MSLD 521 Module 9- A Different Kind of Leader

Gina Folk stated that effective leadership occurs when the leader puts themselves on other people's shoes (2015). While I’m not entirely sure if the academic field is my long-term career path, I know that I’d like to bring up the importance of understanding people wherever I end up. Many times throughout my life, I’ve came across customer service representatives that were feeling agitated, and often rushed to get the job done. After receiving their usually awful service, I often wonder how they thought their way of doing was acceptable, and whether they ever think about their customers. Prakash Singh stated that simply having the ability to perform tasks is never enough, and that it is critical for leaders to be aware of their surroundings (2014).

As leaders, it is important to keep in mind that people is what makes leadership possible. Relationships, along with communication are like parts of a machine- without it, things won’t run smoothly. Because of this, it is important to meet the people’s needs and wants as much as possible. As Stephen Denning mentioned, an interactive leader works with the world rather than against it (2011). This is perhaps one of the most important dimension Denning stated. While a leader has the role to lead, it is important to avoid being too manipulative since this can stress people out. For example, when I make degree maps I really want many of my students to follow the patter I’ve suggested. Rather than being direct, I explain to them the importance and reasons behind the list of classes, as well as make it clear that these are only my recommendations. With explanations, I’m sounding less commanding, but could have the students follow.

Building personal integrity and authenticity, and disregarding hierarchical authority are two other dimensions that I constantly consider daily as an academic adviser (Denning, 2011). Although I have some higher authorities than a student, I always disregard my status and instead blend in with the students as much as possible. By engaging in conversations with the student, I can gain further information outside of advisement. For instance, as staff, I’m only told that you need to take all the math and English courses before taking a research course. When engaging in conversations with my students, they can talk about their experiences and tell you that business statistics heavily revolved around the research course. This was something I haven’t been told initially, and in the future, I could use that information for future advisement. In addition, I’m also a current student. I’m one of them. By sharing my personal experiences, my students and I are going back and forth- gaining new information, and at the same time develop stronger relationships due to our common interests.

Long story short, the key to effective leadership is to blend in with your people as much as possible. By blending in, leaders and followers can relate to one another- establishing stronger relationships. In addition, putting oneself in others shoes allows additional information to be absorbed: which can enhance the overall leadership.

  

References:

Denning, S. (2011). The Leader’s Guide to Storytelling: Mastering the Art and Discipline of Business Narrative. San Francisco, CA: Josey-Bass.

Folk, G. (2015). Put Yourself In Other People’s Shoes. People Leadership. Retrieved from http://peopleleadership.com/put-yourself-in-other-peoples-shoes/

Singh, P. (2014). Employees’ use of empathy to improve their job behavior. The International Business & Economics Research Journal (Online). Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.libproxy.db.erau.edu/docview/1525361493/abstract/2F2815C3B74C411EPQ/1?accountid=27203

MSLD 521 Module 8- Cornerstones of Speaking

For a very long time, I’ve experienced many good and bad presentations. Despite the many experiences, most were unfortunately bad ones. I’ve had many cases where teachers were speaking in monotone voices or were simply repeating what’s shown on their visuals. Because of this, I often times got distracted: drawing pictures, playing with my phone, or in worse cases- falling asleep in class. Whenever I encountered these bad presentations, I often wondered if the rest of my classmates were even learning anything, and whether the presenter was aware of how bad the presentation is. All of these things are what I always consider when I’m the one presenting. I don’t want my audience to not learn, or find my presentations boring. To prevent this from occurring, I usually adjust my voice, verbal delivery, as well as visuals.

Just as Julian Treasure mentioned in his video, the presenter’s voice has an impact on the outcome of the presentation (Treasure, 2014). In the many examples shown on the Charisma on Command video, Kevin Hart often spoke very loudly, but he also adjusted his voice to actually be funny (Charisma on Command, 2016). One thing that can be drawn from the two videos is the importance of adjusting voices. The outcome of a presentation is good when people are able to absorb something from it. To do this, the audience needs to be motivated and or entertained.

Before I start entertaining and motivating people, I need to know who my audiences are. At a university setting for example, my audience usually consist of students and a teacher. The teacher will likely be the most motivated of the group since the students were literally “forced” to listen to my presentation. To balance out and capture as much attention as possible, I usually try to have more of a “conversation-feel” rather than actually presenting. George Bradt pointed out in his short article that people engage easier in conversations rather than presenting (2014). Every time I come across presenters literally “reading”, I often ask, “Who normally talks like that?” To bring in a little more life to my presentations, I try to be expressive (adjust my voice) and avoid the reading style- just as if I’m having a regular face-to-face conversation. For the future story project specifically, I also need to be expressive to help my audience understand its importance to me.

Although adjusting tone and the talking style is important, presentations can be more effective when visuals are present. Visual aids have many benefits: including maintaining interest to illustrating your points (Leigh, n.d.). In past experiences, I’ve often implemented not only relevant materials, but videos and photos to help deliver the mood I’m hoping to achieve. Referring back to the university example, I’m aware that the students are the ones that’ll be harder to capture since they’ve been forced into my presentation. Since many of them are young like myself, we all probably have very similar interests. In one business presentation, I used a short scene from The Big Bang Theory to not only entertain the audience, but to prove a point in the audience. After a short moment of laughter, I’ve capture most of their attention, and can continue on with the presentation. The important thing to keep in mind however is to ensure that the materials won’t led your presentation to go off-topic, or is too distracting for the audience.

In summary, I plan to consider the audience’s point-of-views into my Future Story presentation. Since my presentation is heavily based on myself, it is important to be expressive. To do this, I plan to avoid sounding too monotone and to “talk” rather than present. Since audio alone for my presentation can be a little bland, I intend to also include interesting and relevant visuals to help maintain engagement. Although my presentation isn’t like a business or research and fact intensive, I can also rely on visuals to help the audience illustrate my points.  

References:

Bradt, G. (2014). Big Presentation? Don’t Do It—Have a Conversation Instead. Forbes. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/georgebradt/2014/09/10/big-presentation-dont-do-it-have-a-conversation-instead/#8e2d384295b7

“Charisma on Command”. (2016). Kevin Hart’s 3 Secrets to Hilarious Storytelling [Video file]. YouTube. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vn_L4OPU_rg

Leigh, R. (n.d.). The Importance of Creating Effective Visual Aids in the Workplace. Chron. Retrieved from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/importance-creating-effective-visual-aids-workplace-17432.html

Treasure, J. (2014). How to speak so that people want to listen: Julian Treasure (TED Talk Summary) [Video file].  YouTube. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEkEAFaV818

MSLD 521 Module 7- Secret Structure

While pursuing a degree in business administration, I made and came across a lot of presentations. Whether it was to examine a management tactic or a real-life business scenario, the pattern was overall repetitive. We provide a summary of the main topic, analyze it, and support our reasoning with internal and external data. Since the point of most of these presentation is to prove something, the most important thing for these presentations is data. According to Nosich, you can’t explain without information. While information include numbers and charts, different views and other relevant information from different people or environments also serves as data (Nosich, 2012).

During my undergraduate days, I’ve always relied on research for my presentations. In the leadership program however, I’m starting to realize that research alone doesn’t always add up to our presentations. As leaders, the key is to inspire and motivate people to support an idea (Prive, 2012). Nancy Duarte mentioned during her TED talk The Secret Structure of Great Talks that presentations are completely flat-lines, whereas a story allows ones to establish physical reactions (2011). She examined the different “shapes” of how stories and presentations are made, and concluded that successful ones are done in the following shape:

Duarte's whole point was that a good communication is done by going back and forth on "what is" and "what could be", and ending it with "the new bliss". Rather than having one climax of the speech, you can have multiple to help engage the audience. Personally, I find this pattern to be made more for someone who clearly knows their vision: where they can provide numerous examples to support their vision. As much as I would like to fully adapt this style to my future presentation, I will likely only implement a small portion.

As of today, I personally do not have a large lifetime goal or interest since I'm currently in the stage of life of figuring this out. Since I do not have a clear, large vision, using Durate's will be tricky. To avoid my presentation being too much of a presentation as Durate mentioned, I might adapt part of her "what is" "what could be" portions of the chart. For my case, I might be considering doing a presentation about overcoming my thoughts on my hearing disability. At the beginning of the presentation, I'll talk about how well I'm currently doing with my job, and provide some examples of them. Durate's portion can be implemented at the body of the presentation: where I provide examples on how overcoming my fears of my hearing disability could change today's advisement. The ending of the presentation might not add up to Durate's example, but I might consider a short summary and sum up the overall importance of my personal goal. To avoid the presentation being too much of a presentation, I also consider to implement some short story telling to my presentation. 

References:

Duarte, N. (2011). Nancy Duarte: The secret structure of great talks [Video file]. TED. Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/nancy_duarte_the_secret_structure_of_great_talks

Noisch, G. D. (2012). Learning To Think Things Through: A Guide to Critical Thinking Across the Curriculum. Boston: Peason Education.

Prive, T. (2012). Top Qualities That Make A Great Leader. Forbes. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/tanyaprive/2012/12/19/top-10-qualities-that-make-a-great-leader/#3dc71c923564