Author Archives: prixila.rojasfernandez

I’m so glad that I chose this class. I really liked the class for two main points:

First, My major is Business Entrepreneurship, and this class covers several important factors for the daily life of Entrepreneurs. The fact of having 2 textbooks for the class was very smart because they both cover the same topic, but from 2 different perspectives.  The Northouse was more the knowledge and facts to be learned, and the Bennis book was more to learn the daily experiences on an entrepreneur’s life. Both books compliment each other.

The other aspect that I loved about the class was the way of being conducted. Because we were discussing each chapter of Bennis at the classroom, it  helped us to get involve more in the topics and to communicate more with each other. Also, having those interactions in class helped us think as an entrepreneur and a leader at the same time. I definitely learned a lot on this class , and most of them are very helpful to re define my leadership skills and styles.

Our Children’s Care providers online website was Sandra’s idea. She owns a Day Care facility at her home and was raised on that environment. Therefore, she has more than just experience to help putting this platform together. We all had an idea of this type of business, but because of her experience, she knew more about what kind of services we can offer.

One of the good things about our group was the sense of cooperation in all of us. We always divided our work to be submitted by certain time prior to the specific due dates to have it review before submitting it to the CUNY IVE, and we always worked it on timely manner with more than enough time to edit it. In this case, Sandra was the leader of the group, the one in charge of making the last decision on every idea that we would come out. Marie was the one keeping on track on the due dates of all milestones and requisites from them. While Sasha and I were the ones collecting, researching, and putting together the documents to be submitted.

We used our leadership skills to put the project together. This venture helped me learned more about this industry and getting involved in the actual process of doing an Executive Summary for a business plan.

In the past ten years, there is been a huge upgrade and change in terms of technology. Depending on how companies and organizations take this change, it might either hinder  or help them. Companies must be up to date with the changes in society and technology to help  increase their market shares. For example, in the past ten years social networks have been revolutionary. This new tool is helping organizations to expand their markets. The fact that a company may have or may be connected to different social networks allows them to target different types of audience.

Mobile/ Smart Phones!! It is also another tool to reach and get more in contact with the clients. These new change in the phone industry helps companies aswell. SmartPhones and these new technologies keep companies closer to their customers. People can easily access/ search any company through their phones, without the need of having a PC. It increases the sales, customer loyalty, and even customer satisfaction. However, if a company is not on top  of all these sources, they might hurt their productions and sales. Customers are always looking for innovations and oportunities when choosing a company or products.

This chapter caught my attention a lot. It talks about how Americans invent products and then, those products are produced in China. This factor is happening often. The fact that the overhead and labor is cheaper in Asia countries, most investors are going to produce their products over there. Therefore, this affects our employment rates. Entreprenuors should know how to handle this situation to do get the best from both worlds. Their leadership qualities should help them to make those decisions.

Bennis also stated this quote, ” write the vision, make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it”, this quote applies not just to modern leaders, it applies to all leaders. In order for someone to achieve a goal, he/she needs to stick to it. We cannot just plan it, and set it aside without working on it. Bennis mentioned some qualities in a new leader. Those qualities are, technical competence, people skills, conceptual skills, judment and taste, and character. These are the most important qualities that an employer is looking for when hiring employees. On these times, the competitions are getting stronger due to the new technologies and the higher level of education. This means that leaders have to become more prepared and up to date with the new changes.

In terms of leadership styles, women are more democratics than men. We also use more transformational styles than men. Even though, there are still some prejudices about women leadership, women have been demostrating that have the same intellectual factors in terms of work experience as men do. Some differences between males and females  mentioned on the book are women are no less effective at leadeship, comitted to their work, or motivated to attain leadership roles than men.

However, women are less likely to self promote than men are, and we are less likely to initate negotiation, an important tool that all leaders need in order to access high oportunities and resources, in both domestic and professional atmospheres; but, in my personal experience, I dont believe the statement that we are less likely to initiate negotations because for example, In my job, on my department, we are 2 women and 2 men, and based on the numbers written, the ones that have the highest numbers in  production of that department are the women. Moreover, most of our tasks are negotiations with our clients. Also, Im personally, the one who is always giving initiatives to move foward wuth new ideas, which is a way of self promoting myself.

One true point that the book mentioned was that we tend to perceive more negatively than men, and therefore, we tend to react faster when things are wrong than them. Lately, women have been reaching more top professional positions than before. I think that all these differences and characteristics dont apply to all of us, and they should not been a pattern for women leadership type.

Can Charisma be taught? Do all leaders have Charisma? What is Charisma? All these questions are very important when a leader is trying to get people on his/her side. Charisma is a personal attractiveness or charm that inspires others. Most of leaders have Charisma, and leaders who have it are more successful. Charisma comes with trust!

Trust is a very important factor when leaders want to convince or persuave others. If a leader does not reflect trust , noone will follow him/her. It comes together with Inspiration. Leaders have the power of Inspiration or Persuasion. Being persuasive is trying to convince people of something, but not giving orders directly.

I dont think that we can learn how to be leaders, but in the other hand, we can definetly lead in a way that someone will want to follow. As Bennis stated on the chapter:

” Getting people on your side has a lot to do with Spirit, a lot to do with team atmosphere. It has a lot to do with not putting people in direct competition with each other, something that is not a universally held philosophy”.

There are four factors leaders have that generate and sustain trust:

Constancy, Congruity, Reliability, and Integrity. When a leader follows and mantains these 4 key factors, they will get people on their side. These elements can be learned through experiences but not be taught.

Empathy is also important when leading. “Leading from the inner voice is necessary  for movement leadership”, as Bennis stated. Empathy is a common element on Women. Women tend to react faster on organizational problems than Men. They mostly use their inner voice to make decisions.

Reflection, Desires, and Strategic Thinking are very important factors when mastering ourselves. Leaders have ambitions, but measuring and testing those ambitions will make them real. Our desires are just desires if we dont do any actions. Leaders are capable of putting ideas in context and perspective. When we have ideas that we consider a good ones, we should communicate to others to make them happen and be real, because if we dont, it will stay just as an idea. When we attract and convince people of how good are our ideas, we are being successful and leaders at the same time. Leaders have inspiration, vision, and empathy which makes them have a better judgment on their actions.

In terms of Team Leadership, it has become very popular in organizational leadership. Teams that are well structured habe better chances of meeting their goals and being successful. Based on the chapter, team leadership is critical to achieving both affective and behavorially based team outcomes, so its very important to understand the functions of leadership. Effective team leadership falls into the leader’s mental model. One of the strenghts of the team leadership model is that it provides a cognitive guide that helps leaders design and maintain effective teams and specially when performance is below standards.

Deploying ourselves and knowing some tools to help make decisions in a team is very helpful to achieve our goals.

I personally beleive in operating on Instinct because I usually  listen to my gut. Most of the times, I can feel when I’m right on doing certain things. Some people dont like to act by impulse, but as long as you know what you are doing and the consequences coming along with, its fine. Several business people and entrepreneurs act by instinct, and those actions have made them successful. As Bennis states on the book, “No leader sets out to be a leader”, people live their lives as their own, and the results of their actions will determine their leadership. We should use all our energies and skills to do our best. It is not about being a leader, its about being ourselves, stated by Bennis.

This chapter made me think and reflect more about myself. We do not often stop and think about ourselves.; think what we are capable of, and put those strenghts in practice to achieve our goals.  Bennis stated that on of the key factors of a leader is knowing himself/herself. In our childhood, we just a reflection of our parents, family, friends and the society around us; but after we start getting older, we make our own choices and, we decide for ourselves. That’s when we become leaders!

People may teach themselves how to be leaders, or they may learn from others. We can learn from other people’s experiences. However, something that I think we cannot learn from others is how to be ourselves. As Bennis states on the chapter, “the more we know about ourselves and our world, the freer we are to achieve everything we are capable of”.