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  • Global Entrepreneurship Week 2008

    This module is included inLens: entrepreneurship and leadership training materials for individuals and organisations participating in Global Enterpreneurship Week
    By: Richard Lucas

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Leadership

Module by: Debbie Gulick

Summary: Introduction to leadership and activites for the INNOVATE Conference.

Introduction to Leadership

Leadership is an ambiguous term; it is defined differently depending on cultural beliefs, organizational culture, generations and personal beliefs. To become an effective and efficient leader, it is important to take all of this into consideration. To help understand leadership styles, you can put leaders on a continuum and look at their strengths and weaknesses. The best example of this would be George W. Bush and the Dalai Lama. Both leaders are thought to be extremely effective and efficient by many people in their country and from around the world (note this is just a comparison of different leadership styles) and to analyze their different leadership techniques and styles is fascinating. What kind of leader do you want to be?

It is important during your INNOVATE experience to think about the list of leadership skills/attributes and to fill out your personal Leadership Worksheet. This is a work in progress and something we hope you continue to modify throughout your career and life to develop yourself into a global technical leader.

To begin the Leadership Module, please take time to write in your journal now about leadership. How do you define a leader? What leaders do you admire and why? How do you think leadership styles compare and contrast in Singapore and Japan?

Enjoy this module!

List of Leadership Skills/Attributes

  1. Life-long learning – the desire to continue learning throughout life
  2. Emotional intelligence - a term that encompasses soft skills, focusing on communication and interpersonal skills
  3. Competitive Drive – the desire to keep excelling and learning, mainly fueled by competition.
  4. High energy level
  5. Self-awareness
  6. Self-regulation
  7. Motivation
  8. Empathy
  9. Curiosity
  10. Commitment
  11. Ability to see the bigger picture
  12. Ability to learn from one’s failures
  13. Leveraging others to work to their highest potential
  14. Looking at various solutions to a problem
  15. Working toward a larger vision based on shared values and goals
  16. Social skills
  17. Risk taker - the ability to take oneself out of comfort zones
  18. Humble self-assessor - honest assessment of one’s failures, and successes, but more importantly one’s failures
  19. Open to new ideas
  20. Good listener
  21. The ability to challenge the process
  22. Inspire a shared vision
  23. Enable others to act
  24. Integrity - possessing ambition, competence and a moral compass
  25. Engaging others by creating shared meaning - empathy, obsessive communication and the encouragement to dissent

Leadership Continuum

Figure 1: The Leadership Continuum
Figure 1 (Graphic1)

Recommended Leadership Readings

  • Adler, Nancy J. 2002. International Dimensions of Organizational Behavior, 4th ed.
  • Augustine, Norman J. Augustine’s Travels: A World-Class Leader Looks at Life Business, and What It Takes to Succeed at Both.
  • Bennis, Warren G. and Robert J. Thomas . 2002. Geeks & Geezers: How Era, Values, and Defining Moments Shape Leaders.
  • Bennis, Warren G. and Burt Nanus. 1985. Leaders: The Strategies for Taking Charge.
  • Fine, Charles H. 1999. Clockspeed: Winning Industry Control in the Age of Temporary Advantage.
  • Gardner, Howard. 1995 . Leading Minds.
  • Goleman, Daniel. 1998. Working with Emotional Intelligence.
  • Handy, Charles. 1998. Beyond Certainty: The Changing World of Organizations.
  • Hesselbein, Frances, Marshall Goldsmith and Richard Beckhard, Eds. 1997. The Leader of the Future: New Visions, Strategies and Practices for the Next.
  • Katz, Ralph, Ed. 2003. The Human Side of Managing Technological Innovation: A Collection of Readings.
  • Kotter, John P. 1996. Leading Change.
  • Kotter, John P. 1998. The Leadership Factor.
  • Kouzes, James M and Barry Z Posner. 1995 . The Leadership Challenge: How to Keep Getting Extraordinary Things Done in Organizations,2nd ed.
  • Moran, Robert T and Philip R. Harris. 1983. 1983. Managing Cultural Synergy,3rd ed.
  • Northouse, Peter G. l997. Leadership Theory and Practice.
  • Rhinesmith, Stephen H. 1992 . A Manager’s Guide to Globalization: Six Keys to Success in a Changing World.
  • Trompenaars, Fons and Charles Hampden Turner. 1997. Riding the Waves of Culture.
  • Trompenaars, F. & Hampden-Turner, C. 2002. 21 Leaders for the 21st Century: How Innovative Leaders Manage in the Digital Age.

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