Author Archives: eugene.tarasov

Leadership course taught by Professor Raymond has been one of my favorite course taken at Baruch and is a great way to finish my Bachelor’s education. My initial opinion of a Leadership course was in the frame of “What can this course teach me about leadership that I don’t know already” I thought that I have already established my character and pretty much know my strengths and weaknesses, as well as have a decent understanding of leadership qualities. Yet! This course has opened my eyes in many ways.

First of all it were the Leadership assessments, all of which I kept and plan on reusing in the future for personal reevaluation and self-check.  I especially enjoyed the ones where we had to get other people’s opinions of ourself – a great way to level with yourself and see where you are.

Second, it were the discussions fostered by Professor Raymond.  A simple question could turn into a flourishing discussion, drifting in many different directions and opening subjects and issues that I personally would have never dug up. The “tenis ball” story will certainly retain in my memory. 🙂

Third, it was a book by Warren Benis –  by far one of the biggest highlights for me in this leadership course.  Benis’ incredible chapters were flooded with wisdom, leadership knowledge, tips and examples. This is one of those books that will stay with me and be reread numerous times.

Now, as far as my reflection about the project conducted together with Juan and Jonathan I have the following to say, “One head is great, but 3 is better.” Initially I started this project on my own and completed the first 2 milestones by myself.  It was going well, but there was something missing, perhaps a spark of something new.  When Juan joined me, his expertise in financial analysis inspired me, and the project picked up its speed and more importantly, my interest in it.  In Juan’s skills, analytical thinking and realistic approach, offered by some changes and my projections could easily land a position of the COO in my company.  When Jonathan joined us there was even more excitement added to The Lazy Place.  There is a LOT of Jonathan and it is an extremely valuable skill on the client-facing side of the company. It was an ideal decision on my behalf, with of course Jonathan’s suggestion to have him take the Marketing side of the company, and our Marketing blossomed!. Blossomed in a big way.  Jonathan had may creative ideas, some of which needed refinement and that’s were Juan and I came in.

Overall it was a great team to work with and an easy team to present the scope of our company.

Professor Raymond,

On a personal note, I’d like to thank you for this course and wish you all the best! I will keep in touch with you in future, letting you know of my progress and achievements.

As all the previous Benis’ chapters, Forging the Future also has much insightful knowledge and wisdom.

The comments about Chaos are really inspiring, because they 1. they develop an optimistic view and 2. help you stay leveled and calm when a disaster is all around you.

” Chaos is all around us now, but the leader knows that chaos is the beginning, not the end.  Chaos is the source of energy and momentum”

I’v also enjoyed Max De Pree’s quote from the Leadership is an Art, “The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last thing is to say thank you. In between, the leader is a servant”.

Defining the reality is crucial, and Benis talks more about it his discussion of envisioning the future, and assessing the current situation in order to develop something new. I think it is also a challenging task to “Define reality”. I will try it someday. I’ll sit down and brainstorm everything I think about the current world reality and the reality of my nearest surrounding.

Other quotes I’d like to stash in my bag of knowledge include

“Vision is a waking dream”

“Failure is not the crime. Low aim is”

“I never know what I say until I hear the response” – get other’s opinion of yourself to get a better understanding of your actions and who you are. A spouse, Benis mentions would be the best source to the truth about yourself

“Leaders need people around them to have contrary views” – an important part of perfecting your goals and vision

I’ve also laughed over Benis’ story of Khruschev’s visit to the U.S. 🙂

“Optimism, faith and hope” – I consider to be my personal attributes as well. I am a much of an optimist, rather than a pessimist, and may need to find a COO to manage my vision as John Sculley did.

I’d like to divide this chapter in 2 unique sections. Section one talks about the merging of our world and becoming a one place. We’ve had this discussion in the class, that America is on the road for globalization and majority of companies are seeking partners, business and customers outside the US as well.  The effect of global interdependance can be vividly seen from the 2008 US housing crises, which caused the entire world go into a recession. Merging of the world cultures is also on the rise and New York is a great example of it, though its positive and more negative affects are a subject for a different discussion in another blog.

Section 2 of this chapter focuses on the “new manager” and what is required of a company leader to successfully run a “globalized”, technologically connected company in the new chaotic world market. Again, as I have done in my previous blog posts I’d like to summarize chapter’s acquired knowledge for my personal educational growth, as well as future reference.

Per the book “Lessons of Experience”mentioned by Bennis, the following are the key principles a leader must possess and follow, in order to lead the company and its people successfully:

1. Take advantage of every opportunity, where OPPORTUNITY = EMPOWERMENT
   I have never looked at opportunity as empowerment and nevertheless it is a great approach to create creativity and give birth to leadership within any organization. Supporting someone’s initiative and encourage taking responsibility of a part of a project or allowing one to be flexible and design his/her own approach CREATES AND NOURISHES leadership traits
2. Aggressively search for a meaning, where MEANING = ENGAGEMENT
   This statement simply talks about setting clear goals and defining one’s or companies vision, so that every follower has a clear grasp of the direction and thus, fully engages, knowing where the company is heading to.  Having good values is an important aspect of a vision that determines its followers
3. Know yourself, where LEARNING = LEADING
   “Organizations purpose should determine its structure” “Release of the full potential of its employees is the organization’s true task”, thus it must facilitate learning, provide for growth and development and offer as many opportunities to its employees. In other words, investment in human capital, is the investment into the company. One pays for the other.

The following are statements I found important to record:
Organizations that succeed over time have the following characteristics in common:

• A flatter, less hierarchical structure
• More autonomous units
• An orientation toward high-value-added goods and service
• Quality controls
• Service controls
• Responsiveness
• Innovative speed
• Flexibility
• Highly trained and skilled workers who use their minds as well as their hands
• Leader at all levels, rather than managers

Moreover, the following new tasks must be addressed and perfected within an organization that wants to be successful in our new chaotic and technology-growing world:

• Defining the organizations’ mission, so as to frame its activities and inform its workforce
• Creating a flexible environment in which people are not only valued, but encouraged to develop to their full potential, and treated as equals rather that subordinates
• Reshaping the corporate culture so that creativity, autonomy, and continuous learning replace conformity, obedience, and rote; and long-term growth, not short-term profit, is the goal
• Transforming the organization from a rigid pyramid to a fluid circle, or an ever-evolving network of autonomous units
• Encouraging innovation, experimentation, and risk taking
• Anticipating the future by reading the present
• Making new connections within the organization
• Constantly studying the organization from the outside as well as the inside
• Identifying weak links in the chain and repairing them
• Thinking globally, rather that nationally or locally
• Identifying and responding to new and unprecedented needs in the work force
• Being proactive rather than reactive, comfortable with ambiguity and uncertainty

“Leading through voice, inspiring through trust and empathy,” I believe is the core statement that this chapter is about. Just like with my previous blog posts I first would like to post quotes and phrases from this chapter that I found valuable and full of important meaning.

“If we had a problem or complaint, we dealt with it openly and immediately” – In my opinion immediate action is the best solution, because the longer you wait the deeper would someone’s insult of pain would become, and the harder it would be to fix it

“Getting people on your side has a lot to do with spirit, a lot to do with team atmosphere”

“You can lead people out of fear and intimidations, as awful as it sounds” “Movement leadership requires persuasion, not giving orders” – a good comparison to both of these quotes was a Marine bootcamp 🙂

Four ingredients leaders have that generate and sustain trust:

1. “Constancy. Whatever surprises leasers themselves may face, they don’t create any for that group. Leaders are all a piece; they staty the course”
2. Congruity. Leaders walk their talk. In true leaders, there is no gap between the theories they espouse and the life they practice”
3. Reliability. Leaders are there when it counts; they are  ready to support their co-workers in the moments that matter”
4. Integrity.  Leaders honor their commitments and promises”

“When these four factors are in place, people will be on your side”

“Ability to inspire and persuade through empathy and trust can be and should be present in all organizations.”

“You have to be absolutely straight with people, not clever or curte, and you can’t think that you can manipulate them.”

“Endlessly expressing, explaining, extending, expanding, and when necessary revising the organization’s mission”

To lead in the current global world a leader needs “a different set of skills, based on ideas, people skills and values”

“The first thing one must have to do in setting out to change the culture is get people on one’s side and show them where you want to take the company”

“People trust you when you don’t play games with them”

“The freer the organization is, the more heterogeneity there is in the system, the more leaders will emerge”

“You should reserve the ability to say ‘Shove it,’ and go your own way. That really frees you”

I often feel obligated to people and situations and have always had hard time saying ‘No’, but I think that this answer will evolve itself when your heart or ‘gut’ will REALLY call for it.

This is yet, another great chapter with knowledge and wisdom that I will learn and practice.

“Become yourself, use yourself completely – all your skills, gifts and energies – in order to make your vision manifest.”  This quote is probably the concept goal of Bennis’ Chapter 5.       Bennis took majority of the chapter discussing the importance of listening to personal instinct, which eventually leads to fully becoming yourself.

I would say that learning to listen to your instinct is crucial to any decision making and to self awareness.  After all, it is proven that your first multiple choice selection on a test is typically the correct one, and that is for a reason.  A gut feeling is something that is really hard to describe, but that it is your inner voice that every growing leader should learn how to listen to and follow.  Professor Raymond, I remember that during our class discussion you have given us an incredible exercise mentioning different words and self evaluating our response to them. Reasonable and true words or phrases call for a warm and fuzzy feeling somewhere around the stomach area, where nonsense words cause a reaction in the brain, which begins thinking about the word or a statement. This is a great exercise for training your instincts. I will remember it and try practicing it. Thank you.

Like with all other chapters I am very much inspired by Benni’s chapter 4 called “Knowing the world”.  In this blog I will summarize and quote knowledge, lessons and valuable information I received.

Bennis starts out by mentioning Maintenance and Shock learning both of which I am familiar and had the “pleasure” of experiencing.  Following these examples he moves into the values of Innovative learning that are Anticipation and being active, Learning by listening to others and Participation and shaping the events, rather than being shaped by them. “Innovative learning is a way of realizing a vision”, Bennis states.  Further the author moves into describing the importance of liberal arts, social sciences and humanities and the ability of its graduates to be more successful in becoming effective leaders. Roger Smith’s paragraph from his book “Educating Managers” should be noted for future reference and personal growth.  Another great quote from this chapter is about ambition and it states, “Ambition is the death of thought,” where the author warns about it being in the way of intellectual thought. “The only way to prevent ambition from killing your intellectual life is not to be afraid of loosing, or to say something people might think is wrong.”

Bennis also talks about the importance of travel and the value it brings in broadening one’s experience. A great quote I find useful states, “The stranger in the strange land sees more and sees fresh.” In the chapter’s Friends and Mentors section an important aspect of life that “everything is interrelated” is brought up, which I find very interesting.  The following are a few valuable quotes that I’d like to note for my future reference:

“Study, travel, people, work, play, reflection, all are sources of knowledge and understanding”

“You have to get 80 or 85 percent of information and then then take your best shot, and go on to something else”

“Mistakes are not failures, and I don’t take them seriously. Its okay to make mistakes, as long as you make them in good conscience and you’re doing the best you can at the moment”

“If you haven’t failed, you haven’t tried very hard”

“Experiences aren’t truly yours until you think about them, analyze them, examine them, question them, reflect on them, and finally understand them.”

“Compelling vision combined with a unique ability to manage risk is magic behind successful entrepreneurs.”

Learning from experience means:
1. Looking back at your childhood
2. Consciously seeking the kind of experiences in the present that improve and enlarge you
3. Taking risks as a matter of course

The following Blog post relates to Northouse chapter on Team Leadership. In the blog, I’d like to talk about my leadership initiative that took place during the organization of a Psychedelic Trance party called California Sunshine, which took place on March 31^st in New York.  A little pre-history: Psychedelic trance is a musical genre that emerged in early 90’s and has had a good niche following since.  The music is often composed by very experienced musicians and sound engineers, as it requires a lot of attention to detail, high musical skills sound generation and development and is often considered “intelligent music.”  The goals of this event was to bring quality event production and quality Psy trance artists to New York City, as it lacked it for the past 5-6 years, slowly fading away Psy following and local scene.  I believe my event has managed to revive and inspire local audience, as the party’s Facebook wall has been bombarded with complements and thank you letters.

Acting as event’s executive producer and organizer I have faced numerous leadership challenges, acquired much experience and learned a few important lessons. The major problem I faced was hiring a Decoration artist, who was a much-disliked person by many, which was something that I learned later.  I had act as a mediator to establish team cohesion, effective communication and joint work. This required personal conversations with various individuals, including a disciplinary communication with the Deco artist, who immediately has managed to offend one of my team members. A bigger problem came during the event setup one day before the party.  During the time that I was not present at the location, running various event arrons, I received a call from one of my team members, saying that the Deco artist has badly offended the venue owner, whom I rented the space from.  I had to take an immediate action, requiring no additional assessment, because the fate of the production was now at stake.  I have yelled at the Deco artist, making him understand that he is not to talk to anyone except me, because I hired him and he works for me.  I have managed to earn his respect of my authority by showing him where was his place in my event production.  Following this action the remaining work of my crew has been smooth and the event became a great success.  Here ais an example of the responses received after the event:

‎:))) Awesome Event! Thanks to the Red Marines crew for all of the hard work and attention to detail that made it so Amazing! The Artists were perfect, and it sounded Great! I hope to see you again very soon! (((:

I’m going to skip blogs for Chapters 4 and 5 and add them a bit later. In this blog I’d like to summarize yesterday’s discussion of Chapter 6.

It was great to hear all your opinions and examples on the subject matters presented. I especially enjoyed learing of your fear battling techniques and our discussion on whether its a crippler or a motivator. I have also enjoyed very much hearing about how having an ambition creates all esle to follow and fall into place. The toughest question yesterday was of course, a discussion of full self-expression, which is an essential elelement of becoming a leader according to Benis. Many of you expressed great ideas on what it means for you to fully self express. For your future reference, I’m pasting in here the document I’ve prepared for the class discussion and hopefully you can come back to the “wizdom” of these quotes in your near future and find them usefull:

1. Reflection leading to resolution
2. Resolution leading to perspective
3. Perspective leading to point of view
4. Point of view leading to tests and measures
5. Tests and measures leading to desire
6. Desire leading to mastery
7. Mastery leading to strategic thinking
8. Strategic thinking leading to full self-expression
9. The synthesis of full self-expression = leadership

QUESTIONS

1. What were some big fears you’ve had and how did you overcome them?
2. Fear for most leaders, is less a crippler than a motivator. Why do you think it is so?
3. Give an example to prove that having an ambition will have all other things fall in place?
4. Why do you think that knowing where you end up is important?
5. What is your definition of full self-expression?
6. Give an example of you taking a leadership role and others following you. What did you do to make that happen?

REFLECTION

“Freud: analysis is to make unconscious conscious”

“We are more shaped by negative experiences than positive.” Why?

“We remember lapses, rather than triumphs”

“Work your depression out by starting the day of thinking of ten things that bring pleasure”

“When you’re down, think of the things you have to look forward to”

“Mistakes contain potent lessons, but only if we think them through calmly, see where we went wrong, mentally revise what we’re doing, and then act on the reservations”

“Most of us are paralyzed by our failures” True?

“Just as writers turn experiences from their lives into novels and plays, we can each transform our experiences into grist for our mill”

“Too much intellectualizing tends to paralyze us”

“To do anything well requires knowing what it is that you’re doing, and you can only know what you’re really doing by making the process conscious – reflecting on yourself, reflecting on the task, and coming to a resolution”

“There are two kinds of truth, small truth and great truth. You can recognize a small truth because its opposite is a falsehood.  The opposite of a great truth is another truth”

PERSPECTIVE

“Leaders don’t necessarily have to invent ideas, but they have to be able to put them in context and perspective”

1. When you consider a new project, do you think firs of its cost or its benefits?
   Profit higher than progress = short term perspective
2. Do you rank profit or progress first?
3. Would you rather be rich or famous?
   Famous rather than rich = more ambitious
4. If offered a promotion that required you to move to another city, would you discuss it with your family before accepting it?
   If discussing before accepting = more humane, than ambitious
5. Would you rather be a small fish in a big pond, or a big fish in a small pond?
   Big fish in a small pond = may lack the drive

“Perspective is your frame of reference, without it you’re flying blind”

“If you know what you think and what you want, you have a very real advantage”

“Everyone who wants to express him- or herself fully and truly must have a point of view”

TESTS AND MEASURES

“Have ambitions in terms of the way you want to live your life, and then the other things will flow out of that.”

“Expressing yourself fully is the most basic human drive”

How to best express you? Tests:

1. “Knowing what you want, knowing your abilities and capacities, and recognizing the difference between the two.”
2. “Knowing what drives you, knowing what gives you satisfaction, and knowing the difference between the two.”
3. “Knowing what your values and priorities are, knowing what the values and priorities of your organization are, and measuring the difference between the two.”
4. “Having measured the differences between what you want and what you’re able to do, and between what drives you and what satisfies you, and between what your values are and what the organization’s values are – are you able and willing to overcome those differences?”

“Whatever it is you want to do, you shouldn’t let fear get in your way. Fear for most leaders, is less a crippler than a motivator”

“The greatest opportunity for growth lies in overcoming things you’re afraid of.”

DESIRE

“The difference between desire and drive as the difference between expressing yourself and proving yourself”

“If you hold your ground and make your conviction known, people will come around.”

MASTERY

1. Competence
2. Ability to articulate
3. Level of human sensitivity, tact, compassion and diplomacy

“The path of master is built on unrelenting practice, but’s also a place of adventure”

“If you love something and want to make it happen, you can convince other people to go along with you”

“If you had a good idea yesterday, its going to be a good idea tomorrow, an just because you haven’t convinced anyone to go with it today doesn’t mean you won’t convince someone to go with it tomorrow”

STRATEGIC THINKING

“Unless you’re the lead dog, the scenery never changes.”

Steps:

1. Know where you’re going to end up”
   “Mountain climbers don’t start climbing from the bottom of the mountain. The look at where they want to go and work backward”
2. Flesh out those routes, elaborate them, revise them, make a kind of map of them, complete with possible pitfalls and traps as well as rewards
3. Examine this map objectively, as if you were not its maker, locate all its soft spots, and eliminate them or change them.

“Develop a corporate planning system in which planning and management were synonymous”

SYNTHESIS

“Leaders differ from others in their constant appetite for knowledge and experience, and as their worlds widen and become more complex, so too do their means of understanding.”

“How you attract and motivate people determines how successful you’ll be as a leader.”

“Leadership without mutual trust is contradiction in terms.”

“Vision, inspiration, empathy, trustworthiness are manifestations of a leader’s judg

“Knowing Yourself” is a great chapter! I was completely fond of reading it. A lot of interesting concepts, some of which I have already known, some of which I’ve learned from other philosophical books like Tao Te Ching, yet all of them have reaffirmed and reminded me to look back and reevaluate myself and my past experiences. I’d like to reiterate the four lessons of self-knowledge presented by Bennis:

1. You are you own best teacher.
   Emulation, Role taking, Practical accomplishment, Validation, Anticipation, Personal growth, Scientific learning
2. Accept responsibility. Blame no one
   Marty Kaplan’s drive to learn as much as possible from existing masters of the trait, take the best of it and marry it with personal desires and preferences
3. You can learn anything you want to learn.
   Full deployment of yourself to fulfill all your passions
4. True understanding comes from reflecting on your experience.
   “Reflecting on experience is a means of having a Socratic dialogue with yourself, asking the right questions at the right time, in order to discover the truth of yourself and your life.”

Finally, I’d like to quote the selfhood equation, which is

Family + School + Friends = true you
you

The most useful knowledge I got from Bennis’ Chapter 2 is a comparison of leaders and managers through education and training. I copied that list to look back on in the future and reflect on myself whether I follow the leadership trends and display leadership qualities and traits. Another useful comparison was a list of short statements like “The manager administers; the leader innovates, or the manager is a copy; the leader is an original.”

Majority of these things are self intuitive but it is extremely useful to to think and talk abou them to check yourself and see where you stand.

There was only one slight disagreement that I had with in this chapter and it was a discussion of Once born Twice born.  It may be certainly true that “once borns” are given everything they need at birth and are guided by parents and environment throughout their life; where twice borns usually suffer and those grow stronger leadership qualities.  That is may be true, but is not 100% of the time. A lot of great leaders became great leaders because they have been taught and guided by great leaders.