LILTDY ch.6, 7

LILTDY chapter 6 Core Team Values
expedition log
We have a leader in each department, and have three leaders in the top: a president, and two vice president. I think that these leaders are important because each department needs to share the information, and the president needs to see the whole organization from the outside(outside from the departments, and unite them.)
I don't know about my type of leadership, but through the class activities, I was the type to try to solve the problems. As a sacrifice, I didn't take the class I wanted to because if I took the class, I won't be able to participate to the circle activities. Also, it is the first in the priority for me now.
Since my state in the organization is no near to a leader, but I tend to do team member's task.

LILTDY chapter 7 Conflict
http://www.forbes.com/sites/mikemyatt/2012/02/22/5-keys-to-dealing-with-workplace-conflict/
This article from Forbes was quite interesting.
Also, in this chapter, it saids that "Be proactive and keep troublemakers close by". Reminds us of "Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer."
This is another article from Forbes, and it is about "Keeping your enemies closer".
http://www.forbes.com/sites/aileron/2012/12/27/keeping-your-enemies-closer/

I tend to avoid conflicts as well as enemies. I don't , and most people don't want take the risk to end up in a conflict. Although, this article shows gives interesting examples, and in the book, it also saids that we need to know how to manage it. 
I should put in mind that once the conflict becomes a shared problem, team members can cooperate to find solutions.

LILTDY ch.4, 5

LILTDY chapter 4 Stamina
Stamina is important for a leader, but many leaders have their own routine to keep their health and the body at their best condition. There is an acquaintance, and he is a president of a company. He has been a leader of an organization for many years. One of his way to keep his best condition is, wake up at 4 am and read a book for 2 hours before breakfast, and after eating breakfast, he goes to work. After coming home from work, he always makes some time everyday to have a nice chat with his wife. He makes this a routine. He faces himself and his wife everyday by doing this, and to keep him at the best condition. When I once met him, he had a very frank atmosphere, and made me feel that "this person sure is something" even if I didn't know how great he is, or what he is like.
Starting to read the Leading at the Edge, I often find something in common between significant leaders and what is written in the book. Stamina is also something I really agree to, since if you think it simply, the leader is the representative of the organization, so he or she should always be healthy to lead the followers. (Although, not to mean that they need to be perfect...)

LILTDY chapter 5 The Team Message
From this chapter, I really learned a lot. It was what my circle needs, and are having trouble with, once in a while.
-expedition blog
We always stand back every time when we get into a new stage, or when we do something new, to reconfirm our goal and our purpose for doing those things. Also, we always set a concept so that every member can face the same direction to work on the project.
Although, we tend to face problems because of the lack of sharing the information. In those cases, we tend to arrange to set an opportunity to share them.

When it becomes like this, for a flat organization, which the members are mostly equal, this type of information exchanging will be inefficient. For now, our current solution is to use Google Drive and share all the informations for everyone to see!

Outline and the research for so far

Thesis Statement

What made Margaret Thatcher a great leader? There are three representative stances in her leadership that are significant.

Ⅰ. Introduction

 A. Introducing Margaret Thatcher’s background, and the situation of Britain of that time.

 B. What Margaret Thatcher achieved to do when she was the leader of the country.

 (C. Her famous words, and her actions analysis.)

Ⅱ. Her social reputation and the relations with her leadership stances

  A. Her reputation before being elected as the leader of the country, and what she was like when

she was still just a mother, and a wife. (Whether she had any characteristic as a leader)

  B. The reason why she was elected as the Prime Minister. (Whether she had any characteristic as a

leader)

Ⅲ. The preparation she had done to become the leader.

Ⅳ. Her representative stances as a leader.

  A. Passion

  B. Determination

  C. Confidence

Ⅴ. Conclusion

  A. Summary of the analysis

  B. Restate the thesis

I went through some research about Thatcher this week as well, and found some facts that I never given thought of. I was reading a book called "The survival of women"(This is a Japanese book, so I simply translated the book title into English.) The book argues about how the women's status converted with the times. It partly talked about one of Thatcher's policies. Thatcher was one of the conservative party member, but in those days, the conservative party was more innovative than the other party, and the other party was more defensive at the time. This contributes to each of the party's stance. Moreover, Thatcher was not a sexist, but neither maintained feminism. She thought that whatever the gender they are, it depends on one's ability. In some ways, I think she is somewhat exclusive, but has a point in what she says. The more I learn about her, the more I understand the passion, determination, and the confidence in her leadership.

Final Essay

I am planning to write about Margaret Thatcher. Analyzing the leadership of the woman who was called the "iron lady", I think I will gain another perspective of what it is to be a leader. 

She was the British Prime Minister from 1975 to 1990; she was strong, and uncompromising. She was called the "iron lady" ironically, but she actually seemed to like it. I can't actually say she was an ideal leader, but I think she was a great, significant leader in history.

There are many articles and books about her now, but it was just last year in April that she passed away. What she had achieved and went through was severe, but she actually experienced them all while it was still rare to be a women leader. As a mother, as a wife, and as a leader of a country, it is obvious that it was tough. (Well…far from tough…) All in all, there are many things that we can learn from her leadership. We learn Shackleton's leadership, but I think Thatcher's leadership is important as well in the society. Not all leaders can achieve by the way Shackleton did. As for the main purpose for choosing this topic is because I think it is important to know this kind of leadership as well.

There was a movie of Margaret Thatcher, The Iron Lady, Meryl Streep acting the role of Thatcher. There are scenes that are familiar to what we learn in class, like what leaders do to improve their leadership. I know that this is arranged a lot, but it made me easier to understand the whole image of Thatcher. (I simply like Meryl Streep, her acting is great!)

LILTDY ch.3

In chapter 3, it says that being optimistic is valuable. The example of the author’s client reminds me of president Obama.

In the book, “Every morning, the first thing he saw was his face with the caption, “You can do it!”” On the other hand, the famous speech of President Obama, “Yes, we can!”

In the big speech for the election, President Obama had moved many peoples heart to choose him. “Yes, we can” can be a phrase that encourages people, and an optimistic vector. In chapter 3, it also introduces that leaders should spread the spirit of optimism, but the president’s speech did apply to this as well.

“you’ve damn well got to be optimistic”(Shackleton) Although, sometimes Shackleton feeling insecure because of the responsibility, his usual character being optimistic has spread through the men of the expedition; the men had encouraged Shackleton when he was overwhelmed. This, “spreading the optimism” seemed nice as a leader, and I thought that this integration of the expedition was the key to the success.

A team with no leader

This might not relate to leadership, but I thought it was important to know that there might be a time that “without a leader” is a better option for a community.I read an article from a magazine about a company that doesn't have a leader.

The company’s name was Menlo Innovations. It is a company that makes rapid growth, and works for developing software. There are two people of the company, but works nothing differently as other workers. The company reveals all the coworkers salary in the hall way, and they actually feel relived about it. Also, they all decide together for a pay raise, dismissals and all that.

“A research showed that hierarchy is something that holds down creativity. For a team that are trying to create something new from a zero, hierarchy becomes an obstacle…What the team needs is freedom.”

This company was open and flat. Some people say that people are starting to seek for the enjoyment to work than the amount of salary. It strays from the issue, but there are a community that works fine without a leader.

I thought that this should be considered as well through my studies of leadership.

LILTDY ch2

From LILTDY chapter 2, the issue focused on visible symbols and behaviors.

In class, we talked in groups what leaders do. I came up with the president of “Gyouza no Oshou” comes to the company earlier than any of the employees and clean the entrance of the company. I thought that the leader being frank, and make a equal relationship with the people who work for them is rare. (Well, maybe those leaders might not think that they work for them. They might be thinking, “We work together as the member of the company”. )  There were other examples like this. One of the memorable behaviors Shackleton threw away the gold sovereigns and kept the instrument.

The “right speech” was also memorable. I kind of recalled Steve Jobs. He came back to Apple Co. after a few years, and did what the company needed. He must have gave the “right speech”, and the right behaviors that needed to build up the company once more. Although, I wonder who makes the right speech in a community that hasn’t a leader, a community which coworkers are all equal.

I don’t know if it this pic is right in definition, but I kind of found it interesting, so…