Leading in changing world from my own perspective.

After 10 weeks entirely engaging the basis of knowledge regarding ‘Leading in a changing world’ in my MBA class with the really supportive and motivated tutor – James, my vision about leadership and the hidden association between them has been revealed. Based on my own perspective and my desire long term goals, I find this subject one of the most interesting things I have explored ever. From the 4 previous blogs, it can be believed that, it is important not just for my chosen future industry – fashion/garment industry but the others industries to understand firstly the concept of leader, ethical leadership and the possible impacts on organization (Ethical system, N/D). After that, the two theories of ethical leadership as: Deontological (Act Consequentialism) and Teleological (Consequentialism) (BBC, 2016) and the concept of 4V model are of equal importance (My 1^st blog). The difference between leadership and management should not also be overlooked as mentioned in my 3^rd blog.

Management	Leadership
Managers do thing right	Leaders do the right things
Managing is an authority relationship	Leading is an influence relationship
Managing creates stability	Leading creates changes

(Figure 01 – Mullins, 2016)

Furthermore, as the prevalence growth of global economy today, it paves the way for the higher requirement for the leader/manager as they should be well prepared regarding tackling for the fundamental issues as be presented in the table (Figure 02) below through the flow of my blogs:

Blog themes	No.
Managing diverse team	2nd blog
The importance of understanding the organizational culture in leading and managing (diverse perspective: leader/manager)	3rd blog
How to apply the change management model and the possible theories to tackle with changes and resistance of change in the organization in the most effective way	4th blog

(Figure 02 – Blog themes summary)

This 5^th blog states my clear vision as: there are not any ideal role models for leadership, especially in the changing world like this with the increase in a number of unexpected problems regarding economy, culture, human-being behavioral changes, politic, and environment. Hence, personally, I think I would like to be led by the leader who not only has the good knowledge based about the industry but also can be flexible and quickly react in the wise ways with the forthcoming unknown issues because each organization will have their own nature, and each problem should have its own solutions as the diverse components included. Furthermore, it also should be put into ethical consideration as part of human-beings manner and morality perspective.

Through my studying and exploring during the seminar and lecture classes this term, one of the leaders who inspired and motivated me the most is the young-lazy man Ricardo with his further successful on the rare organizational structure as known as not likely having any consistent structure which emphasizes the most on democracy and the own value of each different person. (Figure 03 – Semco case study, 2016)

(Figure 03 – Semco case study, 2016)

Lastly, the great ideal as the equal opportunities for every one in each group in seminar class to take the leadership responsibility for one week for our own team and get feedback from the peers later has brought me a number of valuable experiences and significant advices from my group mates (based on 6 fundamental factors). Overall, I got the pretty good feedbacks from 4 people said that I did set clear purpose for them to understand the structured plan to get the task done and give them the best position and option based on their own value. However, from the other element, 3 people reported that I did not give them the support and praise at the right time which makes them feel less motivated and useless at some points. (Figure 04)

Primary measured elements	Number of people gave the good feedback	Number of people suggested for further self-development
Explain how your team leader set a clear purpose for you	4	2
Please comment on your team leaders ability to organize your team effectively	4	2
Give an example of how your team leader listened to your views and the views of others	5	1
Give an example of how your team leader praised you for doing a good job	3	3
Give an example of how you felt valued  by your team leader as an important member of the team	3	3
Explain how your team leader influenced and motivated you?	4	2

(Figure 04 – Feedback from my other 6 Dinosaur team members)

During one of the seminars about culture issues in managing the diverse team, when being asked by the teacher do you find any conflicts in your team due to the various background and cultures? We can be proud to say that even we are all from different countries and continents with even diverse background and future goals; we did not find any conflicts regarding those issues. From my point of view, even we do not have any real leader to manage us; we know each person’s own value, beliefs, cultures which can be closely related to the application of  6 Hofstede dimensions national culture (Hofstede, 2017). Hence, we do respect each other and let everyone can do their best in the most adequate ways but still under our own control as setting up our own meeting timetable and some key principles of team working  to ensure work can be done on time.  As an obvious consequence, until now, I am more than clear about leadership concept, the related issues and how to apply it. However, after getting the peers’ feedbacks, I am properly aware that there are still a number of personal skills and further based leadership & business knowledge which require me for better attemption and self-development in order to be an ethical leader in my future career. As a result, I find me highly excited making the summary skill plan (Figure 05) for my further improvement and development which is not just valuable for my leadership skill in next term but also for my forthcoming future career events.

Skills (leadership)	Way to develop	Deadline	The measure	Resources	Possible barriers/limitation
Self-management skill	+ Self-study + Self-research + Self-practice during the academic term and in real life	July 2017	+ Improvement in self-controlling plan for finishing deadlines of the academic term + Improvement in self-controlling the necessary manners in different situations to tackle with problems.	+ Text book + Internet + Lecturer + Professor + Friend	+ Possible limitations come from my  own personalities + Lack of determination + Lack of required knowledge
Problem solving skill	+ Self-study + Self-research + Self-practice during the academic term and in real life	Long term exploring and developing	+ Improvement in the way of thinking in different situations + Improvement in working under high pressure + Improvement in the way tackling with issues, how revealing the problem and plan to break it down.	+ Text book + Internet + Lecturer + Professor + Friend	+ Barriers of my own nature in front of some specified cases + Lack of various types of knowledge + Habit of slow reactions.
Professionalism in academic/business communication	+ Self-study + Self-research + Self-practice during the academic term and in real life and in working place	Dec 2017	+ Improvement in the way communicate with the lecture and the colleagues during the seminar/presentation/internship. + Improvement in the way discussing about business based issues (contracts, deals, negotiations, customer service)	+ Text book + Internet + Lecturer + Professor + Friend + Colleagues	+ Lack of language skills + Lack of the professor in body-language utilizing + Lack of real experience
Professionalism in academic/business writing paper.	+ Self-study + Self-research + Self-practice during the academic term and in working place	Dec 2017	+ Improvement in the way present and dedicate ideas by words with the professional and academic writing style. + Improvement and further development in the way tackling with business documents and how to create them (contracts, mission announcements	+ Text book + Internet + Lecturer + Professor + Friend + Colleagues	+ Lack of language skills + Lack of business based knowledge + Lack of understanding about the official  academic/ business writing style

(Figure 05 – My own progression summary skills plan)

References:

  BBC (2016) ‘Consequentialism.’  [online] Available from: <http://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/introduction/consequentialism_1.shtml> [Accessed 20^th March 2017]

 Belbin (2014) ‘How to build lean Belbin team?’ [pdf] Available from: <http://www.belbin.com/media/1162/belbin-howtobuildleanbelbinteams-july2014.pdf&gt; [Accessed 20^th March 2017]

Ethical system (N/D) Leadership [online] Available from: <http://www.ethicalsystems.org/content/leadership> [Accessed 20^th March 2017].

 Mullins, J., L. (2016) ‘Organizational culture and change.’ In Management & Organizational behavior. London: Pearson, 537-566.

Mullins, J., L. (2016) ‘Leadership in organizations.’ In Management & Organisational behaviour. London: Pearson, 312-313.

Geert Hofstede (2017) ‘National culture.’ [online] Available from: < https://geert-hofstede.com/national-culture.html&gt; [Accessed 20^th March 2017]

 Pillai, D., G. (2017) Leadership and Ethics [lecture] module M005, 23 Jan 2017. Coventry: Coventry University London Campus.

 Terzeon, J. (2017) Organisational culture and leadership [seminar] module M005, 7 Feb 2017. Coventry: Coventry University London Campus.

Webster, M. (N/D) ‘Successful change management – Kotter’s 8-step change model.’ Leadership thoughts [online] Available from: <http://www.leadershipthoughts.com/kotters-8-step-change-model/> [Accessed 15^th  March 2017]