The Last Post

Finally, I have finished my essay and presentation.
Also, I will apologize that I did my presentation by sitting on a chair because of my injury of my knee.

In the last post of this blog, I would like to briefly summarize what we have learnt through this RW and what I thought about that.

First, we learned about a power posture by thinking about our handshake and how to stand. The three keywords were brief, warm, firm. In addition to handshake, our posture shows the power of us and showing power is very important for leaders. 
Then we learnt about negotiation. We did many practices during class to know how to negotiate and the process to make a win-win outcome. There are lots, but I have learnt that "give things others that you do not need and get things that others do not need", from the orange and snake eggs situation. 
We had a guest lecture, Michelle and we learned our personal negotiation ways by doing an activity which was really interesting to me. By knowing my strengths and weakness, it will be definitely useful for me in the future when there is a circumstance to take leadership.
Also, a lecture from Mr. Kitashiro was interesting, as when I see ATM in the convenience store, I always try to remember the word "明るく　楽しく　前向きに"　（cheerfully, enjoyably. positively）.

About my research paper, I researched about TRUST.
The reason why I chose this topic was because I had interest in the method to gain trust and also I thought it is a topic that will be useful and necessary for our lives. As I think that when there is a group of people, one person will have to take a leadership, and the leader has to gain trust by others, therefore, for leaders, gaining leadership is a necessary thing.


The message that I would like to tell you is that lets build trust by using what we have learnt in this class, Lessons In Leadership and The Dynamic You.

And the phrase that I believe in and want to remember is 
What does not kill us makes us stronger!

Thank you Ken and all of you, I had a really good time studying with you!!

Chapter 10 Tenacious Creativity

Never give up - there's always another move.

Finding creative solutions to daunting problems is a difficult task under the best of circumstances.
"In everyday life, we are seldom surprised when things go wrong."
Rather than expecting things to go right, successful leaders under these conditions should be prepared for things to go wrong.


I think this is a very important strategy because without thinking about another idea, the team cannot move forwards. Therefore I think that when you are stuck with a problem, it is necessary to try to think of a another (new) way to succeed. I always believe that there is a method to success.
When I read this chapter and was thinking of an example which is familiar to us, I came up with an example of mathematics. Even if you cannot get the right answer, the important thing is to not to give up and try thinking the another way to get the correct answer.


you must not give up and struggle to find the correct answer.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZnlB9fG39E  (GET INSPIRED - Never Give Up On Your Goals!)
This movie from the youtube makes us motivate to never give up.
Brian Tracy is a person who I have used a quote in my essay so it was interesting for me that he was saying about "never give up" connecting with the leadership (which is my essay topic).

Chapter 9 Risk

Be willing to take the Big Risk

"Getting out of the zone requires, first, recognizing the danger and, second, taking the risk of doing things differently- of reinventing the business."

"Unnecessary risks should be avoided, but there are times for bold moves. Understand the moves you face and evaluate them carefully."

When we are doing something new, there is always a risk. I think the most thing that makes us willing to take the big risk is courage. With no courage, nobody can challenge new things.
Talking about myself, I have took a big risk.

It was a big decision to make whether to go skiing or not for this week because I have lots of exams and papers to do. If we go skiing this weekend it means that are work plan with get tough and it will be hard for me to catch up with others. When deciding to challenge the risk or avoid the risk, I always choose the way which I will not regret afterwards. This is how I make a decision.

The biggest problem is that now, I am taking the biggest risk.

During the ski this weekend, I got an injury which is a ligament injury (in Japanese"靭帯損傷"). 

I had really fun but at the end, I crashed and got this injury.
I am using crutches to walk and this is really difficult. It is hard to do almost everything and as I have never had this kind of experience. So please help me when you see me in the campus.

What I first thought was about my soccer team. As lots of you know, I love playing soccer and I have always participated the practice and the games. This injury means that I cannot play soccer for a long while. This is a big risk for me, but I am only thinking about the way to recovery and I want to focus on that.

Lessons in Leadership Mr. Kitashiro

The guest lecture on Monday was from Mr. Kitashiro, the Chair of the Board of Trustee, International Christian University and was the Executive Advisor of IBM Japan.


.As the content was similar to my essay topic, and learning practical skills from a real leader, the lecture was really interesting to me.
I learnt many things that I thought I would like to write it down and remember it. So I would like to summarize the lecture in this blog.

three major roles of a leader
1. show the vision, set the goals : make the decision and then moving on. As you show the vision and set a small goal to each big goals, as mentioned in Shackleton, it motivates us to concentrate on that task and makes it possible to be done in a short-term.
2. show the way to realize the vision, execution : the leader itself can be the model of leadership, and tell others what you have to do by first doing it
3. encourage people in the organization : to encourage people you will have to communicate with everybody for example your employees. I was surprised that Mr. Kitashiro said that he talks to all of his employees (though it is not a one-one situation). But when thinking about myself, I thought that as my club has only about 20 people it is possible to talk to everybody in order to build trust.
 

"Be positive"
The word Mr. Kitashiro said was quite shocking for me. and the strongest message I got from Mr. Kitashiro.
The word was "By my failure, the world will not collapse".
I had never thought about that, I thought that my failure is a big problem for me and I will have to try to overcome that failure. Before listening to his lecture, I thought I was quite optimistic but after listening to Mr. Kitashiro I thought I am still thinking things negative and I should think more positive like him.

Another thing I was impressed through his lecture was his word, "People who can do the right things even nobody is looking at you is the person who is good at leadership".
It might be hard to this such thing than just thinking about it. As leaders are always being looked by others, they will have to be careful on their behaviors or attitudes. Although people might want to take a rest and do not do their work all the time, but as a leader that is not allowed. If you are a person who can any work when others are looking at you, you are not a person who takes leadership.

Mr. Kitashiro, thank you for giving us a great lecture!

Conflict Strategy

I would like to introduce my conflict strategies.

 As the results of "How you act in conflicts"
Compromising (31)　→ Problem Solving (29)　→ Forcing (23)→　Smoothing (23)→　Withdrawing (19)

The information if each strategies
compromise: both the goal and the relationship are somewhat important. You are willing to give up part of your goal or sacrifice part of the relationship in order to reach an agreement. You may wish to engage in a problem-solving negotiation but don't have the time.

problem-solving: the goal and the relationship are important. You intiate problem-solving negotiatiors in order to resolve the conflict. You seek solutions that ensure you and the other person fully achieve your goals and resolve any tensions and negative feelings between the two of you.

This analysis was quite true and realistic for myself I think. When conflict situations, I try to compromise and if I know that it is impossible to compromise (which occurs often),  I will then try to solve the problems by using forcing or smoothing.

When talking about compromise, I would like to make a goal but at the same time I do not want to break the relationship. As, the consequence of conflict might conclude to bad relationships with your friends and family. I believe that both are important even though you are in a conflict situation.Though I take care about the relationship, I tend to want to make a solution through the conflict. That is about the problem-solving.

In addition, I would have to sometimes withdraw and try to improve this as it is the lowest score.

I will have to try to avoid conflicts when it has become emotionally, and have to calm down. Since I really get into the conflict, I would not be able to think about others so from now on I would like to try to develop the skills of withdrawing.   

 

Chapter 8 Lighten Up!

Find something to celebrate and something to laugh about.

"In stressful circumstances, when times are grim, celebration is usually the furthest thing from anyone's mind. Under survival conditions, laughter is an unnatural act, and in tough business situations, humor can seem frivolous, inappropriate, or out-of-touch."

Reading this quote from the text, I remembered what I was trying to do when I was in high school. As I was a person that do not like conflict and didn't like people crying or having problems because of that conflict, I tried to encourage them by making them smile (laugh) and lighten up. When I was listening to my friends' talk and counseling them, I tried to be stupid and make them smile so that they can think easy about the problems.Though others might thought of my behavior as I am out-of -touch, I didn't really care about it because I believed that using my humor and then making them smile will lead to a solution in a good way.

I have found a good movie which makes us lighten up!
This movie makes us smile and at the same time for me, it comes to my mind about my childhood. As some knows, and some might not know, I am a twin. According to mu mother, the same things happening in the movie also happened to myself (ourselves). We used to talk in our language that nobody except ourselves could understand just as the movie. We even fighted in that language and also laughed at the same time. It is really strange but it seems that the conversation is established.
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfLPEUFGKMg

Chapter 7 Conflict

Master conflict- deal with anger in small doses, engage dissidents, and avoid needless power struggles.

Conflict: The very mention of the word can raise feelings of anxiety. It comes in many forms: direct arguments, disagreements, sabotage, and passive aggression. Though conflict can mean decreased productivity, increased stress, wasted energy, and diminished problem-solving ability, it can also result in an unhappy workplace, loss of revenue, vulnerability to competition, and ultimately, organizational death.


Conflict and lack of unity had destroyed the ability of the team to function at the edge. IN difficult leadership situations, we are often tempted to ignore or isolate individuals whose personalities rub us the wrong way or who have a knack for stirring up trouble. While this is an understandable reaction, it is the wrong one. It only creates space for further problems, and rejecting dissidents is ultimately detrimental to the organization. A more productive response- however counterintuitive it may seem- requires doing the opposite.  

It is vital to decide which battles are worth fighting and which are not. The battles worth fighting should be engaged with all available resources, those not central to your mission should be let go. 
About this part, I thought that is close to the negotiation styles "avoiding". To make a decision of whether the battle, negotiation is worth or just a waste of time is necessary for a leader to success.