Author Archives: juan.guzman

Leadership in The Lazy Place, seems somewhat hard to discuss. I think leadership in small group may not be as visible as it is in a large group. Eugene was visionary and so of course he had an influence over part of the project, regardless of who was heading a portion of the project. My involvement in the project towards the beginning of the semester wasn’t where it needed to be and still Eugene was able to chug along. He did a great job of taking on the project fully and developing it as far as he did. I’m not exactly sure why I did not get as involved earlier in the project. Eugene may not have motivated me enough to become as passionate as he did or maybe I wasn’t motivated because I had my own agenda to rekindle my idea. My reasons for my involvement are longer relevant.

When came time to buckle down and get the project done to complete milestone 3, I made sure I dedicated the time needed. From the moment I showed Eugene I was proficient in something, he gave me a lot more autonomy. After a point, I would just run ideas by him and explain my reasoning for doing things. Usually he agreed. When Jonathan came onboard, he was able to bring something to the table niether Eugene or I could. His experience in Marketing and his ability convey that experience really pushed our presentation to a new level. Eugene’s ability to communicate his vision articulately, helped both Jonathan and myself deliver on our end.

In the end, I feel the presentation was really successful. Eugene was a great leader and was able to get the team going in the right direction. In this instance, I was a follower but I was more than satisfied with that role.

I have found this year to be interesting in regards to leadership and entrepreneurship. I joined a small start up that focuses on leadership, but at first I came in trying to develop a new business for the company. I switched my major to entrepreneurship, a move most of the people I know found strange. I took my intro to entrepreneurship course and I took this course on leadership. Finally a move to New Jersey greatly extended my commute which resulted in a lot more “me” time for reflection.

Possibly the two most important things l learned over the past year is one, starting a venture is hard and two, I’m not always the right leader for every job and I shouldn’t be. Taking these courses in entrepreneurship has given some great insight into some of the actions of my coworkers. For example, when boss gives me more autonomy because I have little a more work experience than some of my coworkers, she is essentially practicing situational leadership. Taken these courses has also allowed me to evaluate the executives of my company based on their leadership styles and how each and everyone leads differently.

Overall, during this school year I have had a lot of academic, professional personal growth.

When reading Bennis’ Chapter 10 of “On Becoming A Leader”, one of my favorite points is that leaders embrace error. I find this point very interesting for two reasons. First, this is something that I have been hearing repeatedly throughout this past school year. This embrace’s risk taking, which is a catalyst for either great failures or successes. Two extremes, without a happy medium. The main problem is that society praises leader’s for success and ridicules them for failure, and great failures seem to be more of a norm than great successes. But, like I have mentioned in past postings, leadership is proven during the most challenging times.

The second reason, I hinted at in the previous paragraph, which is society ridicules failure and error. At least in the United States, we are conditioned to believe that errors are bad and that we should avoid them at all cost. In so many organizations mistakes can lead to being yelled at by your boss or even getting fired. This in turn leads to people trying to cover their mistakes or blaming it on others.

Recently, the secret service has been plagued with a scandal. Secret Service Officers were caught with prostitutes in Colombia the day before President Obama was to arrive there. This is obviously really bad press for the President during such a critical political time period. The way he handles it could really impact his efforts to be re-elected. But, this is not the main discussion of this post. What I really want to bring up is Leadership changes and question their effectiveness.

Watching the news these last couple days, I heard one of the anchors mention a possible leadership change at the top of the Secret Service to combat this scandal. In my opinion wouldn’t you want the person at the head to stay and remain accountable for this situation. Just because something goes wrong, doesn’t mean that the wrong people are leading. Quite frankly, during these situations is when a leader is proven. If things are always good, you can’t really determine if the current leader is good or if everything is just going well.

Replacing leadership during difficult situations also seems like an overreaction and a short term solution, which I cannot stand. So many decisions on leadership are made based on the present and never the future. In my opinion if we want to remain on top, we should always think long term and look at difficult situations as bumps in the road.

If you are not yet familiar with the Secret Service scandal, I have included a link to give you some insight on the situation.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/19/world/americas/colombian-escort-speaks-about-secret-service-scandal.html?pagewanted=all

This weeks post will revolve around leadership in a family and the impact it has on the household and extending even to the community and expanded families. Recently there was death in my family that although we expected still was shocking to hear, as expected. This person lived overseas and so my family and I, including aunts, uncles and cousins stayed in their house in the mean time. This event although tragic has provided a lot of insight into a situation in which we don’t focus on in class. With this person’s death, the household lost a lot of direction and although there was someone who seemed to be an obvious leader, some one else rose to the occasion to make sure all decisions were made with care. This new leader was able to control their emotions and act as anchor for the whole family. They were able to sit down with members of the family critical decisions on what the next steps are. Although this person didn’t have a clear vision of what would happen, their confidence when speaking was inspiring. This allowed the leader to gain the trust of the other family members, followers, to make sure everything was tied up before leaving again overseas. I don’t know that I would have noticed this if I had not been taking this class, but I’m glad I did. Seeing leadership in this setting was insightful and refreshing since most leadership is talked about in a business context.

My favorite quote in chapter 7 is “We have to understand that the world can only be grasped by action, not contemplation…. The most powerful drive in the ascent of man is his pleasure in his own skill. He loves to do what he does well and, having done it well, he loves to do it better.” This quote fits well into some books I have for example, Strength Finders 2.0 and fits well with the philosophy of my current employer, The Medici Group. The company encourages not only it’s clients to take action and not overanalyze, but it’s employee’s as well. The strength finders book did a great job at highlighting individual strengths and making sure that readers focus on developing their strengths instead of their weaknesses.

I have always found that continuing to analyze things paralyzes a team instead of helping deliver results. Yet it is difficult for even the most competent teams to determine how much analysis is enough. This is where great leaders come in and drive the team in the correct direction.

Chapter 6 of “On Becoming a Leader” fits really well with Northouse’s chapter on Authentic Leadership. Throughout Chapter 6 we learn of the basic elements of a leader such as strategic thinking, desire and testing and measuring, essentially providing us with a guide on how to become a leader. Chapter 10 exposed us to the only form of leadership that can be learned up to this point according to Northouse. Two concepts that seem to fit well are Robert Terry’s Authentic Action Wheel and Bennis’ Test and Measures. Specifically Bennis’ third test, knowing what your values and priorities are, knowing what the values and priorities of your organization are and meauring the difference between the two. You can use the action wheel to determine any underlying problems or differences and then figure out how to solve to solve the problem.

Both readings were very insightful and I enjoyed both equally.

Chapter 5, I find to be very interesting. One of the more interesting points is the concept of instinct being driven by right brain qualities. Apparently these right brain qualities are what employers seek in candidates “As an academic administrator, Alfred Gottschalk looked for right brain characteristics when he hired” (pg. 101). Gottschalk is quoted saying he looks for someone who has imagination, can inspire trust, perseverance and steadfastness of purpose. All of the traits are not only on right brained but can be considered a person’s core values. In my Intro to Entrepreneurship Course, we just learned that it is always better to invest in someone who has the right values, over someone who just delivers results without values. Values or Right Brain characteristics are what guides our instinct and the decisions we make. Yet, it can be difficult to trust your instinct at early point in life because your instinct may not be fully developed.

Chapter 14 of “On Becoming Leader” focuses on a leader’s knowledge of the world and places a lot of emphasis on their knowledge of the world as a key driver of success. Something that caught my interest in this chapter was Bennis’ statement on Universities. Bennis’ states that Universities have taught people how to do and not how to be. This is ironic considering that Industry Professionals state college students do not come prepared with practical experience “how to do” needed to perform a job well. This statement is also in complete contradiction on what Bennis mentioned in the Chapter 3.

Should Universities be responsible for teaching students how to be or how to do? Is this the primary purpose of a University? In my opinion Universities do a great job teaching students how to think, which seems to be and what I believe to be their primary purpose.

In Chapter 3, Bennis talks about knowing yourself. When reading this chapter his points almost seem obvious, but not until you discover his points yourself.

Bennis says that we are often strangers to ourselves. He goes on to say that although leaders are self directed, it is in our relationships that we learn about ourselves. This is a very interesting observation.

Does he mean that we learn who we are by differentiating ourselves from other people or by discovering ourselves with them? I remember a conversation I had with someone on the way home helped me clarify who I am. This person hasn’t realized the impact they had on me and they probably never will. Nonetheless, I now know my core values which have guided me through my short life and will continue to guide me. Differentiating myself from other people has allowed me to connect with them, eventually leading to great relationships. Almost seems like a virtuous circle.