Chapter 8

In chapter 8, the author mentions that the good leaders lightens up the team, which is different from being optimistic. I thought that by lightening up the team, people would be more relaxed to communicate with each other, which is related to chapter 6, “Core Team Value”.

Also relating to this chapter,  I did more research on how to lighten up the team. As a result, I came to the website which introduces how to use humor in the workplace. In this website, it said that;

Here are few “guiding lights” to help you manage to have more fun in your organization.

1. Take Yourself Lightly. Too many of us fall victim to the dreadful disease “acute professionalism”. The symptoms include a furrowed forehead, high levels of stress and blocked creativity. The cure is simple – learn to take yourself lightly, while still taking your job seriously. When you laugh at yourself, you demonstrate your humanity and openness and encourage others to do likewise. As an added bonus, you take away anyone’s ability to laugh at you. As author Bob Ross reminds us, “Leaders without a sense of humor are like a lawn mower at the cemetery – they have lots of people underneath them, but nobody is paying them any attention.”
2. Be Sincere. Dogs know when we’re not sincere, so there’s a good chance our employees will too. If you show up Monday morning with a transplanted Robin Williams persona, staff may be cynical about your newfound attempts to lighten the office mood. So be yourself. Practice sharing your own unique brand of humor and only do what feels comfortable for you.
3. Think Small and Simple. The biggest factors that contribute to employee morale don’t cost a lot of money or take a lot of energy; it’s the small things done on a consistent basis that matter. So look for easy opportunities to introduce a little humor – put up a humor bulletin board, create a humor room (Kodak Eastman and Hewlett Packard have them) include humorous quotes in correspondence and practice spontaneous humor (which as stand-up comedians will tell you, is the most effective form of humor).
4. Practice Relevant Humor. The more you celebrate humor specific to your office, team or organization, the more meaningful the humor is. Relevant, work-related humor becomes part of the corporate history and helps teams to bond around shared experiences. Start collecting a humor file of quotes, cartoons, funny customer questions and anecdotes that relate to your organization.
5. Practice Safe Humor. Humor can break down barriers as easily as it can builds walls, so make sure the style of humor you practice is “safe”. Non-sexist, non-racist, non-religious humor is the order of the day. Also be aware of times when humor may not be appropriate. The safest form of humor? Laughing at yourself.
6. Hire for Humor. If you want to lighten up the office then recruit people with a positive sense of humor. Southwest Airlines, recipient of a “Humor in the Workplace” award, hires for humor, regardless of whether it’s a front line customer service agent or mechanic, so that every employee will fit their unique corporate culture. Even NASA has suggested that one of the most important attributes of future astronauts will be a great sense of humor.
7. Make Fun a Priority. It’s easy to agree with the idea that we need to have more fun in our organizations, after all it’s one of those feel-good, motherhood statements. There’s only one problem – this little thing called life keeps getting in the way. If you’re going to take humor seriously then treat it like any other priority – tie into your mission statement (the corporate motto for Grimes Aerospace based in Columbus, Ohio, is “Growth, profit and fun”), list fun as one of your core values, offer training in workplace humor, include it in goals and work plans, and yes, evaluate it every now and then by asking the simple, yet all important question – “are we having fun yet?”
8. Give Yourself and Your Employees Permission to Play . . . and then get out of the way. Remember, as a leader, people look to you to set the tone for the office. You have the power to decide whether you’re going to be a roadblock on the inspiration highway or a catalyst for creativity and positive energy.

Copyright Michael Kerr, 2006

Michael Kerr, “The Workplace Energizer,” is an international speaker, workshop facilitator and the author of “You Can’t Be Serious! Putting Humor to Work.” You can reach Michael at 1-866-609-2640, or drop by electronically at mike@mikekerr.com or surf on over to www.mikekerr.com

http://www.mikekerr.com/humour-resources/free-articles/humour-in-the-workplace-articles/managing-to-have-fun/

By reading these tips, I realised that humor is very important to the workplace, however, I do not think it is easy for leaders to “think” to be humorous.

Happiness

In our lecture on Friday, we discussed the way of refreshing. I personally have a habit to clean up my room when I get stressed, but I was impressed by Xiaotian's idea of writing out the to-do list. Relating to this lesson, I found an article that describes the way of being happy, and I thought this idea was close to getting rid of stress.

This is the picture I found in the article.

It describes the ways of refreshing, but I would like to pickup several and discuss about it.

Firstly, I thought taking a nap might be very helpful to get rid of stress, so I was surprised to know that it is not as affective as enjoying a cup of tea.

When I looked this article on internet, I found that there is a cafe in Jinbocho which enables us to enjoy both having a cup of tea and taking a nap. This cafe is named corne, which was made for working women to take a nap after lunch. I think this is a very nice idea because it can release working woman from stress.

Also I would like to mention about performing an act of kindness. By acting kindly to others, the person who received the act may become happy, however I felt it interesting that the person who acted kindly would also feel happy. If people were kind enough to do such an act, the world would be better.

Chapter 6

In chapter 6, it was described that Shackleton admitted when he made mistakes. I thought this was important whether you are a leader or not, and also that Japanese people are not very good at this. They apologize by word but sometimes the improvement does not follow. Therefore I searched whether if there is a good way or tips for apologizing.

I found a website that mentions the effective tips for apologizing. The following is the summary of the page.

1. Take responsibility for your actions. You only have to say “I’m sorry” when you apologize, not fancy words. It is better when you add the reasons why you are sorry. Furthermore, you should avoid using “but” to make excuses.
2. Acknowledge the repercussions.
   To make your apology more effective, you can use objective repercussions to promise your better acts. Also, you must avoid using “if” (Ex. “I am sorry if you felt offended…”).
3. Ask for forgiveness OR offer redress. Even though you are asking for forgiveness, do not ask straight questions as “Will you forgive me?” Instead, you should say “I wish…”
4. Shut up and let it end. The words that follow your apology makes it ineffective. You must stop talking after making apology.

These were the tips written on the website, and the common factor written on the several websites were that “admit you were wrong” and “feel apology”. I wish they would help you in the situations when you apology someone :)

Here is a link to the site;
http://www.askmen.com/money/body_and_mind_150/177b_better_living.html

Negotiation Skills

In our classes, we have been practicing the skills of negotiation.  According to our lessons, there are several techniques to have good negotiation, which were getting information, giving information, showing understanding and summarizing, and explaining before disagreeing.

From these skills, I would like to pick up the skill “explaining before disagreeing”.

This picture shows the effectiveness of this skill very well.

The boy explains his demand to his girlfriend in very soft way, so that she would not do “shouting, glares, or threats” to him.

And here is the example of bad negotiator.

He tried to negotiate with his boss with his salary, but his quit was not effective enough to make his boss to raise the salary.

I think in his situation, he had to give reasons why he want his salaries to raise, and what benefits he will make to his company if his payment was raised.

http://drjeffreyrubin.wordpress.com/2013/02/page/2/

http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/2004-08-14/

Johari Window and chapter 5

In our class on last Friday, we had a guest lecture about four types of leadership. This lecture reminded me of famous psychological theory, “Johari Window”.

The picture below is Johari Window. There are four sections in this window about your characteristic, which are “Open Window”, “Hidden Window”, “Blind Window”, and “Unknown Window”.

Open Window is the part of your characteristic which is known to you and other people around you.

Hidden Window is the part that only you know, not even known to your family nor friends.

Blind Window is the part where other people know, but the part you have not realized by yourself.

Unknown Window is your characteristic which is not known to anybody, and have not realized by yourself. Even though no one knows about this window, psychologist Joseph Luft and Harry Ingham argues that this window exists to everybody.

I thought this idea of separating yourself is similar to what we did in the lecture and at the same time, I came up with the idea that your type of leadership belongs to Open Window, and there might be other characteristics that belongs to three other windows.

To talk about our lecture in Friday, I thought it is important for leaders to know your teammates’ type of leadership in order to be a good leader, as it is mentioned in chapter 5 of Leading at the Edge.

Picture from; 

http://notonlyluck.com/2013/10/29/the-johari-window/