try to adapt your story to answer the question. Feinberg talked about making an opportunity to tell your story if you need to, which may be necessary in this case. If they don't ask you about your story, you need to find a way to tell them anyway! I think one way to prevent such a situation is to find out what the organization values most. The first question that I mentioned above was from my interview at Gap. Gap is a very customer-service oriented company and that is a huge organizational value for them so it makes sense that they would ask me a question like that, and luckily I had a suitable story prepared.

But I am not always so lucky, and I tend to strike out more often then not. I bombed my Macy's interview, and my Target one (even thought I still got the job) because of my inability to communicate effectively and express myself as a valuable asset to their company. Last blog, I talked about self-improvement and acknowledging one's own shortcomings and then working to improve them. One of my biggest shortcomings is communication. The lack of eloquence is detrimental to success in the real world and is a major barrier to me becoming a good leader of myself and others.

Edge

Last night we talked about competitive advantage. What do we have that makes us special? And more importantly can we communicate that to someone else if presented the opportunity? And maybe even more importantly, can we make that opportunity occur? You can make that opportunity more likely to occur by being persistent, putting yourself out there, and improving yourself to make yourself more desireable to an organization--build up that resume and get it out there for everyone to see. But once you've got your foot in the door, what about the rest of you? And what about the next door, and the door after that? You have to go through a series of doors to actually be where you want to be.

Doorway 1: The human resources robot filters resumes and allows yours to come through.
Doorway 2: A person reads it and doesn't throw it away.
Doorway 3: Someone else reads it and still doesn't throw it away.
Doorway 4: Someone else reads it and invites you for an interview.
Doorway 5: You get to the interview and they don't send you away immediately.
Doorway 6: You're in the interview and they ask you about yourself.

So you need to have something prepared for that little window of opportunity. I have a competitive advantage and disadvantage at the same time. I am an American who will be applying for a job in a foreign country. The good side is that I stand out from other applicants. The bad side is that many of my accomplishments may be unfamiliar to people outside of the United States. For instance, ask anyone in Europe if they've ever heard of Purdue University? My GPA means nothing over there, the average person on the street wouldn't know what it is. I may also have to combat negative stereotypes. So I am mostly at a disadvantage here, for which I must compensate even more. The fact that I cannot just talk about what I've done in the past and expect them to be impressed, makes this a real challenge. I will have to rely solely on my ability to exude character and confidence, which so far, isn't that great.

Self-improvement

Recognizing and accepting one's own shortcomings and compensating for them is a sign of good leadership. Take, for instance, the story of Dr. Goodspeed and his owner's manual from Assignment 3. What started out as an attempt to find a capable someone to fill a position by giving them tips on "how to work" the CEO, became an acknowledgement of his own flaws and an opportunity to recieve feedback from collegues and constituents and to improve.

As we discussed in class, you may pre-disposed to certain behaviour, but you can either control that behaviour or let it control you. Self-improvement starts with Self and ends with Improvement, which in fact never ends. What does this mean? It means first you must know your Self and your tendancies, strengths, weaknesses, disposition, etc. Once you know your Self and realize and accept all these things, then you may begin the never-ending process of Improvement.

At this stage in life, many of us (us meaning people my age) are still getting to know our Self. College is an ideal opportunity for this--you can test your strengths and weaknesses and gain a keen insight on the concept of identity. The entire college experience is a self-assessment in a way, in which one can discover potential to change, improve, or compensate for one's own shortcomings.

Intention

Leadership is about intentions. On Wednesday the 9th, we had our second class. The purpose of that class was to teach us about the importance of leaders and what it takes to be a leader. During that class, a number of people tried and failed to take on the role of leader. They would stand up and try and give us a reason why we should follow them and why they would make a good leader. All of them failed. The next class, Feinberg talked about one reason this occurred: these people could not convince the rest of us why we should follow them. In other words, they could not establish credibility. Having begun the book for the class and after considering the material discussed in class, I have reached the pivotal conclusion that a good leader must have true intentions...This is not really a pivotal conclusion, it is actually a rather obvious one to most people.

When you think about classic examples of leadership, it's simple. Martin Luther King, Jr. wasn't out to make a name for himself, he was working for a cause. Many people who call themselves leaders are in it for self-gratification as opposed to serving others, bringing about change, or solving problems. They want to "make it" and leading is simply a means to an end, a vehicle to move up the food chain. That is not true leadership. One must be able to convince people that they truly believe in a cause and they're not just in it for the glory. The book talks about qualities that people look for in leaders that they would willingly follow. The key word, it says, is "willingly." One of these traits is honesty. Honesty and integrity are at the root of one's intentions. Someone who lacks these traits will almost certainly be lacking of good intentions which means constituents will not trust them enough to follow them.

Page 6 of the book: "They understood that Dick was there because he wanted to be there, not because it was on some career path to a higher position." When you have admirable intentions, people will follow.

Setting the stage

Feinberg asked us a some questions on the third day of class. Why should I follow you? What have you done with your life so far to show me that you are a good leader? Our first assignment was to find out how many seconds we have left to live, which was meant to make us conscious of the fact that we only have so much time and that it is our job to make the most of it.

As this is my first blog entry, I am going to begin by discussing my experiences in the past and putting them into context of leadership. So far my understanding of leadership is making the most of every single opportunity; in particular, the ultimate and singularly most important opportunity of all: Life.

Life is a wonderful opportunity that each one of us has been privileged to receive and experience, so it is only fair that we cherish it and respect it for the gift that it is. That is, by making the most of it.

So what have I done with my life so far??? I came to Purdue because it was the furthest place away that I could convince my parents of letting me go without stating a particular career path or even what I was going to study. (I am from South Bend, so not very far). Also, my best friend from high school was going to Purdue so I thought that if it was good enough for her, it was good enough for me. Sounded like a good idea at the time. So far, not so good on the leadership.

I messed around for a year at Purdue before realizing I wasn't doing a whole lot with my life, but still not sure what exactly I wanted to do with it. I decided to fall back and re-group. A change would do it; so I changed schools, moved to Fort Wayne, and went part-time at IPFW for a year and worked.

Still not good enough. I was starting to get a vague idea of wanting to make something of myself, but something else needed to be done. Maybe moving to another city in Indiana wasn't a big enough of a change. So I decided to move to London. Not move-move but just sort of go there for a while. I had never lived outside the state of Indiana, let alone outside of the United States. In fact, I had never even been out of the country at that point in time. I applied to an American school in London, one that happened to do a study abroad program with Purdue. This was not a coincidence. It was also not an accident that the classes I took there were ones that were approved by Purdue's CSR department for retail management. I knew I wanted to come back to Purdue eventually, I just wasn't ready. I had to do something first. That is leadership: doing.

By now, it's no secret that I am very proud of myself for this bold move even if it might seem small in the eyes of others. It may not seem like much, but I think it's an okay start for 21 years of age. Of course, I could be doing more. There is always something else you can do to make the most of life.