A leader I met recently

As a final blog, I want to write about a leader I met on Friday this week.

I met him on my club activity, AIESEC. AIESEC is a NPO which support overseas internship.
He went to the Philippines and did internship there for two months. Actually, he was not a leader of any groups and organizations, but he attained and grew his leadership through the experience.

He worked in a Japanese company in Philippine and worked with Philippines. He was frustrated about his jobs, because his jobs were to telephone to other Japanese companies in the Philippines, so they can be done in Japan, too. Then he started to create his own jobs. First, he started to do a market survey and think about in which area his company could approach. He was busy with his usual jobs, but he did so little by little everyday. Then he made a proposal of a new business. He could not started it because the limit of his internship period, but it was evaluated greatly. There I could see his strategy 'Never give up'.

Also, after he came back to Japan, he keeps telling his internship experience to a lot of AIESEC members. And many members are appealed and encouraged it. He was alone while his internship, but in Japan, he is a great leader since he involves many people to his experience.

He looks like confident, but he is polite just like Mr. Kitashiro. I was so impressed by his leadership.

Week 9 Writing assignment

I write about 'Cultivate Poised Incompetence' section on the chapter 16.
That section contains two points, 'Never give up' and 'every challenge starts with ignorance and incompetence'. These strategies are not skills but related to personality. Therefore, we can do them every time. And what we have to do is to believe ourselves and to be honest.

Also, when I focus on the former strategy, 'Never give up', I think we can't do so if we are alone. We need someone who believe us or peers who are working with us. If there is no one, it is very hard to keep our mind. So, in my opinion, the leader is a person who never forget he or she is not alone, and supported by many people. Even though I face a difficulty and I must solve it with my own, I am never alone. My family always think about me and my friends have their own difficulties. I sometimes forget about it and suffer from lonely. In that time, I tend to give up. Therefore, so as to never give up, I will start from thinking about people around me. It will be the first step to be a leader.

Mr. Kitashro's leadership

It was a great experience to meet Mr Kitashiro and listen his presentations.
Before I meet him, I imagined that he was unapproachable, because he was a top-ranking person. So I was surprised to meet him and hear that he only scold someone three times in a year. I learned that there are various leadership.

The most impressive thing he taught us was that leader should be optimistic and positive, but in some situations, leader should be realistic. We already read this strategy in our book, but it was very persuasive, because he seemed to be positive but flexible. I think I am not so positive and worried about tiny things. I knew that optimistic is better than pessimistic, but it is difficult for me. Being positive and realistic at the same time is more difficult. I thought that is why Mr Kitashiro is a great leader.

We can't know how he really works and his leadership in his company, but I could see it in the class. He was so gentle and answered to our questions so politely. Also, as Ken sent his e-mail, he was flank and didn't make us feel his high positions. He said that not just speaking ideas but listening others is more important. I thought he could do so because of his personality such as that.

Finally, Ken, thank you very much for making a good opportunity to meet Mr Kitashiro!

Final presentations

I was so impressed by all presentations in class.
Some people's power point had good animations, so I could understand well and I was never boring. Also, some people talked about specific theme, for example, Mao's presentation about smile was so easy to understand, but gave me a good idea.

I learned some points to do good presentations, too. When I listened presentations, I was appealed by presenter's way to talk. I found that talking to each listeners, not just giving information to people, is important. When I did my presentations, I was so nervous and could not afford to talk and explain for each. I just did eye contact sometimes. I should practiced more.
Also, my presentation about Yamato transportation company had too many information, because I tried to introduce hole the book. I should have focused on a few strategies.

I thought the listening attitude was important, too. When I was talking, Kaya always kept eye contact and listened with nodding. I was so happy and could know she was listening to me. The class was a little longer than usual and we had to keep listening, so everyone was tired. However, listening attitude shows politeness and gives power to presenters. Therefore, I tried to listen with my face up, not look down a handout.

I could learn a lot through final presentations. Not only their contents, but also their skill of presentations impressed me. Thank you for everyone!

My Mission Statement

 Recently, I am always thinking about what I want to achieve through my whole life, and I found a temporary answer when I deeply consider my mission statement. I am often distressed what should I do now and how it will be connected to my life. I cannot find an answer, because I don’t have a clear vision and goal for my life. Therefore, I suffered to discover my mission statement. Thus I looked at a website and found fifteen questions which lead me to who I am.

     

  When I answered all the questions, I found that where I wanted to go was people’s smile. At first, I thought that I wanted to get a high status job such as working in a big and famous company. However, after considering how I want to work there, I found that what is the most important for me was happiness of people surrounding me. I wish to work for people whether it is directly or not. I reached this conclusion, because I always evaluate myself through people related with me. If they are smile and feeling happy, it is good for me even though I am so tired. Therefore, my mission statement is making people smile. 

Week Six Writing Assignment

I focused on chapter 7, 'Conflict' here.

I really agree with the idea that 'The challenge is not how to eliminate conflicts, but rather how to manage them in productive ways that strengthen bonds among team members' (Conflict104). I also emphasized with the example that "polite" meetings that ended with smiling face and discussions about "real" issues are discussed in rest room.

I have some experience like this. Even if we have a meetings and prepare to discuss something, team member just say 'I agree with that' and no one say 'I don't think it is good'. I think it is just wasting of  time. The one reason of it is a hesitation that younger people cannot express their feelings to seniors. And I can accept the situation. What seniors should do is to make a good relationship with them, so this is not big problem. However, another reason of this situation is that people want to avoid the troublesome things, so they don't say their opinion. This situation may keep 'good relation' among them, but it does not make real relationship, because they just avoid to confront problems.

The book also said that 'There are several reasons why conflict, anger, and negative feelings needs to be dealt with directly and in small doses. First, conflict not expressed means that problems are not being confronted. Second, conflict not expressed directly surfaces in other, nonproductive ways'. As written here, conflict is nonproductive. Therefore, in my opinion, conflict is a good opportunity even though I feel uneasy when I face it.

In this book, a "family system models" was written. I understand that this is a way to make distance between people shorter. This approach will be helpful in the situation that people are uneasy to accept conflict.

In this chapter, I learned that the important thing is to make a team and system that people can confront a conflict and never avoid it. I thought it is related team work.

Week Five Writing Assignment

I read chapter 6 'Core Team Values', and I agreed with it  a lot.
It said that "Shackleton made sure that he, as the leader, got no special privileges." This seems to be a natural thing, but when I recall my club activity, it is very hard thing to do so.

In my club, AIESEC, the role of the members are strictly divided according to the position. For example, a team leader must manage team members and it is the first priority for him. For team members, the role is to do basic activity such as searching for the company and make a proposition to accept international internship in that company. This kind of tasks meeds to make steady efforts. So if a team leader does not do that tasks and only manages members, they will get angry that the leader is just doing easy tasks. Actually, to manage members is not easy, because the leader must know all the activity that the members are doing. However, in my club, the leaders work hard and they do both managing members and usual tasks same as they do. So in that meaning, leaders are not equal with members, but they have more than twice as much tasks. Then leaders have a lot of things to do, and chores sometimes become members' role. However, I thought that all leaders and members should share the chore and the very leaders should be aware of it.

Also, this chapter taught me the importance to admit when I was wrong. When I became a leader, I felt the pressure that I must not say wrong thing so as to acquire a trust. However, the important thing is not to make a mistake but to admit it. It eased of my pressure. I think to admit my wrongness needs courage and also, good relationship with others.

Therefore, I learned that why the equality and the courage to admit my mistake is needed in a team through this chapter.

Week Four Writing Assignment

Before reading, I thought that the chapter four 'Stamina' taught us that how important physical strength was. However, I found that self control is more important.

In my case, I sometimes cut off my sleeping time so as to meet deadlines of report or homework, and the day before tests. Sometimes the situation become very bad, because I have a lot of things I must do in the limited time. For example, during the period of the final examination, I must study hard, but I have to do my club activity, and I must do my part time jobs. In this time, I can sleep less time than usual, but I think this can be solved by planning earlier. However, since there are a lot of homework not only before tests but also almost every day, I am worried about them every time. This become not so serious problem when it is just mine, but when I need to write a report with group members, it may cause trouble. 

Then, I need the ability of self management and self control. They don't mean just time management or planning, but they need to control my feeling. So, as the chapter four said, I think talk to friends is important. When I am busy, both body and mind are tired, and friends is the best medicine to them. When I lived in dormitory, I got a lot of power from friends, especially in the times I was so busy and disappointed. I remembered that the balance to be work hard and to be relax is important from chapter four.

 

Week Three Writing Assignment

After I read the 'Optimism and Reality', I found how I should think when I am in a sever condition.
Of course optimism is better than pessimist, because if I took a pessimistic view, the situation would not change. But I thought 'optimism' means not to see bad things and imagine just a good situation. This chapter taught me that was wrong. It says;

Leaders at The Edge need to engage in "Janusian thinking". Janus, the Roman god of gates, was able to look in two directions at the same time. Effective leadership in demanding situation means being able to see the optimistic view and, at the same time, deal with stark reality (54).

Therefore, it needs to be realistic at the same time being optimistic. I think it is very difficult, because being optimistic is hard when the situation is bad, and also see the real one is hard too. I understood how Shackleton was a great leader. But this chapter said that the ability to be optimistic is not natural ability, so I try to keep optimistic when I faced difficult situation.

Also, this chapter says how important the self-talk is.

The reality is that this "self-talk" is part of human nature, and the first step in cultivating optimism is to pay close attention to what you say to yourself (42).

When I talk to myself, I always says, 'I should keep trying', or 'I should work hard'. After I do so, I felt obligations and tired. I found that it is not good and I should say more positive words such as 'I can do it'. It will be a good step to be optimistic.

What is my sentence?

This question was very difficult to answer and I couldn't come up with humorous idea as the video we watched in the last class. So I looked back myself and thought what I am thinking every day.

Then my sentence is ‘She always kept trying.’ It is very obscure, because my vision to my future is unclear now. However, I have a lot of things I want to do in my university life and I want to keep trying to them, even though it is a little fearful. For example, I am planning to go to an internship abroad for 2 months. I am excited when I think about it. Therefore, I want to find challenging opportunity even after I graduate ICU and keep trying to new things and new world for me.

Week Two Writing Assignment

Long term goals

 My long term goal is to work in the Japanese company and make approach to developing countries from it.
I was interested in the job of international cooperation and I thought it was neccessary to work in developing countries. However, now I found that there are a lot of things I can do in Japanese company and it might be more sustainable approach. I want to make 'sustainable approach' and it doesn't mean to just send money. It needs to be  profit both for Japan and developing countries to do so. Therefore, I want to find the ways to work for international corporation in Japan.

Short term goals

 I have two short goals I can do while I am a university student.
 First, it  needs wide and deep knowledge to attain my long term goal, so my short term goal for it is to learn as much as I can in ICU. Now my major is politics, but I am taking development study class and I want to study economics, too. My university life is limited and I have to do part time jobs and club activity, so I should combine them successfully.

 Second short term goal is to accomplish my club activity, as I wrote above. I am a member of AIESEC, which is supporting international internship to make global leader who can contribute to world peace. Therefore, the club antivity itself is the approach to the international cooperation for me. Now I am responsible for the internship in a Japanese preschool and Mexican student will come to do internship there. So I have to support her from her every day life to her jobs. To end the internship successfully is one big goal to my future vision.

Entrance examination

     My experience which stretched my limits was the entrance examination of the university.
It was just one chance and I couldn't fail. I was so nervous and I felt much pressure.
So I did some things to overcome the pressure;
・To think the efficient way of using time
・To talk the goal to others
・To grasp my ability accurately through some test

When I felt much pressure, I could not study and I was just nervous.
Therefore, I intentionally put myself in the situation wher I had no other option by doing therse things.

    After I successed in the examination, I could have confident that I overcame the pressure.