Post #12: Guest Speakers

Guest Speakers

We had guest speakers talk in front of us on Monday and Wednesday. On Monday, we invited Mr. Kakutaro Kitashiro, Chair of the Board of Trustees at ICU and Executive Advisor, IBM Japan, Ltd. He spoke to us about lessons in leadership. His lecture was in different style from that of President Hibiya. He first talked about his biography; his life experience was more profound than expected. He belonged to numerous economic organizations and constituency. He also told us about recollections as a middle manager and president. Due to difference in the position, he followed different guidelines as well. I was shocked to see a graph that looks like a ravine and to know that Mr. Kitashiro was appointed as president in the year when the company profit was at the bottom of ravine. However, by several techniques, programs, innovatice actions, he became the savior. 

Floyd Takeuchi and Joe Daisy visited our class on Wednesday. Through their stories, we learned how College of Micronesia went through time of crisis and Joe Daisy saved it from closing down. According to Joe, he emphasized the importance of teamwork and working together rather than doing something innovatice by himself. I had never heard of Micronesia before, but I got an impression that Micronesia is too dependent on the others. 

It was a priceless opportunity to learn about leadership from their life experiences.

Post #11: President Hibiya

President Hibiya

As I think of now, it was a great pleasure to have our president talk in front of a class of 22 students. Ms. Hibiya gave us a presentation on leadership. I have some reflections for this lesson.
First of all, I cannot believe that it was her first slides made by herself, because her presentation was very detailed and profound even with only 5-6 slides. I had been thinking that she is an ICU graduate,  so it made me even more surprised that she got to become the president of ICU. From her presentation, I learned that she experienced several turning points: spending time at Sophia, U Penn, Keio, Dartmouth and finally at ICU. I had never thought that Dartmouth and ICU share similarity in terms of college environment (a lot of nature). She also talked about her difficulty about being a female leader in the first few years. Nowadays we consider normal for females to lead the group, but it was irregular those days. Typical "old-men" were the leaders.

Although it was a great presentation, I think I could not learn much about leadership qualities, as Ken mentioned in class today.  I wanted more time to ask questions. Since Ms. Hibiya gave us her email address, I would like to send her an email to ask some important questions.

Post # 10: Final Research Paper & Hong Kong Speech Contest

Final Research Paper & Hong Kong Speech Contest

Having brought in extended outlines, we got to share our ideas for final research paper among group members. I am in the group of Iconic Leaders and the same group as Joki and Kristi. It is coincidental that Moe and I are doing the same topic; although we are required to write separate papers, we might combine our slides into one presentation to talk about Soichiro Honda in details at once. So I explained the structure of my essay to Joki and Kristi. I basically focused on three major leadership qualities possessed by Soichiro Honda: dexterity, determination and persistence. Joki has an interesting structure; instead of focusing on leadership qualities of one particular figure, he focuses on a successful hockey team and the famous coach, and so on. Kristi chose Tsuda Umeko; I knew that she is the founder of Tsudajyuku University, but did not know so much about her biography until I heard from Kristi. Everyone has intriguing topics.

For the second half of the class, we got to hear the details about Hong Kong Speech Contest. I honestly do not know if I would like to join, but got an impression that this is such a wonderful experience. I was shocked to see the presentation by the winner of the contest from ICU three years ago; although she was born and raised in Japan, not only her English skill is excellent but also the presentation was fabulous. I was persuaded that she was very qualified as the winner. The deadline is ahead, so I have to make a decision quickly. But so far, I am inclined not to participate in this contest.

Post #9: Ch8 Lighten Up!

Ch8 Lighten Up!

I thought it is interesting how this chapter came right after the last chapter "Conflict". I thought Perkins tried to make a contrast. The title says it all; in a gloomy situation, it is sometimes important to lighten up the group by finding something to celebrate or laugh about. I cannot imagine how hard it was for Shackleton to perform this task. As Perkins states, "in stressful circumstances...celebration is usually the farthest thing from anyone's mind." This chapter can be considered as a further explanation of Strategy 3: Optimism. How could Shackleton be this impeccable? He was optimistic, determined, extremely good at problem-solving and was even humorous? At least his crew were fully entertained by his leadership qualities and characteristics. I think this strategy is very effective because the idea from Harvard article that we read earlier states we all have mirror neurons. If the leader, Shackleton in this case, becomes the first to laugh in any stressful situations, crew obviously starts to feel optimistic and no longer suffers from that stressful situation. My task as a leader from my a cappella group is going quite well, but I am not sully satisfied with my performance. We are getting hasty because Fall concert is ahead, but in this tense situation, the solution would be lighten up the group.

Post #8: Ch.7 Conflict

Ch.7 Conflict

Today I came back from taking Eiken 1st-grade level, which was my major conflict of the day. It does not mean I did poorly on it, but it was stressful and nerve-wracking. I really hope I passed this time since it is my second time taking it; I was 4 points away from the passing line last time. I really abhor the "interview section" of listening comprehension.

Anyway, Ch.7 is about conflict. Up to this chapter, the relationship among Shackleton and his crew was fairly amicable while confronting several difficulties. However, there were actually internal struggles in Endurance that led the party to a danger of devastation. I was surprised to know that Shackleton was known to have a quick temper in the first place, since he has been acting in the completely opposite way: calm, serene and peaceful. During the conflict, he not only managed to calm himself down but also worked to help his crew to find the solution. In any particular organizations or groups, conflict is inevitable; therefore, even if it is impossible to eliminate, it is still possible to turn that incident into an opportunity that helps strengthen bonds among members even more. Thinking optimistically is the key. There is a proverb that states, "After a storm comes a calm."

Another interesting point elucidated by Perkins is "Engage Dissidents". We tend to ignore the opinions of those who disagree with the idea in any types of meetings, conversations or arguments, but in fact, voices from dissidents are actually much more important than those from supporters. Dissidents are ones who point out flaws, mistakes or problems in the idea. By taking in advices, improvements are made and it gets brushed up. As Ken brought up in his entry, I really liked the idea of Shackleton inviting dissidents into the tent. In this way, at least they would not feel neglected and the best consequence would be reconciliation. True leaders give members equal opportunities to have a contact with their leaders. 

This chapter reminded me of Oda Nobunaga, one of the great shonguns in Edo period. Although he was a strong leader and was about to unify the country, he got betrayed by his subordinate, Akechi Mitsuhide. There has been a number of theories why he betrayed, but one assumption is that Oda did not treat Akechi well and that made him desire to unify the country in place of Oda. If Oda Nobunaga used the same strategy as that of Shackleton, history might have been different.

Post #7: Ch5&6

Ch. 5 & 6 Reflection

Chapter 5 starts with this impressive quote, "We are one-we live or die together." This quote clearly illustrates Shackleton's core concept of not willing to split the party. It is an undeniable fact that Shackleton and his crew ended their expedition with success because of their teamwork. In fact, Shackleton learned from his early expedition experience with Scott that cooperation is the key, though Scott repeated the same mistake on his journey to the North Pole. The way Shackleton selected a group is interesting yet highly reasonable; he placed much value on individuals who had the capacity to work together, in addition to respetive abilities. This reminded me of a baseball team which has tried to make a "dream team" by gathering the leading players from all over the world: best  hitters, pitchers, base-stealers, etc. The expected result of thie group was to be the best team ever. However, this combination diminished the abilities of individual players due to lacking cooperation and teamwork.

Another example that I came up with is a cram school where I work at. My boss always reminds teachers, including me, about the importance of keeping everyone informed, involved, and thinking about solutions. This is one of the "Team Messages" from this chapter. Since my cram school has a style of teaching students individually, multiple teachers can be teaching a particular student especially if he or she is taught more than one subject. My boss always tells us to share any information we have among other teachers and staffs, and he claims this is they key to the acceptance to the first choice school.

Chapter 6 is also about teamwork, but more in details. In this chapter, further description of how bad Scott was as a leader is given; his characteristics are described as "absentmindedness, impatience, insecurity, irrationality, recklessness, instinct to evade, agnosticism" and so on. I really wonder how he could have all these kinds of negative qualities while Shackleton was impeccable. As this chapter says, mutual respect and courtesy are significant for a team to function well. Once individuals start to prioritize themselves over the others, that is a sign of team corruption.

Post #6: Final Project Planning

Final Project Planning

During the class yesterday, Ken gave us instructions on the final project for LILTDY, which is a 2000 word academic research paper on topics we have or will be covered in class. When I first saw the direction, I was interested in writing about an analysis of a leader's style since we are currently reading Leading at the Edge, the book that is basically about an analysis of Shackleton's styles and strategies shown through his antarctic expeditions. This book would become a useful guideline for me to write a paper. Then I started to think about who I am going to write about. The directions gave some examples of famous "leaders", such as Walt Disney or Steve Jobs, and the third person grabbed my attention: Soichiro Honda, the founder of Honda. I had his biography in a comic book form and used to read it over and over again. The fact that I already have some prior knowledge had me determine to choose him as the topic for the final project. Surprisingly, his name is not known as much as his company's; therefore, I would like to give a brief information that I can remember.

He was born in Shizuoka prefecture and loved vehicles and planes since he was little. He even got out of his house in midnight to go see an exhibition of plane test flight. When he grew up, one day he was offered to fix a broken engine of the fire truck. It went sucessful, and this became the turning point of his life. He realized what he can do with his two hands. He determined to proceed his way to mechanics. However, he did not have much expert knowledge in mechanics, so soon he decided to go to a vocational school of mechanics. I would say his life was a succession of determination that led him to be a great leader. I definitely need further research on this figure to critically analyze him.

Post #5: Optimism and Gratifications

Optimism and Gratifications

Gratification is the pleasurable emotional reaction of happiness in response to a fulfillment of a desire or goal. The concept of gratification is an extended theme of chapter 3 of Edge. First of all, I did not know the difference between Pleasures and Gratifications, although I knew that both mean "happinesses." Pleasures involve brief and little thinking, while gratification involves deeper thinking and particular goals or purposes. Subsequently, Ken told us to list things or activities that we consider gratifying. I could come up with two, "getting involved in a cappella group" and "working at a cram school". I couldn't think of the third one, which I was not satisfied, but later I realized it does not matter. This is the point Yuca brought up in her blog entry; it proves I am devoting a lot of time to these activities. And this is actually true; I have spent 90% of my summer break on tutoring during summer school, and spend most of my lunch time with people in UNBRAND. Additionally, when I listen to a good song, I am driven by an urge to compose that song into a cappella version. (Well, it takes me so long to finish one song so I've composed only one so far) I do not mean to say getting involved in many activities is bad at all, but I believe, in general, number of activities and the amount of time spent on each are inversely proportional. Anyway, my current college life is very fulfilling and I feel gratified!

Post #4: Leading at the Edge Ch.2 & 3

Leading at the Edge Ch.2 & 3

Reading these two chapters let me learn about two new important strategies used by successful leaders. In chapter 2, Perkins addresses Symbolism and Personal Example. He first talks about how important it is to give the right speech at the right moment. When Endurance was crushed by the ice, crew's attention was given to Shackleton. His powerful speech was given with calm, confident, and reassuring tone. This part also talks about how successful leaders should stay firm and strong. This is the point Koji brought up in his blog, but I think not all leaders have to be unwilling to expose their weaknesses. It might depend on the situation, but being frank often opens up the subordinates' minds and results in better relationship. This might be because we tend to dislike impeccable individuals. However, in the situation Shackleton faced, how he acted was probably the best answer in order to raise his crew's hope.

In chapter 3, the importance of instilling optimism and confidence is explained. It is important for leaders to share their optimism among his members due to the concept we've talked about in the beginning of this course: mirror neurons. According to Harvard Business Review, this brain cells functions as a neural wi-fi, so leaders' positive emotions and feelings have followers to imitate them. This is very effective, especially when the mood is gloomy and depressing.

In class, we also discussed about any individuals who set a personal example with visible, memorable symbols and behaviors. I brought up the leader of my a capella group during the discussion. Although some 17s initially thought he is strict and very demanding, but now we all know that he is extremely kind and friendly being. Moreover, he uses a strategy: Let People See You Leading. When we were having rehearsals for June concert, he was the one who had been checking implements, such as microphones, speakers or amplifiers, all the time. He did a lot of incidental tasks by himself, too. All members know his hard efforts; that is why we all respect him as the leader. All 15s are going to quit UNBRAND after this Autumn concert, so 16s and 17s, including me, are going to take over their jobs. It is such a big responsibility.